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Good, good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt and they're on air.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host and you are listening to us on the civic media radio network.
You can get in touch with us anytime you'd like.
The number is the same whether you call or text it's 855-752-4842 or 855-75 civic.
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Have a wonderful show today.
It's December the 18th.
How many days that's a Christmas?
Seven.
I hope you have your shopping at least thought about, if not completely completed, or at least as the old song says, time is on your side for a few days.
But we got a great show for you today at 9.35 after the half after the bottom of the news break, where we welcoming Pat Crichtlow, host of Mornings with Pat Crichtlow soon to be.
Leaving us if you haven't heard, tomorrow is his last show here at Civic Media, but we're gonna be having him on the show to talk about the speech from the president last night.
We'll be talking about that a little bit beforehand, but we'll get into the nitty gritty with him on that in the 930.
We'll also be talking about the fact that Republicans are starting to break away from party ranks and some want to extend ACA tax credits for those who want to access healthcare.
Why are they doing it?
Is it because of political coverage?
Is it because they care?
a little bit of both columns.
I don't know, but we'll be talking to Pat after the 9 30 news in the 10 o'clock, 10 o'clock hour, the two in the second hour, we'll be talking to Ann Sayers, who is the secretary of tourism here in Wisconsin.
And there are a lot of things going on in winter in Wisconsin and it doesn't all have to do with snow.
In fact, there are ways to enjoy Wisconsin without having to come into contact with any snow, but we'll be talking more about that with Ann Sayers in the second hour at 1006.
So you want to stick around for that.
And something we are going to keep talking about as well is sports, Wisconsin sports, local sports.
We have Paul noon and he is a writer for the Acme packing company.
He'll be stopping by 10 35.
Talk about all things that are the Packers.
We'll be talking about the bucks.
Maybe I don't know if anyone wants to talk about the bucks right now, Calvin.
I feel like bucks fans are really like angry sad.
I'm not sure, but it's a, I, I, I'm here for you if you need to talk about that.
Cause I know that the season seemed like it was going to
I don't wanna say be better, but just there was excitement and now it seems to dissipated.
There are mumblings that they might be looking to make a big move.
So we might talk to Paul about
that.
They might be moving out of Milwaukee, isn't it?
No,
not that.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Sorry.
Well, don't listen to me.
I'm not a sports writer and the bucks are not my area of expertise, but we talk to him about that.
Also with him, we're gonna highlight spotlight and raise the profile.
of the Wisconsin women's volleyball team.
Cause not only are they kicking butt, they always kick butt.
They're very, very good.
And I want to talk more about that as well.
And just the fact that we need to keep our eye on those great sports that sometimes don't make all the news.
And then finally, this shouldn't be a thing rounding out the show today.
It is snake in my boot edition.
If you're a fan of a new movie called Zootopia two, I sound like a very old person saying that, but
If you're a fan of that, this might be one for you, especially if you have young kids.
It's just a way to know what, not to get them for Christmas, but that is at the end of the show.
This shouldn't be a thing.
We have a great one for you.
We're going to open up with a story that's been developing over the past few months.
And that is having to do with something called Wisconsin.
I, if you're not familiar with Wisconsin, I essentially, it is like Wisconsin's C spam.
It is a live stream broadcast network that basically covers state government.
anytime they're in there having discussions, anytime it's public can be a part of it.
They're running, they're programming.
We can watch them talk about issues, vote on bills, a way to just engage ourselves in local government and stay in contact, but also hold them accountable because it's all there right on the floor.
On top of them live streaming these hearings or these events and these happenings, there's also about
30,000 hours of state government proceedings, candidate interviews and other programming.
It was launched in 2007.
And as of Monday, it halted its service because of that lack of funding.
And since the announcement a few weeks ago, there has been a scramble to try to make it, to save it essentially.
We're seeing a lot of cuts to various public broadcasting, public access.
And this is
has been one of the casualties.
And I think personally, and it's easy to say, well, who watches with eye?
Well, people do.
A lot of people do.
A lot of people in the news, a lot of people read it, watch it for research, looking at for whether they're researching papers or whatnot.
It's a tool of access to see our leaders doing their work.
And there have been discussions about the state government
The legislators on restarting the services this week, they were talks to discuss with, with, with I and with the stoppage of coverage, how they could actually get some funding.
There is some pushback of course, because, you know, the funding from, if you are familiar with Madison, the place where the capital is, where legislators do work, not Madison lawmakers.
I was given the request to not call them Madison lawmakers.
I will say,
People who are lawmakers are representatives who work in medicine.
There is a very big... There isn't a lot of wanting to give funding, essentially.
And it is easy to make the case that WISI isn't something worth funding.
And they asked the state to provide about $1 million in funding with matching requirements to cover the 2026 budget.
And they're having discussions on it.
And of course we have someone who is a main dissenter and it's not who you think it's not speak.
It's not assembly speaker Robin Voss.
It's the president of the Wisconsin state Senate, David Lemahue, who says he has expressed skepticism about giving the organization state funding, telling the associated press it's important to make sure the public can view what's going on in state government, but that
Looking at the way Wisconsin I is currently run, it seems like they're really burning through money.
It's not the most effective use of taxpayer money.
So we're not going to give with with I a blank check to keep running it irresponsibly.
Well, first of all, and I want to make sure this is the title is Wisconsin I leader state government broadcaster in talks with legislators on restarting the service.
This is by Baylor Spears with the byline in the Wisconsin examiner.
Couple of things that I have a problem with this.
First of all, this is a big issue for me.
I don't know how you feel about it.
Let me know what you think.
855-752-484-2855-755-CIVIC.
We're going to talk about this for a little bit.
And we're also going to hear from Shaly Pittman and Savannah Tome Olsen here at Civic Media who did a great story on this as well.
But you're not giving them a blank check.
They've made a request a million dollars with matching requirements.
So there are some stipulations.
There is oversight.
If you don't want to give them that much,
then negotiate maybe less, but keep it on the air.
And this attitude of, well, it's not gonna be good or we can't do this, so we're just not gonna do it all.
No, you walk into a room, you have a discussion, and you come out with a deal, a compromise.
This is access to our leaders.
This is access to what they do and say.
And to, I'm gonna read the quote, nice for people to be able to stay home and be able to watch TV and see what we're doing.
It's not nice, it's important.
It's helpful, it's beneficial.
But to that's actually from Diane Husslebine and I actually disagree.
It's not nice.
It's helpful.
It's important.
It's required.
I think I think it's absolutely a requirement for us to be able to see.
And that's something that this government should be.
I should be absolutely compelled and have to fund if there are problems with how much there is.
We talk about that.
We find ways to get outside funding.
That's the other problem with the cuts to public broadcasting with.
so much funding and grants going away, folks are getting what's called donor fatigue, which means you can only give so much money to so many groups.
And people, regular folks like me and you who write out checks every year to charity, we have to make hard decisions.
Are we giving less to this group?
Are we not giving to that group?
But that's the problem.
And that's in effect to what we were talking about yesterday on the show, which is having a positive investment from our leaders in the things that help our communities and having access to what our
leaders say is important.
And it's, in my opinion, it should be mandatory, but that's where the conversation is.
Don't just whisk it away and say, well, but it's, it's, it's a blank check.
And, and, and they're burning through my, look at the details.
I want to throw to this clip here really quick.
This is a story that we did here at civic media between, uh, shawley pitman and, uh, Savannah to may Olson, who are in our news department, news director and our, our, uh, uh,
Yeah, our news directors coming through and reporting on this Calvin.
Can you play that clip really quick?
Withside Lev streams the legislature, the Supreme Court, the executive branch, the goal is to make state government accessible to everyone.
Without it, the only way to watch these things is to be at the Capitol in person.
But they're facing a budget gap of nearly $900,000 for 2026.
And after a year and a half of working to fundraise, the network paused all operations December 15th.
State Senator Mark Spreitzer and State Representative Breanne Brown, both Democrats, are introducing a bill that would create a new public
affairs network instead of Wisconsin eye.
That means live streaming would be part of state government, not a nonprofit that relies on donations and sponsors.
Sprites are talking with civic media news director, Shelly Pittman.
It looks like we are going to be in a position of needing public taxpayer funding for the long term.
And if that's the case, then we should consider whether it should just be a public.
an entity that is accountable to elected officials and run for the public benefit.
It would cost about $2 million a year to provide this coverage of state government.
Currently, Wisconsin Eye owns 18 years of archives, more than 30,000 hours worth.
Spreitzer says if WSI dissolves, according to their contract, they would have to turn over that archive to the Wisconsin Historical Society for Preservation.
But for this bill to pass and for any of this to work, Spreitzer and Brown need Republicans who are in charge of the legislature on board.
I certainly hope to get support from Republicans.
I don't believe we have any Republicans signed on yet.
But this is something that I know we've heard that Republican leaders are interested in doing something.
Spreitzer hopes they can get the bill on the floor in January.
For Civic Media News, I'm Savannah Tome Olson.
And that's Savannah Tomei Olson.
I want to make sure she is the assistant news director here at civic media.
I got a little tongue tied, but that's between Charlie Pittman and Sam Savannah, Tomei Olson.
Appreciate that story.
And I think that's also a great idea.
If we can't save West eye in its current form, we create something which holds our elected leaders accountable.
That is just, I mean, Alicia on the live stream says, West eye is necessary to keep our state government accountable and transparent.
That's absolutely true in a time when we need transparency with our leaders.
This is very important.
And I want to keep talking about it because it's one of those stories that can easily be put under the radar.
A lot of people can say, you know, I've never heard of WSI.
Why do I want to save this?
But it's, I think it's something that we need to keep in the conversation.
And leaders who say something the effect of, well,
They're burning through cash and we can't give them a blank check.
We're not doing that.
We've got two options here.
One from WSI, one from our Democratic leaders, and we need to find a solution.
And there can be compromise, but there needs to be some sort of solution found so the people can see what our leaders are talking about.
We're going to take a really quick break.
We're going to grab some snacks.
We can come back.
Gene from Eau Claire, I see you on
The line don't go anywhere.
I'll take you after we come back.
But we're going to keep talking about this for a moment.
And then we're going to get into a little bit about the president's speech.
If you watched it last night, call, text, let us know what you thought.
I'm sure I know what you thought.
But hey.
If it was your kind of speech, let me know as well.
855-752-4842-855-75CIVIC.
Leave a comment on the live stream.
We are on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform we still call Twitter.
Don't forget, after 935, we'll expand further on the speech with Pat Critello.
And we have a great second hour for you as well.
But don't go anywhere.
Grab some water, grab a snack.
You're listening to Matt and Aaron here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Stay tuned and stay close.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt and Air on Air.
My name is Greg Bock.
I am your host, your friend, your buddy, and you are listening to us on the Civic Media radio network.
You can always get in contact with us by calling or texting.
It's the same number.
855-752-4842-855-757.
You can also leave a comment on the live stream.
We'd love to hear you.
We are currently on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform that we will always call Twitter.
And we've been talking about the case to save Wisconsin Eye, the programming, the broadcast network that takes care of.
Covering our local leaders, our civic leaders in Madison, so we know what's happening, so they can stay accountable.
We can be transparent, and it is currently not running right now, but there are discussions, plans to try to save it.
There's a plan from WISI, there's a plan from Democratic leaders in Madison, and either way, we need a solution.
Get in a room, talk about it, get this back up and running.
because it's important for our people, for our communities to see this.
You may not watch it, but somebody does.
And when it goes away, we don't know what they're talking about always.
And to see them say it live, that's the important thing.
Or just to do research.
That's the other thing too.
It's a great tool for research.
We have Jean Vermeau-Claire on the line.
Jean, I missed you.
I was afraid you went away too.
And Jane retired, I'm like, ah, Jean's gone too, but you're here.
Thank you so much for calling.
How are you
today?
But I wouldn't miss any time with you sir.
I think you're doing an outstanding job you and your assistant is and he's so sweet
Calbee
Yeah, it was a sweetheart and I hope you guys keep continuing I Want to hear you guys every day because I look forward to that is my piece of mind So I just I want to comment on this stuff
lack of accountability with these people and lack of transparency.
We've got to get these people, I'm sorry to say that, this is my opinion and I am feeling this and I want to let my feelings out because it can't take it anymore.
I've watched that station for years.
Walker was in office and pulling all the crap on the people over and we didn't know on my side of the state.
We had no idea what was going on over here.
And I could watch that and see what was going on in our government.
Now this is a habit.
The stuff that happened in the state of Wisconsin prior to Tony Evers getting elected is happening in our federal government as we speak.
I watched Walker
Going to the Capitol and taking part sitting at the table with all the people around Trump Taking place and the same thing that happened in our state is happening in our government now Going to have to places we get information Places where we can look things up and find out what the devil's going on Word had that taken away as a big guy and we got to stop it in our state because we started to get our roads fixed I remember
when he was running for president going after Walker, saying that the roads were really bad in Wisconsin, you gotta do something about it.
Well, did he ever do it?
Heck no.
Walker wrecked all of our different departments.
Those same people are now that we're working with Walker, are in the federal government as they speak, voting against the people in the state of Wisconsin.
The Republicans that are in Wisconsin are not working for the people.
Wake up, folks.
I've watched this.
I've been documenting this for years.
You've got to stop this, and these people need to be held accountable, and we want transparency, and we want the availability to watch our government live so they can't lie and spread rumors.
So I'm sorry to go on this, but it's unbelievable.
Thank you for covering this.
I love you guys.
Keep up the great
work.
We appreciate you, Jeanne.
And then just so, just so, or Jeanne's made it very, very clear many times, she is also an independent.
I know you might be like, yeah, right, but she is an independent and we've heard from her on various topics and that is very true.
And yes, I mean, Jeanne said it perfectly.
It's about transparency, about accountability.
It's about making sure that the leaders who choose to be the voice of the people are actually being the voice of the people.
And in matters like this,
As I said before, you may not watch with eye, but people out there do.
It's an important tool and our leaders shouldn't just say, well, we'll see, or I'm not sure, or it's a waste of money.
Then make it not a waste of money, not to mention, and we're going to, we'll keep harping on this.
I don't know Calvin, sweet Calbee on the boards.
By the way, I don't know if you knew this Calvin, but we have over $4 billion in a surplus in the state.
We could easily fund this like nearly in perpetuity.
Well,
This is where you're mistaken.
Oh, I'm
sorry.
We have a,
this is a new segment we call Greg is
mistaken.
We don't have $4 billion in surplus.
Yeah.
Robin Voss has $4 billion in surplus.
Oh,
that's right.
It's a throne of cash.
If you ever seen the movie, like the dark night, it's like kind of like that.
It's just a pile of cash in a warehouse where you're just sitting there looking at going, that's my money.
But no, it's
This is where I make the appeal.
And I've done, I'm going to keep doing it until I can't do it on the air.
And then I'll just scream it on a corner, my vote.wi.gov, call your leaders, talk to them.
Even if they're leaders that you agree with, even if they're leaders that you vote for, tell them how important this is.
Tell them to speak to their Republican colleagues.
Tell them to speak to anybody in the state house who may disagree and have a conversation, find a compromise, find a way to
Get with eye back on the air.
Have these conversations also at home on the holidays.
I don't feel like this is a, a conversation that will start a fight at the holiday dinner table.
Access to public media is something that is beneficial for all.
We've, we've also talked about this topic at length this year with the cuts to public broadcasting because the closure of the corporation for public broadcasting, this is just another.
Symptom, this is another casualty and we can't have it.
Wisconsin's better than this.
We've got to find a solution and we find it together and as to say the slogan, we move forward.
So, when we come back...
We're going to talk about President Trump's speech last night.
We're going to discuss some of the, the nuance.
I'm not sure that word's applicable, but we're going to be doing that with host of mornings with Pat Cridlow.
Mr. Pat Cridlow will be right here on the show.
Don't go anywhere.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
Good, good morning.
Welcome back to Matt and air on air.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host, your buddy, your pal, and we are on the civic media radio network.
You can get in touch with us anytime by calling or texting.
The number is the same 855-752-484-2855-75 civic and you can always leave a comment on the live stream.
We are currently on Facebook, YouTube and the platform that we still call Twitter.
lot coming up in the next hour.
We've got with a secretary of tourism here in Wisconsin and Sayers to talk about all the things you can do over the winter break, over the winter months.
Some of them have nothing to do with snow.
And I know that's a big deal for some of you.
And then of course, Paul Newton at after the 10 30 news, we're going to be talking sports, the bucks, maybe Packers, probably Wisconsin women's volleyball for sure.
So you don't want to miss that discussion.
And then of course this shouldn't be a thing today.
It is
Snake in my boot edition.
So don't go anywhere.
We got lots of great show ahead of us and we want you to be part of it.
And we thank you for your time.
Our next guest, our buddy here in the chat on the show is the host for now of mornings with Pat Crite low.
It is Mr. Pat Crite low.
And yes, if you all haven't heard the news, tomorrow is your last broadcast here at civic media.
And I am, I think you use the best word on our secret show.
It's melancholy.
Yes, limited time offer tune in one more time from six to nine That's a little yeah, it's a little bittersweet more sweet than bitter.
Yeah, I mean the thing is is that you are by no means quitting like Jane Matton there.
Am I right?
But I am not retiring.
I have been bridging to I've been basically working two jobs and it's it's time for the one that where I am actually employed.
Yeah, it gets more of my time in 2026 is what it is.
And we're going to talk more about that in a little bit because I don't think people understand quite that, you know, it's a it's kind of a sports thing where it's like we we've we have you on on loan for the
team.
If you've watched
if you've watched Ted Lasso season one, you understand what, you know, you know, we've got we've got
the player on loan and the original team is now calling you back.
But there you go.
That's just my way of saying, watch Ted Lasso, it'll make you feel so good.
Maybe the opposite of that right now.
And I don't want to get, I don't want to dredge too deep into that sort of Tom Fullery, but the president did make an address to the nation last night at nine PM, well, eight PMR time, nine PM Eastern.
And it went on all the networks and it was
There was a lot of speculation, because I guess there were pictures of Marco Rubio, who's the Secretary of State, walking around the Oval Office, and we were like, are we going to war?
Well, not really.
Before we get into it, Calvin, I want you to play for me that clip of the President's speech from last night, please.
Good evening, America.
11 months ago, I inherited a mess.
And I'm fixing it.
And that's the president talking for about the next 19 minutes.
And I really don't want to play more than that.
I think that the New York Times published an article with six, a great article that gave us six takeaways from it.
And I was speaking with a friend and she was saying that she watched the whole thing live.
And I said, I can't do that.
I need multiple walk around and snack breaks when I do, when I listen to him speak.
But I think the, you know, the
the biggest takeaway and the number one takeaway, Pat, is that he was combative as usual, standing at the podium with the seal.
What were your thoughts when you watched or listened to his speech?
I can only plagiarize Joseph Ecke, who an hour ago on our program quoted Billy Madison and said in so many words, Mr. President,
What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever heard.
At no point in your rambling incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.
Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.
And that would be the kindest thing that could have been said about that quote unquote speech last night.
And that's the thing is it brought up real concern beforehand because there's a lot going on in the world that is
in the news that's happening, you know, whether we're talking about blowing up ships or seizing Venezuelan oil tankers or just wanting to really pick a fight with Venezuela.
A war for oil?
I'm not familiar with that.
Well, hey, Pat, you know, cassette tapes and CDs are back.
So is war for oil, I guess.
I mean, we got to always play the
greatest hits.
When
we're trying to create distractions from things like the Epstein files and still this big, this big bill for billionaires that's not going away, it's going to
hurt us really hard next year, because as we'll talk about later, they don't want to give tax credits to people who just want good healthcare.
But the point is, is that the speech he made, I mean, it is, he's always been combative.
He's always had a fight, fight, fight to him.
And that is the Roy Cohn School of Public Relations.
But now it's become even more, it's become almost caricature.
But he's a man who's in the Oval Office.
I mean, no, no greater example can be given than this new hall of presidents, those placards that are everywhere.
And it is, it's, it's shameful.
It's juvenile and it's shameful.
And I hate saying that because I want to have the conversation.
I want to say to people like, what about this makes you say, yeah, what do you, I mean, that's, it's, I'm, I'm, I'm bereft of words, even though I'm still talking Pat.
it's because we have a tough time conveying the sense of embarrassment because history will judge this country very harshly during this period and a whole lot of people will say I didn't vote for him
who probably did vote for him, but they're not going to want to acknowledge it later on that somebody, first off, so unqualified.
But then as it turns out, so hostile and antithetical to American values, managed to not only win the election, but then, you know, take a wrecking ball to the economy and then take a wrecking ball quite literally to the White House.
uh history is going to look back on this and go what were you all thinking and we're we're just kind of conveying that in little drips and drabs on a daily basis when you hear a speech that is so untethered from the reality of the the harm or the the rough times that americans are going through and that his only thing is to reach back and
Blame Joe Biden when he has been president Donald Trump for 11 months now and he took, you know, the best
Post pandemic recovery wasn't perfect, but the best post pandemic recovery of all the developed nations and took a wrecking ball to it.
And it's helping him.
He's made he's made billions of dollars
this year.
His buddies have made literally billions of dollars this year.
And he figures if he just demonizes enough people and distracts enough, you all forget that they got those billions by putting his hand in your pockets.
And that's the pockets of all people people who voted for him or not.
And
that's the thing that you know,
I always try to make that clear.
They're not taking my money because I voted for Kamala Harris.
I'll say it out loud.
I voted for her.
Shocking, I know.
But they're taking money from everyone.
And in a sense, they're taking money from your children and your grandchildren because this is generational harm that's being done.
One of the other takeaways that this New York Times article made, and really quick, I want to do this because I always like to give credit because I didn't write this.
Actually, oh yes, David E. Sanger has the byline.
Abelacos Trump points fingers in defending his record on the economy, which, side note too, it's really not normal for a president to do a nationwide primetime speech, which I guess preempted two season finales of two very popular shows.
It's not usual for them to make a speech just on this when you're doing a prime time speech of nowhere There's something happening and this was his way of just saying hey, I'm amazing and it's 19 minutes of His words that were written by I'm sure by a lot of people and one thing that they said here is he risked repeating a by-the-mistake of arguing with voters about how they feel and I think there's a lot of validity to that because last year it was hard to Discuss the economy
And this is a mistake that I've admitted to last year.
I kept on relying on the economic indicators, the stock market, jobs reports, inflation.
And that doesn't translate to folks who are like, my groceries are too high.
My kids' school bills are going up.
We're one slip and fall away from bankruptcy.
And that's a mistake I personally made.
And I think the Trump campaign capitalized on that as you should.
because they weren't connecting with the voters.
Now he's doing the same thing and his people on the Sunday morning shows are saying things like, you don't understand.
It's great.
It's wonderful.
You don't get it.
The voters, the vote, you don't understand why it's so good, but it's so good.
And that's what they're doing now 11 months later.
Sure, but things things actually are much much worse now than they were 11 months ago, whereas at the time what you had was a Republican Party and candidates rooting for the economy to fail, talking down the recovery that did exist, and getting people to think incorrectly, I will hasten to add that
Getting rid of inflation means that prices go all the way back to where they were pre pandemic.
No, that was never going to happen.
And you shouldn't want it to happen.
You don't want your paycheck to be rolled back 10 years.
So don't expect that of prices as well.
But it's so much easier to, you know, rip on something than it is to build something.
The Biden administration was building things.
There is nothing being built by this administration, even literally a ballroom at this point.
There's nothing
being built, there's nothing but the manufacture of these, you know, talking points that blame everybody else, but still has not even concepts of a plan for actual economic recovery.
And I think you bring up a fantastic point there as well, because I feel like there, you know, six months ago, the version of the Trump White House and the MAGA movement was pretty secure.
And now we're seeing people start to fall away, dissent.
Marjorie Taylor Green, did anyone have it on their bingo card that she would be walking away?
And I think, and tell me as a, as a person who served in public service, I feel like a certain subset of the GOP rooted for the destruction of the economy because they knew that it would make them look good.
But I, do you think they thought it would go this far?
And now they see that it's not good.
Therefore, some of them are dissenting.
they knew that it might they knew this was a risk they were willing to take this was this was a very calculated gamble that they wanted to get first and foremost the 2017 tax cuts that overwhelmingly favored the very wealthy they wanted to get those re-upped and they did mission accomplished on that front
But to do so, rather than just increasing the deficit by something like $6 trillion, they did $2 trillion in very painful cuts to Americans, and then added $4 trillion in debt over that.
And they probably did not think the math was going to work quite that way, that it was going to so easily
and readily harm their own constituents, which is now they're in such a bind when it comes to something like the cost to have health insurance for your
family.
Pat Critello is our guest right now.
He is the host of mornings with Pat Critello.
We're talking about the president's speech from last night and about 19 minutes long.
I made a lot of claims.
A lot of them can be debunked.
He once again declared himself the peacemaker.
And now it is now it is now eight wars in 10 months, which I think somewhere, I mean, is a very much a record.
I don't know.
I mean,
even as he's got like one and a half wars going on now he's got the the the thing where he's bombing you know boats without due process and then the thing where he's got a partial blockade going with Venezuela again just itching for some kind of a confident
We won't then be talking about the Epstein files.
We won't be talking about the consumer price index.
But enough of us have been to that rodeo within the past 25 years that know, as George W. Bush would say, we're not going to get fooled again.
Not going to do it.
We're going to keep the conversation going on the other side of this break here.
We're going to grab a snack, grab some water.
It's important to stay hydrated, folks.
Always drink your water.
But we're going to keep talking to Pat Critello from Mornings with Pat Critello for now.
And when we come back,
Brian, I see you on the line.
We're going to discuss that and some other things happening in the GOP, some dissension in the ranks, as we mentioned, but don't go anywhere.
We were talking to you, Matt and Aaron
here on the Civic Media Network.
Stay tuned, stay close.
Good.
Good morning.
Welcome back to matinee on air.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host here on the civic media radio network and you can call or text anytime 855-752-484-2855 75 civic air and Facebook, YouTube and the platform that we still call Twitter.
We're talking right now with Pat Crite low, who is the host of mornings with Pat Crite low until tomorrow on the civic media radio network.
But hey, there's still one amazing show left.
He's got
the one show.
Yeah, bet middler.
He's got George Clooney.
He has got the of the Pope's every
single of them, all the
whole set of Gregory's and the Pisces too.
But
yeah, we're going to talk.
We'll be on the show tomorrow, having a little set down chat and we'll it'll be great.
But show tomorrow, 6 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
to the big media radio.
Now I've been talking about
speech primetime and our takeaways, including the takeaways of a New York times article that will be in the show notes.
Brian from Grafton has been very, very patient.
Brian, what, oh, he, Brian just hung up.
I guess apparently Brian did disagree with us and I was about to give him a platform and he said, no, so I guess we'll move on to something else.
And we'll, uh, I think it's pretty clear where we stand on it and what the speech was like.
It was, it was, it was textbook Trump, although I think peppered with
with age, with what happens with age and he's getting
more
combative, more aggressive and needs so much to have.
Look, I'm gonna say something that's very unpopular.
When I see him on the television or I see him anywhere, there is always about 2% of me that feels desperately sad and sorry for him, because this is a young man who was brought up by monsters and was never loved correctly.
And I think if he had parents who were somewhat normal, he'd have at least a different perspective, but he didn't.
So he doesn't.
And this is what we got.
Right.
And he's been able to tap into that whole notion of grievance.
There are so many people.
I'm just going to pick on the white guys, but there's others.
There's so many white guys who are victims.
Oh, we're victims because they're not able to do anything and everything that they want anymore and that it must be somebody else's fault.
And it just gets old after a while, which is what leads other
you know middle-aged angry white guys like me to get on the radio and say stop it knock it off you're not a victim we're all in this together and uh don't be listening to this guy promising you the moon and stars when he's never given the moon and stars to any buddy
yeah
If you are a white dude with complaints like that, I want to see your paycheck.
If it's above a certain amount, you're fine.
You're not affected by this.
If it's below a certain amount, you're totally affected and you need to get on board and get with us because they're taking all of our money.
It doesn't matter who you are.
We're all victims to a certain extent.
Really quick, you brought something up.
I want to bring the conversation back to Wisconsin Eye.
We were talking earlier about
plans, ideas, concepts of plans to save with I and make sure that we have access to our local our leaders speaking on the floor transparency.
Tell me tell the listeners and the viewers what you just said in our chat.
Oh, I just said, you know, that there are, I favor the idea that, you know, there should be some role in state funding to play.
They've proven themselves to be a very credible, independent entity, free of political interference, and should not rely on the whims of rich people.
Having said that, I would earmark, you know, certain state funds and say, okay, now where is that state funding going to come from for starters?
And
Some of the people who use WSI most and benefit from it most are in the lobbying core.
And these are, I'm not, I'm not disparaging them as a legislator.
There are many great lobbyists who educated me on many issues.
There, there, there's a lot of good folks in there.
I'm just saying they make money.
And
so it would not take much that when they have to register every year, they have to be licensed through the, the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
They can pony up.
a little additional fee to pay back some of the ways that they benefit from being able to monitor things without having to go to every committee hearing, without having to sit in the gallery for every session.
They can now sit in their comfortable offices and monitor these things.
And for that, they're able to raise a good amount from some of their very large clients.
So that's where I would start.
I'm not saying it's all should be on them.
I'm just saying part of the solution needs to be the people who benefit from it who are in a position to.
up a little.
Yep.
And I think that goes back to what we were discussing as far as the conversation.
You know, someone like Devin Lemon, he was like, well, we don't know.
It's kind of, it seems like that's a waste of time and money.
Well,
that's just, that's a mad lib.
He, it didn't matter if you put wissai in there, you could put anything in there.
And he would have said the exact same comment because that's all he knows to say.
Yeah.
Really quick before we get out of here.
Let's just talk about this really quick.
So
We discussed it earlier.
Now you are an employee of courier news.
That is the, those of us group who, who signs the paycheck for you.
But as
we've
said before, like a sports team, maybe overseas more.
You were on loan to us from courier news.
That comes to an end as of tomorrow.
Tomorrow is your last show on, on civic media, but what are, you are not retiring.
You
don't know how to do that.
But as you said, one job is great.
Let's just have one job.
What are you doing it going for?
What are your plans?
To put it most selfishly the whole point of doing the radio show well the main thing was to draw attention to up north news the wisconsin outlet for courier newsroom these are the things we do these are newsletters website social media posts.
prior to the radio show, I was doing more videos for them, more explainer videos about the news, more social media posts, more website articles.
And the bosses at Courier said, Hey, Pat, this has been a great three year run.
We'd really like you to focus just solely on what you were doing before, explain the issues in the 2026 campaign, give us more website articles, do more with the Sunday morning newsletter, which you can sign up for it up northnewswi.com.
And I said, I understand I love
I'm a radio rat first and foremost.
It is something I could not wait to do again.
I love that Civic Media gave me this opportunity for myself as well as for Up North News, but it is time to focus just on the Up North News parts of things.
So keep monitoring Up North News, social media, website.
People are asking, will there be a podcast?
I don't know.
I'd kind of like it, but maybe it'll just be the videos.
We're going to get through the holidays.
We're going to figure it out.
So keep listening to Civic Media.
Keep following us on Up North News.
There's plenty of
room for you to get all this information that helps you understand Wisconsin news.
And with that, we say thank you to Pat Crite low for being here tomorrow.
The last show of mornings with Pat Crite low 6 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
I'll be there in the first hour having fun having fun with my friend and we and I thank you so much for being a part of this for so long and being a part of this show and.
having great conversations.
What a good friend I got out of this.
Do you
have?
All right, when we come back, we'll be speaking to Ann Sayers, who is the Wisconsin Secretary of Tourism here on Matt and Air on Air.
Don't go anywhere.
You're listening to the Civic Media Network.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
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