Show Up And Earn Their Votes (Hour 2)

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us.

You can call or text the number is the same 855-752.

four eight four two.

You can also leave a comment if you're watching on a live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter, lots of stuff coming up on the show for you today.

Friend and colleague, travel companion Todd Alba, host of the Todd Alba show from two to four will be here after nine thirty.

We're going to talk a little bit about Wisconsin's own Derek Van Orden.

the greatest tweeter of all tweeters yes the angry tweeter and we're also going to talk a little bit we may have missed this again there's such a fire hose now of news every single day there's a lot of things that might fall through but brian kill me on fox news

had a comment about, they were talking about that horrible instance, I believe it was in North Carolina, or that young woman was stabbed to death on a bus by a mentally ill, homeless man who had been in and out of jail.

And Brian Kilmeade essentially said, yeah, we should, you know, violent, homeless people, we should just give them an involuntary lethal injection.

And then he apologized.

Oh, the apology was too just it was yeah So we're gonna do a little recap of that with Todd all about coming up after the 9 30 news in our number two Sarah Harrison will join us She is a state senator candidate for district number five.

So we're gonna talk to Sarah a little bit about what got her into politics what

She brings to the table what she would like to see happen in that district.

So we'll learn a little bit about Sarah Harrison in hour number two at 10 30 as we always do audio Sorbet today.

A little bit different.

We're going to celebrate the life of Robert Redford.

Correct.

It was breaking news earlier this morning.

Robert Redford has passed away at the age of 89.

Yeah.

I don't think a lot of folks I was not.

I knew he was in his eighties.

Yeah.

but did not realize he was 89.

So we're going to celebrate the life of Robert Redford.

Take your calls about some of your favorite movies.

If you do a little search, there are things you've forgotten that he did.

Oh yeah, it's weird for someone who had been around for as long as he had been.

He didn't make, there wasn't like 100 movies.

The movies he did make are memorable.

Well, most of

them are.

Most of them are memorable.

Some of

them are like, nah, that's fine.

But yeah, I mean, he's in some of the greatest films of the last 50, 60 years.

And then went on to directing and directed some fantastic films.

So celebrating the life of Robert Redford for our audio sorbet today, and then we'll end the show.

As we always do with this shouldn't be a thing, today it is the bold ball bouncing edition.

grand.

Yes, there's a video element.

Oh,

of course there is.

And it's

you need to see it.

It's weird.

Just to appreciate it.

So that's coming up at the end of the show around 1051.

A reminder as well today is National Voter Registration Day.

Jane, if someone wants to check their voter registration, I mean, that must be an impossible task.

They got to get in the, well, first of all, they got to get dressed, get in the car, drive to their local municipal building.

No, no, no, no.

It is so easy.

How easy is it?

Go to myvote.wi.gov.

I have that website right here.

Do you?

Yeah.

All you have to do is put in your address.

That's it.

And it will tell you whether or not you are registered to vote.

But let's say I'm not registered to vote.

You can register

to vote.

at this myvote.wi.gov website.

It's amazing,

yes.

What if I want to find out, let's say like, oh shoot, who represents, who is my assembly member in Madison?

Can I find it there as well?

Every single thing you need, including all the contact information for your elected representatives are at myvote.wi.gov.

This sounds like a pretty handy Danny website.

And it's completely free.

I know.

In all seriousness, if you know someone who has not voted, maybe you've got an 18 year old in your house.

Yeah.

Yeah, they just did.

They just did a big voter roll maintenance.

Please don't come at me with conspiracy theories where if you have not voted in a while, you are taking off the rolls.

They will remove you.

Yes.

Yes,

exactly.

So you want to go there and check it out.

And another great thing too is as we get closer to election season,

when the ballots become available, you can see sample, well, two things actually.

You can see sample ballots of where you vote.

So you can see what's on there.

You can look it up, especially if there's one of those questions, because they're never worded

correctly.

The referendum, yeah.

And also you can sign up for early voting as well.

They can send, through that website, you can sign up and then the state will send you your ballot so you can vote early.

By the way, early voting is also called absentee voting.

Just just want to throw that in there

absentee in absentee in person voting.

Yeah, it's just or or let's say you want to fill out your your ballot put it in your envelope correctly with all the signatures and then drop it in a Dropbox that's available too.

It's

legal

It's still free and legal

here.

That is

legal.

Unless you live in Wausau because the mayor.

But whatever, that's fine.

But

yeah.

We'll do a scavenger hunt for your Dropbox when the time comes.

And amazingly, this year, there are not any statewide elections in Wisconsin this fall.

It's amazing.

Everyone, take a break.

Cause in January, it's all back

again.

It's gonna get tough.

But again, National Voter Registration Day, just a good reminder to check and make sure that you are still registered.

If you have young people in your home who have not registered yet, this is your chance to get them to do that.

Absolutely.

Just to remind them, it's important.

Correct.

It's still important.

We still

have a voice.

And as long as we still have that voice, that is how we show up for change, period.

We've talked about this many, many times.

political violence is not the way to go.

Even deep political rhetoric is not the way to go.

If you have no ballot to back you up, the ballot, the elections are how we show up and tell our leaders what we think.

You can also go to myvote.wi.gov, get those contact information and tell them how you think as well.

You can also go,

yes.

We encourage people to reach out politely, respectfully.

Correct, correct.

Your electeds know that, yeah, we're paying attention.

We do actually pay attention.

One of this talk a little bit to start things off about free speech.

We just exercised some right now.

We did.

And it is something I think a lot of us take for granted.

And now after the murder, and it was a murder, it was a political assassination of Charlie Kirk last week, a lot of discussion about speech and who gets to say

what.

There has been some backlash against our Attorney General Pam Bondi Who is said after Charlie Kirk's murder there's free speech and then there's hate speech and there is no place especially now especially after what happened to Charlie in our society Pam Bondi said we will absolutely target you go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech now There's been a big backlash from

the far right about this.

Yeah.

Eric Erickson is a particular pundit who says our attorney general is apparently a moron.

Wow.

Don't hold back, Eric.

This is a Republican.

Yes, yes.

There's free speech and then there is hate speech.

No, ma'am, that is not the law.

True.

I mean, that's very,

very true.

It is true.

As much as we might despise and...

Be offended by many of the things people say and I think that's a crowd that happens to people on both sides It's still protected

speech correct and we had Jim Santel on two weeks ago about this and He said you can go through every amendment and find how there are workarounds within those amendments There are things in the first amendment that are in fact not protected speech and that is set up by precedence to the courts whether it's the lower or the Supreme Court but

When we're talking about just, you know Saying something if if someone is I'm gonna use Charlie Kirk because it is the most obvious most recent example if someone is saying Something that is you find disrespectful towards the memory of Charlie Kirk.

Well, guess what?

That's your right to feel upset about that because you have your reasons and they're your reasons But that person if they're simply just speaking their mind and they're not and and all they're doing is quote offending you

That's not hate speech.

That's not threatening speech.

That's not something that should go that should that is not something worth violating the First Amendment over period done because I Would love to believe no court in the land would say Yeah, that's hate speech.

I don't know at this point.

I really don't well and again It seems to be to be a little bit murky on who is going to decide what constitutes that

yeah,

because Pam Bondi isn't saying we'll leave that up to the courts

Bambandi is kind of saying, I'm going to decide.

We're going to come after you.

Isn't that what she said?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

We are, which means the Trump administration, which means then the president, along with whomever else is involved, is going to decide what constitutes their version of hate speech.

And I'm going to tell you right now, the bar is going to be pretty low because if it's anything, and it's not, and that, and that's the thing is like, you can say like,

Look, the ACLU defended Nazis marching through the streets of Skokie back in the 70s because they had the right to be there.

And I use that example specifically because they are hateful human beings.

What Donald Trump and his people will do is, does this make me upset?

Does this make me sad?

Oh my, I don't like it.

Does it hurt my feelings?

That's what's going to become hate speech.

And I know that because the backlash from this since last Thursday,

has been so swift against anybody speaking their mind on it, that now people are just afraid of being fired.

Or, I hate using the word canceled, but they're afraid of getting in trouble, because all they're doing is speaking their mind.

Also, earlier this morning, Donald Trump launched a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times.

Oh.

This is from the Daily Beast that is filled with years worth of petty grievances.

Again, they're mean to him.

Trump alleges staff at the New York Times were so mad that he won in 2016.

They set out to ensure he would never get back to the White House.

They've spent decades of lying about your favorite president.

There's no basis for this.

It is.

It's another waste of time.

Coming from, by the way, I'm just going to...

coming from the president of the United States of America, who I thought that was a pretty labor-intensive job.

I thought that required a lot of your time.

No, he's got lots of spirits on him apparently.

Yeah, he golfs a lot.

And yeah, it comes down to, and also you have to bring into the conversation the double standard as well.

You must respect, you must not hate, no hate speech, this, that, and the other thing.

I can do one Google search and find all the hateful things that Donald Trump has said, the hateful things that Panabonia says, the hateful things that Charlie Kirk has, they all have that behind them.

And that's not to say that there aren't hateful things on the left, too.

There are, without a doubt.

But you can't sit there and say, we must respect, you must respect us, while then saying, oh, by the way, I'm going to say whatever I would like about these individuals, because I hate them.

It's just, it's, it once again, it's back to that idea of not the slippery slope, but just

Is this where we start?

Well, again, it goes back to free speech for me, but not for thee.

Correct.

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume chimed in on Pam Bondi.

Yeah.

Saying someone needs to explain to Ms.

Bondi that so-called hate speech, repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amendment.

She should know this.

Yes, as an attorney general, you would think she would know this.

Yeah, and.

Agreed.

Matt

Walsh, another far right guy.

A

guy

who's in the same breath as Charlie Kirk when people talk about these individuals.

Matt Walsh says there is no law against saying hateful things and there shouldn't be.

He should know.

855-752-4842.

What do you think?

Who should decide?

Who gets to decide what is hate speech?

And what should be the ramifications of that?

855-752-4842 will continue this conversation.

You are listening to Matt and Air on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stay close.

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt and air on air Jane Matt and air Greg Bach Calvinator on the board coming to you from her studio at radio park in Racine You can join us call or text at 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter We are talking about free speech in America

Attorney General Pam Bondi has said in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder last week there's free speech and then there's hate speech and there's no place especially now especially after what happened to Charlie in our society we will absolutely target you go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech this article from the Daily Beast Kirk himself had repeatedly spoken about the danger of

punishing hate speech, here is what he posted last year, quote, hate speech does not exist legally in America.

There is ugly speech, there's gross speech, there's evil speech, all of it is protected by the First Amendment, unquote.

Bondi has gotten some pushback since she said that, even from the right about what constitutes free speech and who gets to decide.

Who gets to decide?

I thought it was up to the court.

And the court had decided already that hateful things were protected under

the First Amendment.

And just to reiterate, when it comes to the First Amendment, there are certain things that are not protected, but that's usually set up by precedent from the court.

a while ago, like they, the looking at various things, like, like you cannot say certain things.

You cannot make public threats against the president.

That's the best example you can use.

But yeah, like that is so, it is such a, it is such in a subjective thing.

And to say that we're going to come after you, that sounds like to me, there's going to be speech police then.

That sounds like, and it sounds like, what have we been hearing for the past,

Five six seven years from various people cancel culture.

I can't say anything anymore I can't do anything anymore.

I can't I will try to make a joke and people tell me that I'm a racist like well Yeah, but also do you like this and that's the question I have for those individuals who love President Trump and love mega and love all this stuff How does this make you feel?

Do you like this idea of policing speech?

Do you like this idea of?

of somehow this new, very subjective idea of what we can and can't say being out there?

Will it be published as a book so we can follow the rules?

Well, I remember

when Elon bought Twitter, and part of the reason isn't part of the reason why he bought Twitter was to bring back free speech.

Free

speech absolutist,

he called

himself.

Yes, and so he brought back onto that platform all kinds of hateful, nasty groups.

My...

Feed changed drastically when that happened and the things that were showing up in my feed It was a drastic difference all kinds of hateful stuff all kinds of hateful stuff Under the

umbrella yes well first amendment unless you unless he land didn't like what you said then he well then it was different lock you suspend you docks you do what he wants because

As you said before, free speech for me, but not for me.

And I just really would like to know from supporters of Donald Trump how you feel about this, because as we've mentioned in the past, you can be sitting at a bar with a buddy.

And if we get to a certain point, you can say, oh, I love President Trump.

I don't like what he's doing with this thing.

Like, I don't, I don't, I didn't like the big bill for me to report you.

I'm going to report you.

You said something hateful towards the president.

You don't believe it.

You might think that's funny.

or ridiculous, or because your friends haven't heard of it, it doesn't exist.

But really, that's where we start.

We start with the policing of, quote, hate speech determined by some other entity, and then it just morphs outward.

And then you're encouraged to report people and do it for America.

I wonder who else has done that before in the past,

Jane.

Welcome back.

First of all,

I'm

glad you had a nice vacation.

It sounded wonderful.

And you give an E plus to the guy standing in there for

you, too.

He's a very good guy.

Thank you.

You guys are a great team, and you're a great individualist, so I just wanted to give you that.

Anyway, I wanted to say something that's been driving me bananas, and that is the speech issue.

Some happened in Eau Claire, I don't know if you've covered it yet because I've been paying attention to everything that's going on here and it's like overload.

But anyhow, they tried to get by an online petition by a woman, I won't say their name and I won't say the people's names.

However, to force a resignation of two of our Eau Claire city council members for bringing up something that

um ck has said um you know in in something said he said and believed in me he said plenty of hateful things in my biased opinion um but anyhow they've they've gone after him at an online petition and this woman was anti-mask anti everything uh real strong

uh... trump supporter you know that type of things we got that coming into our local politics which is really uh... thickening and that emperor wears no clothes wake up the emperor wears no clothes he's out there to be with these lies and we've got up steam which is the biggest crime in i've seen in my lifetime and it's it's just growth folks and then they're cutting cancer research

37% wake up.

Pay attention to what's really going on here, folks.

Don't pay attention to going after hate speech and the martyrdom of Charlie and all these different things going on.

Pay attention to how what he's doing impacts you and your family and your health and everything in your life.

Thank you guys.

Keep up the great work and have a good day.

Appreciate it, Gene.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

We're going to wrap it up with something Tony said on the live stream.

Should evers decide what's free speech?

Should Tom Tiffany decide?

No, obviously the fairest judge would be Derek Van Orden.

No one more calm or thoughtful than Derek.

We're going to talk a little more Derek on the other side of the news with Todd Alba, our friend and colleague and travel companion that is all coming up.

I hope you can stay with us.

You were listening to Matt Nair on air.

We are the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Box.

Sweet Calbee coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us.

Call or text.

The number is the same at 855-752-4842.

You can also leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

He is the host.

of the aptly named Todd Alba show from two to four PM across the network.

And our friend and travel companion Todd Alba is here.

Good morning.

How are you?

Now that I get to see Jane McNair's shiny face and hear her voice once again after a fine job by filling in by Greg Bach could

save

her but I mean but But I mean now I just feel better.

There was something missing the last three weeks I'm like, I just don't feel right.

I feel off and on medication.

Is it my vitamin?

No, no, no, I just was missing my Jane Matt.

Oh, Greg Bob kid back here

I have heard nothing but good things about the job that Greg and Calvin did.

He was

great.

He

was great.

No,

I'm saying it was great.

No, stop, Todd.

Stop giving me compliments,

please.

The gang is all

back together.

All back

together where we are meant to be.

We wanted to start off with a little bit of talk about Wisconsin's own Derek Van Orden.

Must we?

Yeah.

Pardon me.

Oh, nice.

Nice.

With my, uh, with my, uh, Driftless, Glenn, little, uh, little liquid

courage there.

Yeah.

Uh, I am genuinely concerned about him and his, I think he has some serious anger management problems.

This isn't a joke.

I'm not joking.

Um, and it concerns me about him.

I mean, how much did he tweet?

in the last couple of days since

Wednesday, last Wednesday over five, almost over 550 times.

There you go.

550 times.

I mean, even if you are, I mean, if I were.

Go ahead.

If you have a, even if you have a staffer doing that, you are directing your staffer to do that.

I think that's a great point.

And if I were one of the constituents of the third congressional district of Western Wisconsin, I'd say, what are we paying you to do?

you know, because there's a lot of issues, particularly on agriculture.

I mean, if you talk to Pam Yankee and the US Farm Report, which I know you guys do occasionally and talk to actual farmers, there's real concern about commodity pricing and the impact of tariffs, the Trump tariffs right now.

There are real issues in the third district.

And Derek Van Orton seems to be obsessed with this online social media.

So yeah, I'm no healthcare professional, but I attend gentle review.

Something something right with that boy is what we used to say

back seriously and again I I am genuinely concerned about his well-being.

I don't think that's healthy I don't think this is healthy behavior and I just wish someone who was close to him Could do something

well, I think that I think that you know you bring up a good point Todd and I've heard this from both inside and outside of the network that

People in the third district kind of have no idea that he acts in such a way because the way he has crafted his image within that area is that of a guy of the farmer, a guy at the pancake breakfast, a guy out there in the Deeregg Van Norton.

He seems like a good dog.

Yeah.

He had the Butternut Cafe.

I remember that play.

You know what I mean?

There has been this very well crafted image.

with the press's help because I'm not, and this, by the way, this is not like an accusatory thing towards the press.

If they give, if he gives them a video package of him and a farm doing a talk, then they're going to run that because they want to run content which shows they're elected official.

But people inside the third as I've heard, I've been made very much aware are not

keen to what's going on right

now.

We have Jean from Eau Claire who is a regular listener and she has told us that there is a particular desert.

There is a particular news desert in that part of Wisconsin,

the western

part of Wisconsin, and they get most of their news from the Twin Cities

in

Minneapolis.

And for one thing, this is the problem of our losing local papers and losing local media to keep track of these things.

And then if you only have the one outlet, as you said, Greg, and you get a package from the set, from his office, you play it.

Yeah.

So it's,

I'll, I'll, I'll say a shout out if I will be a news like Pat, so former station, they did have a piece last night online.

I think they read it on the news as well.

I saw the video.

And Gene brought this up.

I was listening earlier that there are two city council members

and I've

got the, I've got their tweets right in front of me here.

They, I won't read them both, but they.

they tweeted out truthful information about Charlie Kirk.

And for that, Derek Van Orton is now saying that he wants to cut off all federal funding to Eau Claire, which is the second largest municipality in his congressional district.

I'm no Carl Rove or David Axelrod, but I don't think that's smart politics.

So I think that...

I think the way that Democrats and people who are opposed to Van Orden, I think that's the way to go after.

I appreciate and understand the anger around some of his ridiculous tweets, the over-the-top stuff.

And look, I'm not trying to oversell.

I haven't lived in the third district in several years.

My mom still lives there.

I go back a lot to Richland County.

I ran for assembly in the third district, district just south of Eau Claire, across my sister and brother-in-law live in Eau Claire.

So I know it pretty well.

Derek Van Orton, to Greg's point, and both yours, that he's had a great job, whether I like it or not, of marketing himself,

the narrative

out there.

And he has ingrained with first responder sheriffs

EMT people, they love him.

And the most powerful people politically in most districts is the local sheriff.

They usually get the highest votes and people trust them.

And I think that if people like me are constantly attacking him, even with truth, locals are gonna say, hey, they're attacking us because he stands up for us.

And I think the right narrative, and I'm not saying I know all the answers,

I think the right narrative is to point things out like this, where he's going against his own district, even if most people would say, hey, if you disagree with these tweets, which are truthful, by the way, should our funding be cut off?

Because our congressman doesn't like it.

Most people, I think, are going to say no.

And secondly, I think, and this is much harder to do, right?

And it's not clickbaity.

It's not politically sexy.

But when you have situations like,

when Donald Trump said, hey, mail-in ballots, absentee are quote unquote corrupt.

And we have to stop this.

Meanwhile, Brian Shimming, the Republican Party chairman of Wisconsin, said, we have to do mail-in ballots.

It will help

us win.

And most people credit that Shimming and state Republicans up their absentee and mail-in balloting as largely why Trump won the last election in Wisconsin.

And then you have to go back to Derek Van Oorten and say, OK, Derek.

Who's right?

Trump or Jimmy?

Both can't be right.

And you have to put things, put them in a political box in a situation where it makes them very hard to come up with this rhetoric.

That's not necessarily fun to do.

It's not clickbaity.

But I think that's the way that you get people locally in the third district to rethink.

And finally, I'll say this, the leading Democratic candidate to replace it, Rebecca Cook, who is endorsed by the National Democratic Committee, refuses to come on this network for a proper interview.

And so when we people hear people like me say, Oh, Derek Van Oort won't go meet with us constituents.

Well, as leading opponent won't even come on and meet with the press for a proper interview.

That ain't helpful either.

Right.

If you're just joining us right now, we're talking to our friend Todd Alba, Matt and Aaron here.

He is the host of the Todd Alba show, which is on weekdays two to four on the civic media radio network.

And a couple of things I wanted to say to all of that, because I absolutely agree with you.

And what's interesting though, is that when we discuss the matter of

Well, they're they're attacking us They're going to they're going to hold those council members more responsible for their truthful tweets and look towards punishing them rather than looking at Derek van Orton and saying well Why is this guy doing this to us?

He's they're gonna blame the others and not him because the thing he has done that's done very well has really mirrored the Trump vibe which is

I say whatever I want no matter what I want and everyone supports me and there are no consequences and I think that's a great notion to say all right try to put him in a political box to answer a question but we've seen over and over again when asked the most simplest questions I mean respectful questions about process about passing a bill he gets angry he points his finger in your face and tells you that you're the problem when all you did was ask when budget hearings are going to be held he doesn't

You can't trap him in a box because he's going to kick the box open and run away.

And you make a really good point in that every question he does not want to answer, he responds to with an insult, essentially.

That's

kind of the go-to thing.

That's a really great point, and it's a great point, and I guess I was putting it more.

I don't expect Derek Van Orton to answer those questions, but I think that when I have the opportunity to go on and people throughout the third district would talk into friends and neighbors, you bring this up to each other and you get the voters kind of asking

themselves

these questions.

I know the the scientific is, you know, cognitive dissonance, which I think people are like, what the heck is that?

It's basically just looking in the mirror.

Asking yourself is that what I believe and I think that's the thing that's helpful in in in voters.

I also I was listening earlier I also think you guys brought up another key issue and that is the suppression of of free speech whether we agree with it or not and again I think most folks in the third district

if you just generally ask him, hey, as long as it's not calling for a direct killing, as long as you're not yelling fire at a movie theater, do you think that people should be able to say what they want, even if you don't agree?

I think most people in the third district or across Wisconsin would say, I might not like it, but yeah.

And I think that's a powerful issue to bring up to voters as well.

Yeah, I personally, I will say this very openly, like maybe like a year ago, I was trying to

Poke at Derek Van Norton on Twitter.

It never works.

He doesn't care about me.

Me too.

But now, but now when I- Everybody's

hoping for

that go kick rocks.

Yeah, it's like Tanshee from Hack Right Low get all the attention.

But for me, like now when I post about him, I'm intentional.

And I try to say something the effect of here is a man who has been tweeting nonstop for over a week.

I mean, more than usual.

This is a man who is at January 6th, not as a person defending democracy as a man with the

the mob that was eventually arrested and then eventually pardoned.

This is a man who has said horrible things about many people he doesn't like.

This is a man who's done next to nothing for farmers.

And this is a man who continually gets vote, continually gets voted in.

And I want, I want people to understand at least what one of our representatives in Wisconsin looks like.

And that this is a guy who, in my opinion, went to a vent full of traders.

And I'll say

that.

One of the things that disturb me the most so maybe you guys found it or maybe you didn't is after the assassination of Charlie Kirk I was going through my own personal Facebook page and the amount of people that were your quote-unquote Facebook friends Yeah, you kind of know them, but you really don't know that and I was shocked at how many people were retweeting calling Charlie Kirk a saint and and and

you know good things and it's like you would know these people and look they're fine people that you're there in our community they do they do great things and i think it just was a wake-up call for me that how deeply some of this stuff is ingrained in people that are otherwise good people in our communities and how much work i have to do to try to understand where they're coming from and have real conversations

but it's a problem when as you mentioned the two common council members whose names have come up now i'm assuming that they use

some quotes from Charlie Kirk himself as

one of them was a direct quote from Charlie Kirk accurate by

the way right and then they were attacked for doing that that's that's

right and that's where

it

gets

dangerous well yes it's we're trying to reverse reality here

i think i think the other thing too is for me i saw people that i am you know

Quote friends with on Facebook who were posting challenges to say find me something hateful that Charlie Kirk better try find me this tell me why he was so bad and Within 24 to 48 hours those posts were taken down because people answered in kind with the proof the proof of his word That's fascinating.

That's fascinating

Greg because I honestly think that some of those people never Because they're in their own silo correct, correct

We are a spot speaking with our friend and colleague Todd Alba of the Todd Alba show when we return

Violent homeless people should be given involuntary lethal injections.

That sounds bad.

So much for audio sorbet.

We'll talk about that coming up next.

You're listening to Nat in Air on Air.

We are the vast statewide, countrywide, pick us up in Portugal, perhaps, on the Civic Media radio network.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Bach.

Calvitini on the board coming to you live from our studio at Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us.

Call or text.

The number is the same at 855-752-4842.

You can leave a comment.

If you're watching in the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter, now my clock is correctly aligned with the rest of the clocks.

You're welcome.

I was

surfing and I'm like, this is weird.

All kinds of time in this break.

That was the wrong time.

What's Jennifer Aniston?

Why are you playing the music?

Are we working?

Jane is still on Portugal.

I'm still on vacation.

Please give her a

break.

All right, I'm back.

We're back.

We're live.

from Radio Park in Racine talking to Todd Alba joined Todd today from two to four and I know Todd you've been talking about mental health and suicide in Wisconsin which is a really important issue

and I know

that you're gonna be talking more about that this afternoon.

Yeah, thanks for shouting that out.

Don't tune in for Todd.

Tune in for my guest, Kira Saban, a psychological positivity coach she's been on before.

She put out a great Insta post over the weekend and basically I'll cut right to the chase that bad things are gonna happen.

We can't stop that, but you know what?

Lots of good things happen simultaneously.

We have to recognize that for our own mental health because our brains or DNA are not wired to always be on a hyper-emergency and she's gonna walk through and not to dismiss the news, but say how can we take care of our mental health and particularly with young males, young people.

loneliness.

We're going to talk about that today for two to four.

Super important.

It really is

super, super important.

So join Todd this afternoon for his show across the network.

I wanted to in the time that we have left, I did want to address this because wow, this was really something.

Fox is Brian Kilmeade last week in a discussion after that horrific stabbing of that young woman on a bus by mentally ill.

Homeless man who has been in and out of jail and and and you know lots of trouble But let's play that clip Calvin from Brian Kilmeade and his suggestion on how to handle cases like this going forward

They have given Billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population a lot of them don't want to take the programs a lot of them Don't want to get the help that is necessary.

You can't give them a choice either you take the resources that we're gonna give you and or you decide

that you're going to be locked up in jail.

That's the way it has to be now.

Or involuntary lethal injection or something.

Just kill him.

Brian, why did it have to get to this point?

Right.

Just kill him.

Just kill him.

Yeah, there's lots of layers, right?

We have a lot of time, but I think.

I'm glad you're calling it out.

We talked a little bit about it on our show.

This comes, of course, and over the weekend after this kind of blew up on socials, Kilmeade was essentially forced to give an apology.

Last time I checked, Fox News still has them on their payroll.

Meanwhile, over, they fired, MSNBC fired Matthew Dowd,

a

former Republican strategist for George W. Bush, because he actually said something truthful about Charlie Kirk.

And I think it brings up the important topic, Jane and Greg, is that

Let's just have a staff meeting on the air right now.

By the way, I don't know about you guys I said this on my show yesterday with about to the audience.

I don't have the bandwidth nor the staff

or the resources to keep up with the truth every single day because it used to be, oh, this came from the FBI.

This came from the Department of Labor Statistics.

This must be true.

And now under Trump firing those institutional, nonpartisan employees, we can't even rely on that.

And where we get our news and the socials that are overwhelming us with disinformation is so dangerous.

Quick example,

Cash Patel, FBI director, when they announced that they had the shooter at custody, he ended his comments.

And with this, I'm paraphrasing, but rest easy, we have the watch.

We'll see you in Valhalla.

Valhalla.

Valhalla.

It was Valhalla.

Thank you.

Valhalla.

Thank you.

Some Nordic thing, a pagan thing.

Kirk was a Christian.

It seemed weird.

On the official CBS News story on that.

They quoted Kashpatel and they ended it with a period, not dot, dot, dot, quote, quote, with a period before the remarks on, we'll see you in Valhalla.

What?

And so, yeah, I've got it.

I saved it.

And so now you have, and remember CBS was part of this deal with Skydance, who Trump said, well, allegedly you got to fire Colbert.

They forced CBS or Paramount.

and put in a ombudsman, essentially a Trump watcher.

And you start thinking, it's just little things like that, right?

It's little things that are set, but first go unnoticed that are framing the context for how we react.

And I think Buddha judge said it well, other people have said it well.

Put down your phones, guys.

Get off the internet.

Occasionally, you know what?

Turn your radio off.

Yeah.

And get out and be with real people and touch grass and take care of yourselves.

And I think the best thing we can do is have real conversations, as we say, like this, and just connect with our friends and neighbors.

Because I can't solve on our little show all the problems, but we can start connecting with our neighbors like you and I, when we travel around Wisconsin.

Yeah.

And we say it at the end of every show.

I hope you find some joy today.

And it's a small, tiny, and I realize a very small, insignificant thing.

But sometimes it's that little moment of a nice exchange at a grocery store or whatever it is that gives you a savior moment for the day.

It's like, here is one bright spot that happened today.

Occasionally, a great radio host and friend saves a life of a bird.

And you know what?

That freaky man.

I'm serious.

That matters.

That's hope.

We have to hang on to that, you guys.

You gotta

find it somewhere, right?

We all need to find those little nuggets someplace and then share it.

if you can.

Join

Todd

Alba this afternoon, two to four.

Thank you so much, my friend.

We will see you in a couple of weeks.

Thank you guys.

We have

news

coming up next.

And then when we return, we are going to get to know a Senate candidate for State Senate District number five.

That's all coming up on MapNair on air on this civic media radio network.

Don't go away.

Good morning and welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff.

Coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine, you can join us.

You can call.

You can text.

The number is the same at 855-752-4842.

Or leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream.

We stream on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform that used to be Twitter.

Very excited to be joined by our next guest.

She is running in District 5.

Sarah Harrison is here.

Good morning, Sarah.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Hi, Jane.

Good to see you again.

Good to see you as well.

Exciting times.

We wanted to just start with Sarah about a little of your background and what was it that inspired you to get involved in what is a, it's a messy thing, politics.

It is indeed.

Well, so I am a mother of two lovely people.

I am also a former corporate drone.

I worked for 20 years.

in the logistics space and really that I feel that makes me a professional problem solver and that's what we need in politics these days.

Absolutely.

And exciting news as of this fall I am also a college instructor.

I'm going to be teaching continuing education at UW Milwaukee.

I've always been a data geek and they have tapped me to teach Excel.

That's

wonderful.

Tell

me more.

Well, let's see how much time

you have.

Not much.

When it comes to like state Senate senators or state assembly, you know, these aren't these aren't Congress Senate.

This isn't governor.

This isn't president This is a this is a very on-the-grounds representative position Why this one why now and and and just to be clear the state state Senate of district five is Brookfield and What else is it just Brookfield or can you describe

us?

They make it really fun to describe these districts.

So it's all of Brookfield, all of Elm Grove, all of Piwaki, most of West Alice, most of Wauwatosa, a little tiny slice of Waukesha, and a little tiny slice of Milwaukee.

So it's three assembly districts, district 13, 14, 15.

put together it's senate district five and this is the first time that we're running this district under this map.

The last time there was an election was under the old map so it's a very exciting time being the numbers geek of course I looked at the assembly results from the last time I ran an assembly district 15 last time and when I stack up those three districts it was 50.1 percent dem so flippable

but not a given by any means.

And

you've got a lot, that's a lot of ground to cover.

You have a lot

of

ground to cover.

It is indeed.

I do have the benefit of, I guess, having run for assembly a couple of times and we beat the maps both times.

I ran for Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez's former seats, which at that time was what was District 13.

so it was kind of the north half of brookfield on grove a little bit of wavatosa and uh that was expected to be around 41 percent of them and we brought in 44 so we beat it uh and then they got drawn into a really challenging district last time that was 36 percent of them like you guys i really considered dropping out when they decided yeah i bet oh no uh and we brought in 41 percent in a district that was supposed to be 36 so

If you get out there and you talk to people and knock the doors, I've been knocking doors since I was 19, only decided to get involved in running once my kids went to talk to the Waukesha school board.

They were not heard.

And so I ran for that school board, came within 1% in a 60% conservative district.

I promise it won't be all stats.

But I think it's really important, Sarah, that

You didn't win the first time you did you and you're you keep trying and I think a lot for a lot of folks who are considering politics is like well I'm gonna do you know one and done that's not necessarily

how it

works it takes a lot of time and just to build up some name recognition takes a long time

Not to, and I'm not trying not to be funny here, but that just reminds me of Abraham Lincoln lost, lost, lost, lost, lost.

And then look at it, what he did with the world.

But I, you know, I'm

not running for president, Greg.

I'm not doing that.

Sorry.

I don't have enough felonies.

I wouldn't.

Oh, that's true.

Yeah.

You don't qualify.

Uh, you don't like golf that much.

And so.

the question the question I have for you is kind of like it takes two parts of what you just said so you know that is something we hear from a lot of candidates is that the knocking on the door the going to the events talking to the people I mean really getting down and discussing what connects us and what do we look for in a representative and in our states what are you telling so when you go to the doors this is a two-part question

What are you telling people?

What do you want?

Because you live there.

So your campaign goals are to do what?

You want to achieve and create for your district on top of what are you hearing from the people?

Yeah, so what I'm hearing both on doors and at events, and we're doing these community walk and talk events, which have been really fun.

What I'm hearing is people are frankly pretty pissed off right now about kind of everything, but a lot of it comes down to economics.

People are seeing inflation, they're seeing the cost of healthcare, childcare.

I have, my youngest just started at UW-Madison, he's in the Badger Band, yeah, go Badgers.

And two weeks before school started, we got this letter saying, oh, by the way, tuition's going up.

And we're like it was already high enough so people are feeling the crunch.

It's you know, it's the economy stupid Yeah, that's the bottom line for folks and of course there are other things that are important But if you can't afford your cost of living expenses Everything else becomes less and less Absolutely of a priority.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I'm a single mom small business owner with a mortgage like

Believe me when I say I feel that pain just as much, you know, as the folks I'm talking to.

But that that makes so much sense, Sarah, that again, it's kitchen table issues, which is what we heard about all the time.

And and you're right, it's it's much easier if you don't have to worry about how I'm going to pay the rent or if I'm going to have medication or if I'm going to go to the doctor.

Then you can if you got that stuff covered, you can worry about more, more other things.

But it's those immediate needs.

that we're failing at.

If you're just joining us right now, we're speaking to candidate for Wisconsin State Senate, Sarah Harrison.

She's running for district five, which I would say all the places, but it is a wide array of places in southeastern Wisconsin.

And, you know, there are people in that district, there are people all over the country.

But if you are struggling with

your economics, if you were struggling to pay for food or for rent or your mortgage or the college or whatever.

And then you looked at DC and you see tax breaks being given to billionaires and people in Madison who are saying, we're not going to fund education.

I want to say it's kind of a no brainer say, well, then vote for the people who will not find those things, but it almost, you have to convince individuals one to look to Madison and DC to see that happening.

And also to

to really make that connection and say, this is how what they're doing is directly affecting you, the inflation and the price of living, the price of gas, not the price of gas, sorry, the price of everything is directly affected by the decisions that our leaders in our state and federal capital are making.

And I have to imagine even some of the most ardent right-wingers are starting to see the cracks in the armor here that this is not the best

pathway for the state and the country.

Yeah, I would agree.

And just to tag on to that.

The incumbents, Rob Hutton, voted against the state budget for the exact opposite reason that I would have voted against it.

He said it did not pull back enough funding and

I would have said or I do say it did not fully fund our schools and that's why I wouldn't vote for it.

He wanted to see more funding stripped away.

In what world would that be a good thing

right?

Well, and I think it's interesting too because for the first time if I remember this accurately They are asking for help now in Brookfield because the the city of Brookfield right the the state has not been properly funding our communities Republican Democrat you name it adequately for decades

And now Brookfield is a relatively wealthy community in southeastern Wisconsin, but even they are having budget issues.

Yeah, there was a referendum, an operational referendum in the spring, and it actually didn't pass.

And so now they are having conversations about how are they going to adjust services because they can't continue to do all the things that were originally in the budget because they've lost funding for other things.

So.

It's happening everywhere, whether it's Milwaukee County, Waukesha County, or otherwise.

Well, and that's the question I have for someone who is a self-professed numbers geek, or as Sarah Gottlusi calls herself, a numbers dork.

But when you sit down with somebody and try, and that's, here's the ultimate problem that I see that Democrats suffer from, and just in general, is talking about the information.

So you tell someone in Brookfield,

If you vote against this operational referendum, I understand you don't want to raise your taxes, but then the services get pulled back or canceled.

So we have to make that investment.

I need you to understand why the investment matters.

And when you say that Rob Hutton voted no for the exact opposite that you would have voted no, how do you make people at least, I don't want to say understand, but at least be taken in the open to the conversation of saying, look, I want to

spend this money because these are investments on X, Y, and Z. That's the thing that I don't understand how modern politicians and or people running can get people to open up to the conversation of how we can invest because I hear invest, they hear spend.

And that's the difference.

Right.

Right.

So in my logistics background, I needed to bring people together from

the person on the receiving dock literally to the people in the boardroom.

So I was talking with CEOs, CFOs, boy, they do not like spending.

And the people in the front working in the buildings were worried we're going to put their jobs at risk and the people in the offices are worried we're going to spend too much money.

So I had to find a way to make sure I

listened to and understood the concerns from both sides of the issue.

And then we find a way to find the best, the best solution that meets our needs without putting anybody at risk.

So that there's a really long way to say, you gotta listen and you gotta understand the pain points that people are feeling and help them understand how you can.

make that a little better.

Well, and I think sometimes that people do not necessarily appreciate all of the services that government provides.

And I think

there

is a misunderstanding occasionally that, well, I don't use any special services.

So they can cut them and I, I don't care.

But you do care because it does affect you.

Right.

Yeah, I've had folks say, oh, you know, I don't, I don't care about Medicaid.

I'm on badger care.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's the

same thing guys.

Yeah.

And that's a fantastic job of certain people to, to present it in a way that doesn't require the explanation and make it murky.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're going to continue our conversation with Sarah Harris and she is running for Wisconsin Senate District Number five.

You can join us if you have a question 855-752-4842.

Stay close.

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

We'll be right

back.

Yeah!

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Sweet Calbee on the board coming to you live from Radio Park in Racine where you can always join us.

Call or text at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.

Maggie Dawn coming up later on today across the network from four to six in the five o'clock hour.

Maggie talks

to State Representative Ahmad Rivera-Wagner from Green Bay.

They're going to talk about the potential closures of veterans facilities next month if the legislature does not act.

So join Maggie.

This afternoon, great show from four to six across the network.

We talked about that while you were away, and it's a matter of $1.9 million.

So let's get that together.

Or someone just rich.

Someone rich just funded.

Somebody.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Yeah.

I'm sure there are.

I've heard of people who have that for lunch money, so I'm sure it's available somewhere.

Our guest is Sarah Harrison.

She is running for Wisconsin State Senate District number five.

And Sarah, we wanted to come back and.

just ask you about, we heard a little bit about your door knocking and a lot of time that you spend talking face to face with people, which is really the way to do it.

What are you hearing about from people that is not getting done, that they would like to see actually get done?

Yeah, well, they would love to see our schools.

fully funded.

That's an issue we've been fighting for a long time and it's one issue that you definitely hear from people on either side of the aisle saying you know teachers shouldn't be out there buying school supplies.

Why am I having to do a fundraiser every week?

This week I'm selling pretzels and the next week I'm selling popcorn and there's an awful lot of pressure there.

And what's really scary about going to like a fundraising type of model is that those folks who are in the lower income areas really suffer.

It's awfully difficult for them to bring in money from the community because they don't have as much, you know, spare money

in that

community.

So really hearing that the costs.

need to be under control.

I talked with a woman the other day who said her daughter is expecting and got put on a wait list right away for a daycare.

And they said, well, hopefully we'll have a spot for you, you know, in the first six to nine months after you give birth to the baby.

And she's like, Oh, what do I do until then?

And even once they do get in, it's going to cost almost as much as their mortgage

payments.

Crazy.

We have all sorts of

things to sort through there and people are feeling the pain for sure.

I think it's really interesting though, because I think there might be a misconception that people on the right hate public schools.

That's not necessarily the case.

There might be support for alternatives to four charter schools and things like that.

But I think, again, most people like their particular public school.

It's that public school that's a problem.

Right?

Yes.

Yes.

You see that all the time.

It's funny because it's like nimbyism on school, you know?

Right?

No, public schools are a problem, but not my public school.

I love my school.

Yeah.

My kids' teachers are

great.

It's the opposite.

It's please in my backyard.

Please

in my backyard.

Yes, in my backyard.

Yumdies.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

we know that a strong public school system is not only good, of course, for the kids and the parents, but it's good for society as we move on and these kids go on and go to a trade school, go to a college, go right into the workforce.

We want them to be well-prepared and to understand the facts and how to put together numbers and reading, writing, arithmetic, all that kind of stuff.

But you also want them to have an idea of

the society and some of the civics and how our system works so that they can be full participants.

And that's really an important part to having a successful society.

And we actually, we talked about this too while Jane was away on vacation and that, you know, the

The GOP in Madison is always really quick to pat themselves on the shoulder for giving any money to education, even though they've suffocated K through 12 for a long, long time.

And I went last year to my ballot and voted yes on an operational referendum for schooling in Kenosha, which, by the way, was one of the few that failed.

But I don't have children.

But.

Yeah.

I understand the importance of a strong public school education.

I understand that if they're not going to do it, and we have to, that's our burden to handle.

And I said yes, because as you just put it wonderfully, Sarah, it's not about...

whether or not I have kids, it's whether or not I want to live in a community and an economy which fosters good education for young people to then to grow up to be contributors and make it better for me, maybe.

I don't know, but I'm once again going back, I see this not as you're raising my property taxes, I see this we're investing in our schools and that's more important than say the few hundred dollars I have to pay more, which it hits, but I can afford it.

Thankfully, but to me that is a that is not a that is not a tough decision to make but it failed because people are tired of having to foot the bill when Madison's doing nothing.

Yep.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm running for office.

No, I'm not.

No, you don't want that.

Oh, God.

I'm so proud of you all the time.

Well, yeah, absolutely.

We got about a minute and a half left, Sarah.

Any final thoughts that you want to share before we have to move on here?

Yeah, absolutely.

So I love getting out in the community.

I love talking to people.

I am honored to have the opportunity to earn their vote.

I show up, I listen, and we've seen that Rob Hutton does not show up.

He doesn't show up for our schools, our workers, our rights.

We need someone new and I'm ready to step in and fight for the people of District 5.

Sarah Harrison has been our guest, a candidate for Wisconsin State Senate District 5.

We will talk to you again.

Thank you so very much for your time.

Sarah, appreciate it.

Thank you, Jay.

We have news coming up next.

And then when we return, we celebrate Robert Redford before we wrap up the show with this shouldn't be a thing.

Today it is the bold ball bouncing edition.

With a video element you don't want to miss it.

Grand.

Stay close.

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

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt Nair on Air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine, where you can join us.

You can call or text at the same number, 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter coming up.

in about 15 minutes, we will wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.

Today, the bold ball bouncing edition.

You know, this is one of those situations where I really want to make a plug for the live stream because when we have certain tis bats, your face can be neutral.

Yeah.

Sometimes you seem rather irritated that news ever happened in the first place.

But today it is the Sheshire grin that you present when you like it because one, I think you just like saying,

bold balls bouncing

on the air because it

just makes me happy FCC has nothing on us can't do it but also yeah the video component is both informative yet angering at the same time

and disturbing slightly so yes stick around for this shouldn't be a thing coming up around 1051 ish right now though is the portion of the show we call audio sorbet where we get away from politics and try and take a collective breath

So we can reorient a little bit.

It's the radio version of touching grass.

Exactly.

There we go.

We clean your ears with fun.

Cleaning your ears with fun, as Greg says, yes.

And we wanted to celebrate the life of Robert Redford.

It was news broke right before we were coming on the air this morning that Robert Redford has passed away at the age of 89.

He died at his home outside of Provo, Utah.

The statements announced by Cindy Berger, the CEO of his publicity firm, he had died in a sleep, did not go into details except to say he was surrounded by those that he loved.

I love that.

And honest to gosh, you guys, and I'm a Robert Redford fan and have been for a long time, but until I started seeing some of these articles was I reminded of all of the

incredible movies he was in and directed.

And the things too.

He was just a, he was a fantastic human being too.

He just had a very, for a guy who was lauded as one of the best actors, rich and famous and super handsome.

And he just also, anytime I saw him interviewed or anytime you hear someone speak about him, he also had this very level headed viewpoint of life himself, the absurdity of Hollywood and just,

He was an actor.

Yes, we adored him as Rob, as the Robert Redford.

Exactly.

But at the, at the end of the day, he was just a guy doing what he loved, trying to be the best person he was.

And I don't know of any stories out there that are like, you know, who really sucked Robert?

Bob Redford.

Yeah.

Bobby Redford.

Yeah.

No, I, I agree with you.

He, he was an early advocate for environmental issues.

He was absolutely the person who saved Sundance.

Yes.

and really turned the Sundance Film Festival into a big thing.

To the point where I actually saw a quote from him, Sundance would have started out was a very small opportunity for independent filmmakers to get their things seen.

And then it became an it event.

Where all the big celebrities would go, which he hated that.

And actually at one point said, I hate all these

influencers.

I want the ambush marketers, the vodka brands, the gift bag people and the Paris Hilton's to go away forever.

He said during Sundance in 2012, they have nothing to do with what's going on here because again, it was meant to be a small opportunity for small filmmakers to get a chance in Hollywood.

And that did happen.

He helped make that happen for a lot of really small films.

When you think of film festivals in the United States,

Sundance, Tribeca, New York, Telluride, those are the, those are the big ones.

I mean, they're the ones outside of the United States.