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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Finding out the hard way that if you forget to set your coffee mug on your little hot plate thing and actually accidentally set it on the coaster.
It gets cold real quick.
But nevertheless, we're here on a Thursday morning.
It is just about 807 now.
Nice to have you along live from Lake Mesota here on the Civic Media radio network.
Chad Holmes is coming up in just a bit right after Brittany Merlot's updated forecast.
We'll talk to Sean O'Malley about your money and markets.
We'll talk to Joseph Pecky as well.
First reminder is always you can sign up for our newsletters head over to upnorthnewswi.com.
Our question of the week last week in our Sunday morning political newsletter was how many credible political parties would you like to see in the U.S.?
Right now we're, you know, the two-party system is pretty much what we got.
And how many of you would like to see just one good third party?
Do we need four parties so that there's, you know, left, right, center, left, center, right?
Or do we need five or more?
Well now that it's uh it was our newsletter question now this week we've moved it over to Facebook and a lot of folks commenting already uh for example Laurie Ann here says it's not about the number of political parties it's get rid of the electoral college gerrymandering get the money out and the party system will work itself out uh other people say we need a top four primary and rank choice voting
And then there are a few Trump supporters jumping in the comments saying we just need one party.
Whatever Donald Trump wants.
That's the country we're living now up north news wi.com is where you can sign up for our newsletters head over to Facebook and put your comment in on our poll question there Let's talk to Brittany Merleau now with Parker Olson standing by in Madison Greg Bach is back in an hour for Matt and air on air and Brittany's got a forecast that's going to take us from gray and moist to Hot and dry before you know it Brittany
Oh yes, summer is right on our back doorstep and we've got a few days left of some comfortable conditions before that humidity starts to really rise and we're going to feel that mugginess in here.
So right now this morning it's about 50 degrees into Solon Springs, 60 degrees at Cumberland.
Those are our high and low temperatures out there this morning.
So we're all kind of hanging out in the 50s, mostly cloudy for a ton of us, but there are responsive sunshine by Lake Superior are up north.
far south down that towards the state line, still misty and foggy conditions.
And as we go through this afternoon, we are looking at mixed skies, so partial sunshine and of course chances for more scattered showers and maybe a rumble of thunder this afternoon.
Those look to spark up after two o'clock after high temperatures today hit the mid seventies far north and probably those upper sixties flirting with 70 into southern parts of the area.
Now, after those showers and storms pop up, we are looking at a strong northwest breeze starting to work its way in by tonight and throughout tomorrow.
So it's going to get a little feisty out there and it's going to pull in some wildfire smoke from the north as well.
So if you have any conditions, keep that in mind that the air quality is going to be dropping for tomorrow.
But tomorrow we are going to see a lot more sunshine, still some storm chances in the afternoon.
I mean, hey, that's what we get for those summer conditions.
always those pop up showe right in those afternoon highs will hit the low to mid some conditions a little bit mid sixties on saturday to the state as a cold front s behind that.
Oh boy, get ready because sunday m next week, we're going to low to mid eighties, maybe even next week and the dew point
gross.
Oh, yeah, you're gonna need to drink your water.
Rob from Tigerton says good morning, cloudy 56 degrees, 5107 inch of rain yesterday got four yards mode in Tigerton before a doctor's appointment in Shawno.
He already jumped ahead and said, Yes, Greg, I will drink my water.
Said that he had spaghetti and meatballs at the Shawno Cafe.
He is definitely hooked on spaghetti.
Rob reminds us that on May 29, 1947,
Wisconsin had a severe snowstorm with Gays Mills getting 10 inches of snow.
Verrocco had nine inches, eight inches there near Watoma.
Tigerton had four inches of snow that day in 1947.
And then Greg's already left.
I'm a little late to the comments section here, but from Adam, Greg, you will be missed.
Parker gets something up on that wall.
I'm working on it.
And she
says internet hugs for Greg.
So there you go.
So.
Yeah, well, see now, Brittany for folks that aren't watching on social media.
I'm assuming that's a home office like me where you're,
you're
doing your work from.
And again, very love, you know, decorated in a very lovely way.
There's, you know, some lake stuff there.
There's a tree that I know you don't water.
Nope.
Those are the best.
Yeah.
Those are the kind you don't have to water.
Other good stuff there.
Whereas behind Parker in studio A2 there in Madison is
a weirdly placed electrical socket at about five feet in height up the wall right in the middle and nothing else.
So we got to get him.
We got to get him something.
I will have discussions with Luke.
I wonder if a neon sign would work right with that outlet.
Cover that outlet.
I mean,
maybe the neon sign would look.
Look, look at what Chad's got set up over here at ninety eight nine WXCO and Matt in Warsaw, rather, is these wonderful signs for the radio station.
Two of them behind him.
Chad, who put that together for you?
Oh, you got to unmute yourself there, bud.
I like the bull versus the bull on
the side for the bull from.
Yeah, cool.
Both falls radio.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
You don't know.
And they were just
there, you know.
They came in a long time ago and they put them up.
And I did not have anything to do with putting
them
up.
Rob, Rob says he's got pictures to share.
He takes a lot of sunset pictures and things.
So that might be nice.
Tony says a dearlier portrait of Greg.
No, if we're doing that, we're doing matters.
Okay, we're putting maybe that's the way to do it.
You just put Luke and Greg there side by side.
There you
go.
It's like kind of like when you go into a government building and there's the president and the vice president or something like that.
That's great.
We have an assignment for next
week.
Do I want that
working over my shoulders all the time?
For a day for a comedy bit, you bet you do.
One day.
The things we do for a laugh around here.
All right.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Have a great weekend.
I'm off tomorrow.
I'll see you on Monday.
Take
care.
Lucky duck.
Have
fun.
All right.
Yeah, I got that grandson graduating here.
So let's welcome in Chad from 989 WXCO.
See what stories are being followed in the Warsaw Metroplex and spring.
They hide the
Nancy Stencil as well.
She's sitting across from
me.
Nancy Stencil.
There she is.
Is she still chair of the Northon County Dems?
Yep, she is.
So we've been talking and I said, stick around.
because dog on it, she makes my segment so much more informative and entertaining.
Oh my gosh.
I asked her once for, you know, just some, some guest ideas and I'm still working my way through all 100 of the ideas that she set my way because she, she knows everybody there.
Yeah, I mean, she gave me a great idea.
In fact, you know, Katrina Shanklin, right?
Of course, yes.
She'll be popping by here later this morning and we'll have her
on the
morning of the segment.
So it's something to look forward to.
I'm very impressed with Katrina.
So looking
forward to
talking to her.
She's with Rust Belt Rising and obviously, you know, when you talk about the future, you have to be able to talk to the voters in some districts and some areas that
may have been voting Republican or mega and talk to them.
And I'm curious to talk about what she's up to in terms of trying to reach these kind of voters, not just in Wisconsin, but through some of the other Rust Belt states.
So that's something I'm looking forward to later today.
Yeah, no, we miss her a lot, a lot.
Having her in the assembly there and as a good candidate for Congress, what a tremendous rep she would have been there or anything else that she sets her mind to doing.
Yeah,
maybe we'll find something to find out what's happening in the future.
I
might bring it up.
I don't know.
She's always welcome to break news, chat homes or anywhere across the civic media radio network.
What else are you working on out there, if you're new sports or fun?
Oh, I'm staying busy with the sports.
I had to go up to Superior Tuesday for a softball game.
Boy, I'm still tired.
The late night, the long trek to get there and get back.
But, but yeah, staying busy with the sports.
Obviously, things are always happening.
One of the weird things here.
Fortunately, right now.
the building's not shaking.
We have a lot of construction that's going on right outside my window.
And many times during the day, literally the whole building is shaking.
So we are getting progress here in downtown Wausau, which is a good thing.
But at the same time, there were moments during this day where it's like, I'm sure like my brain is bouncing around in the head, but keeping an eye on that obviously as well.
Yeah, there's a lot going on in downtown Eau Claire.
One of the main streets there is closed off for traffic.
A lot of businesses really trying to get people to still come downtown anyway.
They might have to do a little walking to get there, but hopefully they do.
Same goes for whatever community folks are living in.
If there's a big construction project, don't let it dissuade you.
Do a little bit of extra work.
You get the improvement in your infrastructure in the long run and you don't lose businesses in the short run.
So, a little extra work is worth it.
I almost hesitate to tee this up for you.
But I'm gonna tee this up for you anyway.
Ron Johnson.
Talking to you.
Oh, I
love talking about Ron
Johnson.
He's right up
here at Time Tiffany, I tell ya.
Talking about to the Milwaukee Press Club and talks about how he doesn't enjoy being a senator, but he says he's gotta do it for his children and grandchildren.
And the exact quote is, I'm just a guy from Oshkosh just trying to really try and save the country.
And again, somebody who talks about stealing from our children and grandchildren with debt and deficits, the same guy that added $2 trillion to the debt with the 2017 tax bill, the replacement of which is being talked about right now in DC.
I don't know what I think of the job Ron Johnson is doing as just a guy from Oshkosh trying to save the country.
Trying to save the country.
I'll give him credit.
that he didn't say, I'm just a guy from Oshkosh who is saving the country.
At least he said it that way.
Again, the man lives in a different space than I do.
Yeah, it's called Florida.
Not to mention the other income brackets, yes.
But I mean, between him and I was listening to you, I think it was yesterday, talking about Tiffany, maybe it was Tuesday.
Time has no meaning anymore.
About Tiffany.
talking about how the governor of the state of Wisconsin should be investigated for advising folks that, hey, if you are involved with ICE or the law in any way, you can talk to a lawyer.
That somehow that is worthy of investigation these days.
That shows, again, the mindset of these folks that makes me shake my head.
It makes me
upset.
That doesn't help.
It really doesn't help.
But when we're talking about that, I'm getting ready for work.
And thanks, Pat, for getting me going in the morning.
I just like to get the juices flowing so that, you know, you're you're talking about things with a sense of spirit, if not downright
rage.
The idea that we in this country right now, where that is worthy of government investigation.
I mean that is
that's exactly what a a a member of congress from pennsylvania is threatening to do with the mayor of philadelphia as well and and again it's all a distraction a race-based distraction i hasten to add so that people won't look at this tax bill which is the most immense redistribution of wealth which used to mean something completely different back in the day we always hear conservatives talk about redistribution of wealth like
going from wealthy people to, you know, regular folks.
This is actual redistribution of wealth, what they're proposing here, from the middle class and the working class up to billionaires.
And they don't want you thinking about that.
Real fast to wrap it up.
The thing about it that is, again, enraging is the line about it.
I am willing to have the battle of the ideas that they can prove.
And again, I don't think they can, but if they can prove that moving money from those who
need it to those who don't need it is a good thing for this country.
Let's have that conversation but stop lying about it.
That's what makes it much more of a challenge and it definitely keeps us employed.
Chad Holmes, thank you much.
Catch everything he's doing at 98.9 WXCO in Wausau or through the Civic Media app.
Joseph Peck, he is on the way still and much more this hour.
Thanks for joining us on the Civic Media Radio Network live from Lake Wissota.
I'm Peck Rightlow.
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.
Let's talk about your money and the markets and other people's money going into the pockets of the president of the United States and his family.
For that, let's talk to somebody who's a bit of an expert in financial compliance.
That would be Sean O'Malley joining us from up in Bayfield.
Mr. O'Malley, how are you?
soon enough,
it'll work its way down.
And behind him, as we were talking about backdrops for a radio show, I get it, is a map of the Apostle Islands, correct?
Yes, there we go.
Which you have sailed once or twice through that
Wow.
Okay.
How old is your daughter?
So is she helpful or is she just sitting there, you know, munching on sandwiches and saying, Dad, you forgot something?
Okay.
Good.
And this is this is what you're doing now, as opposed to the pressure cooker of Wall Street, where I have to say just from a personal standpoint, we'll get into the specifics of it in a bit.
But when you look at the whole wide range of Trump with cryptocurrency and accepting personal jets from Qatar and the
the pardons that he's issuing to convicted criminals who embezzled money and things like that.
For a guy that worked on compliance, making sure that every eye was dotted and T was crossed in these financial documents, how Alice in Wonderland is this age now
It really feels like the world's kind of gone upside down.
I think the discussion you were just having about
you know, sort of being angry about that we're literally taking from, you know, robbing from the poor or robbing from the poor and middle class to give to the rich is, it seems very contrary to any sort of thinking that we've had previously in our country.
So it's, yeah, it's a little bit, you know, otherworldly.
Otherworldly is a good way to put it but we spoke earlier in the show about how Wall Street appears to have finally caught on to Trump's tariff strategy if you want to call it a strategy because
I was getting very frustrated with media reports that would say Trump is imposing this tariff and then you know days or a couple weeks later they'd say Trump has agreed to lift this tariff or Trump has agreed to you know pause this tariff and I'm like wait a minute pretty much any other president you'd be saying president so-and-so has flip-flopped on this but they they make it look like some kind of magnanimous gesture but now folks on Wall Street have looked at this and they've
coined a nickname for it, and they now trade based on it.
It's called taco trading.
Tell folks what taco stands for and what we mean by taco trading that's going on now, because taco trading ain't making me any money, but it's making other people some money.
Yes, primarily those with the inside information, but the taco acronym got coined by a writer from the financial times about a month ago, often referred to in the industry as the FT.
And taco was Trump always caves chickens out.
And of course, knowing full well, I'm sure at the time that that would
incite incredible rage in the man with the thinnest skin in the Western Hemisphere.
But it's very true.
This is what's happening on Wall Street.
They're realizing that it's sort of a by the dip.
So if Trump announces a tariff or some sort of increase, which we've had on Liberation Day, April 2,
And then when he increased the China tariffs up to 145%, only to later rule both of those back, there were opportunities to buy the dip.
And so now it's counting.
It's considered the Trump always chickens out trade.
So if he says he's putting a tariff on and things go down, you can count on the market going up.
And true to form after the economic court,
Here in the United States, the three panel judges voted unanimously that Donald Trump does not have the authority to impose the tariffs under the law that he is citing.
The stock market futures market isn't open yet.
It'll open up shortly, but they are up fairly substantially, over a half percent on all major indices.
Would you recommend for those folks who you don't hear much about, you know, so-called day traders anymore, but I get the sense now, having heard that, it's like a hook and somebody would go, oh, well, that's what I'm going to do now.
I'm going to make money by, you know, betting on Trump to flip-flop on things.
It doesn't, I mean, it certainly has basis in fact.
I just don't know if it's a sound financial strategy.
Now that, you know, the taco acronym is out there and it's widely known and recognized, you can bet that everybody is doing it and the effects are going to be diminished because at this point, he is like the boy who's cried wolf too many times.
And when he says, I'm putting on more tariffs, nobody's going to believe him.
And also from a legal perspective, even though he is going to be appealing this judgment that he just lost,
He's running out of room to be able to try to implement tariffs.
There's an ancillary, different legal approach he could take that Goldman Sachs has evaluated, but that only gives him 150 days, so basically five months to be able to impose tariffs and then you got to take them off.
Are you able to stick around for a minute or two after the break so we can explore this a bit more?
Yeah.
Okay.
Why don't you do that because I just want to do a little bit more on this and then we'll turn to Joseph Pecky who's going to talk to us more about
Medicaid cuts that are proposed in the budget.
But we'll stick to the trade war thing in just a minute here.
What a big win for the Brewers yesterday.
Another 10th inning walkoff win sweeping all three games from the Red Sox.
Six to five was the final Milwaukee's fourth win in a row.
Their second four game winning streak of the season.
The Brewers are back at 500 now.
28 wins.
28 losses.
Six and a half back of the Cubs off today traveling to Philadelphia to have a weekend series against the Phillies.
Catch that.
on several civic media stations.
More with Sean O'Malley and a visit from Joseph Peckie.
Coming up next, live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We are just a few minutes away from Joseph Ecke joining us to take us the rest of the way through this Thursday morning here live from Lake Basota across the Civic Media Radio Network.
But first we've got a few minutes to spend here with Sean O'Malley, a financial compliance expert who's taking his Wall Street knowledge and putting it to work for us with a couple of minutes of his time each week.
We always appreciate that.
And with the opening bell having just rung on Wall Street, I wanted to ask you about this.
this court that ruled against President Trump and said the way that he's going about, you know, unlimited tariff power is wrong.
And I would imagine that Wall Street is reacting positively to the news.
Let's start with that first.
Is that what you're expecting there?
Yeah, Pat, that was certainly the expectation the minute that the judgment was announced late in the day yesterday, the overnight futures for the American stock markets was up fairly substantially now that the markets are open.
that has been realized in fact by the indices themselves.
NASDAQ is up about a percent and a half and the S&P is no digging up towards one percent.
So pretty big movement based on that one court ruling.
Here's and again let's emphasize it's one court ruling.
Here's what this isn't.
This isn't what some would say
the actual Liberation Day.
We have been liberated from Trump's trade war.
This court has ruled Trump will no longer try to use tariffs unilaterally and in unlimited forms and the stock market is going up today and will go up in perpetuity.
Sean, virtually none of that is true.
You're looking at one in administration that
throughout its brief lifespan in this second term has shown a rather flagrant disregard for any decision from any court, including the nine to zero Supreme Court unanimous decision regarding immigration.
I doubt that this three to zero decision in the economic court is going to have any real impact and they have already appealed it.
Eventually this will probably get to the Supreme Court as well.
But given Donald Trump's particular proclivity to kind of do whatever he wants, pending the appeal, he will continue to flout the law and this judgment that was rendered late yesterday until he gets a final judgment.
And even if the Supreme Court goes against him, there is no guarantee that he's going to comply with that because he has already violated one of their decisions.
Why not violate another?
And then finally, in light of Trump again, pardoning more people who were convicted of financial crimes.
You know, the Chris Lees from Reality TV and others like that.
Again, for somebody who was involved in financial compliance on Wall Street, have you now or will you ever suggest a presidential pardon for yourself or anybody that you worked with?
In other words, did you attend any recent million dollar plate?
dinners at Mar-a-Lago, the way that one of the mothers of one of the people who got a pardon
No, but I find it particularly interesting.
If you look at the economics on that, it was actually a good trade for the mother getting her son off of the income tax evasion charges.
He actually smuggled over seven and a half million dollars.
And she only paid a little over a million and was able to get the presidency here and now has presidential pardon.
So economically, I guess that was a good trade.
Ethically, it's reprehensible.
the weirdest investment advice we could ever give.
And yet, this is where we are.
Sean O'Malley, thanks again so much.
We'll talk to you next week.
All right, it is 21 minutes now before nine o'clock.
And so let's bring in Joseph Peckie, professional road warrior, who is part of his campaign for Democratic State Party Chair.
I got to see him in Chippewa Falls, passing through town on his way to Superior, I believe, is where you are today.
And then you got a few more stops before you get to go home to the Milwaukee area yet.
So that's all right.
Appreciate you taking a little time to be doing this.
And I did want to start with a discussion of Senator Baldwin and basically not backing down from these efforts by the Trump administration to.
cut Medicaid to remove people from coverage under the Affordable Care Act to the point where she and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and others are introducing a bill.
I know it won't pass, but introducing the bill is the point, is to say there are still people that are standing up for this idea.
The idea that if we had our way...
We would continue and expand the Biden program of allowing the government to negotiate bulk pricing for more drugs.
In other words, rather than cutting people's coverage, how about we lower your prescription drug costs instead?
I'm pretty sure Senator Baldwin is going to talk about that today and continue to have undoubtedly the moral high ground on this issue.
Yeah, it may not become law under this president, but it clarifies the choice and it starts the hard long slog of legislating that maybe in 2029 it becomes law or 2030.
And so here's the difference.
The Trump administration in their bananas billionaire boondoggle, which is what I'm calling the BBB is about moving millions of people off of healthcare, which is going to make people who still have health care coverage more expensive.
all to give tax cuts to the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg while exploding the deficit and our national debt.
What Senator Baldwin and her colleague Senator Klobuchar are doing is saying, you know what?
It turns out the public policy we got into the Inflation Reduction Act where the government is finally, after 30 years, able to negotiate for bulk pricing.
the same way that you and I and everyone listening benefits when they go to Costco or Sam's Club, because if you buy more of something, you get to pay a little bit less per unit for the first time in three decades.
The US government can do that when they're negotiating for drugs that people on Medicare use.
That not only lowers people's prescription drug costs, but it also helps write our fiscal ship as a country.
And the notion that the likes of Senator Johnson
who is jumping up and down about the BBB because he says it's fiscally irresponsible, but would not support something like this that lowers people's health care costs and lowers the government's costs is just ridiculous.
And it gives away the game when they say, no, we're not going to kick people off health care.
Like, yes, they are.
And they apparently are uninterested in actually doing common sense things that protect the federal government's fiscal house.
This is a senator Ron Johnson we're talking about who had a couple of appearances in the Milwaukee area yesterday and again tried to describe himself as somebody who's trying to save prevent the theft of the future funds from our children and grandchildren and I would emphasize again for folks who might have missed it in 2017 the last time we went through this he personally insisted and got a
tax break that benefited himself personally and some of the billionaires plural who benefited immensely and plowed some of that savings in.
We talked about terrible and you know smart quote-unquote investments with Donald Trump.
These people you know the the E-Lines and the Hendricks's they made investments in Ron Johnson with the last tax bill and again it paid off for them but it cost all the rest of us.
And boy was Senator Johnson on one this week with more nonsense saying that kids shouldn't get measles vaccines anymore.
You know, once again, raising the fact that he's going to potentially break his promise even more about a two term pledge.
This is someone who when he first ran in 2010.
said he would only serve two terms.
He's now in his third and is not ruling out a fourth.
I mean, is it any wonder that people don't trust politicians?
And listen, Ron Johnson might have started as an outsider, but he is a fully formed insider at this point who seems to think that how could anyone do a better job than him in the United States Senate, despite the fact as someone who ran on getting our fiscal house in order?
And so the national debt was an existential crisis.
In the time he's been in Washington, the national debt has tripled.
OK, Senator, you're not getting the job done.
Maybe go retire to Florida.
We know we don't see you much in Wisconsin anymore.
No, he's got that platform.
And again, thanks to the help that he gave to billionaires, he can continue to run enough campaign ads that would enable him to stay in
power.
So while he fights the bill, the Trump bill,
for his own reasons, you know, we return back to what Senator Baldwin would do.
And that is again, try to help out those 53 million seniors who are enrolled in Medicare Part D coverage.
And I think it's worth reminding people that the current Trump tax plan, we talk about Medicaid a lot, we talk about SNAP a lot, but there is so much that is tucked away in this bill.
And
Joe, I don't know that it's spelled out directly, but I've certainly seen reports that given the level of cuts involved in this bill, it can't help but also hit people who are on Medicare currently.
You know, the math ain't math and otherwise in this bill.
So don't look just for the things that are explicit in this bill, but the things that you have to infer from it as well.
In fact, very
If you make four million or more dollars a year, you will get a $400,000 boon to your bank account.
If you make less than $40,000 a year, you will see your costs go up and you will be less financially stable.
And frankly, if you're making less than $40,000 a year in most parts of our state, you're already
you know, right there on the edge in terms of struggling and being able to afford to live.
So that's the difference.
You make $4 million a year, you get $400,000 more.
You make $40,000 a year.
Sorry, your net worth has gone down.
That is what the nonpartisan independent analysts are saying about this monstrosity of a bill that the likes of Derek Van Orden lied about and every Wisconsin Republican voted for.
So I would call folks attention to our website up North news wi.com Where I put up an editorial late yesterday that folks can take a look at and the the title of it is the GOP's accidental grift gift because this this bill is a grift in terms of the tax favors to the wealthy that you just mentioned, but it's also a gift I think in this way and yes, I'm being rather
tongue-in-cheek, but there is a greater point to this, where I say, great news, everybody.
Price tags don't matter anymore.
All that talk of liberal wishless being unaffordable was just talk.
It turns out there's plenty of room for adequately funding education, healthcare for everyone, infrastructure improvements and more.
And what I'm saying there, Joe, is that never again can Derek Van Orden or anybody who voted for this say this about a Democratic proposal.
we can't afford it because clearly if they don't mind racking up another three trillion in debt, saying we can't afford it should never pass their lips again.
It's nonsense.
And this is why people are pissed off at Washington and why they're so frustrated with our politics.
Because you can't trust folks to do the right thing.
You can't trust them to have any kind of consistency.
And so when the likes of Derek Van Orden say, I'm not touching food benefits.
I'm not touching people's health care.
And then he goes and votes for this monstrosity of a bill that if it becomes law, means people in his district will go hungry, means people in his district will lose health care, and means that everyone in his district
will pay more for healthcare and to deal with the societal impacts of people going hungry, it gives away the game.
That's why people are so frustrated right
now.
as
well.
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you know, maybe the temperature isn't the same as being on every ocean coast, but there are definitely beaches that are worthy of anything you might be on on some oceans in the country.
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Joseph Peck, he's back with us now in Superior where he's making the rounds again around the state.
One of the candidates for state Democratic Party Chair, which
I know yesterday involved talking to the Chippewa County Democratic Party.
There's only like, let's see, 72 counties in the state, so I believe 70 Democratic Party, County Party, something like that.
So, you know, I'm sure you're hitting more than five or six of them so far in this campaign.
as many as they'll have me and that's it's exhausting but it's also inspiring and uplifting because while people are certainly concerned about what they're seeing out of Washington and pretty scared about the way that the Trump administration is taking a blow torch to the Constitution.
They're not retreating.
They're leaning in.
There are new folks stepping up and getting involved and asking how they can help because people know that what the Trump administration is doing is un-American.
They know that what Republicans in Congress are failing to do is cowardice.
And they know that even their neighbors, who voted for Republicans in 2024,
This is not what they voted for.
They did not vote for an end to due process in this country.
They did not vote for a commander in chief who could declare himself all but king by just invoking emergency powers on every single issue at his very whim.
And so people are rising up and they are resisting.
And that is really, really powerful to see.
And it's the best part about travel in the state is seeing how committed people are to a better way forward, which is to build power now and win elections in 2026.
It's been a little slow on the state level this week.
I believe joint finance is getting back into the swing of things today to talk about the state budget, which is why we haven't had a lot to say about it.
But when I was talking to Earl Ingram yesterday about the lead problems in the Milwaukee area, first off, he reminded us it's about so much more than Milwaukee.
There are lead paint and lead water pipe issues, you know, all across the state, but that these were a couple of the many, many.
over 600 items in Governor Evers proposed budget that Republicans removed.
There's still a lot of work to be done in this state budget plan, and even though the Joint Finance Committee public hearings are done,
Everybody still has a role to play in their lowercase l lobbying as I like to say and so what I'm hearing you say there is that It's not just members of county Democratic parties around the state But it's folks who are not normally politically involved that are looking at
you know what republicans are doing in madison and certainly what they're doing in washington dc and it seems like more want to speak out than ever before it's completely the opposite of i don't want to have to think about politics anymore i'm i'm just going to ignore it people are actually motivated now by what they're seeing out there
they are i mean this is what government is for is to deal with societal issues with large-scale community-wide challenges like lead
in kids drinking waters.
And so people are stepping up and that is refreshing to see.
And do we have a lot of work to do as Democratic Party?
We absolutely do.
I gotta take a minute here to dunk on the smart people in the Democratic Party because one of the big stories this week is the $20 million that big donors are apparently spending to figure out how to talk to boys.
And Young Man, have you seen this one?
No.
I mean, it reads like a caricature of the worst version of who Democrats are when, you know, the write-up in the New York Times starts with in the opulent, elegant luxury hotel rooms of America's elite cities, you know.
big donors and Democratic Party insiders are wrestling with the question of our time.
They've put $20 million into a fund to figure out how to speak to men in America.
And it just makes me want to throw my laptop out the window because this is not that difficult, folks.
Say it with your chest.
Say who you are and what you believe and find where the people are and go and talk to them.
The notion that we need 20 million dollars to figure that out when there are real needs in our communities and real things that we should be doing to build our power ahead of next year is absolutely infuriating and it's the kind of nonsense that I'm running to change in how the Democratic Party operates.
Yes, we need to communicate more effectively.
I've got some ideas.
I think there's broad buy-in and support for that, for a more effective communication strategy that delivers our values and not just what we're against, but what we're for.
And so if that's something that you're interested in, listener, and you're not a delegate to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which means you don't get a vote in this election, find somebody who is.
Reach out.
I'll find somebody in your network who is, and you can tell them, send in the comms guy, because apparently we need it.
And I don't cost 20 million dollars like this, you know, strategy from the stars apparently does.
Goodness.
How we talk to each other, it's again, speaking from the heart, I didn't think it was that tough, but, you know, for some folks, they need, they need, they need consulting in that area.
By the way, was
skiing?
Not according to the newsletter, which I can't vouch for, but he certainly did make it a national sensation, shall we say.
it.
Great
Exactly.
Joe's Peck, you safe travels as always.
I'll talk to you next week.
Thanks.
All right.
You bet.
And next week on the program here, we're going to have Hans Brighton Moser, who's a dairy farmer from the Lincoln County area.
It is Dairy Month, June Dairy Month.
We'll be coming around next week.
So we'll talk about that.
Let's see.
It's also Pride Month next month, and we'll talk about how to be a good ally to the LGBTQ community.
We'll talk to Congressman Mark Bocan, part of his regular weekly visits with us as well about things happening in Washington and elsewhere.
swear.
My thanks to Sarah ring and Jeremy Grajert and Joseph pecky and Sean O'Malley for being guests today.
I'm Pat quite low founding editor of Up North News.
Up North News is the Wisconsin digital outlet for career a pro democracy news network building a more informed engaged in representative America.
Todd Alba is here tomorrow.
I'll see you Monday morning here up north.
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