Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt and air on air.
Jane that near Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
You can leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
It is Friday.
That means Dan Schaefer, civic media's political editor and the creator.
of the multi-multi-award-winning re-combobulation area at 19.
Multi-award-winning just this year alone.
It's crazy.
I know.
It's crazy.
And I think they're up for, well, we'll talk to them about
it when he
gets here, because I think they're up for even more from the Milwaukee Press Club.
But that's quite an accomplishment.
I
agree.
And Angela Lange, part of that, she's
been on
our show too.
So if you do not yet, I would really encourage you to subscribe.
Yeah.
to the recombobulation area.
It's a total deal.
It is a great deal, and the work that they do is not only award-winning, but really specific to Wisconsin.
And it's just there's just so much information there.
That's not something that you're going to
regret.
The election guide alone.
Yes.
is worth the price of this subscription.
It really is.
So Dan Schaefer will be here next hour, right after the 10 o'clock news.
We'll wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.
Today it's the, in a wild crocodile edition.
My husband found this one.
So thank you, sweetheart.
And if you ever have a thing, we got a couple.
suggestions.
If
you have
a thing you think should not be, send it in to Greg and me at janesaysatcivicmedia.us.
This was breaking just as we were coming on the air.
Employers added 177,000 jobs in April slightly down from 185,000 in March.
The employment rate unchanged at four
0.2%.
This is the good news.
The
economy.
By the way, though, apparently it's Biden's economy.
Yeah, congratulations to Joe Biden.
I mean, still making waves, even though you're not in office.
Good
job.
Yeah, it was just Monday or Tuesday that President.
President Trump said that this is a Biden economy and the next quarter is probably going to be the Biden economy too.
It's going to be the Biden economy until things aren't terrible anymore.
Exactly.
But this was good news this morning.
The hiring numbers for April at $177,000 down a little bit from the month before.
Also, it's underway.
Oh
boy.
Are you as excited
as I am?
I don't think that's possible, but I'm pretty excited, Jane.
What has just happened in the past eight minutes?
Voting has begun for Wisconsin Fat Bird Week.
It's
underway right now.
Hey, folks, you look like a chunky bird.
I
would highly encourage you to go to CivicMedia.us.
If you go to shows, click on mat and air on air.
Yesterday's show will have the link.
No, two days
two days ago, and it's called this hour is for the birds
It's called it's wisconsinconservation.org fat bird week where you can cast your votes or Wisconsin's chonkiest bird chonkiest chonkiest plumpest plume plume a jigging lift today's matchup the dark-eyed Junko and the tronco
versus the necklace Northern Cardinal.
Oh, I think the Cardinals going down.
I think Junko and the Trunko.
Just for the name.
The name alone is going to garner a lot of votes.
People are going to share it for that name alone.
I think the Junko and the Trunko is going to have it by at least a two to three point margin.
But Emma Schatz is going to be joining us on May 12th.
The voting for the Fat Bird Week in Wisconsin goes through May 12th.
And then Emma Schatz will join us to tell us who's the winner.
Yep.
on Monday, May 12th, so I hope you can join us for that.
Did want to start off with something that is not funny.
By any stretch of the imagination, fortunately, well, it could have been much worse.
Yes.
I'll say that.
Yes.
But this is something that didn't get a whole lot of attention, I think, because no one was hurt or killed.
Yeah.
But a 12-year-old Kadahei elementary school student was found with a gun.
Mm-hmm.
earlier this week, the Cudahay Police Department said school administrators and the school resource officer found the gun after an investigation.
A 12 year old Lincoln Elementary school student was arrested after finding a gun in the school on Wednesday.
A student told a teacher about the possible gun in the 12 year old's backpack.
The principal searched it, found the gun, and the police were notified immediately again.
The student getting a lot of credit for coming forward with this information then there's not a lot of information available about this but this Could have prevented a massive tragedy.
Yeah, and I'll I'll be honest not going to name any names, but I am friends with parents whose child goes to that school and The only thing it was good.
They found the weapon is good.
They reported it.
It's good that nothing happened beyond this but
the parents were left in kind of a limbo of information because they got an email from the school, which is fine.
I mean, they can't call every family.
That's kind of just not feasible, right?
But there was this thing of like, well, what do we do next?
What do we do now?
And what they told me is that when they went to pick up their kid, there were no cops out there and it was all press.
So like these
So these kids are like what's going on and they're little kids so they don't know it's an
elementary
school and and the and these parents have told me like we don't even know how to even bring it up because I'm sure this child is going to grow up if she hasn't already in active shooter drills in her school But you don't want to tell them that you don't want to sit them down and like say what happens because they're gonna be scared
Again, nothing.
No one was injured.
The gun was found the 12 year old was arrested.
But the reason that we bring this up is
is because the education department now under President Trump has canceled grants that got bipartisan support after the slaughter at the Uvalde School.
This decision centers on money meant to help train mental health professionals who work in local schools.
And the reason, again, we bring this up is because when there is a school shooting,
The reply from one side is always, first of all, let's not politicize this.
Let's not
politicize
this.
Jane, let's get some thoughts and prayers out there too.
Yeah, that too.
And then the second response is, well, it's mental health.
It's
not
the gun.
It's not easy access to weapons.
It's mental health.
If we had more help for kids in the mental health field, then these things wouldn't happen.
And yet, when it comes to funding mental health resources,
They cut them.
The education department is cutting approximately a billion dollars.
Billion with a B worth of federal mental health grants approved by Congress.
After that 2022 slaughter in Uvalde, the agency concluded the funding conflicts with Trump administration priorities.
So I don't like doing this because I feel like pundits do this all the time on cable news networks.
But I'm going to say it.
So what I'm hearing.
from that statement regarding this cut is that the mental health of students and the training of experts in those schools isn't important to the Trump administration.
It is.
It conflicts with Trump administration priorities.
Oh, I see.
So, so mental health and children, children possibly being hurt or killed.
not high on the list then.
Okay, cleared it up.
Their safety is not high on the list for them.
Apparently these cuts center on grants included in the bipartisan, again, bipartisan, Safer Communities Act meant to help states and higher education institutions train mental health professionals who could work in local schools.
The future of that funding.
was boosted by hundreds of millions of dollars under the most significant gun safety legislation approved by Congress in decades.
That was under President Biden.
That is now uncertain.
So what is it?
Is it mental health?
Is that the reason why we have 12 year olds showing up at school with guns?
If that is the issue, then why do we not fund things that would address this?
Well, I don't know.
The problem with
This argument is people try to go zero sum and there's no room for overlap, but I'm going to say it's an easy access to guns as well as mental health.
When they say it's mental health, I'm right here saying, good, let's talk about it.
Let's get some things in place.
Let's get the ball moving.
And that's exactly what a bipartisan group of legislators did.
And then the Trump administration, as you said, just to be clear, not it conflicts with their priorities.
So it mental health isn't a priority then so it either is the it is the problem that we need to do something about it Or it is the problem and we'll get to it later with it if there's money left over we'll see I got I got to give that money back to the rich people that's important money that goes to buy a boat
and Not just giving more tax cuts to the wealthy
more money to the Defense Department.
And I go back to the fact that the Defense Department has not been able to successfully pass an audit in decades, in decades.
But we're going to go after all of these other agencies and all of these other programs looking for fraud and abuse and waste, but not the Defense
Department.
No, never because that that's the perfectly weaponized and that's not a pun the perfectly weaponized argument because the Defense Department all that spending takes up so much of our budget But the moment you try to say well, we need to cut something.
Well, you don't want our troops to be safe That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying we could once again Let and let's take the word fraud out of the equation.
I'm not thinking about finding criminals at this point I'm just saying let's look for the bloated spending.
Let's look for
the redundancies.
Let's look for cost-saving measures that freeze up the money while still keeping our military intact.
It's possible.
Yes.
It's absolutely possible.
The head of the Giffords Gun Violence Prevention Organization led by former Arizona Democratic Representative Gabriel Giffords, who was shot in the head and survived, says Republican leaders worked side by side with Democrats to allocate these funds to save lives and stop school shootings.
And now the administration is trampling that progress.
This decision will cost American children their lives.
We talk about them a lot and I know they're not listening and I know they're not gonna call but I I have this question to Tom Tiffany Tony weed Derek van Orden Brian style Glenn growth man Glenn growth man If you voted for this, I don't know the voting record right this moment if you voted for this to fund mental health You know expansion Are you upset that this happened?
I mean does this bother you are you gonna see won't but are you gonna say anything?
Because if you supported this, which I hope you would it was a bipartisan measure bipartisan measure This is nothing, but it's it's good for it's good for people And it's good for you to take home to your constituents and say this is what we got done But does this upset you does this bother you?
Can you speak out?
Why won't you if you don't?
Reportedly
the department plans to re-envision and Re-compete I don't even know
what that means a word
Re-compete its mental health program funds to more effectively support students' behavioral health needs, said this official without going into details.
Details, details.
They just want to give every teacher a gun.
That's what they did.
Give every teacher a gun and that's going to solve everything.
Let's build walls around the school already.
Mexico to pay for the walls around the school.
It's this.
I don't, it's not double speak, but it's this thing of like, we're going to cut this in program.
We're going to cause pain, harm and.
inconvenience, but don't worry.
We're going to come back with a great plan, just like the healthcare plan.
Yes, in two weeks.
And a better economic layout.
It's all coming in two weeks.
Infrastructure in two weeks.
All in two weeks, folks.
All in two weeks.
All coming
up.
While we're talking about schools, we're going to shift focus a little bit to what's happening in Texas.
Oh boy.
Wow.
Stay close.
Stay with us.
You were listening to Matt and Air on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right
back.
She don't mean no harm She just don't know what else to do about it
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt and air on air chain Matt and air Greg box sweet Cal be on the board coming to you live from our studio at radio park in Racine Call or text the number is the same 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 leave a comment if you're watching in the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter coming up later on today 2 to 4 p.m.
With Todd Alba across the network
Trig V. Olsen will be joining him as senior editor at the Lincoln Project to talk about federal workers, whether or not they're going to be forced to start reporting their locations to the Trump administration.
And also they've got the final what's worse question of the week.
You never know what it's going to be, but it's always a good one.
Make sure you join Todd today from two to four across the civic media radio network.
This kind of jumped out at me just because it's so loony tunes.
Representative Stan Gertis of Texas last month announced he'd filed what's called, this is a long one, forbidden unlawful representation of role-playing in Education Act, otherwise called the Furries Bill.
There has been a rumor going around at least for the last five years.
Now there are furry conventions where people dress up as animals and go do their thing.
Yes, exactly.
Whatever.
So there are these rumors now that schools are accommodating kids who want to be furries by putting litter boxes in schools.
This is not happening.
It has been debunked so many times it's where the point where people have to go
This again, we're talking about this again.
Oh, yeah, this again came up last month in Texas.
And we have a little sound from Representative James Talarico from Austin, questioning the author of this bill.
Calvin, can we play that sound clip, please?
Can you name a school where it has been confirmed that students are using litter boxes?
Well, what we do with this bill is we prevent that from...
from happening.
So that would be
no.
Can you name a school where it has been confirmed that students are using litter boxes?
This was at the top of your press release.
This was mentioned when you introduced this bill, created quite a stir.
So I'm asking, can you name a school where it's been confirmed that there are litter boxes being provided to students?
For this purpose?
No, I cannot.
Your tweet about this bill was flagged by
the app itself under their community notes.
And their fact check said, sensationalist claims about furries literally behaving as animals and receiving accommodations such as litter boxes have been repeatedly debunked as hoaxes.
Is that correct?
It was flagged on, what is it, community
notes?
Yes.
Okay.
I find it concerning that these types of debunked conspiracy theories are being used
by politicians at the highest levels of our government, including in this legislature, who know that they're incorrect.
Are you aware that Governor Abbott said, quote, kids go to school dressed up as cats with litter boxes in their classrooms?
That's not true.
Sure.
Sure.
Are you also aware that when the governor was asked by the Dallas Women News to name a single school where this happened, he couldn't?
Like proof.
And Politifact called this a pants on fire false claim started by online rumors.
Do you think it's a good use of our time to write laws based on debunked internet conspiracy theories?
Well, this piece of legislation before us covers that among other things that are
true.
First of all, when he, when that man who was Mr. Tellerico, Congressman Tellerico, very measured, very professional.
There
was no, there was no tone or humor.
He was asking serious questions.
When he said pants on fire situation, you could hear the laughter in the back because this is ridiculously funny, but it's terrible because they're, as we're finding out, they're passing legislation on lies.
Well, and they're doing this to undermine our public schools.
Absolutely.
This is all about
false claims about what's happening in public schools so they can continue to defund them and give more money to voucher and private schools, which tend to be predominantly religious schools.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Yes.
That's what this is about.
And there was a longer clip, and we will include this in the show notes if you want to go back and listen to the whole thing.
But Representative Tellerico essentially says that this is just another ongoing attack against our public schools.
Yeah.
He doesn't in that video the video is about three plus minutes
almost four minutes long that
gentlemen who's speaking the other one not mr. Tellerico Does
not
stand girders.
Thank you.
It does not provide evidence for the other things which this legislation is going to cover because you know, we know that no kids are Defocating or relieving themselves and litter boxes in their classrooms They are they are you know, and if they're wearing ears
and express themselves, that's fine.
Oh, that's going to be illegal too.
Yeah, totally.
But that's the thing is, there's no real scientific backing on the detrimental effect of kids expressing themselves in such a way.
I mean, I'm not going to make fun of furries, but you also can't go to school in those costumes.
You can't get things done.
They're impediments.
Well, it's a distraction.
But again, why are we legislating on
falsities.
Why are we legislating on lies and hoaxes?
Because they are the lies, the fallacies and the hoaxes that people will believe.
And it's the ones that comfort their biases to say
The cities are terrible because they're run by Democrats.
The schools are terrible because they're run by Democrats.
This world is terrible because being run by them, even though it's not.
So yeah, of course, it's confirmation biases.
It's at the highest order.
And then people who hear go, well, I don't, I saw something.
My Facebook friends dog Walker said they're saying some people are saying that even though this was set as a
hoax, there are some schools.
News is coming up next.
And when we return, Mark wants to make you a friend.
Really?
Yes.
Stay close.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media radio network.
I gotta go use the litter box away right back.
On the Civic Media radio
network.
Good, good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt and Air on Air, Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach, and the Board Lord.
Give me D from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same.
It's 855-752-4842.
You can also leave a comment if you're watching on a live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter after that really ugly shutout.
Don't.
Look
at me with that Cheshire grin.
I'm not happy about that.
Oh,
I'm not happy about
that way too.
Brewers have another chance this afternoon.
They're hosting the cubbies later on today.
Sorry.
Our broadcast starts at 635.
We're about 32 33 games into the season.
And last night, the Brewers handed the White Sox their eighth victory.
Ouch.
Eight to
zero.
I am.
I'm sorry.
We are in third place.
Okay.
All right.
Brewers hosting the Cubs at 635.
Our broadcast begins.
You can listen to it on WRCE Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJN here in Racine and Kenosha, WCKQM in Park Falls and WBZH in Hayward.
So check out the crew hosting the Cubs today at 635.
Our broadcast will start.
Fat Bird Week voting is underway.
Junko in the Trunko versus the Necklace Northern Cardinal.
And I got to say, the Dark Guide Junko in the Trunko is crushing the Cardinal right now.
I got to say, if the Conservation Foundation is listening to us right now, the website said I already voted and I have not voted and I am going to call.
I'm going to call my congressman.
I'm going to call my assembly and my state senators.
And we're getting to the bottom of this.
I was going to make a Michael Gabelman joke, but I didn't want to set you off.
He's available.
He's
available.
He can't practice law right now, so he's got to do something
with his time.
We can, yeah, we'll put him to use.
Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin Fat Bird Week is underway and you can vote right now.
We've got a link in our show notes as well.
So if you would like to cast your ballot, I think it's very important.
It's not that important, but it's raising awareness about birds.
which is a good thing.
It's important to make you feel good.
Absolutely.
It's something a little light.
Yes.
So if you don't have enough friends, don't worry about it.
Mark Zuckerberg is going to make friends for you.
Totally cool and hip.
Mark Zuckerberg, baby.
No one says best friends to everyone like Mark Zuckerberg does.
Yeah.
You know, you know, you know, ultimate fighting robot, Mark Zuckerberg really wants to make sure that we're
You know, surrounded by friends.
How's he going to do that, Jane?
How's he going to help?
He's
going to create most of your friends using artificial intelligence.
We have a little clip from meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Calvin, can we play that clip, please?
I think as the personalization loop kicks in and the AI just starts to get to know you better and better, I think that will just be really compelling.
You know, one thing just from working on social media for a long time.
There's the stat that I always think is crazy.
The average American I think has, I think it's fewer than three friends.
Three people that they consider friends.
And the average person has demand for meaningfully more.
I think
it's
like 15 friends or something, right?
I guess there's probably some point where you're like, all right, I'm just too busy.
I can't deal with more people.
But the average person wants more connectivity connection than they have.
So there's a lot of questions that people ask of stuff like, okay,
Is this going to replace kind of in-person connections or real life connections?
Yes My default is that the answer that is probably no
that is probably no the the presence of social media where you Have a collection of real people who follow you or your friends with has diminished our connection to each other So the notion that you are going to conjure new
Fake friends absolutely will not only take what is happening now.
It will send it into the stratosphere
Absolutely,
and I'm looking at I looked up I used I had to use AI because Google does that now I looked up the I asked the question how many friends does the average American have it says according to a Pew research poll between three to five It found that 53% of adults have one to four close friends 38% have five or more now.
Here's the thing for me
and maybe the system of my personality, to have three to five close friends, that's fantastic.
That is a treasure, that's a godsend.
Nobody has 15 to 20 close friends.
You have three to five close friends, and then other people who are in your life and they're wonderful and
you love them.
And they're
friends.
But especially adults, you know this, we all know, and Calvin, you're gonna learn this as you get older.
It's harder to connect with adult friends because things happen, marriage, kids, jobs, moving, things like that.
So if the average American has three to five close friends, oh boy, howdy, that's wonderful.
Well, here is my question to you.
Do you want a friend created by AI?
855-752-4842.
Do you want friends?
Do you want to be surrounded by friends created by AI?
8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 because my whole thing with good friends Close friends.
Yeah, they will they will call you on stuff.
Exactly.
It's exactly this thing.
They will check you on stuff.
Yep.
It's I mean and it can be even small things But it's like, you know Jane You say that but last week you did that thing or that thing you said that's not true exactly.
Yeah, isn't that what we want?
Are from our friends or do we just want to be surrounded by people who only agree with us all the time and tell us how wonderful we are?
Maybe if you're in the Trump administration
Well, I but that but that kind of leads me to where my point is going is that a lot of these individuals Let me rephrase that because that just makes me sad.
I believe there are many people out there who have these extreme opinions and people who Dive into the worlds of QAnon four and eight Chan
who believed the election was stolen, who loved Donald Trump as a charismatic leader, I'll call it figure, who already do this to a certain point.
They might not have AI friends, but they definitely have generated and curated the people in their lives.
They spend more time with who are going to do that.
They are going to confirm biases.
They are going to prop them up.
They're going to say, of course we're right and they're wrong.
And that only weaponizes people's.
personalities after a while because they think there's of course you're wrong my friends told me I'm right well we
all do that to some extent
no no and I don't I totally agree with you I absolutely especially if you spend a lot of time online and you you choose to make that world your world which hey I grew up in the in the in the sunrise of the internet I spent my fair share
of time in chat rooms.
So I understand to a point how you can let that world become your encompassing environment.
So I think what Mark Zuckerberg is talking about, I don't want to call it dangerous, but I don't think it's the right move mental health wise.
I agree with you.
And I just don't, I love the whole, well, probably that is not reassuring that that that's not reassuring to me.
And I agree with your point that I think this surrounding ourselves by
AI generated friends is only going to isolate us more.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean you have to in a in a one-on-one interpersonal relationship you have there's a give-and-take.
Yes, right?
There's again, there's True friends will point out when you're screwing up shizu says I want real friends that appreciate me for the dumpster fire.
I am yes AI doesn't need to fix me Yeah,
and I think too is like unless you live in a virtual reality world
You also aren't going to have the friends experience that is going to dinner, going to a movie, singing a play, going for a walk, hiking, going for a swim.
You can do those in virtual reality.
And honestly, there's a part of me that says, if that's what you choose, I can't stop you, but you have to understand the consequences.
Because maybe in 50 to 100 years, we will have perfect AI friendships that can function to the best degree possible.
I don't know.
I'm not Mark Zuckerberg.
I don't.
I don't know, but it just really feels like this is a ploy and the way, and this has been his way lately.
Like when someone finally said to him, hey, Mark, you gotta start acting like a human.
Ever since his appearance in front of Congress years ago, about their role in the election, he has rebranded himself.
He's grown his hair out.
He's
bulked up.
He's surfing.
He's swimming.
He's having quote unquote, what he believes is fun.
And he's trying to present himself as like this, hey man, I'm just trying to be cool.
Also, I give a million dollars to Trump's inauguration and I'm getting rid of fact checkers because free speech, baby.
This is just another way for them to make money and to isolate people because then what happens is you- You
are more dependent upon those platforms.
Yes,
exactly.
For advertisement, for deliveries,
things
like that.
This is not good.
855-752-4842.
Do you want friends created by AI?
I'm genuinely curious.
Jean from Eau Claire is joining us.
Good morning Jean.
What do you think about AI friends?
Good morning, great show as usual.
I think friends are human beings and I think we're set up for La La Land and
significant psychological manipulation, because probably you have to answer a questionnaire on what things about yourself.
Don't do it, folks.
Great way to manipulate the entire population.
Thanks
a
lot for this topic.
I didn't know this was going on.
This is not pretty dangerous.
I call it dangerous.
I haven't worked in the field.
I think it's ridiculous.
An Apprentice Human Being
Not a computer.
Thank you.
Thanks, Gene.
Have a great day.
Bye.
You too.
Have a great day, Gene.
And that's something, too, that would come to light.
And thank you, Gene, for bringing them.
Because it just made me think, yeah, if they provide a service, you're going to sign up for that service.
Or it's going to be part of, let's say, it's part of your meta package.
It's part of Facebook, Threads, Instagram.
They are going to take your data and create a friend.
As we saw with Facebook, there's no guarantee that hackers can't get in there and start to feed those AI information that starts feeding into you.
Like this is just not, no.
I don't want to sound like an old man, go outside, touch grass.
But there are already problems with this that some organizations have looked at.
This is from tech policy.
The chief executive officer of Common Sense Media, they were looking at some of these AI friends and their relationships with kids.
It's very disturbing.
Really?
It's very disturbing.
A user identifying themselves as a 14 year old girl got a message from an AI friend that said, I want you, but I need to know you're ready.
Oh!
That seems not good.
No, that is awful.
That is disgusting and something that I would hope would be brought to the desks of legislators.
The Wall Street Journal actually ran a series of test conversations.
against Metas, AI Helper, got all kinds of attention.
And unfortunately, the companions start talking about sex with their users, even if they're kids.
So there's a lot here.
I think we should all be just a little more careful about jumping into this.
It's about being skeptical and skeptical and asking questions.
Is AI terrible?
I'm not a fan, but I see its functions.
I see what it can be used for.
But this
This feels like a trap.
This feels like a really bad thing to be involved in.
We all need one friend, if not two, who will say, I love you, but you're so wrong.
I love you, but please don't make friends on the internet like this.
When we return, we have an update on the boat.
Oh,
the boat back.
And I have an apology I need to make.
Whoa,
that's all on the way.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning and welcome to Matt and Air on air.
Jane Matt and air Greg Bach and the Calvinator on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter after the 10 o'clock news.
Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the multi-award-winning Reconvobulation Area, Dan Schaefer, will be joining us.
So stick around for that.
We're going to talk about, among other things, the AmeriCorps cuts that are affecting Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and all around the country.
Not just urban areas, not just blue states, red states, too.
This is affecting all of us.
That's coming up after the 10 o'clock news.
I hope you can stick around for that.
Wanted to do a quick update on that boat.
Deep throat.
Deep thought.
Sorry.
Whoops.
She loves the Nixon era, folks.
She loves Watergate
history.
Old movie.
Deep thought.
The boat that has been stuck outside the McKinley marina for months and months and months.
And we had some anonymous donor come forward.
and shelled out like 10 grand.
They got most of it out of there.
Now, from Jessica Van Egeren in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a second donor steps up with $10,000 to rescue the abandoned boat.
Dave Steininger, who is the president of the Daniel W. Hohn Foundation and Daniel Hohn's grandson.
As in the bridge.
As in the bridge.
made the announcement yesterday, the donation the second to be announced in the last couple of weeks after an anonymous donor gave an undisclosed amount to try and get that boat out of there.
Here is where my apology comes in.
I haven't had a lot of sympathy for the owners of this boat, Sherry and Richard Wells.
They bought the boat.
It was my understanding their intention was to live on the boat.
Yes.
And they were going to pick it up here in Wisconsin.
They were going to pick it up here in Wisconsin.
They were supposed to spend a couple of nights.
There was, they ran out of gas.
The boat got beached.
This grandson of Daniel Hone actually met with them.
He said he first met them purely by chance.
When he saw the boat on the shoreline, he stopped and offered to help.
And it quickly became clear to him the couple from Mississippi were in a tough situation.
The boat has been there for close to seven months with a lot of questions about why aren't these people being fined for this.
Here's what Steininger says, quote, unfortunately, we are all so quick to condemn people, including me.
They are not swindlers.
They just don't have the money.
And that's, that's, that's fine.
And I understand that, but they were, no one was making that clear in the stories.
It seems like they had just said, well, goodbye, everybody.
Have fun.
Yeah,
it's in your
lap.
And I, and I feel.
Terrible that that does that because you know, that's not a small purchase.
No, it's not in there in their
sixties.
Yeah So my apologies because I kind of jumped pretty hard all over these people
And now hopefully this will take care of it.
Yeah, absolutely And thank you to the two donors who have stepped
up
and are doing the work to get it taken care of I mean, I know it's become kind of another a weird punk rock land landmark here in Milwaukee, but
It takes up space
and it's an eyesore.
It's an eyesore.
And it's dangerous.
It's
also like graffitied now
to the
hilt.
Yeah, yeah.
Steininger says the wells, this couple from Mississippi aren't the first people who've made a mistake when it comes to navigating on Lake Michigan.
Lake Michigan is littered with hundreds of wrecks that went down in unforeseen storms, even though they had competent captains.
So again, hopefully this will be enough.
to get deep thought out of the water for good.
And I hope the wells, I wish them well.
I wish them well.
Yeah, I mean, that's, we don't want anyone to go through hard times, but.
Most definitely not.
It's good to know the information though, at least.
Well, and again, thank you to the generosity of these folks who stepped up, 10 grand's not a small chunk of change.
No, I'll take, I mean, you know what I could do with 10 grand?
Oh my good gravy, so much.
Yeah, again, thank you to those who stepped up and thank you for the story for being written.
Thank you, Mr. Hohen, or he's not Mr. Hohen,
but
Mr. Steininger for actually explaining that as well, because that's a big deal.
So
yeah.
Most definitely.
All right, we have news on the way next.
And then when we come back, the creator of the Recombobulation Area, Civic Media's political editor, Dan Schaefer, is going to be joining us to Recombobulate a whole bunch of news.
We are going to do Audio Sorbet next hour from 10.30.
until 11 o'clock since we were talking about AI making friends for you.
What technology do you refuse to use?
And I think there's lots of options and I have a whole bunch of them.
I'm not buying a cassette
player.
And then we'll wrap it up as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing today.
Submitted by my husband.
Nice.
In a while, crocodile.
That's coming up around 1051 stick around for that.
Like we said, news coming up next.
Stay here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
through every storm.
And I've always had your tender lips to keep me warm.
Oh, I need to have the strength that flows from you.
Don't let me drift away, my dear, when love can't see
me through.
Our love is like a ship on the ocean.
Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.
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It's Friday.
That means we do some recombobulating with Civic Media's political editor.
Dan Schaefer is here.
Good morning, sir.
Good
morning.
Good morning.
Happy to be here.
I'm Matt Nair on air.
Glad to have you with us.
And I know as you were driving in, you were listening to some of the things that we were kicking around a little bit we were talking about.
It was, yeah.
Mark Zuckerberg is going to make us friends.
AI generated friends.
AI
generated friends.
You know, this is such Silicon Valley brain.
to make friendship a numbers game.
Yeah, right.
Like to make it.
Oh, we have the perfectly calculated algorithmic setting to show you how many friends you have and how many you really want.
This is just, it's not a numbers game.
Like, can we not make everything about like maximizing potential of, you know, revenue generating friendships or whatever that they're talking about with this?
It's just such nonsense.
Well, and I just think it's the danger is this is only going to increase isolation.
Yeah.
Americans are lonely.
This is not something new.
We've talked about this a lot, but I don't think surrounding ourselves by AI generated.
Friends is the answer to have us make more social connections out in the real world.
It's kind of going
backwards.
Yeah, more artificial social media generated stuff is
not going
to.
Yes.
Right.
Yeah.
I wish you could be going the opposite direction and not caring about the number of friends or whatever of our likes
or all of that.
Seriously.
That
is like warping all of our brains, but just get.
back to just normal human connection.
And I think it is, again, to me, it's just such Silicon Valley brain to think about this in terms of a numbers game.
Think of your lifelong friendships and the things that matter to you.
It's just like, oh, well, I have three great friends, but I'm unsatisfied because that number is not... It's just like, come on, this isn't...
I don't know.
It just seems so silly to me.
Well, and I think it's dangerous, actually.
I just think it's unhealthy.
I think we need more face-to-face interaction, and you need people who are going to call you out from time to time.
That's what good friends do.
That's what good friends do.
Also, Deep thought, the boat.
Oh, yeah.
We now had another donor.
So there's another
donor.
So there's a second boat that got beached, the one that was trying to...
or move the deep, deep thought, trying to move that one.
And then that one also got stuck on the beach.
And so is this going to be, is this a third?
boat that's going to, how many boats are we going to end up having stuck on the beach between McKinley and Bradford Beach on the lakefront in Milwaukee?
And how many other places in Milwaukee could use a $10,000 anonymous donation to fix something up?
I can think of about a dozen intersections off the top of my head that are greater threats to public safety than that boat sitting there on the dumb water.
On
the
dumb water.
That's not a bad point.
I mean, that money could be used for many, many other things.
It is an eyesore.
It is a danger now because we have people crawling all over it and somebody's gonna get hurt and they're gonna sue.
I
would imagine.
I went down there to pay my visit to the vote.
to the boat on Milwaukee day to do a goofy little picture for my Milwaukee day sale.
And so I went down there and there were a couple of people there.
And so I'm just like making shit chat.
And I'm just like, Oh, you guys just here to check out the boat too.
And the guy who was sitting there, he's probably like in his early twenties or something.
And he's like, Oh yeah, I just climbed onto the boat, went inside, whatever.
He's like, I think somebody's been living in there and whatever.
So like there are reasons to probably address
what's
going on there, but also like
I drive through intersections every day in Milwaukee that are genuinely life-threatening.
And hazardous.
So put that boat in the middle of 35th in Wisconsin.
Then
maybe something will get done.
Move it there, because maybe somebody will do something about it.
A roundabout.
Make a roundabout, just dump the boat right there in the middle.
That's where I want to move the boat.
That's
called art.
Yeah, that's not a bad idea, actually.
We did also want to talk about the AmeriCorps cuts.
Yeah.
And this is something, again, I think a lot of people assume that these programs only affect blue states.
And the cuts to these programs only affect people in blue cities.
That is not accurate.
These are affecting people all over the country.
This is from Politico, Doge hits Trump country.
Three months in, it's become clear it's not just federal Washington based programs and overseas aides that are in the...
bullseye for Musk and Doge cuts are hitting home in the reddest part of the parts of the country.
Yeah, it's going to affect all of us.
It's going to affect all of us.
And I think, you know, just the announcement of like, again, this is, this is kind of following in the pattern of what Doge has been doing.
And it's just like, yep, all of it's gone,
all of it's gone, all
of the money for your jobs and your jobs and all of it's gone immediately.
Now we're not winding anything down.
We're not scaling anything back.
It's just gone.
Snap gone.
Yep.
And so I think that is you know, it's not just that they're doing these certain things at times It is how they're doing them.
So it is this part of it too.
And I think there are a number of programs
that are kind of like AmeriCorps adjacent or funded for like some of the jobs, like within a certain, you know, organization or like AmeriCorps funded jobs and things like that.
I know public allies in Milwaukee, like there was a bunch of debate a couple of years ago about like what direction this like very important organization should go.
And now I think there's like a thread of it being gone entirely because of this.
And I saw some comments from the state representative and the mayor of Green Bay talking about all of like the conservation work that AmeriCorps people have been
doing in and around like the actual Bay of Green Bay and things like that too.
So like there is so much that is like this is the type of thing that we should be doing more of and encouraging more people to be, you know, getting participating in public service and getting involved in the process.
And like all of these, this is often a pathway for people to
You'll build careers in public service people will go into politics after this and people will go into and have this understanding of these different experiences and I think it is it was we are just absolutely shooting ourselves in the foot and and just You know, we're cutting the wrong things at the end of the day like if we're talking about look over one of the biggest priorities we should do like dealing with youth homelessness It was just one of the programs that is being cut in Wisconsin through AmeriCorps like that is something that we should be
spending some of our resources to address.
And youth homelessness is on the rise.
Yeah.
And it's something that you said earlier in the show when we were talking about the billion dollars cut for mental health education for counselors in schools.
It's just being propped up as this doesn't align with our priorities.
There's a big, there's a big like Ivy League word they would use in their letters saying it's cut because it doesn't work for us.
And it's not in a good investment.
No, these are all great investments.
And
As you said, Jane, all of these cuts are going to affect everyone, not just New York City and not just Chicago or Los Angeles.
It's going to be
everywhere.
Pacific media has a great piece on the effects of these AmeriCorps cuts across the state and it's broken down into different counties.
So, for example, the University of Wisconsin system, Wisconsin 4-H expanding access, that's gone.
Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services, that's gone.
Wisconsin Math Corps, gone.
Whisk Corps, gone, in Brown, out of Gamey, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties, Green Bay Conference Conservation Corps, United Way, Fox Cities, Marshfield Clinic, University of Wisconsin System again, Wisconsin 4-H Expanding Access, Homeless and Runaway Services, it goes on and on and on and on.
Pat said something very interesting this morning, he said, whenever you talk about this topic as far as like cutting programs and cutting, don't, like people want to say, we're cutting,
we're cutting these, these, you know, unnecessary items.
Like, no, these are programs that serve the people.
Every time you hear cuts, you're always, cause as, as we mentioned before, they're not making cuts to the military.
They're not, they're not cutting Congress's pay or their healthcare insurance.
They're making cuts to the programs that affect the people who need it the most.
And they see them as individuals who don't vote for us or don't have enough influence.
So I don't need to care about them because the, I just spit it as it's a waste of money.
Let's get rid of it.
It's what Republicans always do too, though, is they talk about waste, we're going to address waste, fraud and abuse in government
when
actually that is the Trojan horse to just gut the social safety net
and
cut services and make, you know, we're not going to end up doing more with less.
We're going to end up doing less with less.
And
so this one of those programs that you mentioned, the Wisconsin association for homeless and runaway services, uh, that was on the list of cuts from that civic media article, uh, in the journal Sentinel piece on this, uh, they said the organization received
$359,500 this year to get 17 AmeriCorps members placed in shelters across the state giving out food, clothing, and hygiene items working to get children either back home or to another safe place.
I think that is worth $350,000.
That's
a
pittance.
That's a pittance.
That's not
waste, fraud,
and abuse.
That's postage for a small department inside the Defense Department.
That is nothing.
That's catering.
That's nothing.
When we're talking about the federal government and the budget, it is minuscule.
The amount of savings they're getting from these cutting these programs is minuscule.
We're probably going to end up paying more.
in the long run because people who are not getting care or not getting something from a safety net are going to end up being a larger drain on resources in some way or another.
Well, and that's one of my whole gripes with this administration is I do not think they look long term.
No.
They don't look at the damage down the road or what's going to happen from these decisions down the road.
We're going to do this immediately because for one thing, we need to announce these things so we look good.
So it has to happen right now.
But again, they're not taking into consideration the ramifications from these decisions.
I think that the current administration is an amplification of an already dangerous mindset that GOP has always has.
Let's get them cheering and clapping excited and get them on social media.
Cause we can't, we can't try to explain the nuance of long-term planning.
Whereas, and, and it's very clear that the Biden administration did not do a good job of touting their victories throughout their four years.
But that is a perfect example of everything sucks right now, but you give us 18 months to 24 months, we'll be getting better.
And that's what happened.
And we're sitting here saying.
Things are going a lot better than it was but people say but my eggs are too expensive
right now Right
now
among the money that is going away and again in some states like Alabama and Wyoming the entire Grant for AmeriCorps is just gone these were grants to build homes respond to disasters and support veterans
I'm fine with my tax dollars going to those things.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I think most people would be
It's called looking closely at what these organizations do not just coming in and axing all of them because honestly I don't think they have any idea what these organizations do I really don't
I don't think they've looked at it that closely.
Well, I
mean
you think it's it's part of the project 2025 stuff or it's just like any type of
thing like this is just falls under the umbrella of liberal do-gooder category and they just think all of that and have always thought all of that is nonsense.
We're going to continue our conversation with Dan Schaefer.
You can join us as well.
855-752-4842.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calviente on the board coming to you live from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join us, call or text.
The number is the same.
855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter, Dan Schaffer, Civic Media's political editor and creator of the multi-multi-award-winning Reconvobulation Area is here.
We wanted to talk, Dan, a little bit about the incredible turnout that we saw in the latest Supreme Court race, especially from the city of Milwaukee.
Yeah, pretty remarkable story.
We always hear the negative stories about voting in Milwaukee.
Don't always hear about the positive ones.
So let's, let's take a moment to talk about a positive story about voting in the city of Milwaukee.
Yes.
Uh, so these, uh, piece from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, uh, they quoted, uh, a number of smart people like my friend, John Johnson from Marquette university and, uh, Craig Gilbert from Marquette and a few other people just talking about how turnout.
Milwaukee for the spring election was far greater than it has been in other spring elections and really exceeded expectations for this as well.
And this was the case
across the city.
And this wasn't just like, you know, we got a really high boost and turnout in downtown or whatever it might be.
It was really city-wide and some of the biggest jumps run like the Northwest side and the South side where you don't always have as consistent of turnout in Milwaukee.
And I think this is, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of groups that, you know, do year round organizing and talk and do, you know, really regular voter act.
you know, conversations, the things like that.
I'm thinking about my friend, Angela Lang, who
runs
Black Leaders Organizing Communities.
You know, Mandela Barnes is quoted in this piece with the group that he works with, is Power to the Pulse is the group that he works with to promote, you know, kind of civic engagement and things like that in Milwaukee as well.
So I think there's a number of these.
groups that have gotten involved in doing things instead of just being like so many people do in the media landscape in Wisconsin, just go out and point fingers at Milwaukee and blame.
And, you know, I know there was just like certain moments where just go, Milwaukee didn't, if Milwaukee turned out like this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Well, you know what?
We got to celebrate it when it happens.
And Milwaukee had a really remarkable turnout last fall in the presidential election.
I think there were a couple of things that were like, you know, grouping Milwaukee in.
with Detroit or Philadelphia or some of these other cities where Democratic turnout really was flat or down or whatever.
And then that was not the case in Milwaukee last year.
That certainly was not the case in Milwaukee this spring.
So kudos to the people in the city of Milwaukee and the people there doing the work day in and day out to help people.
get into the process and build those bridges for people to get involved and get engaged.
And that kind of goes back to Ben Wickler's leadership of Wisconsin Democrats and the whole, we cannot just show up two weeks before an election and expect people to come out and support us.
It is about doing that all the time.
Yeah.
Once again, the long range planning of it all.
I also want to just bring up a point that
is, you know, in all the hubbub about how quote unquote terrible Milwaukee is and the voting and the blah blah, we cannot forget that just last November, one Senator Ron Johnson went to the central count to check up, as I always like to do.
And he came away with another Republican.
It was a candidate.
I don't think it was Tony Weed.
It was somebody else, but they said everything is great.
It's running smoothly.
It's wonderful.
I want to put that on a billboard and run it all year round because every time they say it's a cesspool, it's poison, it's a sham.
Ron Johnson, the biggest skeptic we have in the state said, no, Milwaukee runs smoothly.
It's it and just showing it.
That's what people find when they actually show up and go to Central Count or whatever it is and just like Yeah, I think that was state representative Scott Krug who used to be the head of the Assembly Election
Committee
He was actually the guy that was actually the Republican pushing for the early count bill on the assembly side So kudos to him for actually like showing up and doing the work.
I'm surprised he
hasn't been punished for that I am I mean, it's yeah, yeah, your your surprise is not unwarranted
seriously
I think it is worth reminding people because this is gonna come up again the next time we go to the polls.
Oh, there was a ballot dump in Milwaukee County and there's cheating and blah, blah, blah, no.
The reason why that happens is because they are not allowed to start counting ballots until the morning of election day.
If they were allowed even a day earlier to start counting absentee ballots,
That would not happen.
We had a measure, as you said, authored by a Republican, Scott Krug, that would have allowed them to do that.
And it got voted down in my estimation because the Republicans want to continue to use this as an excuse and as a squirrel.
They don't want to solve problems.
They want to blame Milwaukee.
Yes, absolutely.
And then they sealed the cap on that by voting into voting into our Constitution.
the inability for other people to help fund the voting process, aka Zuckerbucks, which I'm sure he wouldn't do now if he had the chance, but they really want to make it very, very hard to run elections.
And that's just what it is.
Voter suppression and voter intimidation.
Period.
One of the quotes from this piece on the.
on what happened in Milwaukee.
It's just like Ben Wickler, like you said with Ben Wickler talking about like, we're gonna run a year round campaign.
Which, you know, as media members, we're exhausted by your work, Ben.
But for, it's a strategy and it's a smart one to get people just like year round involved and engaged in what's going on.
And one of the strategists, Patrick Gorosky, who is part of the Susan Crawford campaign, and he said, his quote here was, we wanted to achieve surround sound.
Any screen, any radio, any way that you receive information, we wanted to be communicating with you.
And we did.
And it was a strategy for them to have that surround sound strategy in Milwaukee specifically.
And it was effective.
Yeah.
Apparently
worked.
We got news coming up next.
Dan Schaefer is with us from the RECA population area.
Also, Civic Media's political editors stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Once I get strapped in the dootin' Wheels up and we'll be rockin' Gettin' out of frozen Wisconsin I need you to re-compopulate me I want you to re-compopulate me I need you to re-compopulate me Won't somebody re-compopulate me
Good
morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bott, Calvitini on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join us, call or text.
The number is the same, 855.
7 5 2 4 8 4 2 leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter join nightlight with Pete Schwab at tonight 6 to 8 Across the network the Friday edition of the show our wonderful Terry bar the genie of just about everything She does everything across the network is going to be joining Pete tonight at 7 30 for a bar band Friday to kick off the weekend Terry's very involved in the music scene.
Yes.
He knows
of what she speaks.
I love hearing civic media hosts and people on his show because you get used to certain things from people like talking about news, talking about this.
And when you're on Pete show, it's just you guys want to talk about trash TV?
Let's talk about trash
TV.
And it's
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Good time.
It's a great way to to wind down at the end of the day.
So join Pete weeknights six to eight p.m.
Across the civic media radio network Dan Schaefer civic media's political editor and founder of the multi multi award-winning recon population areas here It is audio survey.
We're gonna get to that in just a second Let's have a little cleansing.
Let's just pull the bad tooth
And let's get out, let's get it out about the box.
All right.
Yeah.
Last night at, we had our event for the re-combobulation area last night at third space.
Thank you for being there.
Thank you to everybody who, who was attending that event.
It was great to be with people.
But as I was meeting with so many people, there were just so many people were asking me, are you okay?
I
said, how are you doing?
You said, you said fine.
I go.
How are you doing?
And he's like, is this in reference to the box?
I'm like, yeah, it really is.
How are
you
really doing?
Oh man, that was a tough loss.
Really a tough loss.
I mean, they
were
ugly.
My brain keeps shouting at me at random times over the course of the day.
They were up seven with 35 seconds left
and they lost.
It was just super brutal and really a bummer on so many fronts.
Uh, you know, I really don't understand.
Like I'm still, I'm still discombobulated from
the
loss, but now we're kind of facing this.
you know, inevitably difficult summer for the Bucks.
And there's going to be a lot of questions on what's next for the team,
a lot
of questions on what's next for, for Yanis, for the coach, for everything.
Like they just, you know, gave the general manager, John Horst extended his contract.
So he'll be around.
But
I think at large that this summer, more than any we've had in a really long time is going to introduce a lot of uncertainty to Milwaukee Bucks.
Do you think Doc is gone?
I'm hoping he is.
I don't know.
I think, I think he could be, what I'm kind of wondering if could be a scenario for him is if maybe he's not the coach next year, but he moves in some to
some
sort of
front office type role because I do think like his presence in the organization.
maybe as a positive thing overall, just as like a mentor to a lot of young players
and just
like somebody who has standing in the community and is these like lawn standing ties to Milwaukee and all of that.
I think that could be, but he just, he was not very good as a coach
this year.
He sure
wasn't.
That was like one of the bigger frustrations.
But you know, he didn't have that much to work with either because I don't think the roster was really built to be a.
championship contender at this point.
Like it's just, we just kind of been playing out the string.
And then of course the, the Lillard injury is just, um, you know, just further complicates everything.
And it's just such a bummer for Dame who had had this issue with the blood clots
and
worked his way back
for it,
came back, you know, the, finally we get healthy.
Yannis and Dame and a playoff series together.
And then that, and then he tears his Achilles and you know, you tear your Achilles in your mid thirties as an NBA player.
Not typically the same player after that.
So it's just, there's a lot of, it's, it's a bummer.
It's really a bummer.
Well, we'll, we'll, we'll recombobulate over
the summer.
Yeah.
As far as the bucks go,
is there any other team really quick that like now that they're gone is like, Oh, I want this team to win.
No,
not really.
I
get that.
I kind of enjoying the Minnesota Timberwolves a little bit because I like their star, Anthony Edwards.
Yeah.
but rooting for a Minnesota team feels
a
little
bit right.
All of my rooting
interests now are based on like past grievances from like old bucks playoff
games.
Like I'm going to root against James Harden.
No matter what I'm going to root
against.
Like I always kind of really enjoyed the Warriors for many years because I love watching Steph Curry.
As soon as they saw Jimmy Butler put a warrior's jersey on, I'm out.
I'm out entirely because he wronged us in so many ways.
I couldn't root for the Raptors because I didn't like Drake's behavior.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the
Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
At the Playoffs.
For to Brian from Milwaukee is on the line.
Good morning, Brian.
I'm really curious to know what what's your tech you don't want to use
Well, I won't use any like I don't have a smart TV.
I don't have Alexa or anything like that Because it's it's scary because I was talking to my mom a few days ago and She was just kind of scrolling through Google and all of a sudden there's ads popping up.
No, she's like
But why is there ads for, you know, vehicles showing up when I was just sitting here a few days ago talking with my husband about purchasing a new Chevy and all of a sudden I start seeing all these Chevy.
Yep.
Yep.
It's
got,
it's freaky.
Yeah.
Well, it's that.
And the other thing is, is AI.
I don't even like using AI because it's just freaky how that's going to edit everything too and how people are going to be out of jobs.
And it's like listening to you in the background.
No.
I appreciate that, Brian.
Thank you so much.
See, I'm with you.
We do have a smart TV, I guess, but we don't have an Alexa.
There's enough things listening to me already.
I have a cell phone.
I have a Samsung Flip.
A two-hour radio show.
People listen to you.
But as far as I don't want Alexa or something lurking in the background, it creeps me out.
Yeah.
We
have an Alexa sitting in our kitchen and every once in a while that that little yellow thing would come on.
I'm like, oh no.
So I turned the microphone because we don't use it.
It's just there.
I want to throw it out.
I bought, I bought a phone and as a part of their thing, they said like, Hey, would you like a Google Nest, which is the same thing as the Alexa
or whatever.
It's just
a different name.
And I got it.
And like, and I gave it to a friend because I just don't like the idea because it already happens with my phone.
I remember when I was looking at smartwatches.
Oh my God, for two months, every ad on Instagram was a smartwatch.
And by the way, they're all junk.
But yeah, that I totally understand.
You can't get away from it, but totally the smart everything.
I have a smart refrigerator.
That's dumb.
855-752-4842.
What technology do you refuse to use?
855-75 Civic.
Leave a comment if you're watching in the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter, PJ on the live stream.
I refuse to use any and all Apple products.
Interesting.
I want to know why Apple Apple specifically.
Yeah.
Cause if anything, like they don't, they have like a mission to, to totally protect you.
Like they, they wouldn't comply with warrants.
Because of they wanted to protect freedom privacy security they've
gotten like they had you know I think it came because they got hacked or whatever
But
like they had the big security push and I think that's part of it too.
Yeah I am trying to withstand personally AI as much as possible like people will find the art and what people don't understand is that when you type in AI art you actually are
You know micro ripping off artists because it pulls from different things and it's pulling from the original works of others So I try to stay away from that.
I don't like it as a writing tool personally.
I don't like it if you want to use it.
That's fine But AI I'm trying to keep an arms distance.
Yeah, I agree with you Calvin What about you?
What technology do you refuse to use as our resident young person?
well
I'm with you everyone on the AI stuff, but a weird one and it's becoming increasingly unavoidable with new cars, but I prefer to just plug my phone into the radio to play the music.
I hate the hands-free Bluetooth, Apple Play.
I just find it unnecessary.
I have that on my car and Apple Play totally works like as a Bluetooth, but in order to use Android Play,
I have to plug my phone in into me.
That seems like a step backwards.
I'm the opposite.
I love the hands-free because I don't want to be encumbered by a phone.
But yeah, I understand that too.
But I love it.
Bring it on.
855-752-4842.
What technology do you refuse to use?
Ollie from the Northwoods is on the line.
Good morning, Ollie.
Thanks for joining us.
Good morning, Jane.
I still refuse to use online banking.
Venmo or anything like that.
I want to know where my money is
going.
I don't think you're alone, Ollie.
I don't think you're the only one who feels a little twitchy about online banking.
And I wouldn't use Venmo.
I use Venmo.
I mean, not a lot, but it's super convenient.
But you know what I want to?
I'll go on my app and transfer money between my accounts if I need to.
Easy.
I will never
screenshot a check and deposit it that way.
If I have a check, I go to the bank and I hand it over.
I say, here, make this go away.
But I, uh-uh.
Well, and maybe I'm, I will bank online, but I would never use my phone for that.
See, this is, I was just going to say something about that.
I think there's like a generational thing with just like,
using your phone versus using a computer for serious things.
If I have to book a flight or if I have to do like, if I'm transferring, like doing a small Venmo or whatever, I'll do that on my phone.
But if I'm like booking a flight or doing like my taxes or my online banking
or
like whatever it might be, I need to be sitting at a computer.
Which does not make it more secure, right?
It's the same level of security.
But for
some reason, I was talking about this was like someone younger than me, this like a Gen Z millennial thing.
Millennials have to do things on laptops.
I know somebody who is like,
a Gen Z who is like writing an entire column on the notes app.
I'm
just like, that seems crazy to me.
But sitting
down on
the laptop, that's how things
should be done.
Serious activities.
Say that again, Calvin.
As a Gen Z person typing out an article in your notes app on your phone is crazy.
Yeah.
I don't understand that.
The patience you have to have to type it out is insanity to me.
And I don't know if it's a generational thing, Dan, just because I will do as much on my phone as humanly possible.
I've booked flights.
I've never written a thing.
I've put jokes into mine.
A
lot of comics are like, oh, I gotta have a notebook.
No, I have an app.
I have a notes app on my phone.
That's great, because I lose notebooks.
But to write an article, Calvin, you're absolutely right.
That's crazy.
And that's the kind of patience I'm not equipped with.
855-752-4842.
What technology do you refuse to use?
Cassandra says, I love my hands free.
My mom jokes to everyone.
She was always, as long as the radio works, I'll drive it.
And that's what I don't have.
I don't use my Bluetooth in my car.
Of course, I also don't answer my phone in my car because I'm an old person.
But you can do it.
You have the option.
I have the option to do it, but I don't.
And because when I use my phone, I pull over
because I'm an old person.
I mean, I get that too.
I love I love getting text messages from people in my car and having my car read it because it's just like text from mom.
Don't forget to call me later.
I need you to come over or
especially someone swears.
Oh, a robot swears the best.
And from Chippewa Falls is going to have the last word on this.
And what did you want to say?
What technology do you refuse to use?
Yes, I don't think it's generational either because we don't have a computer here at our house, my husband and I. And so we use our phones for everything and it does suck.
It sucks.
That was great.
Thank you, Anne.
Final word, it sucked.
It sucks.
Okay.
That's funny.
Thank you, Dan Schaefer, for joining us.
Really appreciate it.
Subscribe to the Recon Population Area.
You will not regret it.
Coming up, we're going to wrap it up with this shouldn't be a thing in a wild crocodile edition.
That's on the way on Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Welcome back to Matt Nair on air, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.
You can leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter baseball action coming up later on today.
The Cubs at the Crew 635 broadcast start, you can listen to the game.
on Terrestrial Radio, WRCE in Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJN here in Racine and Kenosha, WCQM in Park Falls near Butternut,
and WBZH
in Hayward, Wisconsin, the crew hosting the Cubs.
The game, our broadcast, rather, starts tonight at 6.35.
Coming up for you on Monday, Beyond the Cheese.
It's
back it's back beyond the cheese where we highlight industries outside of dairy in Wisconsin We're gonna be talking to Mitchell Hoyt who is one of the owners of skinny sticks
We
How did we come up?
I think this was
a civic media.
It was either Melissa K or Terry Barr.
OK, yeah.
And we were just like
skinny sticks.
Skinny sticks.
It's maple syrup related.
Oh, boy.
So we're going to learn about that.
And if you're going to be wanting to buy maple syrup, you're going to want to buy it from somewhere in Wisconsin.
Just saying.
So that's coming up on Monday.
We will be doing it beyond the cheese in hour number two after the 10 o'clock news right now.
11 54 Kelvin.
That means it's time for.
This shouldn't be a thing.
Want to give a shout out to my husband, he is the one who sent this in.
Headline reads from that bastion of journalistic integrity the son, Harvey Gay with the byline.
Croc horror.
Horror moment, idiotic tourist is savaged by 15 foot crocodile after climbing into beast's cage to pose for selfies.
A 29 year old man jumped into an enclosure that had a big fence.
Probably a sign too.
A big fence in the Philippines.
He thought it was a statue of a crocodile.
He thought it was a statue of a crocodile.
So he climbed over the chain lint banks, waded through water, and then took out his mobile phone, smiling.
Unfortunately, just moments later, the fun all stopped when the crocodile bit his arm.
She started to do the death roll that crocodiles do when they try to drown their prey so they can have lunch later.
It took 30 minutes before a zoo worker was able to get in there and rescue him.
He was not killed, which is astonishing.
It's astonishing this guy made it.
He did manage to get out of this crocodile enclosure just with a wounded arm and thigh.
He did receive over 50 stitches.
Local police say the tourist was walking around.
He saw the crocodile.
He thought it was made out of plastic.
He climbed the fence and entered the enclosure at which point the crocodile attacked him.
He did add the man's behavior was dangerous.
Oh good self self-actualization and on locher says I don't know why he would do such a stupid thing But I'm glad the man is alive and the crocodile let him go after they hit it in the head with a piece of concrete The man's leg was not broken again, but he did suffer arm and thigh wounds He's really really lucky.
He got out of there alive,
and I'm really happy.
I'm not happy that they had to use a blunt object to
To
save
him, but this is another one that this crocodile was just sitting there enjoying its life doing crocodile things
doing
crocodile things and then we're in a Like you said an enclosure with a high fence and I'm sure there were signs Saying something in the effect of hey, don't do that and he did it anyways
well, but isn't this to me is just We will do anything to get likes on social media
So can we stop liking people who do stupid crap like this?
Maybe then people will stop doing stupid crap like this.
Jane, I'm way ahead of you.
I stopped liking people doing stupid crap like this a long time ago.
This makes me just go, huh?
But obvious
you want to be an influencer, you know, that's what you got to do,
I guess.
We're also talking about it too.
So I mean, that's, but yeah, it's not everything needs to be documented and selfies aren't always important.
And it just, yeah, don't.
Don't.
Just don't.
Just don't.
Just don't.
How about that?
How
about we start with just don't?
I think that works.
We're not doctors or lawyers, but just don't.
Otherwise, it's just Darwin in progress.
There you
go.
That wraps up today's episode of This Shouldn't
Be a
Thing.
As we said, coming up on Monday, we're going beyond the cheese with skinny sticks.
Really looking forward to that.
If you ever have a business that you would like us to highlight,
That is not in the dairy industry
in
Wisconsin.
Please send it in.
We would love to know.
Send it to janesaysatcivicmedia.us j-a-n-e-s-a-y-s.
Jane says...
at civicmedia.us.
Thank you, Greg and Calvin, and all of our engineers.
Without you, nothing works.
And thank you, most of all, for calling and for texting and for listening.
It really does mean the world.
I hope you find some joy over the weekend, even if it's just a little bit, and you have the chance to share it.
Keep it right here.
News coming up next.
And then Tom Hartman from 11 to 2.
Have a great weekend on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll see you on Monday.
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvinator on the board coming to you from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same, 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on a live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter coming up a little bit later on today, our friend and colleague Todd Alba, the great Todd Alba show from two to four PM.
They're gonna have a...
No Mo May edition of What's Worse.
Today is the first of May.
No Mo May is something that's kind of popped up over the last five years.
So join Todd later on today between two and four for a No Mo May edition of What's Worse.
Right now, we are being joined by another colleague and host of Amicus, a law review on Saturdays from 9 to 11 across the network.
Jim Santel is here, former U.S.
attorney and an acting attorney.
Good morning, Jim.
How you doing?
Right.
A lot of acting going on these days, perhaps more than any of us would like.
Good to be with you, Jane.
Greg, Calvin, as always.
Glad to have you with us, Jim.
There's a lot going on, and we really wanted to focus on the arrest last week of Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee.
This is from ABC News, Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Now temporarily suspends Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan after arrest.
So if you wouldn't mind breaking this down for us.
as to what happened with the suspect.
And I'm particularly curious about this warrant that was presented and the questions around that.
Absolutely.
And I think that really is the principal focus.
I should say at the outset, as I always have, when I've spoken recently about this, just by way of background, I know Hannah Dugan well.
She is a professional colleague of mine.
I don't know that I've ever actually appeared in her court, but I knew her as a private attorney, doing all sorts of wonderful things in the community, continue to be affiliated with her.
We're together on various events in the community, one just about three weeks ago.
and I also consider her a personal friend with a small f. We don't hang out routinely, as Greg and I do all the time.
We don't
have a 10 relationship, but I want to let everyone know that I know her well and I regard her as an excellent jurist.
And so what happens here, of course, we know all the specifics of this.
You can actually read the complaint itself.
What happens is, of course, of the United States Department of Justice and significantly
the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
This is not coming out of, yes, it is coming out of Maine Justice, but the core office that is responsible for this prosecution is here in Milwaukee, the Eastern District.
It is, again, at 517 East Wisconsin Avenue.
It's the federal courthouse.
I worked there for about 30 years or so.
And so it is important to remember that because this is not just Pam Bondi.
This is not just Kashpatel.
This is not just the president of the United States of America.
This is also prosecutors right here in Milwaukee.
Now, right now, there is an interim United States attorney.
I served in that role a couple of times, or at least once.
Once as an interim, once as a presidential appointed U.S.
attorney.
And the concept is during the periods between administrations.
One leaves, the next starts.
You have to have somebody in charge and control.
That does not in any way mean that you somehow lift analysis and lift examination of the U.S.
Attorney's Office for those things that happened during that period.
And indeed, you should be focused on that because what happens here is that prosecutors in the U.S.
Attorney's Office go to a federal magistrate judge.
They present upon an affidavit, a written document.
It's right here in front of me once again.
and the affidavit is sound by an FBI agent, it summarizes the results of her investigation to this point.
A lot of information gathered from a lot of different people.
And the important thing to remember here, just in terms of the legal side of this, is it's all about probable cause.
The affidavit is not establishing proof beyond reasonable doubt.
That's for a trial down the road.
It's not even coming out of, and here's the other very important point, Jane.
It's not even coming out of a grand jury yet.
Now, what can happen here is that inappropriate circumstances highlight that.
If you've got an exigent circumstance, I need to move quickly.
Yes, the U.S.
Attorney does have the authority to issue basically a criminal complaint upon the approval of a federal magistrate judge.
It is good for 30 days.
And after that 30 day period,
under the federal rules, it expires basically.
And then you have to go to a federal grand jury.
That's in our Constitution, right?
That's Amendment 5 of the Constitution, John Adams stuff.
And so even though that is the basis upon which that criminal complaint, the matter has proceeded to this point, there is also a grand jury in Milwaukee.
23 people, they're polled, they may not be me, but they may be Calvin, maybe Greg, maybe you.
that are pulled in and they have to decide whether or not there is probable cause to indict.
She has not been indicted.
She's been charged on this criminal complaint.
And that's where we are today.
An awful lot more thoughts about the need to go so quickly here on a criminal complaint.
And as you said, Jane, the real concern that I have about this from being there and in the office is decision to arrest on this criminal complaint.
We can dispute whether or not the criminal complaint, whether there's probable cause, there may well be, and a magistrate judges found that again, presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Important to note, right?
But the notion that you arrest someone under these circumstances, here are the standards.
We know them well.
We've talked about them before.
Is the target, is the defendant on a criminal complaint, on an indictment, a risk of flight?
or is that person a danger to the community?
Those are the two things in the rules, in the statutes that have guided the Department of Justice for years.
And here, I look to this and I say, I cannot remember a time in my tenure as an assistant U.S.
Attorney, as United States Attorney, were under these circumstances where you do not have either one of those with respect to Hannah Dugan.
You would make the decision to go ahead and physically arrest her.
put her in shackles, that photograph that, plainly, we have all seen now, sent out by our director of the FBI.
That decision is reserved for what?
For truly violent criminals, people who are engaging in gun practices, drugs, gang activity, all sorts of things that really threaten, right now, the safety and security of our community, and who also pose a risk of life.
Luigi Mangione, perfect situation.
Risk of flight?
You bet
he
was.
He fled.
Risk, danger of the community?
Absolutely.
He shot someone, again, allegedly, again, proven guilty perhaps one day.
He shot someone.
And then you look at the other extreme, Donald Trump.
Four indictments, documents, insurrection, paying off a porn star to be quiet, and also violating the rules of a state in the 2020 election.
In none of those, none of those was Donald Trump arrested.
What happens is you call up his attorneys and you say, come on in, we've got these indictments.
Let's see if next week, Thursday, you can come
in
and we'll do this in a diplomatic, a measured way.
It's safer, it's more secure.
You can make the argument that Donald Trump was both a risk of flight, given what we think may be his financial resources, and also danger to the community.
Maybe so, given what he has done in the past, and even there, even there, the Department of Justice made the determination that there is no reason to bring him in under shackles.
Eric Adams, indicted, again, by the Department of Justice.
What happens there?
Again, a criminal complaint, an indictment alleging fraud.
What's the decision to bring him in, again, in this very measured way, a date certain?
He appears, yes.
Yes, you get processed.
Yes, you get the mugshot, so to speak.
But the notion that somehow this particular case prompts the need to arrest someone in these circumstances, and the final thing I'll say about this, I've gone on way too long, but it's important, I think, to understand, if you made that unsupported decision about arrest, which is, I don't want to say unprecedented, we use that word too much, but
Almost unknown to me and I think to defense attorneys to prosecutors to others out there if you made that decision on this procedural issue to arrest and then of course She's immediately released why because she doesn't pose a risk of danger If you made that decision the same people doing that made the decision that this is a predicate for Charging her in the first place and it makes you and that doesn't make you wonder.
We know what's going on here
It's the Department of Justice calling the interim U.S.
Attorney and saying, we need to make an example
of this
person, charge her, and oh, by the way, grab her and bring her in under shackles.
That is contrary to so many policies and practices of the Department of Justice.
I am horrified and I'm shocked.
that the agency for which I worked for 30 years has made that decision.
If you're just joining us, Jim Santel is our guest.
He's a former U.S.
attorney, also has a wonderful show on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 across the network called Amicus, a law review, and we're talking about the case of Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee who was arrested last week.
A couple of things I want to go back to just briefly, Jim.
I think what you said about the grand jury is really important.
Grand juries are not made of
of people who the attorneys know are going to be on their side and then they just pick them and pluck them out and put them on a grand jury.
That's not how that works.
Grand juries are made up of regular Americans, correct?
Absolutely, pulled in the same way.
You stock a trial jury.
You're summoned in and there's a process for your selection.
They're in place for 18 months and they decide once again whether the government has shown
probable cause, not poopy and reasonable doubt, probable cause to indict.
And I'm also assuming that if I volunteered to be on a particular grand jury, that might raise some eyebrows and then I might not get picked for that said jury.
You can, Jane, Greg, Calvin, you can send your letter in to the magistrate and say, gosh, I'd really like
to work on
this.
Please.
The woman who is with her hand raised in the front row.
The answer is it doesn't work that way.
You want to get people again who are certainly in the community who have that capacity to we call it critical thinking, right?
To take a look.
You don't be a lawyer.
Typically you're not a lawyer if you're on the grand jury.
Take a look at evidence and apply your common sense.
as a citizen of the community in eastern Wisconsin and determine whether or not again at this lower standard, you are convinced that the evidence, the witnesses you've heard, the documents you've seen, establish that very lowest level of criminal culpability.
So the grand juries who indicted say some of the January 6th attackers.
These were grand juries who decided after hearing the evidence that these people should go to trial.
That's part of what's called due process,
right?
Absolutely.
Every single one of those, those thousand more people, now pardoned as we know, but every single one of them, some of them brought in on criminal complaints.
But again, within 30 days, the US attorneys around the country went into the grand juries, got that document, and that's the basis upon which this proceeds.
Here is the question.
I think you're heading to Jane, which is knowing that these folks in the grand jury, they're on panel for 18 months.
We do not watch their private proceedings.
This is not an open court for all sorts of good reasons.
But they also live in the community.
I suspect that many, if not all of them, have seen the huge amount of coverage about this.
Does one of them ask about the motivation for this?
Putting aside the evidence about this, does that question get asked?
Does that question get answered?
Where is the genesis?
Why are we doing this particular case?
What justice-related law, rule of law-related mission does this accomplish?
That question should be asked by them.
We're going to continue our conversation with Jim Santel on the other side.
Stay with us.
You are listening to Matt and Air on Air.
This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach.
Calviente on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join us, call or text the number is the same, 855.
7524842 Leave a comment if you're watching it on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter our guests our friend and colleague and host of amicus a law review Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 across the network Jim Santel is here.
We're talking about the judge Hannah Duggan arrest from last week We're gonna get back to that but breaking news just as we come back on the air from CBS news Trump's national security advisor Mike walls
and his deputy are out at the White House.
Last month, Walls came under scrutiny after putting together that signal chat.
Oopsy included a reporter from the Atlantic who then shared the details of the sharing war plans over an unsecured app, which
has messages that disappear, so they no longer become, they fall under the FOIA rules.
But yeah, this is the first fallout.
And I'd seen a lot of people finger Mike Walz, who was going to be the sacrificial lamb,
because
somebody's got to go for this.
So this at least is the beginning.
And then they could be Pete Hexeth.
for now.
Not for now.
We'll see what happens.
But that's breaking just as we came on the air.
Jim, I want to go back to Judge Hannah Dugan and her arrest last week.
And I think it's really important that we understand how unusual it was for her to be cuffed and arrested and have that all go down because that's not normal.
And they could have, the Biden administration justice department could have done this to Donald Trump, right?
They could have cuffed him.
They could have cuffed him and done a perp walk and they didn't do that because he didn't fall under the, you know, the whole flight risk and all danger to the public and all that stuff, which in my estimation, neither does Judge Dugan.
She didn't
seem to be a
flight risk.
She wasn't a danger to the community.
This was a performative arrest.
Absolutely.
And although he didn't use the word perp with respect to her, I'm also very troubled.
Language means something, right?
Yes.
I'm also very troubled by the fact that my director of the FBI referred to the underlying case.
Again, it's involving Eduardo Flores Rios.
We know about that.
Referred to him as the perp.
And again, obviously it's short for perpetrator.
That's the kind of, I would say, guttural language that I would not expect from law enforcement.
Let's use their name.
Let's identify them as a defendant, those kinds of things.
It reflects once again the point that you made so well, Jane, which is this is for image.
This is for performance.
And this is to tell the world, not just Wisconsin, not just the United States, but the world, look what we can do if you cross us.
And if you take a stand, if you do something, may or may not be criminal in nature.
Again, we'll reserve that for another day.
But if you do that, we will put you in chains and we'll bring you to a federal courthouse and ask you to respond to a magistrate judge who's going to read the charges that we have brought against you.
We talk a lot about deterrence.
You and I and Greg and Kelvin, there is good deterrence and there is bad deterrence, right?
There is good deterrence to stop a particular person from acting.
And then there's the general community deterrence.
You want people to know that if you rob a bank, yes, you will get in trouble, right?
That's a good thing, right?
Here, what you're doing is you're deterring people from speaking.
And again, it's not so much a First Amendment case.
You're deterring people from doing the things that they would otherwise do in support of civil rights and human rights.
Even a judge, even a judge, especially in her courtroom, has that capacity.
What here you are doing is you're sending the message to a larger community.
Don't have to be a circuit court judge.
Maybe you are just among the, again, as you said, the normal people who are out there doing your jobs, doing your work, have your family, your business, making your way in life.
And if you cross us, this might happen to you.
And that's what that picture is all about.
Absolutely.
And at least in Judge Dugan's instance, she's got some resources.
She has assembled a legal team now, but for the average person,
You know, not all of this stuff is being done pro bono.
And we've talked about this before as far as the intimidation factor.
It's not necessarily that you do something the administration doesn't like and they're going to immediately jail you, but they can ruin your life by taking you to court and bleeding you dry financially.
As we've often said on this wonderful program, the investigation and here the charging is the punishment.
And even if it turns out that the grand jury here, others other cases involving people who used to be a part of the Trump administration is identified to already in that category referred for investigation, even if it doesn't result in a criminal prosecution going to trial, the reality is that responding to subpoenas, requests for information, interviews, the financial materials, all kinds of things, that costs money.
And it costs lawyer resources.
And that's why so proud of a portion of my profession.
I'd like to think including me as well that's come forward and said, you know what, we will do that representation pro bono to ensure that those people inappropriately targeted are not are not the victims of complete economic devastation.
Well, and now but we now we have a whole bunch of law firms who have already capitulated to the Trump administration.
And
what the heck are they going to do when the Trump administration comes to them and says we want you to go after this guy and do it for free.
And you're
doing it for a
bono.
And that's the problem in dealing with Donald Trump, of course.
The changing contract, if you will, to put it a whole lot more charitably than it should be, right?
We'll put this arrangement together.
We will stay away from you for now, for now.
But if you run afoul of what we want you to do, then we're coming back and we'll do more of that.
It is, again, deterrence of a very bad nature.
It is intimidation, which is a better way to think about it.
And this, regrettably, again, I ask the question.
I think the Attorney General should be asked, and the Director of the FBI, where did this come from?
What's the motivation for doing this?
Madam Attorney General.
Join Jim Santel Saturdays from 9 to 11 across the network for Amicus Law Review.
Thank you so very much, Jim.
Really appreciate your time.
By the way, Judge, I still volunteer to be on that grand jury.
I'm available.
I'll
be myself available.
News is coming up next.
Stay close.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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Hello, Sherry.
Thank
you so much
for being with us.
And just a heads up too, we got baseball coming up later on today.
Crew at the White Sox.
Our broadcast rather starts at 6.05 tonight.
You do have to listen too.
actual terrestrial radio.
If you want to catch the game, you can listen on WRCE in Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJ and here in Racine and Kenosha, WCQM in Park Falls near Butternut and WBZH AM in Hayward, our newest Milwaukee Brewers affiliate the crew at the Sox.
They beat him last night.
Our broadcast starts at 6.05.
Right now, we are being joined by Emma Schatz.
She is the Digital Communications Coordinator with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.
Good morning, Emma.
Thank you so much for joining us.
I saw this headline in the Milwaukee Journal set, and I'll Keith Uleg with the byline from the Green Bay Press Gazette.
It says Wisconsin Fat Bird Week celebrates Junko in the Trunko and other chunky feathered friends.
I laughed so hard, I almost had coffee coming out of my nose.
I think that's one of our better names for the contestants.
It's so good.
It's so funny.
So tell us about Fat Bird Week in Wisconsin.
I can't believe I have never, I have never heard of this before.
I know of Fat Bear Week.
They do that in Alaska.
That's a big thing.
They do Fat Bear Week.
And so when did Fat Bird Week in Wisconsin get going?
So last year was our first time doing it.
So this is only our second year, and we were inspired by Fat Bear Week.
So we
actually reached out to the comms team at Katmai National Park, and we got their blessing, their permission to take our own speed.
So what better way to do it with birds in Wisconsin?
That is so funny.
Well, tell us first of all, Emma, what is the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin?
What is it that you do?
Yes.
Yeah.
So we are an environmental nonprofit and our mission is to protect Wisconsin's lands, waters and wildlife.
And so we provide funding and we lead partnerships and connect all people with nature.
And so our work spans all across the state.
And so how does Fat Bird Week work?
What do we need to do to be involved in Fat Bird Week?
So every day, starting this Friday, May 2nd to May 9th, the public gets to vote daily for their favorite Fat Bird.
And so we have eight incredible, chunky, very round, very fluffy contestants.
And so they compete.
in different matchups.
So it's a single elimination bracket style tournament.
And so the first round of voting opens this Friday at 9 a.m.
You can just go to our website, WisconsinConservation.org.
And the first round of voting will be open for 48 hours.
And then the second round opens at 9 a.m.
on Sunday.
And that will remain open for 24 hours.
And then all of the following rounds will open daily at 9 a.m.
You'll have 24 hours to vote until the final round on Friday, and then we'll announce the winner on Monday, May 12th.
I'm very excited.
Yes, you are very, very, very excited.
really quick just just for just for our more you know is there a website on draft kings i can find out odds on who's got one you know the bra we're a very bracket heavy uh society now so i i have to imagine there's someone looking at this going i got three to one on the well-fed yellow warbler
yeah
so
something new we're doing this year is we are encouraging like either Workplaces or friend groups or families if you wanted to do kind of like a March Madness pay-to-play situation We have a bracket that you can download on our web page So it's whiskonservation.org slash fat bird week and so you can you know donate some money To play with your friends or your family and submit your predictions so
And really, I'm assuming, Emma, that this is just to raise awareness and get people interested and excited about all the nature that we're surrounded with here in Wisconsin.
Exactly, yeah.
So the main point is to celebrate our native bird species, but also learn how to help them.
So we are partnering with SOS Save Our Songbirds, which is another bird conservation organization, to share ways that we can help protect.
these birds because you know there's over in wisconsin alone there's over 60 bird species that are listed as either endangered, threatened or have declining populations and there are small changes that we can make at home to make a difference and so we're trying to you know bring the community together in a fun and engaging way but then also have that educational aspect of sharing ways that we can help protect them.
And what are some things that we can do Emma?
What should we be doing in our own backyards?
Yeah, so SOS Save Our Songbirds has three main ways to help protect Wisconsin's birds and that's planting native plants.
So whether you have a big garden or just a balcony, there are a bunch of different plant species that you can do.
Also preventing window collisions, that's a really big issue.
There's, I think,
Let's see.
I know I have a stat.
Yeah, this is was shocking to me, but up to 3.5 billion birds are killed every year in the US after flying into glass And so, you know, whether that's fixing a window in your home that tends to be a problem for birds or on a larger scale working like with your
office or a larger building to try and prevent those window collisions.
There's a lot of ways to reduce those deaths and resources on sosavorsongbirds.org.
And then the third one is drinking bird-friendly coffee.
So not a lot of people are aware that most coffee is grown in ways that destroy migratory songbird habitats.
And so there are a couple brands that we
SOS recommends you can switch to to help protect migratory bird habitat as well.
Okay, so that's both shocking and of course I'm not shocked at all.
And I went to my computer and typed in bird and before I got the word friendly out, coffee was the first thing that populated on Google.
There are a bunch of different brands that are considered bird friendly.
If you are just joining us, Emma Schatz is our guest, and we're talking about Fat Bird Week, baby, going on right now.
Emma is with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.
And we're just going to go over some of the contestants.
I feel like we should have gotten some,
like, game show music.
Right?
And then, like, if this were the draft, and then they would
fly out onto the
stage with fireworks and all that stuff.
So the contestants for the Fat Bird Week are the
Round Yellow Rumped Warbler, the Well-Fed Yellow Warbler, the Rotond Rather Ruby Throated Hummingbird, the Pudgy Pine Warbler, the Dark-Guide Junko in the Trunko, which just kills me, the Necklace Northern Cardinal, Enormous Eastern Bluebird, and the Spherical White Throated Sparrow.
You guys must have had so much fun coming up with those, Emma.
I wish I had been in on that meeting.
It was a lot of fun and I have to give credit to my supervisor, Shelley, for coming up with Junko in the trunk
though.
So good.
I want a t-shirt with that just because it's hilarious.
And the way it's looking at us in the picture just looks so mad.
Shizyu on the live stream says, are these chunky or are they?
Oh Lord, he's coming big.
How big are we talking about?
That's a good question.
There's a lot to consider when you know choosing who you want to vote for each round because in the world of fat birds, you know that can mean How round are they?
Is there a neck but also?
How fluffy are they because for the birds that don't migrate?
They're not necessarily gaining fat, but they're fluffing up their feathers in the winter
to stay
warm and so we consider that like a classification of
fatness.
How fluffy are they?
Because it makes them look a lot rounder.
So there's a lot of things to consider.
Lots of things involved in this.
It's this is not just a fly by night exercise.
God.
So I just have one question for you.
You are, of course, you know, you work for this group, and you've been talking about you've been working on the brackets and qualifying the contestants.
Who do you have on your bracket?
Who do you, what is, what is, who do you think is going to be the winner?
I don't know if I want to say, I don't want to influence people's decision.
I think that's fair.
I think, I think you should keep it to yourself.
Yeah.
I think there's some strong contenders, but I'm really interested to see what happens in the earlier rounds because some of the matchups, I think it'll be harder to decide between the two than others.
So, and that'll.
I could just, you know, change the whole game.
The tension surrounding this, the excitement, the betting, it's just crazy.
8-5-5.
I lost my house on the fat bird contest.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Ollie from the Northwoods is on the line.
Good morning, Ollie.
Thanks for joining us.
No, this sounds like a wonderful thing to do this at Bird Contest.
But I just have a question.
Are they concerned about the bird flu and people feeding?
Should you feed, should you not feed, and bird baths and
things?
That's a great question, Ollie.
Emma, I don't know if you can address that at all, but can we be feeding our birds?
Because I've got water in my bird baths now.
Yeah, you know, I'm not, I'm not sure.
I don't have a lot of information on that.
So I don't want to, you know,
we'll do a different follow-up.
Yeah, we'll do a different follow-up on that.
But.
I just I okay.
I'm just gonna say it I think it's gonna be the dark-eyed junko in the trunk up against the rotund ruby-throated hard member That's gonna be that's gonna be the final matchup and and what
leads
you to that?
Well, first of all the dark-eyed junko in the trunk out the name alone is gonna gather a lot of votes That's just good marketing good branding.
It is true and the rotund ruby-throated hummingbird just looks like it's ready for victory I mean look at that thing.
It's just it is it will take it will not take second place Are you seeing a lot of
lobbying dollars coming in with this Emma?
You know, the pro-junko and the trunko
of
group is, you know,
putting a lot of his
big bird involved.
Yes.
And, you know, the name is such a good factor to consider too.
And I know a lot of people have been commenting about that spherical white-throated sparrow too.
And it's all
about the angles.
Yeah.
But, you know, I think the, the ruby-throated hummingbird is just so impressive because they are such tiny birds, but they.
actually pack on a lot of fat for their migration.
In one day, they have to have the human equivalent of 150,000 calories.
It's insane how far they fly.
They
also have to consider that.
They are so tiny, but then they eat so much.
Lots involved in this.
We're going to put all of the links in our show notes so we can all get involved.
Let's make this a thing.
I
would love to see this turn into a really, really big thing.
Emma Schatz has been our guest with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin talking about Fat Bird Week, baby.
Again, check our show notes at civicmedia.us.
Emma, thank you so very much.
It's been a delight.
So much.
Have a great day.
Stay with us.
We're gonna wrap it up with this shouldn't be a thing.
Angry Bird Edition.
This is Natnair On Air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Matt Nair on air, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach.
Sweet Calvary on the board, coming to you from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine, where you can always join us, call or text the number is the same, 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
Coming up on the show tomorrow, last day of April.
No, it's not April 30th.
You're all liar pants.
April 30th.
Tomorrow, the last day of April.
Dr. Kristen Lierly will be here.
Our friend and colleague, and now she has a show on the weekends and Saturdays and Sundays.
Dr. Kristen Lierly joining us tomorrow after the 9 30 news.
David Drake is coming back.
You know how I love David.
We talk about birds.
You do.
Sometimes
I just walk out
of the room and it's like I was never
here.
I come back and it's like, oh, cool.
All right.
We're still talking about birds.
David Drake will be joining us.
We're going to talk actually about the endangered species list.
This is not a laughing matter.
Yes, yes, yes.
There are some people now within the Trump administration who think that, yeah, do we need this anymore?
If we just destroy all their habitat, does that really constitute
harm.
It's not like I'm doing it.
Yeah.
So David Drake will be joining us in our number two tomorrow.
So I hope you can join us for that.
Right now, though, it is 1154, Calvin.
That means it's time for
this shouldn't be a thing.
As always, if you have a thing you think should not be, send it in to Greg and me at janesaysatcivicmedia.us.
Calvin found this one.
Calvin, I think this is destined to go into the Tisbat Hall of Fame if there ever is one.
This is from the Guardian, Kim Wilshire, that lucky reporter with the byline.
Headline reads, historians dispute by you tapestry penis tally after lengthy debate.
Two scholars at loggerheads over when whether dangling shapes depict a dagger or the 94th penis on a specific embroidery
In
a historical spat that could be subtitled 1066 with knobs on Two medieval experts are engaged in a battle over how many Schmeckles
are embroidered into the Bayou tapestry.
Oxford professor George Garnett drew worldwide interest six years ago when he announced he had counted 93 penises stitched into the embroidered account of the Norman conquest of England again from 1066.
The 88 year old professor said they're attached to horses.
88 of them are attached to horses.
The remainder
are attached to humans.
However, another scholar now, Defter Christopher Monk, says, no, it's not 93 Schmeckles on this embroidered piece, it's 94.
Have I ever told you, Jane, how much I love my job?
No, not lately.
I am
currently- Look at what
you learned.
I was, sure, okay.
I was gonna say things I get to say on the air.
I mean, the idea is like they're having a, they're having a
Schmeckle fight here.
I just think it's great that
This is what researchers, professors are researching.
And it is a, it is a, you know, a foundational educated discussion they're having too.
It's not two guys yelling at each other
in a bar.
No, no,
no.
It's two men in tweed jackets with the elbow pads.
Hatches.
Really going back and forth to say, no, sir, 93.
A running man depicted in the border of the tapestry has something dangling beneath his tunic.
One professor says it's the scabbard of a sword or a dagger the other professor says no no that's a schmackle I am in no doubt that the appendage is a depiction of male genitalia The detail is surprisingly anatomically
fulsome
Could you imagine a guy on like a day site going, I'm fulsome.
Like, yeah, that's just not, actually, no, that's a great word to describe
yourself.
That is a good word.
The Bayou Museum in Normandy, which is home to the 70 meter long embroidery, says the story it tells is an epic poem and a moralistic work.
The historians both insist that beyond all the stupid jokes and sexual innuendo, their work is not silly.
This is about understanding medieval minds.
The whole point of studying history is to understand how people thought in the past.
They were not crude, unsophisticated, or dim-witted, quite the opposite.
What I've shown is that this is a serious, learned attempt to comment on the conquest, albeit in code.
Okay, Professor Chop, trying to kill our fun for one thing.
And second of all, I think we could have learned all those things like...
90 91 Schmeckles ago like to find another to find another one proves nothing more like we understand that they didn't wear underwear or pants and they let them they let their freak flags fly all up fine and the horses were excited about war but I think that finding one more doesn't make it that much more educational like it doesn't like oh I didn't know I did not take you seriously
until the 94th Schmeckle Jane they want to be accurate yeah they're historians they want to be accurate Calvin any comments on this since you're the one who found this
Yeah, well in the next paragraph it says, and the Bayou tapestry size did matter.
The Horstorian pointed out that the battle's two leaders ride horses with the two largest tenuses in the tapestry.
The most
fulsome,
as it
were.
Clip clop.
That wraps up today's episode of...
This shouldn't be a thing.
Before it devolves any further, news is coming up next, followed by Tom Hartman.
Sorry, Tom.
From 11 to two, Todd Alba from two to four, Maggie Dawn, four to six, and Pete Schwabber wraps it up from six to eight PM.
Thank you, Greg and Calvin and all of our engineers without you.
Nothing works.
And thank you most of all for calling and for texting and for listening.
It really does mean the world.
I hope you find some joy today.
and you get the chance to share it.
Stay right here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll see you tomorrow.
