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Wanted to give folks a reminder that the funeral services for Milwaukee police officer Kendall Corden, Corden rather,
will be happening today.
There's visitation.
He was killed in the line of duty.
Officers, officer quarters funeral visitation begins at 11 o'clock this morning at Elmbrook Church.
And then the internment will be at Wisconsin Memorial Park.
The service, the funeral service will begin today at 2 30.
And then again, officer cordon will be a quarter will be entered at Wisconsin Memorial Park.
wanted to let you know about that.
And our thoughts go out to his family and everyone in law enforcement.
Absolutely.
Lots of things going on.
Yes, indeed.
Dan Schaffer is going to be here after 9 30.
So we're going to have an extra.
Half an hour of recombobulating.
There's
so much recombobulate.
There's always so much news.
So he's doing he's doing double duty today.
Yes.
Yeah.
So Dan will be here about 9 30.
We will wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.
Today it's the blueberry hill edition.
Stay tuned for that.
Wanted to start off with talking about this from News 8000 News 8 now.
Noah Hodges with the byline.
Protesters gather outside Congressman Derrick Van Orton's office over Trump's spending bill.
This happened yesterday.
La Crosse residents, that is Derrick Van Orton's district, isn't it?
Oh, he's not gonna be there.
La Crosse residents demonstrated outside of Congressman Derrick Van Orton's office yesterday, voicing their opposition to the Trump spending bill and challenging Van Orton's claims about healthcare funding.
Demonstrators say Van Orden misled constituents about what the bill is going to do to BadgerCare Medicaid.
They say Van Orden's assertion that the legislature is going to secure billions for BadgerCare was false and warned that proposed Medicare cuts will harm thousands of Wisconsin residents.
There have been expert after expert after expert people who are experts on nursing homes peer people who are experts on Economics, I mean all kinds of experts have all kind of weighed in and said the same thing that the administration doesn't want us to hear Yes, essentially that this is going to yes have major major impacts on people in the Medicare system It just is
Medicare Medicaid and what's that one snap snap though?
the one and I'm going to, until, until he's out of office or he changes his mind and or apologizes for his vote, let us never forget the fact that he said on record in a room, into a microphone,
to
an expert's face.
Melting down with a melt, with a, with a, with a, with a good old fashioned Derek Van Orton yelling fit that snap would not go down one nickel quote, one nickel.
He said, and he said that from the point of view.
point of view of a man who at one point as a child had those benefits back when it was called things like government cheese and food stamps
like that.
But he was a poor kid and he made it very clear that Snap would not go down.
Well, he is wrong.
And was he misled?
I don't know.
Is he lying?
Yes, he is.
Well, and
I think it's important that folks realize too.
And I don't know that we've mentioned this enough.
But the cuts and the changes to Medicaid and SNAP aren't going to happen until after 2027.
2027?
Yeah.
So they're going to let the midterms happen.
Yes.
The midterms will happen next November.
And then the cuts kick in in 2027.
So they're kind of playing it like if the Republicans are ousted in power at that time, then when all this pain starts,
under a democratic administration, they go, yeah, it's his fault.
Yeah, I mean, that's his it's his fault.
I mean, when the stock market crashed a couple of months ago, it was Biden's faults.
Every time something bad happens, it's Biden's fault.
It's the Democrats fault.
It's always about
pointing fingers, placing blame.
It's never their responsibility.
Well, your name is on a yes vote, Derek Van Norton.
The people made their opinions very clear about you yesterday.
And then we've been making our opinions very clear about it for a while.
And if you look at his Twitter, it's full of nothing but denial and just insults.
I mean, the insults of a man who clearly does not know how to exist in polite society.
He is a
Bully he is a traitor.
He is a liar and he deserves everything he gets when it comes to political whether he's voted out of office or people protesting at his house He made this assertion snap wouldn't go down a nickel and he was a liar because he voted for it He voted for it three times.
He voted for the
budget blueprint.
He voted for the original budget.
And then when it came back from the Senate, he voted for it again.
So everything he gets, he's due because he lied to the people.
And Orton responding to the demonstrators.
And again, this article does not say if he was there.
I look for something on Twitter and I'm pretty sure he wasn't there.
DBO says the Democrats just want don't want to admit that Republicans saved Badger care.
The one big beautiful bill allowed Wisconsin to have a 6% provider tax rate giving one billion additional dollars to BadgerCare.
There's also a $500 million plus up for rural health care.
I find it curious then if this is also wonderful, Darren, why didn't you make any appearances in your district to explain all the benefits of this bill?
to the people who voted for
you.
And why is there a record of you calling Governor Evers telling him that they have to save rural hospitals?
If all of this is in the budget bill, then what are we even worried about?
I mean, I'm dead serious.
I agree, Jane.
If there were these plans that we're going to save access to health care in the state, especially in our rural Western
areas.
People would be
celebrating.
People would be celebrating.
You should be out there talking to people.
Go to a town hall.
There's ways of doing this, but now you're saying this?
I don't know.
He's a liar, so I think he might be lying.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.
If you would like to join the conversation, Jean Vermault-Claire is on the line.
Good morning, Jean.
Thanks for joining us.
What do you want to say about this?
Laugh for you guys.
I have never seen.
such a liar in my life, in my district.
And I'll tell you another thing, if he don't think he's lying, then he's psychotic and he needs to get the heck out of that position because he takes right after our president.
He was advertising this beautiful bill.
I don't remember the name of the people that were paying big bucks to put it on.
on our television and on the internet.
How wonderful this bill was and how it wasn't going to hurt us and all the great things it was going to do.
People need to wake up on this one because this guy never should be in an office.
in the United States of America, representing the people making these important decisions as should never be Donald J Trump.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
And you guys have a great weekend.
Thank you.
Bye.
Thanks a lot,
Gene.
Really appreciate it.
Yeah.
I want to know more about this 6% provider tax rate and the $1 billion to
to additional to medic last time i checked jane robin voss doesn't take money from the government for badger care we've been denying it since
obama care
we've been denying it for expanding medicare for for new moms so if there is a billion dollars okay show it to me and then show me the version of robin voss it says yeah well we'll
take it
It's interesting too.
And I think what is really starting to turn the tide among some as far as how they look at this administration is this old Jeffrey Jeff Epstein thing.
Yeah, the Jeffrey Epstein and all the body and cash Patel and Dan Benjino and all those guys spent a couple of years.
Yes, promising their base.
that the Epstein client list was going to be released.
And of course, no one was going to be on that list except for the Clintons and other Democrats and apparently Tom Hanks and other journalists that they don't like.
So they have been promising them and building them up to this point that this is the thing that's going to indict everybody.
We're going to have indictments where to put them in jail and we get to watch them get perp walked.
And now there's no list.
It just doesn't exist.
There was never a
list.
There was
never a list.
You remember the list we told you about?
Remember the list that we handed to all those podcasters right before they walked out the door of the White House and that they held up in front of the media that those were all... Yeah, that was not... No, you didn't see that.
No.
Then it was that those binders were empty anyway.
Jane, it was what all happened there is what experts called a lie.
Because they're liars.
They're nothing but liars.
Yeah.
This is not sitting well.
No!
this whole Epstein and the non-existent Epstein files now that people had been promised for a couple of years.
They're not happy about this.
No.
And I caught this clip from a podcaster.
I think, Calvin, we have time to play this clip, don't we?
And then we'll continue on the other side.
Let's play this clip from Andrew Schultz.
Andrew
Schultz.
I was going to call him something else.
But yes, let's play that clip, please, Calvin.
people that like they'll DM me back you see what you see what your boy doing you voted for this I'm like I voted for none of this he's doing the exact opposite of everything I voted
for
I want him to stop the wars he's funding them I want him to shrink spending reduce the budget he's increasing it's like everything that he said he's gonna do except sending immigrants back they
seem to be kind of implying that Trump lied
well
also I
mean
I'm a comedian, I'm a stand-up comedian and he's a stand-up comedian and one thing I can tell you that most of us aren't smart and he is very unsmart because he doesn't know how elections work.
You don't get to cherry-pick what you vote for with a candidate.
It is a zero-sum game.
You vote, you vote for the person, you get the policies.
All of the policies.
The policies in which he said he was going to do.
Since we're talking about fiscal responsibility.
Yeah.
When we return Russ vote has some
really detailed explanation about why it's a good thing for us to redo the Rose Garden again at taxpayer expense.
Stay with us.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right
back.
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Before we went to the break, we were talking about protesters.
in front of Derek Van Orden's office in La Crosse yesterday, not happy about the budget bill and the anticipated cuts that will be coming.
And there was an interesting exchange between Russell Vogt, the author of Project 2025, and now the leader of the Office of Management and Budget.
He was asked by a reporter yesterday, they're all about fiscal responsibility.
They're all about pension pennies, you know.
He was asked,
about the second now revamp of the Rose Garden, as Milani has not done wrecking it from the first time around, and the cost of that free plane that we just got from Cutter, that he just got from Cutter, that's gonna cost like a billion dollars to revamp it.
That we get to pay for, that taxpayers get to pay for.
That Donald Trump might not even fly in.
Yeah, right, right.
So Russell Vote was asked about the expense for the...
second redo of the Rose Garden and also this free plane.
Calvin, let's play Mr. Vote's response, please.
We have a lot of administration priorities, and I hope what you've learned from our first term, this term, we need to spend in areas.
We need ships.
We need aircraft.
We need a new presidential plane that's been in the works and been delayed for a long time because contractors are behind.
That doesn't mean we don't spend where we need to spend, but we've always offered up a fiscal picture that gets to balance, that reduces the deficit, that deals with our debt, and we're doing it on a host of ways in this term, and so that won't change.
Okay, that's a lot of words.
We've heard Russell vote saying many, many words, and essentially not answering the question about why when we're gonna kick kids off of SNAP, when we're gonna kick...
elderly people out of nursing homes.
Why it's a good idea for us to spend taxpayer money for a for to concrete the Rose Garden is essentially he wants to put a patio in there and and play for a pay for his plane upgrade.
Yeah, we pay for I mean, yes, our tax money pays for the creation upgrades and any repairs being done to Air Force One.
But this is what I would call an extraneous
uh purchase or uh expense not purchase we got it for free which doesn't seem shady at all
no not at all no questions involved with that at all
but i mean this this it throws the emoluments clause right out the window and it goes to the fact that this is just another thing that he and the republicans get to do then there's no and there there's questions there are there there are questions there is outrage but then
The new cycle is such
where we just remember something else.
Because it gets surpassed by something else.
Everybody's going, what?
Yeah.
And I was looking, I was trying to find the cost of the original Rose Garden.
When she took out all the flowers.
Yeah.
It was actually funded by the Trump campaign.
So there's no record that's available.
of how much it costs.
Oh, interesting.
And
some people said it cost a couple hundred grand.
Some people said 60 million.
I'm going to say it cost money and that money was not paid.
And because it wasn't paid for by the people, we don't know.
So we don't know how much they might spend for this one.
I just have a feeling, just a thought, just a gut instinct.
I have an intuition.
Isn't
that what it's like?
Yes, you have an intuition, gut intuition.
Yeah, that his campaign ain't paying for this one, though, this time.
I think you might be right.
Yeah.
We have news coming up.
Dan Schaefer, an extended time to re-combobulate.
Stay with us.
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I just love that the fact that there's a place in Wisconsin called Wanderuz.
We may have to go there next.
I agree.
It just sounds like a place that a magical elf had created.
It was like, I'm in Wanderers.
We'll do that next.
There you go.
After next week's road trip, his butternut's my spot.
So we'll put Wanderers on the list of our new favorite places we have never been.
There you go.
All right.
Keep them coming.
And good luck.
Free ticket Fridays all day today.
Tom Hartman 11 to 2.
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from four to six.
He is here early to do some recombobulating, and we're grateful to have him in studio with this Dan Schaefer, Civic Media's political editor and the author of the multi-multi-award-winning recombobulation area.
So let's start with the budget aftermath.
budget aftermath.
Everything happened so quickly last week.
It really did.
That I feel like we need to still do some recombobulating a week later on the budget because we just went right into fourth of July weekend.
People forgot about things and with how quickly so much
Happened, you know, there was nothing happening publicly at least for a really long time in the budget process and all of a sudden Tuesday, July 1st they announced a deal and Wednesday they're voting on it and 1 30 a.m.
On Thursday early early in the morning Tony Evers is there at the capitol signing the budget so it was really it's so I mean we've you know been on the air
talking about this for weeks beforehand.
And it was like, what are they going to do?
I don't know.
The
last word was kind of like everybody's just going to walk away and nothing is going to happen.
And we're going to revert to the old budget.
Right.
And on top of all of that, when it happened, the word from Republicans and the word from Tony Evers are was.
This is a this is a good thing.
We've got some stuff here with us There's something to work with not it's not perfect, but it's a good start by and partisan compromise Yep, and then other people start talking and we're because the first day we're like this is great And then we start reading tweets were like oh no is this not great and then we start hearing from Trisha Peterson Corrin Hendrickson and it's
It was a it was kind of it was like multiple whiplashes because at first it's like oh the budget's done.
It's signed.
Okay.
It's good.
That's great.
It's bad Oh, no, what?
Nobody
nobody is the clear winner in this there's no neither side can say yep We got everything we wanted because that
isn't what happens.
That's nature of compromise, the realities of divided government.
You know, we have a Democratic governor and a Republican controlled legislature and we're not everybody's going to be happy with every deal that is struck.
But I think, you know, it is, it's just interesting.
There's a number of interesting elements of it.
One that's kind of like returned to the new cycle this week with our pal, Derek Van Orden, taking credit for.
the deep, the deep breathing Greg to
get through
any Derek Van Orden talk, you know, saying that he is the reason that Wisconsin is so like the
They were racing to meet this deadline.
Because they needed to get this done before the federal budget got passed.
Right.
So they needed to meet, they make this change for the hospital assessment reimbursement rate that applied to Medicaid.
It's a complicated thing and we can get into the weeds on that maybe in a different time, but they needed to meet this deadline in order to get about a billion dollars that would go to largely help hospitals in Wisconsin.
Never mind that they've
ignored the Republican controlled legislature has ignored expanding Medicaid for the very same under the very same logic path for a decade.
Well, and isn't
the joint finance committee still sitting on that hospital money?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, that's what we were talking about earlier.
He made this.
He has this quote.
against the protesters saying the democrats just don't want to admit that republicans saved badger care the one big beautiful bill allowed wisconsin to have a six percent provider rate tax rate giving one billion additional dollars to badger care there is also five hundred million dollars plus up for rural health care which that sent in sounds wonderful coming out of derrick van orton makes me go what
Where's the catch?
Why didn't you talk about this before?
And here's the thing with this though.
Like Van Orden is obviously being ridiculous with what he's saying about the budget here.
And he is giving
himself credit.
And giving himself credit.
Maybe he was being advantageous in that final stretch there, sending this letter and making it public, saying that like, oh, I had some sort of role.
in this, but they were, what was happening was that they were trying to meet this deadline because the federal bill was going to be cutting Medicaid
and
not allowing four states to make these types of changes.
What I don't get about this though, is like, of course you can have this back and forth that's happening this week between the governor's office and Derek Van Orden and like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, who said whatever Van Orden, obviously being ridiculous again, to be clear.
But at the same time, I kind of question why this,
Issue didn't really emerge publicly at all until the deal was struck and it was like, okay, we got to do it We got to get a sign now.
We got to get it signed in the middle of the night.
We can't wait.
We got to do it now So as we were talking about like there was kind of nothing nothing happening on the budget like long stretches of the month of June There but their budget deadline is June 30th But as we were talking about the time it's kind of a soft deadline because not that much will change as far as they do You know pass a budget soon, right?
I wonder what where was the urgency with getting this billion dollars for the weeks beforehand?
Because all of a sudden it emerges that we got to do it and did they know about this in this provision in the big beautiful bill?
Were they just kind of sitting there hoping that it would be over the last minute heads up from somebody was there I mean who knows like and
you know, as they were voting on it, like, I know that in the Wisconsin state legislature, they were following along with what was happening federally.
And like, that's why Evers was there at 1 30 in the morning to sign the budget.
But what I question is just like, there seemed like this larger lack of urgency.
And if this Medicaid
Funding issue was an issue throughout the whole negotiations like why the lack of urgency the whole time from the governor's office from the Republicans who wanted this this funding and wanted to make this change Apparently in the final stretch here.
Why no urgency Elvis and it's the biggest issue and we have to do it now But there was no urgency and nobody talking about it publicly for like weeks and months before that
I mean that would definitely be a bargaining chip that the
Senate assembly Democrats as well as the governor could have used to gin up Support from the people to say we need to get this done I mean he him saying this in this in this article made me go wait what?
Wait a minute.
What are you talking about like?
Why didn't you say something?
Why didn't anyone say something?
I don't know.
Like we weren't making this.
This was not a front of house thing.
This was not something we were talking about on a rate because the other question I have, and I posed it earlier, which was, you know, it gives a billion dollars additional dollars to badger care.
But if that billion dollars is coming from the government, that means that we as the assembly and Senate have to accept it.
Am I correct from the government?
which is something we don't do.
We haven't expanded Medicaid for Obamacare.
We haven't expanded Medicaid for new moms.
Why would we take a billion dollars from the federal government to expand our badger care if we are not in the habit of doing it in the first place?
So until we say yes to it, if this in fact is the case, then it is nothing more than an offer on the table and Derek Van Norton's words are
even more hollow.
And isn't, wouldn't that create a perfect time to raise that issue as well?
It's just like a perfect opening to say, Hey, if you're willing to take the federal money for this,
why
not take it for the Medicaid expansion, which is something Tony Evers ran on in 2018, ran on again in 2022 and has not been able to deliver on because Robin Voss is so far beyond dug in on this issue.
But like at the end of the day, you got to use the opportunities that are presented
to
you and try and make that change.
So whether it was Medicaid expansion, whether it is, you know, the postpartum extension for new mom.
To cover for 12 months that has majority support had majority support in the Senate for a long time use that as a way to raise that issue You know I know Evers had had outlined kind of three key issues that they wanted to make move to move on with the budget K-12 education child care and UW system funding I for how much we've all been talking about Medicaid and how it relates to the big beautiful bill and all of these different things like
Why not bring that issue up more?
Much, much sooner.
Much sooner.
Yeah.
If you're just joining us, we're talking to Dan Schaefer.
He is Civic Media's political editor, as well as the founder of the multi-award winning recombobulation area.
And he is recombobulating early this week and a lot like he's doing double duty.
And the other thing too that was in that statement from him was there is also $500 million plus up for rural health care.
I need, I want to know more about that because that ties in directly to the
story that came out this past weekend, I think was on Sunday or Monday that said that Derek Van Norton has been talking to Tony Evers about saving rural hospitals.
Well, again, if this was such an important thing, why wasn't Derek Van Norton standing at the top of his pulpit and saying, no, we need to make sure that my Western Wisconsin has access to health care when has access to health care hospitals, clinics.
when he knew that this big bill for billionaire was going to cut all of that further than it already is.
So there's $500 million apparently, but yet he's telling Tony Evers he has to save rural hospitals.
That also doesn't make sense to me.
So there's a provision they put into the big brutal bill and the 11th hour there because they were recognizing that these deep cuts to Medicaid were going to
a disaster for rural health care because it's just the economics don't work for having hospitals in rural areas.
And so the bill added an amendment that had a $50 billion, $50 billion with a B dollar fund called the Rural Health Transformation
Program.
And so I think that is what Van Norton is referring to there is having some sort of access, but it's like this.
classic Trumpian type of policy where it's just like, hey, I'm going to decimate, you know, I'm going to create these, raise these tariffs that are going to decimate, you know, agriculture exports.
I'm going to, and then throw some money to farmers or whatever.
Right.
And so it's kind of the same thing.
I'm just like, oh, I'm going to destroy this thing.
But here's a bunch of money to try to mitigate some of this thing on my own policies, this thing of my own policy.
But I have to wonder also if DBO isn't feeling some heat.
And thinking, geez, this isn't going quite the way we all thought it was going to go.
And people aren't embracing this.
So I need to do something that goes like, look, I really do care.
See, I really, I do care.
But the thing is, instead of standing up and saying, once again, we understand that the bill was not advantageous for everybody or whatever.
And I'm not asking to take blame or responsibility for his yes vote.
But this statement he made isn't being made as a
as a PS to the bill, it's being made at these protesters.
He wouldn't have said this had the protesters not shown up, but that's what he does.
He reacts.
He never, he doesn't plan ahead and that's what this whole thing is.
It's not
planning ahead.
Good good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
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Our summer tour includes stops next Wednesday.
We're going to broadcast from the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.
On Thursday, we are going to broadcast from an art gallery.
Yes.
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And on Friday, we will be in Hayward at the lot.
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We will.
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So join us next week as we hit the road, Matt Nair on air and the Todd Alba show next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the Reconpopulation Area, Dan Schaefer, is here to break down all of the most recent news we were talking about, the budget.
which we finally have.
We
finally have a budget.
It
came together in a discombobulating week in the middle of the night.
And that's why we've got to recombobulate this week.
But seriously, and the new cycle works so quickly now that things just get lost.
So some of the other big things in the budget bill, especially about
childcare.
Yeah, and I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the some of what ended up in there.
So I think, you know, it was very exciting to see that Republicans were finally willing to do something on childcare because that seemed like such a main sticking point in the negotiations and the governor, you know, I've criticized other aspects of how they've approached the budget.
I think childcare in particular is one that they have really done a good job on advocating for repeatedly.
But I think some of what resulted in the budget was, you know, again, it's this compromise.
So they have, I think more than $100 million that's gonna be able to continue payments for childcare accounts.
They're kind of using some creative accounting here.
It's not like some new money.
It's like interest from ARPA funds and whatever
they're
redirecting and it's confusing and complicated.
But it
basically extends, yeah.
So it extends the equivalent of childcare accounts for one more year.
And then there, I think we've had this conversation about how...
Childcare Democrats have wanted to just like continue child care counts and have these direct payments and continue the pilot program that has been proving to work and Republicans as they often do with a lot of things they just go we just need to deregulate we just need to
let's say more
16 year olds in there and that ended up in the budget.
And so a couple of the things that ended up there that I think childcare providers are not thrilled with is that there is a program in there to increase the number of children a single staff member can oversee in the classroom from four to seven.
And so I think that is, it's already a really hard job and it's not, it doesn't pay well.
And now you're gonna have an even more
difficult job.
pay well.
Right.
And so this doesn't, this doesn't really move the needle on those, you know, the direct payments will keep places open for another year.
I don't think it's going to move the needle on needing to address wages in that industry, which is such the key issue.
And then there's another piece of it that allows for 16 year olds to serve as assistant teachers.
And so like there is like a lot of the kind of
Stuff that we talked about and didn't really like yeah,
yeah, I'll
care that ended
up
as part of this too So when you're hearing hey historic investments in childcare well historic investment in childcare would have been $1 from general purpose revenue and in the state because we've just never committed anything to it in Wisconsin so like oh historic gains well historic from zero is
still the story Yeah, story right yeah from zero right and that's what we talked about.
That's what we
brought up many times when Robin Voss likes to pat himself on the back saying we've made the biggest, the biggest investment into education in a generation.
I'm like, yeah, that's up from zero, bro.
That's a huge investment when it's nothing.
And the other thing too is the fact that, you know, I think one of the things that we talking about this topic need to really put into our vocabulary or make part of the discussion that when we say childcare, we're not talking about daycare.
We're not talking about babysitting.
We're talking about
education for children.
These are visual programs.
These are programs that are trying to engage the brain of children at their most.
Developmental.
Yeah, developmentally, it takes in that information so well.
that this isn't just dropping your kids off at the babysitter.
This is actual school you're paying for.
They're reading with kids, they're learning shapes and colors, all those like basic things.
Yeah, yeah, this is not, this is, and that needs to be part of that conversation.
Cause I really think when we say childcare, people just equate it to babysitting.
I agree with you.
And that's why when we talked to
Tricia
last week, who is, works with Corrine Hendrickson and, and we've talked about this a lot.
But yeah, I do think that there is this.
assumption that is how hard can it be you got seven you know five-year-olds running around your house for eight hours and they play that's not what we're talking
about we are
talking about much more structured much more targeted educational
activities for these kids to get them ready to
learn when they go to school.
And you know, it's just like having kids who've been in childcare for a time, like the people who are working there become like almost an extension of your
family
because your kids spend so much time with them.
And it's just, you know, the fact that I think average wages because of childcare counts went up, but it's still like kind of
at what minimum wage should be type of level.
So it's like right around
$15 an hour.
Like, you know, I've talked to Korean Hendrickson and a number of occasions about this.
And she was just like my, you know, 17 year old or whatever is like making more at Culver's or Quicktrip than some of the people that she was hiring at her.
I don't remember the details, so I don't want to speak for her.
But like that's the general
idea of it.
They're not trying to make millions off of you.
And when they have to raise their prices, it's not because they need a second, it's because they need a third car or fourth car.
It's because they need to take care of these kids.
that very clear over and
over again.
Now they're going
to have to take care of more kids.
Yeah, news is coming up next.
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Dan Schaefer is here, Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the Reconpopulation Area, breaking down all of the news because, again, the news cycle works so quickly now, things get bumped off the page sometimes in five minutes.
That's right.
That was breaking news,
it's
no longer there.
That's why I'm not the breaking news guy.
I'm the re-combobulation guy.
I'm coming after the fact.
We got to process
this.
We got to make sense of everything.
Break things down a little bit into digestible sections.
That's right.
And I was just quickly on the brewers.
I was looking up to see if Sunday's game was a start from the Miz, because I'm obsessed with the Miz.
Really?
organizing to try to watch every start now.
Of his.
Yeah, because it's just been so electric to watch him.
But Sunday is a Freddie Peralta start.
So
not,
you know, you still get an all star picture on the mound.
It's still great.
And Sunday is going to be a beautiful day to be out of the ballpark.
It really is.
It's going to be gorgeous.
So we were going to look ahead a little bit to next year, 2026.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, obviously I've had my say a little bit on the governor and whether I think you should run for a third term.
I am opposed to running for a third term.
But there's been some news on the other side of the aisle for who might be running.
2026 against Tony Evers or against whoever the Democratic candidate might be.
So we've known that for a while now that Washington County executive Josh Schoeman has gotten into
the
mix.
campaign is going so well that there's rumors that like Eric Havde and Tim Michaels and whoever else might jump back in.
So it really doesn't, not
exactly huge vote of
confidence for what's going on with Mr. Showman's campaign.
Interesting.
Bill Barian is the guy who announced this week.
So
he made a big announcement, had a big splashy video.
had got a bunch of headlines with this.
I think the super pack that he launched had had raised more than a million dollars.
So you've got a lot going on with Bill Barry.
And so he's got a, you know, his in his rollout video, he talks about.
It's very Trumpy.
So he really tries to talk about, you know, I think one of the lines was I want to go shake up Madison the way Trump's shaking up DC
or something like that.
I'm
an outsider.
I'm a businessman.
Drain
the lakes.
Drain the lakes.
Drain Mendoza.
Drain Mendoza.
But I think that does speak to what is going to ultimately be the main factor in the Republican primary for governor this year is a Trump endorsement.
We saw this four years ago when he endorsed Tim Michaels and Tim Michaels ended up winning.
We saw this in the 8th Congressional District.
He won the nomination you mean?
Not winning the primary.
Oh, yeah.
The primary.
I was like, wait, what did I miss?
Winning the primary.
In the 8th Congressional District, Trump endorses Tony Weed.
Tony Weed is able to win that primary.
I think whether it's Bill Barion, whether it's Josh Shulman, whether Tom Tiffany jumps into the mix of whether we get the rerun of a Tim Michaels or an Eric Hovey candidacy running for governor again.
The main factor in who's going to win this is who Trump endorses.
And so I think that is what really these announcement, these primaries really are, because even though Barion in particular is not, does not have like a particularly Trumpy background.
He donated $30,000 to Nikki Haley's campaign during the last election.
So I
I think he's really trying to like really try to let people know, Hey, I do love Trump.
This is, this is who I am.
And I've always been never, never a break in the Trump support.
Um, but I think, uh, I think that's going to be the key thing in the primary.
And I mean, maybe Bill Barron wins, maybe, you know, and it.
He could get the Trump endorsement.
Who knows?
But I think that is going to be really the key factor to watch in the Republican primary.
And I fully expect, and I hope I'll probably be wrong, I fully expect Eric Hovey to give another shot.
Yes, he is still stung that he got beat and never conceded.
And I think he is annoyed by that.
And it's he should have it.
Yeah,
he thought he's a rich kid from you know was born in Wisconsin and I want it and I think it should have it
Like the Bobby Newport Parks and Recreation
give it to me.
Just give it
to
me.
Give it to me.
I
deserve it.
I do There's a whole host of things about this that like sets off a ton of questions first of all I feel like Wisconsinites should be suspect of anybody who can just write a check for $30,000 to a campaign
hmm to
me that that gives a level of
Wealth that makes you maybe not the most in touch with people as
far as
saying I'm just like you yeah, I I love Wisconsin I'm a regular guy I write big big checks that you know could pay for schooling for kids for loser candidates who don't make it but The question I have is now I know that the ultimate goal at this point right now unless something catastrophic happens as far as like the popularity for Trump
is you want to get his endorsement, yes, but is running on a with Trumpian language going to help at this point, especially in Wisconsin, where with the April one election, we saw a not maybe not a dramatic shift, but a a noticeable shift to the left in the voting.
Does it do better for him to
to say, here is my platform, which has Trumpian policies there in or mask them, rather than trying to sound like just another mega talking point.
And also, Trump's endorsement really doesn't mean jack.
Well, it hasn't worked for everybody.
It hasn't
worked in Wisconsin.
Well, and I can think of a bunch of candidates around the country, too, that he endorsed that got beat.
But it works in the primary.
Yes,
you're right.
That's
true.
And the thing is, and that, but that also, that, that will show another point though.
So he can get his, he can get his Trump, Trumpian as he would like during the primaries.
But in Wisconsin, I feel like in this climate right now, he will have to move to the center just a little bit because I don't think that rhetoric will work against if Tony Evers announces and he's the guy.
I don't think that kind of rhetoric works against Tony Evers.
I don't think it works against any Democrat.
I think they have to sound a little more of the people.
And that doesn't mean that their policies have to be good for people.
It just means that the way they present themselves has to be palatable and digestible and say, Oh, I like this Bill Bairian guy.
You know, he's a Republican.
He's a good, you know, and he's a businessman.
He's a Navy SEAL.
He has no apparent from what I see, no political experience, but that's
Well, that is an
outsider.
Well, right.
Yes, exactly.
But I think in light of everything that's happened in the past couple of years with Wisconsin, that I don't think a Trumpian candidate fares well after the primary.
Dan Schaffer is here.
Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the Reconpopulation Area.
Talking about looking ahead to 2026, the lay of the land here in Wisconsin and who could be jumping into the gubernatorial race.
Now, the other candidate I'm looking at here is I wonder what Tom Tiffany is going to do.
because I think, you know, he has not been a particularly strong fundraiser.
And I think that is works to his disadvantage.
Now, on the other hand, we have Brian Stile in the first.
first congressional district, very strong fundraiser, I think could be a really competitive candidate if he were to run statewide for governor.
I don't think he's going to
do that this time now.
I think he's running for reelection for Congress.
But I agree with you.
Brian Stile would be a pretty strong candidate.
I don't understand.
Tom Tiffany's got the greatest gig in the world.
Why on earth would you give that up?
Do you have to work much?
I mean seriously, does anybody have high expectations for what Tom Tiffany's gonna bring to the table?
I don't think so.
He's got his big mansion in Northern Wisconsin.
He wants to log the Apostle Islands.
You know, I just, why would you give all that up?
And then actually be in a position where people can criticize your actions or inactions.
You think he'd be better off if he stays in his what, like 60, 65% red
seat
in Northern Wisconsin.
Nice and cozy and safe and life is
good.
Yeah.
I just don't, I don't, I mean, this doesn't mean he won't run.
People run all the time for various reasons, but I think that he has not created enough fanfare for himself through various.
New stories and I mean
What's he gonna bring and say I did this?
Well, he's gonna
he's gonna he's gonna be hit immediate with you voted for the big bill for billionaires and he has to defend that vote and People are I mean that's gonna be hard for him.
I mean that's some really unpopular bill I
have my picture standing next to the Blotnik bridge Yeah,
that's another thing that you voted against the infrastructure repair bill and and you are taking credit for money that
you didn't want to come into the state.
You did not vote for money for our state.
So yeah, does Tom Tiffany run?
I don't know.
Does he win anything?
No, no, I just don't think he does.
Well, and here's the thing that I think is part of this dynamic too.
And it is that if we're talking about Josh Shoman and Bill Barion and Tom Tiffany as the potential candidates for the Republicans.
If you take Tony Evers out of the equation, if he decides not to run again, I think the Democratic bench is much stronger than that group that we just talked about with the Republicans.
I think we'd be talking about Josh Call, who was won two statewide races.
We'd be talking about Sarah Godluschi, Sarah Rodriguez, David Crowley, Ben Wickler.
There's a pretty strong bench for Democrats and I think would be a more formidable.
as, you know, just, if you're looking at just those two groups for who might win, if you're just like saying, okay, Tony Evers not running, I'm, you know, handicapping this for Republicans versus Democrats, I would put Democrats as the favorite on balance, even without Evers.
I'm just going to say Josh Coll is a mistake.
Josh called my, he's not going
to
win.
I just don't think he'll win.
You win two statewide races.
You end up on the list at least, but granted.
But I think the whole not going after the fake electors.
And I think there are other things that people feel like Josh.
Republicans can't hit him with that.
That they can't hit him with that right but but for Democrats I think there are people who expected Wisconsin's Attorney General to be more aggressive than he has been and I think there's disappointment there
Yeah, and I think the other thing too is I would be I'd be really happy if there was a really strong Democratic candidate who didn't come from either Madison or the machine of Madison or Milwaukee because that immediately gets you tagged with so many different things I would love to see David Crawley make a run for it, but
You know, like I said, the bench would be deep and it would be interesting to watch.
The Republicans right now, it's just a lot of like, oh,
really?
Come on, Eric Hovde, come on back.
Our Super PAC, we got nothing else.
Super PAC is ready to go with new ads.
Should you decide to jump into the gubernatorial race here in Wisconsin, we're ready.
He'll have to
get your other mustache again.
Oh, he's so much fun.
Get back in the lake, baby.
Come on, let's train Mick Lickman-Dota.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
We continue recombobulating with Dan Schafer.
Stay with us on this Civic Media radio network.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air and Greg Bach Calvinator on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine You can join us call her text at 855-752-4842 Also leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
Don't forget
Free Ticket Fridays is underway.
Grab your phone, open up the Civic Media app, pick your station, and text in the word score.
S-C-O-R-E.
Score is the word until 11 o'clock.
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Text in the word score.
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But right now, the word to text in so you're in the running for those tickets is score.
S-C-O-R-E and good luck.
He is Civic Media's political editor and the creator of the Reconpopulation Area, Dan Schaefer, in studio with us.
And let's talk a little bit about Wisconsin Senior Senator Ron Johnson is
Disturbe.
He's almost as concerned as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
He's not comfortable.
No.
Ron Johnson made a lot of noise these past few months,
hasn't
he?
About the big beautiful bill.
He has.
About his
opposition to it.
Yeah.
Did you at any point throughout all of the noise that he was making for months about this bill, did you at any point think he would vote against it?
No.
No.
No.
No.
Never.
Never.
Never.
Never, ever, ever.
Did you
think he would?
No.
No,
I
don't think there was any
serious person.
It's completely performative.
All of
them.
Yeah, he did this hour and a half thing at the Milwaukee Press Club.
He did this, all of these different things.
You know, he talked about these meetings that he was having with Trump, and he's just, oh, we have to reduce the deficit.
We have to do, you know, all of these different things.
Yeah, he voted for it.
You know,
there's a good piece in
a nonprofit publication called notice, which is really good and OT us talking about how after the bill was signed there were dozens of journalists flocking to Ron Johnson's office to get his reaction to to the bill that they had passed that he was railing against for months and months and months and months and only finding that like he he's like well President Trump has given us commitments that he's going to you know, continue
needed to reduce the size of government.
He's going to do this.
But you know, this is, this is like the rare bill that.
both cuts government and increases the deficit.
Like really great job guys doing doing the worst of both worlds there.
But like I think there was another quote that NBC News reporter had talking about interviewing Johnson about his reaction to this as well.
And this just is just like this Republican math that he exemplifies.
So Sahil Kapoor, who's a great reporter, covers Congress for NBC News says, and I'm going to just quote right from his tweet here.
Senator
Ron Johnson who raised hell in opposition to a mega bill that increases the deficit voted for one that increases the deficit by three point three trillion dollars.
Lots of money.
Asked why he tells me firstly that if you set aside the four point five trillion dollar tax cut in the bill, we did actually reduce the
deficit.
Wait, wait, wait.
Stop, stop, stop, stop.
If you set aside the three trillion we added,
than everything is ducky?
If you set aside the $4.5 trillion tax cut in the bill, we actually did reduce the deficit.
I know how that's how I budget.
Yeah.
When I'm working on my monthly household budget.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That's exactly how I do the budget.
I don't count the biggest chunk.
I don't count my mortgage.
And that way I'm coming out ahead every month.
Yeah.
If you don't count the cops ice cream that I had last night, I actually lost weight.
Exactly.
That makes no
sense.
But that is the way they've been doing it for a long time now.
Well, honestly, I'm sorry, everybody.
I feel like we're in the second year.
He's only been in office for like six months.
But when the stock market tanked and there were questions about the GDP going down and the economy slowing down, they said they were going to take GDP out of it so they could say, oh, see, there's growth.
They're going to always rewrite the rules.
They're
going to remath.
I mean, that was, I mean, like, we.
Elon Musk is trying to rewrite knowledge because they don't want to face history.
This is what they do every time.
Anytime there is a firm and steady and visible failure in front of them, they're like, well, if you don't count this thing, you know, the thing that counts for like 40 to 50 to 60% of whatever they're talking about, we're great.
Yeah, we're good.
But when you asked the question earlier, Dan, about...
Whether or not I thought he was going to vote for it the reason why I immediately said yes, which are two reasons one It's Ron Johnson.
He's spineless.
He's
uncomfy, but he's spineless But two this is exactly what he did in 2017 to he hemmed and he hawed and he wasn't doing it for the people He was doing it for his buddies,
right?
But in that instance he got what he wanted holding out holding out paid him off he got
that pass through that he wanted for him, his kids business and Diane Hendricks and those folks.
In this instance, what he got was a promise that they're going to look at
reducing the deficit down the road.
Yeah, there was an amendment that he and Florida Senator Rick Scott had introduced together that was basically gutting Medicaid expansion.
That didn't make it to the House, thankfully.
But it was something that passed in the Senate and that Ron Johnson was like, okay, now I can get on board with this bill.
You know, of course it didn't pass the house.
And then he eventually is in favor of it as well.
He was always going to fall.
He was always
going to
fall.
He was
always going to fall.
And then that's why I think it's not a story really that like, you know, I think there's some of these national publications that heard from Johnson state publications that are covering this from Johnson.
It's just like everyone expected this the whole time.
I was just going to say, I don't think he cared about taking down the deficit.
I don't think he cares about it at all.
He held out because he wanted to get the tax breaks.
And then he got the tax breaks and he got to say,
I tried.
It's all a cover.
He got what he wanted both times, which is more money for him and his buddies.
He doesn't care about you or me.
Dan Chafer is here from the re-combobulation area.
When we return, we will lighten it up with a little audio sorbet.
Drunk online shopping.
You've done it.
You have done it.
I've done it.
I've done it.
Pretty much everybody has done it.
Something your doorbell rings.
Oh, I forgot.
I ordered that.
That's coming up.
Stay close.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Stay with us.
you
Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, the board lord coming to you from our studio at a steamy radio park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
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Don't forget we're in the midst of our free ticket Friday.
So you have until 11 o'clock via the Civic Media app.
only to text in the word score, S-C-O-R-E, score.
And you'll be either running for a four pack of Milwaukee Brewers club level tickets for this Sunday's game as the crew hosts the Nationals.
So text in the word score, S-C-O-R-E, by the way, the crew playing tonight against the Nationals.
Our broadcast starts at 6.35.
Listen to the game on terrestrial radio.
W. R. C. E. in Richland Center W. I. S. S. and Oshkosh here in Racina Kenosha on W. R. J. N. W. C. Q. M. in Park Falls and W. B. Z. H. and Hayward.
The Brewers hosting the Nationals are broadcast starts today at 6 35
and I know for a fact we were giving away tickets for tonight's game.
So if you won tickets with us because of the contest.
Take pictures.
Take pictures.
Text a man through the Civic Media app.
We'd love to see what you've been up to.
We'd love to see the seats.
They're cushy, comfy, wonderful.
So yeah, let us know.
Great foul ball territory for those seats.
Wonderful
foul ball territory.
Yeah, it is good.
Yep, absolutely.
Dan Schaefer is here.
We've been doing a bunch of recombobulating right now, though.
It is the final half hour of the program.
What does that mean?
It means it's time for Audio Sorbet, Greg Bach.
Where we take a little breath.
To get away from the news and talk about sillier things.
I think we've all done this.
I know I've done this What did you buy online?
After you've had a couple drinks 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 no judgment is judgment-free zone 8 5 5 7 5 civic drinking while online shopping
What did you end up ordering?
And then a couple of days later, the doorbell rings like, oh my God, I did order that, didn't I?
I thought it was a dream.
I thought I was dreaming 855-752-4842, our audio sorbet for today, Drunk Online Shopping.
Who wants to go first and confess?
Dan,
why are you looking at me to go first here?
You are
our
guest, and that's just being total polite.
Well, so I'm not really a big online shopper when I've been drinking.
I would say that the app that I would go to, if I am spending some money, it would be like DoorDash.
Oh, it's a food.
Just ordering,
like, okay, ordering chicken wings and falling asleep before they get there.
Did that really happen?
That has happened, yes.
I gotta have chicken wings and I gotta have them right now.
Oh God.
And did the doorbell wake you up?
No.
You never heard of him?
Did he just leave him?
Yeah,
yeah.
Oh, that
is so funny.
Did you
eat him?
No.
Okay.
No.
Did not eat chicken wings.
Because I was sitting
in my porch all morning.
I would have been like,
well, I can just put those in the oven, right?
That'll kill the bacteria.
And I'm really hungry right now.
There's no ants on it.
No, it's
fine.
It's
fine.
It's chicken wings.
Not like they're real anyways.
So, all right, if we're gonna take that for, yes, absolutely.
I am the type of person who, when I would drink, and I'm not talking even about getting drunk honestly.
You're kind of a cheap date.
I am, especially now.
I
have one
alcohol a week at this point.
It's a Bloody Mary on Saturday mornings at church and markets down to Kenosha, and that's my thing, that we
do
that, and that's all I do.
But even that little Bloody Mary, I'm like, sometimes it's a little strong,
and I'm
like,
We need, I need a water.
I need to sit for a little bit.
I just need to take it in and relax.
But I will have like half a beer.
I'm like, you guys want to get pizza?
Like
four of them?
I mean, there's four of us here.
Let's just get our own pizza.
So yeah, I understand that.
I can be a prolific
drunk eater.
Oh yeah.
Taco Bell has known my wrath.
Anything else?
Well, I mean, I have two.
very particular drinking and purchasing stories.
I'll go with the first
one.
Do tell Greg.
I was
in Washington DC many moons ago at a conference that was for my job and I went to a party and the party was an open bar and I may have been quite over served
that night.
I still have no recollection of how I got from the party to my hotel room.
That's never good.
All I know is two things happened.
One, I missed my flight.
Yeah, I missed my flight.
And two, I looked at my email and I saw there was an order for the complete Monty Python box set that I had purchased somewhere between the hours of 12.30 and 3.30.
Not a purchase I regret I still have it to this day I love the fact that I got it But that is that is definitely on the low scale of what I had done the top of the scale if you want unless you want to
share first well Just as a reminder this is audio sorbet.
We are talking about things we have purchased
when we perhaps had a couple too many, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
Oh,
I think so too.
Share your drunk online shopping stories at eight, five, five, seven, five, civic.
So I had had a couple glasses of wine, two to nine, and I was checking my points on my credit card, and so I had all these reward points.
And it's like, I'm gonna go look at what rewards are available.
I've earned this.
I've earned, I have 970,000 points and I think I should
use
them.
And so I ordered an entire new set of dishes, which I do, we did not need.
It's a 12 piece set of dishes.
And using my points, but still, like a week later, the doorbell rings in this huge, heavy box shows up and I'm like, I don't even know what that is.
Honey, what did you order?
Paul?
No, I have come to dinner.
We have lots of people.
You have dishes specifically made for dinner parties.
Yeah, I didn't.
We have dishes.
We have lots and lots of dishes now.
So we're covered.
with dishes.
So we've got to join forces here,
Jane.
I'm the one ordering the food.
There
you have the dishes.
We got the dishes and the utensils.
You're set.
Yeah, there we go.
And that's another thing I love too is the whole points thing.
Every credit card has points nowadays and they make
you feel
like, oh, I've got so many points.
I can get a free flight.
I'm like, do you know how much money you had to spend to get all of the, like, I have 1,000 points.
You had to spend like $40,000 to get those points.
It's not free.
I should send my dishes back.
Is that what you're saying?
Finance Corner with Greg Bach.
Oh, I can talk new addition to the Matt and Aaron air lineup.
This should be a thing followed by Greg Bach's Finance Corner.
Greg shames your purchases on civic media.
What have you purchased online after you've had a couple cocktails?
We're talking about drunken online shopping at 855.
752-4842.
You can text us.
You can also leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
Kurt is listening in walkie-shot text it and never play games on your phones that require money just so you can just so you can get next tokens tokens 2999 for quote free game.
Yeesh.
Yeah, I have I
have a game that I'm currently addicted to.
I mean, it is kind of bad.
What's it called?
Okay, so it's called- There's no shame.
No, it's not this, it's not, it's the name of the game is, it sounds really creepy.
It's not, it's a kid's game.
It's called All in a Hole.
Okay,
I think I've seen that.
Yeah, it's a very addictive game.
You can get, I mean, but, and they're always trying to sell you stuff.
And
it is,
in all the years I've had a smartphone, it is the closest I've ever come to paying for something on a game.
But I haven't yet, but still, yeah, you get those, you get those ads in there.
You got half a Bloody Mary.
You're going to be
tokens for everyone.
Drunken online shopping is today's audio Sorbet 855 is 752-4842 Jim from Brookfield.
Late at night, half asleep, I order my wife earrings.
I thought being the shape of Wisconsin, they would be good for the state fair.
When they showed up a few days later, they were the state of Iowa.
My wife was not happy, Jim, from Brookfield.
I'm going to put that
into, it was the thought that counts side of
it.
Honey, you're welcome.
Calvin,
do you have any stories that you can share?
I know that you said before that you're not a big drinker either, but, you know,
we've all had those moments.
We've had
moments.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not a big drinker and I kind of have impulse control when it comes to shopping as it is.
So yeah, I mean I've bought books, video games that I played one time, mobile game things that are unnecessary, all sorts of stuff to waste money
on.
Right?
Yeah.
But at the moment it's like, oh, that's like my dishes.
I need these.
We're entertaining people.
We need to entertain.
Hey,
we might have 400 people over for
dinner.
Well, really, when you think about it, you bought a 12.
12 piece.
12 piece set.
How much was your current?
How much is your current?
So now it's not like even your it's like you're celebrating a gala.
Well, right.
We could have 40 people in our house.
I don't have any place for them to sit, but I got the dishes.
Yeah, it's fancy dishes.
I got the dish.
Yeah, sit on the floor.
Drunken online shopping 855-752-4842.
No judgment zone.
Text it in, call it in.
We would love to know that we are not alone, that we're not
listening.
We don't judge.
There's no judgment.
Mike from Green Bay listening to WGBW said this, I booked a trip to the Netherlands on a Viking cruise, which by the way, it sounds very interesting.
Let's just say my wife was not overjoyed.
However,
the trip is great.
I thought
that was pretty good until Chris State Senator Chris Alfheim texted in a flamethrower to
kill
weeds State Senator Chris Alfheim believes in more power Hey
buckthorn, I'll see you in
hell
Oh, I think that one might be my
favorite winner.
That
could
be the
winner.
I feel like more people would buy Flames.
Just, yeah.
Oh, I can.
Go on.
I was just going to 855-752-4842.
We got a couple of minutes left of audio survey if you would like to share with us.
No judgment.
No judgment.
Drunk online purchases.
What was yours?
I will tell you
the most, not shameful, the one that made me go, oh dude, I have a problem.
One night at home watching movies I've turned on a documentary about Frank Zappa and Frank Zappa if you're familiar He played a very a very unique guitar.
He played one kind of guitar generally, which was the Gibson SG and I decided to go on eBay and I bought one and let's just say that Gibson SG's are not what they call cheap.
No, they are
It's a nice guitar.
They're nice guitars.
They start around, a US made model starts around $800.
And I did not buy the starter model.
Of course
not.
And it came, and it wasn't that I, I remember doing it.
It's that thing though, when you woke up and the first thing I thought, like, oh no.
And I bought it on, this wasn't Amazon.
This wasn't a music store where I, this was eBay.
That purchase was done.
It's done.
Yeah, you can't go back and change your mind.
And it showed up and I was like, oh.
This is a reminder to maybe just go to bed earlier.
There you go.
Stay offline.
Chris Alfheim, the winner.
You can't beat a flamethrower.
Kill the weeds.
That's fantastic.
Coming up, we will wrap up the show as we always do with this.
Shouldn't be a thing.
Today it's the Blueberry Hill Edition.
Stay with us.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air and Greg Bach and sweet Calbee on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine Join us call her 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 You got seven minutes left to grab the civic media app on your phone open that up and text in the word score s c o r e
Text in the word score, you're in the running for a four pack of club level tickets to see the Brewers host the Nationals this Sunday.
It's going to be a beautiful day for baseball.
It really is.
And the Brewers kind of, they're kind of looking good right now.
So text in the word score, S-C-O-R-E.
Tom Hartman will have a new word for you from 11 to two.
Todd all by two to four and then Maggie Dawn from four to six.
It is free ticket Fridays here on Civic Media.
Also, she is watching in the live stream.
Happy birthday, Sister Kathy.
Hi, Kathy.
Calvin say say happy birthday to my sister, Kathy.
Happy birthday, Kathy.
Thank you very much.
Thanks,
Kathy.
She made us do that.
Coming up on the show on Monday, I am very excited beyond the cheese.
Yeah,
we're going beyond the cheese with the canine convoy.
out of Alcanto, Wisconsin, and this young woman decided to start her own business, and she has a dog bus.
Yes.
It's the greatest thing in the world.
Please go to Facebook right now.
And if you don't have Facebook, sign up for Facebook right now and look at some of the cutest puppers on a bus.
Puppers on a
bus.
Puppers on a bus.
Yeah.
So it's the canine convoy and she opened up her own kind of doggy dick here business.
And so we're going to talk about that for beyond the cheese, where we highlight businesses outside of the dairy industry.
If you have a business or a business owner,
You think would be good for this.
Let us know.
You can always contact us at Jane says at civic media dot US J A N E S A Y S Jane says at civic media dot US 10 just about 1055 Kelvin.
It's getting late and it is time for
This shouldn't be a thing
If you have a thing you think should not be send it
into Greg and me, as Jane says at civicmedia.us.
This from UPI.
Our hero, Ben Hooper, with the byline and the headline reads, Blueberry spill causes literal traffic jam in British Columbia.
Police in British Columbia said there was a traffic jam.
It's in quotation.
When a pickup truck lost its load of freshly picked blueberries.
The white Ford pickup truck stopped at an intersection when the vehicle started moving again just a few minutes later.
Several crates of blueberries just fell right off the back into the middle of the road.
Some blueberry crates went crashing down onto the roadway thousands of blueberries spilling across the highway creating a sticky mess for vehicles that drove over the fruit.
Local officers were called to the G.C.
incident
I'm
just reporting it and used a shovel to push the blueberries out of the way.
They say perhaps the team could have teamed up with a local farmer's market to feature some new offerings like jackknife jelly, pothole preserves, or the ever popular traffic jam.
You're not buying it.
No,
here's the thing
is I feel like we're not
We're not talking about the stories are actually a very important component of the story with regard to the driver I don't know if you had heard about him the driver is trying to like just you know pay his bills pay his mortgage do this they live in this world but unfortunately like a lot of People out in the world.
They have to get more than one job and this is his third job people said he really spread himself thin.
Oh
I thought you were to say he was looking for a thrill
I'm blueberry hill.
Yeah, okay.
Nope.
Nope.
I
liked my joke better.
I Like my joke better fine.
That's fine that reps of today's episode of
This shouldn't be a thing
your producer was better.
Thank you Yes, as we said we have beyond the cheese coming up on Monday We have a busy week next week, and then we're going on the road.
We're going on the road
With Todd Alba.
With Todd Alba starting on Wednesday, we will be broadcasting live from the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.
On Thursday, we're going to be in Butternut.
Butternut.
Very excited about that.
And then excited also on Friday, we'll be in Hayward.
And I totally forgot to mention, if you are living in the Milwaukee area or southeastern Wisconsin this Saturday, tomorrow, I will be doing a show at
comedy sports called Laughing Liberally.
It's stand-up.
It's sketch.
There's always an interview with a community leader.
I've had Matthew Filipovich on the show before, and he's great.
So it's a lot of fun.
I believe it starts at eight o'clock.
Tickets are available.
LaughingLiberallyMKE.com.
But just show up.
Come on out, and I'll be doing some stand-up.
I forgot to talk about
that.
Well, we could have talked about it before now.
I know, but we just did.
We just talked about
it.
Well, we'll put a link in the show notes as well if you would like more details.
Just go to
Click media.us, click on shows, go to mat and air on air, and then we have an archive about 100 or so shows.
More than you could possibly want.
Boy,
sounds great from a second runner up award-winning show.
And if you're going to be in the area next week when we're on the road in Oshkosh or Butternut or in Hayward, we would love to meet you.
So hopefully you can come out and say hi.
And please send us your suggestions on where to go.
Cafes, coffee shops,
ice
cream, restaurants,
record
stores, pizza.
We're
wide open.
Other places that serve food that Jane wants to eat.
But yeah, let us know.
Jane says at civicmedia.us.
or just text us while we're on the air.
That works, too.
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.
We hope you find some joy over the weekend and you get the chance to share it.
Keep it right here.
We got news coming up next across the vast civic media radio network.
We'll see you Monday.
Good morning.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Calbee on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
at 855-752-4842.
You can also leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
She has shared her story in the Wisconsin Examiner in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the New York Times, and we are so delighted and grateful to be joined by her.
Now, Megan Kling is here.
Good morning, Megan.
Thanks for being here.
How are you?
Megan, can you hear me?
Oh, looks like we might be having a little bit of...
Oh, she just froze.
Okay.
Megan had mentioned when we were setting this up that she might have a... Megan, are you there?
Hold on.
I'm here.
Can you hear me?
We
can hear you.
Yes.
Can you hear us?
I can hear you now.
There we
go.
If that happens again, I'm going to call in.
Okay.
Perfect.
That's perfect.
Absolutely.
Well, we'll see how it goes.
Technology is one of those things.
It's just, it's a thing.
It's a thing.
So anyway, thank you for being here.
Thank you for joining us and for sharing your story because I think it is important.
And especially when I've read through all of these stories, you are not the only woman who has experienced this.
You are not the only woman who is experiencing this.
So if you wouldn't mind to take us through your story and what happened with your pregnancy.
Yeah, so first off, I'd like to say, you know, I've been born and raised in Wisconsin, same as my husband.
We have two beautiful little daughters, and we've always imagined having three children.
And when we got pregnant in the summer of 2023,
we didn't expect it to be any different from our prior two pregnancies, which were very normal and healthy, right?
So went through the routine of maternal prenatal checkups and it wasn't until the 20-week ultrasound that we were alarmed that something was wrong.
So I live in rural western Wisconsin.
I went to my local rural hospital
And I happened to be over 21 weeks pregnant at the time.
And after that ultrasound, my doctor, who I trust very much, came into the doctor's office and shared with me that something was very wrong, that there was little to no amniotic fluid.
And with their ultrasound equipment, they could not make a confirmed diagnosis, but it was bad.
I was somewhat in shock.
I wasn't prepared to ask a lot more questions.
And at that time, just was clinging on to hope that we wouldn't get the most devastating news that I felt like my doctor was somewhat preparing me to get.
We had to be referred to a larger hospital, which again takes time to get that appointment with maternal fetal medicine.
She referred me to lacrosse as well as Rochester, Minnesota.
And in my mind, if there's any surgery or any treatment that my baby is gonna need, Rochester is the best place to be.
So that's where that was in my mind.
We were able to get into lacrosse about four days later.
By that time, I was 22 weeks pregnant and my husband and I in tears received the most devastating news.
that a pregnant person could receive and that was that our baby was non-viable.
He had a diagnosis called bilateral renal agenesis.
He had developed with no kidneys and no bladder and he also had brain and heart abnormalities seen.
With this condition, because the amniotic fluid is made up primarily of the baby's urine by the second trimaster,
That was the reason there was no amniotic fluid because his urinary tract was not operating.
And when that occurs in pregnancy, that amniotic fluid is there to help the babies develop their lungs so his lungs would never develop.
And it's also there for protection to help him move around in the womb.
Without that amniotic fluid, these babies are born with bone deformities because the pressure the mother's body puts on her womb forces the baby's bones to bend as they grow inside of you.
And so you can imagine I am picturing what quality of life my baby is going to have even as he's growing inside of me.
When we received that diagnosis, I asked my doctor what our options were.
And she of course proceeded to tell me, you know, I'm still healthy.
I could continue the pregnancy if I choose.
And I believe I cut her off and said, I cannot carry a baby another four months knowing he is going to die.
It was not in my best physical wellness health.
It was not in my best interest of my mental health.
Seriously.
I have a career.
I've got two little girls.
I have to go home and be a mom too.
And I didn't believe carrying that baby was in my own baby's best interest because it would ultimately prolong suffering for all of us.
But because that was in November of 2023,
We were in a state of the 1849 complete ban on abortion.
We're
still in effect
here in
Wisconsin.
Yep.
And so I had no options.
No options in my situation to make any choice at all.
I just want to stop you for one second because again, because of the law in Wisconsin at that point in your pregnancy here in Wisconsin, you had no choices except to carry it to term, correct?
Correct.
That was
it.
That was it.
And if anyone is just joining us, by the way, I just want to let people know who we're talking to.
Megan Kling is our guest.
We will have links in our show notes.
She has appeared in several articles in the Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin Examiner, the New York Times, talking about her experience with her third pregnancy.
So continue,
Megan.
So we had kept our appointment that we had made at Rochester, Minnesota.
which was ultimately 10 days out from our original appointment at my local rural hospital.
So by the time we were able to get into Rochester, Minnesota, I was 23 weeks and one day pregnant.
And my choice was to be induced and deliver my baby naturally.
There is there's no right choice in that situation, but that's what I felt was right for me and the healthcare that I wanted to choose And so they were able to give us a second opinion they confirm the diagnosis without a doubt because my husband and I just needed to know that there was no chance and They induced me after that second opinion and I was able to deliver our first baby boy the next morning
at 23 weeks and two days gestation.
They did not think he would survive delivery, but they prepared us in case he did.
And he was ultimately born with a beating heart.
And so they cleaned him up and they handed him to us.
And we were able to hold and love our baby boy for about an hour until he passed away in our arms.
I'm so, we're so sorry for your loss.
Megan, you're in your husband and your family and I just,
I cannot imagine being in such a horrific situation with such, for one thing, to not be able to get the healthcare you need in the state in which you live is horrible.
It's just horrible.
And then, I'm so sorry for your experience.
And I am so grateful for your willingness to talk about this.
because you must have heard now from all kinds of women who have been in similar situations to yours.
Yeah, I've been able to be connected with women across the country who have experienced just devastating pregnancy complications and their journey to build their families just like we were.
And it's, you know, for all of us that are sharing and speaking out.
there's a whole lot of women that are experiencing the same tragedy that just aren't to a point where they're willing to share their trauma publicly yet.
Or they're afraid of the backlash and we'll get to that in a minute because I'm sure that's that's a component of this tragically.
And I think, Megan, one of the important things too that's it's wonderful to hear these stories because it's telling the narrative that's getting lost by some who just want to
Paint access to this healthcare as Nothing more than birth control, which is offensive and disgusting and we need to hear from People such as yourself and others saying no this is you are a mother who wanted more children You and your husband want to do grow your family.
This was a situation that happened.
It is devastating, but it does happen.
Therefore you need the treatment the access
the health care that is necessary to make sure that also your body isn't damaged by what could happen in these pregnancies.
So again, I'm there's not a question and I'm holding back tears right now because I don't.
I just want to thank you for being here because it's important.
Thank you.
You mentioned in some of the articles and again, we will put these in our show notes so you can read them yourself.
In the New York Times article, they speak to several other women
who also went through some situations similar to yours, Megan.
And several of these women had said, they think it's important now to use the word abortion because that's what it is.
This is the medical term for it.
A spontaneous miscarriage in medical terminology is an abortion.
And there has been
This effort on one side to dance around that, I have heard Republican politicians say abortion is not healthcare.
No pregnancy should need an abortion.
I have heard male politicians say that.
I can't imagine how you feel when you hear especially men say something like that.
Yeah, and to be honest, you know, my husband and I had a really hard time using the word abortion.
when we experienced our termination.
Because there's a stigma around it.
It is specifically for unwanted pregnancies, irresponsible women.
And that was not our situation whatsoever.
We were married, we were growing our family.
This was a very much loved, wanted baby.
And yet,
We who never thought we would choose abortion were put in an impossible situation with no good outcome where that choosing abortion was the best choice for us at the time.
Megan Kling is our guest.
We are talking about her experience with a pregnancy in which tragically she lost her very much wanted son and the fact
At that point, at that point in time, Wisconsin was still under the 1849 ban.
So in order to get the health care that you needed, you had to leave the state.
You had to go to Minnesota.
Obviously, the situation is different now in Wisconsin on the ground.
That has changed.
But there are still women all over this country who are in similar situations to yours.
And many of them.
We had a listener call into a different show to Todd Alba's show and say, well, it's not like anyone is making women carry these babies when they're dead.
They are.
This is tragically the horrific reality of what women across the country, depending upon where you live, are dealing with.
It is.
We're going to continue with Megan King.
Kling, sorry.
And continue this.
Conversation, it's important to talk about.
I want to hear what you have heard after your bravery in coming forward to share your experience.
Our conversation continues on the other side.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning, welcome back to Matt and Air on Air.
Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach, Calvi on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join us at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment on a live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
Our guest is Megan Kling.
She is here to share her experience with complications in her third pregnancy.
She ultimately ended up leaving the state in order to get the health care that she needed.
You made an important point, Megan, during the break about
Even though the 1849 ban is no longer effect here in Wisconsin, that would have still meant that you would have had to leave the state to get the care you needed because of the 23 week ban, right?
Well, there's still some lack of clarity there.
So many people refer to Wisconsin having a 20 week ban.
I believe what the law technically says is 20 weeks post fertilization, which is technically more like 22 weeks, but nobody measures pregnancy post likely fertilization.
So hospitals or doctors are always gonna be a little bit more
Uh, hesitant.
They're going to hedge.
So they're going to hedge it right at 20 weeks.
Um, so for most women who receive that 20 week ultrasound, if there is any severe complication or diagnosis like we received, it's too late already.
You have to leave the state.
Correct.
Yes.
Megan, were you aware before you got this diagnosis that.
that this was the situation on the ground in Wisconsin.
Did you know at that point that you were going to have to go someplace else?
I think I was a little naive.
I understood what Roe v. Wade being overturned meant.
I understood that Wisconsin had no exceptions to abortion.
However, I was naive to all of the
numerous pregnancy complications that can occur that would lead to an abortion for medical reasons.
And so even though I understood the atmosphere of where Wisconsin was at, I did not think that I as a married woman trying to grow my family, I didn't think it was going to affect me.
And I was very wrong.
for being that naive.
But you're not alone.
And you're not alone.
There are a lot of women, I think.
And again, you had two perfectly fine pregnancies where nothing went wrong.
So I can see why you would, why would you even let that cross your brain if that hadn't been your experience up to that point?
I just also think it goes back to what we were saying earlier is that we equate abortion to a certain type of person, which is never the case.
It's all, it's always a different, there's always different stories, but we are becoming more educated throughout these past few years on what this does and what this impacts on.
the women who are having the children, the families that affects us.
Even as Dr. Lierly has said, this affects all of us regardless of your station in life.
And it's important for us to know.
So again, Megan, thank you for coming here and sharing your story.
We ask those listening to share this story with other people because it's just very easy to say, well, of course I support abortion access.
But what do you know about it?
Before you advocate and endorse, you must know.
So it's important to hear these stories.
We must hear more of these
stories.
We've mentioned, Megan, that you've been in the Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin Examiner, even the New York Times.
What have you heard from folks since?
Because I think that's very brave.
It takes a lot of courage to come forth like this and be honest and open about it.
It
does.
I would say I have had overwhelming positive support from people, from community members, family, strangers, just thanking me for speaking up and helping them understand that just a typical Midwest mom can be affected by abortion bans.
And it doesn't matter how you feel on the topic.
Anyone can be affected, whether you think so or not.
Um, but it is very controversial and it's been very vulnerable to share such a tragedy publicly.
Um, you, you open yourself up and there, there always is going to be some negativity out there.
Um, and I think a majority of that comes from either an extreme religious side or those that just don't like me sharing my story because it doesn't fit the stigma.
that they believe abortion to
be, right?
You're not the person they want to demonize.
You're not the right person to demonize.
I also think telling this story for Midwesterners, especially, pokes at our convenience and comfortability.
Like, well, you don't have to share it with everybody.
Talk about it with your friends and say, you know, blah, blah, whatever the excuse is, but really it comes to you standing up and...
exposing yourself and being vulnerable and other people just have to deal with that.
And if it makes them feel uncomfortable, I'm sorry for them, but we need to hear this.
It's about
the reality of what's happening on the ground.
It is.
It's just, that's what it is about.
How is your husband?
How are your girls?
How are you right now?
Right now, I'm good.
I was lucky enough to find access to a therapist that specializes in infant loss and after
giving birth to a baby who died in our arms.
I can't tell you how hard that was to work through that grief and then the anger that compounded from being shamed away from my home state in order to do what I knew was right for me.
So but we're doing good.
I mean it was a fork in the road and we chose to be resilient and
I could not have it be just a sad story that we experienced.
And so I, I chose to share and I chose to speak up in hopes that, you know, I can cause just a little, find a little bit of good from this horrible thing we went through.
Megan Kling, thank you so very, very much for joining us this morning.
All the best to you and your husband and your girls.
Take care of yourself.
Be strong.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have news coming up next.
Stay with us.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt and air on air.
Jane Matt and air Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us.
You can call or text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
You can also leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
We are very, very excited to be joined by our next guest, a comedian.
a comedy writer and now an author of America.
Let me in.
Felipe Torres Medina is here.
Good morning, Felipe.
How you doing?
Hi,
Gene.
Thanks for having me, Greg.
Hello.
It is I was so amazed I texted you or I emailed you last week and I said I would love a copy of your book, which I don't know how you did that.
Seriously, that is the fastest anything has ever come through the mail.
Do you know Louis DeJoy personally?
But my incredible book agent, Andrew Blatt, had William Morrison, Deborah, and her assistant, Caroline, who, like, mobilized.
Because I was not home.
If I had been home, I would have mailed it to you myself.
I was doing a book event in San Francisco, so I just emailed them and was like, can you please send a book to Jane?
And they were very quick.
I couldn't believe it.
I think they sent it before you even asked, because literally we got it.
We're like, how is this here now?
How is this possible?
This is how easily we are amazed.
We're like, the mail
is so fast.
Well, now
you are
going to be in the area, correct on the 10th.
Yes.
On the 10th, I will be in Milwaukee at Boswell Books doing a book event with my wife, who is also an author and an Emmy award-winning comedy writer.
She writes for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
And so we'll be in conversation talking a little bit about America and about my book about immigration, my funny book about immigration.
And that's an importance.
thing to keep in mind.
This is a very serious topic, obviously, especially in the days that we are living in right now.
But you take a very lighthearted approach to explain to people all of the different processes people have to go through if they want to immigrate here, including, you know, there's, I had no idea, Felipe, until I looked at your book, how many different visas there are.
And that's not all of them.
That's just the one that I found like fun to write about.
Yeah.
I mean,
there's a lot of really boring ones.
There are, but there are exceptions, you know, for if a company wants to expand, if you want to come here to start a business, if you want to do, I mean, it is remarkable how I had no idea.
I had no idea.
And for me,
A native of this country, if I find this confusing, I can only imagine how confusing it is for people who want to move here.
Well, it's funny because to me, what's really interesting, having been here and been an immigrant in this country for 12, 13 years, I came here in 2013 as a 12 years almost now, is that
Americans have a lot of opinions on immigration.
Everyone in America has an opinion on immigration.
But very few people know how the system really works.
And you see it all the time in social media, and you see it all the time in conversation, you know, with your neighbors, your friends, everyone's like, oh, well, they just need to do this.
They just need to do that.
Just go through the
process.
Exactly.
Do you think the right way, which to me is the biggest myth that exists out there, because the right way changes all the time, you know, and the right way is, even now we saw like day one of the second Trump administration, the right way was to apply for asylum using an app that the government had created.
And they shut down that app within hours of the second administration starting now.
You can debate whether that's good or bad.
That's, that's.
everyone's entitled to their opinion about what that is.
But the truth of the matter, the objective truth is that the right way was that, was to do that.
And they just decided, actually, that is no longer the right way.
You cannot do that.
So the idea of coming here the right way is such a myth because it's shifting sands.
It changes all the time.
And we see that, unfortunately, with people in certain immigrant populations that were granted, say, temporary protected status.
Yeah, TPS.
TPS.
And now that is, that was legal.
That was legal.
These people are here legally.
And then the Trump administration decided, yeah, we're going to revoke that TPS.
And now they all have to leave.
And they've been here for 20 years.
Yeah.
And I think it also is a testament to the failure of the system itself.
You know, this is supposed to be a sunny book.
And I really
don't want to get too bogged down on the like the technicalities of everything.
But TPS is in and of itself, it's in its name, it's temporary.
And these people have been here for 20 years and they should have a way to stay and to remain and make they've made this place their home.
But what really this proves is that there hasn't been any comprehensive immigration reform in 30 years since Bill Clinton was president.
And so
We we have a system that's like we've been papering through the cracks papering over the cracks for 30 years and All of a sudden it's become this thing where someone can just come in and say like well I'm removing the temporary out of the temporary protected status the temporary element is over and so oh Crap we should have done the the reform so that this didn't happen
right
I
You know, and that's the thing too for me, Felipe.
By the way, if you're just joining us, we're talking to Felipe Torres Medina, who is the author of America Let Me In.
I want to rate that.
Choose your immigration story and we're talking about the book and the process.
And one thing that I feel like, you know, if you could, if you can take a step back, I'm speaking for myself right now, you see the left kick the can down the road because I feel like they were afraid to make hard choices or say the
the hard things out loud, whereas Republicans now just to get to say exactly what they've been thinking for a long time.
And this is where we are because what they are doing seems like, quote, some movement.
Like there's been very little movement, but because they're doing something, people will see us as well.
This is a start at least, right?
We'll fix it later.
We'll bring the people back who we got.
Those were all mistakes, but the problem is we're seeing even the mistakes.
They're like, nope, they can stay down in El Salvador or whatever country they're going to.
And I mean, I just feel like as you just said, it's a failure of decades for both sides to really have a frank conversation about a topic that at the end of the day, not everyone is going to agree on a solution.
Yeah, 100%.
And look, the system exists and there are ways to do it.
But I think a little bit of the point that I try to make in the book and a little bit of the
the things that I want to point out is the satire that exists in the book is that the system works if you have money.
Yes.
That
to me was like one of the biggest things that I found out doing all the research for the book.
You know, I found it out firsthand with my own immigration experience.
But there's also all the other kinds of visas and in truth, like having money is the biggest hack.
And what we've created is a system where
we are rewarding having money over many other things that we might need.
There's genuine examples in other countries of how things could work differently.
I remember Pete Buttigieg when he was running for president in 2020, he suggested something that I don't know if it would have worked, but it would have been different.
That was called the Heartland visa, which was visas for skilled workers in
jobs that are needed in particular parts of the heartland where there is no, where there are no people who can do those jobs.
And so that's kind of similar to the way that Canada issues province visas.
And, you know, I don't know if it would have worked, but it would have been something and it would have been different.
And we would have talked about immigration, not as something that needs to be corrected or vilified.
We would have talked about it as a way to fulfill
the promise of America, right?
To fill jobs, to make communities better.
The inaction on the left leads to the discourse of they're eating the cats and the dogs.
That is a straight line.
If you create a community, if you create a sense of like these people are coming here,
to work.
These people are coming here to build a community rather than this is they're on temporary protected status.
Technically it's legal.
I don't know.
I'm not going to talk about it really.
Just ignore it.
You create that straight line.
Whereas if you form a narrative around immigration as a positive, which it is a positive for a country and we can see it, it's tangibly a positive economically, then you can you can avoid these narratives.
in these conversations about immigration is all bad, because people in their communities will see that it isn't all bad.
It sounds like to me, Felipe, and I am not a very smart person, that you are saying that what we need to do is, in the overarching theme of it, is come together, have a long conversation about this, and come up with solutions.
Because what I'm hearing from you is just, these are trying to create maybe not the perfect, maybe not permanent,
but something better than we have because that's how we move forward.
And I know as a comedian, that's what you signed up for is to become an explainer of these issues to the people out there because I'm a comedian too.
I know everyone looks to me for advice.
I'm like, I have a political science degree.
Don't ask me.
I don't know.
Yeah.
And I mean, look, that's the other thing I've been, I've been touring with this book for a little bit, thankfully, and I've been able to go to all sorts of parts of the country.
I was in Boston where like the week or the two weeks after ICE detained this student at Tufts University who has now thankfully been released and I was in Miami last month and it's one of those things where you can see how the current administration and their policies are affecting the communities in a way that's very visceral and real and
You know in the end I'm like, but I'm a comedian, you know I totally feel the fear and I totally fear feel the sadness and You know it is really sad, but how about some jokes because that's the only way I can you know
well and we do that on this program you
We are living in very serious times.
We all appreciate that and we talk about that a lot.
But for the last half an hour of our show, Felipe, we call it audio sorbet, where we talk about silly, non-important things and
then we
wrap up the show with this shouldn't be a thing.
Because I just think if we don't take a moment to laugh about something, we're all gonna self-destruct.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
I could ask you a thousand.
I have other questions I want to ask you.
Mainly I want to talk to you about just your experience with that process too.
And we can talk about that more when we come back because as you said, you are an immigrant.
You've been here for 12 years.
You know that process.
You've gone through it.
And you have a unique outlook from, you know, you work on a television show.
So I imagine that they...
that they may look at as like, well, you are working in an industry.
You are a skilled worker in that sense.
And trying to figure out what your journey through this process has been versus what other people may go through.
And I'm interested to hear about that from you as well.
But as you mentioned, Felipe, it takes money.
It takes
money
if you want to if you want to emigrate here This is an L1 visa.
We're not going to go into this a whole bunch But if you want to file for an L1 visa it is going to cost you four hundred sixty five hundred a hundred and ninety twenty five hundred Yeah, it's a lot of money
It's just fees.
Yeah, I think that those Those my wife's idea when I was writing those the book has explainers and all these visas.
It's like I think you should list
how the fees in all these
kinds of
visas, because it actually helps you prove your point.
We're going
to continue our conversation with Felipe Torres Medina.
He is a comic writer and the author of the book, America.
Let me in.
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, Dr. Slide 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.
Coming after the 1030 news audio survey for today, you know, there's a national day for everything.
National chocolate chip cookie day, national yoga day, whatever day.
What should be your national day?
What are we missing?
National Greg Day.
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You need a day.
What is your national day?
That's our audio survey coming up after the 1030 News.
We'll wrap up the shows.
We always do with this.
Shouldn't be a thing.
Today it's the year in treble now edition.
Stay tuned for that.
Currently, our guest is an author.
He writes,
for late night television and he wrote, America, let me in, I choose your immigration story.
Felipe Torres Medina is here.
It's a wonderful, lighthearted look at our immigration system.
It's a lighthearted way to look at what a mess our immigration system is.
And earlier, I was alluding to the journey that you had as far as your immigration travels.
And from coming here to where you are right now in America, I'm not saying what's your status, but just what your experience is.
Because honestly, you working in television, the only thing I have is listening to John Oliver talk about his.
And he said, even as a guy who starred on television, it's still a scary process.
It's a long, expensive process with
whoops you have to jump through and I just wanted to know if you could speak on your journey thus far and what you've gone through.
Yeah, it's a, it's, it's a scary, long and expensive process.
I moved here in 2013.
I came here to study.
I came on a student visa.
And after that, I did something called OPT.
And this stuff is all in the book told in a like slightly fictionalized version of my life as part of, as part of one of the paths you can take in the book, because as the title suggests, it's.
kind of interactive so you can pick different kinds of visas, different kinds of stories and see which one you get, but one of these is mine.
So I got something called OPT, which is what students get to be able to work here for a year.
Some students get three years if they're in STEM.
I was in the arts, so I only got one year.
Uh, and after that, I got something called an 01 visa, which is an alien of extraordinary ability visa, which is a ridiculous name.
And you can tell how, even as I was starting to like become a comedian here, I was like surrounded by the absurd.
Yeah.
Lots of
material.
Yeah.
I mean, kind of, you know, because this vehicle is called alien of extraordinary ability.
It makes you sound like you're like in the X men or you're like Alf.
You know.
You
are
ET.
You are ET.
Yeah,
essentially.
Alf reference.
Yes.
And so, uh, you know, I was starting to kind of like come to terms with all that.
And also I had a lot of friends asking me like, Oh, like, well, you know, I had, again, these are like young liberal progressives in New York being like, Oh, but you went to school here.
So you're fine.
Right.
And I had to be like, what?
No.
You have no idea how
the
immigration system works.
No, I have to get visas and I have to do it under certain timeframes.
And if I don't do it, I have to leave.
I had issues with professors at my university.
I went to Boston University, a great school.
I learned a lot.
I had professors who had no idea how the system works and they were like oh well you can just get like a barista job because I went to get my master's in screenwriting and they were like you can just move out to LA and like get a barista job and write and I was like I can't that's like legally not allowed if you're on a student visa even if you get a work permit you have to work in your area of expertise on the thing you went to school for so you can't just get like a day job a survival job and then
like work on your art on the side until you get like the big break, you know, kind of like the idealized vision of how you make it in Hollywood.
Also, can you just imagine that that was the fix?
Like just everybody just go work at Starbucks or a coffee shop.
You'll be fine.
Don't worry about it.
It's fine.
I mean, and that I think that ultimately is the root of the problem too, is that, you know, you think of the problem with this discussion being.
those who disagree and want to do extreme things, but the bigger problem I would say are those who don't, who support you, support you as a person and being here, but know almost nothing about it.
So just think, well, as long as I support them, good work on me, I'm good to go.
You know what I mean?
So they,
they, they, they
alleviate themselves the responsibility of being proper advocates versus saying just like, I, I, I say this all the time.
I don't know.
I think you should ask an expert because I can't tell you that answer.
I don't know this experience.
Ask Felipe, but
Don't ask Felipe.
He's got other things to do.
Buy his book.
Well, you can ask me.
You can buy the book, but I do have to point out that I am not an immigration lawyer or an activist.
I am a comedian.
Right.
Important distinction.
I thought all comedians were activists.
That's what I've been told these past few years.
I mean, if you have a podcast, you are basically a humanitarian.
That's true.
That's true.
If you have a podcast, you speak the truth.
Joe Rogan talking.
Felipe Doris Medina is our guest.
He's the author of America Let Me In, a Choose Your Immigration Story.
It's very funny.
You should pick it up.
And you're going to be here.
You're going to be in Milwaukee on Thursday at Boswell Books.
I will make sure to put the information on our show notes.
And I'm pretty much sure I'm going to come down there and see.
You
said you and your wife are going to be there, right?
Correct.
It's there.
It's at 6 30 p.m.
at Boswell.
Perfect.
And it's a lovely little bookstore.
Love it.
Yeah.
I'll
put
that in the show notes and we'll get down there and see you.
And thank you so, so much and congratulations.
We would love to have you back.
There's a lot more to discuss.
I would love to hear some of the comments you're hearing from folks after you address them at these, at these appearances.
So we will be in touch and thank your public.
Thank your publicist again for this is the fastest book that has ever gone through the mail.
It's a miracle.
We have news coming up next.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Thank you so much for leaving.
