Lending A Hand To Understand Economics (Hour 2)

Good

morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane, Matt and air who is on vacation and we will be back before you know it.

If you'd like to join us today, give us a call.

send us a text.

It's the same same number.

It's 855-752-484-2855-75 civic.

Leave a comment on the live stream for we are streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the site.

We still call Twitter.

We have a jam packed show for you today at 935.

Andrew Watkins is a New York Times best selling off author as well as the creator of a sub stack called

for such times as this.

And she will be joining us again today.

She's our monthly guest talking about the influence of Christian nationalism, white Christian nationalism.

She is a survivor of a white Christian nationalist community.

And she joins our show to give us a really deep dive and an insight into that world.

And not only about what to know, but how to spot it in our halls of power.

So she will be with us at 935.

At 1006 in our second hour, Rick Reed is an economics professor from Fox Valley Technical College.

He joins us as well every quarter or so, or when we need him and we need him.

He reached out to us about being on the show today.

We're going to be talking about President Trump's attempts to bully the Fed share Jerome Powell, why this is the fact and why this doesn't help America with the intentions that

Donald Trump seeks with regard to trying to force the Fed to make America look better again.

That's going to be a 1006.

And then at 1035, because she's taken some time off, Brittany Merleau is going to be joining us with weather and wine.

So weather and wine early Wednesday, we're going to get an update on the weather for this weekend up into next week, as well as discuss

a nifty tool.

I said nifty.

That's right.

A nifty tool.

That's from Noah.

That just helps us with flood inundation, a warning.

And it'll be a great discussion with Brittany.

And then of course, a 1052.

We, and the show is we always do with this shouldn't be a thing today.

It is get your wands out.

The dumpus eliminatus edition.

So you don't want to go anywhere.

This is going to be a packed show.

Lots going on.

First, before, before we get anywhere, I want to introduce the board, Lord.

Captain slide I mean general.

I'm gonna I'm gonna promote you as of today.

You're now general slide It's Calvin Butenhoff on the boards everybody

Hi, Greg.

Hi.

How are you?

I'm doing well, you know, it's hump day After today shows over will be more than halfway through the week already.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly I mean, it's just the hump day you just sound so thrilled about Wednesday, you

know

People always gripe on Mondays for me Tuesday is usually the dragiest day of the week.

Yeah, so Wednesday.

We're on the other side of that.

We're moving in the right.

It provides hope.

I understand that.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Cool.

Well, Calvin will be us.

Be with us the entire show.

I hope you stick with us the entire show.

I'm very excited about what we're going to be talking about today.

And before we

Kick it off into giving you the exact article that we're going to be discussing this morning as part of our syllabus.

That's right.

I just stole that from Jim Santel.

Take it.

I'm going to read a quote.

And I want you and you folks to think about who you think may have said this.

I know you're going to get this in one singular guess, but I want you to think about this quote goes like this.

I've been watching over the course of the past several weeks as my Democratic colleagues have been talking about what they would like to accomplish this fall and the vast majority of things they'll be introducing are repealing are some good things that we have done.

They are not really focusing on the future.

They're continuing to obsess about the past and the good work that we have done.

Unlike other Democratic, unlike our Democratic colleagues, we really look

forward to we were looking at the issues that are important the entire state of Wisconsin.

I believe we have he yes, the gentleman who has said that statement has entered has entered the chat.

Calvin, do you have his theme music?

Yes, that was assembly speaker Robin Voss in a new article from the Wisconsin examiner Baylor Spears with the byline came out this morning.

Assembly Republicans announced scattered package of education bills and task force tax forks.

Wow.

Task force is hard to discuss words on a Wednesday.

But yesterday there was a press conference with Robin Voss.

There is a picture.

I will put this article in the show notes and I can guarantee that the people behind him seem like they want to be anywhere but in front of that press briefing.

The assembly Republicans announced a broad education agenda Tuesday along with a set of task forces.

The slate of proposals they plan to advance this fall include one to encourage school districts to consolidate and one to push Governor Tony Evers to opt into a federal choice school program.

Though exact bill details were scant, of course.

Among the new task forces is one that pursues goals similar to those that the Republican committee established last year to improve government efficiencies.

So if you don't remember, actually, let's give you two layers of storytelling here.

First, remember Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk.

You know that guy who was our shadow president for a few months, but now he's gone trying to recoup his image and trying to make you believe that he's not a bad guy.

even though he tried to buy a state supreme court election here in wisconsin with over a hundred million dollars yeah that guy so there was the department of government efficiency doge and they did a lot of damage and we don't know the extent of it but they're talking anywhere between 150 to 160 billion dollars in damage to the federal government in the guys of trying to save us money well shortly after doge came out

Robin Voss, along with his cohorts, came out with a group called GOAT.

I'm not kidding you, this is a real thing.

I'm not making this up.

Again, I'm not that funny.

GOAT.

Government Oversight and Accountability Task Force.

Same thing only applied to Wisconsin.

That sort of went away.

That sort of went the way of the Dodo.

We don't really hear about goat anymore, but they want to revive it in a new way.

They want to rebrand it.

But before we talk about the task forces, I want to talk about the educational components.

They want to look at consolidating school districts, encourage them to consolidate and share services.

According to this article by Baylor Spears in the Wisconsin Examiner, currently there are 421 public school districts around the state.

And because of declining enrollment, there are a number that may be cut.

Representative Amanda Nedueski, who is a representative in Pleasant Prairie, which is right about where I live, said that this seeks to address financial issues school districts are faced by encouraging them to consolidate and sharing their services.

We have lost 53,000 students over the last decade because student enrollment is the primary driver of our state's school funding formula.

Districts experiencing decline in.

declined enrollment, received less money in state aid.

I followed the budget pretty closely with Jane and with UCAL and with Dan Schaefer and with many other people.

I feel like the less state aid that's happening for schools is because the Republicans cut state aid for schools for K through 12 and they did it again in this budget.

They did it in the last budget.

They do it all the time.

I don't understand if folks call me or text me or leave a comment on the live stream.

Let me know how I'm not getting this because apparently they're not going to get state aid because of declining enrollment, but they're not getting state aid at all because of the Republicans.

That's how I've seen it because as we saw in this year's biennium budget, they got no increase in K through 12.

There were other increases in education and that's great.

And I'm happy about that.

It's not enough.

It's never enough.

And frankly, Wisconsin can afford it.

We have a surplus.

The surplus in last year was about $7.1 billion.

And by the end of this year, we're looking to be back to about $4.6 billion.

Now, you also have to take into account that some of that money is going to come go away because we're giving it away in tax-free funds, tax credits.

or tax cuts, I should say, for folks here in Wisconsin, which is OK, which is fine, does add up to about $180, depending.

But let's not spend that money on kids.

Let's close the schools.

Let's combine them.

Let's keep not funding them.

Ned whiskey goes on to say Democrats might argue that the solution is something to throw more money at the problem.

But.

It does not solve the issue that it's there that less kids are being born today than they were 20 years ago.

Calvin, did you hear that?

That's the, that's the key word.

Less kids are being born.

We need to have more children.

More children need to be born.

Cause if we don't have more children, we can't, cannot fund them, cannot fund these schools.

I mean, why bother?

It's a, it's a very much a why bother situation.

It's like when you see that there's a movie, the naked gun, not the new one, but the original where

Lieutenant Trebin is standing in front of a fire and just saying, there's nothing to see here.

Just keep on walking.

We got it taking care of.

And they want to take care of what's called the cycle of referendum.

And we've discussed that as well on the show.

The cycle of referendum I voted last year to increase my personal property taxes to help fund the schools in Kenosha.

Even though I don't have children because I believe investing in the future helps with the community.

That's not how the Republicans see it.

They never do.

They want to close schools.

They want to Combine services and here's another a bill from Republican Representative Jesse Rodriguez of Oak Creek will instruct evers governor evers to opt into a new federal school choice tax program So Wisconsin's gonna get into you know, we're already by the way, we're already funding two school systems if you didn't know that we're funding two school systems We've got our public schools

which we give almost no money to, not enough, nothing for K-12, but we also have our private schools.

What do you mean that?

Yes, your tax dollars gets taken out of the stream for the schools and given to vouchers programs, to school choice programs.

So we're funding two school programs here.

Now,

According to representative Rodriguez, he wants to instruct Evers to opt into a new federal choice program.

Gene on the line is calling from Eau Claire.

Gene, what do you say?

How are you doing this morning?

I'll bet you you are fired up and gosh darn it, not happy about it.

Good guess.

We've got a bunch of morons running in our state that take control.

Hey, you know, what's going on in our federal government?

Started as an example in the state of Wisconsin.

Yeah, and and what they did and going after all of our institutions You know in changing everything Walker did he made a mess of our state?

Yeah, and they went to other states too because I was thinking what in the devil are they doing passing all of these changes in our state and then I noticed I started Checking it out, and they were doing it in other states.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah

I mean, this has been an ongoing thing, and then it makes it up to our federal government.

And we finally got some sanity back in our state.

And these yehues are still trying to keep it coming.

They're idiots.

They don't care about the state.

And it's nuts when we are paying for two separate school systems, one that we don't even have any comment or ability to check out, and the other one that is for the public.

It is so crazy.

It's crazy.

Keep up the great work.

I just can't believe all this stuff.

And I gotta say one more thing.

Real quick, Jeannie, we're coming up against the wall.

What's going on?

It's my opinion.

GOP now stands for Guardians of the Predators.

This is my opinion.

I'm mad about that too.

So you have a good day.

You as well, Jeannie.

And we're going to keep the conversation going about this press conference held yesterday by speaker, assembly speaker, Robin Vos about how they want to consolidate power in the face of the courts, in the face of the governor.

and more on the education ideas and these task forces.

When we return, don't forget, get in touch with us, 855-752-4842-855-755 Civic.

Go grab some water, stay hydrated.

You're listening to Matt and Aaron here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stay close, stay

tuned.

Good.

Good morning.

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, but we'll be back before you know it.

If you want to call us, you want to text us.

It's the same number 855 752 4842 855 75 civic leave a comment on the live stream.

We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the site.

We still call Twitter.

Still will come at 9 35.

After the bottom of the hour news, we've got Andrew Watkins, who is a New York Times bestselling author here to talk about the influence of Christian nationalism in our government, in our halls of power, in our neighborhoods and communities.

We're going to be talking a lot about a gentleman in Idaho who has more influence than you think, but Andrew, Andrew Watkins is going to be here at 9 35 to just talk about it more.

And then at 1006 Rick.

Reed is a professor of economics from Fox Valley technical college talking about all of the business going on with Trump versus the Fed and why bullying people in organizations aren't what we need to do in this country.

And they don't really help us to begin with, then weather and wind at 10 35.

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

So don't go anywhere.

We have got a great, great show ahead.

Just want to say this really quick here before we went and got ourselves some water and some snacks.

We were talking to Jeannie from Eau Claire and she is always fired up and ready to go.

She has always got her ducks in a row and she told us to talk about what's on her mind.

And Tony on the live stream says, I've never met Jeannie from Eau Claire, but she is one of my favorite people.

Yep.

I love the fire.

I love the zest.

I love the sass.

I love it all.

And she keeps it very Calvin.

She keeps it very Midwestern, I'd say Midwestern cussing.

She's not cussing, but like,

God dang it.

Gosh darn it.

Those are like, you know, I enjoy those.

I enjoy those in place of your traditional, uh, uh, cuss words.

And I always appreciate that she qualifies her more, um, controversial, but I would say still accurate with that.

It is just her opinion.

Yes, exactly.

I won't say they're right or wrong, but wink.

Thanks always for getting in touch with us, Jeanne.

We really appreciate you.

We were talking about.

Before we ran and got some water, we were talking about the fact that there was a press conference yesterday with Robin Voss, who was the speaker of the assembly here in Wisconsin and his buddies.

And they want to put together a bunch of task forces as well as some new bills too.

They want to move forward.

You know, Wisconsin, our motto is forward.

I think the Democrats are moving backwards, but the Republicans want to move forward.

They want to move forward with.

Somehow defunding our schools even more by closing them down and consolidating them And I'm sure they've got their eyes locked on Madison and MPS because they love those school districts And they also want to get some task forces in place to get some government efficiency in there they want to Doge it up, but they don't want to say doge because you know, that's a that's a naughty word now I I don't know what to say to it other than

You say you're moving forward, but what you're really doing is you're trying, you are trying to take us backwards because one of your task forces looks at the rulemaking process and how to rework that.

It's the top one they talk about, the rulemaking process.

Because as we saw the court came out with some opinions that favored the governor, allowed

him to distribute grants.

And like, so there was the Knowles Nelson stewardship grant program.

It lapsed last year.

And they want to bring this back.

It's a popular thing.

It's not, this is not a, this is not a partisan, deeply divided thing.

It's a very popular grant.

And because the governor went ahead and wanted to move this forward, Robin Voss got very upset because he doesn't like it when people try to take his power because the popcorn king is in charge of everything.

So they want to look at the rulemaking process and see about, you know, what kind of, what can they do as always to get their power back?

They don't really care about you.

They don't care about the people.

They, as Genie says, they don't care about the people.

They care about their power.

And they should really watch it too, because next year is an election.

And if they keep doing things like this, I don't have time to go into all the task forces and maybe we'll talk more about this tomorrow, because frankly, I feel like we should all know more about these task forces, but they want to bring in a efficiency task force, much like their failed goat, which is an offshoot of doge.

But they also want to look it's called is so it's called the federal department government oversight and accountability transparency committee that was the original was the that was goat and They want to re-ramp it, but they also want to see how they can create efficiencies with the government using AI And I just want to make something very clear before we go to the bottom of the hour news this is 2025 next year is 2026

This is that's gonna be their year where they're not gonna do a lot They want to ram these bills through and get these task force started They need to have them up and running by the end of the year because their session ends soon Ends after October and the next year is their 10 month year 10 month holiday year We are the ones who work a little bit faster in the assembly but an awful lot of these become law because of our partnership with the state Senate I'm extremely confident by February when we adjourn

We will produce a good package of bills we can all stand behind.

They can stand behind because they don't want to stand in front and take the blame for what they're doing to Wisconsin.

Remember, next year is the 10 month vacation.

They will be until February.

They will do their business and they'll be walking around Wisconsin and they're going to try to hurt our schools.

They're going to try to hurt our kids.

They're going to try to consolidate their power so the governor has nothing.

And frankly, I'm tired of it.

Remember, next year is an election year.

My vote dot w i dot gov to find out who represents you.

Talk to them, tell you them what you think about the job they're doing.

And remember to keep up with who's running in your districts because your voting is your voice.

We're going to keep talking.

We're going to talk to Andrew Watkins next bestselling author New York Times talking about white crash, white Christian nationalism in our halls of power and in our communities.

Don't go anywhere.

Have yourself a break.

Have yourself a snack.

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

Stay close.

Stay tuned.

Can you hear me now?

Good.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air and you are back with us and we're happy to have you.

If you want to call or text, get us on your phone.

It's the same number 855-752-4842 855-75 civic.

You can also leave a comment on the live stream.

We are on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

We are waiting.

We have Andrew Watkins here.

We're working through a few technical difficulties.

No big deal.

We will have her on before we know it.

And we are going to talk about Christian nationalism, white Christian nationalism.

She is a survivor of a Christian nationalist community.

She is also a New York Times bestselling author as well as the author and creator of the sub stack for such a time as this.

If you want to get that, you know, I subscribe, go to sub stack and find out and we can absolutely get you in touch.

We've got Andra on the phone right now.

Andra, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate you.

I'm going to try to experiment here.

I'm going to bring you in and we can see, there we go.

We can, we got both mediums.

You're on the live stream, but we also got you on the phone.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate you so much.

I'm sorry.

Usually I can fix that really quickly.

And for some reason today, it just did not work.

But anyway, we're here.

So it's good to see you, Greg.

It's great to see you as well.

I really appreciate your time.

And I want to, before we get into anything, I want to kick this off with a video clip.

And it's something I sent to you.

And when you, you email back, you're like, Oh, I know this guy.

I know, I know all about him.

I'm, I'm familiar with his whole milieu.

So before we talk, let's play the clip, Calvin.

We've actually got the clip in two pieces.

I want to play the first part now.

It's a little bit longer, about a minute and a half, but

After we're done, we're going to talk about this man, who he is and what I want to say stands for, but I don't like that phrase because it just feels more bold and honorific.

But Calvin, please play that clip for us.

Working journalists and I'm a mom of three.

The kind of people that people come out of.

So you just think they're meant to have babies.

They're

just a vessel.

No, it doesn't take any talent to simply

reproduced biologically.

The wife and mother, who is the chief executive of the home, is entrusted with three or four or five eternal souls.

I'm here as a working journalist and I'm a mom of three.

Good for you.

Is

that an issue?

No.

And no, it's not automatically an issue.

Christchurch senior pastor Doug Wilson is the leader of a Christian nationalist movement that believes in a patriarchal society where men are dominant and women are expected to submit to their husbands.

Josh and Amy Prince, along with their four kids, move from Washington State to Moscow, Idaho, where Wilson's movement is based.

Do you see Amy as your equal?

Yes and no.

In the sense that we're both saved by grace, we're absolutely on equal footing.

But we have very different purposes, God given.

But do you see yourself

as the head of the household, as the man?

He is the head.

of our household.

Yes.

And I do So like moving here.

I was

your decision.

Yes.

That's a

great

example.

Wilson says of a Christian society, women shouldn't be able to vote.

His fellow Longshore and Toby Sumter agree.

In we would vote as households.

Um, be the one that would cast the vote, but having discussed it with my

But what if there's a your wife doesn't want to vote for the same person as you?

Well, then that's a great opportunity for a good discussion.

There are some who have gone so far as to say that they want the 19th Amendment repealed.

I would support that.

And I'd support it on the basis that the the atomization that comes with our current system is not good for humans.

OK, well, there was a lot to unpack there.

Here's the thing, I just want to give the, okay, so as I said before, Andrew Watkins is a survivor of a white Christian nationalist community.

I am not.

I was raised Catholic.

The laziest of the Christians, if you ask me.

So this for me whenever I hear it is always the blood boiling, the skin curdling, everything about it makes me so mad and shocked and all these, but for you, Andrew, this is, yeah, of course.

Yeah, I mean, I did not grow up in a church that is as extreme as Doug Wilson's is, shockingly.

You know, Doug Wilson is a dominionist, Christian nationalist, and I talk a lot about the three sects of Christian nationalism.

So there's the Baptist Protestant Presbyterian sect, there's the Dominionist sect, which is charismatic Pentecostal.

Based and then there's opus dacophilicism, which you obviously didn't have any exposure to when you were growing up.

So Doug Wilson is in the dominionist Christian persuasion of this and

and

he is a very radicalized extremist in the sense that he believes only men should lead Only white men should lead and and that is how he runs his churches

You know, only the men lead, only the men hold positions of leadership, only the men address the community.

Women cannot do that.

I grew up in a church like that, actually, where women could not teach boys once they reached puberty in Sunday school, and women could not address the congregation from the pulpit.

So Doug Wilson operates that way.

He you know, obviously believes that women belong in the home being mothers and submitting to men and believes that men should make the decision about society who's going to lead society and and how we're going to govern society

There is so for those who's joined us maybe mid conversation because PJ on the livestream said what the H did I just hear that was

a gentleman named Doug Wilson, who is a pastor in Idaho, along with parishioners, other pastors.

I don't even like using the word pastor.

I know pastors.

They're good people.

This guy is not in my opinion.

That's my opinion.

Like Jeannie from Eau Claire says, just my opinion.

But what, what for, for an outsider, which is what I am from this world.

What I did hear though was the polish, the soft side of it all, the

Women are the chief executives of the home.

Really quick, Andra, as you are a woman and you are part of this group, what is the pay structure to be the chief executive of the home?

Zero.

Okay, cool.

Just want to make sure.

And the way they put it out there is just so, this is about family and work.

And my husband is the head of the house.

And I submit to him.

And if we only have one vote, we will talk about it when really that's all a lie.

Women are subject to the men.

Men make the decisions.

Women can think they have positions of power in the home, but really they are about not being talented by having babies, lots of babies, and doing whatever their community and their husbands tell them to do.

I mean, that's the more real version of this.

very polished, very, very, you know, this interview they did where they knew exactly who they were talking to and what they needed to say to make themselves look well adjusted and normal.

Right.

And in groups among themselves, you can find video of Doug Wilson saying things like, if a man has sex with his wife and she doesn't want to have it, that's not

rape.

Marital rate doesn't happen to Doug Wilson and in his church because it is always a woman's job to service her husband whenever he wants it.

That is part of submitting to your husband.

So therefore, marital rate can never happen.

So he'll say more extreme things like that amongst his own community or amongst friendly ears.

But when he gets in front of someone from CNN,

He polishes it up to make making his wife chattel by calling her the chief executive of the home.

But really what these men believe is that their women, their wives, and their children are their property.

And that is what they want to have happen.

And but I've seen the videos too, even in in the year.

And by the way, if you're just joining us, we are on Matt Nair on a civic media radio network talking to the wonderful Andrew Watkins, New York Times bestselling artist and.

Author and the creator of the substack for such a time as this and we're discussing Doug Wilson specifically his his church you said Dominion Christian nationalist movement and just I You know even in the way they presented though from the public because you see the video from when they're talking in church there They're still presenting it is that as a thing of well the man has needs and he needs to procreate and he needs to populate the earth and if he has to you know and any sin

He But portrays any sin he he takes a pardon.

It's never a problem because he's saved.

That's the man He's the head.

There's pressures there.

We we had Andrew I don't know if you know I'm a man I have things I need to do and apparently it's do whatever I want in spite of what my wife thinks and I'm sorry if she has a problem with that, but I'm man Forgive me Calvin had a question for you though.

Andrew.

I just want to make that point real clear

Yeah, I guess my question in this

might be an impossible question to answer.

It's kind of like a chicken or the egg type of deal.

But how much of this is a genuine belief that this is revelation from God and this is a good faith interpretation of Scripture versus a justification for the perverse form of control they desire?

It's the latter.

100%.

Yeah.

So, you know, this is absolutely... These men think that they have a handle on the one true God, the way they portray God, vengeful, angry, Old Testament God, is who they worship.

That's the one true God.

And they are that one true God's representatives on earth.

And since, you know, the one true God doesn't come down here and tell us what the one true God means with anything.

The one true God has picked these men.

To represent the one true God.

I don't assign sex to God.

That's just you know,

well Andrew Watkins is woke here.

My goodness

So, you know, that's what they're that's what they believe so they believe they're God's representatives on earth and so whatever they say They're they're making themselves God.

They're violating the second commandment of the ten commandments by making themselves gods But they can't even quote all the ten commandments anyway.

So what does it matter?

This is a question that maybe, I mean, this is just for more of a play around for the three of us here.

So when you talk about a vengeful Old Testament God, my friends who study the Old Testament and live their lives by the Old Testament are Jewish, and they don't invoke a vengeful, spidey, mean-spirited, commanding God of the... I mean...

Granted there are a sex of Judaism that says men are the household But I have friends who are Jewish who do not view the Old Testament the same way these men do and also Is there a point where they can just pull Jesus out of that equation?

They put such a price on being saved as you Jesus as your Lord and Savior but Jesus's word was about love and service and community and inclusion and happiness and and loving God He is the head of everything.

He is my dad worship him but

His viewpoint, Jesus' viewpoint has become a little too loving and liberal and vogue for them.

So is there a point where they could actually say, we don't really need Jesus.

He's not important right now.

In fact, before you answer that, we gotta run to get some snacks and get some water.

So we're gonna come back and I want you to think about that.

The quote, evolution of the church.

If they just like a Smitey God, is that all they need?

Do they no longer need Jesus?

We're going to talk to Andra Watkins about that when we come back.

We're going to grab some snacks, grab some water.

Don't go anywhere.

We're having a great talk.

Andra is a New York Times bestselling author and the creator of For Such a Time as This on Substack.

Subscribe now.

Get her in your life.

She's fantastic.

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

Stay close.

Stay tuned.

Welcome, welcome back to Matt and air and air.

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

She just texted me.

She misses you and she loves you.

She'll be back sooner than you know it.

I'm Greg box sitting in for the rest of the week.

I got Calvin Butenhoff on the boards here.

Sweet Cal be also known as the board Lord.

And we are talking to Andrew Watkins who is a New York Times best selling author.

I always like saying that.

Just sounds so fancy.

Like I'm around fancy people when I say that, not just the readers, but an author, also creator of the substack for such a time as this.

She is a survivor of a white Christian nationalist community.

And she comes on the show every month to talk about her experience and also talk about what we need to be on the lookout for because this is not just about communities in Idaho that are fringe in the forest or doing their thing away from.

Influence, they're very much in the halls of power, and we're gonna talk about that in a moment, but before we want to grab some snacks, Andrew, I asked a question really quick, and you know, all religion evolves, people evolve the Bible how they want, and the cornerstone was always, as long as Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you are saved, you giving yourself up to being saved, that's what you need.

But what we've also seen is, I don't even want to say a perversion of Jesus' message, because it's just an all-encompassing forgetting, just a swiping away of the love, inclusion, acceptance, and, you know, doing good for others and community.

So my question is, for a group who loves Smitey, Old Testament God, is there a way that they can just take Jesus out of the equation or make him

Tougher and say well when he made those loaves and fishes he didn't want everyone to eat them He said eat if you want but you don't have to because a real Christian doesn't eat you know what I'm saying It's like it just feels so weird that Jesus is central messages being erased

Well done Wilson has written a whole book about the sin of empathy

Of

course he has you know, he's he's written a whole book about how bad empathy is for humanity

So there are a number of people in that world who decry empathy.

But I like to say that Christian nationalists use Jesus Christ as a firescape.

So, you know, we escape hell and then they don't really ever talk about Jesus again in any meaningful way.

You know, they are all about vengeful, angry, mighty Old Testament God.

and inflicting as much Old Testament judgment on Americans and humanity as they possibly can.

So it's not that they'll ever set Jesus Christ aside, even though some of them privately will say Jesus was a wimp.

And Jesus wasn't tough enough.

And Jesus was too kind to people and whatever and we need to be tougher and we need to use, you know, be what vengeful, angry Old Testament God said and stone people to death for, you know, accusing a man of raping them and stuff like that.

You know, we live in such a better world if that's what we had.

So it really is this authoritarian mindset that gets baked into these churches.

That's been going on for 50 years where they've all been trained to accept a dictator because all the pastors are mini dictators Doug Doug Wilson is a mini dictator And so these churches run like dictatorships and and so, you know, that's really More what it's about these men have been able to replace God For their congregations and be God in the flesh

It would be

It would be easy to say, well, that that sucks for the parishioners, but it really also it's it's terrible for them and it's terrible for us as Americans because Doug Wilson has a hold in the U.S.

government by way of Secretaria of Defense.

Sorry, of war.

Pete Hagstaff.

Yeah, I mean, Pete Hagstaff found his church a number of years ago.

He's, I think, sent his children to one of the schools that's attached to one of those churches.

And so

You know, he's speaking at the Pentagon sometimes or his peregrine when he has his illegal prayer meetings and church meetings.

So, you know, these people are embedded in government.

And this kind of mentality is what's driving Pete Hexas purges of women from the military and firing women from leadership positions in the military.

It's what's driving.

purging women from the Department of Defense.

I refuse to call it what they want to call it.

You know, that's part of it.

It's Doug Wilson's mentality about where women belong.

And that's something I want to end this discussion with today and it's something you brought up last time that I don't know why it hit me like a bolt of truth because it's true but you don't think about it because it's not in my world but

These are not the fringes.

These are not the crazies.

These are not the people in the woods having a tent revival and dancing with snakes.

These are people who have legit brick-and-mortar churches around the country and they are in not just the U.S.

government, they're in the halls of power, state, local, and federal.

And I mean, Mike Johnson is a Christian nationalist.

So he's a Baptist Christian nationalist, but he has Dominionist tendencies as well.

They all do now of taking over the world and forcing everyone to live by their interpretation of the Bible.

So this applies whichever version of it you're talking about.

And we have probably hundreds of Christian nationalists in our federal government apparatus now because of this regime.

who believe that they have the right to force everyone in society to live by religious laws that they have drawn up from their interpretations of the Bible.

Andrew Watkins is a New York Times best-selling author, got to say it again, and the creator of the sub-stack for such a time as this, please subscribe to this, please read her books, please get her in your life.

It's important information for us to know and then share what you know with people because these are the things that

We don't talk about certain things at the dinner table, but we need to start talking about them now because they affect all of us.

Andrea, thank you so much for being here today.

I really appreciate your time.

As always, I will look forward to talking to you next month, my friend.

Thanks for having

me.

All right, great.

After the top of the hour news, we're going to be talking with economics professor Rick Reed about why bullying the Fed is not a good idea for you, for me, and the country.

Don't go anywhere.

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

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating But she'll be back before you know it if you want to get in touch with us if you want to call our number is 855-752-4842 855-75 civic leave a comment on the live stream We are on Facebook YouTube and the site.

We still call Twitter

Basically, we're here for another hour.

We got another hour of great programming ahead.

But there's also wonderful, wonderful programming happening after we are off the air today, including the Tom Hartman show, which is on from 2pm, I'm sorry, from 11am to 2pm.

And then following that is our very own, our beloved Todd Alba.

who will be on from two to four.

He's going to be talking to Pat Crichtlow, who was on our show yesterday and Trigley Olson, who is the senior advisor at the Lincoln project and looking for headlines around Wisconsin, the nation that really, you know, that, that hook into us.

So what are we talking about around the nation?

What are we talking about as Wisconsinites?

And they're going to be discussing those, those news stories today at two.

And then he is going to be joined at three 35 by Milwaukee County executive.

David Crowley, who announced his Democratic candidacy for the governor's race in 2026.

So you don't want to go anywhere.

That's coming up during the Todd Alba show.

Got Maggie Dawn at four to six.

She is going to be speaking from the CapTimes Ideas Fest with Norm Eisen, who is a panelist and discussing broad appeal with Kristen Dazzler, Alfheim State Senator.

They're going to be talking about her time in public service.

It's going to be a great time.

I, you really even need to get this civic media lineup in your life after Maggie Dawn is P trouble with nightlife.

It is fantastic.

If you want to listen to all of that, go to civicmedia.us slash civicmedia.us, stream it live there or get the civic media app in your life and you can listen to it anytime, anywhere, but that is the rest of the lineup.

We'll talk more about that as we go on.

But for right now.

We have in the studio well not in the studio in our live stream studio Rick Reed who is an economics instructor at Fox Valley Technical College He is our gentleman who is in charge of all knowledge that is economics because I'm mine.

I am econ adjacent I once looked at a course catalog and said economics and I said

maybe, and that I never did.

So that's as far as I got with economics.

Rick, thank you so much for being here today.

We really appreciate your time.

How are you doing back to school?

So you got to be busy, I'm sure.

Oh, it is a hectic time right now.

Absolutely.

But it's a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Now, you you reached out to us and I'm glad you did because I told you in the email, I was the day you reached out, I'm like, we haven't spoken to Rick Reid in a while.

And there is stuff going on.

And I wanted to start

really at the top with what you were discussing, which is these, I would say war between the Fed chair, Jerome Powell and Donald Trump.

Now granted, Jerome Powell did not start this.

He did not lob the first bomb.

He's just a guy doing his job.

And we know what the Fed chair is.

We know that we know those names, but it's not a very sexy title, nor is it a sexy position.

Your job is numbers and it's doing your best to make sure that

The things that are happening in America's economy are reflected in the numbers so we can understand where we need to move our needle as far as policy, as far as resources.

That's his job.

And here comes Donald Trump saying, darn it, lower interest rates.

So let's start there.

Why is it not a good idea for a president to tell a Fed chair to lower interest

rates?

Okay, thank you for having me on.

First of all, I wanted to say that the views I express are representative for me,

not

necessarily for Fox Valley Technic.

Of course, of course, thank you.

But the main concern among economists is what I'll nickname the H mom and I'll get back to that in a second.

I just want to kind of give a little bit of background so that because a lot of people don't really know what the Fed does, how it got there, why we have them.

and what difference it makes this is a government employee and you know gee can't we just hire and fire them at will.

Here's the thing if you if you take a look and when you talk to economists you'll always have them a common phrase that you'll hear them say is on the one hand this and on the other hand that.

So I'm going to start off with that on the one hand you have

fiscal policy being determined by the executive branch in concert with Congress.

Okay.

Rick, he's got a visual aid.

Yes.

All

right, keep going.

A little visual aid there for the video.

Love it.

Viewer is there, right?

Fiscal policy.

Now, the thing is that this is a negotiated process through the budget between Congress and the president, right?

And

it's it's meant to be long and drawn out so that we give good thought to how we spend tax, etc.

Right.

On the other hand, we have monetary policy.

Move

the hand over there.

I

want to see your face.

There we

go.

Just

perfect.

And monetary policy is

the purview of the United States central bank, which is called the Federal Reserve.

Now, I just threw a term out there what the central bank is, and pretty much every country will have a central bank.

And it's generally charged with managing the amount of money in circulation, managing things like interest rates, managing bank security, et cetera, okay, interbank transfers, and so on.

So you've got two different groups of things that can influence the economy.

Now,

Both of them.

Oh, and I should also mention.

You need to bring it on a fiscal bringing a student just for a third hand there.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Whenever you have a question, just raise your hand.

So for the on the fiscal side, those are elected participants.

Yeah.

And that's important to recognize.

And it's very different from on the monetary policy where they are.

appointed.

They're appointed by the president, confirmed by Congress.

So, whether we're talking about fiscal policy or monetary policy, their actions can either be, if you use the analogy of traveling in a car, they can be a gas pedal or a brake.

Okay, now think about it.

When you're driving along a highway, if you're headed down a hill, is that the time to stop on the gas?

Maybe not no right.

You might be getting too reckless there and it might create some hazards down the road And and likewise as you're headed up the hill into rough terrain It may not be the best time to step on the brake right so it's important to recognize that both fiscal policy and monetary policy have gas and brake pedals The Federal Reserve in charge of monetary policy is

charged with what's known as a dual mandate of price stability and full employment.

Now, full employment not only refers to employees, but full employment of the economy, making sure that factories are running and we're reaching our full potential.

And those two things combined lead to steady economic growth.

Stable prices is very important.

Now, the tricky thing about that, that dual mandate is, you could do either one, you could maximize either one.

If you didn't have to worry about the other one, anybody could do it.

Literally anybody.

It's pretty simple.

Doing them together and being mindful that what you do with prices could influence unemployment, that's a lot trickier and is a lot more nuanced in terms of what you do.

On the fiscal side of things,

remember that you've got elected officials and their main objective is doing good for the country, right?

And doing good means things like national defense.

Okay, thank you for qualifying.

Yeah, making sure that we're all safe, the broader things that we want government to do.

And that involves spending money that they collect through taxes.

And by virtue of a budget between taxing and spending, they've got to be able to balance a budget, right?

but the other force in play for fiscal policy is that these people are elected.

So in addition to doing good in all these range of things that we do as a government, they have an incentive to also do things that will help them get reelected.

So as an example, I can't recall the last time I heard a politician that got elected promote

raising taxes on everybody.

Vote for me, I'll raise your taxes, right?

It's, you know, not a very popular thing to say.

Yeah, it's hard to, it's hard to, it's hard to take raising your taxes and make it sound palatable, even though raising your taxes will help the investment.

in the country if used properly.

But if you're just joining us on Matt and Aaron air, we are speaking to Rick Reed, who is an economics instructor at Fox Valley Technical College.

He's brought this.

Okay.

This ever a reason to watch the live stream.

It's today.

Rick has brought visual aids and really fun banter.

And we're talking about the, the, the role of the Fed chair, the importance of it.

And, you know, all of those things you're saying to me right now, when it comes to the appointed side is that

This country is better off having folks, especially a Fed chair, who is well-versed, experienced of all the nuance that goes into this entire process.

You can't just have someone in the chair's office that says, well, just lower their interest rates.

Just do it, just do it right now, because then we'll do that.

And America will be great again.

And I don't want to get into the politics with you, Rick, because I know you've made it very clear this is not the opinion of the college.

And I, and I'm not trying to employ your opinion on the politics, but what I'm seeing in the news as a news reader is just this, you know, everything you just said, which was, which was informed and dealt with the nuance.

And it makes sense.

You have a guy in the White House saying, yeah, I don't care.

Lower the interest rates now because, and I'm in a Atlantic article that came out.

It's about.

It's about putting as you I'm gonna use your parlance Foot on the gas for the economy so that the economy grows on the Republicans and when it doesn't it can be blamed on the Democrats and that's not how we should do things in this country We need to look at strong fiscal policy how it's implemented so that we can be growing consistently no matter who is in the White House

Right exactly and and the thing is when Congress established the Federal Reserve

it designed it, and there are a lot of structural features to the Federal Reserve that make it much less likely to be influenced by politics,

by

design, by design.

The term of a Federal Reserve governor is 14 years, and so a president maximum will have eight years, right?

So the idea is to be able to separate it to the extent possible from any political influence.

So what happens?

Here's the question.

What's the fear if

Suddenly, the executive branch, or for that matter, Congress manages day to day, executive branch is the real concern, because it's one person and they can move quickly.

What's the concern?

Well, that's where we get into, again, what I call the H-bomb.

Do you remember the movie from 1990, Home Alone?

Yeah.

Okay.

And everybody that ever watched that video or Home Alone 2, 3, 4.

We don't watch Home Alone 3 in this house.

There's no such thing as Home Alone 3.

Go

on.

OK.

Home Alone 1 or 2 anyway.

So anybody that watched that remembered Macaulay-Cawkins' reaction, right?

If you have monetary policy and fiscal policy influenced by elected officials, you get the Macaulay-Cawkins' Home

Alone

response to the economy.

And that's the H-bomb and what I mean by an H-bomb is you risk and and this is kind of an extreme example But it is possible that there are examples in the world where it's happened.

What's called hyperinflation?

Yeah hyperinflation is where the value of your currency Falls yeah by the minute

we're gonna keep that point going when we come back from the other side of grabbing some snacks and some water because I want to talk about that that as well

and really just break down the fact that when it comes to inflation, hyperinflation, stagnation, it's a lot to take in.

And people who know nothing about it, including this guy sometimes, speaks way too much on the topic.

We are speaking with Rick Reed.

He is an economics professor at Fax Valley Tactical College.

We'll be talking more about the economy.

Get in touch 855-752-4842, 855-756-CIVIC.

You listen to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good morning.

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 back before you know it.

If you want to get in touch with us, you can call or text.

The number is the same.

It's 855-752-4842 855-75 civic.

You can always leave a comment on the live stream.

Currently we are on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still call Twitter and I really encourage you to get on the live stream because our guest Rick Reed, who is an economics instructor from Fox Valley Technical College.

didn't just bring his A game as far as the expertise.

He brought visual aids.

And I would say play on word pun based visual aids as well.

So you want to stick around for the visual aids.

Rick, first of all, again, thank you for being here.

And before we went to go grab some snacks and come back, you were talking about hyperinflation.

And I feel like that term sits in the same place as stagflation.

And the fact that, you know, while

If you ask the average American and I'm used that term not of pejorative if you ask the average American where should inflation be they're they're gonna say zero because zero is better than one and better than two but really when it comes down to it is If we're at if two is about the place you want to be between one and a half and two because if you get to zero you get to Stagflation and then talk to me about hyperinflation.

So people just understand that it's not just a simple

numbers game in that sense of what we would what we would calculate.

It's more about once again, I'm gonna keep saying the nuance of it all.

Sure, absolutely.

And thank you for raising that topic because the issue around inflation, we always want some inflation, modest inflation, you're right, 2% is the Fed's goal.

And

Part of the reason they want 2% is you don't want to get to zero because at zero you're right on the fence line to falling into deflation.

Deflation is the real red flashing light thing because when you get into deflation that's very painful.

It's hard to reverse and it puts you into a downward spiral very rapidly for a long time.

So 2% is just a little bit above that.

You're always going to have about 2% or so.

We're running about

2.9% right now, which is still not horrible.

I mean, 2.9% is livable, but in an ideal world, we want to bring that down just a tad.

Hyper and stagflation, by the way, just a quick moment.

The term got coined back in

the 1970s when Tricky Dick Nixon was in charge, you know, the guy that wasn't a crook, and he tried to mess with the Fed to help him get reelected.

That's a classic example of one of the dangers.

When we talk about hyperinflation, what we're talking about is inflation, where you're not talking about one, two, three percent, you're talking about a hundred or a thousand percent, you're talking about getting paid

At the end of the day going to the grocery store and realizing the prices have already doubled since the day before yeah, that's hyperinflation And that's incredibly disruptive and painful there are a handful of examples throughout history where it's happened and it's almost always happened Where it is has always happened where you have the elected officials

getting control over monetary policy because they view that as an easy way to print money to pay the bills when that's really not the way you want to manage

it.

And honestly, I'm looking it up right now.

I remember his name now.

The one example that I think of when it comes to hyperinflation that comes to mind is Robert Mugabe, who ran Zimbabwe and took control of the monitor.

And it became the fact that like, you know,

their dollar to buy a dinner would be billions of dollars when it would really equate to like 40 bucks.

Because when the government gets in, when an autocratic or dictator type gets into office, they'll mess with the money.

And if you want to look up a modern example of hyperinflation, look at Zimbabwean, the Zimbabwean currency under Robert Mugabe.

because that was it came to the place where they had to actually the US dollar had to come in as the official dollar to cool things down because people just couldn't afford to live.

Exactly.

Exactly.

It became prohibitive.

And the other element that you want to kind of keep in the back of your mind is that when you when you're talking about inflation, you're talking about the average level of prices and wages rising, prices always rise sooner and faster than wages.

Yeah.

Yes.

So the higher the inflation, the more

further behind people that work for a living are going to get.

And we live in a piece of opinion, a base that looks at history is like right now the trend for this country is that wages far, far are behind of the increased costs, whether it's housing, food, services, we're doing much more, we have to do much more with much less.

And the argument for

I'm just going to use this real quick too is the argument for a minimum wage being $15 is so old that people who are like, yeah, let's do it.

Now experts are saying, no, it needs to be 20.

You missed the boat.

It's still seven 25.

It needs to be 20.

And we're not trying to make people millionaires.

We're trying to just people that they can afford their apartments and maybe buy a house one day.

So Rick, I always appreciate you coming in.

And I mean, never stop doing the, the, the visual aids.

Now that is now that is mandatory.

mandatory, but I really appreciate you reaching out.

I really appreciate you stopping by and giving us your take on this.

And really the fact that if in, in, in, in calmer times, the leader of the free world, the president of the United States wouldn't be putting his, wouldn't be trying to put his thumb on the Fed share to make America look better again.

He would just let it, let them do their jobs and make policy to, to help make the economy better.

Exactly.

Central bankers have the motivation to stabilize the economy and assure things like full employment.

Elected officials, they might want to do public good, but they also want to get reelected and help their political position.

So two very different motivations and it influences the way they make decisions.

Rick Reed is an economics instructor at Fox Valley Technical College.

He is our guest.

He brought the visual aids.

Rick, thank you so much.

Have a wonderful, wonderful day.

We'll talk to you sooner than later, pal.

You as well.

Take care.

All right.

When we come back, we got some weather and wine with Brittany Merleau.

What's going to be the weather update for this weekend?

You got to find out.

Tune in.

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

Stay tuned.

Stay close.

Good

morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air and air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane, Matt and air who's currently vacating, who's currently out of the office, but we'll be returning before we know it.

So you're stuck with me, but I'm happier here.

I'm happier spending time with us today.

We got sweet Calbee on the boards, the board, Lord, the Calvinator Calviante.

L. Calvinton of Perth.

Is that good?

I like that one.

No.

Okay.

Calvin said nothing.

So he doesn't like that.

I'll never say that again, but your list.

Yeah.

It's not a bad idea.

It just needs some work.

Thank you.

Okay.

Cool.

We'll polish it up.

We'll polish that, that, that, that pooper up.

Uh, we are on the civic media radio network and we are here with you today.

If you want to get in touch with us.

Caller text, the number is the same 855-752-484-2855.

75 Civic, leave a comment on the live stream.

We're on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

Got a lot more show coming up.

We got 1052.

We got this shouldn't be a thing.

Dumpus Eliminatus Edition.

Don't go anywhere, especially if you're a Harry Potter fan.

And also we got great programming coming up after us as well as

Todd Alba from two to four, Maggie Dawn from four to six, Pete Trubba from Nightlife from six to eight, and then great stuff in the evening as well.

So if you want to learn more, go to civicmedia.us slash shows and find out all the programs we have for you, including Earl Ingram's new podcast, What's Going On.

And right now I'll tell you what's going on.

It's time for some weather and wine with Brittany Merleau, Civic Media's award-winning, award-winning meteorologist, writer,

friend, Brittany, how are you today?

Oh, thank you.

I'm great now with that intro.

Thanks, Greg.

I'm just going to follow you around and say, like, award-winning.

And you'll be at the market and be like, I'm just trying to buy bread.

Be

like, shh.

Oh, I'm everything.

Oh, it is nice though.

It is nice.

How you got the sun out by you right now.

Are you the only one hanging on to a little bit of sunshine?

I think so.

Yeah.

We've been pretty immune to all of the craziness weather wise down here in southeastern Wisconsin.

It's been, it's been coolish.

We've been in the seventies.

It's that seventies cool.

It's not hot seventies.

It's coolish seventies where, you know, you, you don't turn the air on, but you also

Don't hesitate to turn the heat on because at night it will change.

And that's what I've been seeing down here.

Cause I'm, I am a not trained meteorologist.

I'm a guy who sticks

his thumb

up in there and goes, the wind's blowing that way.

But we've been getting, we've been getting seventies days and then, you know, lower sixties nights or early fifties, upper fifties nights as well.

So what are you seeing around the state?

What are you seeing around southeastern Wisconsin?

And what's the forecast going to be looking like over the next few days into next week?

Absolutely.

So you've got a little bit of a front moving through.

So a few funny showers as those winds switched off the lake could happen.

So you're going to get a little bit of a lake breeze today.

And of course, temperatures probably in the mid 70s for you.

So overnight fog moving in, it was thick up north.

You could barely see this morning and we are looking at more and more sun as we go through this week.

So the.

crummy dreary type of weather that we're dealing with now

is going

to be gone and we're going to start to warm up.

So if you remember last week, this time we were talking about record cold high temperatures hitting.

So just a couple of days ago and now we're looking at summer weather starting to sneak right back in.

I told you all to hang on.

It would be here and it is so.

I told friends and family I said, hey, first I said

Fall is here.

Summer's gone.

And then we got warmer weather and they looked at me and said, I apparently wasn't listening to Brittany.

And then I said, well, it's going to be warm.

It's going to be nice.

And then it was upper fifties at night.

And they looked at me again.

I said, I don't know.

I don't win awards.

Brittany does.

You want the weather?

Talk to her.

But yeah, it's a very interesting.

You know, in certain times, especially in the late summer in those, in that July, August, it can be very unpredictable, but also very uncomfortable.

I feel like where we're at right now with the weather, I can personally operate well.

Cause I can take 55 to 72 and not have to worry about opening every window so I can sleep at night.

Right, right.

Well, AC units might start to crank up again.

We go into this weekend.

are going to get warmer.

We are going to see more humidity start to sneak in too.

So muggy as soon as Friday that holds through the whole weekend and even into next week.

So we're looking at climbing to the upper 70s near 80 degrees by Friday for a majority of the state low 80s on Saturday.

However, there is rain rolling in.

So in the morning, you could see some rain early Saturday morning.

It'll clear out and be a nice day in the afternoon.

Sunday, we're going to the mid 80s.

across the state.

So it's going to get warm and we're going to hang on to those low 80s too as we go into next week.

Now I was looking ahead because our fall colors are already starting to change up here in Wausau area far up north.

We're starting to see them, certain trees, and we are looking cooler next weekend.

So I think with the sun this week, the cooler temperatures behind it, those colors are going to be pumping right around the corner.

We're also looking at some more warmth still later on too.

So while we may cool down into next week and I still see 80s for the end of the month, a roller coaster.

Yeah, I'm about to ask a dumb question and you can feel free to answer this as soon as possible, the quickest way possible, and make fun of me while doing it.

Once that's all done, though that 80, that mid 80s Sunday, do you see any other heat?

Waves heat your waves more summer temperatures happening or do you think then all right?

We're we're moving into October.

It's get those keep them keep them sweaters out

Right.

So what I'm thinking and seeing right now is this is gonna be our last Extended 80s, right?

We're gonna feel them from Friday all the way through almost Wednesday or Thursday next week So a whole week of 80s sticking with us.

That's not gonna happen again.

I don't

I believe.

What I see at the end of the month is a day or two, spiking to about upper 70s, low 80s, here and there kind of thing as the temperatures slowly trend cooler.

Because by the time we end September, our average highs across the state should only be in the upper 60s.

So 80s is woo.

Quoted here today, I'm Matt Naranair, Brittany Merlot with the unfall like heat.

Woo.

All right,

get your Ric Flair off

because we're going woo today now something else that you spoke to me about is The fact that there is a new so Yeah, and so Noah put out a tool you said a new tool for flood inundation forecasting through the National Weather Service Tell me more about that because that I talked to you last week about a great

piece of equipment that helps protect yourself, helps keep you safe through satellites, but this is something totally different.

Tell us some more about this tool from NOAA.

Yeah, so this tool is pretty cool.

It's not really for us to necessarily use, like you're not going to be able to go home and play around with this one, but it's going to be filtered down and very, very, very, very helpful for all of us.

called flood inundation maps.

And it's coming from the Water Prediction Center, the National Water Prediction Service Center as well.

And what they're doing is taking, it's pretty cool.

So they already have these forecasts for rivers and flooding.

We already know that these forecasts are out there, but.

This is like a spatial high resolution street level view where it actually shows water rising in certain places and where that flood is expected to occur.

Now we already have data like this, but this is really cutting edge advanced where there's emergency managers across the country saying, man, if we had this a couple of years ago.

We wouldn't have set up an emergency crew in this certain area that ended up getting flooded by a river.

We would have evacuated more areas that we would have seen.

And it's just cool to really see that we're getting better as forecasters in the National Weather Service and NOAA with these tools, with this advancement to help in these situations because we all know

that more rain events and heavier rain events are the new thing.

It's happening.

Southern Wisconsin especially is already in that trend.

Northern Wisconsin is jumping on the train.

So with more floods in the future, rivers rising, heavier rain, this is amazing to have.

And it was just released last week for Western Wisconsin.

So only the Mississippi River Valley has it right now.

But by next year, it's going to cover the entire U.S.

3.6 million river miles will be with this awesome thing where you can just see the water rising and where it's going to go and what town or what house or what street will be covered with water.

And I am glad you brought that up because it's something that I've spoken to you about many times.

We talked to Dr. Ben Weston from the Milwaukee County Emergency Planning Department as well as Chief Jim Case from Wauwatosa.

He's Fire Chief of Wauwatosa.

And this is, you know, while the cleanup is still happening and there's still assessments, assessments being done by NOAA, we need to look at planning and we cannot look at

if it's going to be about when from now and we need to make this

a

part of our life's understanding that whether it's getting our basements redone, which I understand costs, but getting your basements redone, flood insurance, floodplain updating, these are all the tools we need to get us prepared for the future.

And I understand if you don't, I mean, I understand that a direct answer probably isn't available at this moment, but we have seen threats to funding for the national weather service.

and what you always seem to bring are proof positives that these groups are important and vital to keeping us safe and informed.

Do you see the cutting of funding or the movement or the closure of any departments influencing certain tools like this or are they safe right now?

Like right now we're working with what we got but we gotta be on the lookout because

The hand from the White House might come down and say, we don't need that stuff.

Just go outside.

And if it's raining, walk away.

Yes.

That is definitely a worry.

So it is kind of shocking and awesome to see this new stuff coming out and these tools available.

And I know that they're going to use it as much as they can while they have it.

I hope that's not a cut in the future.

But I mean, they're already low.

They're already stressed.

There's ripple effects.

So I'm hoping that this tool will help the fact.

that we can visualize it and see that.

And I hope there's no cuts.

I don't see any in the future in this specific area, but you never, ever know.

It's important to stay vigilant on this, everybody, because things like this now will have a... I mean, they always did, but now, especially if you live in southeastern Wisconsin, we have to be on the lookout.

And I hate to say, you know, the double C word, but it's the truth.

Climate change is also a factor in this.

So we have to be vigilant on what we know and how we contribute and how we can stay prepared.

Speaking of prepared, Brittany.

What are you prepared to do this weekend?

What are you up to?

What is, you know, it's, I know you're a snow, you're not a snowberg, you're not old, but you all, you love the snow, but you're not there yet, but you love this cooler weather.

What are you planning to do in this last, maybe hot weekend of 2025?

I'm

going to live up the summer vibe.

I'm probably going to be out on the lakes, kayaking, standup paddle boarding, anything I can do to soak up the last little bit of heat.

Because yes, my season, snow season is coming soon.

And you are excited for that?

I mean, are you in the last few moments we have together here today?

Do you see good snow in the future?

I do actually because we are in a La Nina watch.

I think that pattern is going to flip I think we're gonna get some systems We're gonna get some cold spells and we're gonna see a little bit more which is good news for the North woods right two years ago Trails open for snowmobiling or skiing or anything last year was decent not the best So we're ready for a better one.

Excellent.

Well, I'm

hoping for all the snow for exactly for where you live.

Cause I just am over shoveling and snowballing.

I'll just ship it all to you via the mail.

It'll come back to you as water.

So you just put in the freezer, but before you know it, it'll be snow and you'll be so happy.

Speaking of happy, Brittany, I always love having you on the show.

Love doing weather and wine with you.

Love talking about these issues, talking about these updates.

And I appreciate your time and expertise.

If you want to know more about Brittany and her award winning journalism.

Go to civicmedia.us slash news.

You can find everything she's working on.

Brittany, have yourself a lovely weekend.

I know you're going to be out of town having some time off.

Enjoy yourself.

You deserve it.

I'll talk to you next week.