Oh Great, Charlie Kirk Has An Opinion (Hour 2)

Good.

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am your host for today sitting in for Jane who is away, vacating, well deserved, hopefully relaxing.

She misses you.

She told me so.

And I want to welcome you to a wonderfully packed show today.

I got Calvin Butenhof on the board.

Say hi, Calvin.

How is it going, friend?

It is going well.

We have a really, really great show today.

We've got a lot, a lot, a lot to talk about.

And at 935, we're going to be welcoming Emily Cephos to the show.

She has written a new article for the Recombobulation Area, which if you don't already, please subscribe to the Recombobulation Area.

She is the out-of-gaming Democratic chair as well as community organizer.

She's going to be talking about the Democratic Party.

and what they need to do to get some confidence in them and have, you know, she wants to, she wants to give ideas on how they can be seen as the answers to what's happening against the Trump administration and what is happening to America and what is happening in Wisconsin.

So she will be joining us at 9 35 to talk about that article in the 10 o'clock hour at the top of that 10 o'clock hour.

Miranda Dunlap is a journalist for Wisconsin watch and she has written an article on a

Problem in Brown County, which is the fact that they have a huge deficit in 911 dispatchers We're gonna talk about how that came to be what they are doing to mitigate the problem and how they can possibly implement a plan through independent review at That's coming up at the top of the 10 o'clock hour with Miranda Dunn lab at 10 35 Special day Calvin very special day.

It's audio sore Bay with a side of gripe

Okay, so if you don't already know the big news has come out To the social medias as the kids say social meds.

That's what the kids say.

I'm sure Calvin.

That's what the kids say Taylor Swift and and Travis Kelsey are getting married.

They announced it pictures are online there on the social media So it's official and I'm very you know, I have thoughts.

I have a lot of thoughts.

I have some sorbet thoughts I have some gripe thoughts not what you may think don't assume to find out

You have to stick around 1035 is when we do that.

It's audio sorbet with a side of grape.

And then we're going to wrap up everything with this shouldn't be a thing at the at the 10 at 1052.

This today is the window or aisle seat edition.

So stick around for all that's going to be a great, great show.

If you'd like to get in touch with us, you can do that very simple, call or text.

It's the same number 855752.

or you can leave a comment on the live stream.

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So get in touch with us.

Let us know your thoughts.

I'm going to pose a really big question based on this first thing I want to talk about today, story coming out of WPR.org.

Royce Padeswa has the byline on it.

It says,

Wisconsin's cash strapped school districts likely to turn to voters again for more funding.

We just passed a budget.

Didn't we just pass a budget?

We passed a budget through with what I thought was bipartisan support.

And to be perfectly clear, Calvin, and you were here for this too, we found out very quickly within a day.

that it did not have bipartisan support.

Many Democrats were very, very upset about this, about this budget that's going to be going through.

We heard from Kareen Henderson, who is now going to be the former owner of a childcare center because there isn't enough funding for childcare, but we're going to talk about education.

And the question I want to ask you folks is, are you tired of having to go to the polls to raise your own taxes?

When does the state actually take responsibility and fund our schools properly?

Properly.

Keeping up with inflation.

Being at least at the average of school funding in this country.

Are you tired of it?

Calvin, I don't know if you had a question on your ballot last year.

I did.

I live in Kenosha.

There was a question to raise our property taxes to give an influx of cash to Kenosha school districts, to the Kenosha school district.

And I voted yes.

And if you don't know me,

I do not have children.

I do not have a child in school.

I do not have a child at all.

But I voted yes, because if this is the only option, then I'm going to invest with my property tax dollars.

My property taxes already went up anyways, but it doesn't matter, they're gonna go up any further.

I voted yes.

I voted yes because this is an investment in our children.

When is the state, and when I say the state, I mean,

the Republicans who control the state house, going to actually do something.

In November of 2024, Robin Voss went on upfront on WISN talking about education.

And he had his left hand planted firmly on his shoulder to give himself all of the paths for doing a big boy.

Good job.

Calvin, can we play that clip really quick?

When Wisconsin enacted that budget, we had the largest increase in education spending in literally a generation, since 2004, 2005.

So we did our job to make sure that we had enough for schools, for health care.

We had a large increase for nursing homes, all kinds of good investments in our top priorities.

We just had a huge investment in education.

We saw a referendum around the state where the people of Wisconsin, as we've said, they have the right to raise their own taxes.

We're not going to do it.

So I think it's a perfect opportunity for us to say, let's put the money back in the hands

of people who need it for themselves.

The billions in referendum, doesn't that show, though, that education needs more money from the state?

Absolutely not.

It's the opposite.

There are some parts of Wisconsin where people want to spend more money and they have every right to do that.

If they want to raise their taxes at the ballot box, I support that idea.

The idea that we're going to do it for them and take the burden on for every single district if it was the same, that's just wrong for the state.

855-752-4842, 855-757 is our number.

call or text, leave a voice note.

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Call us.

I want to hear from you because honestly, this makes me, this is, so this is an interview from November of 2024 and Robin Voss is talking about the biennium budget of 2023 to 2025 where they're talking about the greatest investment in education in a generation.

It's easy to invest your greatest amount when you barely

barely give any to begin with.

This school system in Wisconsin is chronically underfunded.

And I'm going to touch on that with Emily Cephos in the interview we do after the bottom of the hour news break, because she touches on that in her article for the recombobulation area.

But we are seeing over and over again that

Wisconsin schools are not being funded enough.

There's no funding for K-12 in this new budget.

There's funding for other programs, and that's great, mental health, but according to WEAC, not enough.

There's an increase in special education funding, but in my opinion, not enough.

This is not good policy.

And to force the people of Wisconsin to go to the polls, to raise their taxes, to fund the school system, which the state should have a buy-in on,

is ridiculous.

And now, according to this article on WPR, we're probably gonna have to do it again.

Communities funded.

Communities approved.

Communities said yes to billions of dollars in funding from Southeastern Wisconsin to the Northwoods.

They said yes because we understand that investing in our schools yields good results for society.

I said earlier, just before, I said, I don't have children.

I do not have children in school, but I said yes to a tax increase.

That was my choice.

I understand that.

I did the numbers in my head.

Oh, and by the way, that, that measure in Kenosha, Calvin failed.

The people of Kenosha said no.

They said no to that increase.

Well, I did not have a referendum on my ballot in the fall or the spring, but just, I want to say five or six years ago, I,

grew up and still live in a small town that has a small school district shared between two communities and We had a referendum where a larger community neighboring us was attempting to basically dissolve our elementary school in our town and take it over and just things like that and Luckily our town shot that down, but if

We were receiving proper funding.

It wouldn't have even been a question.

Yeah.

Yes.

Agreed.

Greg on the live stream.

There's a Greg on the live stream.

Not me.

I'm not on the live stream right now.

Greg in the comments on the live stream just says simply BS RV BS Robin Voss.

I am tired of Republicans taking and some Democrats.

I'm not going to lie.

Taking credit for doing so much for school when they're not doing anything at all.

This is a

press release from the Wisconsin Policy Forum that was published in the Monroe Times a couple weeks ago.

Wisconsin spent $14,882 per pupil on public elementary and secondary education in 2023, that fiscal year.

That's 9.9% less than the national average of just about $16,500.

Where is the state?

Where are they?

I mean,

I know Robin Voss is very proud of his largest increase in education in a generation, but I've said before on the show, Calvin, if I've never given you a single dollar in my entire life, if I give you five bucks today, I can't go run around saying, I have loaned Calvin more money today than I've ever loaned him in my entire life.

I can't say that.

This is not an investment.

This is monies being given to various programs, which again, great.

We need to fund education fully.

But when we're giving no money to K through 12, this state is saying something to us.

The people in charge are saying something to the parents, to the kids, to the community.

I voted yes on that referendum.

I voted yes for more dollars.

I voted yes to up my property taxes because I understand personally that children who receive a good education from K through 12 do better in life,

could possibly get better jobs, contribute more to society, and create a community in which I can benefit from, whether it's through leadership, whether through business, whether it's just through benefits in the community as far as what's available as far as services.

I mean, you cannot put a specific...

End game to all of this, but you can look at the data that says when you invest in when you invest in education and you invest in children and you do it with the dollars and you do it through partnerships federal local state There are benefits that are yielded that is why I voted yes And I don't know about you folks if you're listening right now, but according to this article We might be going back to the polls next year to vote ourselves another tax increase and I gotta when do the people get weary?

When do you say no more?

When do you, when do we say, Hey, Madison, Hey, Robin Voss, how about we, uh, do we don't wait a generation?

We do it now.

Well, we're not going to do it now because the budget already passed and they've afforded no money through that.

So I guess we're going back to the polls.

I want to know what you think.

I want to know how you feel about this.

855-752-4842, 855-75 civic is the number you can call or text.

You can also leave a comment on the live stream like Greg did.

Thank you very much, Greg.

Everyone on the live stream.

Hello.

Howdy.

We have a great show for you today.

I'm very much looking forward to talking to our guests.

As we said before at 9 35 Emily Sefos is going to be here to talk about her new article in the recon population area.

And then at the 10 o'clock hour, Miranda Dunlop from the Wisconsin watch is going to be here talking about Brown County and their shortage of 911 dispatchers, but don't go anywhere.

Stay close.

Stay cool.

Stay amazing.

We're going to take a moment to get some water, get some snacks, but when we return, we're going to hear from you.

Talk about this topic.

I guess we're going back to the polls.

It's back to school and back to the polls.

Don't go anywhere.

You're listening to Matt and air on air on the civic media radio network.

Talk soon.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and Aaron air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane who is taking a well deserved rest.

We miss her.

She misses you.

She misses us.

Welcome back to the show.

If you want to get in touch with us, you can call or text 8557 5248 4285575 civic call that or text it same number.

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Leave a comment on the live stream.

We are on Facebook, YouTube or what we still call in this house.

We call it Twitter.

We're talking about an article from WPR that says that

people are most likely going to have to go back to the polls next year to vote on referendums to fund schooling.

And I want to know what your thoughts are on this, because frankly, we've done it a few times.

We've said yes, but eventually the people might get tired of it and start saying no.

And that's when I asked the question, Madison, when do you step up and do something?

When do you actually fund in a real way?

Not in a way that makes you feel good, not in a way that you can tell your buddies and your press releases, but in a way that actually yields results for our children.

You talk about how terrible public school is.

Well, do something about it.

You have the purse string.

So you do something about it because we have already paid enough in our taxes and we're tired of raising our own taxes and do it because you guys seem to fail every time.

We're talking to people on the phone here.

We got Carmella in Milwaukee.

Carmella, it's wonderful to hear from you.

What say you on this topic?

On this topic, of course, I have a lot to say, but yeah, what?

My question is, what does happen if we say no?

Yeah, obviously it wouldn't come up until next year, but we say no, then what happens?

And that concerns me because then, just like our last, like you were talking about, it wasn't bipartisan, but we were forced to take this deal because then what happens if it doesn't get passed, then they revert back to the previous one and then there's no new funding and no

no other outlets.

So let's say we do get fed up and we say, no, that's my concern because the powers that be will then decide or it'll just revert back to archaic times and there'll be even less funding.

Yeah.

It's like a vicious circle.

Yes.

Well, you know what happens Carmella?

And that's a fabulous, that's a fabulous point that brings me to the ultimate goal of all these conversations we have.

My vote dot w i dot gov is the place where you go find your representatives names phone numbers and addresses you can find them go to their offices you can call them talk to them tell them how you feel but also we have elections coming up next year and they're going to be people running for office and I really implore you to look at the options for your candidates because they're going to be people out there Carmella who put

education as a number one point.

And if those are the individuals we want, it's our, it's our duty to go out there and get ourselves educated on the candidates, vote them in so they can do something.

Cause as you say, come on, Carmella, it's almost like we just kind of have to take it.

We have to, what, what choice do we have?

There should be a choice.

There should be a choice.

Right now, Wisconsin, according to this, uh, according to this press release from the Wisconsin policy forum that I referenced earlier, Wisconsin sits 26.

Amongst 50 states per for money we spend per pupil and I don't know about you Carmella But I don't I think we can do a lot better and I think it's up to us to you know If we have to say yes to the to the referendums we do that because we understand the investment But also we have to find the candidates who put education our kids our communities first my vote dot w i dot gov To find out who represents you tell them how you're feeling about this topic and other ones too Please always be respect respectful when you call as well because

It's probably an aid or an intern call or answering the phone, not the person in charge.

So Carmella, thank you so much for calling.

I always love hearing from you.

It's great to hear your voice again.

Jack from Merrimack is on the line.

Jack, what do you say about this?

Well, first of all, let me give you a little of my background.

This is

from

my experience I've had over 40 years of teaching.

I taught in public schools, private schools, parochial schools at literally every level from sixth grade through university.

The problem that we have is that our state legislature has seen fit to fund private schools at rates that are higher than over three quarters of the public schools are funded in the state of Wisconsin.

The amount that they're giving as private school welfare is now something approaching a billion dollars a year.

That needs to be phased out as soon

as

possible, and that money needs to be returned to public schools because for every nickel that's pulled out of public schools, that has to be replaced.

And it's in order to do that, you need these referendum.

Now, here's some of my, first of all, a couple of years ago, Ruth Conniff in the Wisconsin Examiner did a study of.

How are private schools really doing better?

And the answer is that in English and in math, public schools, in the gold standard for conservatives of standardized testing, public schools did almost 20% better.

in both English and math than private schools.

So private schools are not the answer.

Supporting public schools is the answer.

My experience in private schools also, they've got no required standards.

There's no accountability.

Here is what happened at one parochial

school.

Well, Jack, I'm sorry.

I got to cut you off there.

We're coming up against a commercial.

So I got to bop out of here.

But I appreciate your call.

I appreciate all the information.

And honestly, Jack, yes, the whole discussion about the voucher program is one that we don't have.

I could talk about that for decades.

And that is another great way of finding funding is simply not funding an entirely separate school system for private schools through the tax dollars.

We will talk about that more in the coming weeks and months because we always have that top of mind as well.

But Jack, you are absolutely right.

I appreciate your call.

Before we get out of here, go get some hydration and get some snacks.

I just want to let you know, you can always call or text 855-752-484-2855-757.

Don't.

go far because when we return Emily Cephos, who is the out of gamey Democratic chair, as well as a community organizer will be here talking about her new article about the Democrats and what they need to do to find some trust within the people available on the recon population area website right now.

Don't go far.

We'll talk to you very, very soon.

You're listening to Matt and air on air on the civic media radio network.

Good, good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box, sitting in for Jane, Matt and air who was currently on vacation and she just texted me again and says, yes, I still miss every single one of you.

Thank you so much for being here joining us, sticking with us through the show.

I want to share with you before we get started with everything, uh, share some breaking news coming out of Minneapolis right now.

There has been a, uh, there is an active shooter at many of Minneapolis church and Catholic school.

in South Minneapolis, Governor Tim Walz has confirmed the shooting at Annunciation Catholic school on the South side of Minneapolis.

This is all coming by the way of NBC news.com.

ATF agents have responded to the active shooter reports and the FBI is aware of the, of the reports as well.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry says that they are monitoring the reports of the horrific violence in South Minneapolis and the emergency response team has been activated.

As we know more, we'll share with, of course, but it is absolutely a tragedy was going on.

And our, you know, we're keeping them in our hearts as always as this happens.

Oh, so many times too many times, I should say.

But I'm very excited though to have as our guest today, she is the out of gamey democratic chair.

She is the chair of chairs.

That is the title chair

chair

is like first of first of the house, mother of dragons, mother of chairs, Emily.

something.

Yeah, exactly.

Emily Sephos is our guest.

She's back friend of the show.

I've been here many times.

Love having her here.

Emily.

Hello.

Welcome.

How are you doing today?

Hello, Greg.

I am doing well.

And I'm excited to be here with you this morning.

So thanks for having me on.

Yeah, always always always always lovely having around and

Yeah, you you I didn't I when I when I contacted you earlier I said, what do you want me to call you like what your title and you gave me like like your chair of the county chairs Association out of gave me Dems chair and community or you just mom wife Just you do a cape and at night you fight crime I

like it myself more.

I'll have more energy.

Maybe if I perceive myself

exactly Yes, exactly Superman never gets tired.

I

But you wrote a new article for the recombobulation area.

And its title is very simple and very to the point, how Democrats can rebuild trust because in 2024, a message was sent for the voters.

And I am not a member of the Democratic party anymore.

And I have a lot of thoughts on this matter, but it feels like, and I know it's less than a year into the second Trump administration.

But for me personally,

I feel like there's a lot of work to be done on Democratic side.

And I love to get your thoughts on where, I mean, whether we're talking, you know, county parties, state parties, national parties, there's a lot of work to be done.

Where do you see the first steps need to be taken, Emily?

Sure.

Um, yeah, I, I mean, we know that we're polling as a party, um, at a 30 year low at this point.

Like it is, we are not.

Great at this at this juncture.

But one of the things I wanted to point out is that Not only is there I think there's a perceived connection from like the tippy top of the Democratic Party to those of us that are on the ground like just fighting for Democratic ideals And so I really want to bring that power back to the grassroots to the people that are living in the communities that are just showing up for their neighbor and being like look I mean frankly like if we're being honest Greg like it's a two-party system and it's not perfect

And so there's a lot of criticisms that I could also give to what's happening within the Democratic Party.

But I know that.

In this in the way that we're structured with our government that is the vehicle that we need to be pushing for at this point And that's like how I perceive it But I think that there's a lot that we can do at the at the grassroots at the county party level like with our neighbors to further Like the cause the ideology and to build a lot of like power and trust back so that we can Make the headways we can start chipping away at the mountain as it were but

all the while we're doing the right thing for our neighbors.

And I think we forget about that.

We're kind of waiting for someone to show up on a white horse and like carry us off into the sunset.

And that's simply not going to happen.

So let's take the power that we have like right here right now and start to utilize it in our own communities.

I'm going to quote from the article that you wrote for the Reconpopulation Area specifically with regard to the perception of the Democratic Party says a recent survey showed our party's favorability at a net minus 32, which has been

which is the worst it's been in three decades.

And I think, you know, I think you nailed something right there with regard to there's so many, there could be so many cooks in the kitchen because you've got, you got your local parties, you've got your county parties, you've got your state parties, you got, and everyone wants to talk and everyone wants to see the table.

And I understand that.

I think what you're, what you're discussing is probably the best start because you can only control what's in front of you.

And something that, you know,

cannot be disputed.

And I know because I worked on the Obama campaign in 2008, I think one of the things that really made a difference was setting up all those offices in communities, knocking on doors and talking to people.

If you look at the numbers in 2000, where I was working in Wauwatosa, Wauwatosa, they voted 100% for George W. Bush.

In 2008, they voted

53% for Obama.

Now, some will say, well, that's not much.

That's huge.

And from 2000 to 2008, that's huge.

And I think that speaks to what you're talking about of the grassroots level, the discussions, the community conversations.

And I think that's where we can do the best good is by just having those good talks with people.

I mean, I think that's how you break through the noise, right?

You are being bombarded with information, whether it is from news channels or from the money players, I guess, when it comes to our politics.

But to your point, what makes a difference is talking to your neighbors.

And I think that we need to employ

all of the people that care about their communities in that way to do start doing that again because we were you know we're able to silo each other off and we too often are like politics is taboo that's what we're taught in the Midwest as far as like our culture is concerned and we need to get back to connecting the hurt that people are feeling outside their front door to the policy decisions that were made to lead to that hurt because oftentimes it is politically tied and

Frankly, people are working too hard to like dig into the weeds about like what the legislation was, what passed the committee, who did what.

So we need to do that for

them.

I get paid to look at the news every day for multiple news sources.

And sometimes people will say, did you hear that story?

I'm like, how did I miss that?

Or you have to remember, oh, yeah, Trump said that three months ago.

I can't believe I forgot that.

I feel like this was the first election in 2024 that podcasting really played a part.

And that's a

whole new level.

Social media.

came in.

That was one level podcasting, especially because you saw, you, you saw, you saw bro broadcasts having on all the quote, I'm going to say this and I know people don't like it.

I think one of the reasons Donald Trump won in 2024 and you might not like this as a brand.

He's cool.

He has cool landing, cool merch.

He's the guy who's like, hey, you want to have Taco Bell for breakfast this morning?

Let's do it.

You can do it.

You're American.

And people hook onto that thing of just like that brash individualism.

And that came across in a whole new medium.

And so now in 2025, Democrats are left saying, what do we do next?

How do we do this?

And as you put in the article, it doesn't come

with a slogan and it can't be finding the Joe Rogan or hoping for a blue wave or new Obama.

It's about really doing the work and investing the time.

Yeah.

And I think like to your point like that we, you know, I, when we meet every month at in Appleton and we're talking through like what we're going to do next, it's about recognizing the fact that like we can't control what's going on like with podcasts, right?

Like we can't control who they're going to.

you know, fall in line for or do whatever with when it comes to the next, like the midterms or the next presidential, we can control what we're doing in our own communities and who we're talking to and how we're saying it.

And I think like that is what's keeping me at this point as someone active in this political space from like curling up in the fetal position.

And just like kind of be like, all right, three and a half years, we're going to white knuckle it like

It's really reassuring to know that if you actually do that work and you dedicate yourself and your team to doing that kind of work, you will see that you can make those inroads, that you can start to have those conversations.

It is not something that people are adverse to.

It's simply because they're sucking in the podcasts and the ads and the social media stuff, and no one's coming to counter it.

But you just need to counter it in a way that is community-centered.

And I think that we'll see a lot of progress that way.

If you're just joining us on Matt and the Arnair, we're speaking to Emily Cephos, who is the chair of the Otagami, Otagame County Dems.

Wow, word's tough.

Who knew?

And she is our guest today.

We're talking about her new article in the recombobulation area entitled how Democrats can rebuild trust.

And yeah, I mean, it's it always comes down to yes, it always comes down to that conversation always comes down to having a having to talk at a dinner table and it can be and honestly, it should be uncomfortable if you have disagreements, you should push each other to

figure out why you believe in something and where does that, where do the foundations of your belief come from?

And I'm talking about everybody, by the way, not just the people who come to Thanksgiving once a year and ruin it with Trump talk.

I'm talking about yourselves, your friends, because there's a lot of self reflection that needs to come after an election like 2024.

And one of the things in your article, you talk about a story where you, you know, you raise money to pay off student lunch debts.

in the Freedom Area School District, and you say something very important in there that says, I know some of these people who gave money are Democrats.

Yeah, I think it's like showing up, right?

And doing the right thing for people.

And I think when we raised about $1,600 for Freedom Area School District, which is a fraction of what they...

end up with every year.

And I would encourage you all to look into your school districts because it is appalling

the

amount of debt that they are straddled with.

But when we did that, it was to just say, we're just raising money.

We're raising money.

100% of it's going to the school district.

They need it.

It will help to alleviate some of the stress that they're feeling.

And then when we did it and people asked why, we said, the reason that these school districts are straddled with tens of thousands of dollars in lunch debt is because we've been underfunding them.

And so they have nothing to grab from.

There's no piggy bank

that they

can take this money from because they are already in the red on so many other issues.

And if we fix some of that stuff, we wouldn't have to do this as a community.

And so we connect.

the hurt.

We connect what is happening at our local community schools to the policy choices that have been made that have led us to this consequence.

Because again, we need to be connecting the dots in every way we can.

And that's something we were talking about earlier before you came on the show.

I was discussing the WPR article, it says that most likely voters are going to have to go back to the polls to yay or nay referendums to fund our schools.

And I, it may, it may, I mean, I don't know if this question just sounds dumb, but

When are people going to get sick of this?

When are the people going to stand up and say to the legislature in Madison, do your part.

You're not doing enough.

You think you've given money.

I think it's adorable.

You think about that greatest investment in generation.

That's a great thought Robin was, but you haven't done enough.

And we saw that in the last budget or the budget we're in right now and the coming budget.

So now it's up to us, the people, people like me who have no children to say yes or no.

And at some point, I understand when people just want to say no.

Well, and you're like you're you know, they're not only doing the underfunding but they're also Simultaneously like maligning the work that's being done in our schools.

So they're you know, they're saying we gave them all that money They shouldn't you know, like really like they should be thankful kind of thing and then you as a citizen that might not be as engaged They might not understand all of what's happening in Madison are saying you're right.

I just raised my property taxes four years ago Why am I doing this again?

You must be wasting it because that's what they told me and so we're discrediting our public school systems and it

like, I mean, the goal is privatization.

We need to say that part a lot.

Oh yeah.

I mean, and we, and we said it earlier too, it's like, it's like, there'd be a lot more money in the pot if we just stopped funding an entire second school system in this state, but that's a whole lot of conversation.

We can keep going after we go grab, grab some snacks.

But before we do that, uh, you know,

That's the other, I think that is a big problem, though, that Democrats have to reckon with.

And it's been kind of the worst kept secret in the world when Republicans say, we gave you the money and the schools still aren't doing good.

Why do you want to raise your taxes?

That's an easier sound bite to digest and repeat to your buddies than it is to say, here's the information on why the system is failing us right now.

And people are like, I don't want to learn.

I don't have time to listen to this.

I've got things to do.

So we're going to keep this conversation going with Emily Seffos, who is the out of gamey.

County Dems Chair, also author of the new spot in the Reconbobulation area called How Democrats Can Rebuild Trust.

Don't go anywhere.

We're going to keep it going.

Want to hear from you?

Call us.

Text 855-752-4842 on Matt Naranair on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good, good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air on the civic media radio network.

My name is Greg box setting in for Jane, Matt and air who is currently not here, but she loves you.

We are talking to Emily Cephos, who is the chair of the out of gaming County Dems and we are discussing her new article in the recombobulation area entitled

how Democrats can rebuild trust, and we're discussing that.

If you wanna get in touch with us, you can call or text the numbers the same, 855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.

Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, or what we in this house still call Twitter.

And something that I want to quote really quick from that article, Emily, is what you have right underneath that title.

And I think this is an important aspect of the conversation because

There's reckoning that needs to be done.

There's self-reflection that needs to be done post 2024 is that here's the quote We don't need to wait for permission.

We don't need the perfect polling memo or a six-figure campaign budget or even consensus Consensus on every issue what we need is already here and I think that's an important thing because again Say what you will about the GOP and I've said this for a long time.

They they vote together

they stick together, they win together.

And that is something the Democrats have always had a problem with, is that we have an issue.

Issue whatever, take whatever issue you want to pick, one of the big ones.

There can be a general consensus, but then there's always going to be voices from either further or left or center left mid who

muddle the discussion where we can't get things done, and then nothing gets done, and then you look like you have no ability, and you get tagged as whatever they want to call the left.

But I think if they just sat down and said, look, we're not going to agree, and I would, this is a big tent, a lot of people, we're not going to agree, but can we just at least say we want to start here and work towards this next goal, and then so on and so forth?

Yeah, I think that like one of the things I say often is like we can't let perfection get in the way of progress And it's hard right because under that big tent you have people that are experiencing the world in a different way than like I am as a white woman for example But really like it's important right now and what we're saying You know when we're talking to other organizations in the area and when we're working through some things It's like we're rowing together.

We have to be rowing together And yes, there are going to be differences in how we'd approach it or what we want that end goal to be but

there we don't have time to waste and I think like that's pretty much the point is that we don't have time to waste because so many things are falling away right now and it's just really important that we're gathering all the people that we can to make you know as much of an impact as possible.

And I think you bring up a good point too there are folks out there and if you've not watched the live stream I am a I am a white gentleman.

living in Wisconsin full of lots of privilege that I realize I have, and listening to those voices of whether it's younger people or older folks, people from a different background, and instead of saying, well, we've got this.

We know what we're doing.

Trust us and we'll move forward.

Bring them in.

Support them.

I think that's one of the things we see with certain elections around the country is you see the democratic

You know, the big machine, the brand name of national democratic party saying, this isn't what we're doing.

This isn't who we are.

Well, no, it's, but I'm in the tent.

Listen to me.

I want to help the people in my community.

Going back to what you said earlier, Emily, these are the conversations I've had with my people, my community.

This is what we need to get done.

I need your support.

And we need, there needs to be leadership that understands that instead of saying, well, just you wait for a while.

That's not how it's going to work.

And it just sows more dissent and more distrust within the party.

Yeah.

And I think like an important part of that too is when you're, you know, the same way that we're having conversations with folks on the other side, right?

When we're talking to Republicans and we're like, I really just need to understand your perspective and how you got.

to whatever rabbit hole you might have gone

down

or whatever your belief system is.

Same thing within the Democratic Party, right?

Like so that if you, if I'm more centrist and I'm talking to someone that's super far left on our spectrum to say, tell me why like what you're doing is so important kind of thing.

So I understand like coming from a place of curiosity, but then offering in that same kind of vein of respect.

um with that far left person like but here's how we need to format that so it fits into my community so it's not just something that they can spin

right

like because we need to make sure that we are whatever we're talking about make sure that we're focusing on the issues that are most impactful that are not going to be spun in a way that is completely like a turnoff for people but we're still working toward the end goal where everybody fits and you're getting those things done.

Yeah absolutely and and this is a challenge to a lot of people who identify on you know whether it's center left

medium left, mild left, whatever it is, listening to younger people speak about their experiences and what they need from a partnership with this country or with their state or with their community to not discount their needs, their wants and their desires based on their age or quote in experience.

Well, you don't know anything.

You're not married.

You don't own property, blah, blah.

It's like, it doesn't matter.

It matters that they have needs and they need to be heard.

Cause when you don't listen,

They walk away and they don't vote and they say, well, why do I have to?

Why am I part of this system?

You don't care about me.

I know I should go up to, you know, going up to doors, for example, in Royal Abbey County, something I did a lot of last year when I ran.

And it was a lot, a lot of those folks are just like, no one's coming for me.

And at least Donald Trump says I can have, you know, like a taco in the morning or like he's speaking to me like a, you know, like a friend would that you want to get a beer with or whatever.

And I'm, and I think we just need to start showing up again and not being afraid to just be like, I'm here out of curiosity.

I want to know what you feel.

I'm going to push back on you and you're welcome to push back on me and let's get to that greater understanding.

So I think it's like the community aid piece.

It's also just treating folks with respect.

and making sure that you are having the conversations rather than just completely writing off any one person or any group of people.

Absolutely.

And I think that's an important point to bring up again, too.

It's not just about having the uncomfortable conversation that you want to make someone else uncomfortable to self-assess.

It's about what are they going to say that challenges your own beliefs?

be ready to be uncomfortable too.

Emily Saphos, thank you so much for being here today.

I love talking to you.

I'm going to have you back real, real soon.

You can read her piece, How Democrats Can Rebuild Trust in the Recombobulation Area.

Subscribe to that right now.

It's super affordable.

It gets you great coverage.

What a bunch of awards, including who knows, maybe Emily Saphos will be accepting one as well.

I don't know, but we love having her here.

I really appreciate your time, Emily.

Thank you so much.

Thanks so much.

When we return, Miranda Dunlap Dunlap from Wisconsin Watch will be here to talk about the shortage of 911 dispatchers in Brown County.

You want to stick around, stay close, stay hydrated.

You are amazing.

Let no one tell you differently.

This is Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

See you soon.

Good, good morning.

Welcome back everyone to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg Bach filling in for Jane Matt and air who is currently not here.

She's vacating getting some rest and she texts again.

She still misses every single one of you.

So welcome, welcome, welcome.

We're happy you're here for the second hour of the show.

Wonderful show ahead of us at 1035.

We have audio sore Bay.

Nope.

All right.

Audio.

So there it is.

There it is.

That's where we, that's where we cleanse.

We get, we have some fun, uh, mixed with some gripes, audio survey.

Exactly.

Taylor Swift is getting married.

I have thoughts and they're not what you think.

Trust me.

I'm smiling.

But, uh, that's at 10 35.

And then this shouldn't be a thing at 10 52.

That is the window or aisle edition.

We're going to keep it going.

Stay with us.

Stay close.

There is, um, uh, breaking news coming out of Minneapolis right now.

The,

The active shooter has died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

This is coming from MSNBC right now.

We have a little bit more information.

Tony Evers has issued a statement.

We'll be talking about this story more throughout the day, but the active shooter situation seems to have ended in south, on the south side of Minneapolis at Ascension Church and School in Minnesota.

We are going to keep the show going.

I love to welcome the show for the first time.

Miranda Dunlap.

You are is a reporter for Wisconsin.

Watch you officially the pathways to success reporter for Northeast Wisconsin.

Miranda, thank you so much for being here today.

How are you?

I'm great.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yes.

Thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate your time on this.

And you just wrote an article for Wisconsin watched about a.

shortage of 911 dispatchers in Brown County.

Can you tell us about the story and, you know, what the history is on the problem here in Brown County with this job, with finding people for this job?

Yes, yeah.

So this is not an issue that is at all new.

If you are a resident of Brown County or you're in the area, you've probably heard about this shortage.

It's officials at the

at Brown County called this an issue that's been endemic for over a decade.

So they say that it's kind of like playing a game of whack-a-mole.

You know, when you solve one issue, another one pops up and they just can't seem to get enough people in the 911 Center to fully staff that Center and have, you know, all the people answering the calls when you call 911.

And they're really not alone in this.

This is a nationwide issue.

Like many industries, it really came to a head during the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortages nationwide really ramped up.

But even as things seem to, the issue seems to alleviate across the country, it seems to be getting worse in Brown County.

And is there an, is there a number on the shortage?

Like what is the magic number they need to reach?

Is this affecting the response time?

Is it affecting people who are calling 911 to get the help they need?

Yeah, so I guess the magic number that they have is fully staffed would be 56 dispatchers on staff.

Right now, they're currently 19 short as of early August.

So that might be give or take now that we're a few weeks out.

But 19 short, that's roughly a third of the Dispatching Center.

And to answer your question about if this is impacting service,

As of a little over a year ago, there was a study done and in part of that study, they found that Brown County has a great response time when it comes to dispatchers picking up the phone.

When people call 911, they answer in just a few seconds, which is well below the national recommendations of around 15 seconds.

People are answering the phone quickly still, but I think there are concerns about if that will continue, if this issue is ongoing, or if other mistakes could be made.

I mean, that's spectacular and kudos to them for being so responsive.

I mean, I can't imagine.

I would think that you'd hear those kind of numbers, that kind of shortage you would think, well, God, people must be waiting forever.

That also must lead to conversations about mental health, work-life balance, as far as who's working in those centers.

Is there any information on why it's such a problem in Brown County?

Like you said, it's a problem throughout the country, but in Brown County, they just don't seem to be hanging on to people.

Yeah.

I think a lot of inferences that you could make,

there's a

lot of things.

could kind of chalk it up to but you know one thing that we looked at was pay and pay is something that they have tried to address to try to bring more people in when you look at Brown County compared to

Other neighboring counties in the Northeast region, Brown County's pay is really dead middle of the road, starting pay, that is.

So if you're looking to bring in people who are doing this for the first time, really have no experience, they're looking at, you could probably make several dollars more an hour, if not more, in a neighboring county.

So is there a lot of incentive there?

not sure.

It's also a job that is really high stress.

Absolutely.

And yeah, people in the industry would tell you that the amount of stress that they go through and the amount of kind of secondhand trauma that they endure is really is

much, the pay that they get doesn't really equal the amount of stress that they're taking on.

And in the article that you wrote in Wisconsin Watch, I mean, this isn't even, this isn't even a situation where Brown County is sort of saying, you know, there's municipalities who can say, well, we don't have the money or deal with it's your job.

They actually are making inroads to try to get raises and they're still having a problem.

Because people are just, as you just mentioned, maybe what they're paying

may not equal the amount of work and or stress they have to deal with in the job.

Because yeah, I mean, I can't imagine what a 911 dispatcher goes through in one shift.

Yes, 100%.

I think what it comes down to is what people told me over and over, industry experts, other counties, other 911 dispatchers have said over and over that pay is not the biggest thing when it comes to this job.

Yeah.

If you're just joining us, I'm Matt Nara Nair.

We're speaking with Miranda Dunlap, who is a journalist reporter for Wisconsin watch.

And she has put out a new article regarding a shortage in Brown County of 911 dispatchers, as well as just talking about what, what is, what is leading to this problem.

As you said, Miranda earlier, that this is not one, this is not Brown County alone.

This is not Wisconsin.

This is throughout the country.

And one of the things that I guess, you know,

reading the article here that really kind of accelerated too was COVID.

And that really led to not having enough staff to, which was a problem for a lot of businesses, but I can imagine that this is a huge problem.

I know that Waukesha seems to be in the article, you talk about Waukesha having a plan that they're doing, they're trying to help as well.

Can you speak more about the Waukesha plan?

Yeah, so one thing

thing we wanted to do when reporting the story was look at, is there any place in Wisconsin that has had success in solving a similarly large problem?

Is there any reason to believe that there is hope for Brown County or solutions they could look to?

And the answer is yes.

In Waukesha, they in

I believe it was 2023.

They were over half vacant in their 911 center.

They were missing over 20 dispatchers.

They were missing more people than they had staff.

And now today they're really floating around like two people at a time missing from the center.

So they've really managed to staff up in a way that is pretty impressive.

And speaking to them, they pointed to several things that

that helped them.

But they really emphasized that while they did raise pay, pay was not the thing that turned them around.

It was a small factor.

They also removed some of the testing requirements that they felt were outdated and filtering out people who might have been good for the job but just needed a little bit more training to get there.

They started ripping up their training to help train those people themselves once they got them in the door.

They introduced a really intense focus on the mental health of these dispatchers.

They looked around and noticed that there was a lot of stress and burnout happening and thought about how can we remove some of that weight?

And they added on, they now contract with counselors who are specialized in speaking with first responders and those who work in emergency services to

help them work through a lot of this what they call vicarious trauma this secondhand trauma of I mean think about it you're answering the phone and you're hearing things that you know then you hang up the phone once the police get there and you don't really have that like resolution of knowing what happens

yeah

um so there's a lot of work through I

couldn't I like I said earlier I don't know if I could handle one shift I don't know

you know, what these individuals, these individuals go through so much on just a daily basis.

And I think that's right there.

I mean, that's a wonderful thing that Waukesha was doing.

Cause that, for me personally, you know, we all, we all have a job and it's good to get paid and nice pay is great.

But when you're, when your bosses, when your management understand that, especially in a situation like this, there's so much stress, there's so much more into it than, and as, and as, you know, Brown County can pay more, but if they don't have those other aspects that Waukesha has and that maybe other

counties or municipalities have, that also makes a difference too because you want to make sure you're taken care of.

And I can only imagine what the burnout in that industry is.

Did anyone talk about that as far as the burnout of that job?

Or is, yeah, I don't know.

I can't imagine what people go through in that job.

Yes.

So in Brown County in particular,

burnout is a really large topic of discussion.

There's a lot of local news coverage from the past few years about dispatchers speaking out about the burnout that they're facing because they work long shifts and when they're short staffed they're having to cover shifts and they're working tons of overtime and they're

12 hour shifts and multiple of those a week and it's in dealing with this during those shifts, right?

So the burnout is, is huge.

And it's something that, that dispatch hunters really have to address if they want to keep people around.

Yeah.

I think that's, I think that's great.

That walks us doing that.

And I kind of, I hope that Brown County takes that in consideration too.

And we're going to, we're going to stop for a moment, get some water, get a snack and we're going to come back.

And I want to talk about in this article as well,

You speak about an independent review that took place, and there were some recommendations.

I want to talk about what's being implemented, what's being done, and what can still be done in the future.

We are talking to Miranda Dunlap, who is a journalist, a reporter for Wisconsin Watch.

I like just saying your title, The Pathways to Success Reporter for Northeast Wisconsin.

So cool.

But a new article in Wisconsin Watch talking about is actually the title is Brown County's 911 Dispatch.

Dispatchers shortage is relentless.

What will it take to fix it?

We're going to talk more about this article with Miranda when we come back.

Don't go anywhere.

You are amazing.

You are awesome.

You are listening to Matt Naranair on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stay

close.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and Aaron air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who's currently vacating deservedly and loving it.

She just told me so welcome back to the show.

We are talking to Miranda Dunlap, who is a reporter for Wisconsin watch who just

published an article on the shortage of 911 dispatchers in Brown County and what can be done to fix it.

Miranda, welcome.

Welcome back to the show.

We appreciate you being here.

And we were talking before about the history of it, what led to this, how Brown County has done some things, including approving the rate pay raises for those who work.

But there was actually something that was done last year.

through the Brown County Board of Supervisors.

It was an independent review of the dispatch center last year, and they came out with their findings in January.

Can you talk more about that, please?

Yes, I think it's really important to note that this isn't an issue that has just been kind of going on in the background

and not

really doing anything about it.

The county is taking a

very active role in trying to fix this.

They've been paying attention to it.

They've been monitoring it.

And in January of 2023, the County Board of Supervisors

said that they wanted to commission a study of the center and kind of bring in outside consultants to spend some time there and figure out how they could make the center more effective and what are some things that they could do to solve that shortage.

Now, the study wasn't solely focused on the shortage.

It was also really focused on how they could be more effective and improve their operations.

Okay, and according to the article they made 65 recommendations and is there any progress on what they've implemented so far?

Yeah, they have kind of been working their way down the list of these recommendations and implementing them.

Now, I don't exactly know what the ordering is that they're following, but they do give a monthly progress report at the Public Safety Committee County meeting.

And some things that they've done so far include changing the

the ordering of some processes in their hiring.

So they now have candidates come and visit the center before they sit down for an interview, which kind of gives them an earlier taste of what they're in store for if they haven't been in this job before.

The consultant said that that is something that might help.

So they've done that.

The recommendations also included ways to beef up recruitment So they told them to take a really active role in posting their jobs in places that Maybe they get it right in front of people rather than hoping for people to come to them.

Yeah, and this includes

job boards, going to job fairs, working with local education institutions to try to drive people into those courses of study that feed into these.

And they've done some of this.

They have posted in job boards that they haven't really posted on before.

But there are other parts of that that they haven't touched yet, which is maybe more the educational piece, the local college.

Northeast Wisconsin Tech says that they haven't really been formally tasked by them to help alleviate this shortage.

So there's still some pieces to be implemented there.

And another big piece was changing the

Scheduling that's the center runs on the consultants basically looked at the center and said the schedule is a mess and it's contributing to people's burnout.

Yeah.

And the, I mean, they called it chaotic.

And

that can't

be good.

Yeah.

So they, they told them really as soon as possible, you need to move to a different shift schedule.

And so that is to come in the new year.

There was a lot of controversy when they went to move to a new schedule a few months back.

So they're anticipating doing that in the new year.

And one of the things you mentioned too here, because, you know, to kind of fill the gap on a temporary basis is actually traveling dispatchers who are contractors who will work the center for six months cover shifts.

And I guess I would imagine they're there while the

while the county does these things to try to fill those jobs, and then those quote, traveling dispatchers can move to another gig.

But that's, I mean, that's a good idea.

But it says in your article, unnecessarily complex as far as the scheduling and chaotic.

I can't imagine.

what it must be like at the Brown County, like, because as you said, not only is this not a new thing, but it's something that Brown County has worked hard to try to mitigate.

It's not just people saying, well, too bad, it's your job.

They're really trying to make this work.

And to be told, yeah, your schedule is complex and chaotic.

You've got to fix that before we can really do anything else.

That's, I think, an important piece.

And I really hope that hopefully in

you know, six months, a year's time, you can write a whole new article saying it's working, it's doing better, they've hired new people.

And yeah, and we thank you for bringing this to our eyes, because frankly, you know, it makes me wonder about the dispatchers in my community.

Do we have a good system here as well as throughout Wisconsin?

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me on to

to amplify it.

And I, I'm with you.

I hope that in six months time, this is an issue of the past.

Exactly.

Miranda Dunlap is a reporter for Wisconsin Watch, her article, uh, entitled, let me just get to it.

It was so much scrolling I have to do in a day's, day's work.

Brown County's 911 dispatcher shortage is relentless.

What will it take to fix it?

It's at Wisconsin Watch.

I will put it in the show notes today so you can find it.

Go to civicmedia.us slash shows.

Look for Matt and Aaron there.

Click on today's the second hour of the show and you can find that article as well as all the other things we've talked about Miranda again.

Thank you so much for your time and expertise.

We appreciate you.

You have a wonderful day.

Thank you so much.

All right.

When we come back is time for audio sorbet with a side of gripe Taylor Swift's getting married.

What are your thoughts?

I have thoughts.

We all have thoughts.

Don't go anywhere.

Stay close.

Stay cool.

Stay amazing.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the civic media radio network.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air and air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane, Matt and air who is currently vacating, but we'll be back before you know it.

And we are talking here today on the show about all sorts of wonderful things.

I want to thank Emily Cephos, the Democratic chair of out of gaming County for being our guest today in the first hour as well as Miranda Dunlap, who is our guest just now talking about the shortage of 911 dispatchers in Brown County.

I bring all that up because if you've missed it and you're joining us right now,

You can go to civicmedia.us slash shows, look for Matt and Aaron there and find a nice archive of everything we've done in the past few months.

You can listen, download them to your device, listen to them whenever, wherever you want.

And if you can't listen to us on terrestrial radio, you don't have a car or whatnot, you can download the Civic Media app.

Very simple, very free.

Go to wherever you get your apps, Apple Store.

Maybe it's the Google Play Store.

I don't know if they're Calvin.

I don't know if there's other places you can get apps are there I have no idea I just know the two places seems like a duopoly to me.

That's a big word for the app stores

I mean if you have a phone that exists outside of the Apple or Android ecosystems You may have something else, but I don't know how many of those exist

I bet you the people who do have that are like you don't understand man.

You can't go to big phone

You got to go to Terry's phone cell phone service.

They have Terry's app shop.

It's got four apps, two of them are Facebook.

Anyways, get the civic media app, put it on your phone, put it on your device, listen to us whenever you would like, because you can tune into all of our stations, including the talk, including the music, and you can listen anywhere in the world.

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So get the civic media app, download it now.

Listen to the show live and if you want to check out the shows as a podcast subscribe to them as a pause podcast And if you think we deserved it give us a five-star rating because it really helps just be a friend, you know, all right We're gonna keep moving along in a section.

We love to call audio Sorbet With a side of gripe

Well, let me tell you something boy.

So if you don't know already if you don't know

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are getting married.

Calvin, where were you?

Let me ask you a question.

Where were you when you found out?

I think I was in this room to be completely honest with you.

Okay, I was sitting and scrolling on my phone Working hard working hard and I saw it on Reddit and I went to text my mom because she's the one that would care about that

And I see that she had already texted the family group chat.

So she was on

it.

Well, your mom isn't alone in her excitement.

I am a Taylor Swift fan.

I'm a Travis Kelsey fan.

I like them both.

I like them together.

I think they're really cute.

I think they're funny apart.

I think they're funnier together.

I'm a fan.

We call them, I'm not calling them trailer.

That doesn't seem very nice at all.

I'm trying to think of a cool, fun name.

Kelsey Swift.

No, all of it's terrible.

Nevermind.

Point is I'm excited for them.

They don't know me, but I'm excited for them.

And there's a lot of, there's a lot of people having wonderful reactions.

The engagement is absolutely wonderful and positive for the most part.

I don't know if anyone else saw this, but, and this is a story in the New York post.

I also saw this on social media.

There was a college professor who walked into his class and just simply said, he said, Taylor and Travis just got engaged.

Uh, due to this information, I can't focus.

You all can focus classes canceled.

Get out of here.

We need time to process this information.

And I think that's, that's fair.

There are a lot of kids on their phones just wanting to know more about this, but, and that's the sorbet.

I love this.

I think that this is really cute.

Calvin.

I mean, I know that you are a huge Taylor Swift fan and like one of the biggest Swifties there is, right?

Calvin, you celebrate your entire, entire catalog.

I can't say that I'm a swift either.

More than three songs that I like.

Oh, okay.

That's

I'd like.

Yeah, there you

go.

I don't keep up and I don't listen to the albums front to back.

Okay.

Well, that's your loss, buddy.

I mean, Taylor's versions of her.

You're missing out on great art.

The re and that's my that's the sorbet.

I love seeing I love seeing this stuff, you know.

And, and feel it free for, for Sorbet.

And I'm doing this on the spot cause this is, and we're going to also, uh, we need to, you know, share that like those moments on social media, whether it's a dog video or maybe it's a cute kid video or just a heartwarming connection between people.

Tell us, tell me what your favorite moments you're seeing on social media, things that are brightening your life, bringing your heart up that are making you feel good.

Unfortunately, we have a gripe.

And I'm going to gripe right now.

And that gripe goes to Mr. Charlie Kirk, who decided to take this moment and give us his opinion recently on this.

Calvin, can you play that clip, please?

Having children changes you.

Getting married changes you.

And I hope that America's biggest pop star marrying the pharmaceutical spokesperson.

OK, calm down.

Ends up.

conservatizing them.

Taylor Swift might de-radicalize herself.

She might come back down to reality.

I want them to have lots of children.

This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative.

Engage in reality more and get outside of the abstract clouds.

Reject feminism.

Submit to your husband, Taylor.

Okay.

You're not in charge.

And most importantly,

I can't wait to go to a Taylor Kelsey concert.

I can't say it without laughing.

You got to change your name.

If not, you don't really mean

it.

Calvin, did you take your headphones off because you didn't want to listen to Charlie

Kirk talk?

Yeah.

And I put my fingers in my ears.

I want the audience to know that that was edited for time.

Yes.

It is almost a four minute long clip and Greg.

forced me against my will to listen to the entire thing.

Well, I feel like you're just painting a narrative.

That's mean right now, but I guess the question I have for everyone in this audio gripe is that what do you, what do you think about this?

I think, I think, I bring it up because a long time ago in my twenties, which was, you know, some, it was like one full Calvin ago.

I was told by someone, well, listen, when you get older, you get married.

You have a kid by a house.

You should come become conservative.

That's just how it is.

I mean, I don't, I mean, I said it earlier in the show.

I don't have children, but I have a house.

I am married.

I have a job.

I have a mustache and a gray beard.

And I'm still waiting for that magic day, Calvin, to be as Charlie Kirk put it, conservatized.

I had to look that up cause I felt like he may have the word.

That is actually a word, but.

Based on what your base based on the news of Travis and and and and Taylor Does this have any does this hold any water for you Calvin?

Does it hold anything for the audience?

Let me know your thoughts on Charlie Kirk's quote well wishes for Travis and Taylor and How apparently when you get married you automatically become more conservative?

Tell us eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five civic or drop a comment on the live stream Calvin

Yeah, I don't know.

Maybe this is my woke mind virus talking.

But I guess I'm surprised they're getting married just because why?

Like, I understand getting married is there's a romanticism to it, so I guess for that sake.

But beyond that...

There's no like added like security or healthcare insurance benefits or anything that either one of them are gaining from being married.

I don't know, it seems like it's, again, besides the joy and romance of being married, there doesn't seem to be, there only seems to be drawbacks for them.

Well, I have to imagine, Calvin, that

I imagine that those two individuals, now granted, I think that Taylor Swift has far more money than Travis Kelsey.

I imagine that there will probably be contracts involved in this marriage, or maybe, I don't know, maybe there won't be.

It's like, you know, but yeah, I think the romance and the joy is what they were going for.

It's just something they wanted to do.

I just, I like how you treat, like there's no benefits whatsoever.

Why are they?

doing this.

That's cause what people do.

People get married.

Uh, we're hearing from you on the text line, uh, Andrew from Maine saying, I'm happy that Kylie Kelsey gets a sister.

I would, I feel I would love to have Kylie as a sister.

She's a very cool lady.

And also he says in Calvin, you can identify with this.

My gripe is that you gave airtime to Charlie.

What's his face?

I don't like hearing from him.

I just think it's interesting.

And also the, I would, I would pay as much money as I could to a charity.

to have Charlie Kirk try to tell Taylor Swift to her face, submit to your husband, change your name.

It doesn't count if you don't.

Troy from Mount Horrib is on the line right now.

Troy, what are your thoughts on this?

Gripen Sorbets.

I am contributing to that journey.

Right.

Right.

I dare you, Charlie Kirk.

I

dare you.

Oh my God.

Calvin, thank you for your service.

I'll bet you that whole clip was even worse than what you played.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, honestly, it's not Troy.

The whole thing is just like him recycling the same thought and him telling us over and over.

I'm just being sarcastic.

It's like, you don't know what sarcasm is.

You really don't.

But go ahead, Troy.

No, that had to have been awful.

I'm just really happy for him.

Yeah.

you know, let them do them and this is great.

Hopefully it lasts forever.

Yeah, exactly.

That's, that's the most you can do, whether it's your friends or whether it's strangers.

And this isn't about, this isn't about, uh, I'm not about like, you know, oh, celebrities, they're just like, they're not like us.

Say they can afford 40 planes.

I can't, but I just, I love seeing love.

I love seeing this.

They're really cute.

They're adorable.

You can't deny it.

Carmella on the text line listening WAUK Kelvin quote, woke mind virus.

I'm stealing this.

Oh, that, I mean, that's a, that's a tool of the right.

They've been saying that for years, but I love it.

Travis.

and Taylor good for them.

They remind me of faith Hill and Tim McGraw together, whom are still married with three kids.

And she kept her maiden name as living to tell about it.

Carmella, thank you so much for reading, for reaching out.

And Connie listening on W C F W says, Charlie Kirk's take on swift Lord give me strength.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

No one asks you for your opinion, Charlie.

No one at whatsoever.

And, uh,

I just thought it was funny because I was like, I'm thinking he's sitting in his back green room going, what am I going to talk about a day?

And he's looking at his phone.

He goes, Oh, I know what I'm going to talk about today.

And is as Calvin put it, four minutes of just ridiculous.

And honestly, I kind of wish Jane was here to hear it, especially the ass.

This, I might actually, when she comes back, I have a present for you.

And then Calvin, I'll play, I'll go into the booth.

I'll play the clip.

You can take a five minute walk cause I know you hate listening to Charlie Kirk's voice cause you can just feel that big smile when he does, when he talks.

I'm sure Jane will appreciate that greatly.

But I appreciate everyone reaching out on the live stream and PJ says, not good for them, but honestly, we need to stop idolizing celebrities.

I don't disagree with that, but this is, for me, it's like, eh, I'm happy for them.

And I'm moving on.

I'm not canceling a class or a test, but you know, I understand why you might.

We appreciate you reaching out to us on this.

We appreciate you listening and talking to us.

If you ever want to give us a call or text, same number, 855-752-4842-855-757.

When we return, we're going to get some water, some snacks, get ourselves rubbed up for the last section of the show, which we call this shouldn't be a thing.

It is the window or aisle edition.

Stay close.

Stay tuned.

You are listening to Matt and air on air on the civic media radio network.

I think I wanna marry you Is it the look in your eyes?

Or is it this dancing tune?

Good, good morning.

Welcome back to matinee or my name is Greg box sitting in for Jane matinee who is currently out vacating deservedly and we'll be back sooner than later.

Wonderful to have you here today, folks.

If you want to get in touch with us, give us call or text us the same number 855-752-484-2855-75 civic or leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube or the platform.