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Live from our Lake Minnesota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breitler.
Hey good morning, welcome back to Up North News Radio, unabashedly Wisconsin, pro-coconut, brought to you by Courier Newsroom and carried by our friends on the Civic Media Radio Network 706 on this Monday, March 17th.
Greg Bach has been trying for the entire news break to convince us that there's something wrong with liking coconut and Girl Scout Samoa cookies and
There's something wrong with Greg
there's something wrong with Greg instead this time Look, I've checked we've we've taken a vote here and it was Tony up in Ashland who commented on YouTube Greg wrong on pineapple right on coconut No, Tony.
No, no, we're hiding that comment right there.
It's
fine
I like, well, that's a pizza reference.
He's referencing pineapple on pizza, but pineapple alone is good.
Nothing, nothing.
Oh, fine.
I'm alone in my
principles.
I see.
I
can't even get a doctor to agree with me on fruit.
Okay, cool.
We wouldn't like some Oz either.
She doesn't like coconut.
So there is like,
that's my new best friend right there.
There you
go.
Here's Brittany Merleau who is going to take us away from food chat and into weather chat because again, at some point the chat on Wednesday from some folks in Wisconsin is going to be words we can't say on the radio because
the
snow is coming back again.
Brittany, how are you?
No, I am fantastic.
We have a great day today.
So
good.
We'll take
that.
And LaCrosse, 80 on Friday was it last week?
80 degrees.
My goodness.
We felt like the middle of summer, honestly.
It really honestly felt like that.
And then we had those storms roll through snow on the back end of it.
Um, and we've got a whole nother round headed our way as soon as tomorrow night and into our Wednesdays.
So what we're doing today is warming things up.
Temperatures right now are actually backwards.
It's 18 degrees in Milwaukee and it's 34 degrees into Eau Claire.
So it's actually colder down south, warmer up to the northwest because there's a little bit of cloud cover up north that allowed us to stay a little bit warmer overnight.
So what we're doing today, it's going to get breezy.
Winds are going to be gusting up to about 30 to 40 miles per hour warming.
up and of course with the sunshine, the dry conditions and the high winds, high fire danger is still in place, so no burning out there.
Highs today will reach the low sixties into the western part of the state and then we'll hit the low fifties closer to Lake Michigan on the eastern half of the state.
And then tomorrow, still mild, clouds increasing, still low sixties.
And then we're looking at rain rolling in at night for a good chunk of the state, but snow to the northwest turning into a winch remix.
Whiteout conditions are expected accumulations over a half of a foot to nearly a foot into portions of northwest Wisconsin, where a winter storm watch is already out for Eau Claire.
And I think that's going to make its way into Wausau area and then off towards Hurley and up that direction.
So that's right now where the track looks to hit.
And again, this is going to be some heavy wet snowfall paired with winds, whiteout conditions all Tuesday night and into our Wednesday.
Okay, any
Any Irish over there on the on the more low side of things?
No, but I can be Irish today.
I like to pretend.
How about you guys?
Yes
Everybody's
Irish on St.
Patrick's Day.
This is a pro-pretend radio program here.
Tony notes, I'm Irish on my coffee cup side.
We're not going to check what's in the coffee cup today.
Alicia says, not a bit of Irish over here either.
I know somewhere in this mail bag is Rob from Tigerton.
There it is.
Good morning.
Happy St.
Patrick's Day from Tigerton, partly cloudy in 24.
He remembers St.
Patrick's Day 2012 when it was 82 degrees
that day.
He said he watched a lot of basketball over the weekend.
Kristen talked earlier about the 8990 Golden Gopher basketball team.
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets had a had a lethal weapon there.
Uh but it was also the year that UNLV won the national championship.
Uh he writes Cheeseburger in Paradise was a favorite song back in the day.
Van Halen's Jump was the number one song when he got his driver's license on March 27th, 1984.
He remembers that he always used to buy his mom corned beef on St.
Patrick's Day, and he missed that since her passing.
And he says, I hope five of the best people on radio and social media have a super St.
Patrick's Day.
So
there you
go.
Yeah.
And then, then just to add it.
I love coconut cream pie.
I was really hoping that
Rob's going to come out for me on the end of that one.
Like at least one ally.
No pineapples
on pizza.
I don't
understand how y'all.
Just get Jesus in your life or something.
I don't
know.
Brittany, thanks.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Brittany.
Have a wonderful day.
Again, you can sign up for our daily newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
You get not only our Monday through Friday edition that Christina Laurie puts together, but there's also a weekend edition that I put out on Sundays as well.
Christina's newsletter today talks about some of the Irish festivities that you can find.
around Wisconsin like the city of New London changes its name one day a year to New Dublin every year like that.
There's also some weird alcohol laws on the books in Wisconsin, things that relate to happy hours and alcohol sales and of course the maybe the goofiest one for some folks how underage people are allowed to legally drink in a bar if they're with their parents.
That is an only in Wisconsin kind of thing and you can sign up to read it all over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
We also asked in Sunday morning's newsletter, your feelings on the economy, A to D from optimistic to pessimistic.
And there's a whole lot of Cs and Ds that are coming in there right now with folks who are none too happy about, you know, the state of things and people saying that
You know, you can comment on it by voting in the April 1st election, especially for state Supreme Court.
And Selena is going to be playing some sound from interviews that she did during our event last week in Madison, including Dr. Eliza Bennett and OBGYN, because Dr. Lyrely was otherwise involved.
But had you been at the event last week, you too would have been able to talk about the importance of voting in that April 1st Supreme Court election.
No doubt.
Yes.
Did you want to say something?
That's usually what I do here is I
usually provide that lead and
expert opinions.
Maybe this is a great opportunity to tell you that you too can get involved tomorrow in Madison 245 in the afternoon.
It's going to be a beautiful day at the State Capitol when we are rallying for reproductive rights.
The amazing Time Magazine woman of the year Amanda Zyrowski is going to be there with us telling her story, revving us up.
There are so many Wisconsinites who do not know about this election.
I know that's hard to believe, but there are a lot of people out there who just they're not expecting it.
So
Get out there, call your friends, ask them to vote.
Early voting starts tomorrow.
That's right and we'll hear more about this in about 20 minutes now from Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area is going to be here and talking about his new column which is all about how Wisconsin voters can send a message to the entire country.
And they're gonna have to do it pretty much themselves because national Democrats are in a bit of a pickle these days after last week's budget vote in Congress.
There's a lot of, shall we say, consternation.
What's the word I'm looking for?
No, disarray.
right now at the national level so Wisconsin voters you're going to have to get it done yourselves come April 1st.
So Selena we we've heard from Dr. Lyrely on the importance of the election but Dr. Bennett who took part in our protecting justice for all event last week in Madison also had a few thoughts on this right?
She did I talked to her about you know she said
When she practiced, you know, it was through jobs and everything went just like we talked to Dr. Lierly about all of the time and how difficult it was for her.
for her patients and for having to go elsewhere.
And she just said, I do not want to do that again.
And so it's very important.
You might not think about voting in an April 1st election for the Supreme Court, but it's very important because for all of those patients, for all of those doctors that have to treat them and for a lot of other reasons.
So this is Dr. Eliza Bennett from Wisconsin.
Well, unfortunately, reproductive health is on the ballot and it's going to continue to be on the ballot for the foreseeable future.
So what happened in 2022 when Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the DOBS decision made it so that every state has a determination for what happens with reproductive health in their individual states.
And we are
subject to the whims of the political climates and to court decisions to determine what kind of reproductive access people will have in our state going forward.
So this election and every election are incredibly important for those rights.
And I wouldn't have, I didn't ask this of Dr. Bennett, Dr. Leighly, but I think that she would have said something similar to what we've talked about previously that a lot of people who went
into med school, became doctors, were taking care of their patients.
We're not expecting to be quite this vocal to be taking part in panel discussions and having rallies on the Capitol lawn and things like that.
It was not something that you and other doctors sought out, but when the circumstances are thrust upon you, you kind of got to answer the
bell.
We are not trained to do public speaking.
We are not trained to work with media.
We are trained to sit in an exam room and listen to you and help you figure out what the best path forward is for you individually.
But this has not just affected OBGYN doctors.
It hasn't just affected the family medicine doctors who deliver babies, but emergency medicine doctors, pulmonologists, cardiologists, you name it,
pregnant women are taken care of by all different people, all different kinds of specialties, it is affecting our health care system.
And it is really displaying the phrase in our health care system, the problems that we have with access, especially in rural communities.
Yeah, we're going to hear a couple of more folks that Selena will share with us in just a moment.
But I also wanted to know we have not yet talked about our Friday interview with Brittany Kinzer, who is a candidate for state
superintendent on April 1st.
And Alicia notes, I wasn't impressed with Brittany Kinzer and how she responded to Pat's questions on Friday.
And Tony followed up on YouTube with Alicia, it was a great interview to show why you should vote for Dr. Underly.
So there there were my own take on it.
And again, you can go back and catch it over at civicmedia.us just look for the up north new show page.
But there was there were some very long answers of
Trying to talk about, you know, the kids feelings about education and then when I would try to steer her back toward, you know, the cost of private school vouchers, I'd get the, well, you're interrupting me.
And I would, I would answer the question, but you keep interrupting me.
It's like, well, I'd kind of like to get you to the point here.
And to that, to that end, I believe she will be on Earl's show this morning, Brittany Kinzer will be.
And so I would suggest tuning in and maybe finding out a bit more about her candidacy and her answering Earl's questions about the race.
So, look for that coming up, but we will talk more about the Supreme Court race with Selina Heller, Dr. Lirely, and in coming up with Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area, and then Jane McNair before we wrap things up on a Monday morning, 17th of March.
This is Up North News Radio, live from Lake Wasota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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started.
Dancing all over her hair slain like she's in a white snake video or something.
And doing that big
overbite that you do when you're
listening to Van Halen.
That's your overbite, Pat.
I got that.
That was good.
Thank
you.
They're so good.
I don't think I've ever seen
you do that.
And you never will again.
Van Halen's 1984 peaked at number two on the album charts this weekend.
Anybody?
anybody?
1985 1984.
Selena Heller is back with us now talking about our event last week, Protecting Justice for All and State Representative Supreme Moore Omakunde was there as well and Representative Omakunde talked a bit about the stakes of the race and he really, I think he made a really great case
It sounded salient to me like you were asking people like if you were talking to what either an undecided voter or somebody who hadn't decided whether to vote or not about why they should show up on April 1st.
Yeah, pretty much pretty much because like I said before like it's a supreme court election Why do you need to because a lot of people don't so what's important?
And so we talked about that we talked about the Tesla case going on in Wisconsin and how that may influence some things with Elon Musk's involvement in the race and so he talked about the importance of having an impartial judge in that seat.
All right, let's give a
listen
What's on this ballot is judicial competence, judicial impartiality, and making sure that the billionaires and millionaires are not buying the courts in the state of Wisconsin.
This is our one chance, our initial chance to push back against what's happening in Washington DC.
Whether you like it or you don't like it, you voted for it or you didn't vote for it.
You know that people at the federal government should not be ransacking our departments and telling us what's good for ourselves.
We should vote because we want our maps to stay.
We want our maps to be fair.
We want them to be balanced.
We want our contracts with the federal government to be recognized and secure.
And that's the only way you can ensure that that happens is by voting for an impartial judge in this
race.
It really, I mean, he really encapsulates all the various ways that somebody can look at what's happening right now.
And as Joseph Peck, he put it so well, is to say enough.
and to cast that ballot right here.
And then during our debate watch party, which followed the forum, we had a drop in by former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who was meeting with folks and sure sounds like you got the former Lieutenant Governor, Selena, to talk in a similar vein about, you know, the reasons why this race is so important.
Yeah, we chatted and I just kind of pulled him aside and said, you know, let everybody know what
Oh, why do why is this race affecting people's everyday lives?
What what will it do?
And and he kind of led into, you know, it's like we were talking about it's kind of been tumultuous in the last several weeks.
So this is how we answer to that.
This is a chance for voters to get to have another say.
It has been an incredibly disastrous, not even two months yet.
People have seen their lives appended.
People have seen their communities just unfortunately.
sitting jeopardy because they don't know what's going to happen next.
They don't know what federal program, what federal services are going to get cut, or what federal employees that help keep the neighborhood stable are going to have a job the next day.
And so if you're frustrated by what's going on in Washington DC, you have a chance to make your voice heard right here in Wisconsin with the Supreme Court election.
And if you're upset at the fact that Elon Musk has this outsize influence, the world's most wealthy individual is taking the jobs of working class
Americans, seemingly with impunity.
If you want to have a say so in that, you can vote against Elon Musk's handpicked candidate for the state Supreme Court, his bankrolled candidate for the Supreme Court, putting in sums of money that no individual has put in a race like this in the state of Wisconsin.
We have a chance to also vote for the superintendent.
I'm supporting Jill Underly.
I hope other people will too because the same folks.
who support getting rid of education at the federal exact people who are bank and we can't take a r children.
There's too m where you live.
There may election, automatic r election is the most impor that this past november
And I did confirm that Brittany Kinzer is slated to be Earl Ingram's guest across most of these civic media radio network stations.
So overall, again, just a great event that we had last week.
And Selina, thanks for talking to all those folks.
Over the weekend, you took in an activity with a rather unusual title.
Yeah, you have to have some laughs during all of this, right?
Yes.
So I went to a show, it was in Minneapolis from the Brave New Workshop and the show is called the world is burning.
So I made s'mores and it says it will show you how to enjoy the apocalypse.
If you can't laugh at the world ending, what can you laugh at?
So if you need some laughs, I'd recommend.
If you need to laugh at the apocalypse,
by all
means.
I mean, we honestly, we need that.
Uh, again, trying to find that line of don't tune it all out, but also don't let it consume you entirely and find that balance where you can.
Uh, Kristen does it by riding her bike.
You haven't started your, your hundred mile bike rides yet for the spring, have you?
No, I got it out and did a couple of loops though in Northern Minnesota last week because it was so nice.
And then the next day it was eight.
Go ahead, Selena.
Oh, no.
Did you guys have some of that dirt everywhere from the Texas and Oklahoma storm being brought up over the weekend?
I think it got this far though.
Rob
was saying that it was in
Tigerton, but we didn't
hear
anything.
I know, I mean, it was very visible on the satellite photos, you know, coming up from Oklahoma.
So, I mean, it was just, it was extremely impressive.
Not nearly as impressive as this online debate that we've started at YouTube, where Alicia writes, I love coconut.
Jesus loves coconut.
You don't know Alicia, you don't know.
To Greg's point of
having to go find Jesus.
Tony responds,
If Jesus loved coconut, he would have put them everywhere, not just on islands.
Does anyone actually like Almond Joy bars?
No, they're awful.
No.
And
Alicia, Tony, how dare you?
I love Almond Joy.
Kids.
Can you kick Alicia out of the chat, please?
No.
She's a bad
influence.
Children, look away.
Again, we look to have a healthy debate here.
And that's what we're gonna do.
Coconut's not healthy.
Maybe you can use a little bit more fiber.
You look a little constipated, Greg.
And
that is the
end of Bach
in the
Dock, folks.
Actually, I think instead of Bach in the Dock, you could go with, you know, sometimes you feel like you're not, sometimes you don't, you know what I mean?
Although you don't like Almond Joy or Mountbars, do you?
All right, we'll look for a new title.
We'll workshop
it.
It's Tough Love, Greg.
It's Tough Love.
And there's a lot of love for you.
Tough Nookies, I need them.
Kristen Lyrely, thank you.
Selina Haller, thank you.
Everyone, anyway.
Have a safe, have a safe.
Dan Schaefer is here now, political editor for Civic Media, and of course the founder of the Reconpopulation area.
His latest essay is called, It's Up to Us Wisconsin, which translation, we are the heroes.
There ain't no cavalry.
Dan Schaefer, hello, how are you?
Good morning, Mr. Crichtlow.
Always a treat to join you.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, thank you so much.
We're by and large talking about
uh, you know, the, the national democratic party, there's just a, there's a real crisis there.
And while we try to focus mostly on, uh, Wisconsin politics and elected officials, you know, the, shall we say the sluggishness of the national party, uh, couldn't come at a worse time, at least in Wisconsin, where something pretty big here is happening in two weeks, uh, two weeks from tomorrow.
And yet, like you said, you know, uh,
We're the ones who have to take care of ourselves.
What was it that prompted the article?
Well, I think just following what was happening last week with Chuck Schumer and the National Democrats' decision to not dig in and put up a fight in one of the only moments that they're going to have any modicum of leverage.
And I think it is.
I think it is just indicative of where we are right now.
You know, we see the polling on the National Democratic Party.
It's as low as it's been in a really long time, both from a national scale and in Wisconsin.
And I think it's just a reminder of where we are right now.
uh that you know folks like Chuck Schumer if they're not up for the fight then we have to be the ones to send a message to Donald Trump and to Elon Musk and I think with this spring election that is just we're hurtling towards the end game here early voting starts I believe tomorrow
And so we are right in crunch time for this pressure cooker election that is happening just 71 days after Donald Trump's inauguration.
So I think everything in the political universe is being viewed through Trump's scorched earth return to office with
Elon Musk and what's happening with Doge, and I think given Musk's central role now in the Trump administration and in funding Brad Schimel's effort to win the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, I think it is shaping up to be a referendum on what's happening at the national level because it is just so overwhelming.
Right now.
And I think it is, you know, I think what happened last week with National Democrats is just a reminder that it's going to have to be up to us.
The cavalry is not coming.
It is up to us to make, to send a message.
And we have a remarkable opportunity to do just that here in Wisconsin.
And the thing is, two things can be true at once here.
As you write, Wisconsin is exhausted politically, basically from 2016 onward.
It has just been big election after big election and I'll recap that in a bit.
But yeah, voters are exhausted and yet at the same time, like you say, current events dictate that
Even if this is the 15th round, you got to get off that little stool when the bell rings and you got to answer it.
That's where you put the exhaustion behind you, which I think is probably going to motivate a lot of people who've been watching veterans getting fired and American permanent legal residents getting deported.
It's a bit of a motivating factor for you and me if it isn't going to be for national
party leaders.
And I think everybody's going to always pay attention to what's happening in a swing state.
And with this election coming at the time that it is, there's so much happening right now.
If there's going to be polls about what's happening, there's going to be media chatter about what's happening.
But votes carry a lot more weight than any of that might.
And what happens on April 1st will carry a tremendous amount of weight.
Because if Wisconsin voters stand up and deliver a message by electing Susan Crawford on April 1st, it will be a sign to the nation and the world that people are rejecting the destruction and chaos of this new administration.
And people want to see a check on what's happening.
And I think, you know...
as we're seeing now, checks and balances have never been more important.
The things
that we used to take for granted,
democracy,
checks and balances, voting rights, little things like that, citizenship.
Here's the parallel that I'm going to draw, and trust me, there's nothing Pollyanna about me when I say this.
But when I and other people decided to run for legislature in 2005, 2006,
Again, there was no cavalry there.
You know, John Kerry had been swift-boated.
You know, Dems were in disarray as the cliche headline goes.
Harry Reid was the Senate Democratic leader, hardly a whirlwind of activity there.
And yet, they had Howard Dean at the DNC.
And if there was one thing you could always say about Howard Dean, was that he was a fighter.
like all the time you got to be on offense and that was the message a lot of us took in 2006 and and sent that message had that referendum on the Bush administration on the Iraq war on on all of that and then of course it translated it well you know two years later in the 2008 election so it's not unheard of that
Democrats and progressives are feeling particularly beat down, but they they find that will to continue to fight.
They just need a few they need a Howard Dean for today to say, get up, you can do this.
Yeah, I think people want to fight, you know, the voters want the Democrats to bring a fight to the Trump administration to Elon Musk.
And if that's not going to happen in Congress, which
It doesn't seem like it is.
Nope.
It's on us here in Wisconsin.
And that was really the theme of the piece that I wrote.
And I think, you know, we have talked about for so long about how important and tremendously important this race is for Wisconsin, you know, for the future of reproductive rights, of labor rights, education, the economy, all the stuff that we talked about in our panel discussions with Up North News last week in Madison.
But I think given what's happening on the national scale,
Given how Elon Musk has been so central to this race, I think this is not just a tremendously important race for the state of Wisconsin.
It's a tremendously important race for the state of the nation.
And really having the voters let people know where they stand just a few months into this new administration.
And if they're tired, I said before I'd go into a little bit of detail, just looking back, because what you wrote about 2016, we all know about Hillary Clinton being accused of single-handedly losing Wisconsin in the election by not showing up since that time.
You had a Supreme Court election in 2017 with Annette Ziegler, 2018 with liberal Rebecca Dallett winning, and Evers beating Scott Walker, and Josh called beating Brad Schimmel.
We'll come back to him.
You had a Supreme Court election the next year in 2019, another one in 2020 with Jill Karofsky.
You had Tony Evers running for reelection in 2022, Janet Protosewicz in 2023, and of course the presidential election that just finished and Tammy Baldwin running again.
Now, Brad Schimel is up again.
So in cycle after cycle, we see these national implications.
There is no national Democrat.
Look at all the, what's the word I'm looking for, the surrogates who came last year.
I mean, everybody knows this is where the action is.
And as much as voters aren't crazy about very expensive races, they
Do you know that they are valued like probably no other voter in the country?
Yeah, we we're used to being in this place.
I guess right yeah We are the perennial canary in the coal mine of every political issue of course it comes back to Wisconsin Of course, we are going to be the first state to be you know casting ballots in the Trump 2.0 era Maybe we are ready for this.
Maybe we're built for this, you know We are we have been tested before as you said as you go through that list I think you know, Wisconsin is so exhausted like last year, you know, I think everybody got the message that it's pretty important
It's important to be campaigning in Wisconsin last year.
We were covering a whole lot of it here on Civic Media, North News, Recombobulation Area, everywhere else.
But at the same time, it's, you know, and the ads are just relentless and they're just, you know, so revolting on so many levels to see this just toxic.
political environment.
We're so sick of this.
You know, there's another piece that we ran at the recon population area not too long ago from Angela Lang talking about how these ads are really not, not that effective.
But we can't let this exhaustion, this toxic environment get us down.
We have to pick ourselves up and make this happen.
Because what's waiting on the other side with a potential shimmer victory is too perilous to even fathom.
And I
think for Elon Musk to if he sees that he can
throw his musk bucks around in a race like this, what's to stop him from doing so in any race, in any state, at any level?
And I think it would just mean so much if Musk putting so much money into this race, if Wisconsin voters stood up and rejected it, it would just send a powerful, powerful message that would really reverberate nationally.
it would.
And I want to second Angela's column.
I love her guest columns at the Reconpopulation area and they are must reading.
So get over to Dan's site and subscribe as well.
Do you would you offer up any advice in terms of rather than waiting for the next surrogate waiting for the next, you know, AOC or whatever to come?
What people can do in Wisconsin?
Other than don't stay home on April 1?
Yeah, I think it is you know, you have to think about like the turnout in these elections So last fall I think there was about what 3.4 million people in Wisconsin who voted in the presidential election Well, there would probably be less than 2 million people who will be voting in the spring election.
So, you know Those of us here Who are in the media in the mix like we know that we have been focusing on this race for quite some time talking about it
all the time these last few months.
But not everybody is as tuned into this.
I mean, we saw that in the most recent Market University Law School poll that most voters do not have strong opinions of the candidates that are running in this race.
So it is going to come down to turnout.
And so much of that turnout is people really just taking the time.
to remind your friends, remind your co-workers that there is an election coming up.
And if people are frustrated with what's happening at the national level, people are frustrated with what's happening with Elon Musk, you have an opportunity to do that.
I think people can feel really helpless a lot of times.
And I think, especially at the national level, when people are calling their senators wanting to make things happen.
And as much as we have some strong representation here in Wisconsin with.
you know Tammy Baldwin voting no on the on the on the house budget bill uh last week and all of that like you can't always you know make a difference in the in the way that you want to but in wisconsin we have this unique opportunity that we can make a difference we can do something we can send a message and we can do that right now
Oh, hey, by the way, as we look at the week ahead here, we note that Congress is off this week and Mark Boakhand put out a video saying, you know, every Republican member of Congress should be holding a town hall this week.
Have you looked ahead?
I know Tim Walls is coming to Eau Claire tomorrow to hold a town hall in Derrick Van Orden's district.
Are we aware of any Republican members of Congress having a big public town hall?
Would it be a spoiler alert to say I shouldn't bet
on it?
I wouldn't expect it.
I mean, it seems like after the response that they got from the first couple town halls that they held, they're running scared from doing this.
And this is just yet another reason that it's important for Wisconsinites to get involved in this spring election because.
National Democrats, like we said, aren't bringing the fight the way we want to.
Republicans aren't really wanting to meet their voters anymore.
I think there was some Republican leadership that was saying that like, hey, maybe we shouldn't even hold these town halls.
I know Derek Van Orden seems to be running scared from having any sorts of public interaction that's outside of the comfortable safe campaign event.
But I think that's just yet another reason that we can make a difference because so many people want to be showing up at town.
want to be, you know, holding their legislators accountable.
And you know, with Republicans running scared, there's not always going to be the opportunity to do that.
So we have to be the ones to do it to send that message here from Wisconsin.
Yeah, it's worth folks.
It's worth your while to go look up Derek Van Orden on Eau Claire TV from late last week again, basically attacking the reporters who are asking him, you know, pointed questions about the lack of town halls.
And I believe if you turn it into a drinking game, be careful because George Soroskis mentioned and and
all the
usual suspects rather than accountability.
When I was talking about it on Twitter last week, he called me a communist.
So, you know, just yet another
a ridiculous Twitter tirade from,
uh, he is just becoming a walking cliche.
Yes.
Dan Schaefer, political editor for civic media and the recombobulation area.
Dan, thank you for the time.
I sure appreciate it.
Thanks so much, Pat.
Be well.
All right.
When we come back, Jane McNair will have a preview of her shows this week with Greg right after this.
This is up North news radio on the civic media radio network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
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10 a.m.
till noon across the Civic Media Radio Network.
But first, listen to Earl Ingram because coming up in the next hour here, you will have Brittany Kinzer as candidate for state superintendent of public construction on.
Hopefully a follow-up to the chat that we started with her on Friday morning.
And again, listen to that and then make your decision on who to vote for in that
Department of Public Construction State Superintendent election on that date.
Ms.
McNair probably have a few more things to say about all of these elections between now and then.
Yeah, she's nodding.
Yeah, that's that's what she does.
That's how that's how she rolls.
I can't can't hear a word she's saying, but Greg, what did you do to change my check?
Check?
There we go.
Hey,
hello there.
Pressing buttons.
That's why I nod through my entire show.
It's a it's a different tone when you get a different kind of radio show, which is not the nodding.
But smile.
You get used
to it after a while.
Yes, I get it, though.
The listeners, it's a little frustrating at times, but.
It's okay.
Yeah.
From on the text line from Steve and Milwaukee, you guys don't talk about Jasmine Crockett enough.
Steve guilty, because he heard me mention AOC in the last segment to Dan Schaefer.
And Jasmine Crockett's name was like on the tip of my tongue.
And I just I couldn't get it out.
You know, you have the moment of doubt of, is it right?
Is it Jasmine?
Is it what?
Yes.
Jasmine Crockett is
another rock star.
And yes, we should be talking about her more as well.
How was your weekend?
The weekend
was good.
The snow was unexpected.
Well, no, not unexpected because we knew it was coming.
But when I got up yesterday morning, it was visibility was terrible.
Really?
Yeah.
It's it's yeah.
But it all it's all melted away, at least on the sidewalks and everything.
The roads are fine.
So hopefully where you are.
I was listening on the way in, Pat.
And I heard Brittany say that the Northwest is going to get creamed again on Wednesday into Wednesday
into Wednesday.
Some
parts of it will.
Yeah,
that lovely,
heavy, wet, sloshy snow.
Well, you got it.
You got to feed into the cliche where everybody can go, yeah, they all tournament time.
You got to have that tournament snowstorm, you know, right?
Yeah, it's not the tournament that did it.
His all.
So this season for frozen vegetables.
It is related to March madness.
Okay.
Are you aware?
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Yes.
Yes.
You're aware of
that.
Well, not personally,
but yes,
I know of which you speak.
Greg, are
you still looking puzzled or are you familiar with this?
I tuned out.
What?
It is the time of year where if a man is going to go for a certain procedure and he has to have some corporation time at home, March Madness is a good time for that.
And then the way
you're just sitting on
the couch with a
bag of frozen peas
on a place where that might need some comfort.
Correct.
Yes.
Y'all are
weird.
I'll explain it to you later.
We went from debating coconut to frozen peas for procedures.
When I'm
here, I talk about the real issues of things that, you saw how heated Alicia and Tony got.
I talk about real issues.
Yes,
so tomorrow we'll have a debate about vasectomies.
Just to continue the analogy here.
Comment on Facebook from Randy on our AI, can AI supplement nurses?
And Randy says yes, but you need eyes to see other things that patients don't tell you.
AI is also not going to help someone in a nursing home take their pills, help them to the bathroom, pick them up when they fall.
What we need is more respect, better pay and better working conditions for the nurses here, here.
Amen.
I'm sorry, but nurses don't get nearly enough credit and I haven't spent a lot of time in hospitals, but the rare amount of time I have been there.
They are the rock stars of hospitals.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, look, nurses and teachers should be getting, if you're ever going to have a wealth tax, which God knows we need on some of these billionaires and these now billionaire athletes and hedge fund vulture capitalists, a big chunk of that ought to go just to nurses and teachers.
And then the rest of us can get our share as well.
Yep.
But oh, it's it is so definitely needed here.
What have you got coming up on the program?
We are going to be talking to Matt Wild at 10 30.
We had been talking about people who are on Medicare and it's not wild.
Dave Wild.
Oh, Dave Wild.
Sorry.
And we're Jasmine Crockett.
I
mean,
come on.
We
all
have our issues.
We had been talking about people who are on Medicare and Medicaid and how important that is for them.
And he has been he has.
autism.
He has MS and he is also on Medicare and he's a big advocate for people on Medicare and Medicaid.
So we're going to talk about that in our number two fingers crossed.
It's our third shot at successfully pulling off beyond the cheese.
We've had some last minute snafus the last couple of times we've tried to do this.
This is where we highlight a business in Wisconsin outside of dairy.
Today it is Jay Hunt Henry and sons bourbon.
Oh, kind of nice for St.
Patrick's Day.
You know, that kind of fits in a little bit.
So hopefully we'll be talking to Josie coming up after the 11
o'clock news.
Uh, yes.
Although, I mean, obviously your Irish whiskeys are going to take precedence today, your Jameson's and things like that.
And I thought about as, as I was at a place over the weekend and they had, you know, regular Jameson and then they had, you know, your, your secret age blend or whatever.
And then there was like this Jameson orange.
It just reminded me of the old Bert Reynolds commercial, don't fruit the beer.
I don't know if you guys remember that, but it was Bert Reynolds and a bunch of other celebrities, and I think Miller Lite was doing it, and they were fighting this whole trend of, you know, fruit flavors in adult beverages.
Sure.
And just drink real beer.
Well, of course, now we're drinking, you know, I love my limey summer shandy with a little
lemonade in there.
Jameson now comes with orange.
I think, I think fruit one.
with the adult beverages?
Yes, I think it was yes.
It was just a matter of time.
Your seltzers and things like that.
It was just a matter of time it was going to take over.
I personally do not celebrate St.
Patrick's Day.
We're not Irish.
We're German and French on my father's side and Lithuanian on my mother's side.
So I am still waiting for I'm half Lithuanian day where we dress as peasants and drink vodka with no ice because who could afford ice?
You know, you know, and you know, the, uh, the food that goes along with it instead of corn, beef and cabbage, coconut coconut.
I
hate everyone.
Greg and Jane are back at 10 o'clock.
Thank you, Jane.
Mr. Bach will be back tomorrow morning at six a.m.
as well.
Hope you will.
Thanks for joining us for Up North News Radio on this Monday morning.
Happy St.
Patrick's Day.
Celebrate responsibly.
We'll see you tomorrow morning here up north.
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