The Truth About Tariffs And Our Farmers (Hour 2)

and welcome, welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff, coming to you live from our home here at Radio Park in Racine.

Radio Studio

Park.

Yes, we're in a studio in the park here in Racine where you

can- With

radios.

Yes, where you can always join us.

Call or text.

The number is the same.

855-752-4842.

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

Coming up on this show, our friend, colleague, travel companion Todd Alda will be here after the 9.30 news.

Lots of things to kick around with Todd, including we're just going to call him the government of inefficiencies.

Oh, okay.

Forget about goat.

No, doge.

No, that too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're going to talk about just smooth sailing with a federal government firing people and then oops.

Oh my God, we need those people.

Them fireings and rehireings.

We better get those people back.

So we're going to talk about that with Todd.

And hour number two, Will Westmoreland is going to join us.

Hopefully.

Will is a farmer in southwestern Missouri, and he has joined us numerous times on the show in the past.

And obviously the tariffs are a big thing.

Donald Trump, of course, announcing was a yesterday, day before, maybe it was Friday.

100% tariffs now on China.

Kicking in on November 1st.

You know,

I can't keep up.

And luckily, there is a website.

There's a couple of them that allow you to see all of the tariffs that have been, and this is the term they use on their website, threatened.

The ones that are implemented, the ones that are cyclical.

So I will put that in the show notes, because it is very confusing because I don't know how many tariffs he has proposed on just China alone at what percentages.

And the overall question I have is, how does a man who worships

Xi Jinping then imposed such devastating tariffs on that country and also saying terrible things about it.

It's such a weird relationship with that country.

I don't understand it at all.

Well, he insults him one day and then what?

And then after he put in about the 100% tariffs on China kicking in on November 1st, then a couple of days later, he put on his social media that China is fine.

Everything is fine.

It was just a misstep, you know, whatever.

It's all good.

So, yeah, it's tariffs on tariffs off.

It's like it's a new version of karate kid.

Well,

and then any time even the problem is that the government keeps beating me up and I can't defend myself.

Where are they going?

We don't know.

My car is so shiny.

Also, in our number two, we will lighten it up as we always do after the 1030 News with a little audio sorbet where we get away from the news, talk about lighter things so we can take a breath.

I found this video on social media.

I think she's Gen Z.

Talking about is the the the the this is by the way, this is audio gripe

is on the border

of oh No, it is South South of gripe putting down a deck chair in the sand and sunning it up and getting pruned by the bitterness

adults get their birthdays off from work That is the question for audio Sorbet should adults get off of work on their birthday

You can weigh in on this now if you like if you're not gonna be able to be here after the 10 30 news 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 that is our audio sorbet topic And then we'll wrap up the show as we always do with this shouldn't be a thing today.

It is the moshposh edition.

Oh,

yeah, what no

exactly Yeah, so stay tuned

Stay tuned for that tasty piece coming up at the very end of the

show.

Why am I

here?

We do have baseball coming up tonight.

We're just going to pretend.

No, we're not.

No, Jane.

No, honestly, no, we're not.

We are going to.

It wasn't a route.

That's the thing is, that's the thing is we're not going to pretend.

We're not going to act like it didn't happen.

It happened.

They lost the first game and they didn't look, they didn't, they didn't get smoked.

They get smoked.

Nope.

They came back in the ninth inning to make it even closer.

But they lost game one.

That's fine.

There are six more games and we're going to keep playing and we're going to keep going.

And regardless of what happens, this team has done amazingly.

Sorry Chicago fans over it.

But that's what I have to keep telling myself as a, as a brewers fan is that a team that was really counted out in March.

has made it here.

And that just means extra special things for what lies ahead for the rest of this season as well as next season.

So Brewer is hosting the Dodgers for game two tonight.

Our broadcast will start at 6 30.

You can't listen on the stream.

You can listen on terrestrial radio so you can catch it tonight starting at 6 30.

Our broadcast begins.

First pitch goes out about 708 on W R C E in Richland Center W I S S in Oshkosh W B Z H in beautiful.

Hayward WCQM in Park Falls and here in Racine and Kenosha, WRJN Go Crew hosting the Dodgers tonight.

Our broadcast will start at 6.30 and the first pitch going out at 7.08.

Wanted to start off with this a little bit.

We were talking yesterday at the top of the show about data centers and some data centers getting rejected in Wisconsin because talking about the

amount of water they use, the amount of electricity that they use.

And then this popped up from Wisconsin Public Radio.

Joe Schultz has the byline.

Several solar projects out across Wisconsin are now facing community opposition.

Town officials in northeastern and central Wisconsin communities coming out against two utility scale solar projects suggested for their areas.

They have delayed a vote on a small solar project.

in at least one city after an hours-long public hearing last month.

This debate, as a bill in the legislature, would require that local governments sign off on major solar or wind projects in their communities.

Right now, they just need the approval from the Public Service Commission.

Yes, and the Public Service Commission is a state-run government group.

It's a state agency.

at first I thought when I, it's just said public service commission.

I was assuming that was a commission that fell under the purview of the local town board or city councils, but it's not the public service.

Public service commission of Wisconsin, which I put their link into the show notes so you can find out more is a state run department.

And I gotta say, I was really surprised by this because yesterday's conversation was about,

Caledonia's people standing up and saying, no, and it not happening.

Then we talked about Port Washington kind of coming into the game a little too late.

A little late.

And it's happening.

The through line is always about raising your voice to those who represent, I mean, raising your concerns and voicing your opinions, not raising your voice.

Sorry.

poor choice of words, but voicing your opinions.

And we bought, we saw two examples of that working in this one though.

This is very interesting because essentially these communities have zero say, say in what happens, the public service commission overrides it all and it's just done.

I mean, this, this story goes back a little ways because the people were upset about the sale of farmland just happening all of a sudden.

And they said, no, we don't want this here.

And they had concerns whether they are,

valid.

It's not important at this point.

It's about the fact that they said they, they said their heart, but yet it, I guess it meant nothing.

Yeah.

Morgan town board chair, Lori Winnon and Rome town board chair, Carl Hostel, both submitted written comments to the public service commission opposing the projects.

The town of Rome filed documents in one case before the public service commission, the town of Morgan says it will do the same.

Hasdahl, again, the Rome Town Board Chair, Carl Hasdahl says, we've been locked out on the whole thing.

We don't have any say in the matter.

And that's just not right.

And I agree with him.

Completely agree.

I

completely agree.

These communities

should

be able to at least they live there.

It's there.

It's the land that belongs to the community being used for something.

I mean, look, not against solar panels, not against these projects.

If they're done responsibly and they don't.

keep a whole bunch of problems onto the folks who live there as we were talking about with regard to the data centers is that They want to work out deals where they can slow down your power and increase the power to the data center They want to take water They want to do things that impact that benefit them and impact the people and I don't agree with that this right here is just like well Thank you for your adorable opinions.

We'll put those in a file somewhere and we're gonna do it anyway.

Exactly.

Yeah again

Senator Patrick Teston of Stevens Point and Scott Krug of Rome are circulating a bill that would set up a system for regulating community solar programs that would then require local approval of the projects.

As it should have been in the beginning.

That doesn't seem like a stretch to me.

And

it really

doesn't.

I've attached the bill to the show notes for today so people can take a look and I've attached both a story about it as well as the bill itself.

because the bill itself, when you look at it, really is very simple.

It's not a lot.

There's not lots of hidden gems in there.

I don't see authorizations to make a fourth boat untaxable.

I don't see rich kids go to school for free and take our lunch monies.

It's a really simple bill.

It defines what these projects are.

I don't know if this is happening because of...

The fact that these are energy efficient projects that they're going for this legislation.

I hope not.

I don't want to be cynical about it, but you know, good on the two, the two representatives from Madison or who work in Madison, who are trying to at least allow the people to amplify their

voices.

This company, Next Era Energy, hasn't done enough to talk to the community and to get feedback.

He said they've held community meetings, but it feels like they've done so just to check it off.

He said residents are opposed to the solar project because they're worried about lost farmland, concerns about the liability of solar, and worries that batteries could catch fire.

I don't...

Know that that happens a lot.

I will have to look into

that further.

Well, and those are the types of concerns that I honestly Those are valid in what you just may think happens That's why you have a a Listening session a real listening session a series of them where you talk to the people you make yourself available to those and you explain there you answer you respond to their concerns, right of the three the second and third seem very

It seems like something you can have a good conversation about and ease people's minds, especially on the batteries.

The lost farmland, yeah, that's a big concern, but I'm going to be honest and I'm going to rip the bandaid off here.

That farmland, if it's not being used now, it's probably not going to be used in 20, 30 years.

It's going to eventually be either turned into a solar farm, a warehouse or a parking lot.

And that's the, that's the bigger conversation of it all.

But I,

I do understand they're concerned about losing farmland, but if it's not being utilized, then that contributes to communities not being viable.

Jenny, on the live stream, has an interesting question.

Why does this bill only have this requirement for wind and solar projects?

That's a very good question, Jenny.

It is.

Absolutely.

And that is- I mean, our communities allow to weigh in on CAFOs,

these

concentrated animal feeding organizations.

Do we have the same kind of-

We're going to hear pushback about those.

I assume not.

And that's where that is where I'm like really fighting the cynicism here, Jane, because it is not only a very brief bill, but it only encapsulates the energy.

Yeah.

It's not green.

It's green.

It's about the green and knowing that these communities would probably push back.

I got cynical.

Troy from Mount Horab.

We see you waiting there.

We will take you first when we return talking about solar in Wisconsin.

Stay close.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We will be right back.

Come gather at people wherever you are.

Good morning and welcome, welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach.

Dr. Slide on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can join us.

Call or text the number is the same 855.

7524842 Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook YouTube and what used to be Twitter We are talking about solar in Wisconsin and article and WPR talking about a couple of solar projects in this state that the communities don't want and Essentially the public service commission

Yes, they get to decide whether you get it or not, whether you're having it or not.

At the very least, they have concerns that have not been answered with satisfaction.

855-752-4842.

Troy from Mount Horrib has been waiting very patiently.

Good morning, Troy.

Thanks for joining us.

Good morning to you both.

There are a lot of pies to...

balance in this thing.

Another one that we haven't talked about yet is the, the farm owner who doesn't want to farm his land anymore and wants that check.

Yep.

Yeah.

And, you know, if, if the locality says, well, you can't do that, what's he supposed to do?

Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with you, Troy, at all.

And I think that's an important conversation.

And I, and, and, and, and

really quick over the break.

I did look it up.

The solar panel battery question is not a prevalent thing that happens a lot, but it's still a concern

that needs to be addressed.

But that's not a battery fires are not a widespread problem with solar as far as I know.

But Troy, you're absolutely right.

This just proves that the whole process has way more nuance and needs more.

discussion

about it.

Exactly, exactly.

And, and now Jenny, by the way, thank you for the question earlier.

And you asked the greatest questions.

I love them.

It is, but it's just pushed me into like the cynical thing of like, yes, why is the language so pointed because it could really, it could really harm possible solar projects as well or wind projects because you have this thing where if the community can come up and say no, then

Are they dead or you have a municipality board that's saying no, thank you to anything I Don't know I Thanks, Joe.

I

appreciate you checking

in on the whole

thing needs to be more

community minded as far as all the conversations But it is interesting that this measure that the Republicans are circulating only Addresses solar and

wind.

Mm-hmm.

Not cold not cool not mining.

No, not other concerns not PFOS kafos.

No none of that

Just solar and wind.

855-752-4842.

Jack from Miramaque is on the line.

Good morning, Jack.

What do you think about this?

Well, first of all, yes, I do think it is important that the local community has a stake in this.

It has some say in it.

However, there was a solar project.

I have a brother-in-law that lives in upstate New York,

and there is a

solar project that was proposed for that area.

And all of a sudden, there was this supposedly ground swell of objections.

And people just worried about, you know, environmental damage and losing our farmland.

Now, frankly, in that area, the land is really quite rocky and very much hilly.

And it's not much really

good for farming.

Yeah.

But what eventually they found we found out happened was, of course, there were millions.

put into a negative campaign, guess where they came from?

Miners.

Uh, fossil fuel.

Oh, shocking.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So now, now here, this is, this is what I want to say though.

Those people that say we've got to have American energy for Americans.

And, you know, let's drill and drill and drill and produce all our oil.

We're producing enough oil now to export, actually.

We're producing more than we actually use.

But the price is manipulatable.

International markets determine some of it.

And wonderful people like Ben Falman and Putin have pretty good, solid controls over their resources, and they control some of that, too.

I appreciate it, Jack.

We're coming up against the clock here.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, it is interesting how all of a sudden there's all of this opposition to this.

And when you follow the money, because that is usually what it's about, who is funding this opposition.

And when you have a, man, I was wanting to talk about the power of the people.

And now I'm just like, man, here we go again, talking about the fact that we have

leaders who just will do anything they can to stop like alternative alternative energy is in no way shape or form in a place now or for a while going to destroy the oil industry.

So this all out war on anything solar or wind is just so ridiculous.

Let's let you can have solar panels.

You can

We

can have all the things.

We can have oil.

We can have all the things.

If it's

safe, and I believe we talked to Mr. Global about this, as far as nuclear energy, there are new things in place where nuclear is safer than it used to be.

Then if that's the case, we can do that as well.

Let's have it all for right now and then take down our dependency over maybe say the next 100 years

if we're here.

And we're going to reach out to Mr. Global.

He hasn't been on it for a while, Matt Randolph.

But I found an article too, you know, Donald Trump promised the coal producers, it was, you know, a clean coal.

Clean coal, clean coal.

Well, the coal producers, the owners of these mines, all the tax cuts they got, they pocketed.

I just read another article about black lung disease for miners in Virginia and those areas that still mine coal.

Was that

story

from 1935?

No, it was from yesterday.

And also as an aside, just to note to anyone listening, clean coal is not a thing.

Yeah, that doesn't

exist.

That's not a thing.

It's a nice,

polished, put it through a focus group phrase, clean coal does not exist.

We have news coming up next.

And then when we return our friend, colleague and travel companion, Todd Alba will be here.

So stay with us.

You were listening to Matt Nair on air coming to you across the vast state wide country wide.

You can pick us up in Vienna.

What on the civic media radio?

Amazing.

We'll be right back.

Your sons and daughters are beyond your command Your old robe is rapidly aging Get out of the new one if you can't live

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt and air on air.

Jane Matt and air Greg Bach.

Sweet Cal B on the board committee from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us.

Call or text the number is the same at eight five five.

7524842.

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

He is our friend and colleague and he joins us every other Tuesday.

Yes.

At this time.

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

How are you this morning, my friend?

Jane, Greg, Kelvin, I'm absolutely fantastic.

It's a beautiful day.

A little cloudy here, but hey, you know what?

The Brewers played their hearts out last night.

I got a good feeling about tonight.

Great day.

We agree with you.

Yes, it's gonna be a good game tonight by the way Brewers hosting the Dodgers our broadcast will start at 6 30 the first pitch goes out at 7 0 8 You can catch the game on terrestrial radio and several civic media stations including right here in Racine and Kenosha on WRJN Again Brewers versus the Dodgers our broadcast will start tonight at 6 30.

I did want to start

Todd with some breaking news as we come back on the air this morning.

I was on with you yesterday and we were talking about the unending stream of news that makes it really hard to keep up with everything.

But the Supreme Court will not review the $1.4 billion judgment against Alec Jones.

The conspiracy theorist

who tormented the parents of the Sandy Hook Elementary School kids for years.

A Connecticut jury in 2022 ordered Jones to pay that $1.4 million to members of the Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent after a judge found Jones defamed and greatly harmed them.

So this is good news.

I would like to see them start seizing his assets now.

This has been going on

for years.

Yeah, as my former boss, Dale Schultz was fond of saying, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Seriously.

Yeah, I mean, hopefully the guy is bankrupt.

He caused a lot of harm, has said just absolutely terrible things and.

You know, I don't think there's no left or right to Alex Jones.

He's just cuckoo barrels and and much of what he built built up was was not even based on but just outright lies and I hope that I mean those families will nothing will replace the children that they lost nothing But I hope that these monies could go to support them in some way Maybe they have other children have scholarships if they want to go to school or trade school or whatever And I think some of the families talked about using that money to set up a foundation

whether it's to educate folks on gun violence and gun safety and this sort of thing as well.

So good in the Supreme Court.

Hey, you know what?

Even with that 6-3 majority on the conservative side, once in a while they get something right.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

And let's not forget that the Trump administration, one of the top lawyers who is buddies with Alex Jones, tried to intimidate this FBI agent who testified in this case.

they threatened to go after him.

They threatened to go after this FBI agent and ultimately dropped it because the outcry was so big about why is the Trump administration getting involved in something like this?

Why not?

That seems

not good.

That's

unbranded.

Obviously, you know, the president is the ultimate case, but I think Alice Jones maybe might be the next closest case to

they just simply believe they're completely above the law, and it doesn't apply to them, and they're gonna get off the hook.

So, yeah, I mean, I've been giving a lot of credit where credit's due, whether it was, you know, whatever Donald Trump's involvement was, if anything, in the Middle East, I said, look, you know, those families that have loved ones that were waiting for it, they didn't care how it happened.

I think the optics of everything yesterday was pretty suspect and bad, but I will give the president and his team credit.

if he did, and it looked like he did, have a role in doing that.

And I give the Supreme Court credit here for doing the right thing and rejecting taking this case.

But again, I want to see what happens after this.

I want to see his holdings liquidated because this has been going on for more than 20 years.

This is enough.

Enough.

Yeah.

And

we could use an LED wall at Civic Media.

I mean, we could buy that for, you know, nickels on the dollar and, you know, use that to spread good news.

Oh.

You're giving

me some ideas.

I mean, I mean, would that spice up the background behind Jamers and the dark wall?

A beautiful LED wall instead of, say, info wars on it?

It says, Matt, Matt, there on air.

Turn, take bullets and turn them into peace.

Trying to think like, Matt and Air Wars, Jane Wars, Matt and Info, Matt and Info.

No, it's not working.

I just wish the onion would have been able to buy them.

That would have been, that would have been the absolute amazing most American thing that could have happened.

But just giving you a heads up, look for a very tearful.

Broadcast from Alex Jones talking about I'm gonna lose everything He's been saying honestly if

you

send me money

if you watch the if you watch the thing He did the John Oliver did on them years ago.

He said that on every show We can't keep this operation funded unless we hear unless

yeah, you got to give me money.

You got to give me money.

Okay,

Alex.

Sure, whatever.

That's fine Take your Medal of Freedom and go to Florida and go hang out.

I don't know.

It says this is this is

Did he get the Medal of Freedom too?

Yeah, they they handed it to him during

like it was he was sitting in the gallery during the state of the union in Trump's first presidency and he literally said I'm giving it to Alex Jones and Alex Jones was like what no one told me it was hilarious and that was the first one where he said oh this this metal doesn't mean as much as it used to anymore

I mean, it's, you know, it still means something for a lot of people, but when we're just throwing it at commentators and pundits and people who posthumously now, which Charlie Kirk, which we're not going to get into that, but it's just like, that's a big deal.

I think it's the highest award a civilian

can be given.

Well, again, we'll see what the next steps will be.

Yeah.

send me money.

So

there's that.

There's that.

A little piece of good news.

A little piece of good news.

I wanted to start off with this with you, Todd.

On Friday, Trump administration fired a whole bunch of people at the Centers for Disease Control.

Now, a couple days later, they're walking it back.

MSNBC reporting on Saturday

uh, saying she had gotten a call from an official from the health and human services five minutes before going on the air that the cuts had been rescinded.

Oops.

We didn't mean to do that.

Oops.

Oops.

Well, who is it?

Who is it?

This thing says a Britney Spears.

Oops.

I did it again.

Come

on, Todd.

Don't act like you didn't

know that song I read, please.

How many times has this administration

come in and fire a whole bunch of people only to come back two days later and go, oh my God, the guy we fired has all the codes to everything.

No one can get into their computers.

Who knew?

Yeah,

this is the least competent.

This

is the least competent administration in history.

I

wouldn't argue with that.

I here's why I mean, I look at this from think of your federal worker.

And as you guys all know, and maybe some of your listeners do or don't know, many of the people are their civil servants.

There used to be that you could not ask about people's political affiliation for these jobs.

Right.

And you were protected whatever administration was in there that you knew you because they wanted the idea was, hey, let's have consistency in our institutions, like, you know, the Social Security Administration or the health or whatever it is, the Defense Department.

and now especially the second Trump administration that has all changed and your point Jane I think of people that got once you get laid off what you're gonna you're gonna wait around for Trump to chicken out again to say well I'll just chill for a couple of months I really don't because look I mean a lot of federal workers

just like a lot of the rest of us are living paycheck to paycheck.

So a lot of these folks already have moved on.

So then now you have to fill these positions.

They're not trained yet.

And little by little, it's not just the tragedy of people's individual lives, which is sad enough, but it is endangering, in my opinion, all of us, whether it's defense, whether it's health, whether it's food safety, because you're bringing people in that are under or unqualified or untrained to replace people all over their 10, 15, 20 years.

It's called instant.

a lot of these federal workers who have been in these jobs for 10, 15, 20 years.

They know the inner workings.

They know how to get things done.

They know the processes and this was all in project 2025 that they were going to come in and blow out all the people who have been there and replace them.

with loyalists, not based on their competency, not based on their ability to do their job, but based on their loyalty to Donald Trump.

So now we are filling our government with a whole bunch of our least qualified

cousins.

It's either you're filling them with loyalists or you're not filling them at all and then you're putting the extra burden on these workers who are actually there saying well now you have to do the jobs of employee A and B because employee C is still here but you're not gonna get a pay bump you're not gonna get a title bump you just have to work and that's all yours because if you love Donald Trump you'll do the work and you'll do it right to our standard the other the other point is when you fire someone that costs money when you rehire just anyone that costs money when you rehire the same person

back that cost money.

So this whole endeavor from Doge to today has cost this country so much money from the firing and the rehiring and all the other things we've spent money on.

It is the least fiscally responsible thing I've ever seen in my adult life.

And for people to say Doge did it

Tell me what they did besides waste a bunch of money.

Well, even there have been reports now.

The New York Times came out with a big report about Doge, which was an enormous failure and essentially did nothing but add to the deficit and

enriched Elon Musk.

And he got to walk away from the whole thing unscathed.

He has disappeared back into the private sector and there has been no investigation.

There never will be.

And there's been no follow up.

He just said, well, I'm done, guys.

After after I lost Wisconsin's

election,

I'm going to.

to go back and see if my cars catch fire anymore, or ask Tesla, and this is true, Tesla to give him a $1 trillion stake in the company.

That deal, which he's also in the courts about a previous pay package dispute.

If that goes through, he will be the first trillionaire on this planet.

So if anything we can talk about is that we cannot let these moments slip our mind.

It's so easy because of the news cycle to be like, oh yeah, doge.

That

was a thing.

No, doge is part of the reason why we are hobbling as a nation right now.

We have a little clip, Calvin.

Do we still have time for this?

We have a clip from JD Vance, I believe on MSNBC talking about the smooth workings of the Trump administration, firing a whole bunch of people and then going, oh my God, we need those people back.

Calvin, can we play that clip, please?

And specifically, when it comes to what's happening within the health sector, CBS did confirm on Saturday that the Trump administration went and rescinded some of the layoffs of hundreds

of

CDC scientists who were mistakenly laid off on Friday and then told Saturday, that's not the case.

But some of them were involved with the federal measles response.

Some of them were involved with the response on Ebola.

How does a mistake like this

happened?

Did the White House even talk to the CDC?

So

two responses to that, Margaret.

First of all, I want to assure the American people that the frontline health care workers, the people who monitor measles, Ebola, and other infectious diseases, those people are still on the job.

And we're trying very hard to figure out how to ensure those people get a paycheck, of course, because we want them to be happy and healthy.

We want them to be able to do their jobs well.

doesn't answer how we managed to fire all of these people.

And then a day later, whoops, oh my God,

we need those people back.

At least he didn't say that's why people

don't

watch your show.

No, well, by that, of course, he went on to blame the Democrats, which is ludicrous.

It's just ludicrous.

We're going to continue talking with our friend and colleague and travel companion, Todd Alba on the other side.

Stay with us.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We'll be right back.

Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach.

Dr. Slide on the board, coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine, you can 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 we are joined by our friend and colleague,

Todd Alba is here.

He joins us every other Tuesday to kick around all things in the news.

Todd, we have Carmella from Milwaukee waiting on the line.

Good morning, Carmella.

What do you want to say?

Thanks for joining us.

Hi.

Yeah, I don't have an opportunity to talk to Todd too often anymore, but I had a couple things.

And one of them was JD Banks.

He would just play the MSNBC.

thing where, you know, and then, of course, he blames the Democrats.

What did, maybe you guys covered this, but what did you think of the George Stephanopoulos saying where he snapped back a little bit?

And also, did you hear anything about the Scuttlebot with the Brewers giving shade to the Cubs, like with an L flag instead of a W?

I just heard it.

last night and I didn't know it was a thing.

I gotta go.

Thank you, Carmella.

Appreciate that.

Yes, actually, we played that clip of Doris Stephanopoulos yesterday.

He talked to JD Vance on Sunday.

And JD Vance was waffling and refused not answering the question and obfuscating

and insulting

and and being insulting and George Stephanopoulos essentially said, yeah, well, thanks.

That's all the time we have.

Goodbye.

And he cut him off.

It was a thing of beauty.

That's the way it's done.

That's the way it's done.

And

as far as the L goes, well, let's start with the let's start with the Stephanopoulos thing.

I'm sure you saw that, Todd, right?

I did.

Yeah.

And we talked about yesterday, and I felt like this is how you do it.

The airwaves belong to the people.

And when people are lying, you have the power.

And he took it.

And I have big respect for George Stephanopoulos now.

I'm sorry, Todd.

I interrupted you.

What do you think about that, Todd?

No, no, no, no.

First of all, thank you, Carmella, for calling in.

Maybe your schedule changed, but always great to hear from all of our listeners, right?

So thanks, Carmella, always great to hear from you.

A beautiful WAUK, now 100.3 FM in downtown Milwaukee, in addition to 540 AM.

Nice

plug.

Anyway.

Expert.

Yeah, I saw it.

I heard you guys talk about it yesterday.

I largely agree with you guys.

I heard Matt Smith from WISN upfront talk about this a little bit as well.

I thought he had a good point.

Which is, as we all know, oftentimes we're quote unquote up against the clock for those that listeners don't know.

They're hard.

In other words, the computer cuts you off because you have to go to break.

Those morning shows are timed out specifically.

So he'd already been on for like five or so, six minutes.

So it might have been that Stephanopoulos was getting in his ear for the producer.

We gotta go.

And that was it.

So we don't.

No, for sure.

I don't think I think Matt Smith had a good point that we don't know whether Stephanopoulos did it just to be like, you know, firm or whether he was truly up against the clock.

But yeah, I mean, I think it's just more of the Trump administration being small and trite and petty.

Well, and I think in McCain.

chimed in on this on social media

thank god because I

know and was just a guest by the disrespect shown by George Stephanopoulos and I thought did you see Pam Bondi to testify before Congress last week that wasn't but that didn't get you to comment on be disrespectful that was fine well

yeah

I mean

Go

on and you can you can tell that stuff and you can tell that JD Vance with Stephanopoulos ended it.

No, no, no, no, like he wanted the fight, right?

He wanted the the the clip so they could put it out and go viral.

And I think Vance was baiting Stephanopoulos to show it as boss that, hey, I could do it too.

And Stephanopoulos just for whatever reason, I'm not going to go in there.

Yeah, I'm not

going to play.

I think or whether it was an intentional or a hard break.

I think that it but Megan McCain is my proof that no matter what the reason was, they would take it as an insult.

and rude and whatnot because they have thin skin and don't understand how time works, so that's beyond the point.

As far as the Brewer's L flag goes, it caused so much controversy that they poked fun at the Cubs because the Cubs fly the L flag when they lose and they fly the W flag when they win.

It's something they've done for a while and the

the brewers had an L flag and the Cubs fans lost their minds over this.

So disrespectful.

I'm sorry.

Are you going to yell at your friends on Twitter who are threatening violence against the players because they beat the Cubs?

Get off your high horse.

They're living rent freeing your brains, Cub fans.

I'm tired of it.

I'm not sure if Carmella was saying she didn't.

know what happened but for for those that don't know and the after the brewers clinched this the uh the uh divisional series they they go from the stands they got the elf leg as greg said and they took it out and put it held it up during the team photo and then on the brewers twitter site they posted and they they draped

through animation and L flag over the big bean, whatever it is and down down Chicago.

And Keith Oberman even took to Twitter to call out the brewers and say they were low class act like you've been there before and then talk radio sports sports radio Chicago went nuts over it.

I mean, I mean, come on.

I mean, our our manager, our favorite son of Milwaukee left for the cash to go to go to the Cubs.

I think I think that the brewers have the the right in sports to to hold up a flag.

Like Greg said, I just don't.

It's sports.

That's what it is.

Not to mention the whole week they were complaining when they were saying that the brewers don't deserve it and that they were cheating.

I mean, you want to be

high class,

then be high class.

But don't cry, baby.

And be like, I don't understand such little brother behavior.

You're upset that you lost.

Oh,

get over yourselves.

It's sports balls.

Yeah.

Get a life.

Todd Alba joins us every other Tuesday to kick all things around news related and some sports too.

Thank you, Todd.

Check him out this afternoon from two

to four

across the network.

We will see you soon.

News is coming up next.

And then when we return, Will Westmoreland is going to join us.

He is a farmer from Missouri.

We're going to hear what he is hearing from his.

fellow farmers in that part of the country when we talk Trump tariffs.

That is all on the way.

Stay with us.

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

Network.

Good morning and welcome, welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us.

Call or text the number is the same at 855.

7524842.

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

Delighted to be joined by our next guest.

He is the executive director of Back 40 Action.

Will Westmoreland is here.

Good morning, Will.

We're going to play a clip for you before we even get going.

Will, this is a clip from the secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins.

Oh, no.

No.

We can play that one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, talking about the fact that the U.S.

is bailing out Argentina with $20 billion, and then Argentina essentially undercut the U.S.

and is now selling soybeans to China.

But Brooke Rollins says this is a great thing.

Calvin, let's play that clip, please.

Can you tell us a little bit more about President Trump's plan to use tariff money to pay farmers?

What does that look like?

How much are we talking about?

How long will that program last?

You know, it is a very elegant solution, right?

The amount of tariff money that is coming into our country is stunning.

The president had a vision.

He's effectuating the vision.

The vision is pretty remarkable.

The whole entire world economy is now realigning around American products, which is incredible.

But again, to the

this moment of uncertainty, the ability to offset any payments to the farmers through potential tariff revenue is really where the president wants us to head.

And that's what we're looking at very soon.

One more.

So, well, everything is good.

Everything is good for our farmers.

We can't sell our soybeans.

There's no market for that.

But Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, says it's all elegant.

It's all great.

What are you hearing from fellow farmers in your part of the country?

Well, Jane, I've never done this before, but I've got to correct you on one thing.

We are the world's leader in one department of agriculture now that Donald Trump is president and Brook Rollins is secretary of agriculture.

And that's word salad.

What

we're number one

we're

number one

give

or take what's our what's our what's our share in the marketplace there?

Is that like a 99 for word salad?

99 Okay, all

right.

We got it corner USA USA.

All right.

We do

We do.

I'm always amazed when I hear, you know, Brooke Rollins speak or the president speak about agriculture because and I'm going to get to your question.

But the truth of the matter is I just want everybody to know this.

And this is a conversation I have regularly with the farmers and ranchers where I live.

There is no tariff fund.

There's no money from the tariffs sitting in a big fund somewhere waiting to be spent.

on American farmers and ranchers.

And I don't know how many different ways the media, uh, different business, uh, experts across the country, uh, experts like me and rural advocacy.

I don't know how many different ways we can say it.

That's called taxpayer money because it's the businesses that import the products that pay the tariff fees.

And then they pass that along to us as customers and we pay that.

So it's taxpayer money that's going to be paying for any kind of bailout that's done.

And you can try to wrap it in a pretty bow.

You can try to paint it a different way.

But it's taxpayer money that will pay for those bailouts if they occur, just like they always have in the past.

Now, to get to the answer that you were looking for.

We had a great and it may be the clip you were gonna cut you were gonna play but we had a great town hall meeting with Mark Allford who is my congressperson in the fourth congressional district here in the state of Missouri and there was a 2400 acre soybean farmer corn farmer that stood up in that meeting I'm gonna clean it up a little bit for NPR but he looked at Mark Allford and he said you need to quit kissing Donald Trump's rear end

He's not doing anything for the farmer.

He's not working on behalf of the American farmer.

Now this guy just lives a couple of his farm is just a couple of miles away from my farm.

And I know who he is.

I've never met him in person, but I was having a Saturday breakfast down at the local watering hole, not far from my farm.

And everybody was sitting around the table just to gas because I live in an 80% Donald Trump support county.

And basically they were saying that they knew that he had voted for Donald Trump at least twice.

So I think that tells you everything you need to know about what's happening with farmers and ranchers.

I read a poll just the other day that Donald Trump has lost about 6 to 9% of his support in rural America since he came into office during this term.

A lot of that is in unaffiliated voters, but still a couple of percent of that is in Republican.

you know, rank and file.

So things are not good.

Everybody's scared to death.

All you have to do is go to a town hall meeting anywhere in farm country.

You can see it in their eyes.

You can hear it in what they're saying.

They're very worried that we're going to see a record breaking level of bankruptcies.

And we talked the last time I was on.

Anytime that happens, you see a spike in bad health and suicides and lost farms and ranches.

And it's just a big snowball that gets bigger and bigger as it goes down the hill.

I mean, when we talk about farming, whether it's with you or with Darren Van Ruden or Pam Yankee, there's a certain reverence I come to it because I am not a farmer.

I know nothing about farming and I never want to assume anything about the mentality of a farmer, especially when it comes to who they vote for.

But there always is the question is, if the man who ran for president three times, one twice, is not done enough for the farmers, what is the appeal?

I mean, we saw a bailout in 2018 of $19 billion after everything was said and done, and now we're heading right back down that road, and I want to know what is it about, whether it's Trump, MAGA, or the Republican GOP that just keeps them in to say, well, we can trust them.

I don't understand it, and I don't want to assume, because I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence either.

Well, let me take off my farmer cap and put on my political consultant hat for a minute So I will tell you this that in the bailout by the way was 27 billion

during the

last year of the Trump administration and it continued on For two years into the Biden administration because the farm economy was so bad as a result of these tariffs in the first round

If you look at the polling, and I know there was a book that came out a few years ago that was called Rural Rage, and it painted a really bleak picture from a racism perspective, et cetera, of rural America.

And there's no doubt that some of that exists out here, just like it exists everywhere else.

But I will tell you that when you look at the polling, the polling for rural America is very similar to the polling for urban inner city America.

And it's more the politics of resentment.

You don't fix our roads.

You don't fix our bridges.

We don't have good internet.

You don't take care of our schools.

And what we learned in the last election is that people like to vote for the person screaming the loudest that they're going to fix all of that, whether they fix it or not, or they sit on their hands and they don't vote, which was a huge problem in the last election.

And, you know, I'm.

I will tell you, don't, I always say this, don't put my face on Mount Rushmore because on election night, even though I say we need to meet people where they are on election night, I looked at my sons and I said, well, I guess we're all going to have to eat out of trash cans in rural America before we figure out what's going on here.

But the truth of the matter is that

A lot of people in rural America, when they vote, they really did believe he was just going to get rid of the criminals that were coming here illegally.

They really did believe that if we were to let him put these tariffs in place, that it would be manufacturing back to rural America, which has been decimated.

And what's happened is the same thing that happened before.

Manufacturing jobs are accelerating in their disappearance rate.

our foreign markets, 33% of our foreign agricultural markets have disappeared.

So all I can tell you is, Will Rogers once said, when they asked him, how do people in rural America learn?

He said, some learn by reading, some learn by observation, and the rest just have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

And there's a

lot of

that third one.

Yeah, there's a lot of that third one going on right now.

What I will say is different this time, Greg, is we're seeing the swing in support moving away from the president.

And you're seeing this angst out here that even if we do farm subsidies,

we're just going to be right back in the same boat next year and the year after in the year after.

So, yeah, they had to hit their thumb with the hammer three times, but it does seem like that third time is making a difference.

If you're just joining us on Matt Nair on air, Will Westmoreland is our guest.

He's the executive director of Back 40 Action.

He has been on the show before.

He's a farmer in southwestern Missouri, and we're talking about the Trump tariffs and what it's like in his.

part of the world and what he's hearing from fellow farmers there there is a lot of angst will again about people on the left trying to understand rural voters and why it seems they continually vote against their own interests because democrats are the ones who want to invest in infrastructure president biden had that big infrastructure plan that

went

to both red and blue districts

And yet, again, they came back to Trump, knowing what he did to them the first time around, and they came back for more.

Yeah, and I'll tell you, one of the things about rural America, well, let me say a couple of things, first of all, whenever you see the numbers that rural America voted 70% for Donald Trump,

the numbers are actually a little bit better than that because what they're doing is they're taking a look at the top 200 counties, agricultural counties in the country, and they're pulling that number from the voting results just in those top 200 counties.

The truth of the matter is,

I can go right outside of where you are in Wisconsin and there are rural voters.

I can go right outside of New York City and there are rural voters.

It's probably somewhere around 61% of rural America that actually voted for Donald Trump, which is still way too many people, right?

The good news is there have been a lot of folks out here like me that have been fighting against this for years, and I will tell you people are starting to listen.

We've got a lot of people that have contacted us here at the back 40 that have said, listen, I didn't get my reimbursements for rotational grazing.

I lost my farm because of it.

I'm ready to work with anybody that will help us get good agricultural policy.

in place, that kind of thing.

The other thing that's really scaring people are these changes in the ACA credits out there.

Yes,

yes.

Our good

friends at the National Rural Health Association, who we work with very closely on health care issues, basically we're going to see 37%, a 37% increase in the number of people in rural America that don't have health insurance at the end of the year because of these cuts.

And that's something that I want to, we have to keep reiterating.

Whether people are utilizing Medicaid or Medicaid, I must say for sure, but also with these ACA increases.

They want to paint these individuals on the ACA and on Medicaid as shiftless layabouts in cities doing nothing, absolutely taking advantage of the system.

But that's not true at all.

These are working folks who live all over the country.

Red state, blue state, rural, urban, suburban, they're everywhere.

And when you try to paint it with that kind of brush, once again, folks in the rural areas, as we're seeing with all these cuts, they're always having some of the most devastating effects on people in the rural area.

And we need to keep talking about that because the

The politicians like to get on their podiums in front of a cornfield and tell them how much you will Westmoreland are the backbone of America, but they cut programs that make it harder for you to even live because

a lot of

farmers get their health coverage through the ACA.

This one does.

I was notified a few weeks ago that my insurance is going to go from $1,700 a month to over 3,000.

And we're looking at seeing that across the board.

The bottom line is this.

We use it more than anybody else in the country.

It's going to impact us worse than any other part of the country.

There are two bills out there right now.

Senate bill.

46 and HR 247.

Both of those are designed to put those credits back so we need to get our politicians to do that.

We're going to continue our conversation with Will Westmoreland, Executive Director of Back 40 Action.

Stay with us.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

Coming to you on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We'll be right

back.

Good morning and welcome back to NetNair on Air.

Jane NetNair, Greg Bach.

Our resident young person Calvin on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine where you can join us.

Call or text at 855-752-4842.

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

We're joined by Will Westmoreland, the executive director of Back 40 Auction.

He is a farmer in Southwestern Missouri talking about Trump's tariffs.

Also talking about

Who utilizes the ACA?

And you said something earlier before we went to the commercial about the amount of who uses it more than anybody else.

I want you to repeat that because I want people to hear it again.

And also, you just sent me a message saying that the CDC cuts have had a particular impact on rural America.

Can you also speak on that?

Yeah, sure can.

So when it comes to the ACA tax credits as a percentage of the population, we use it more in rural America than our suburban and urban brothers and sisters.

So the impacts that are going to be felt in rural America are going to be even greater as a percentage of the population.

So for instance, in rural America, we're going to see premiums nearly double.

So on average, what that's going to mean is even with those previous tax cuts being removed,

The average person in rural America is going to see their insurance through the ACA go up by about $133 per month.

So you can do the math on what that's going to be with the course of the year.

We also, a lot of people don't know this, but we get an additional credit in rural America because insurance costs more here.

We've got fewer facilities.

We've got less choices.

We have to travel further.

So we get an extra credit of about 28% in these tax credits that's applied on top of what everybody else gets, and those go away as well.

So we're losing a subsidy base that's the same as everybody, plus an additional 28%.

basically on average, it's going to increase healthcare in rural America by about 900 bucks a year.

And then, yeah, I heard you talking with your previous guest about the cuts at the CDC.

This is really critical in rural America, and it's really kind of scary, Jane, to be honest with you, because some of the programs that are...

Handled through the CDC and rural America are the programs that are the frontline defense against bird flu and swine flu,

which is so those are critical

Right.

And bird flu is really scary because we've been talking for years.

If we see that jump from birds into humans, it could be worse than what we saw with COVID-19, which was bad enough.

So some of these CDC programs, where we're losing frontline personnel, contrary to what JD Van said, and where we're losing funding are in these critical areas of, you know, virus control out on farms and ranches across the country.

The other thing is,

In addition to these tax credits that we're talking about, the CDC has huge health emphasis in rural America.

They've got special asthma programs for kids in rural America.

They've got breast cancer focus for women in rural America.

It's just program after program after program where funds are specifically designated to go to rural America because we're more unhealthy than the rest of the country.

We've got more chronic long-term issues, heart disease, diabetes.

In addition to that, because we live in spread out areas, we've got to drive further to get to places, which means we're in cars more, we drive faster, we have farm accidents like the one I had.

So these CDC cuts hurt us even worse.

to that point you were making earlier Greg about you know why did they vote this way.

All this stuff is coming to a head now and I don't I don't know what's happening in the media ecosphere but it seems like a lot of people in rural America are stepping out of the echo chamber and they're getting this news that they haven't been getting before about what these cuts are going to mean.

Some of that I think is

the conservative news outlets because of, I know, hand to God, I never thought I'd agree with her, but because of what Marjorie Taylor Green said, I think some of this is getting into the conservative ecosphere and people are scared.

That's really interesting that you say that.

Well, it is.

And I do think that's why civic media was created, was to try and counter some of this.

misinformation that has been spread particularly across our rural areas for so very long.

They've only been getting one side of the news for decades for 30 plus years.

So that's kind of always been the goal of civic media is to bring information to people who are not hearing the other side.

And actually factual things.

And I think it's important, you know, you bring up that point is that we also have to look to the closure of the corporation for public broadcasting.

Those non NPR PBS stations that are out there in rural America who rely on funding to bring the news, not right or left, just the news.

They need to be funded.

They need to be supported.

And it's important to get.

Give what you can to them, because that's how some people get

their news.

Information is power.

Information is power.

We only have about 90 seconds left.

Well, we talked about this before, and we're going to have to talk about it again.

Bankruptcy has got to be looming for a lot of our farmers now with this latest round of tariffs.

And when we talked to you before, that seems to be the goal.

Like JD Vance is an investor in Acre Trader.

Yeah, you know, I just made a trip to Washington DC this past week because I wanted to go out and see who I could meet with.

And while I was there, I had a follow up meeting.

I think I'd mentioned the last time I was on that I'd attended a sustainable agriculture investment seminar in Washington DC where they thought the bankruptcy number would be somewhere around 13 to 15%.

Well, it's not gotten any better.

The conversation I had the last few days in Washington DC is that that number could now be as high as 23% among row crop farmers.

And that is really scary in terms of the impacts it's going to have on the food supply and that kind of thing.

I don't know how we're going to come out of this without some sort of bailout.

But people need to remember, too, all this bailout is going to do is make farmers break even.

Right.

There's not going to be any profitability there.

It's going to allow them to pay off their operating loans, et cetera.

But it's not going to create profit and nobody farms just to break even.

Will Westmoreland has been our guest, the executive director, rather a back 40 action.

You can see him on YouTube.

Can't thank you enough, Will.

We have to have you back again before it's been another six months.

Really appreciate your time.

I always love coming on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

News coming up next, and then when we return, audio sorbet should adults get their birthday off from work?

Audio gripe.

Okay, audio gripe perhaps.

That's coming up next on the Civic Media Radio Network.

This is Matt Nair on air.

Stay with us.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air.

Greg Bach, our one, our only Calzone on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

Join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter, baseball tonight, baby game three brewers.

Hosting the Dodgers for Game 2 of the NLCS Game 2.

Our broadcast starts at 6.30.

First pitch goes out about 7.08.

You can listen to the game, but you have to listen on Terrestrial Radio so you can listen on WRCE, in Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh and here in Racine and Kenosha on WRJN Brewers hosting the Dodgers.

Go crew!

Our broadcast starts at 6.30, first pitch at 7.08.

I know, take a deep breath.

I know.

This is the portion of the show that we call Audio Sorbet, where we take a break from the news.

Well, let me tell you something, boy.

Yeah, that's... Sometimes it slides into audio gripe.

Hmm.

Which could be the case today.

Yeah, I think so.

Here is the question for today's Audio Sorbet, and there's a reason we bring this up.

There's a reason why Jane brings this up.

I saw this this morning on social media.

Yeah, that great bastion of truth.

Yes, above truth and standards.

This exchange between an employer and a young woman about birthdays at work.

Calvin, let's play this clip, please.

Maybe you should pay your employees more, too, then we

paid pretty well.

I mean, I know someone's here working on their birthday.

Is

this someone's birthday today?

You don't even know your own employees.

I

don't know everyone's birthday.

It's Colton's birthday.

Yeah.

Happy birthday,

Colton.

Congratulations.

Adults work on their birthday.

I'm going to cry