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, Pat Breitlo.
Thank you, Don Rue.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio.
Unabashedly, Wisconsin, brought to you by Courier Newsroom, carried by our friends on the Civic Media Radio Network at 7.06 on this Tuesday morning, March 4th, 2025.
Nice to have you along.
A couple of guests coming up in this hour, coming up in about 15 minutes.
We'll hear from filmmaker, Mary Mazio, whose documentary about the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, taking on Enbridge and an aging oil pipeline.
That documentary continues to get screenings around the country, including a couple of this week up north, and so Mary will give us an update.
And then we'll talk to our friend, Luann Bird, coming up at the bottom of the hour.
former legislative candidate.
She remains active in her community, especially now as a voice against the punishing, damaging, harmful budget cuts.
being made to veterans health care in Wisconsin and around the country.
So we will talk to Lou Ann all about that coming up in just a bit.
Another reminder that Up North News is having its first ever live event.
That'll be in Madison next week, Wednesday the 12th.
From 5.30 to 7.00 at the Overture Center in Madison, it will be a panel discussion about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
There will be three different panels with experts, many of them guests on the show here talking about reproductive rights, talking about education, talking about jobs and the economy.
in the way this state Supreme Court could have an impact positive or negative, depending on the outcome of the April 1st election.
It will wrap up at seven o'clock, just in time to become a watch party for the Supreme Court candidate debate.
To learn more, head to UpNorthNewsWI.com slash Supreme Register for Tickets.
They are free, and we'll provide a live stream option as we get a little bit closer here as well.
But the thing that's getting closer
right now is
weather like
serious what like wet heavy weather and Brittany Merleau is here to tell us just how wet how heavy how bad how windy how
Icky.
And then how quickly it's all going to melt so it doesn't, it doesn't matter anyway, right?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Well, it'll, it'll matter a lot for the next, what, 36 hours.
So pretty much, pretty much.
We've got a mess headed our way.
Um, the good news is the best news is that it's hitting the Northwoods mainly.
It's staying away from the big cities, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, even you're going to miss most of this.
So this is hitting into the Northwoods.
We are looking at Blizzard warnings into.
right near La Crosse where winds could reach up to 55 miles per hour as the system hits.
We've got winter storm warnings all the way north of La Crosse over towards Medford in towards the Rhinelander area and all the way north to Lake Superior.
And we've also got winter weather advisories out as well.
So what's going to be happening here is this morning, we're already seeing the moisture start to move in.
It's very, very light rain moving across the state on and off on occasion.
But the bad news is, is temperatures are already below freezing into places like Antigo and Superior and also towards Ashland too.
So be careful out there for some freezing rain, slick and slippery spots, but everywhere else is above freezing across the state.
We're in the mid to upper thirties to low forties right now.
We are looking at a bunch of fog, though, in towards central Wisconsin, spotty light rain still moving through.
And what's going to happen is by we go as we go into this afternoon and evening, that rain is going to start to ramp up.
become widespread by tonight and really downpour into the overnight hours.
And this is also when it's going to start to flip over to the snow.
Now, what it's going to do is could be sleet and freezing rain before it's all snow.
So a layer of ice is definitely possible underneath this accumulating snow.
And we're going to start to see this happen around noon into Lake Superior, South Shore areas, Ashland.
It'll become more widespread starting to mix in towards Hayward, maybe the Eau Claire area around seven to eight o'clock tonight.
Park Falls, Rhinelander around 10 p.m.
And then overnight, 2 a.m.
or so, Wausau, La Crosse, and then 9 a.m.
tomorrow morning, that's what pretty much the whole state is going to see some snowfall, even in towards the Fox Valley, even towards Minneapolis, I'm sorry, Milwaukee and Madison.
And that will be kind of later on in the day.
So it's not too much of an accumulation there.
Really, the cities are just looking at less than an inch of snow.
Well, into the winter weather advisories, you're looking at about good three to five inches of snow.
And if you're in the winter storm morning, you're looking at over a half a foot to nearly a foot of snow into some spots.
And I do think the hardest hit area is going to be the
clear Chippewa Valley.
Oh great.
But but but then I mean it's not like it's gonna hang around till Memorial Day or anything
like that.
No.
We've got
we've got the warmer temperatures yet.
Yes,
we still do.
We climb right back above freezing.
This is going to start to melt away.
The sun comes out on Thursday, Friday, and even into the weekend as well.
So it's not going to be a big, crazy, long lasting sticking around snow, but it is going to be hard to clear because it's going to have that ice.
It's going to be heavy and wet, slushy and sloppy.
So shovel and shifts, take your time.
Be careful out there.
Again, please be careful out there.
This is one of the last ones.
It's wet.
It's heavy.
I have in the past.
thrown out my back on the last wet heavy snowstorm of the year.
Other people, it could be an issue from a cardiac standpoint.
be careful out there.
From Rob, good morning from Tigerton.
Rain in 33 degrees, two tenths of an inch of rain overnight.
The weight limits go up Monday morning, March 10th on Moschano County roads.
That is a sign of spring.
I got the same thing here in the town of Eagle Point for Chippewa County.
You got your seasonal road limits that are coming up.
And then Rob passes along a little news here.
that Bill Jartz, news anchor at Channel 2 in Green Bay, is retiring from WBAY after 42 years, started out as a sports anchor in 1983, became a news anchor in 1998, also the public address announcer at Lambeau Field for Packer Games.
He was a sportscaster for Channel 7 in Warsaw, born and raised in Clintonville.
So congratulations to Bill Jartz for a wonderful career.
He also, Rob, notes it's starting to get a little foggy there.
in Tigerton, which is not unexpected given what we've got out there.
So,
Rob, you be.
I forgot to mention too, so much rain.
We're gonna see some flooding and some of those rivers could start to break up that ice and ice jams are definitely possible.
We're looking at one to two inches of rain.
So much to pay attention to and Brittany, thank you for doing that for us.
We'll talk to you later.
Have a good day.
Have a wonderful day.
Remember, you can sign up for our Up North News daily newsletter.
Head over to upnorthnewswi.com.
Fun story in there this morning.
because it is Fat Tuesday and so for a lot of bakeries around the Badger State, this is their top selling day of the year with, for example, the bakers at O&H and the Racine area.
They're making up to 30,000 punch keys today.
that are going to be consumed.
A wonderful delicacy, a kind of a Richard Doe filled with fruit or custard or jelly, maybe topped with icing or some powdered sugar or granulated sugar and just a nice indulgence for folks who celebrate the season of Lent that will get started tomorrow.
So Christina puts in a number of places where you can get punch keys today in our newsletter.
Again, sign up for it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
You can also get our weekend edition, our Sunday morning politics newsletter with its question of the week and the...
responses are continuing to pour in about what to do about the Trump Elon Musk budget cuts, the wrecking ball that's been taken to government services.
And again, a variety of responses on that that you'll be able to read about in the newsletter next Sunday.
Coming up across the civic media radio network today, let's see Todd Alba is previewing President Trump's address to Congress tonight.
He also has this afternoon.
What's worse, a Taco Tuesday edition and his Tuesday tangents with Luke Mathers at 1230.
On the Maggie Dawn show this afternoon, Dan Schaefer comes in for a visit.
So does Megan Rowe from Opportunity Wisconsin talking about what the tax vote will mean.
in the first and third congressional districts.
Also a visit with Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley, that's all with Maggie Dawn today.
And then on the Dom Salvia show, Professor Harvey Kay is guest hosting.
And tonight on the Pete Schwab program, Night Light, Appleton based stand up comic, John Egan and filmmaker, Craig Knitt.
And then finally, Matt Nair on air, coming up from 10 to noon today, includes it says here, Mr. Bach won Allison Madison, Wisconsin Salt
reducing and managing salt pollution in Wisconsin's waterways.
Not only that, but at 1030, we've got the one, the only PJ Krightlow.
Oh, I know him.
Yeah.
That's a good get.
Good get.
Very good.
Hard to get to.
I had to go through four managers and all
of them were the wrong call I found out.
I know it's tough.
You really can't afford this guy.
But somehow you managed to land him anyway.
So
we're just lucky to have him.
I'll prattle on with Jane coming up at 10 30 this morning.
Talk about punch keys.
Oh, yes.
I mean, I gotta find if I can get somewhere on the Chippewa Valley.
I honestly don't know.
How far are you from Norske's Nook?
That's far, isn't that?
Well, I mean, down to Osio or up to Rice Lake.
Yeah,
couple of good locations there.
You're you're right.
I should check into this.
Yeah.
I have some thoughts.
Okay, good.
In our next segment, we're going to be talking to Mary Mazio, filmmaker about the Enbridge Line 5 construction, a pipeline going through northern Wisconsin.
And I have a note here, a press release from Midwest Environmental Advocates that says on Friday,
and administrative law judge issued an order extending a hold on construction of line five while illegal challenges brought by Midwest environmental advocates and its partner organizations.
Midwest environmental advocates is challenging state
permits and other regulatory approval for Enbridge's controversial plan to build a new 40 mile segment of its Line 5 oil pipeline near the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin by way of background if you're not following the story closely.
Now again the Bad River itself flows into Lake Superior and right there on the watershed just east of Ashland is the Bad River Tribal Community and
Many decades ago, Enbridge put an oil pipeline through the reservation.
The easements for that have since expired.
And so the company is not exactly there legally and is now looking to build a new pipeline.
They know that the Bad River community won't let them go through the reservation anymore.
And so they're planning to go around it.
But it still takes this pipeline, an oil pipeline, through this sensitive watershed where Enbridge pipelines
have ruptured before, not in the Bad River, but in other places like Michigan, where it's wreaked havoc on the environment.
And so the Bad River, Midwest Environmental Advocates and others.
are challenging the construction of this pipeline.
And so part of that struggle has been captured by filmmaker, Mary Mazio, in a documentary called Bad River.
And we'll talk to her a bit about some of the firepower behind that documentary, the folks who've been promoting it, and how all these months later, there is still demand for screenings, including a couple of screenings up north this week and screenings in other states.
So we're going to hear all about that.
And then at the bottom of the hour, we'll talk to Luan Bird more about the wrecking ball.
that's being taken to federal programs and its impact on the health care for Wisconsin veterans.
That Chad Holmes and so much more still ahead here on this hour of Up North News Radio.
Live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network, follow what we do over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We'll be back in just a bit.
Thursday evening in Superior, the high school is hosting a screening of the documentary Bad River being sponsored by the school district's Indigenous Family Engagement Coordinator and the American Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee.
The film hits on themes of heritage, community and the environment as the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa fight to get an old but still operating oil pipeline removed from their land.
Even as Enbridge tries to put a new line outside the reservation, but still in a position to cause an environmental catastrophe where the Bad River empties into Lake Superior, a little east of Ashland.
Filmmaker Mary Masio's project can be streamed on Peacock.
It'll also be screened on Tuesday night at Nicolet College in Rhinelander.
We talked to her extensively about the film last year when it first came out.
And Mary Mazio joins us now.
Mary, hello.
How are you?
Pat, nice to see you.
Nice to hear you.
Yeah, nice to talk to you again as well.
Well, since we lost connected.
I know.
And at that time you put together this documentary.
It received all kinds of great reviews, was in theaters a little longer than maybe originally expected.
And since that time, it has certainly not
gone away with more screenings this week in Wisconsin, but I also see on the website for badriverfilm.com, screenings coming up yet in Tennessee, in Maine, in Oakland, California.
What has the ongoing response been like and how are you dealing with it?
You know what?
Thank you for that question.
And honestly, I think the story of the Bad River Band and their resilience and commitment has been transcendent.
Just a couple months ago, the film was nominated for three critic choice awards, right?
So you, you know, as you might remember, we had Jason Momoa and Leonardo DiCaprio and Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo, right?
All putting our trailer on their insta feed.
And this has just served to really, I think, raise awareness of this fight and battle that the band is waging to protect Lake Superior.
In a way that I think so many people may not have been aware of, this, the Bad River, as you know, had filed a case,
um over an aging pipeline now at risk of rupture of course um that had um the terms of the pipeline's ability to operate had expired so they're illegally on bad river land at this point in time um and the case has the case which was um decided um by a federal court judge in wisconsin
Enbridge, the pipeline operator, you must vacate by 2026, which, by the way, is next year.
He had given them three years, right?
He made that finding in 2023.
The case was appealed up until the 7th Circuit.
And you might remember, I think you and I were talking about the time that that happened.
A decision now more than a year later has not yet been issued.
So I think everyone is on pins and needles.
as to whether the 7th Circuit in Chicago will uphold the lower court ruling that Enbridge must vacate the premises.
So that's the state of the state.
Enbridge, of course, has pursued a reroute alternative, and they are in the middle of getting that permitted.
So that is what's happening.
Well, and don't forget the big change since we last spoke, and that is an election.
and the impact of that.
And I'm wondering, again, while this is an active case in court, but now with Donald Trump in the White House rather than Joe Biden, what that may have done, not so much to the attorneys, they're going to continue pursuing the case, but to members of the Bad River, any advocates of this, if they see that as an ominous sign for a pipeline that will or won't be relocated or stopped anytime soon.
You know, I think it depends upon how the administration, the new administration, may view this.
I mean, at the end of the day, this is a group of Americans fighting for an American resource to protect future generations of American citizens.
And effectively, it is over a pipeline, a Canadian pipeline,
that by and large just simply transports oil from western Canada to eastern Canada with some marginal benefit but almost no tangible real benefit to American consumers.
So here you have a group of Americans trying to protect America and there's something really interesting and resonant I think about that story and I think you and I talked about this before.
Mike Wiggins, the former chairman characterized this battle as one of patriotic duty and civic duty to this country that with increasing extreme weather that
Lake Superior, which is the largest freshwater by surface area, resource in the world will be drawn on by Americans from east to west.
And here you have this small band of native citizens fighting tooth and nail to protect that resource from a catastrophic spell.
We continue to receive incoming requests for
both private and public screenings.
So that that remains sort of an active piece of what we're doing as well.
And we're seeing many Bad River members that will travel with the film.
Bad River Elder Joe Bates is just back from a tour in Canada, where several communities hosted Bad River to apparently jammed audiences.
And so the film, I think it's not the film, it's the message of Bad River Elders.
continues to move forward in ways that I think doesn't matter whether you're on the left or the right.
Doesn't matter how you feel.
This is not a story about oil.
It is a story about a piece of infrastructure that serves another country that no longer has the right to operate.
And I think everyone can understand sort of that simple, elegant framing.
especially putting so much of our fresh water at risk.
Bad River is a nominee for Critics Choice Awards for Best Political Documentary, Best Narration,
best historical documentary.
It was the winner of the 2024 best documentary film by the Environmental Media Association.
And perhaps most notably for your baby book, it was the answer to a crossword puzzle 41 down.
So not to trivialize the impact of the movie, but you are definitely having an impact.
Well, thank you for that.
And I had no idea that
that our film was the answer to 41 Down in the New Yorker crossword puzzle until I just my phone blew up.
And I was like, wait, what?
And so part of me is really thrilled that the message and voices of Bad River Elders are sort of now in the cultural zeitgeist, if you will.
That's fantastic.
Mary Mazio is the director of Bad River.
You can learn more at badriverfilm.com.
Mary, thank you so much for the update.
It was great to chat with you again.
Oh, Pat, nice to see you again.
Thank you so much for the opportunity and I greatly appreciate it.
There are so many ways to look at the way that the new administration, the new regime has been approaching its own government and perhaps one that's most disturbing is the approach that it's taking toward our veterans and the health care that they need, the promise that this country made to them.
Whatever you think about past wars, past policies, whatever the case may be,
Everybody is in agreement of taking care of our veterans when they come home.
And that's a lifetime promise.
And yet it's a promise that is in peril because of recent cuts made by President Trump's partner, Elon Musk.
Luan Bird is instrumental in fighting that and calling out attention.
To all that all the damage that can be done here in Wisconsin including close to home for her Lou Ann Bird.
Good morning.
How are you?
Well, good morning.
I'm good.
Thank you.
It's great to be having coffee with you and all my friends out there.
Yes.
I mean, look, it's been, you know, it's been a hot minute since the election ended and you were running for a seat in the legislature and a lot of candidates when they're done, they, you know, simply move on to other things.
You were involved in the community before being a candidate.
You continued to be involved after that election cycle.
Well, that's right.
It never was totally just about an election for me, but I could see a downslide in our political world.
And I thought, I need to get in there and try and help make things better more in the partisan world than the non-partisan world.
So it was just a shift.
And yeah, so I'm not running.
I'm not in medicine, but it also frees me up to have a lot of time to work on issues like our veterans care, which is personal.
to me very personal because my husband was paralyzed 35 years ago and he was as a result of a ptsd related construction accident started in vietnam um back in 65 67 so the va has been taking care of us for 35 years and i um i'm still trying to find all the fraud that's happening at the va because in my world i'm not seeing it all i'm seeing is a shortage of staff
They
couldn't
even keep the whole spinal cord wing open here at the Milwaukee VA because they don't have enough nurses to do that.
So, yeah.
This is an area that was already
rife with labor shortages of all types, as we know about health care overall, rural health care, veterans health care, any kind of general practice health care, you name it, there's a shortage.
And so for, you know, Elon Musk and President Trump to, you know, take a wrecking ball to all federal spending in the name of
something.
So rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
I think Luanne, you and I would agree that either, even though neither one of us necessarily voted for President Trump, we know that a lot of people who did weren't probably not expecting this wrecking ball approach.
And we're expecting something more business minded, you know, more examination, you know, a scalpel rather than a meat ax.
Well, that's right.
And I am.
Yeah.
That's right.
And although I don't know, it's hard to say what people, what was, well, I shouldn't say that.
When I knocked on a lot of doors, I did hear a lot of things from a lot of people, what they cared about.
And in the end, this is what they chose for.
I do think there's a sentiment out there that, quote, government is too big and that there's a lot of fraud.
That's just because the Republicans messaged it that way.
And it's all in the name of as you can see by their behaviors right now in Congress It's in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy tax cuts So we're just going to cut taxes by taking away benefits to the veterans by taking away benefits to poor people the section 8 they're going after Medicaid right now and that's alarming people that are living in those low-income housing units that are very worried they're feeling like they are gonna
They feel like they're being buried alive, frankly.
We're all living under these nervous times about what are we going to wake up to tomorrow?
Who's going to be gone in our world, even at the VA hospital?
Who's going to be gone tomorrow?
I'm glad you mentioned Section 8 because it allows me to get on my soapbox for a moment here.
as somebody who benefited from Section 8 low income housing.
Being raised by a single mom, seven years old when my parents split up, a single mom with four kids, one of them disabled and who would later pass away at the age of nine.
And, you know, dad wasn't a wasn't any kind of a high income earner as well.
And so whether it was those food stamps or Section 8 housing that kept us from living out of a car,
It paved the way for my siblings and I to get an education to go to college.
to pay much more back in taxes than ever was handed to my mom and the rest of us through those housing vouchers that enabled us to keep a roof over our head.
And that's where I see this demonization of low-income people in Section 8 housing.
I'm not going to tell you there are no bad apples, but to paint with such a broad brush and to keep every one of those struggling families feeling like they're somehow less worthy, that they're somehow a waste of government money,
Luanne, you can see how that really sticks with me and I think sticks in the craw of a lot of families who are just trying to do their best.
That's right.
When it becomes personal and you've experienced it, that's why I like to tell my story.
That's why I really got on the bandwagon about the VA because I didn't think people knew what was going on there.
And it was good because I put my story out there.
I talked about
the doctors and the nurses I talked to getting the letter to to resign.
Let's be very clear.
You got to read the letter, folks.
You got to stay informed about this stuff because it's easy to sort of justify, oh, that's not really what it said, but it did.
It said it starts with these are the principles you got to live by now.
And we're asking you to, you know, you have the chance choice to resign.
Should you stay in your job?
There is no guarantee your job is going to be there in the future.
So that's what we are living under right now.
And when I heard that my doctors were experiencing that, that alarmed us.
Now, why I feel like my husband's already was, you know, put his life in danger for our country.
And then you turn around and now he's they're putting our day or his life in danger and it's Elon Musk.
doing it.
It's the danger the threat is from in our own country and the threat to people with disabilities is there right now, the threat to low-income housing people as we've talked about or people that are on Medicaid.
There's just threats everywhere right now and Pat I'm going to challenge you.
It's easy for us to say I'm sure there's fraud somewhere.
I don't agree with that statement at all.
I think that's just placating what they're trying to do because if there is fraud
We hear those stories they catch it.
So I'm not convinced that there's really any fraud I'm not it does happen, but we catch it
So there aren't, quote, bad apples out there.
There's people that try things and they get caught because the system is set up to do that, right,
Pat?
Yes.
And unfortunately, the people who aren't getting caught and especially more so now with this new administration are the people who are skipping out on paying their taxes, for example, who are fabulously wealthy or who are getting massive tax handouts.
Tesla, for example, Elon Musk's company.
Elon Musk has estimated he and his companies make something like $7 million a day in taxpayer handouts for their companies.
If we're going to be looking at waste or fraud or abuse, getting at somebody who may or may not be double dipping with a modest
benefit check versus somebody who's skipping out on millions of dollars owed for the ability to make a profit in this economy with the freedoms and the infrastructure we provide.
This is a no brainer for me, similar as it is for you.
So I'm glad to hear you call it out, you know, quite that way.
Right, we have to
We can't buy the the lies that are being told to us and we have to stand firm on It's personal for you.
You tell your story.
It's personal for me I tell my story and then we get out there and we make sure other people become informed because I do believe the public good is served You know, we and we have to figure out ways to combat what's going on.
So we're gonna be at the VA again on Friday morning with a protest or not a it's a rally in support of the the
federal workers, particularly the VA.
Friday at 4.30 at the Milwaukee VA.
So I'm happy to be doing that, but we got to be doing more.
I'm also making calls every day to my legislators.
Like last night, as soon as I heard that they pulled the funding from Ukraine, I was on the phone to Ron Johnson's office and don't, you know, he's got like five phone numbers.
So keep going.
If one's full, call the other ones and leave your message because that's, we've got to put pressure on these folks to stop the damage happening at the federal level.
Stop.
Trump and stop Musk from taking it over everything.
You know what, Pat, that's I'm just going to shift for a minute locally here.
We know that Musk is coming in and trying to buy this election and I have seen flyers because of course I'm out knocking on doors again.
I have seen flyers on the doors that say, Susan Judge Crawford will stop Trump's agenda.
So tell me why.
She's never been a political operative, but we all know Brad Schimmel has so I'm also organizing in my area We're thinking what can we do?
So we're taking to the streets to inform people We're holding up yard are not signs, but not yard signs But we're making our own little series of signs that are you know highly effective because they'll only have one or two words on it like women's rights vote Crawford Like you know civil rights vote Crawford safety vote Crawford because we have to get the word
out there that she's not what they're painting her to be she does not she's a mom she does not let rapists and you know out in the streets
so but that's but that's what we see with every supreme court race I mentioned it even before this race got started I said no matter who runs on the progressive side they're going to find some way to to bring
rapists and pedophiles into this as if that's what Supreme Court justices do.
Supreme Court justices make sure that people and entities and companies abide by the law or they do the things that let certain people and companies skip out.
on the law.
And that's really what's at stake in this election.
So when people say, well, you know, what does one thing have to do with the other Trump and all the spending cuts and the state Supreme Court race?
Well, I mean, all the more reason why we're putting on this live event next Wednesday is to help people connect the dots between these very important issues, as opposed to having a Supreme Court that would essentially rubber stamp.
anything that Donald Trump wants, anything.
Remember, three of these conservative justices on the court right now indicated they would go along with Donald Trump's false 2020 claims of voter fraud.
They would have delayed Wisconsin election results in 2020 to hear a case
that had no evidence.
So Luanne, for you and others to be involved in the Supreme Court race, very much has a connection to what we're seeing at the VA and elsewhere right now.
That's right.
After I lost the election, Pat, I saw a need and Trump got elected.
I saw the need to bring people together with shared values in community.
So I sort of evolved from bird on a wire to birds on a wire.
And we've been meeting now every week to
Both support each other share our anxieties and then share our actions like what can we turn it into action?
What can we do about it?
So that is how this sign thing evolved and there was I want to say like it evolved to all these people that that some of them knocked on doors for me and there's a lot of new people just showing up and we're gonna take to those streets and that all happened because we're organizing we're coming together every week it's
odd we're turning out to be a three o'clock on Saturdays and meeting at open flame right in the middle of Hales Corners but it it works you know it's what we got to do to make it through this time not only that we're not going to sit back remember there's just a couple years ago you know four years ago we won
the presidency.
So we're going to be able to take this back.
It's how much damage, especially when people realize that their costs are going up, their health care is being cut, and the wealthier are getting richer on tax breaks.
So
we're going
to be able to turn this around.
But in the meantime, we've got to make sure that we keep fair maps in Wisconsin.
And that's why the Supreme Court race is so important right now.
It's what keeps you busy.
And it's why we appreciate the updates so much, Luanne Bird.
Thank you very much for visiting with us and keep active, keep us in the loop on what you're doing.
to keep elevating the voices of folks looking to bring a little sanity back to our government.
You bet.
And I encourage everyone out there to, you know, don't stay home.
It feels much better to get in there and take action.
Even if it means a phone call or showing up at your Democratic Party meeting, something, do something to get involved.
That's wonderful.
Thank you, Luanne.
Again, have a wonderful day.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Pat.
new bet and uh boy when luan talks about uh you know tax breaks and things like that you know there there was a comment online about elon musk paying 11 billion dollars in taxes that was a one-time thing based on selling off shares of tesla by and large he's paid nothing in taxes and tesla has skipped out on billions despite billions of dollars in income
has paid $0 in tax cuts, or in taxes, period.
You want to talk about waste fraud and abuse?
Let's have a whole discussion on Elon Musk alone.
Back after this, you're up north.
The Chad Home Show is coming up next on 98.9 WXCO in Warsaw every weekday from 8 to 10 a.m.
You can also catch it through the Civic Media app.
Chad is with us now.
Chad joined us during the commercial break as we were going through the spicy comment section on Facebook today, all about whether Elon Musk pays his taxes or not, and so much more.
Mr. Holmes, how are you?
Doing good.
I feel like Pat just like threw kerosene on you and was like, Chad, how are you doing?
I don't know whether or not to mention this, because last week, can you talk about comments?
And I'm probably giving oxygen to this.
There is somebody out there that really, really, really doesn't like me.
It really does not like me.
So he decided that on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,
Uh, and I couldn't even say this because then people go,
oh,
this is how you get to get them.
But there is, you know, you can go to the website and there'll be a contact me.
And this guy just kept on all through my show like every two minutes.
based on anything I say, twisted it around, said some very nasty things.
Yeah, and I would direct you to the Facebook page for today's show.
Oh, he's the same person.
I don't know about it.
Maybe it is.
It's a real-time commentary, which is why I want to share a positive comment first from Alicia to please let Luanne know that this veteran appreciates her advocacy for my brothers and sisters in arms.
And the thing is, Alicia,
We do.
We know that.
For all that, we talk about, you know, what is negative out there and what is confrontational.
Let's make this clear.
We know the goodness of many people and how service-minded they are, whether they serve in government or just serve in their communities or serve in the military.
And it is because we believe in that inherent goodness of so many people that we're willing to stand here or sit here day after day.
whether it's comments in the section or emails or politicians saying ridiculous things and Stand up for things like facts Science truth, you know, we do these things not just for a paycheck But because we actually love living here and we love the people that are here doing all these good things And it's it's why I still consider this an honor and I know it's why you you enjoy what you're doing every day
Absolutely.
And frankly, I think we go through the same ups and downs that the folks that are tuned in.
And I think there's a connection there that, you know, some days you see what's going on and it weighs down on you.
I mean, I said to a guest yesterday, I said, you know, it's been State Senator Kristen Alfheim.
She was on yesterday.
I said to her, I said, you know, she's been in office now two months.
I said,
Man, it feels like it's been two years, really.
And I'm not kidding there.
I mean, the last two months have been difficult and I try to keep in mind that if I'm feeling that, I know that there are people that probably feel it even more because they're affected even more.
And how can it not?
When you read about all of the packets of peanut butter, high-nutrition peanut butter that would save the lives of starving children overseas,
are being left in warehouses undistributed while people are starving right now it's not saving the taxpayers a dime not saving money and so when you think about it you go to the end result of the the children who don't know where their next meal is going to come from.
The veteran like Luann talked about who now is going to have to wait longer or their doctor is no longer available.
Of course it weighs on us and it comes out sometimes in sharper commentary than we might like but that's why I like to remind people we come back to the roots.
We come back to the roots and that is you know good people and when good people serve in government
government does good things.
This natural tendency to be cynical and negative about government is rooted in people who want to see government fail because then they get better tax breaks.
They don't have to follow environmental rules and things like that.
Stick to the good folks and it's what motivates us to continue doing what we do.
I was just gonna
I would go say one step further because there are people like I'm gonna guess the people on the live stream comments of any of our shows who are saying we're wrong or you know full of whatever They're not benefiting from tax.
They're not they're not billionaires and millionaires They just the problem is they just want to be right and when they get to be right They're so excited about that that it doesn't matter that their lives are impacted by these Actions by the government as well while you and I we're all waiting for the impact of huge cuts
They're going to be blindsided one day when they realize, oh, I'm part of this too.
Okay.
Now
what?
It's certainly what we're seeing now in all the little short video clips of people going, I voted for Trump, but I never thought I'd lose my job at the VA or wherever.
And, you know, I'm not, I'm not wallowing in their misery and their surprise, but I'm also not surprised by their surprise chat, if you know what I mean.
And by the way, there's one aspect to those stories and you're exactly what we see.
We've seen a lot of those kind of stories out there.
One aspect of it that concerns me in a sense is, I wonder if that person, if their position has been eliminated or something along those lines has been lost.
If the person down the hall would have lost it, would they still have been saying, they aren't right.
I still agree that Donald Trump is cutting down on the wasteful spending and the wasteful government jobs out there.
One aspect that I've always appreciated by the best
people that are public servants is the ability to put themselves in the other person's shoes.
Not to have it only if it happens to you, does it matter?
Well, here's
a little bit way too much of that where these stories, oh, it affected me.
Well,
I'll show you exactly what I mean on screen here.
Here's George again saying this was back when Luan was talking about veterans not getting care and he writes, I voted for Trump and I expected exactly what is going on.
This is what he said and I agree with him entirely.
And that's what plenty of other people say until it happens to them or somebody close to them.
And then let's see if they put that same comment up.
Chad continues this conversation and more coming up next on 98-9-WXCO and on the Civic Media app.
Mr. Holmes, thank you.
Have a great day.
You too,
gentlemen.
Mr. Bach is back in two hours from air on air and they're even letting me in the door coming up in 1030 or so.
So stick around for that at your own peril.
Thanks for joining us for Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom.
It is a pro-democracy news network and you can find out what we do at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
See you tomorrow morning, here up north.
