We Really Need To Our Leaders To Lead (Hour 2)

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Amazingly.

amazingly packed show for you today at 9 35, the founder of the recon population area and civic media's political editor, Dan Schaefer will be joining us for the rest of the show.

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But before I get

forward to anything else.

I don't want to be remiss.

I cannot forget sitting next to me digitally is the executive director of Black Lives, Black Leaders Organizing Communities.

It is Ms.

Angela Lang.

Angela Lang is back.

Hello, Angela.

Welcome to Friday.

Welcome to Matt and Aaron Air.

Hello.

Thank you so much for having me.

Happy Friday.

Happy Friday.

I would love to say it's like, oh, it's Friday.

We're just relaxing, getting ready, sipping

the cool drinks,

putting umbrellas in there.

No, there is so

much happening today.

And we're going to kick it off, Angela, with the fact that the vice president of the United States was in La Crosse again yesterday.

And you

know, I had in my own tracks.

It's a live live remix right there.

So he was in La Crosse.

He was

I don't know talking to his fans talking to the, I mean, you should say talking to the fans of Donald Trump.

He doesn't have fans.

Donald Trump has fans.

He is Donald Trump fan adjacent, but he had some interesting things to say.

Calvin, I want to, I want to kick it off quick with this first.

Uh, he, uh, he said this while he was standing on a podium in La Crosse talking to the people of that community.

Is Milwaukee a super safe city right now?

It's had some crime problems.

It's a beautiful city.

There are a lot of beautiful, incredible, hard-working people who live there, but let's be honest, Milwaukee has had some crime problems.

So have other parts of our community.

Chicago, and then we're not too far from Chicago.

Chicago's had a lot of crime problems.

Why is it that you have mayors and governors who are angrier about Donald Trump offering to help them than they are about the fact that their own residents are being carjacked and murdered in the streets?

It doesn't make an ounce of sense.

That is vice president JD Vance speaking to a crowd in La Crosse yesterday.

And just so everyone knows, and we talked about this yesterday, the, uh, Wisdoms did have a rally in La Crosse to protest Mr. Vance being there because the, the big blob of a billionaire's bill is going to be hitting Wisconsin very hard.

But before we talk about the bill, I want to talk about his words, Angela, did you know that Milwaukee has a quote crime problem?

You know, I thought it was interesting.

Very

diplomatic.

Yup, yup, radio language.

I'm born and raised in Milwaukee.

And that's not to say that Milwaukee is without its challenges.

It absolutely is.

But to have this perception that you just go anywhere outside and you're being murdered in Kar-Jack is absolutely wild.

And the first thing that came to my mind when I heard that clip

was a certain Oscar moment where I was like, keep my city out of your mouth.

You're not even saying this in Milwaukee.

You're in La Crosse feeding your base, quote unquote, not even like your constituents because they're fans, they're cult followers.

This red meat about a city that is not even in proximity to where he was giving the speech.

And so he just took a moment.

to, um, as we continuously see, have these anti-Milwaukee sentiments that are rooted in racism and dog whistles.

And, um, it's so funny, he's talking about, you know, crime in Milwaukee when, you know, the most crime right now is happening inside the White House.

But I guess he's not ready for that conversation.

Well, and I mean, that's, that's the, that's sort of the genius of JD Vance, where you have Donald Trump, who can be very

You know, the, he doesn't tear the page off neatly.

He just rips it out of the book and says, here you go, take it.

And people are like, I love this.

JD Vance is much more measured.

I didn't play the whole clip because it's a little bit long, but he said something that we heard that was very interesting to me, which was President Trump offered offering help.

I

don't think he

offered Washington DC help.

I think he sent in federal agents of all ilk to go in the city and to fight crime like a bunch of Batman.

And I keep thinking about the story I read about when this first happened in DC, which was at one point, a minor traffic accident happened.

And they said there was almost a dozen agents running to the scene, one of them carrying a rifle.

I can't imagine that inspires

calm peace and order for the, the DC cops who actually have to handle this.

That's not offering.

He did not offer DC.

He's taken it over.

And the idea of doing this to Milwaukee is, I mean, it's on the horizon.

We all know that.

We just, it's, it's, it's, it's, he did all, he did LA.

He did DC.

He's going to do Chicago.

He'll probably do Atlanta.

He'll probably do Milwaukee.

Milwaukee will probably come a little bit later because, I mean, as you sent me a tweet from Scott Lang on Twitter, I just want to pull that up real quick.

Scott Bauer, I mean, Scott Lang is Ant-Man.

Sorry, my mind is in the Marvel movies.

Scott Bauer on Twitter said, Vice President JD Vance, when asked if the National Guard would be sent to Milwaukee given opposition from Mayor Johnson, we would love to come and help.

the people of Milwaukee, but the president of the United States has said he wants to be asked.

What is that?

Yeah, first, that's not going to happen.

I've criticized the mayor on a lot of things very openly, but I'm confident that he will not ask.

And exactly like you said, like no other places have been asked.

But I think an extra point that I want to underscore that I think folks are starting to

connect these dots is that a lot of these places, one, yes, cool, they're they're blue cities.

But even more than that, they are predominantly black cities, or have a large black population, and potentially a black mayor, you know, that we've seen in DC, we've seen how he's attacked.

Baltimore, all of these things.

And so, you know, I'm really concerned about Milwaukee, because, you know, someone that takes a train to and from Chicago fairly regularly, it's nothing, you know, it's quick, right.

And so

seeing what happens in Chicago, we should absolutely be concerned that that could come to Milwaukee.

But again, you know, this concept of like, oh, we're just trying to help.

And we're, you know, we want people to, to ask us as this, this is not a military takeover of our cities, like call it what it is.

Absolutely.

And, and the, the whole move here from start to finish, and you listen to JD van speak.

He has that very measure.

Well, I'm just trying to help here.

And of course the people at that rally are gonna clap when he says, is there a crime problem in Milwaukee?

Of course they think that there are probably good folk liberals in La Crosse and Eau Claire in the Northwoods who voted for Kamala Harris.

So when you say Milwaukee, oh, I hear there's crime problems there

because

they were told a long time ago that there were and it just makes sense because people get killed in Milwaukee.

Newsflash.

People get killed in red cities, red states.

Exactly.

And this, this ability to hook this albatross around Milwaukee's neck that because it's big, because it's got, you know, liberals and people of color and all this stuff.

And it's just, it's tiresome, but it works.

That's the thing.

And coming and you have, and like I said, you have one side Trump who is just.

Red in the face raising his fists saying he wants to do he can I can do what I want I'm the president of the United States his words Maybe

people want a

dick.

Maybe people want a dictator something paraphrasing that one from this week as well But JD Vance sounds like of just a calm parent.

Look, you know, I just don't understand.

Why don't you want us to help you?

Angela, why don't you want help?

You know, I don't know I mean apparently all black people do is just like moved off the government.

So it's interesting that we're not asking for

quote, help at this point.

Um, what's also interesting too is like that, that applause, right?

Or like the, the, the audible, um, noise from the audience.

Yeah.

Out of curiosity.

I'm very curious.

When the last time any of those people, um, even stepped foot in Milwaukee.

Yeah.

Yes.

People have a lot to say about Milwaukee, but either go to a brewer game, maybe a books game and then drive.

straight out of there.

So it's, it's always interesting that people that don't spend time in our city are the ones that actually feel this way.

Um, because if you actually spent any time in our city, especially during the summertime, you would see it's not like that.

Um, but also I think it's really what it's trying to do.

It's adding this further divide of like cities versus like rural and other folks.

It's pitting this divide because again, if you were to spend time here, you'd be like, Oh, this is great.

You know, I like Milwaukee.

Milwaukee has a great.

slept on food scene and festivals and art and all sorts of things um but people refuse to do so to even spend time here but if you spend time in any other city that's kind of how cities work right like city when there's more populous people um and just like more things there's going to be more challenges

And, um, you know, whether I think it's bigger, right?

Then, um, calling in the national guard or what have you, um, he's trying to just continue to have this divide between like an us versus them and them is those black and brown people that live in Milwaukee.

Absolutely.

We're talking to Angela Lang, who is my co-host this morning.

She is the executive director of black leaders, organizing communities, also known as block.

And we're talking about JD Vance, who was in La Crosse, but has thoughts on Milwaukee.

If you have thoughts about JD Vance,

having his thoughts on Milwaukee, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic leave a comment on the live stream.

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

And before we jump to a moment, we got to grab some hydration, got to grab a snack, and then we're going to come back after commercial.

But before we do that, it's just, it's always very interesting because I always think of, you know, those folks, like I went to the Northwoods this summer, I met a lot of great people,

like

truly wonderful people who are just trying to get by.

who are just trying to live their lives.

And I bet you if you took one of those individuals and put them in Milwaukee and sat them down on a porch, and it doesn't even have to be black folks, it doesn't have brown folks.

Anyone

in the city, sit them down and talk about your life.

You're gonna have way more in common than you do different.

And I don't say that as a way of saying, we're so, we're so connected.

I

don't like that as

a, I don't, a distractive term.

It's the fact that all of this happening is another attempt and they're winning the war at dividing us by class rather than the people who are working for a living.

getting that paycheck who need help, demand services, demand benefits from a government that we entrusted through our tax dollars.

and they're failing us right now.

We're going to talk more about this with Angela Lange from Block because this is important.

Please 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

Text us, call us.

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Good morning.

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

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating lovingly and deservedly and we're happy you were here with us today.

With me.

I have the executive director of black leaders organizing communities that is Miss Angela Lang.

She is here all show long and we have Dan Shaber coming up in a little bit after the bottom of the hour news and we're talking about JD Vance in La Crosse giving his thoughts on Milwaukee just

Just volunteering those thoughts.

We really appreciate that.

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third.

I keep on forgetting that date, but we were talking about JD Vance in La Crosse, giving his thoughts on Milwaukee.

And we have a caller on the line, David from Mekwan.

You are on the air.

What say you about JD Vance and all of his amazing thoughts on the Brew City?

Good morning, Greg.

Good morning, Angela.

Hi.

Thank you

for

taking my call.

I do appreciate it.

I think what JD Vance is

saying is There's there's definitely some truth there.

Um, I unfortunately had a truth to what

David truth to what?

To with Milwaukee having some definitely some crime issues.

Okay, just hit a hundred homicides Within the city of Milwaukee.

I think it was just two days ago.

I

still have four months to go.

Yeah, um and

and keep in mind that never used to happen in the city of milwaukee we never used to hit

there was never

murders

in milwaukee

no we didn't hit a hundred murders for an entire year uh... back in the eighties and nineteen seventies when we had a much larger population uh... subsequently you know milwaukee it has had a

A lot of bad years, especially since COVID, with murders in particular, but if you remember, and this is a fact too, I think it was last year, the city of Milwaukee actually had more cars stolen, not per capita, but actually more cars stolen.

than the city of Chicago, which is exponentially much larger city.

And

so Dave, I'm going to stop you right there really quick.

I understand what you're saying.

And there is in a city town village, unincorporated area that doesn't have some sort of crime.

And when we're talking about a crime problem, that's a very, very vague statement to say in front of a bunch of people who don't live in the city that they're talking about.

And when we look at the crime statistics put out by the Milwaukee police department that I'm doing right now,

Murder on itself has gone down over the past few years by a double digit numbers a hundred deaths is bad I'm not gonna argue that point.

I agree with you 100 homicides is 100 too many and I think a Democrat or a Republican a socialist an anarchist everyone Well, maybe not an anarchist, but everyone agrees that you should try to get that number closer to zero But this notion and this narrative that they're pushing saying amorphous

crime problem.

They don't provide statistics.

They don't provide details.

They don't provide truth to what they are saying.

They just say crime problem.

And of course everyone says say, and Angela, I'm sure Angela has way more statistics than I do,

but I'm

looking basically at a very quick overview, David of Milwaukee.

And while crime is a crime and crime happens, it is not as detrimental and people are not getting murdered in the street and car jacked.

on an hourly basis.

The picture he is painting is one of suggestion and story rather than one painted by fact with statistics.

David, thank you so much for calling.

I appreciate it.

Angela, do you want to talk about the statistics that you have?

Yeah, so I'm quoting from a Journal Sentinel article that literally came out yesterday where the mayor had to answer for a lot of things, not just that.

But he specifically

It says Milwaukee has seen most reported crimes like robberies, motor vehicle thefts and assaults decrease the last two years.

Yes.

They know the, um, hundred homicides, but, um, Mayor Johnson said, quote, the sheer facts.

I don't, I think that's important context crime in Milwaukee.

Overall this down since I've become mayor in April, 2022, about 25%.

Okay.

And on the live stream, Tony is told, telling us that St.

Louis has a, it looks like a rate of.

69.4 per 100,000 versus Milwaukee, which is 20 per 100,000.

That's the murder rate.

Why aren't they invading St.

Louis?

Give it time, Tony.

But when we come back, I'm sure we'll talk more about this with Dan as well as other things.

We got Dan Shaffer coming up after the bottom of the hour news break.

I just want to say to David, thank you so much for calling.

I appreciate your thoughts.

And I would love for you send any statistics you have to me.

I want to see those numbers, please.

I'm not being sarcastic.

I'm not being snivelly or snide.

I'm being real.

Send them to us.

Email them to us.

I want to see them.

Thanks for calling everyone.

Thanks for texting.

We got Dan Schaefer coming up after the break.

Text in Friday.

F R I D A Y on the civic media app for free ticket Friday.

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Good, good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating and we wish her well and we miss her lots.

She will be back sooner than later.

But for now, you've got me for a few days and I am joined not only by the executive director of black leaders, organizing communities, but now we are joined by Dan Schaefer, who is civic media's political editor, the founder of the recombobulation area.

Angela is a contributor to the Reconpopulation area.

Both have won awards for their articles.

I'm surrounded by so much journalistic talent.

It's ridiculous.

I should leave.

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Friday is the word.

F R I D A Y. Good luck to you.

Happy Labor Day, Dan.

Labor Day weekend, Dan.

Happy Labor Day weekend to all who are listening.

How are you today, sir?

I'm doing great.

I am.

I'm doing really great because I'm a Packers fan.

And I woke up because

I woke

up seeing, realizing that it was not a dream that yesterday the Patrick

traded for Micah Parsons.

Did you used to read Warlock Magazine too?

Sorry,

couldn't help

it.

I know, I know rap from the 90s.

Sutton Pepper, Heavy Df in the middle of the game.

All right, let's go, let's

go.

Well, we're going to talk more about the Packers and the Brewers in the second hour.

Are you sure

I can't just derail the entire show to just talk about the Micah Parsons trade?

Well, I mean, you could certainly try, but I got to keep this thing on track.

I'm an engineer now.

You're the adult.

But we will be talking about that in the second hour.

We do want to open it up, though, with a more serious topic.

We're going to, we're talking about the tragic, tragic.

And I actually, I mean, I think you both know where I'm coming from.

I hate referring to these shootings as tragic now, because I feel like that's now just a word we use because, I mean, it is tragic.

It's a shooting.

children died.

And we use these words and there are thoughts and prayers and there are all these beliefs, but really little action.

And it's cynical, but it's true.

I don't think it's cynical, honestly.

Tell me what you both think.

It's not cynical.

I don't think anything will happen because nothing does happen, even in the face of children who are now gone.

And Dan, you wanted to talk about this, that the, as you put it, the inevitable lack of action.

Yeah.

It's, it's so

You know, the details of this as they're coming out are so harrowing.

You know, a mass shooting at a back-to-school mass at a Catholic church that killed two children and injured 18 others, many of whom were children.

The details that are coming out, you know that the Minneapolis Star Tribune and some of the local reporting has been Really terrific and in sharing some of these stories as they come to light and all of that You know, I think we can we can talk about the shooter we can talk about the motives and all of that but just the fact that this is It just keeps happening.

It just keeps happening and we keep doing nothing.

Yeah, like a Columbine was 26 years ago.

Yeah

more than 26 years ago now that the

that the mass shooting happened in Columbine.

Do you feel like we've done even something close to an adequate response in the 26 year sense to the ongoing trauma and crisis that is school shootings?

Angela, I want you to take this further in a second.

I'll say this very quickly.

If anything, Dan, I feel like we've gone backwards.

Yeah, I mean when you said Columbine you said 26 years I was like whoa because that was I'm 36 right like that was my first School shooting and I think a lot of people's right.

Yeah, I was a middle school Yeah,

it shook right it shook The country it shook my mom right it shook parents and I remember having a conversation because I was scared and it was like

This is almost like an anomaly.

This is tragic.

This is terrible.

This isn't the norm.

You don't need to be afraid to go to school and here we are 26 years later and I I tweeted this the other night of I I'm glad that like parents are the center of this conversation right and how we're talking about protecting our children, but like I think an extra layer is

I am choosing to not be a parent or I'm choosing not to have children, right?

I may foster, I may adopt, whatever, maybe.

But I'm choosing not to have children for lots of reasons that mostly involve the current state of the world.

And every single time I see another school shooting, I'm like, yep, this is one of the many reasons because I cannot imagine being a parent, sending your kid off, dropping them off at school.

And then them not coming back and then having people saying thoughts and prayers while these children were literally murdered while praying

and Dan I want you to speak more on that because as you as we know as the listeners know you are a parent of two children But before you do I just want to because something that popped into my brain when you mentioned Columbine by the way total side note 20th anniversary of Katrina today 20th anniversary

We're just not celebrating, but all these milestones of just thinking about these tragedies in this country.

But when Columbine happened, what was the first thing that they did?

They didn't create legislation.

They didn't talk about change.

They didn't even talk about arming teachers at that time.

What did they do?

They wanted to blame video games and Marilyn Manson.

And in Minneapolis, what did we see?

We wanted to blame a trans woman for what happened instead of looking.

And we talked about this yesterday.

I talked about it very rambly because I was very upset.

Robin Westman was a person who suffered from mental health issues.

That is for sure.

Every, I ventured to say every person who engages in these sorts of tragic, tragic crimes has mental health issues.

Adding the trans element is an important discussion piece.

It isn't the reason why.

Because if you say that, then you have to tell me why almost all of the other school shooters, all the other mass shooters are almost always men.

white and have some sort of nationalistic bent on it.

So the, the, the idea that Miss Westman was trans, I think should add to the conversation of, well, what mental health issues does everyone go through?

Because if you look at the, if you look at the video, I didn't see the videos, they were taken down, but the videos were about

ammo and guns and and and they were there was racism and anti-semitism in there like this is not this was not a person

connections to online extremist groups things like that

yeah this was this was a this was a problem that honestly for miss westman what she did connects her to these other individuals so there's a problem there and that's where we start but we don't want to talk about mental health issues dan i want you to speak on your experience you are a father and i know your kids have probably had to go through

these drills.

When I was a kid, it was fire drills and tornado drills.

The first time I heard a child say, I had to do an active shooter drill.

I'm like, what?

Can you speak more on just, you know, try to tell us how you deal and what you go through as a parent, what you and your wife go through to just, you know, get your kids packed up and say, have a good day.

Yeah, it's, it's hard.

It's really hard right now because

I mean, look, this is back to school.

Back to school is hard enough without adding an element like this to it.

It's hard to say goodbye to your kids for the whole day and just wonder what's going on.

I'm always have this thought in the back of my head, I wish I could text my daughter and just see what she's up to and just see what she's experiencing and all of these different things.

And to add this to it right as so many families are getting ready for going back to school making all of these preparations And this is something that we shouldn't have to think about this is this is not something that parents in other countries across the world have to think about the way that we do here in the United States of America and It's just so difficult and you have to kind of put it aside at a certain point because otherwise.

How do you even go forward?

You know, you have to kind of put it aside in your head in a certain way and compartmentalize it and figure out, okay, this, you know, we have safety measures in place.

We have this and, you know, going on at our school.

We've talked to our kids about, you know, what to do in certain situations.

But it's just really, really hard.

And you see these images and stories with these kids and like there's, you know, an interview with a fifth grader on CNN the other day where he was talking about what he's going through.

There's that image of the mom.

running through the parking lot, holding her shoes.

It's just really, really hard.

And my heart goes out to everybody in Minneapolis who's dealing with this and just parents across the country who are dealing with the uncertainty and having difficult conversations and managing this tragedy in any way that they possibly can because there's no good way to deal with this.

There's no good way to plan for any of this.

Um, and, and it's just so frustrating that again, to just get back to what I was saying originally, it's been 26 years since Columbine.

And we've just, we just haven't even come close to addressing this.

And I think, you know, people talk about, there's that one tweet that always gets recirculated about Sandy Hook.

And it's just like, once we realized, once we, you know, experienced the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook, what was it 2014?

I think now, 2014, Sandy

Hook.

Once we did that, the gun debate was over.

The gun people won.

And it's just if we're going to do nothing in response to the slaughter of children, as we're going to do now again, it just means we've lost this battle.

And it's so depressing.

And I think that is one of the difficult things for me, just like I'm a politics guy.

I'd look at public policy in this.

And I think the difficult thing from a public policy standpoint on this Catholic school shooting in Minnesota is knowing that nothing is going to come of it.

Yeah.

And from the federal level.

I mean, there might be different states, different blue states that might be able to take certain levels of action.

You know, Wisconsin has an opportunity next year to win a democratic trifecta and.

implement or at least talk about things like universal background checks or red flag laws or different measures that have been proven to reduce gun violence.

But since it's been 26 years since Columbine, the issue has only ever gotten worse and our political system, mainly the Republican Party, is unwilling to do anything ever.

Not on gun violence prevention, not on mental health funding.

They will talk about we need to address mental health and then cut mental health funding in the same breath.

And nothing that could make a real difference.

And I think we are in a very bleak political moment for a whole host of reasons right now in Trump 2.0 here in 2025.

But things have been bleak on this issue for a long, long time now.

And I just don't see how it turns around anytime soon.

And that's, I think to me, the most difficult feeling in all of it.

I just want to say real quick, uh, uh, Sandy Hook happened on December the 14th, 2012.

And that's nearly 13 years ago.

And I think for me personally, I'm not a parent.

I don't, I mean, I have loved ones who are children that I care for dearly and love so much.

Um, it's for me, the mo, the notion that a parent can stand in front of a federally elected official and say, my child was killed today.

Will you do something?

And they say, no, sorry.

My hands are tied.

The Constitution makes it clear.

A piece of paper signed 250 plus years ago is more important than the lives of our children.

And that is the thing that, oh, and I don't disagree with you, Dan.

I don't think anything will be done.

And I hate saying that out loud because, you know, it feels like you've given, it feels like I've given up.

I feel like we've given up, but we also have nothing to say that gives us hope.

And we're going to keep this conversation going.

I want to hear from parents.

If you're out there, tell us what you're going through.

Tell us how you have these talks with your kids.

The number is 855-752-484-2855-7577.

Drop a comment in the live stream.

This is an important topic, and it affects all of us, whether you do or do not have children, and we're going to keep it going with Dan Schaefer, who is Civic Media's political editor, Angela Lang, who is executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities.

Keeping it going here on Matynair on air.

My name is Greg Box.

Sitting in for Jane Matynair.

Stay close.

Stay awesome.

Stay hydrated.

You're listening to Civic Media Radio Network.

sounds like these

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

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating and will be returning before you know it.

But you got me for a little while and that's good.

I'm joined by civic media's political editor and founder of the recombobulation area, Mr. Dan Schaefer, as well as my cohost for today, Miss Angela Lang, who is the executive director of black leaders, organizing communities.

And we've been talking about the inaction.

of the federal and state governments in the face of school shootings.

As you all know, this week there was another one at a church in Minneapolis.

And we were talking with Dan and Angela about pretty much all the nothing we expect to happen is that's been happening for the past, well, almost, well, we used, we use Columbine as our, as our marking point, cause it's been 26 years as Dan brought up, but

I want to turn the conversation over a little bit.

We're gonna stick to crime and it actually kind of connects what Angela and I were talking about earlier too with regard to the hundredth homicide in Milwaukee, Dan.

And they just, they announced that this is what happened this week and...

You found some interesting statistics on this.

Yeah.

The journal sent a lot of story about this and they interviewed the police chief, Jeffrey Norman, um, had some, you know, interesting data that they talked about and just like what, why this is happening and what's exactly happening in Milwaukee.

And I think there's a connection that we can and should be making here to the shooting that happened in Minneapolis.

Um, you know, there are a lot of guns in Milwaukee and there are lockdowns and

things that happen because of guns being fired in the city of Milwaukee.

Like there are schools in Milwaukee that have had to go on lockdown because they have had shots fired in the neighborhood.

We know that to be true.

And so when we look at the tragedy that happened in Minneapolis, when we look at this immense amount of tragedy that happens every year in the city of Milwaukee with this level of homicide, there is a common denominator here and that common denominator is guns.

According to the data in this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel data shows that nearly 90% of Milwaukee's homicides occur with firearms as a matter of death How we need to be talking about firearms in this context too, you know I think so many so often it is brought up because of a mass casualty event or a school shooting or whatever it might be This annual mass casualty event that happens in cities like Milwaukee.

We need to be talking about

guns in this context too.

Because as is detailed in this article, the police chief talking about this, people will just get an arguments and then turn to guns as their form of conflict resolution in a way, right?

And I think that is, it's so disturbing what happens every year.

And I don't think we should let ourselves get numb to it.

And I don't think we should let ourselves let this gun violence prevention

gun control, however you want to characterize it, conversation be exclusive to school shootings.

I think when we talk about addressing this type of violence and problem in Milwaukee, you know, people will talk about, oh, we need more police here.

We need that.

Sure.

Like that would bring every tool in the toolbox to address this.

But if we are ignoring the elements of

Firearms often illegal firearms that are on the street often firearm crimes that are not prosecuted the same way because they have you know the Judges will go we don't have as strong of firearm laws That we probably should in this country to address these types of things like this is part of that conversation, too And I think so often we can these are like in different boxes We have to talk about them as the same fight

And Angela, I want to turn this over to you for a moment too, because when we're listening to JD Vance talk about Milwaukee and all of the quote crime problems, I mean, really when it comes down to it, I feel like, and you can tell me as a lifelong Milwaukee, and if you want help with crime, it's not about sending troops in, it's about sending aid and help and education and laws that actually do something about this rather than just put a person dressed for war on every corner.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, one of the things that we talk about a lot at block is that, you know, people need their basic needs met, right?

I literally was having this conversation with one of our ambassadors yesterday.

We were listening to Tupac while doing a peace walk.

And one of the lyrics was, I never did a crime I didn't have to do.

And that like spurred a conversation in a way where it's just like,

people don't wake up and be like, I think it'll be fun to be Scarface today.

Let me just go on this rampage and do whatever.

And so you see that people, when they don't have their basic needs met, people do what they have to do to survive and to provide for their families.

And I think that is something that we should talk about.

Another element, if we want to talk about guns and Milwaukee and crime,

Um, I had to look up when this was in 2012.

We saw the Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, right?

Um, and that really is not, you know, it shook Wisconsin.

People acknowledge the anniversary, but at the same time that as well.

did not have any impact.

So you see people having these shootings and grocery stores and in religious institutions, and then you add with the guns that are on the streets.

People's basic needs aren't being met, including access to mental health.

We're going to continue to see these things.

You know and honestly like we're talking about we're talking about children being killed We're talking about people at religious centers being killed people in church being killed a congresswoman was shot in the head and Congress did nothing and I Want I would I would I would implore upon everyone to go back to yesterday's episode of the show in the first hour when we talked to Jim Santel He is the host of amicus a law review and he lays out pretty plainly how you can have

gun laws.

You can have gun control without violating the Second Amendment.

People can still have their freedoms, but there are ways, pathways to doing this.

We've done it before and other countries do it too.

So we're going to keep our conversation going with Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area Answers.

Quickly, the

Second Amendment is the only one that has the word regulate in it.

Yes.

We're going to keep this conversation going.

We want to hear from you.

Don't forget to text in the word Free Ticket Friday, F-R-I-D-A-Y.

Text that word in for Free Ticket Friday coming back to you after the break.

After the commercial, get yourself some water.

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Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to Matt and Aaron air.

We are on the civic media radio network.

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The number is the same 855-752-4842 855-756 or leave that comment on the live stream.

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Sorry.

It's very discombobulating, Dan.

Very discombobulating.

And that was the voice of Dan Schaefer, who is the political editor of Civic Media, the founder of the Recombobulation area, and also Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities, also known as Block.

Both right for the recombobulation area, both win awards for their writing for the recombobulation area.

I am surrounded by so much talent and I got Calvin on the boards and he's talented beyond belief.

So I'm just a guy here sitting back taking notes and I'm taking notes on the conversations we're having today and we're, we're, I'm not going to lie.

We're getting pretty heavy today because there's a lot going on.

There's no such thing as a Friday news dump anymore.

It's not the, the weird wasted news on the Friday.

JD Vance was in town and La Crosse yesterday had thoughts of Milwaukee.

We're talking about the shooting in Minneapolis.

We're also talking about crime in Milwaukee.

And before we do that, we move on really quick.

I just want to get to a few texts from people on the text line.

You can always text us 855-752-4842.

And you can also do that on the Civic Media app.

And one that really popped out for me just came in a little bit ago, Tiffany listening.

In River Falls on WLAK says, my children attend a church daycare just 40 miles from Minneapolis and I am a gun owner.

We support safe gun policies and we will not vote for anyone funded by the NRA, aka Republicans.

And I feel like that is a very important statement.

I want to just really talk about just for a moment is that this is a person who owns guns.

They support gun safety laws.

We have seen over and over and over again.

a majority of Americans support some form of reform that brings safety and its common sense, you know, that's just what it is.

And whether it's polling, whether it's the people, whether it's dead bodies, politicians aren't listening, period.

So I want to echo those voices of someone like Tiffany who's showing us that it's not

as black and white, left and right, blue and red, as we think, people who own guns want sensible gun laws, parents who own guns want sensible gun laws, and politicians who don't support that don't get their vote.

So I don't know if they're listening out there, probably not.

I'm too liberal for their liking, but...

Well, I think here's another point too, is that, you know, when Tony Evers started...

calling special sessions in his his first term.

The first time that there was a gavel in gavel out was on the issue of gun violence prevention laws.

Ones that were supported according to the market polling by like 70 70 80 percent of Wisconsin voters for universal background checks and for red flag laws.

These are sensible majority positions down the middle common sense

action

that we can take to make

Wisconsin is a safer place.

Yeah, and we're not even not and not just that we're not doing it.

We're not even talking about it.

We're actively not doing it.

We're shutting down the conversation.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

But watch this segue.

We're keeping the conversation going right now and we're going to talk more back to school stuff though.

It is back to school.

Dan mentioned that and Dan, you posted this in the chat a couple of days ago.

We talked about this briefly yesterday about the possible referendums coming to the polls next year.

I spoke more on the taxpayer aspect, but there's also another point to that story that you posted.

What's going on?

More and more referendums for us to vote on.

Yes, story from Wisconsin Public Radio earlier this week with the headline, Wisconsin's cash strapped school districts likely to turn to voters again for more funding.

And so this is kind of one of the things that is

in many ways a fallout from the state budget that was signed just a couple months ago that state budget did not have any increase for general purpose general school aid in the budget so that means that as we've seen over and over again in recent years in record numbers we are likely to see many many schools across the state go to referendum and ask their voters to increase their property taxes to pay for things that schools need because the state government is not

doing enough to meet the needs of school districts around the state.

So in this article, Dan Ross Miller, the executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, which represents more than 400 school districts around the state, said that the state budget failed to fund schools at the same rate of inflation, and that there is an expectation that this

Lack of action by the state government.

And again, it was a bipartisan past budget in many ways Tony Evers has been all over the state celebrating this budget As as have Republicans it doesn't lead to

the adequate amount of funding for schools.

And now it means that many of these places are going to have to go to referendum as we've seen hundreds of times over the past couple of years in Wisconsin.

So as we talk about back to school, you know, from we're talking about back to school in a tragic sense, obviously with what happened in Minneapolis, we're talking about the public policy implications of that.

There are a lot of public policy implications that go into what's going on with our schools here in Wisconsin.

And this is this is a big one.

And I spoke about that specific fact yesterday about, Angela, I know you had to, I know I had to, but Dan, you had to as well.

But you have children, we do not.

I voted yes in Kenosha for an increase in my property taxes because I understand what an investment means for the community.

I don't like paying more property taxes, but if Madison's going to do nothing about it, well, actually, not nothing, they take a chunk of it and give it to a voucher program.

So that's great.

But Angela,

You live in Milwaukee.

I mean, the referendum for Milwaukee was probably bigger than all of the referendums put together around the state.

It passed $272 million, I believe.

Somewhere in that neighborhood, yeah.

For you as a non-parent who lives in the city, voting for that, I mean, for me, it was a no-brainer.

Yes, of course, I'm gonna do it.

That's what you do.

That's what you do for your community.

But there comes a point where you're gonna look at that ballot and say,

I'm done.

If Madison isn't going to step up, why do I have to keep foot in the bill?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, you know, for me, people ask all the time, they're like, well, you don't even have kids that go to MPS.

Like, why are you so outspoken about, you know, supporting any referendums for Milwaukee public schools?

And my quick answer is I'm a product of Milwaukee public schools.

I would not be where I am today without Milwaukee public schools.

And fun fact, I actually ran into my band director and some old band friends at an event the other night.

And it's fun running into teachers and former colleagues that say, hey, I see your work.

I'm proud of you.

And it's like, I would not be able to do whatever I am doing without the support of those teachers.

And I wish that every student in Wisconsin, not just Milwaukee, every student should have that opportunity.

Now, with that being said,

with the challenges of Milwaukee public schools, I understand why parents are like, ooh, I don't know if I can support this, you know, or my, you know, they keep cutting services.

They're closing schools or merging schools.

I don't know if I should put my kid in public schools.

I may personally be a champion of public schools, but I'm not gonna, you know, sacrifice my kid's learning experience because

public schools are being failed.

And I think that there's an opportunity to have conversations with parents that said, hey, what would get your kids back to Milwaukee public schools?

What would get your kids back into public schools?

And I think there are times we shame parents for having to make what is, I assume, the best decision for their kid, because, as you said, Madison and lawmakers.

are not doing their jobs.

And so I am really, really concerned with any future referendums in Milwaukee, if they're going to pass or not, because there's a lot of feelings about Milwaukee public schools.

And you know, folks like us that are in the weeds and nerds, I'm not quite a policy person.

So I'm not as nerdy, but you know, like if we're looking into the weeds, we see

how all of this impacts the future for our cities, for our Wisconsin, and people don't care about our kids, I think is what we're getting at with the themes.

We don't care about our kids enough to protect them from mass shooters.

We're not caring enough to actually fund public schools.

Right.

And so kids are being left to just kind of fend for themselves a little bit.

And the adults in the room clearly don't know how to be adults.

Well, and I think that that brings up another point of discussion is that that's where the Republicans did an amazing award winning job of stealing the narrative and somehow blaming teachers and kids and administrators for the failing schools when it is the lack of funding.

Robin Voss sitting on upfront last year in November saying, we gave him the largest influx of cash in a generation.

Well, that's fine, Robin, but you barely gave them anything before.

So really, I wouldn't pat yourself too hard on the back on that one.

And the parents who are voting for this and the non-pay, I mean, I said, I voting Kenosha, it failed in Kenosha.

It failed.

It was one of the only ones that failed last year.

Because people look in and say, why am I doing this?

I don't have kids there.

They're not working.

I don't want to pay more taxes.

I understand why they'd want to say no completely.

But we point our fingers at the teachers and the students and all the other things.

But what we're not doing is pointing our fingers at the politicians who have systematically underfunded the system while funding a second school system.

And say more information, please, please go on with that one.

Ruth is on the line from Eau Claire.

Ruth, what do you think about this

topic?

I agree with you totally on the funding issue with schools and that, you know, the Republicans feel the narrative, but, you know, we have to not let them do that anymore.

And the other thing is when it comes to school shootings and going back another conversation here, I want to see anyone who's a legislator at the state or federal level

If you can't support common sense gun laws, then put on tax map outfit.

And the next time there's a school shooting, you go in there.

You don't do it as a photo op, you go in there.

You go in there and you clean it

up.

Yeah.

I mean, and that's, yeah.

Thank you very much, Ruth.

We appreciate you calling in and contributing to that.

I mean, that's.

It's easy to it's easy to make statements from ivory towers when you have no connection whatsoever But what's what's really sad is when people do have connections and they're still saying well.

No, I don't think we should do it, but thank you so much Ruth for calling Yeah, I mean that's I Asked the question yesterday I spoke to Emily sephos about this and regarding her article in the recombobulation area as well regarding Democrats and rebuilding trust but we talked about the school system and people need to understand that this is not

because teachers got lazy or kids got dumb or cell phones or whatnot and all these things.

It's the fact that they have been systematically purposely underfunded for so long because the Republicans want to see public education go away.

And I can prove that for you because we have a president who says I want to dismantle the Department of Education so much so that I hired a lady with no experience who used to promote wrestling.

So I don't really see.

the, I don't see the line of logic there, but we're going to talk about this article some more.

Cause there's more in that article from WPR about referendums.

We got Dan Schaefer here from the reconbobulation area and stick around because coming up after the break, Dan's going to talk about a sale.

There's a sale happening on a website that you all know about, but you got to find out more by coming back.

We're going to take a break, get some water, stay hydrated.

You are awesome.

You are listening to Angela Lang from Block, Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area, and Civic Media's political editor, by the way.

And my name is Greg Bach.

That's fine.

I am here, sitting in for Jane on matinee, on air, on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're amazing.

Let no one tell you differently.

Stay close.

Stay tuned.

Good

morning.

Welcome.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently on vacation.

She misses you.

She just told me she just told me that and she loves you too.

Stay hydrated.

We are here on the show talking about lots and lots and lots of

I want to say heavy topics.

It's a heavy show today, but we're talking about it because it's important.

We can't let that, we can't let it go just because it's Friday, just because it's the weekend, a long weekend, happy Labor Day weekend, everybody.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am joined by the wonderful Angela Lange, who is the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities, as well as Dan Schaefer, who is the political editor of Civic Media.

But he is also the founder of the Recombobulation Area.

And Dan, there is something going on at the Recombobulation Area.

That's right, we are running a sale right now.

Oh boy.

Woohoo!

Which politician got in your DMs?

No, this is not a Derek Van Orden themed sale this time.

This is not the special code kick rocks for a percent off here.

Now we're running a sale at the end of summer to it's 35% off to subscribe to the Reconbibulation area.

So you can, it's a $50 value to just subscribe for the full year.

You can get that for 3250 today.

Pretty good.

Or if you just want to go one month at a time, we appreciate that too.

and you can subscribe for $3.25 a month.

to support local independent journalism and support having voices like Angela Lang at the Reconbibulation Area.

So go subscribe so we can get more of Angela at the Reconbibulation Area.

And this is award-winning journalism, award-winning opinions.

These are people writing about our communities, about our state.

I mean, I mentioned it earlier.

Emily Sefos, who is the chair of the Out of Game Democratic Party, was on yesterday talking about her article on the Reconbibulation Area.

So this is a value.

And

We speak highly of this all the time.

The local independent voices are the ones we need to be propping up.

Someone on the live stream, I believe it was Sue from Franklin said, why isn't media doing more to push back against this administration?

And I appreciate that statement.

I think, and I work in media.

I'm employed by media.

I'm part of the media machine.

It is a nuanced and difficult conversation because here at Civic Media, we are encouraged.

We are supported to speak truth to power.

We are pro-democracy.

That means telling people things they don't like hearing.

They call us in texts and tell us we're wrong.

But when we're talking about corporate entities, in my heart, and you both know this, we know journalists who work for corporate or national news outlets, they are a bit...

Tied by the hands because they have overlords and shareholders who are telling them we can't do this and they're not even it's not because they like the current administration They just don't want to become a target.

So we're now walking in this in this thing of let's see how thin we can make the First Amendment How can you skate on that?

So my point being and I'm rambling and I apologize, but I'd like to talk a lot.

My voice is amazing, but Subscribe to the recombobulation area find yourself at places like the Wisconsin examiner

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Those are local papers.

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And they're telling the truth through the news reporting and also support public broadcasting.

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need your support.

And so now's a great time to do it at the recombination area.

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So you subscribe there and you could win.

And then if you text in Friday on the Civic Media app, you could win four more tickets.

Who knows?

It could be, I mean, this could be a.

a baseball party in support of media that's getting you the real news and being all cool, like we're cool.

I got a mustache, so I know I'm cool.

By the way, blew everyone's mind.

I gotta say, everyone was like, did you tell anybody?

I don't know who I was supposed to tell.

I think you needed to issue

a press release about

the beard.

That's a different conversation.

In the moments we have left, in that WP article that you referenced, Dan, before, there is another discussion point, and that is cell phones in school.

Yeah, it came up in that article.

We had an article at Civic Media this week talking about a number of municipalities that are doing this for the first time, having bans for cell phones in school, whether it's a bell to bell ban, a full day ban, or if it's bans during class.

This is an issue that Marquette University Law School poll pulled earlier this year, and I'll just run through the numbers real quick.

polling on should we ban phones during the entire school day 72% of Wisconsin voters said yes 28% no and people banning phones during class

This was overwhelming.

You don't see these kind of numbers really for any issue.

In Wisconsin, 89% of voters said yes to banning phones during class, just 11% saying no to that.

There was kind of an interesting age breakdown on this as well.

The full day ban among the 18 to 29 age group.

That was a little bit more negative.

43% said yes.

56%

said no in that age group on the full day ban.

But the ban during class, even the 18 to 29 year olds, even the Zoomers were on board with that one.

71% yes to 30% no.

So, you know, I think a number of schools are taking a look at this.

I don't know if our state government is going to take a look at this or really do anything.

But I think at the local level, you know, we're seeing a number of this.

There was a story at Civic Media out of Richland Center saying that they are

are imposing new cell phone restrictions.

There are 17 states and the District of Columbia imposing new cell phone restrictions in schools this school year.

So I think this is gonna be one of those issues.

And right now it's kind of looking more like one of those 80-20 issues that maybe there is some actual consensus behind.

So yeah, I think it's a good thing to ban schools, at least during class.

We only have about a minute before we have to go grab some water and coming back with a...

Audio sorbet, potpourri, if you will, just talking about the weekend and brewers and packages and stuff like that.

But Angela Lang, really quick, yay or nay cell phones in class?

Yay.

Yay

cell phones in class?

Yeah, I'm like, I got the opposite opinion.

And I speak from experience.

I had a cell phone since the seventh grade.

And we had to get special permission because my mom was sick.

And so she was like, if anything needs to happen, I need to get a hold of my child.

So that was like a whole thing.

I think there should be exceptions.

And also with the rise of school shootings, I don't know.

It may be good for kids to have cell phones.

There you go.

The youth has spoken.

We're going to keep this conversation going with Dan Schaefer and Angela Lang on the other side of the news break.

Stay close.

Stay hydrated.

Stay awesome.

You're listening to Matt Nair on the Civic Media Radio Network.

My name is Greg Box, sitting in for Jane Matt Nair.

You're awesome.

Let no one tell you

differently.

Good good morning and welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is on vacation enjoying herself She misses you and she loves you, but you got me today.

You got me for a few days, but also you've got Angela Lang who is my co-host today.

She is the executive director.

You're also the founder, right?

The founder and executive director of black leaders organizing communities also known as block and I'm also sit next across from

not the Twix, but I like that word.

Dan Schaefer, who is civic media's political editor, the founder of the recombobulation area.

I mean, it's recombobulating, recombobulating all day Friday.

This is really what it is.

It's the recombobulation Friday.

Absolutely.

If you want to be part of the conversation, the discussion.

Let us know your thoughts, your concerns, your comments, things like that.

Tell us how much you love my mustache if you're on the live stream.

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A lot of conversation happening.

A lot, a lot, a lot of important topics we're talking about, but we're going to shift gears because it's 10 36, which means it's time for audio Sorbet.

Yes.

We clean your ears with fun at audio Sorbet.

And today it's kind of, I called it a potpourri.

We didn't have a specific, usually come with a title or a theme or something like that.

But today.

Very, very simple.

We're just talking about this weekend.

Labor Day weekend's coming up.

I assume for all of us, three-day weekend.

We will not be here, by the way.

Actually, I should bring that up.

We will not be here on Monday, matinee around here.

It's going to be a expertly curated with some fresh content in there, but there will be interviews.

We'll be talking to Kristen Lighty, who is an organizer up in Green Bay.

Robert Pilot, who is the host of Native Roots Radio.

And of course,

Audio survey tis bad, but it's gonna be there for you pre-recorded on Monday.

We're gonna be celebrating Labor Day I hope you're celebrating to keeping it safe and remembering why we have that day off Because as my friend Kristen says unions are the only thing that can truly fight fascism so Labor Day plans everyone Dan, what are you doing this weekend?

You know, I'm staying in Milwaukee.

Okay one

I'm not going up north, nothing like that.

I'm sticking around Milwaukee, having a cookout, getting together with some friends, Mike go try to see a movie, might do some house projects, and really above all anything else, I'm gonna be celebrating the fact that Michael Parsons is on the Green Bay Packers.

You guys

are

really, really excited, and we'll get to that in just a moment, but I wanna ask Angela, what are you doing to celebrate Labor Day this weekend?

Or just what are you doing this?

What are you doing this weekend?

I should just say let's start there

not contributing to any type of labor.

I am not doing anything.

I had to look at my calendar.

I was like, what am I doing?

It's one of the few weekends I don't have anything to do.

So I'm trying to catch up on some reading.

I have to deeply my apartment.

But I will stop by Labor Fest because that's always a really fun time.

And it's good to, there are times that you just kind of go and show up by yourself and then you

You see everybody, it's one of those events that like everyone needs to be at.

And we definitely pay attention with what elected officials show up and which ones don't and who is in solidarity with the labor movement.

And I did three years, felt like a three year stint at SEIU.

I did not tell him.

There are other folks I talked to and they're like, oh, you also worked for SEIU.

There's just like a certain

grueling organizing that you get put through.

So I always have a special place in my heart for labor, especially to going back to teachers.

It makes me think of like Act 10.

And that was the first real time that I saw teachers being villainized, right?

I'm like, why are we making an enemy out of teachers?

And to see the rest of the labor movement stand up and stand in solidarity, even with folks that weren't in labor.

So I think, yes, labor has taken some hits and some beatings.

I think it's important for folks to still...

really honor and really center how we got here and still see the importance of unions.

And just to get the details on Labor Fest as well, that is on Monday, September 1st, 11 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

The parade kicks off at Zidler Union Square Park in Milwaukee at 11 a.m.

ends at the Summer Fest grounds Henry Meyer Festival Park.

So go check that one out.

Go check that out.

It's a great, great festival, great.

parade, great way to celebrate and be in connection with folks in the labor movement that is again put on by the Milwaukee Area Labor Council and AFL-CIO.

And I'll be talking actually next week to Professor John Shelton on Tuesday when

we

come back about the power importance of labor and the labor union and labor movement in America.

And really quick before we get to Micah Parsons, because I know you want to talk about that.

I'm very

excited about that.

I encourage people to listen to that conference.

What is going on here?

Something's playing.

There we go.

We had someone.

Was that

you,

Dan?

There's a ghost in the machine.

I don't know what's going on.

Gremlins, everybody.

I encourage people to listen to that interview I did with Kristen Lighty.

If you can't listen on Monday, it will be on the website, civicmedia.us slash shows, because she talks about her work at Weak in Green Bay.

And it's not just about the organization of labor.

It's about other things the union does during the school year to help with things that happen in school.

And so it's a really great conversation.

And she talks about the villainizing of teachers through Act 10 and 32, which

decimated this state so many years ago and really kind of put a huge mark on our really rich and beautiful history of labor.

But we're going to move it along to sports, to the Packers.

Okay.

So if you listen to this show, God bless you.

I love it.

If you know anything about me, you know, I'm not the biggest football fan.

I don't dislike it, but I'm not the biggest follower of it.

I'm going to try harder for Dan for other people this season, but the

There is, I don't know Angela if you know this, but there was a real hubbub.

going

on

because Micah Parsons is now a Packer, correct?

Micah Parsons is now a Packer.

What does that mean?

Tell me more.

Amazing.

Okay, so the Packers traded two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys for Micah Parsons and immediately made Micah Parsons the highest paid defensive player in the NFL.

Micah Parsons is 26 years old.

He will be entering his fifth season in the NFL.

He is maybe the best pass rusher in the NFL.

right now, and he's only 26 entering his prime right now.

There is, you know, there are a number of really good players that can rush the passer, and they are all paid really well, and they are all really game changers in the NFL.

Micah Parsons might be the best of the group.

And he is extreme that his combination of size and speed on the defensive end, like you watch the highlights of his sacks, like he is just still going when he is tackling somebody because he is just so darn fast, uh, getting to the passer and that is exactly what the Packers defense needed right now.