86 Stupidity (Hour 1)

Good morning and welcome, welcome to Mattnare on Air.

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It's fantastic.

He will be here after 10 o'clock.

We're going to start looking at some of the races in Wisconsin, some of the seats in Wisconsin that might be flippable.

We're going to take a casual look at elections.

We're going to be cool.

Stay back.

Now get stressed because.

I ask that we at least have most of 2025 off.

We've had a lot of elections in a short amount of time.

And I feel like we've earned this.

We've earned a breather, as it were.

Yes.

And then coming up at the very end of the show will be, this shouldn't be a thing.

Today it is the bottom of the bottle edition.

Ooh.

Stick around for that.

And as always, if you have a thing you think should not be, send it into Greg and me at Jane says at civicmedia.us.

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What does that mean, Jane?

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the last one today from four to six p.m.

But we are playing for a four pack of Milwaukee Brewers tickets and that keyword is coming up in just a little bit.

I wanted to start off with news about the storms that moved through last night.

Yes.

And Dodge County got particularly hard hit and I was watching the radar late afternoon yesterday started watching it.

They just got creamed.

There was a line of

incredibly strong thunderstorms.

But today, significant damage reported in Juneau and Mayville after several tornadoes were spotted in Wisconsin.

A number of people lost roofs.

There were some businesses that suffered a great deal of damage.

Fortunately, at least at this point, we don't have any reports of injuries or any deaths.

That's

wonderful.

That is great news.

But it's only May.

And we're going to have a lot more storms coming our way.

And it's important.

I don't know.

I'm going to purposely mean this to plug the app and plug civic media.

We have amazing, amazing weather people.

Brittany Merlot is a multi award-winning award winner.

She's our meteorologist.

She keeps.

her and Corey Hartman.

They keep us all up to speed on what's going on weather wise.

The, the, the Civic Media app will help you do that.

The website will help you do that.

We'll do that on the show and keep you informed and keep you engaged with what's going on because yeah, storm season is here.

Bad weather season is here.

And we're, and I remember Brittany saying this morning that's where she was at.

She went out her door and it was, the skies were green.

That's never a good sign.

Not a good thing.

So yeah, keep it locked in.

make sure you stay informed and let other people know as well.

Keep them informed as well.

Yeah, definitely.

But I did, uh, I did notice that the whole greening of the sky, we didn't get things.

We're on the Northwest side of Milwaukee.

And I want to say about six 30, 20 to seven, it started raining so hard and almost kind of sideways.

It was, it was eerie and see down, but down in Kenosha, I was telling you before, before we went on the air that it was.

real dark around six 30, but around seven 30 was done.

And it rained, but it certainly didn't rain.

The wind was the worst part.

The wind, I was watching my back fence go back and forth.

I'm like, Oh, am I going to have to pick up my fence in a little bit?

So it's just weird how that happens.

Yeah, I was talking to Don Rosen across the hall here on WRJN.

And he said to, he said, our flagpole was bending.

Geez, that's never a good.

That's never a good thing.

But glad to hear that no one was injured.

But again, they're going to be cleaning up in Mayville and Juneau in Dodge County.

You can always donate to the American Red Cross.

Don't know.

I don't expect right at this point that FEMA is going to be called in.

I don't know that the damage was quite that extensive.

But again, for the folks who are living through this, it's plenty extensive.

And if we did call FEMA, who knows if they'd show up or they'd allow us to allow them to come in at all.

Well, we're going to get to that.

in just a second, but I did want to share something that really irritates me.

Welcome

to another edition of what grinds James Gears is annoyed.

Yes, I have my husband and I watched Channel 12 been doing this for years.

And I have had the good fortune to meet their chief meteorologist, Mark Baden, a number of times over the years.

Lovely man.

Yeah, really, really nice man knows what he's doing, knows what he's talking about.

When the tornado warnings got issued,

Channel 12 went to wall-to-wall coverage, which is pretty standard, actually, for television stations.

And even a lot of radio stations will

do that, too.

Chad was saying up at XCO, they did the same thing for about 90 minutes.

You go wall-to-wall because this is dangerous and people's lives are at risk.

Just because what does that mean, wall-to-wall?

What is that?

That means that all they are doing is focusing on the weather.

And they are watching the radar and they are giving people a heads up as far as

the storm is heading this way.

You can expect it to hit your community by 622 or whatever that is.

So normally the news goes from 5 to 530.

Then it's the national news from 536.

Again, local news from 6 to 630.

And then I think it's entertainment tonight is what takes over after that.

At one point, Mark Baden, when they went to extended coverage,

And instead of going to the regular six o'clock news, they continued with the weather coverage.

He actually had to come on the air and say, the people in Dodge County are important.

This might not be affecting you, but it's affecting the people in Dodge County.

So we're going to stay with this coverage, which tells me people were calling the switchboard to complain.

Where's entertainment tonight?

Where's this?

I'm not in Dodge County, doesn't affect me.

This is why we're in the mess we're in.

Politically, doesn't affect me, doesn't hurt me.

Why should I care?

I'm sorry, I'm committing the sin of empathy.

What a terrible thing.

It's killing the Western civilization, Jay.

That's what Elon

says.

I mean,

it really goes back to really a...

A sentiment that's been echoed for years now, especially in the rise of social media, which is very odd.

When you think about what social media's chief altruistic purpose is, it's to connect us.

But what it's done is created smaller and smaller communities, more and more, to the point where even, you know, I was talking to a friend and she was talking about her neighbor and I said, well, did you talk to her?

No, I don't talk to my neighbors.

We don't talk to our neighbors.

We

don't engage.

At the very least didn't know their names.

it doesn't surprise me that they did this it's still disappointing and breaks my heart that someone would call and say why are you doing and not even think why are they doing this but instead saying why are you doing this what I need to see my game show

I

need to see my whatever

where's my wheel of

fortune

yeah

shark tank starts in an hour yeah

again

And I'm sure this is nothing new.

And I'm sure that TV stations have heard these complaints for years and years and years.

But I just think it is really indicative of where we are now.

And nothing is important unless it directly impacts me.

We're all in this together, folks.

We are.

Yes.

And I saw that less.

I was so angry.

And I came in this morning.

I was still

angry.

I know you were pretty lit.

You will be upset when those services go away when people when they don't have the ability when they have to go to commercial when they don't have the you know the TV stations radio stations newspapers They're feeling the squeeze financially to report on certain things Say certain things omit certain things.

These are

I don't wanna say they're luxuries, but we're lucky to have this sort of access to information.

This is life-saving information.

Yeah, they said, we need to go wall to wall.

We need to inform the people.

They didn't say we need to earn our money right now.

We need to take care

of the people.

This is our

job and our responsibility.

Roger Frost said, last night Portage County was under four different tornado warnings between 530 and 650.

The storm sirens were activated five times.

I just had a few twigs around but WSAW Channel 7 was wall to our coverage from 415 to 730

last

night.

Mark Holly was all aces.

All right.

Good on you.

Yeah, but yeah, that's the thing too is it.

Yeah.

It's Roger had a few twigs.

There was no doesn't sound like Roger was calling up the station say,

Hey, where's wheel of fortune?

Where's I got jeopardy to watch.

So yeah, I mean, I just and of course the people who call that switchboard they're not listening to us because

You're probably right.

We're probably

too whiny for them.

You're probably right.

But I see your point, Shane, and I absolutely agree.

Can we just have a little compassion, my friend?

Just a little.

Just a

scooch.

We're asking you for some compassion and bad weather.

So not 24-7, not every day even.

Just when the bad things are happening and we're trying to tell people about it.

I guess that's a lot to ask.

You're right, Jane.

That is, I'm asking them to... Sin of empathy.

Commit the sin of empathy.

It's a virus of empathy killing the Western civilization.

What are we doing here?

Well, again, our thoughts go out to the folks in Mayville and Juneau and other folks who were really affected by this storm last night that went through.

We are expected to have a little bit more weather later on today.

It's going to be really warm today.

It's going to warm up to like 80 degrees, at least here in southeastern Wisconsin.

So that probably is going to spur and spark off a couple more storms.

So keep up with the weather.

Yep.

Stay safe.

Stay safe, please.

And let's look out for each other a little bit.

I'd

love to do that, Jane.

I'm happy to look out for people.

I just don't want to be staring at people.

That's weird.

I would never ask you to do that.

Ronnie from Hora-Con texting in, I'm in Hora-Con.

It's always a very scary storm.

The hail was relentless.

We lost power and then our internet.

Thanks to Civic Media, we sat in the basement and listened to the app.

We lost a tree.

Glad you're okay, Ronnie.

Sorry about the tree.

Absolutely.

And Cassandra for a little bit of light fun here.

I don't like listening to Trump talk, but I don't call the station to complain that I can't watch Wheel of Fortune during the State of the Union.

Thank you.

Thank you, Cassandra.

Thank you,

Roger.

And who was the one who just texted in?

Sorry,

I gotta go back and find what it was Ronnie

Ronnie.

Thank you for

getting touch

and thank you for letting us know about the job We love hearing from people and knowing that we're doing good

and Brian from Marinette on WD GBW Here's an idea if you don't want to watch weather coverage change the channel

Better yet, read a book.

Yes!

Yes, Brian, read a book.

I'm telling you right now, no one reads anymore.

It's not like there's a thousand channels to choose from.

All right, I gotta shake this off.

Well, we will return.

You're listening to Matt Nair on Air.

Stay close.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We'll be right back.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and air on air.

Jane Matt and air Greg Bach.

Sweet Cal B on the board coming to you from our studio 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 the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter after the 9 30 news.

It was just a couple of days ago.

We were saying Derek Van Orton did a good thing.

Yeah, he did.

Well, now that reversed.

He's the light side and the dark side.

We'll have a little update on Derek Van Orden kind of returning to form.

We just talked about this.

We just gave him a well done.

We just gave him a pat on

his head.

We did.

But yeah, so we'll have a little updates on what Derek Van Orden is doing to his constituents.

And then

At the end of the hour, Wisconsin's own Sean Duffy, head of the Department of Transportation.

And

guy who thinks Rhodes rule.

Rhodes rule.

High praise from Donald Trump on his overseas trip yesterday for Sean Duffy, not about his management of the Department of Transportation.

I thought he was going to be like, hey, he's the best.

Depart sec sec transpose

ever not no no no no no I got a little transcript Because I think it's important that we hear all the words traumatic reading from our president So that's coming up at the end of this hour about Wisconsin's own Sean Duffy and a high high praise From the commander in chief

Jane you have something on your face, right?

Is it sarcasm?

Yeah

We have your tickets right now my tickets not your tickets for a pack of Brewer's tickets up for grabs Right now Get your phone open up the civic media app Here is the word you want to text by 11 o'clock this morning today's word is Friday FRIDAY Friday

F-R-I-D-A-Y.

Text the word Friday right now and you are in the running for a four pack of tickets.

for the Wednesday, May 21st game as the Brewers take on Baltimore.

So text in the word Friday right now, you have until 11 o'clock, F-R-I-D-A-Y.

Text in the word Friday, you are in the running for that four pack of Milwaukee Brewers tickets in our statewide text to win contest.

Your next chance with a different word comes with Tom Hartman from 11 to two, then Todd Alba from two to four and Maggie Dawn from four to six.

But right now the word you want to text in is

Friday, F-R-I-D-A-Y, that four pack of tickets when the Brewers host Baltimore on Wednesday, May 21st.

Not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I think it's important to throw out there because I don't know, hypocrites much.

James Comey used to be part of the administration first time around.

He was the former FBI director.

Now James Comey is under investigation for a threat.

to Donald Trump on social media.

Here is what happened yesterday.

James Comey, in an Instagram post says, quote, cool shell formation on my beach walk.

Took a picture of it, posted it on Instagram.

What did he show?

It was a picture of seashells on a beach arranged to spell out 86.47.

which 86

47 now 86 is a term that I always thought associated with bars you got 86 from the bar you weren't allowed to come there anymore

you 86 something you get rid of it you throw it out you

get about get out here always your 86 from a bar your 86 from the library you can't go there anymore Don Jr.

posting James Comey threatening to kill my father no

That's not what he did.

And I just, out of curiosity, did a little search, Greg Buck.

Wait a minute,

you dug

deeper than Don Jr.

was willing to do?

Yes, I know that's shocking.

Did you know that there was 86, 46 shirts that were for sale?

Yeah.

all during Joe Biden's presidency.

Oh, and

that's probably some of the more tamer language I saw on t-shirts.

Oh, most definitely.

Yeah.

There were 86, 46 t-shirts on Amazon, on Etsy, on eBay.

You can look for them.

They're still out

there.

You mentioned this too, and I saw it many times.

There was a decal that you could put on your tailgate for your truck of Joe Biden hog tied in the back of your truck.

Yep.

Josh Hawley the senator from Missouri also said because two assassination attempts were probably not enough for these people and posted the picture first of all I have thoughts on that statement, but we'll get to that another year, but All of a sudden they have no problem.

They're very sensitive.

Oh my

gosh now.

They're very sensitive Let's not forget the F Joe and the whole shirts.

Oh, yeah that magas were putting on their toddlers.

Yeah

I've seen photos of those.

And if that's, well, no, see, I'm not going back to, because I don't think James Comey is dumb enough to put something out there that says that I'm going to make an attack.

Like you said before, 86 to me was always get it out of here.

Exactly.

Let's go.

You're banned.

Yeah, you're banned.

It's not violent.

It's not...

Murder it's not threatening.

It's just you know, hey whatever but of course because you know the toughest most manly men and the strongest that is mega has to get in there and say Because they're the biggest snowflakes

on earth.

Well, but again, it's one set of rules for me and a whole different set of rules for the yes indeed You know the standards that we applied when Biden was president anything we did anything we said during that time was

Perfectly fine any criticism we had again f Joe on the show f Joe on the ho shirts on your kids at rallies in public James Coney took down the post of seashells on the beach We'll see where this ends up probably nowhere is coming up next and then when we come back Derek Van Orton

Back to normal.

You're listening to Matinair On Air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning and welcome welcome to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air Greg Bach Calvinator on the board coming to you from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us call or text or leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter coming up next hour Dan Schaeffer will be here civic media's political editor and also the creator and founder of the Recombobulation area we're gonna take a look at some of the

seats that might be up for grabs.

The next time we have an election in Wisconsin, which is, is that next week?

No, I'm

kidding.

I know.

No, it's not next week.

But, uh, yeah, some things to keep an eye on.

We will break that down with Dan Schaefer.

And I think for our audio survey today, after the 1030 news, which is where we try to lighten things up and take a little

breath, feel the niceness.

Just,

it's going to be a really, really beautiful summer day today.

Yeah.

It's supposed to be.

I think down here.

Yeah down here.

We might hit the 80s So we're to talk about summer songs.

What is the summer?

What is the song of summer?

What song when you hear it says summer to you?

That is our audio sorbet start thinking about it now coming up after the 1030 news and Our statewide text-to-win contest is underway right now right meow right

Now you want to text in the word Friday, F-R-I-D-A-Y, using the Civic Media app.

Text in the word Friday, you have until 11 o'clock, and then you are in the running for a four pack of Milwaukee Brewer's Tickets as they host Baltimore on Wednesday, May 21st.

So text in the word Friday right now, F-R-I-D-A-Y, and you are in the running for that four pack of Brewer's Tickets.

You can be in the running just like Anne-Marie in Brookfield or Christie in Eau Claire, Luann in Wanderuse, Jude in East Troy, DJ in Madison, Pat in Eau Claire, and many, many, many more.

Wait a minute.

Wanderuse?

Wanderuse.

How have I never heard of want?

That's what I love about being here, having this job.

I get to hear, I didn't know there was a butter

knife.

Neither did I.

I never heard the drift list region until I started working here.

I don't know anything about this state and Wanderers.

Wanderers.

It is.

It's right next to Amory.

Amory, Amory.

One of our favorite places.

Get those.

Keep, keep them coming in.

We loved it.

We really do love to see where you're, where you're texting in from.

It's fascinating and so much fun.

Mike in Milwaukee and Barb in Caledonia and Linda in Middleton text in the word.

Friday right now, F-R-I-D-A-Y using the Civic Media app.

And you were in the running for that four pack of Milwaukee Brewers tickets, what?

There's a place in Wisconsin called Ubat.

Oh, Ubat.

I'm from

Ubat.

Is that

how it's spelled?

U-B-E-T.

I'm not calling it Ubat.

I'm not calling it anything.

Oh, Ubat.

Where are you from, Wisconsin?

Oh, you

bet.

Oh, you bet.

I love it.

Text in the word Friday, F-R-I-D-A-Y.

You have until 11 o'clock.

And then from 11 to two, Tom Hartman will have a different word.

Todd Alba with yet another one from two to four, and then Maggie Dawn from four to six PM.

Yeah.

It was just a couple of days ago.

We really do try to acknowledge when people with whom we do not necessarily agree do something that we think is good.

Yes.

I think that's important, and I don't think there's enough of that that happens in our country.

So yes, we were just talking about Derek Van Orden doing a good thing.

Yes.

He wanted to address visas for immigrant workers on farms.

Very important.

If that's it.

It is critically important.

If they handled just that, it would be the start.

of a new immigration process.

It really would.

Yeah, it really would.

That would be, it's hugely important.

That would be a good thing for Wisconsin farmers, for business in Wisconsin, businesses, other businesses in Wisconsin, including a lot of hospitality industries.

The whole Wisconsin Dells is populated, primarily by immigrant labor.

But then, you know, two days later, I feel like this is more,

Really like who he is.

When he was campaigning, when Darafan Arden was out on the campaign trail, he talked about growing up poor, raised by a single mother who relied on food stamps.

And at that point, he said he would never go along with cutting food assistance.

His exact words, snap benefits will not go down a nickel.

He said that in a testimony.

He said that to a doctor.

He said to a room.

SNAP benefits, quote, will not go down a nickel, unquote.

Yeah.

Well, uh, Derek Van Orden did vote for the Republican budget blueprint, which has more than 200 billion with a B in cuts to the SNAP program in order to make room for tax cuts for, you know, Diane Hendricks and all those other really, really rich people.

Uh, after that vote, Derek Van Orden issued a public statement warning against reckless cuts to SNAP.

that put disproportionate burdens on rural states, saying it's unfair to build a budget on the backs of some of our most vulnerable people, including hungry children.

However, on Wednesday, Derek Van Orden, who sits on the House Ag Committee, passed an unprecedented cut in federal funding for SNAP on a 29-25 vote.

They drew up a specific plan to cut $230 billion

from food assistance.

When it was $200 billion, he said, no, no way, no, how not happening.

But he voted yes when they upped it to $230 billion to pay for tax cuts.

$200 billion, that's insulting.

We need to make it

more.

So just so I have it straight, just so I understand, about a month, month and a half ago, he says out loud into a microphone for the record, snap benefits will not go down.

A nickel.

Not any.

Not one nickel.

Fine.

Month later.

A month later, he votes for a 239 or 238.

230.

230 billion B as in boy.

Billion cut to the SNAP program.

Food assistance.

Food assistance, yes.

This is from the Wisconsin Examiner Wednesday night.

Derek Van Orden voted yes as the House Ag Committee passed an unprecedented cut in federal funding for SNAP.

the final vote 29 to 25 van Orden taking credit for the plan, which ties cuts to state error rates.

He said at a House Ag Committee markup, states, quote, are going to have to accept the fact that if they are not administering this program efficiently, they're going to have to pay a portion of the program that is equitable, makes sense, and is scaled.

However, states like Wisconsin don't have money to make up that gap, as the federal government for the first time ever withdraws hundreds of millions of dollars.

Instead, they're going to cut coverage, kick people off the program.

The ripple effects include a loss of about $30 billion for farmers who supply food for Snap.

Oh, cool.

Farmers are in the crosshairs again.

Damage to the broader economy.

Every dollar in Snap benefits generates about $1.50.

in economic activity, grocery stores, food manufacturers, and rural communities expected to be hit especially hard.

I am because I am just a smart alec.

I'm trying to figure out how many nickels are in $230 billion.

That's

a lot of nickels.

I am, you know what?

If this farm, if this, if this immigration bill goes through or is something that's for real and doesn't have any backend,

Screw over jobs.

Then great, I'm still praising that thing.

I'm still giving credit to him for that

thing.

For trying to get visas for immigrant workers, yes.

But this is peak DVO.

I mean, how do we allow this to happen, Jane?

I'm sorry, everyone, I'm sorry I'm harping on this.

He yelled at a doctor and a roomful of people about snap benefits being cut, about benefits being cut, using his own life experience.

And he took it very personally.

He

took it very personally.

And I get that, you know, one of the chief tenants of people who grew up poor is to live a better life and try to maybe help other people live a better life.

But he lied straight to this group's face.

I mean,

If he came back and said, we have to cut a billion dollars because there was no choice and blah, blah, blah.

I understand things happen, compromise, but $230 billion is purposeful.

It is predatory.

It is cruel.

And in that, as you said, is going to affect, wait for it, our farmers.

Our farmers and our rural communities.

This isn't a liberal, urban, you know, big city problem.

This isn't everywhere problem.

This isn't all of us problem.

Just like the weather.

855-752-4842.

If you would like to join us, Jean from Eau Claire is on the line.

Good morning, Jean.

Thanks for calling in.

What do you want to say about this?

Are you talking about my wonderful representative?

You cannot believe what he says.

You've got to watch what he does.

He gets in for a photo op and gets...

Some kind of thing like he's doing it for the people, and then when you follow up on it, he didn't do a govern thing like when we lost our health care and our hospitals here.

He was right in the front row, like he was on this panel, didn't do a thing.

He was out at a residential for people who live in mobile homes, or he was going to get wealth for them or water.

local water, and he came out of that place, water shed, and there he was, and a good moment for the camera called the press and said, did you ever follow up on it?

No.

I'm wondering if they ever did get their water there.

He loves the limerite, and then he goes in and he goes right the opposite.

And believe you me, his office has heard from me a lot of times.

Thank you guys.

Keep up the great work, calm this out.

Cause this, it's frustrating.

It really is.

It is.

You too.

Thanks so much, Gene.

Thank you for bringing that up.

That's a very important thing that we need to also make, make clear too.

You don't like this, say something, go to my vote.wi.gov or contact genie.

She apparently has a number on speed dial.

She knows, but you can put in your information.

You can find out his office numbers, his home office, his DC office, all the offices.

and call them, tell them, especially if you're a farmer, especially if you're someone who's going to be affected by these cuts, tell them what this does to you, because they need to hear from you, because I don't remember who said it, but we had a guest on months ago who said, when politicians don't hear from constituents, they can take that as- Oh, agreement.

You're doing a good thing, so

if you don't like this-

Absolutely.

Write a letter, make a call, be respectful, go to myvote.wi.gov, find out your representative, and actually just any rep, it doesn't have to be Derek Van Orden.

Any of our reps.

They're all gonna vote on this.

And they work for us.

Exactly.

855-752-4842.

Brian from Milwaukee is on the line.

Good morning, Brian.

What do you want to say about this?

Good morning.

Yeah, just with all the cuts in general.

You know, it was interesting last night with the storms rolling through.

I was eating dinner and my mom was in the living room and the TV every five minutes kept beeping off with another National Weather Service, you know.

Alert.

Warning.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I said to mom, I said, you know, what would happen if all of this went away?

And she's like, what do you mean?

And I said, well, knowing that I think I heard this morning, Brittany, Brittany Merleau, who's, you know, the weather with the civic media.

Yep.

did it that there was about 30 warnings last night that went through the state of Wisconsin, 30 from the National Weather Service.

What happens if all this went away?

Thousands of lives would be in danger.

Absolutely.

Brian, we talked about this for months leading up to the election because it's all in Project 2025.

They want to privatize NOAA.

They want to privatize the weather system so that people have to pay for forecasts.

We're not there yet, but that's not going away.

Yeah, it's And okay, thank you Brian really appreciate it always appreciate you checking in but again this goes back to this involves all of us this affects all of us

Right now Britney spoke this morning about the fact that people in Milwaukee are helping out those in green in the weather service people in Milwaukee helping out Green Bay Green Bay is helping out people in the cross the cross is helping out Minnesota because they're getting these cuts these are important

No as important.

Yes.

High praise for Wisconsin's own Sean Duffy from our president of the United States.

We've got the details on the other side.

Stay close.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

I always wanted to be a lumberjack.

Leaving from tree to tree.

But they flowed down the mighty rivers of British Columbia.

This is classic.

We should have listened to this.

I know.

Welcome back to Matt and Air.

Well done, Calvin.

Welcome back to Matt and Air on air.

Jay and Matt and Air.

Greg Bach, Calvi, Teenie on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

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All right We're not gonna have a whole lot of time to spend on this, but I think it's important to point out Wisconsin's own Sean Duffy getting high high high praise from our president yesterday

He didn't mention anything about this.

Denver air traffic controllers had two minute communications outage.

Oops, yesterday from the FAA.

Now that did not come up when Donald Trump was having his press conference in Doha yesterday.

And I want to read this to you because I think it's important.

Rather than hear him say it, I want to read the transcript of what our president said yesterday while he was overseas.

Traumatic reading.

Quote, when you look at what's happening with Russia and Ukraine, the drone is killing tremendous numbers of people.

You hide behind a tree and the drone comes down and it circles you with fire.

You don't have a chance.

And the tree comes down also, by the way.

It's so intense the I mean you see these trees being knocked down like like they're being sawed down by a top of the line Timberman like like you know who Sean Duffy.

Do you know that Sean Duffy the head of the transportation department who is working right now in the airports and getting a system because Biden didn't do a thing for four years and Pete Buttigieg was the head and he goes bicycling to work.

He takes a bicycle to work.

Can you believe it?

He's running the biggest air system in the world and he takes a bicycle to work.

Who knows, right?

I don't see it.

But when I look at what they've done, it's so horrible what they've done.

And the work they do, they wasted billions of dollars.

It's important we'll have the best system and that we know who that system is.

We want a unified system.

Satellite seems to be the way to go.

But what people don't know about Sean, what?

But what people don't know about Sean, because I mentioned Lumberjacks that Sean, you probably don't know that.

I'm not talking about this Sean, there must have been another Sean.

This Sean, no, no, not this one, this is a different Sean.

Sean Duffy, the head of transportation, he's a great Sean.

I have to tell you, but Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years climbing trees,

and down, up and down, world champion, so that's what you call a serious lumberjack.

And he's doing a fantastic job too, really respected, terrific guy.

I mentioned the champion because when somebody's the champion, he's the world champion for a long time.

He came down, when you come down those trees, coming down at a rapid, he said that started getting your back, you often break your back.

You miss a shot and you're coming down a lot faster than the human was meant to come down.

But he's doing a fantastic job at transportation.

But this has been a very, uh, historic trip.

Jane, are you okay?

I have a headache.

I have two follow-ups.

One, where was he giving this speech?

He was in Doha.

Talking to, it was a, it was a, it had to have been a Trump rally, right?

Uh, no, he was talking to, uh, the, uh, head of Cutter during a press conference in Doha, Cutter.

Okay, and then second of all hey remember when we were all up in arms about Joe Biden's age and being too old to be president and cognitive abilities.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that um, I Think that we okay, you know what let me take the snark hat off for a second here for real sure Cognitive decline is not a funny thing.

No, it's not.

It's a real thing.

Yes There is a lot of hypocrisy by the fact that last year we were swimming in stories from the New York Times the Washington Post all major outlets about Joe Biden's age and they were valid

but they didn't want to talk about his age, Donald Trump's age.

I would really like to know if the Trump kids, not on camera or on social media, are like meeting in a room right now saying- Dad's losing it.

Dad's losing it.

We need to do something about it because this is an important thing because this is an example to the world.

He just said this on the world stage.

He was talking about drones.

Yeah.

That's where that started.

He was talking about drones and Russia and Ukraine.

and went from talking about that to Sean Duffy as a world champion lumberjack, which he is.

And props to Sean Duffy.

That's an accomplishment.

It is.

But this should be very concerning.

And we're going to include this transcript in the show notes.

I think it's important that people read it for themselves.

So you can read our president's own words.

and see if you can follow it.

Yeah.

And also, tell us if you think this is fine because, I mean, right now, the big thing is there's never, there's never a criticism, there's never a problem.

It's always fine.

He's always great.

It's our problem.

We're the ones who can't understand.

Are we taking it wrong?

Well, we

are.

Are we taking it wrong?

We

are full of empathy and the thing that's killing Western civilization, but honestly, let my empathy flow for a man who's clearly not in a place where he should be having kind of power and Trump kids, all five of you,

Do something about this.

How about Congress?

How about his cabinet true?

That'd be a good place a good starting point news coming up next when we come back Dan Schaefer will be here to do a little recombobulating I'm going to go climb a tree up and down and up and down and I'll be careful So I don't break my back.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media radio

network

sleep.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.

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Wide text-to-win contest four pack of brewers tickets up for grabs text in the word via the civic media app text in the word Friday FRI DA why and because it is Friday that means we're gonna do a little Recombobulating with the creator of said Recombobulation area and also civic media's political editor coming to us live From our world headquarters in Madison Dan Schaefer.

Hey, Dan.

How you doing?

Good

morning, Jane.

Good morning, Greg.

How you guys doing?

Happy to be here.

That's a nice studio that

you're in.

That's a nice, that's a nice sound for Dan.

Listen to that

silky voice.

Ooh, that nice little bass coming in there sounds good.

There we go.

We're ready to recombobulate today.

Let's, ooh, let's recombobulate.

All right.

There

we go.

Let's start off and talk a little bit about some of the races that you're keeping an eye on.

Don't worry, Wisconsin, we're not voting yet.

No, not

voting.

We will be soon.

But there's a bunch of races to keep an eye on that might actually be up for grabs this time around.

So what are you looking at?

Well, so we're in this budget season now.

uh, in the state government.

And I think there's, you know, a lot of the, it's the biggest thing that happens in state government every two years.

And a lot of the decisions that are going to be made over the next two months are going to really shape, you know, what this two year, four year term is going to be for a lot of these legislators.

So, you know, part of what I, what I wrote here in, in my piece this week at the recon population area at 23 Wisconsin state legislators to watch for the 2025 2026 session is that these are the people that we can actually

hold accountable now because we have fairer maps, you know, it's no longer this insulated from accountability type of dynamic that we've seen in the Wisconsin state legislature for so long.

So

we actually have, you know,

I don't know if we would necessarily call them swing votes.

I don't know if this is like a Wisconsin-ified version of Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema or Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, whatever it might be.

But I think it is incumbent on us to, when we're looking ahead to 2026 and looking ahead to the opportunities to hold our public officials accountable, these are, so the lists that I put together are the people who are in the most closely competitive districts around the state.

And so, you know, only half of the state Senate has been on the ballot yet.

So

I started with those.

So like the first four senators that I wrote about are going to be, you know, there are three Republican state senators who are in districts that were won by Kamala Harris.

So, for example, if you flip those three seats, the Democrats would win the state Senate.

in 2026 which would be huge that's unbelievable

that would

be huge which would be which would be huge so those three state senators are Howard Markline the co-chair of the joint finance committee republican from spring green in southwestern wisconsin uh we have rob hutton state senator from uh kind of the western suburbs he's he's from brookfield uh that district covers a lot of brookfield wahotosa west alice

And then Van Wangard, who is the representative from the Racine.

Racine and Southern Milwaukee County is where his district is.

Again, these are three state senators, Republican state senators, serving in districts that were won by Kamala Harris last year.

So if you're looking to put some pressure on any particular state senators as the budget process goes forward, I think those three are the main ones to take a look at because

if you were looking for compromises in the budget, if we're trying to strike some sort of grand bargain, or if they're going to be obstructionist and what have you.

So I thought it was very interesting last week on WISN's upfront that Latanya Johnson, the state senator from

Milwaukee

who serves on the joint finance committee, she said she thinks that there will need to be democratic votes.

uh in the state senate to pass the budget which i think is really interesting and so i think it's you know these three senators i think there are a number of democrats that will take a look at uh in these you know weeks and months to come as the budget process plays out but i think this is where the rubber meets the road with those new maps and the ability to hold people accountable for their votes the votes that they're going to be making right here in these next two months

it'll be interesting dan to see what tactics

both sides will take in this upcoming election, because one of the things that we all noted, especially you and your reporting, because by the way, if you subscribe to the Reconpopulation area, and I don't mean to get your anxiety up right now for this project, but you do it every time you cover every single election that happens in Wisconsin, you give a breakdown of who's running pros and cons, give ideas of give ideas to the people of what's going on in their communities.

But it felt like

In the last election, because the redrawing of the maps, some people just dropped out because they thought, well, I don't want to work.

I don't want to work.

I don't want to knock on doors for this.

But now they know they probably can't do that.

You probably, I mean, I'll be surprised if Republicans drop out this time.

I'm not sure.

I have a lot of thoughts on Van Wongard.

I could talk about him for literally two hours.

But what Republicans will do to try to either win or keep seats and what will Democrats do to.

even more energized, as you said, those areas that were won by Kamala Harris.

And I don't mean to be the nail in your tire, but my big fear is let's just say for funsies, Democrats take control of what just the Senate, just the Senate, we saw.

what happened, what the GOP did in Wisconsin, when they just won some seats, they didn't even take control of anything.

They lessened the amount of people on certain committees, they made it hard, and now they're being, I mean, obstructionists is a kind word to them right now for the budget.

So I'm just wondering what they would possibly do to try to win, and if they lose, what they'll do to still maintain that power.

to kick and scream and

do whatever they can

to keep those reins.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that's part of why I wrote this type of piece is because I think so many people are looking for ways to take action on the local level considering what's going on nationally and all of that.

And I think when these state senators or state representatives, and again, I included both Democrats and Republicans on this list, Jeff Smith from Eau Claire is in a seat that Kamala Harris only won by.

two points so that could be a vulnerable seat intact in two

years

too.

There's a number of state representatives who are in their first term.

You don't know how that's gonna go.

You don't know if people might not like the job that they're doing as a rookie state representative, whatever it is.

But I think that's why I wrote this list so people can refer to it as these are the people in the most closely competitive seats.

And if we're going to flip the assembly or if the state Senate is going to get flipped, it's going to be because of these 23 people.

in some capacity.

Dan Schaefer is here from the Reconpopulation Area, also Civic Media's political editor, and subscribe to the Reconpopulation Area.

It's really a very, very useful tool.

Dan, in talking about these vulnerable seats, isn't now the time for the DNC to be picking people going, we need you to run.

We need you to run.

We need you to run.

I mean, we got to get out

ahead of this, right?

Absolutely.

I mean, there was such a short timeline last time with the new maps and with the timing of when they were approved and like that whole process that we had, you know, last winter and spring, getting to new maps and getting them implemented and all of that.

Like it is, you know, there is a longer runway now.

So I think, you know, if people are, you know, one of the things I was thinking about is, you know, two of these state senators that I mentioned, Mark Lyne and Wangard.

They're in their 70s.

And so if people are asking what Tony Evers is going to be doing in 2026, I think they should be asking these two state senators as well.

Because, you know,

there are really long

time.

So is one guard.

Mark Clark and Dave, they've both been there a really long time and they're both in their seventies and who knows if they're going to run again.

I mean, incumbency is a huge factor generally and even more so in these down ballot races where name recognition is a really, really big deal.

Uh, so, you know, would they need to run again to protect this seed?

Is this going to be vulnerable?

Are they, you know, and how does that shape votes that they might take too?

Cause like Mark line as the co-chair of the joint finance committee has kind of been the face of them, you know, removing the 600 plus items from the.

budget and gutting Tony Evers budget.

It's a pretty easy argument to go out there and campaign and say, hey, Howard Markline cut my health care.

He cut Medicaid expansion.

He cut childcare funding.

He cut this, this, and that.

And he's going to have to defend that action in those votes.

Well, and the other thing I would hope that folks would remember, Howard Markline, again, of the Joint Finance Committee, they held four listening sessions to listen to the public across the state.

four listening sessions, the number, the top three things that people talked about to the Joint Finance Committee, healthcare, education, and childcare, none of that.

They have addressed none of that.

They haven't brought any of that up for any kind of consideration.

I hope folks remember that, that all of your patients and you're waiting around for hours and hours to get

have your chance to get up in front of these people and have your say, they're playing Candy Crush, they don't pay attention, they don't care, and they just go back to Madison and they do what they want.

It's completely performative, and I hope folks remember that when it comes time to cast their ballots.

There's something that I, you know, I didn't, I'm gonna say this.

I used, I, as I said before, I used to work in Racine.

I worked for the city of Racine and we dealt with, um, many issues, many in Madison and a man, one guard to me is someone I've never understood why he stayed state senator.

He's not a man of, of, of great and bright ideas for the community.

He's also a man who voted for act 10 and 32 while collecting a pension as a retired police officer.

To me, I know that's, that seems like a billion years away.

But to me, someone who walks in and says, I'm going to vote against unions in the state, I'm going to lessen your control for bargaining.

But yet I am going to benefit from the protected package that I have here that I'm going to get money for the rest of my life.

To me, that was the most unforgivable sin.

And I personally would love to see someone who cares about the community walk in and be this region's state senator.

Well, here's the thing with him too.

He didn't face a Democratic challenger in the last election.

I think there was a primary challenger in that one, but like it was a very red seat and he did not have any kind of Democratic challenger.

So he didn't have to go to the voters to say like, here's what I did in this last term.

Like did I do enough to deserve another one, right?

The basics of politics.

And this year he is in a seat that includes much of...

Southwestern Milwaukee County.

So those are communities like Franklin and Greendale.

And, you know, those are places that have been trending a little bit more blue in recent election cycles.

And Van Wengard, you know, he's 73 if he runs again, you know, that's going to be a really tough race for him.

Yeah.

The Dems got to step up and get into the we can't I'm sorry, but we can't keep going to it's too red We're never gonna win there.

We're never so therefore we don't go there.

That's a mistake Are you listening county

parties?

That's a big big mistake.

We're

gonna credit so the state Senate for getting a candidate in every race last year.

Absolutely Absolutely, we're gonna continue recombobulating with Dan Schaefer civic media's political editor Don't forget the word you want to text in by 11 o'clock is Friday FRIDAY state white text to win contest for a four-pack

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you

Good morning and welcome back to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach, Cavitini on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

Join us, call or text, or leave a comment if you're watching on a live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter you have until 11 o'clock.

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Speaking of the crew, they host the twins tonight.

Our broadcast starts at 6 35.

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He is Civic Media's political editor and the author and creator of the Reconpopulation Area, Dan Schaefer is here.

Dan, let's talk about Wisconsin senior Senator Ron Johnson checking in on Donald Trump's big, beautiful budget bill.

It's the

best

bill.

No one has ever seen such a good bill before.

It's the bill of bills.

How does Ron Johnson feel about the big, beautiful bill?

First of all, I love that we've all just adopted this Trumpist language on this bill, the big, beautiful bill.

We had Build Back Better under Joe Biden, and now we've got

the big, beautiful

bill.

Yeah.

But no, I think there's been a lot of negotiations this week on that bill at the federal level.

A lot of it's centering around just how they're going to.

cut Medicaid and give tax breaks to rich folks.

But Ron Johnson has come out against this big, beautiful bill, you know, unlike so many other Republicans who are just lining up behind Trump and lining up behind the bill.

Ron Johnson coming out against it.

He had a Wall Street Journal op ed this week called the ugly truth about the big, beautiful bill.

And he's been on cable news a number of times over the past week here talking about how he is opposed to it.

But I would say he's opposed to it for the wrong reasons I think

he's opposed to

it because it doesn't cut enough benefits from people doesn't cut healthcare Medicaid all these different things enough it doesn't you know address the debt and the deficit enough and so Ron Johnson has been a voice saying I don't think this is going to get through the Senate I think this needs to be changed but

Unlike some other senators, I know Josh Hawley from Missouri was among those

saying he had to

keep Medicaid in this big, beautiful bill.

Ron Johnson is opposing this for the other reason is that it doesn't cut enough from people.

So you can always count on Ron Johnson.

It kind of reminds me of, you know, during the pandemic, we had all of these, you know, Trump led past these relief packages through Congress and Ron Johnson voted against every single one of them.

So it's just anything that is going to spend taxpayer dollars to do some good, to help some people out in times of need and help some people have health care coverage and things like that.

Ron Johnson is going to make a point.

get in that Wall Street Journal opinion section and oppose it.

Well, and I think it's important.

It's an important distinction to remember that Ron Johnson is against things that helps that help average people.

Ron Johnson is all four things that help very wealthy people like him and his family and his kids like the carve out for businesses to have private.

Plains.

We can thank Ron Johnson for that one.

That was a big concern.

That had to get done last time around.

Yes, they get to write off their private planes because that's critically important.

Keeps me awake at night.

I know I can't sleep when I worry about that stuff.

Gas is expensive.

It's pretty

expensive.

Yeah, jet fuel is really pricey.

Oh, no.

Well,

someone would think of the private jet owners.

What about them?

Where are their advocates?

Where are their advocates, Dan?

PJ

on the

live stream says Rojo speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

I really think he speaks out of one side.

It's terrible, and we all suffer

for it.

He's pretty

consistent.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the thing about him is this is not dissimilar from the you know in 2017 when they passed the big tax cut bill that he worked for that carve out for that carve out by the way gave his biggest political donors the ULINE family like a 200 million dollar tax break

or something like that.

They needed that tax break.

Won't

someone think of the billionaires and the private jet owners?

Well, Ron Johnson's in your corner.

It's about time they got a win.