A Daily Dose of American Values (Hour 2)

Transcript

A Daily Dose of American Values (Hour 2)

Mornings with Pat Kreitlow · Mon Feb 17, 2025

Kathryn Lake

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All across Wisconsin from Civic Media.

This is Up North News Radio.

Now, live from our Lake Minnesota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News at Bright Low.

Pat Kreitlow

Hey, good morning.

Welcome back to Up North News Radio, unabashedly Wisconsin, brought to you by Courier Newsroom and carried by our friends here on the Civic Media Radio Network at 7.06 on this Monday morning, February 17th.

Nice to have you along.

Joined as well by Bach and the Doc, Greg Bach and Kristen Lairley.

Kristen, thanks again for filling in Monday through Thursday last week for Todd Alba for the two Fridays and Mr. Bach there every single day doing Yeoman's work.

which is a weird saying, because I don't know what a yeoman actually

Greg Bach

does.

Todd says that every time we work together, too, he says, you do yeomans work.

I'm like, yo, man, thanks.

I don't know that means.

That was

Kristin Lyerly

my reaction, too.

Yeah.

Pat Kreitlow

I did not.

I apparently I brought the sunshine back from a beach in the Dominican Republic.

I did not bring the temperatures, Brittany.

And so we're here at double digits below zero and dangerous wind chills yet again.

And

That, that ain't just a today thing, is it?

Brittney Merlot

No, it's not.

So Pat, we're going to have to send you back.

Go bottle up that warmth.

Then bring it back with you.

Yep.

I'll do it again.

We expect the delivery by Monday and Tuesday.

All right.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Forties, you guys.

I'm just going to start off with the good news.

Forties will be here by early next week.

So we got this.

We can get through this.

but it is darn cold right now.

It feels about 35 below zero into superior Wisconsin, far north, far west.

You are freezing and frigid throughout the entire state too.

It feels like 20 below down into the southern parts of the state and heist today struggling to get to the single digits.

So our actual temperatures will be at about four degrees far south.

about zero far north and it's really going to be feeling with those winds at about 25 miles per hour this afternoon.

It's going to be feeling like highs of about 10 below to maybe even 15 below.

So a very frigid day today and then tonight we crash cold again with more cold weather warnings going out and advisories because we're actually going to get a little bit cooler.

Temperatures will be double digits below zero so it'll be feeling about 30.

to 45 below zero once again by tomorrow morning.

Then tomorrow, throughout the day, we'll climb to those single digits again.

And we're kind of stuck there for Wednesday as well before we see a little bit of a warm up on Thursday.

We'll hit some teens to low 20s.

Friday and Saturday looks a little bit better, more mild in the mid 20s.

Or like I said, some 40s Monday and Tuesday next week, potentially.

Pat Kreitlow

No, no, I'm going to choose the beach weather.

Greg Bach

And I want a 40s now.

Pat Kreitlow

Now, Brittany.

Yes.

I'm

trying.

Pat Kreitlow

If only we could.

But all right, well, we appreciate the update and we will look forward to those 40s.

And like I said, at the top of the show, you know, the Brewer's first spring training game five days away.

And we are not that far away from the season opener.

So we got this.

I think we're almost there.

All right.

Thank you, Brittany.

Appreciate it very much.

As a reminder, throughout the program, you can join us at 855-75 Civic.

Oh, don't, don't let me forget, Brittany's gone, but you know what?

I gotta, I gotta say hi from Robin Tigerton.

See, I'm still getting back into the routine of things here.

Rob says it's clear and seven below zero windshield is 12 below a very busy weekend getting the snow plowing done.

We had seven inches of snow Welcome back Pat.

I love my new phone.

I got an iPhone 16 It takes great pictures better than my iPhone 4 yeah that I had before Well, yeah, it's a 16.

So the pictures are four times better.

That's science My favorite eagle song is best of my love.

I remember my uncle having an eight track

tape.

It was great seeing snowmobilers out this weekend.

So many of the businesses can make up for lost revenue.

Hopefully, hopefully.

He says thank you to all the snowplow operators doing an excellent job on the snow.

Very appreciative of it and notes that that we are Wisconsin tough.

We sure are.

Kristin Lyerly

Yeah, but it is 48 degrees below zero where I am right now.

Pat Kreitlow

The

Kristin Lyerly

what?

Yes, the wind chill is 48 degrees below zero.

Pat Kreitlow

Leave.

Go.

Go home.

No, don't stay right there.

Don't leave.

Don't.

I don't want to.

Do not go outside.

Yeah.

And how far are you from when you do have to go into the hospital?

Like, is it much of a drive from where you are?

Kristin Lyerly

It's only five minutes, but my car's parked outside.

And

Pat Kreitlow

I do not have

Kristin Lyerly

remote starts.

Pat Kreitlow

Right.

When, you know, where Sherry works, sometimes she gets called in the middle of the night.

And again, it's, it's.

almost across the street.

But if you say, if you have to scrape frost off the windshield, you know, and everything else, it can, it can be a bit of a thing.

So yeah, you're, you're better off just staying there.

Just don't, you can talk them through deliveries over the phone, right?

I mean, I have surgery

Kristin Lyerly

to do this morning.

I got 10 more minutes with you people and then I need to go take care of the ladies.

Pat Kreitlow

Okay.

Wow.

Okay.

No, no, no, she's getting actual work done, which is the important stuff.

Anyway, as I was saying, 85575 Civic, if you want to use the text line, send us a message or call in with a question or a comment.

Selena Heller normally joins us at this point on Monday mornings.

It is President's Day.

It's a holiday.

It's a holiday for those of us at Courier Newsroom as well.

So Selena will come visit with us come Monday morning.

Sports looks like I didn't miss much at all.

The NBA was on their All-Star break.

A lot of college teams took the week off last week.

The Badger Men's basketball team.

did defeat seventh-ranked Purdue over the weekend.

That was a nice big win and they are back in action tomorrow.

They will be hosting the Illini coverage at 6.30 tomorrow on several Civic Media stations as well as the Civic Media app.

The Marquette Men's basketball team will be hosting Seton Hall tomorrow.

The Badger women's hockey team will next be back in action Friday and Saturday afternoons at Bemidji State.

The Badger men's hockey team dropped a pair

at 8th ranked Ohio State.

They will host Notre Dame this coming Friday and Saturday nights to wrap up the regular season coverage begins at 7 p.m.

Friday and Saturday on Civic Media Station WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids.

And there were separate notes about the brewers that both Kristen Yelich and Brandon Woodruff are optimistic about their injury recoveries and, you know, being able to take part in the regular season

if not an opening day, then hopefully not too long thereafter.

So

Kristin Lyerly

fingers crossed

Pat Kreitlow

fingers crossed.

That's what we've got to go on.

Greg Bach

I feel like I feel like we need to do a joint courier news up north news civic media trip to opening day.

Yes.

Yes.

Research and science purposes.

Yes.

Yep.

Kristin Lyerly

Also, we have to pay tribute by bringing Miller light cans to the Uker monument.

Pat Kreitlow

Yep.

Greg Bach

Yes, absolutely.

Pat Kreitlow

It's a necessity.

Absolutely.

The special patch was unveiled last week that the players are going to wear throughout the season.

So yeah, it'll it'll be it'll be a bittersweet beginning to the season.

But again, hope spring is eternal for for our viewers out there.

It is 713 right now.

It is president's day as I noted.

And it's one of those holidays.

I mean, look, everybody

takes off at Christmas, almost everybody for 4th of July.

President's Day is in that other tier of holidays where it's like you get to the mailbox and it's empty and

Kathryn Lake

you go, oh,

Pat Kreitlow

oh, yeah, that's right.

Yeah, there's, there's, there's nothing here for me today.

And the same goes for like clinics.

I mean, you know, you're seeing, you're seeing patients, you're doing surgery today.

It just is what it is.

But I know the whole thing started with honoring, you know, George Washington, which is great.

You know,

He deserves that father of our country, all that stuff.

But we've never really been big about taking the day and going, you know, let's recite all the president's names.

How about that William Henry Harrison,

Greg Bach

huh?

Wasn't

Pat Kreitlow

he something?

And

Greg Bach

his grandson, other Harrison.

Kristin Lyerly

Yeah.

Yeah, that's hard.

Have you tried that?

Like starting at the beginning and see how far you get?

Pat Kreitlow

I used to be able to.

I

can do it

Pat Kreitlow

as a kid.

Really?

I'm

Kristin Lyerly

impressed.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

I couldn't know.

I could get really well in the neighborhood.

Wouldn't make for great radio, but I could get pretty close to it.

Kristin Lyerly

I can get through the named streets in Green Bay.

because they're all in order and then I get to a certain point where it stops and then I'm kind of on my own.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh, and then eventually they become, you know, just a dirt road.

Webster.

Yep.

Oh dear.

Um, so again, you won't see mail delivery.

You will see tomorrow, not a holiday and election day.

here in Wisconsin and that includes three candidates running for state superintendent of public construction.

The top two vote getters will move on to the April 1st general election.

So April 1st is the big one.

State superintendent as well as state supreme court.

There will be many more school referendums up there with school districts seeking help because we have a legislature that is still addicted to short changing our public school districts.

I haven't looked at the spreadsheet lately.

But I know that there's a lot of them coming, Kristen.

I'm sure in Northeast Wisconsin.

It's it's gonna be the same because there's absolutely no signal from the current crop of legislators that they're gonna do anything different.

So we have a state budget surplus, but we don't really because it's built on years of underfunding schools and that at the moment looks like that's still gonna be what we're facing here,

Kristin Lyerly

right?

And our schools are having to go back to the people for

operational referendums, the money that they need to keep the lights on, which I mean, I get the building referendums, you know, does the community feel like we need a new big school or do we want to add a gym or something like that?

Those are community choices, but public schools need public assistance.

They're the foundation of our community.

There's so much more than a school.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh, yeah.

They're a community asset, whether you have kids in them or not.

And a lot more folks used to appreciate that, maybe not so much these days, but.

Again, we, as I often say, it's yes on the referendums and it's no on the legislators who got us into this mess.

Kristin Lyerly

That's right.

Pat Kreitlow

And that's what we're gonna continue to have.

Although, again, we've had, we have more new legislators this year than we've had in a very long time.

You talked to a couple more of them.

I was State Senator Jody Habers-Sinneken.

And who else did you talk to last

Kristin Lyerly

week?

Representative Margaret Arney, two of the freshmen, one in the Senate, one in the Assembly.

And we have more women in the Wisconsin Legislature.

than ever before, 44 women, which is a third.

A third.

Greg Bach

That's still not enough.

Not nearly, not

Kristin Lyerly

nearly

Greg Bach

enough.

But it's fantastic where it's at.

It's fantastic where we are, but we keep going up.

Kristin Lyerly

Yeah,

Pat Kreitlow

we're

Kristin Lyerly

ranked number like 27 in the country.

Like, come on.

Oh, man.

Pat Kreitlow

I know.

Well, you know what?

We need more of those women win Wisconsin segments.

that, you know, where you introduce us to more women around the state who want to step up and play a role.

So we look forward to that.

Kristin Lyerly

So many of us.

Let's go.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

And before you run away again with my thanks for filling in, but how do you like those daily history lessons?

Putting those, putting those together, huh?

You summed it up very well.

What, what, what, what do you get when you're putting those history lessons together?

Where do you end up?

Kristin Lyerly

So the background is, Pat, you literally handed me these history lessons.

So all I had to do is just read them, but I read them in advance and then I went straight down the rabbit hole.

And three hours later, there I

Pat Kreitlow

was.

It is just, you know, look, if you're any kind of a history nerd, a music buff, whatever, you just, you go, oh, that's interesting.

I wonder what happened to that person.

And then you're clicking on other related links and pretty soon you're back to, oh my gosh, I have one item.

I better go get two or three more to fill this.

Greg Bach

It's a lot of telling about the history of the base player from Three Dog Night.

Well, it all started.

Pat Kreitlow

That's right where we are.

But you guys handled it.

Just so wonderfully.

Thank you again, Kristen.

Have a good week and stay warm up there.

Kristin Lyerly

I'll do my best.

Pat Kreitlow

As best you

Kristin Lyerly

can.

Pat Kreitlow

Thanks guys.

All right.

We'll see you later.

Coming up next, we will talk a bit more about President's Day and its connection to Wisconsin.

I'm Pac Wright.

Lowen, you're up north.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

Pat Kreitlow

There there is a reason for picking this particular song not just because it was in today's history lesson from the Eagles album their greatest hits 1971 and 1975 released this day in 1976 But we're picking already gone Because in some ways I already am I was gone all of last week and I'm gonna be gone for a big chunk of next week through a weird

coincidence, uh, you would not normally plan it like this, but the, the vacation from last week, the personal vacation was planned months and months ago.

And then the business trip that was planned for next week was, uh, came up only a couple of weeks back and I'm like, Oh, that should go over really well at the radio station.

So, so yeah, good chunk of next week, I will be away for a courier newsroom, uh, uh, company retreat type thing.

And so.

Part of my to-do list for this week while I'm here with you is to line up guest hosts for next week because Dr. Lierly will not be available next week.

So we'll have to, well, we're taking your recommendations on who you would like to have as potential guest hosts.

And I know that Tony up in Ashland has put a few notes down of people who were great guests last week, and maybe they would be some good guests hosts.

Greg Bach

I'm going to put a request in for Beyonce.

Pat Kreitlow

Okay.

Yeah.

I'll put, I'll work on that one.

Yeah.

It's just going to sip your tea there.

Are you?

Uh, so yeah, well, we would love to know who, uh, if, if you could hear somebody just as a guest host for like a day, who would that be?

And Hey, we'll ask, you know, you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take.

True.

So that's coming up after that.

And then hopefully things are kind of back to normal again for a little while around.

Fingers crossed.

Fingers, you know, you just, you never know.

Greg Bach

You never know.

Pat Kreitlow

You never

Greg Bach

know.

Pat Kreitlow

On this President's Day, I noted an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from a year ago talking about President's Day and the connections of presidents to Wisconsin.

And the one that I remember the most is that for a summer, President Calvin Coolidge actually moved the summer White House to Douglas County.

to Superior and to Brule because he loved to go fishing on the Brule River and he set up camp at the Cedar Island Lodge and he wasn't the only one.

Others who had fished there included Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, Dwight Eisenhower.

I mean, this used to be like a presidential playground.

We could do that again.

Greg Bach

I don't see why we could I mean maybe not maybe maybe like three years or oh Yeah, that's assuming

Pat Kreitlow

we have presidents in the future Yes, if that's the case we we could we could bring them back there And that's another thing I wanted to ask folks about was you know if if a if a summer White House were to be here again You know, where would you say this is a place that could be?

a summer White House for folks.

I know back when the old, you know, telemarked Lodge existed up in cable.

I'm sure some folks might have suggested that.

I definitely would throw out, you know, Bayfield.

Greg Bach

I was going to say that.

Oh, you say it.

Go ahead.

Oh, no, I mean, that's mind-mell, baby.

I was going to say Ashlyn, Bayfield, like Northern Wisconsin area.

Maybe like, like you can even take, take, like, or like, take like a day trip to Minnesota or, you know, I think Northern Wisconsin in the summer would be a beautiful place to have.

Um, just, I mean,

President or not, just have a nice little spot to go to.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh, and without a doubt.

Uh, let's see, there was, uh, now Dwight Eisenhower wasn't president yet, but he was still the army chief of staff in 1946 when he did a fishing vacation at Moody's resort on big lake in Vilas County, just north of, uh, Boulder Junction.

And he liked it so much that he came back many times after that.

And then others, uh, they, there were, the article just talks about other noteworthy.

presidential visits.

Uh, for example, do you remember the old name of Lambeau Field?

Greg Bach

Uh, no, I haven't.

Sydney Stadium.

Sydney

Pat Kreitlow

Stadium?

It was City State.

Greg Bach

It was

Pat Kreitlow

Green Bay's City Stadium.

Yeah.

And among the dignitaries on hand to dedicate the new city stadium in September of 1957 was then Vice President Richard Nixon.

Oh,

Greg Bach

so

Pat Kreitlow

Nixon helped dedicate city stadium, which then a couple of years later was renamed to Lambeau Field.

Greg Bach

I bet you it wasn't awkward at all when he was here.

I don't know what's going on.

Pat Kreitlow

There were plenty of presidents, of course, who visited for other reasons, like, you know, Gerald Ford made about 30 trips to Wisconsin before and after succeeding Nixon as president.

He had a famous luncheon in April, 1976 at Mayors.

which I mean, there's, when I, when I worked at a, at a, at a role for a billboard company in Milwaukee and I would have to pick up these national advertising reps from the airport and I'd have to drive them around and show them all of their billboards all over Milwaukee and then take them wherever they wanted to go for lunch and the company would pay for it of course.

And Maders at that time, this would be the, you know, around 1990, 1991 Maders was far and away the number one request where people wanted to go when they came in from out of town.

Greg Bach

I just think of the idea of like Gerald Ford having a nice big luncheon maters and then they'll be like followed immediately by a nice nap.

You could do that because the German food, it's a it's a heavy food.

Pat Kreitlow

It is.

And a nap is actually what John F. Kennedy was noted for.

He got so worn out from his 1960 primary battle with Hubert Humphrey that when he visited the newsroom of the Journal Sentinel at their old place on 4th and State, he took a little nap on a bench.

at the Journal Sentinel.

He was so tuckered out from campaign, which I'm also betting had something to do with his chronically bad back.

Kathryn Lake

Probably

Pat Kreitlow

needed that as well.

But then there is this infamous photo of then Vice President George H. W. Bush bowling at Serb Hall in Milwaukee and tripping.

Oh, it turns out that he had been given bowling shoes that were meant to be worn by a right-hander.

He's a lefty and went to let go of the ball and the photos of him basically flying through the air before he fell on the lane.

He was given what?

He was given shoes meant to be worn by a right-handed bowler and he's a lefty.

I know right.

Are you not thinking of Eugene Levy and best of show, best

Greg Bach

in show right now

Pat Kreitlow

where he says I've got two left feet and he looked down and he literally has two left feet.

Greg Bach

I've never heard that

Pat Kreitlow

in

Greg Bach

my

Pat Kreitlow

life.

Left handed shoes.

That is

Greg Bach

not a

Pat Kreitlow

thing that exists.

So you're telling me that the, the, the, the wanted Milwaukee journal Sentinel was lied to

Greg Bach

somebody

Pat Kreitlow

have a little fun with them.

Greg Bach

Oh, okay.

I see.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I was, it was bowling.

I was taking it way too seriously.

Pat Kreitlow

Ah, okay.

Okay.

Uh, let's see.

There was, uh, also George W. Bush pitching for the brewers in Milwaukee, uh, in April of 2001 at the brewers brand new stadium.

Yeah.

And, uh, and W could actually, he could throw

Greg Bach

a base throw.

Yeah.

He, for all, yeah.

He had, he had an arm and bringing that, bringing that fire to County stadium too.

Thank you.

Pat Kreitlow

And then, of course, former President Barack Obama made Milwaukee's labor fest

Greg Bach

a

Pat Kreitlow

regular throughout the years.

But more importantly, presidential vacations.

We need more of them in the future.

Greg Bach

Here in Wisconsin,

Pat Kreitlow

I guess, stressing the future.

Get them up north.

Jennifer Scholes, he's next.

You're up north.

said Sheeran's birthday today.

You can catch our history lesson every morning at 6 50 here on Up North News Radio.

A reminder as well that you can sign up for our daily newsletter.

Head to upnorthnewswi.com.

Click subscribe.

in the banner on the top of our home page we took today off it being president's day but we'll pick up again tomorrow morning so get signed up for our daily newsletter at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Looking at some of the comments from the mail bag that came in here let's see from Tom and Jackson.

He suggests Land O'Lakes as a potential vacation spot for a future summer White House, the gateway to the north, he calls it.

He also asked the question, how many presidents were lefties?

As we talked about George H. W. Bush being a lefty here, and now of course this is on Wikipedia, so it's on the internet, so it must be true, right?

The seven that they know of were James Garfield,

Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama all being left-handed.

Also in the mailbag comments from one of the Facebook pages, you can catch us on the Up North News Facebook page, the Civic Media Facebook page, and Ron says something, I won't leave the U.S.

anymore.

Staying in the great U.S., it's about time we are digging into all this corruption.

which is going to get me into a future monologue that I'm going to share about travel and what a much better place this country would be if more people got out of the country or frankly got out of their zip code and just traveled more.

And the more you learn about other people, other places, other circumstances, the better off you're going to be and the better off your worldview is going to be.

Randy responds on Facebook to that saying

You don't hire the most corrupt to look into corruptions.

You think Elon is looking into the billions that he gets and giving an unelected person power to shut down things and fire people at random is insanity.

Well, it has been a rather insane week and Jennifer Schulze, Chicago journalist, has some thoughts about that in her new column on Substack entitled Democrats Should Fight Back with an Aggressive Fact-Based Counter-Narrative Every Single Day and there is precedent for that and why every day?

Because Jennifer every day brings a new bit of is this really happening?

Jennifer, good morning.

How are you?

Good morning, Pat.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm cold here and in freezing Chicago.

But otherwise, I'm good.

Pat Kreitlow

It's what makes us such hardy midwesterners, right?

We can handle it, right?

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

Look, as journalists, we try not to be too reliant on cliches.

And every so often, we just we got we got to it's like we are hardy midwesterners.

That's

that suffering breeds character.

That's

Kathryn Lake

all we've got to do.

I've been told.

Pat Kreitlow

Yes.

But while we're being trapped indoors, you know, some of us are getting caught up with our writing, our reading and things like that, which leads to this column and you can catch it on Substack.

Go over to substack.com slash at news Jennifer and her newsletter is called Indistinct Chatter and it caught my eye because of the whole notion of daily briefings.

I have been seeing

All of this press coverage about how Donald Trump and Elon Musk are winning the information war And Democrats don't have any response to it.

Well, there's a lot behind that obviously the power of the presidency the power of chaos And also the fact that there is no single Democrat, you know, but that that was the same in the minority party as well in other words Jennifer I think in some ways people are missing the obvious but

You know, there there are ways that Democrats could be a bit more unified and consistent in their messaging is the case you're making.

Yes, because of the problems you just described, Pat, where Donald Trump's in the White House, he has the biggest megaphone in the world.

Elon Musk has an equally large megaphone with Twitter.

And.

the fact that there is no shared information space anymore.

People are pigeonholed in their own areas.

And we don't have a shared conversation about anything, really.

But because of that, somebody needs to break through.

And I think the Democratic Party as an organization is in the perfect position to lead on this by every day.

Sitting in front standing in front of a microphone and saying here's what happened today Here's what you need to know about that.

Here's these are the facts about that This is how people are impacted shared all kinds of information And do that every day because it's not enough to have little blips of things happening here and there.

I know you

you take a look at social media from time to time like I do and you'll see people saying why aren't the Democrats doing this or I haven't seen any stories on this and I well Democrats are talking about it and yes there are stories about it but it's hard to you don't see all of it because it's coming in different places I think if there was a 10 o'clock in the morning every day briefing that we could rely on and

There was some consistency to it every day, even on weekends.

I think it would be really valuable in setting an important counter narrative.

I mean, just think back to COVID.

I was glued to Andrew Cuomo's morning COVID briefings.

And then our governor started doing it.

Yours probably did too.

And it was a way to get information every day in a reliable, fact-based way.

I think we need to go back to that.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, and that's the thing is that there is precedent for this in COVID because you had a sitting president just going on these rambling, you know, ad nauseam.

talking about injecting bleach and putting light into the body and and hyping you know horse dewormer and all of these things so it's no wonder that certain people filled the gap sometimes daily sometimes like you know Governor Tony Evers here maybe not daily but but on an as needed basis so there is this this way of having you know a fact-based

daily message that's put out there.

But it does lead to this.

And that would be essentially, how does that happen?

Tony writes on YouTube, Democrats, well known for their message discipline.

Guilty Tony, absolutely.

And it's, you know, says who I did hear, you know, for example, people said, Oh, Pete Buttigieg would be great, you know, being up there every day explaining things.

But

Who makes that call?

Is it Ken Martin, the new DNC chair?

Is it Hakim Jeffries, the House Democratic leader that you put in Chuck Schumer in charge of something like this?

Or is it quite organic and maybe it's multiple Democrats, but somebody emerges as kind of the natural leader of this effort?

I think, first of all, the

party organization and whoever that encompasses has to agree that it's necessary.

And think of it almost like a White House press briefing, except you're telling the truth.

And either you have a moderator and rotating guests or you have different people every day.

But what you do is you have a consistent time and place so people know that they can count on it.

And that's what happened during COVID.

Every day, roughly around four o'clock Eastern time, the White House would have its COVID task force briefing, and it would devolve into Trump, you know, telling us to, you know, drink bleach.

And it would go on for sometimes, you know, upwards of two hours.

What people were then soon able to rely on was a counter narrative happening every day as well earlier in the day.

usually like again Cuomo's things were in the morning and Trump was then started responding to things that Cuomo would say.

But millions of people across the country tuned into these Cuomo briefings because they knew while surely there were some politics and things going on there with him, but he was telling people basic information in a pretty straightforward way.

I think people like that.

I think we need that and we need to be able to count on something regular so that we're not well why isn't anybody talking about that or I didn't see that or is the news covering this.

That would I think help calm down some people and people are also angry they feel like there isn't a collective or shared response so it would address that as well.

Pat Kreitlow

The other thing that works in favor of this proposal, and some people might not like to hear this, but we are in a state of permanent campaigning.

And I recall it wasn't a week after Joe Biden was inaugurated that Donald Trump filed the papers to form a campaign committee.

So I mean, he was running for president officially, essentially, since like day one or week one of the Biden presidency.

that is the world we live in now

Kathryn Lake

is that

Pat Kreitlow

there there is a permanent campaign and so if it's a permanent campaign why wouldn't you want this this democratic campaign to have some kind of a daily messaging opportunity which is not to say that you know it would something from it would run every night on nightly news or you know that cnn would pick it up every day

But there would most certainly be days where, you know, they would need to counter something wild and outrageous that Trump or one of his, his minions said or did as, as long as Jennifer, I hope that if something like this were to come to pass, Democrats would need to do one other thing that I hear from people all the time.

And that is to not just be reacting to what Trump is saying, but to be.

proactive and to say, well, here's what should be done in its place and then bring it home to people.

I mean, if it's national, you're not going to talk about a Wisconsin family every time, but I'd like to have something like that be

localized in whatever way possible that given day.

And if they do, that's great.

Tom and Jackson writes in a great idea.

Let's do it.

Rotate it first, see who does it best.

Also have experts fill in the information.

So as you can see, there's already ideas on how you, how you would take your idea and execute

it.

I think that all of that is smart.

People

One thing we've learned from this, we've learned a lot of things.

One thing we've learned is people don't know what their government does.

So part of it has to be informative.

You may not know what the Consumer Protection Bureau does.

And here's why it's a bad thing that's gone away.

These are the people that were doing these jobs.

And this is how so and so in Wisconsin was utilizing that to stop a bank from overcharging her.

Just help.

people understand what the government does or was doing, how these changes are impacting very real people, not just the people losing their jobs, but the people that were relying on the services or the farmers that aren't getting the loan or the...

participating in the programs they thought that they had signed up for.

There's so many real life impacts right now that are just starting to bubble to the surface, share those stories, tell people how to counteract this, how to get information about how to join protests or different things.

There's just so much information out there.

If we could put it or wrap it all in a nice little package every day and talk about it, I think it would be really meaningful.

And I think it would be helpful to a lot of Americans.

People are, I think, rightly frightened.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, because they, again, thought they believed the politicians who said, oh, there's so much waste, fraud, and abuse.

And look, there always will be a degree of waste, fraud, or abuse in anything that involves human beings.

But here's the thing, the waste, as I've told people, you know, for years and years, you

You're the waste that Elon Musk is talking about.

He doesn't think that his tax cut is waste.

He thinks that the, you know, the support check that a farmer is getting is waste.

He thinks that, you know, hurricane relief is a waste.

He thinks that, you know, the money the NIH is spending to look for the next pandemic is waste.

You're the waste they're talking about.

And as much as people tried to warn voters about Project 2025 and to say this would get cut,

And here's how this would impact you.

The fact of the matter is, as I know from our Friday conversations with you and Mark Jacob, is that the the main national media outlets did a terrible job of localizing and showing the personal impact of the things that Trump was talking about cutting.

Yes, absolutely.

In fact, I mean, talking about Project 2025, they even fell for the, you know, his campaign spin that we're not going to do that.

This government is Project 2025.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, on on on steroid, more so than we even thought it could conceivably be.

And so

people, yeah, people need to understand why do they want to get rid of the bank examiners?

Pat Kreitlow

Why do

they want to cut 10,000 people at the IRS?

Pat Kreitlow

And that they

want, you know, take they want to take all the

Pat Kreitlow

that's going to matter.

That's going to matter more than, you know, what we name the Gulf of Mexico.

Jennifer Scholze had the substack and reader writing there.

And we'll see her on Friday as well.

Thanks, Jennifer.

We'll be back to wrap things up with Jane McNair next you're up north

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to civic media find the latest news information and archives of all your favorite shows on the civic media website civic media dot US

Pat Kreitlow

Now we've played enough of that song for me to ask, who's Sergio?

What's that about?

Greg Bach

Don't read the lyrics of this song.

Pat Kreitlow

Don't read the lyrics.

The important part is Jane Sebs, and that stands for Jane Mattenair, who is standing right behind Greg Bach in her usual Monday morning position to tell us what's coming up.

Good morning, Mr. Kratlow.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Did you enjoy your time away?

I enjoyed it so very much.

How many times Sherry or I would be the first one to say, how nice is this?

Isn't this great, honey?

It's so great.

It's great.

We just needed that.

Yeah.

And look, there are plenty of other people who travel, you know, at

families but there's also plenty of people who travel as groups groups of friends or siblings you know there was like there was like a dozen women there celebrating one of their 60th birthdays.

Fun!

Which was very fun except on Friday when we're like how do these dozen women you know they're all here on Valentine's Day and you know I'm not passing judgment I'm just I'm not saying all 12 are single or all 12 are married but I'm thinking there's you know a husband or two over there going

That's Valentine's Day and she's down there with the girls.

That's so sweet of you, Pat, because I think the Hunts Brins are saying, thank God that's off my plate.

Oh my God, she's overseas.

I don't have to worry about it.

Yay.

And

Greg Bach

somewhere I'm in the bill going, well, this year is their year to go out and do something.

And next year, me and the boys go out and do something.

Next year, it's fine.

We can, you know, we're fine.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh look, as long as you communicate all that, that is just fine.

I don't have an issue with that.

I do have an issue with travel website comment sections where for this particular resort, like everything we do, I go over to TripAdvisor and other places and I read through the comments and I know to take them with a grain of salt.

I went back and looked, and I go back like a month, maybe two months tops to look just to get the feel for where I'm going.

I went back and looked yesterday at some of those same comments, and it's clear that some of these folks, I mean, it's not that, look, no place is perfect.

Everybody has an off day, you know, whatever, but some folks really need to take a deep breath before they write these things.

Or it's a rival resort.

Yes, or it's a plant.

Absolutely.

I can totally see that happening.

Greg Bach

Well, one thing, when I look at the comments, I always like to see if they look legit and it's a serious complaint, I like to see if the business responds back and what they say to them.

And a lot of times if they're worth their salt, they're gonna say, we're sorry it happened.

What can we do to make this better?

What can we offer you and take care and make this right?

And that, to me, is very, very important.

By the way, Pads,

to change subjects,

Rapidly before I was listening on the way in as you guys were talking about president's day and a place for the summer residence of the president in northern Wisconsin.

I have got the answer for you.

Oh, yes.

Balsam Lake Lodge just north of Amory.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh, yes.

I mean, look, nobody enjoyed their trip to Amory more than Jane Mack.

It was

fantastic.

Pat Kreitlow

Yes.

It was the, how did you keep calling it?

The best place you'd

never been.

My favorite place I've never been.

Your favorite place you'd never been.

And now

Pat Kreitlow

I

have been and it was wonderful.

And when Todd and I did our tour of Wisconsin last year, we ended up having dinner a couple of times at the Balsam Lake Lodge, which was just real close to where we were staying outside of Amory.

It is so beautiful with the loons on the lake and there's the Vista and that's, that's the place.

Would you

Pat Kreitlow

say

it

Greg Bach

was

quaint?

I would say it was.

Quaintly spectacular.

There it is.

Pat Kreitlow

Quaint.

Oh, Quaintly spectacular.

Yes.

See, that's what you put in the comment section of these sites.

You go to it and you say it that way.

Exactly.

Pat Kreitlow

What do

you got coming up on the show this week?

Today, we are going to talk to the wonderful and indefatigable Lou Ann Bird.

You cannot keep that

Pat Kreitlow

woman

down.

You

Pat Kreitlow

can't.

And then we're gonna have, I'm now questioning myself for saying it indefatigable all of these years.

We're now going, okay, Jane and I have learned big words, but now I gotta figure out what I've been doing wrong all of this time.

But you know what I

mean?

Luanne is eternally optimistic.

She doesn't give up.

She

Pat Kreitlow

ran

two great campaigns.

She did not win.

That's not stopping her.

And she is continuing to organize and get out there.

And so we're gonna talk to Luanne today to find out.

I know a lot of people are frustrated.

I know a lot of people are exhausted.

I know a lot of people are worried.

We need to channel that instead

Pat Kreitlow

of

just sitting home in a dark room drinking.

the other person.

Pat Kreitlow

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Yes, there is.

But I do it anyway.

Anyway, Lou Ann Bird and Kristen Lyrely, again, both having run a couple of unsuccessful campaigns and yet you cannot bring them down.

I mean, I very much metaphorically want to cut them open and count the rings inside.

What these rings, which one of them is the happy ring that lets them

be just so positive so often.

And how do I get a dose of that?

Because, I mean, people understand, if you haven't heard from Luan yet, you'll just be like, how do we get more people like her all the time in our lives?

Exactly.

So Luan is going to be joining us today.

Tomorrow we have representative Mark Pocan is going to be on the show.

I don't know.

There's a couple of things going on in Washington I've heard.

Pat Kreitlow

But he too, and we mentioned this with his last visit to us, is when you talk about daily messaging, that's a guy who he's trying to get into the habit of a weekly wrap-up of messaging.

And again, it's very plain English, very easy to understand, and we need more of that from Mark Bocan and others.

I wish they could do it daily.

because that's the speed with which things are happening.

Gosh, good heavens, he could do a three times a day update and probably still not run out of material, unfortunately.

Pat Kreitlow

We do have that kind of a daily message from a trusted source.

It's Jane McNair and you catch her every morning, 10 to noon along with one Greg Bach here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Thank you so much, Jane.

It's been a pleasure.

Welcome back.

Good to have you back for, I don't know, a whole week.

Pat Kreitlow

a whole week.

Then I go away again for a bit.

It's my cross to bear.

There you go.

I'll manage.

You'll be okay.

I'll be okay.

I will.

All right.

Thank you guys very much.

So Greg will be back at 10 o'clock along with Matt Naranair.

Thanks to Kristen Lierly and Jennifer Scholesy for being part of today's show and thanks to you for being here as well.

Up North News is part of Courier, a pro-democracy news network building a more informed, engaged, and representative of America.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

Have a great day.

We'll see you tomorrow morning.

Up

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Kathryn Lake

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