The Anemic Economic Enigma (Hour 3)

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.

Well, hey there Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is a hazy Lake was soda that we're gazing over smoky, I guess is the right word for it.

Nice to have you here up north from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network.

And if you're joining us by one of the many other platforms and ways to get this show, again, thank you for taking the time to look us up and get your day started right here.

Parker Olson produces this little shindig out of Madison Studio A2 200 miles away from here at the top of State Street, one block off the state Capitol.

Mr. Olson, how are you?

Doing well, Pat.

It's been

a weird morning.

It's so dark here.

I don't know why it's dark here and it's a lot of it I think is the air quality plus you know the sun isn't coming up quite as early but it is just

don't it's weird that part of it's

weird out there I've got in in our bedroom I've got like this air purifier thing

it's

it's mostly for white noise to be honest but it's an air purifier that's fine we didn't have the

the patio door open, you know, for more than a couple of minutes while running in and out and doing things.

And by the time that happened, like less than five minutes.

And the little indicator on it was already like this bright red, like the air in this room is not good.

I'm

like, I'm, I

am, I am not surprised at all.

Cause it's just, you know, thought about going for a boat ride last evening and there was like nobody out on the lake and I could see why we were out for that short time.

We're like.

No, this just isn't enjoyable.

When I was leaving yesterday, it was raining so hard.

I couldn't see hardly at all across the lake.

It was like a white wall.

It was a sheet.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's no good, no bueno.

Again, there's nothing we can do.

We don't have a big old fire extinguisher for Canada here.

It's

almost

like the climate is changing or something.

It's making things

weird that we have to

live with.

You

know, it's funny to say that.

I was talking to Brittany about that the other day.

Yeah, the jet streams, they're bringing some stuff over here.

It's different than it used to be.

Alicia puts on YouTube.

It's so hazy here.

The sun is orange this morning.

At least you're seeing a little sun.

We're not even seeing that yet.

The clouds are going to be moving away and that's going to be nice and Brittany Merleau will have our detailed forecast coming up in just a bit.

I normally start off.

I want to ask you a question.

I like to get your day started with, you know, just thinking a little bit here.

And some days I'm kind of like struggling like, oh, what's my question going to be off the top?

Turns out I actually have several here.

So I wanted.

Parker to, to help me out with some of this.

Time for the

mornings with Pet Crite Low Survey.

Here we go.

Yes, exactly.

So it was good.

I had, I'm up to four different options here.

It was going to be, I got a question for you.

Have you turned in?

Have you mailed in your second half property taxes yet?

Because they are due today.

And every homeowner out there who pays them into installments is like, Oh, shoot.

Yeah.

Okay.

Get that in.

Got to be postmarked by today or bring it in.

Then there was, I got a question for you.

Is it all over for the Milwaukee Brewers?

Is it it?

Should we just pack it up

and go,

yep, season's done after getting shellacked by the Cubs yesterday?

The answer, of course, it's a rhetorical question.

No, but it seems like we always need one of those games at American Family Field where you hear all the Cubs fans and it's just annoying.

It sucks.

I saw Dan Schaefer on Twitter yesterday saying,

that he saw more accidents than ever before yesterday because of how many fibs were leaving and because of the rain and they were happy because they won a game.

So they had been.

Yes.

So there might have been some liquid happiness involved in there too.

Yeah, that's no fun.

So no, it's not all over, but we'll talk about the Burbs Cubs game in just a bit.

I got a question for you.

You ever sometimes wonder, you take a moment and you change the focus of your eyes and you look at your glasses and you go, how am I seeing out of these things?

Did a dog lick them and I just wasn't aware?

That's a good question.

There was actually been Parker and I both wore glasses, but there was like a dead spot on my screen as I'm looking at my notes and I kind of lift my chin up a little bit.

I'm like, oh no, that's my glasses.

That's what that is.

I should clean those things off.

And then right at the last second, I stumbled upon this looking through the entertainment news today.

I got a question for you.

Leslie Nielsen and the naked gun.

Is it going to work or not?

I don't know enough about pop culture.

Um, well, I

suppose you probably know, did watch little or none of Leslie Nielsen in the naked gun, which I think makes you the perfect subject for

this because

you won't have any of Leslie Nielsen's classic, you know, comedy to fall back on her or to refer to.

So you have an assignment now and I know you're busy.

I know you got all those mallards games and nightmares games to work and everything else, but sometime in the very near future.

Yeah, one or two weeks here.

You got to go see the naked gun.

I will go see the naked gun.

I will obviously compare it to the 1988 original.

And the thing to know about this that I know you and any younger listeners out there don't know is Leslie Nielsen.

Sure, we look at him now as this comedic actor.

He was hilarious doing the naked gun and police squad and all of that.

But what you may not know is he was

quite the serious, dramatic, tough guy actor prior to that, which is what makes this so interesting for Liam Neeson doing the same thing.

He's going from, you know, I have a unique set of skills, I'm going to kill you, to, you know, playing, you know, Lieutenant Frank Drebben.

And now he's Frank Drebben Jr.

in this one.

So can he too make the move from drama to comedy?

And we've seen other actors do it, and I always love when they do it.

Not everyone pulls it off, but when they do, it's very cool.

And I have every reason to think Liam Neeson can pull this off.

As far as I know, Liam Neeson is a very, very good actor.

I would think he's got that in his bag.

Yeah, so well, we've got that.

So there's there's an assignment for for the listeners as well.

We don't often, you know, say as part of your homework, go see a movie.

But here's the thing.

It's smoky is all get out out there.

And if you can't do much outside, the theater is air conditioned.

So let's

let's go

to the movies together.

Bring

your air purifier.

Yeah.

Luke on the text line.

I really hope they don't try to remake airplane.

But if they do, Yannis better get cast in the movie in the Korean Abdul Chabar role.

That would be the best.

That would be awesome.

Luke, Luke saying, I really hope they don't try to make airplane.

You had me there.

But as soon as you had the idea of putting Yannis in the cockpit, now I'm in.

Now I got to see this.

I've got to see this.

Because again, you saw like Peter Graves was in airplane.

He'd been in all the Mission Impossible series.

Nobody thought he could pull off comedy.

You know, and he did.

And of course that's where Leslie Nielsen had his first turn in comedy.

I love when athletes find their way into movies.

Like, I think there's four or five Packers that are in one of the pitch perfect movies and it's awesome.

Oh, those are good.

It's when they tried to make it all about themselves, looking at you, Shaq Fu, you know, that it doesn't really work out.

Yeesh, Tony on YouTube.

I have complete confidence in Liam, so that's good.

And, uh, Rod, you're trying to pivot us back toward the real world here.

Two out of three against the Cubs wasn't bad.

The Cubs leave in second place.

And we're also less than 11 hours before the trade deadline, which is true.

Now, the Brewers typically do not do much at the trade deadline.

Um, we don't go into the big drama, the big money stuff.

No, I'm not saying it never happens, but it's not what the team is known for.

And I don't think they need to, especially right now.

I kind of think we're at the stage that it would just throw a wrench into the clubhouse.

Josh Hader.

But yes, Josh Hader, that's exactly.

See.

That's what made the point right there.

So let's not go crazy, kids.

We've got a good thing.

We've got a good core.

If you can find something easy, because look at what we did without the trade deadline.

Aaron Savalli going, Oh, I'm not going to the bullpen.

You got it.

You got to trade me.

Sure thing, buddy.

Here's the White Sox.

Bring up Andrew Vaughn, who, you know, with a decent team shows what he can do.

So

this is okay.

This is, and I got a question for you, Pat.

Does the trade deadline really mean that much in the sense that the birds have made the trade for Andrew Vaughn and there was another trade at the very beginning of the year that we made to get somebody.

Those weren't trade deadline trades, but they were trades that made a huge impact.

When we get to the end of this week, we're going to talk about how, oh God, the birds did nothing at the end of the trade deadline.

Geez.

Why didn't they make any moves?

It's not

like trade day.

It's not like this is the one day to make trades.

Yes.

You do it when the time is right, and that's what the brewers have done.

They're not going to wait till the end of July for

this.

Yes, grade the

entirety of the trade book.

Don't grade the

week.

I'm not expecting any big moves here.

And again, the Cha-Shader thing really kind of seals the deal.

Let me tell you what else to expect on the show today.

It didn't take long.

Didn't take long at all for the 2026 race for governor to get its first smear campaign as predictable as it is tiring.

Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez met her husband at a salsa dancing class.

They've been married nearly 20 years.

He's an IT network engineer and a naturalized citizen and they're raising two teenagers.

They've been married, like I said, for two decades naturally.

the first whisper campaigns about his immigration status are underway, and Sara Rodriguez had a perfect way to put it into perspective for the voters.

Also coming up for people who follow the news regularly, there is no surprise in what billboards are saying about the Trump mega bill.

But there are still plenty of people in Wisconsin that elsewhere who are not aware that the massive cuts in vital programs aren't saving them a dime.

It's all going to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and others in the highest tax brackets So we will talk to the head of a national group putting up billboards Featuring faces of America's most prominent rich guys and sharing a simple message We make they take We'll talk to Wall Street finance and compliance expert Sean O'Malley who gives us his Wisconsin common sense take on all the latest economic news the raw numbers suggest things

aren't as bad as people feared they might be.

But also, there's no clear path out of this current sluggishness.

And it should go without saying the current sluggishness wasn't inevitable.

We were enjoying a resurging economy back when it was under adult supervision.

Is this really the best that we can do for the next three and a half years?

We'll talk to Up North News social media manager, Sharita Booker, about some big events happening this weekend around the state.

That would of course include the Wisconsin State Fair that opens today.

We will check in with Civic Media's Todd Alba about his show this afternoon.

Chad Holmes from our station in Wausau about stories that he's following there.

And Joseph Pecky will have an update for us on how the 2026 races for Governor and other Wisconsin offices are being impacted by Governor Evers' announcement last week, one week ago today, that he was gonna be retiring.

That's my way of saying it's actually been a slightly slower week than expected.

I did expect kind of a stampede of candidates who are, you know, getting ready to announce and we're going to announce.

I still think there are going to be numerous candidates in the race, but I did think that there'd be, you know, maybe a couple of more out of the gate right away.

So far, that has not proven to be the case.

But again, it's July 31st of the year before.

So the Cubs did trounce the Brewers yesterday 10 to three.

So the Cubs avoided a three game sweep, but Milwaukee still is on top of the division by one game.

And the thing is, they've got one more series, and it was going to be rough enough when it was a four game series.

But now it's going to be a five game series to make up for a rain delay or a rain out earlier this season.

So it'll be a five game series from August 18th through the 21st.

Freddie Peralta, who had won his last seven starts, allowed a season high five runs and four innings yesterday, including a lead off home run on the game's first pitch.

William Contreras had his fifth career two homer game.

Brewers are off today traveling to Washington DC.

They'll play the Nationals this weekend.

They'll be at Atlanta early next week.

So there's your update on sports from the heart of America's up north.

Live from Lake Wissota.

Thank you for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

So getting back to the Brewers for just a second, I mentioned they're off today, heading to Washington to take on the Nationals.

So again, no game today, but tomorrow evening, you can hear the Brewers with the pregame starting at 5.10 tomorrow evening on Civic Media stations in Oshkosh, Racine, Kenosha, Richland Center, Park Falls, and Hayward.

Head over to the website, civicmedia.us to learn more.

And yes, tomorrow is another free ticket Friday.

Now, I'm not giving you the keyword yet, but I am going to give you a heads up because it's always for a specific brewer game, and I want to give you time to plan for it.

Maybe you wouldn't think to enter this contest, but if I told you the game to plan for, maybe that would be it.

So, Free Ticket Friday tomorrow is for the game the following Friday, one week from tomorrow at American Family Field against the New York Mets.

big game.

So let me let me get the start time on that game.

It's a 710.

So Friday evening game next week.

So if it's something that interests you, if you can get tickets delivered to your phone and use electronic tickets at the stadium, you're going to want to have that civic media app.

And tomorrow we'll give you the keyword during our show.

There'll be different keywords throughout the day on different shows.

And you could be in the running for four great seats and Parker can attest as can I. Those are great club level seats.

Great view of the game.

We got the photo from Jim and Brookfield the other day enjoying the tickets that he won from Civic Media.

It's a fun place.

You're right by foul ball territory.

You got a chance.

Oh, without a doubt.

Yes.

I am at some point going to get a foul ball.

I think so.

I truly believe that.

Yes.

So keep that in mind for free ticket Friday.

Also, sign up for our newsletter.

We have a question of the week in our Sunday morning newsletter about Wisconsin politics.

And this week's question of the week doesn't sound like it should be about Wisconsin politics.

It's about cryptocurrency.

But, you know, if Congress is going to bend over backwards to be friendly to the crypto industry, maybe we have to depend on our state lawmakers to make sure that their consumer protections in place.

So overall, we just decided to say, where are you on crypto right now?

I mean, is it inevitable?

Is it the future of money?

Do you really not know and, you know, you just want to learn more?

Or have you learned just enough to go, no, I don't like this.

I'm too skeptical.

So that's what the readers of our Sunday newsletter get to answer first on Sunday mornings.

Sign up for it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com and learn more.

We're going to talk more less than two hours from now in our eight o'clock hour with Sean O'Malley.

As I mentioned, he's a Wall Street.

He's had a long career on Wall Street.

He's a Hudson native, lives in Bayfield now, and is actually back working on Wall Street on a little project right now, I believe.

And, you know, I've known him for 40 years now, just a whip smart guy about the economy.

And he was the one who told me

many years ago when I was running for Congress in 2012, saying, I said, what is the single best thing we can do for the economy?

And he said, infrastructure, we need, if we could get a massive infrastructure investment bill, it would create over a decade's worth of jobs and improve the way we get products to market and move people around the country.

And it's just a complete win-win.

Well, nothing, of course, happened on it until the Biden administration.

And now we have that infrastructure bill.

Although, as I could have predicted, again, when you make an investment like that in new jobs, you always hear catarwalling from people going, oh, there's all that government spending again.

Yeah, so that the roads don't fall apart and so that we create jobs.

Regardless, I talked to Sean about the latest economic news.

And it was it was interesting to see the uncertainty

in the numbers.

There was, myself included, a belief that the newest numbers on the economy, the GDP, the gross domestic product, would be down.

And if they were down again, because they were down last quarter, that would mean that we were in a recession.

But they were not.

They were up.

But the thing I noticed was the way everybody was kind of hedging on the numbers, and I asked Sean about this as well, and

The fact of the matter is the the uncertainty is just downright crazy right now because of well the tariff instability.

We don't know is one day there's a tariff on these countries and one day there's not one day it's 25 percent the next day it's 15 percent.

One moment we hear we have a trade deal the next thing we hear is that it's a it's a handshake agreement on a cocktail napkin and it's far from done and that is pretty much how

It was written up in the New York Times saying that economic growth softened in the first half of the year as tariffs and uncertainty upended business plans and scrambled consumers spending decisions.

They talked about how the gross domestic product adjusted for inflation increased at a 3% annual rate in the second quarter normally.

That would be a great number.

especially when you consider that in the first quarter, the economy contracted at shrink 0.5%.

But as the time says, both of these figures are skewed.

They were skewed in opposite directions because of the big swings in trade and inventories caused by the president's ever shifting tariff policies.

And so they don't tell the whole story of economic growth that appears to be positive, but is

downright anemic.

And that's what Sean is going to talk to us about as well, is why it is the way that it is and where do we think it's going to go?

And it caused me to bring up the larger question.

Okay, so it didn't get as bad as many had feared, but it's still sluggish.

Is this another case of Trump getting to declare victory because everybody thought he was going to crash the car and he just dented it instead?

And Sean pointed out, as others do as well, none of this sluggishness is necessary.

We were enjoying the best economic recovery on the planet coming out of the pandemic.

We were doing everything right.

Firing on all cylinders had just tamed inflation.

We're just getting started investing in new jobs.

And now Trump is pulling back on all of that.

And while we didn't crash, we are now in this...

I guess to borrow an old Jimmy Carter term, this is now Trump's malaise that we're in.

And we're going to have to live with it for at least a little while longer.

The Midwest Farm Report is coming up next.

And then Sharina Booker talking about weekend events around Wisconsin.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

You're up north.

Here are some destinations you could put into your little map app and go have some fun along the way.

We're going to do that with Sherita Booker, social media manager for us at Up North News.

Hey, Sherita, how you doing?

Good, Pat, how are you?

Good, good.

We are going to save the big one for last.

This, of course, is the opening of the Wisconsin State Fair, so stick around for that.

but first we're going to talk about the Mile of Music in Appleton.

That's getting going today, something I did not know about until we did a story about it at Up North News some years back.

So why don't we start by having you tell us all about what Mile of Music is all about.

Yep, that kicks off today and I'll run through August 3rd and it's a free four-day festival spanning

a full walkable mile in the center of downtown Appleton with more than 700 live music sets performed by over 200 up-and-coming or emerging artists in 40 different venues.

Those venues can include coffee shops, bars, parks, restaurants, museums, and other public spaces.

public spaces so people this is the perfect time to support local while enjoying the free entertainment and last year they had around 100,000 attendees so expected to be busy for the four days and one detail about this event that I thought was really cool is that it's all completely original music no artist is allowed to do any covered song so it's like bringing the authenticity to the table

And if you want any information about this festival or tickets, well, not tickets, but just information because it's completely free.

Visit MylesOfMusic.com.

MylesOfMusic.com.

And there you will learn even more about this amazing event.

I think it was Kevin Revolinsky first turned me on to this when he did a story for Up North News about it some years back.

because it's not just about, these are all unsigned acts, okay?

These are all bands and singers looking for a recording contract gig.

They have been working their hearts out at all these places, playing all these gigs.

They love coming to Appleton because not only do they have an appreciative crowd,

But then there's this behind the scenes support that's done.

Everything from massage therapists, financial planners, for some people it might be the only vision or dental check that they get.

Each year is a little bit different when members of the community

step up basically and say they will support the musicians during the Mile of Music by doing these particular services for free.

It is just super cool.

It is such a great way to support the arts and I mean there's no place like Appleton that does it quite like this.

So again, MileofMusic.com is where you want to learn more and maybe get out there and see some great original music.

While you're on that side of the state,

You could also do broad days in Sheboygan.

That's coming up on Saturday, Sharita.

Yep, and they'll have...

traditional brats, brats on a stick, brat burgers, brat jambalaya, a corn dog brat, and tons of other food options that don't include brats.

But there will also be a brat eating contest if you're into that.

And the winner will get a championship trophy, a year supply of John Seville brats, gift basket of John Seville merch, and $75 worth of brat day tickets.

That festival will also have a cornhole tournament, live music, a marketplace,

bounce houses for the kids and carnival rides.

Admission to the festival is free.

And if you want more information, go to brought dash days dot com

brought dash days dot com.

And I'm

I think you kind of lost me at Brot Eating Contest because of course I'm thinking about the hot dog eating contest and it was Joey Chestnut and all these others who are just, I can't even imagine doing that with Brots as well.

So now of course I want to know what the record is and find out if it gets broken this weekend.

So Sharita, file that away for Monday.

We got to find out if either there's a new record set.

or if somebody had to go to the hospital and result of all these brats.

Someone needs to be on standby and know how to do the Heimlich because

they just want to do this.

And see if they get disqualified for what at the hotdog contest they call conduct detrimental to eating.

And I think you know what we're talking about.

And of course, last but not least is the 2025 edition of the Wisconsin State Fair, State Fair Park in West Alice.

And this one, Sherida knows all about from firsthand experience.

Yeah, I go every year, multiple times a year with my family.

We'd like to ride all the rides.

And then I'll go another couple of days with my partner and we just like to eat a lot of food.

But the Wisconsin, yeah.

So the State Fair, it'll start today and it'll run through August 10th.

And some of the headliners this year include Boys to Men, Neo, Darius, Rucker, and Midland with South Hall.

And we all know fair food is the big deal, so let's dive into that.

This year's cream puffs include chocolate and strawberry, in addition to the original.

Some of the new foods are Dubai funnel cake, alligator, Cajun mac and cheese sundae.

brisket cheese curd tacos, country fried burgers, flaming hot tots, blueberry breakfast bratwurst, and bourbon belly tots.

And I'll let you in on a little secret.

The State Bears website has a food finder search engine that compiles all the food vendors and the drinks so you don't have to wander around trying to find what you're looking for like it's already mapped out for you and you can use that on the go.

Um, I've used it myself.

I am already looking at this and well, you're gonna say something about the tickets and then we'll go.

Oh yeah.

The tickets are $20 for 12 and older and $13 for kids.

Kids eight to six through 11.

Okay.

So I'm looking at the food for under the sporkies.

Yeah.

Some of the things included.

There's s'mores churro fries.

Okay.

S'mores churro fries.

There's the

Pretzaroni pizza brought.

So it's a brought wrapped in a pretzel on a stick that you dip in marinara.

There's Mexican street corn pizza.

And how good does that sound?

You know, I try that.

And then one of the drinkies I know you mentioned the Dubai chocolate strawberry smoothie.

Did you mention the dirty pancake?

No, it's a dirty soda that tastes like a pancake in a cup.

Okay, that's interesting.

It's interesting.

That's a very, very good way to put it.

And so much more at the Wisconsin State Fair.

And if you want more information there, wistatefair.com, wistatefair.com is the way to go.

And hopefully they have some really good weather.

And hopefully Sharita gets a chance to go there multiple times and give us a full report next week on the food, the drinks and the rides.

that I hope you don't do in that particular order, because you might lose the food or the drink.

So take it easy out there.

Sharita, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Follow everything she does on Up North News' various social media websites.

Have fun at the fair.

Sharita, talk to you later.

Thank you, Pat.

And in doing those top stories that she collects for us, she posts them and then tracks, you know, how they do.

And as I'm looking at the top stories that she amassed from last week on Instagram, one of the most popular stories was one about a UW Milwaukee research team that had been mapping out how racial housing policies had shaped Milwaukee over the years.

What do you think the Trump administration did to that?

Yeah, they pulled the plug on funding.

So.

that's no longer being done.

Another favorite over at Instagram is a list from the Foodie website Love Food out of all the burritos in Wisconsin.

Their favorite fully loaded wet burrito, the kind with enchilada sauce, comes from Cafe Corazon and three locations around Milwaukee and we ask you to put in the comment sections or send us a note here.

Where's the best burrito in town?

Where you are.

people were traveling around, you know, best Mexican restaurant overall, would love to hear about that.

All right, we're in the 2026 gubernatorial campaign here in the state of Wisconsin.

Like it or not, it's July 31st, 2025.

We got a long ways to go.

And yet, we are already seeing the first strains of something that was probably expected by a lot of us depressingly so.

And it

We were tipped off to it by a post by the Lieutenant Governor, Sara Rodriguez, who put up a post with a photo of a flyer of hers that had been defaced and a copy of a post that somebody is sending out to newsrooms saying, Hi, I hope you're doing well.

I'm a reporter with and then it's blanked out here.

We received a tip that Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez's husband has undocumented.

I understand this is a personal matter, but as she is running for governor, my team wanted me to see if there was any truth to it, since it would be of public interest.

Would you be able to provide any insight into his immigration status?

And I add parenthetically, muahaha.

Because that's how these idiots operate.

Sara Rodriguez put up a post with this saying yesterday, reporters got a tip in quotes that my husband has undocumented.

Spoiler,

He is a proud naturalized US citizen.

We are five days into this race.

And my opponents are already resorting to racist made up attacks on my family.

It's pathetic.

It's ugly.

And she notes here, most importantly, quote, it sure as hell won't lower a single grocery bill or fix a single school.

If this is their best shot, they better pack a damn lunch.

End quote from Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez, putting the proper perspective on this.

that this race is about your grocery bill.

This race is about your school.

This race is about state investment in things like healthcare and high-speed internet service and so much more.

It's about taking care of our natural resources or selling them out to corporate interests.

It's continuing the Evers focus on small main street businesses or it's going back to be Foxconn again if a Republican were to get into office.

That's what this race is about.

But in order to win, there are people that are going to stoop to any level whatsoever.

And that includes attacking the naturalized citizen husband of Sara Rodriguez, who, again, they've been married for coming up on 20 years here.

They got two kids.

I think they're both teenagers.

There's a wonderful video of her salsa dancing with her husband because that's how they met.

And she said as much in her campaign introductory video, they met at a salsa dancing class.

while each was working or visiting Oklahoma at the time and have hit it off well and have created a wonderful family.

She was an emergency room nurse and is now running for governor of the state of Wisconsin.

And I'm hoping that we don't have to spend a lot of time dealing with this kind of garbage.

But unfortunately, given who is president of the United States right now, even naturalized citizens.

And that's the part I underline the word citizen, naturalized citizen.

They've gone through all of the proper processes to be as much a citizen as you or me.

And yet even that status seems threatened to some folks to the point where they may not speak out as much as they want to for fear of a president and their allies who are saying, well,

You know, we gave you that citizenship, we can revoke that citizenship, which of course they can't.

That would be blatantly anti-constitutional.

And you would need practically criminally fascist Supreme Court justices in order to have such, ooh.

Well, anyway, the stakes are very big in this race.

And the one thing we don't have time for is this kind of racism.

It's better that we focus on the candidates themselves, their positions, and what they would do for the state of Wisconsin.

And so to that end, tomorrow on this program, in the eight o'clock hour, we will be interviewing Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez.

Right here, live, joining us to answer questions about the race, about the career that has led her to this point.

And we're just...

You know, very happy to get a chance to visit with her.

We will do the same with all of the candidates that care to come in and visit and talk with us, whether live or pre-recorded.

We want them all to feel like they can come and share their point of view with you, especially ahead of what could be a very busy primary election.

Now again, the primary election isn't for more than another month here.

It's it's going to be on August 11th of next year.

So there will be other candidates to come in.

But let's get to meet them all because with any luck, we will have a governor for the next four years or longer in the state of Wisconsin that continues to keep a focus on you.

Not their biggest donors, not the biggest companies.

not the biggest promises, but the biggest potential for the state of Wisconsin.

That's what we deserve as governor.

We'll have today's history lesson coming up right after this.

You're up north.

You're a nice little way to start today's history lesson with little Zach Brown.

I'm a fan.

A conveniently named Zach Brown band.

He's 47 years old

today.

All right, let's look at who else is on today's history lesson birthday list.

Sebastian Kresge.

Only a few people now.

My agent up probably remember Kresge's, which was a discount department store chain.

You know Sebastian Kresge's other discount store chain, Kmart.

Ah, I do.

He started Kmart back in the day.

He was born this day in 1867 and passed away 99 years later in 1966.

So there's your trivia question.

Kmart started by Sebastian Kreske.

Happy birthday to Lobo.

He is 82 years old today.

Now, as somebody who grew up on the eastern edge of St.

Paul, I can tell you it was kind of a charge to hear that on the radio.

As a kid, me and you and a dog named Boo by Lobo, which I always thought was the band.

And here I am, you know, six decades later, realizing, no, Lobo was the name of the guy.

His birth name was Roland de Levoix.

And he was born in Tallahassee, Florida, 82 years ago today.

Today is Lobo's 82nd birthday.

Other birthdays today, Mark Cuban is 67 today, Wesley Snipes is 63, BJ Novak from the office is 46 years old today.

I mentioned at Summerfest seeing Gary Lewis of Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

I could play the little snippet I took of him singing his big hit, but you know, instead of hearing an 80 year old man sing it, why don't we hear the original version from the early 1960s?

Yeah,

that definitely sounds better than what he pulled off at Summerfest.

Plus, he's still performing.

Glad he's still with us.

Happy 80th birthday, Gary Lewis.

We just chose to play the original instead.

By the way, if you don't know the family tie there, his birth name was Kerry Levich.

His dad's name was Joseph Levich.

But then at the age of two, his dad, Joseph Levich, changed his name to Jerry Lewis, the legendary comedic actor.

And he became Gary Lewis, born 80 years ago today.

If you're familiar with JFK Airport in New York, you may or may not know.

It was once called Idlewild Field.

and it was dedicated this day in 1948 as New York International Airport renamed JFK a month after the president was assassinated back in 1963.

The number one song this week in 1971 was by James

Taylor.

This,

of course, was the Carol King written You've Got a Friend, and she's got her own wonderful version of it, but it was the number one song this day in 1971.

On this day in 1980, the Eagles split up.

And you can see why.

There's video of it.

The filmmaker was on stage as Glenn Fry and Don Felder started fighting in the middle of a song.

What?

Not verbally fighting.

Like, while the song is going on and they're going off stage going, I'm going to kick your butt.

Well, I'm going to kick your butt.

And that was it.

That was it for the Eagles.

Well, for 14 years.

Until 1994, the Hell Freezes Over Tour, because they only said for 14 years they would reunite when Hell Freezes Over.

Well, guess what?

Hell eventually sent enough money their way that they saw their way clear to doing that.

The number one album.

This week in 1976 was by George Benson.

This is the title track to the album Breezen.

The group Orleans released Still One on that same day in 1976.

Drake released a song this day 10 years ago.

This song is now 10 years old from his album Views.

On this day in 2012, Michael Phelps broke a 1964 record for the most medals total won at the Olympics.

And he still holds that record today with 28 total Olympic medals.

Do you think that's ever going to get broken?

I have to say yes, because I've seen so many other records get broken.

You know, I never thought Lou Gehrig's record was going to be broken.

Gal Repkin Jr.

comes along, so.

Yeah, there probably will come a time, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy what we have here.

You know, I mean, goodness knows, I'm really enjoying Shohei Otani.

It doesn't take any doesn't take anything away from Babe Ruth.

But he's doing things Babe Ruth could never do.

So I just I just enjoy with each each development.

Somebody comes along and you go, dang, you worked real hard.

You deserve this.

Today is lifeguard appreciation day.

And yes, we really do.

Thank you for all that you do and for all thankfully that you don't have to do if we're doing everything right.

Today is Harry Potter's birthday, the fictitious book character.

So for Harry Potter fans, they know that this is the day listed in the books as when he was born.

This is National Avocado Day, which is something, again, for most of my life, I didn't think I'd ever like or eat.

And then like 10 years ago, in my early 50s, I finally got around to trying guacamole.

And I went, hey, this stuff's actually really good.

I've been a guacamole fan.

I do find when you try things, it's better.

Yeah, ever since.

This is National Chili Dog Day as well.

I haven't had a chili dog in forever.

I don't think I have at all.

Well, it can really go either way.

I've had a good chili dog.

And I've had somewhere I'm like, wait a minute, what is this chili?

Is this alpo?

What is going on here?

And finally, this is the last day of July, July 31st.

And so we bid a fond farewell to Lasagna Awareness Month.

Starting tomorrow, you're not going to be aware of Lasagna for a long time.

It'll be a midwinter's night when you go, I want something warm and toasty.

Let's make up a lasagna.

Who makes Lasagna Awareness Night in the middle of summer or Lasagna Awareness Month?

I don't know.

I'm not aware of anybody who would.

It's nice to have that bit going by by finally back after the news you're up

north

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.

On this Thursday morning, July 31st, 2025.

Good morning.

It is 706.

It is nice to have you here.

Back up north, we've got Parker Olson producing the show down in Madison Studio A2 and we've got meteorologist Brittany Merleau here as well.

Good morning, Brittany.

Good morning.

How

are you?

I'm hostile.

I'm grumpy because my coffee mug, which today's one is the mug that says I am silently correcting your grammar, is empty.

I normally fill it up during the seven o'clock news.

And we just got to chatting throughout the entire news break about things like the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

Bottom line, don't care.

Don't don't know enough about it and don't care.

But then that got me to say, by the way, in my defense, this is not a rap thing.

There's that other big beef Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.

Don't care.

Don't know.

Don't know what brought it up.

Celebrities having beef doesn't move me.

Other people that moves them a lot.

You know, I've got Tony up in Ashland was saying that he was all in on the Drake Kendrick Lamar beef.

So many songs so quick and all very high quality.

And noted that he is on Team Kendrick.

When I mentioned Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, he texted in that one I don't care about.

And

for the end of Lasagna Awareness Month.

Robin Tigerton, he did in fact have Lasagna.

He had it for dinner.

What was it on Tuesday?

I think, yeah, there it is, Tuesday after work.

But Alicia says, I didn't have any Lasagna all month as part of Lasagna Awareness Month.

Although she said in my defense, Lasagna gives

me

heartbreak.

So it's, it's okay.

It's okay.

Uh, John says hello from Colorado on Facebook.

Hi.

Nice to have you along here.

And let's, let's get to what Brittany's here for.

Uh, Tony National saying the weather here is unsafe, not cloudy, not not cloudy, just unsafe.

The Canadian wildfire smoke is back and it is back with a vengeance up here.

I don't know how much across the state it, uh, it spreads, but it is just a very gray.

morning here and it just, I mean, even if you're young and healthy, it's just the environment is just not, it's suboptimal.

Let's put it that way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I am getting headaches.

You know, the second you step outside, you can kind of feel it in your chest sometimes too at certain points.

All of these different things, burning eyes, watery eyes.

Oh, it's terrible.

I mean,

statewide, we're all in the red.

In fact, there are some very unhealthy levels right now into Door County, up into parts of northeastern areas of the Northwoods.

But this thing is widespread statewide throughout Minnesota, the UP, the state of Michigan, all of Michigan on the other side of the lake.

So it is just engulfing us right now and it's pretty brutal.

It does start to lift north as we go through this afternoon and evening.

Now, I don't know exactly how fast that's going to happen.

The alert and advisory expires at noon.

I'd say it might linger here a little bit, but again, today it is still stuck here.

Should be gone by tomorrow.

We are looking at right now still fog too in some places north into Eagle River and Merrill about low 40s far north right now to mid 60s down south in the state.

And we've got some breezy winds.

That's going to help kick and mix out this wildfire smoke as we go through the afternoon.

They will be gusting around 15 to 30 miles per hour, prompting a beach hazard statement out on Lake Michigan.

So those waves are going to be climbing up to four to six feet.

She's going to be angry out there.

She already is actually dangerous currents.

So stay away from those beaches.

I wouldn't get in there if I were you.

Plus the temperatures are nice and refreshing.

No need to really do that low to mid seventies today statewide.

All of us at the wildfire smoke clears more and more sunshine.

Otherwise it's going to be hazy out there.

And of course, we are looking at comfortable conditions, dry conditions as we close out the rest of this week.

So this high pressure system is doing some good, but it's also the reason why this wildfire smoke is here.

Yeah, without a doubt.

More from Robin Tigerton.

Good morning.

It's partly cloudy and 53.

I mowed three yards in Tigerton yesterday and I've got three yards in rural areas of Tigerton today.

The sky reminded me of the skyline of Los Angeles.

Hazy and you

could

smell the smoke.

It does.

It has a very smog like look to it, which again is smoke and fog, but you know, the kind of smog in LA was also like air pollution related.

This is definitely much more just about the, you know, the smoke instead.

Let's see.

And we Rob did remind us that he had the lasagna the other day.

Oh, here he says the corn is tasseling nicely in the Tigerton area.

So the warm and humid weather we had in most of July has done wonders for the corn crop.

That is very true.

That's good.

That's what we like to

hear.

Yeah, and there's also you he said you can you can smell the smoke, especially those of us who have to work outside.

Wisconsin has dangerous health levels from the wildfire smoke and Alicia saying this makes me feel so bad for the folks up in Canada.

It's got to be so bad for them right now because not just the smoke but the flames the fire that you know is you know destroying houses and and you know ruining lives up there.

It's just very unfortunate.

And

very scary stuff.

We can only hope that it doesn't last too much longer that they get the precipitation that they need.

Brittany, we'll get an updated forecast from you in an hour.

Thank you so much.

Talk to you again soon.

Sounds good.

All right.

Hey, reminder, you can sign up for our newsletter up north news wi.com.

And if you include our Sunday morning newsletter, Sunday mornings with Pat Gritlow, it'll include a summary of the week in Wisconsin politics and a question of the week.

This week, it's about cryptocurrency.

Is it the future?

Is it a scam?

Is it a fad?

Is it too soon to tell?

And tomorrow on this fine program, you can get tickets to a future brewers game.

It'll be free ticket Friday.

And we will give you a keyword tomorrow that you will text us using the Civic Media app.

You're going to use the Civic Media app to text it because you're tech savvy that way.

And on your phone, not only can you text us stuff through the Civic Media app, but you can get baseball tickets.

And then you can use those tickets on your phone to get into American Family Field.

If all of that describes you, then be part of Free Ticket Friday tomorrow.

Get that keyword, text it in.

Win the tickets.

It's a statewide drawing.

And I'm telling you a day in advance so you can plan for this.

The tickets we're giving away tomorrow, Friday, or for the next Friday when the Brewers are at home against the New York Mets.

That's a Friday evening game of next week.

So if you are interested in potentially winning those tickets, as was done recently by Jim and Brookfield, well, enter tomorrow.

I don't know what else to tell you here.

We were talking during the break about, you know, Jim and Brookfield.

won this week's tickets, well, last Friday's tickets.

And we just want to know, I mean, we know he listens throughout the day, and we just want to know, did he win it from listening to our show?

Was it the keyword from someplace else?

And Jim Texan, I did send in four different keywords, one for Pat, one for Jane and Greg, one for Todd's show, one for Maggie's show.

And we're very appreciative of that.

But he also wrote in, you know, he brought his family, it was the Cubs, and there was a leadoff home run.

And he said the leadoff home run by the Cubs was an eye opener for my wife who couldn't figure out why more than half the crowd was cheering loudly.

She hadn't been to what some Chicagoans call Wrigley North, but despite the loss, we had a good time.

And that's, that's the bottom line.

That's what we want to see.

That's true.

It is, you know, it's hard to look at the bright side of things sometimes, Pat.

I'm glad you can for me.

I can see the bright side of

things.

Well, through the smoke.

Through this basically, yeah, a squint a little, but it's there.

Yeah, exactly.

Coming up in our next half hour, we're going to be talking to the leader of a national media group that is putting up billboards in Wisconsin and other parts of the country, doing something that you probably, I don't want to say take for granted, but you already know this detail about the big Trump mega bill, the one that, you know, Derek Van Orden and all the other Republicans in Wisconsin voted for.

That, yeah, it makes these massive cuts to programs.

Some say, well, those are massive cuts on spending.

That's what we got to do is we got to cut our spending.

It does not cut spending.

It does not cut spending.

It takes those cuts that would come to you and to your neighbors and to your family and gives them to millionaires and billionaires in the form of tax cuts.

It's that simple, but a lot of folks still don't know that yet.

And so that's what led to the billboard campaign.

And we will talk to somebody who is leading the group and leading the effort to do that coming up a little later this hour.

A reminder that coming up tomorrow, we're going to be talking to Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez.

She is a candidate for governor and she will be stopping by in our eight o'clock hour tomorrow to talk to us more about her decision to run for governor, what it's been like serving with Governor Evers these past four years, her career as a nurse, and more of what drives her, what drove her to go into public service.

She was not planning to be a state legislator.

and then Lieutenant Governor, and then a candidate for governor.

But she has a good story about what prompted her to make this career turn, and you'll hear all about it tomorrow morning in our eight o'clock hour.

By the way, the billboards that we're talking about in our next half hour, they're not the only communication out there with voters about the votes taken by Van Orden and others.

This from Whist Politics.

The League of Conservation Voters and House Majority PAC, that's a Democratic group, are targeting Congressman Van Orden as part of a new $700,000 digital buy that's been knocking Republicans over their support for the mega bill.

The group says it'll run on digital platforms in 10 other districts besides Wisconsin's third congressional district during the August recess.

They didn't break down how much they plan to spend per district, so we don't know how much of that is being spent on ads targeting Van Orden.

When we say digital platforms,

It means, you know, right before you watch a video on YouTube or on Facebook or even even your games, I still play words with friends, Sherry and I send words back and forth.

And sometimes you get a little commercial between the games and usually it's for one of those goofy other games like Royal Match or something like that.

But sometimes they're actual commercials and more and more political groups are putting ads on.

every one of these digital platforms to target people who otherwise would not be news consumers.

And so that's what you're seeing here.

And in this particular campaign, the spot targeting Van Orden says that the plan takes Medicaid away from millions of Americans and removes clean energy from the electric grid just to provide a tax cut for the wealthy.

The narrator says everything costs too much already.

And Congressman Van Orden just voted to make it even worse.

Now, Van Orden, to his credit, is not yet saying, you know, I made a mistake.

I didn't mean to be taking away all these jobs.

I didn't mean to be taking away all these people's health care.

He is instead sticking to his guns of saying that there are no Medicaid cuts in here that go to citizens and people who've earned them.

And it's an amazing level of either delusion or cynicism that prompts that.

There's going to be a lot to be said to voters over these next, you know, however many months, 15 months or so, about what the actual case is with this mega bill.

Also from WisPolitics, the Dane County Republican Party says it has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Congressman Mark Pocan over business that his print shop has received from campaigns, including his own.

But here's the thing, because Derek Van Orden brought this up last week talking to Po Can, accusing him of funneling money from his campaign to buy signs from his company.

But here's the thing, in the WIS Politics Report, it notes, the claims being made by the Dane County Republican Party in the announcement are contradicted by publicly available records from the Federal Election Commission.

In other words, a lot of

A lot of folks are just going to hear the first line of the news story.

The Dane County Republican Party says it has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Congressman Mark Pocan over businesses print shop as received from campaigns.

And some people are going to think, oh, oh, that sounds shady.

So hopefully most media outlets as they're sharing this will also make clear that the claims are made up.

and that they are contradicted by Federal Election Commission records that you can go get and you can go look at right now.

Anybody can file a complaint.

Hopefully responsible newsrooms are putting that complaint in perspective because it's fiction.

A local update is next for some of you and then we'll be talking more about that billboard campaign about tax cuts for billionaires coming up at 7.35.

I'm Pat Crichtlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Hey, welcome back.

It is just about 7.23 now on this Thursday morning, last day of July.

And again, a little public service reminder here.

If you split your property tax payments in two and you paid half of it in January, the other half is due today.

So I'd like to think that at least one person out there, I've saved them a lot of hassle and went, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Write that check out.

Get it in the mail.

That's what I did yesterday.

I wrote out a paper check.

and I put it in a mailbox and I can just hear other people going, you did, what is this?

What is this thing grandpa that you did?

You have checks.

I still do have to, in fact, here, let me, let me go get the one here.

Oh boy.

So these are the ones that are, you know, they make carbons and it used to be that, you know, you'd write so many checks a month for all the bills and you'd go through a lot of check, go through a box of checks in no time.

Yeah.

The first one in this one is from November 16th, 2020.

That's how long this checkbook has been around.

Yeah.

Uh, yeah.

Yep.

Times change.

Times do change.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Jiggling the monitor over here.

I was just trying to look at the other one.

Does this, does this say what I think it says?

Oh boy.

It does.

April 20th of 2017 on the other, on the other bank account.

So

Why do we have two banks?

Because direct deposit in two different banks from our different employers.

2017 was taken to write the checks on that one.

I do pay a lot of things electronically.

I almost actually know all of our bills now.

There was for the longest time, there was one place, I'm not going to name where, but it was one of the local places where you would have a monthly bill.

And they'd be calling all the time and saying, hey, you're late with your bill.

And they'd be like, when are you guys going to accept electronic payments?

Every other bill I pay is on autopilot.

I don't have to think about it.

I'd look at it.

It's fine.

It gets paid.

You guys still want the whole horse and buggy thing.

And they finally changed.

Thank goodness.

Yeah.

But I also know that with the electronic payments, you know, comes an extra fee.

And I'm looking at the one from Chippewa County here.

And, you know, additional fees apply 2.39% for credit cards, minimum fee of $2.95, a flat fee of $1.50 for an e-check.

And again, I look, I can pay $2.95.

But every so often, you're like, you know what, for this one, I'll write the paper check.

And I do.

Do you even have a paper checkbook?

Nope.

I don't have checks.

Wow.

Yep.

That is how different the times are.

There's not ever an occasion where you need to write a bigger check or something.

Everything is just either Ven Mode or Apple Pay or whatever.

Yeah, not that I've run

across.

Now, I did get a buddy of mine texted me about maybe getting an apartment though.

So maybe at some point there'll need to be a check involved in that, but.

What will you do if it needs paper checks?

I

will have to find something.

You have a local bank account, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or, well, no, I think that.

Is it a local bank or is it one of like the national banks, like Capital One or something like that?

No,

it's a local bank, yeah.

So.

OK.

Tony on YouTube, you absolutely still need checks, Parker.

Yeah.

That

sounds like something I

have to take care of, though.

Ah.

Uh, at some point and you don't want to have to do that, you know,

no, not in a pinch.

Okay,

dad.

All right.

See, there's our little public service here.

Once again, taking care of, I don't know what, what generation are you again?

Are you, you're not alpha.

What's,

I don't

even

know.

I don't pay attention to it unless you're a boomer.

I don't know what your generation is.

I'm 22.

If

you happen to

know what that falls in.

Seriously?

Yeah.

I'm pretty much, I.

I assume I'm X, I really don't know.

I've never- You assume you're

X. Or not.

Z, sorry.

Yeah, Z. That would make sense, right?

I think.

I have never been interested in the whole generational cut-offs.

I don't know why.

It seems like something I should be interested in, especially with how voters work.

But yes, it's just

never

piqued my attention much.

All right.

Well, here, for example, now it says here boomers 1945 to 1963.

Yeah.

I was born in 1964.

And so was, you know, very early Gen X. That went from 64 to 1979.

It says that Gen Y, that would be the millennials are 1980 to 1995.

And then Gen Z is 1996 to 2010.

And then I think they're called Gen Alpha, Generation Alpha, whatever, Alpha, is from 2011 onwards.

So yeah, that puts you squarely in the Gen Z category.

OK, I am now proud to admit that I know what my generation is.

There you go.

New development.

Now we need the hood, you know, talking about my generation to play here for us to, you know, actually, we don't know.

We don't know what generation we're on, so we can't really talk about it.

I wanted to ask as well before we left here, I was looking at tonight's dinner plan and being very happy about last night's dinner plan because we had BLTs.

And apart from grilling, I mean, grilling is the quintessential, you know, summer dinner thing.

Yeah.

But

Remember when we mentioned in the last hour at the end of lasagna awareness month and again, who does lasagna in, in the middle of July, you know, but our BLT is like the best light summer dinner to have.

That's probably right.

Yeah.

I mean, we don't, we don't typically make, I don't think we make them in the winter at all.

And they're just, they're nice and crisp.

And meaty if you get, you know, just the right lettuce and tomato.

Although there is the other one that's coming up.

Sweet corn.

Sweet.

Oh, sweet corn.

I

was so happy to have sweet corn a couple weekends ago.

It just it made my week.

Oh,

see, I don't know if it's if it's ready here yet.

There's a place just north of Chippewa Falls here called Klingers Klingers Farm.

And you Klingers, you can get it like minutes after it's been picked.

Oh, that's cool.

And then take it home.

And oh my gosh, it's just so good.

Oh look, I've got myself all psyched up for this weekend's dinner plan.

I am ready to go.

All right, when we come back after the Midwest Farm Report, we are going to be talking about that billboard campaign in Wisconsin and other states to let people know that the tax cuts are going to billionaires.

That's, you don't want to hear it some folks, but that's where it's going to go.

Not all of it.

but a whole great big chunk of it and you're paying for it.

And we'll talk about that coming up at 735 here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Critewell.

There's no shortage of ways to describe the ways in which the Trump mega bill is predominantly geared toward corporations and the very wealthy.

There is a massive cut to the corporate income tax rate that is made permanent.

There have been multiple analyses on the bill that show that, for example,

The people in the bottom 20% of earners will see a .5% increase in their after-tax income compared to about five times that amount for people in the top 20%.

But not everybody knows that.

And so that's what led to a discussion that I held yesterday with a gentleman who runs a group that's putting up billboards all around the country, including here in Wisconsin.

Let's visit now with Faz Shakir.

He's the founder and executive director of the media organization, More Perfect Union.

Faz, thank you for being here by the way.

Let's start with a description of what More Perfect Union is.

Well, Pat, we launched this thing in 2021.

And we're a media organization of buying for working class people to tell the stories of economic justice through their lens.

You know, when I launched in 2021, I had just come off with managing Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.

And I felt that there was a challenge of trying to tell the stories of real working class lives in this environment in which we feel like the perspectives of the wealthy.