They’re (Still) So Weird (Hour 3)

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

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

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6 0 6 on this Thursday morning, August 7th, 2025.

It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network, catching us by podcast or even through the website, all the different ways you can listen in to the show or watch us.

Thanks for starting your day right here.

I have a question for you.

Do you remember one year ago yesterday?

When Minnesota Governor Tim Walls was chosen as Kamala Harris's running mate, yeah, it was only a year ago.

Feels like forever ago.

Remember how the thing that people liked about him was his being unafraid to call out Republican politicians for being so weird?

Why did the consultants take that away?

It's not like the weirdness went away.

I have not one, not two, but three stories just from yesterday involving Wisconsin Republicans.

and the ongoing weirdness.

And we'll talk to Joseph Pecky about that a little bit later on this morning.

Also on the show, we'll talk to guest Lou Ann Bird about Congressman Brian Stile and how he's been getting compliments for his recent in-person town hall.

You know, the kind of thing Republican leaders have been discouraging, explicitly discouraging because, you know, you don't want Americans complaining about the cuts that Republicans are making to essential programs.

But Stiles getting

complimented for his bravery.

But as Luan Bird and I will discuss, the bravery only lasts as long as you're willing to be truthful to your audience.

After that, it's just political theater.

So we'll discuss that a little bit later on.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is loosening some rules on drones to allow more of them to fly beyond the operator's line of sight.

That might be good for delivering Amazon packages and Starbucks coffee, but what about, you know, safety?

We'll discuss that.

We'll hear back from our conversation yesterday with Earl Ingram, a little piece of it reacting to yesterday's 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act being marked under conditions few people thought could return 60 years after its passage.

We will talk to Trigvie Olson, Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project live from Lithuania where he's traveling.

It's mid-afternoon there.

It's the only way we could get him to appear on a morning radio show is to move him to the other side of the planet where it's not early morning.

Trigvie is a River Falls native.

He has worked all over the globe promoting democracy.

Now he spends much of his time helping defend democracy in the United States of America of all places.

And we'll catch up with Sean O'Malley and talk about your money in the markets and ask if instability over the overnight developments in President Trump's trade war are doing anything to alleviate concerns about possible stagflation, spoiler alert.

They are not.

but we'll talk more with Sean about that coming up in just a bit.

Along the way, we'd be happy to have you join us in the comment sections of Facebook or YouTube.

You can also use the Civic Media app and reach out to us as well.

Just go to one of the stations where you can hear this fine program and use the

text section.

You can also use the voice note section and leave us a little note that way as well.

It'd be great to hear from you, hear what's going on, hear what's on your mind today.

Let's get the state forecast from Brittany Merleau and then we'll visit with Parker Olson here in just a moment as well.

Let's see, Brittany says the heat and humidity are going to be cranking up and then bringing some rain and thunder along with it.

The chances for severe weather hold off for now, she says.

the state forecast for today muggy with more clouds some showers and thunderstorms may spark up by midday with highs today in the mid to upper 80s a southwest wind at 10 to 20 miles an hour for tonight scattered showers and thunderstorms especially south lows tonight in the mid to upper 60s with a south wind at 5 to 10 and again we'll check in with her in less than an hour now and hear much more about what the forecast is looking like

heading into the end of the week and into the weekend down to Madison Studio A2 now where Parker Olson produces this little shindig and joins us.

How are things in Madison this morning, Mr. Olson?

Things are good, Madison.

I am a thing that is a little confused about the NFL at the moment.

You're confused about the NFL at

the moment?

Yes, I'm confused about the NFL at the moment.

I don't know if you saw this yesterday.

The NFL banned teams from providing smelling salts.

to players, which is kind of a weird thing to do, I don't know, whatever.

They didn't ban the use though, so players can still bring their own, which, whatever.

The reason that they banned them is, I think, a fair reason, and I can't believe that they're not publicizing this, given the NFL's war against concussions, part of...

The reason was that it's believed that smelling salts can have the potential to mask symptoms of concussions.

You would think that you'd want to publicize that you're taking steps to combat the thing that is, I don't know, scaring a lot of parents away from letting their kids play your sport.

So you're saying they're not being upfront about it.

playing its role in concussions.

I think a little bit.

Yeah.

I think it's a

little weird that they didn't.

Well, in part, I think because I'm assuming the NFL announcement nowhere in there was the C word concussion was probably nowhere in the announcement, right?

Oh, I'm sure.

Let's.

And that to me is the main reason is they don't even want to say, Hey, we're helping out, you know, getting rid of this thing that might mask this bad thing because they don't want to remind people that the bad thing is still out there.

I mean, a couple of years back.

True.

there were people saying, gosh, I don't know if the NFL is going to be around in five to 10 years, you know, with all these concussions and parents keeping their kids out.

Well, now as it turned out, the NFL is currently flourishing because again, the American attention span is a squirrel.

Anyway, so yeah, see exactly.

So yeah, let's just not talk about it is is the main reason.

So because again, as Donald Meyer said famously when he was running

ABC or NBC Sportsway back in the day.

The answer to all your questions is money.

This is true.

Yeah.

And for the NFL, it's all about that.

So let's talk about baseball for a second here because your first place Milwaukee Brewers won again.

They're now in a six game winning streak.

They beat Atlanta five to four last night.

Andrew Vaughn, it's just.

What a pickup.

Andrew Vaughn, another home run, and his hitting streak is now 12 games.

His best ever in his career.

Blake Perkins also homered.

Jose Quintana went six innings.

He allowed three runs, seven hits, seven strikeouts, and Trevor McGill got his 26th save.

If back on, what was it, March 31st, whatever it was when we first started losing to the New York Yankees,

If you just said, we're going to have the best record in baseball.

We're going to get to 70 wins faster than any other time in franchise history.

And we're going to do this with guys named Andrew Vaughn, Blake Perkins, Jose Quintana, Trevor McGill.

I don't know that I would have believed you.

Two of those names I buy.

Blake Perkins, I was like, maybe.

Trevor McGill, sure.

But end of on now in terms of them being you know household names.

Yeah, folks who don't follow the team regularly You know the people who can say well, I think currently on the team Ryan Braun, right?

No,

no So the these guys are not they're not superstars.

They're not celebrities.

They're not household names They're just winning.

That's all they do is win.

Yeah, the power of friendship Pat

That's what

they keep saying.

That and some good managing.

Apparently the pocket pancakes are working.

Whatever it is that Murphy is telling them while he's known on his pocket pancake is working.

I can't believe it took a year and a half for it to come out that he has food in his pockets.

Is

this a new thing?

Yeah.

Well, like, how's this never been caught on

camera?

apparently he's just, you know, sneaking up between endings or something like that.

I don't know.

We're just so used to seeing, you know, chewing tobacco and bubblegum and sunflower seeds that it never occurred to us to look for a breakfast product, you know, in somebody's pocket.

I don't know.

So the Brewers are off today.

They're coming back from Atlanta and they're getting set for a home series against the New York Mets.

First game of that will be tomorrow with pregame starting at 6 35 on several civic media stations again head over to civicmedia.us to learn more So for the weekend then will you have like mallers games to work again down there in Madison?

Um, I believe I only have one the nightmares season finish last night They won the championship and I'll walk off victory

Um, so big props to the nightmares.

Um, I think I only have one Mallard's game on Saturday and I believe it'll be immediately after I help my friend move.

So that's going to be a long day.

Well, you know, no good deed goes unpunished.

So Tony up on YouTube pocket pancakes for the win.

Yes.

here's the thing about media.

There's so much media out there now.

I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

But you will see like a cooking segment on the Today Show or something all about food you can make ahead of time and keep in your pocket.

You know, if you're going to make a pancake, make it this way.

Use these ingredients so it doesn't fall apart in your pocket.

That to be a producer on one of these shows is to take the most

Flaky French stuff in society and make it mainstream.

Yeah, there will be a pocket food segment before you know it.

Surely the MLB network, I think had a segment about the Brewers the other day and it like compared players to pancakes.

I think they had Andrew Vaughn was the blueberry pancake of the team.

Okay.

I don't really know.

I

think they

called Caleb Durbin short stack because he's one of the shorter guys on the team.

See, this is what I'm talking about with these producers and these shows.

You got a lot of time to fill.

You got a lot of time.

There's so much time to fill.

What are we going to talk about?

Let's go for the pocket pancakes, the wallet waffles.

the sack of cereal.

It'll, it's a feed sack that you just strap on, you know, and

just

have your raisin brand that way.

I don't know, but it never, it never is a one and done situation.

There almost certainly will be more, more to come on this.

Uh,

Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom, and we are just pleased as punch to be part of these morning partnerships here with all kinds of newsletters and other video products and podcasts coming out from Courier Newsroom.

Among those is Cam Stevenson, who after Labor Day we will be talking to on Tuesday mornings when he officially completes his move from our Arizona outlet to Washington, D.C.

to be our Capitol Hill reporter.

But he is doing a daily newsletter called Below the Beltway.

Beltway.News is where you get it.

And in this week's newsletters, he talks about Texas and the whole gerrymandering fight that's going on there.

And of course, that's ratcheting up.

More states are talking about both red states and blue states are talking about things that they might do to monkey with their maps.

None of it should be happening.

None of it should be happening because, you know, Republicans should simply be standing up to their president and saying, no, we don't do this.

We do a redistricting every 10 years after the census.

One person, one vote, make it fair.

And if that sounds really naive, well, that's something you should check on then because we should all be better than that.

and we should expect better.

But until we get to that point, don't be surprised at all that you've got blue states that are looking to at least balance out the shift toward autocracy that we're seeing in some of the red states.

All right, we're going to talk about the change in rules that will allow drones to

fly farther and farther away from the operators, what could possibly go wrong, that and much more still ahead from the heart of America's up north.

Live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your Thursday morning time.

Pat Krightlow, this is the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is 622 now on this Thursday morning back here on Lake Wissota and Parker Olsen down in Madison.

We're going to hear from Sharita Booker coming up in less than 15 minutes about some of the events that you could consider attending this weekend.

We'll also be hearing from Earl Ingram talking about the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

But first, let's chat for a minute about drones because there's a change in regulations coming down them.

Parker, do you have a drone or have you ever flown one?

There might still be a drone in my house.

I don't remember.

I might still be yeah, I don't remember so I I had like those I guess they don't quite qualify as a drone I had those like remote control helicopters as a kid.

Oh, well sure, so I think There's probably like two of those still around

okay, but never that can't get too far away

No, I wouldn't think

okay, so

I have one, but I haven't used it for quite a while.

Um, it was, you know, like, like a lot of other fads, it seems.

I got it used it quite a bit.

You know, you got some great pictures of the house on the lake and all of that.

And then I crashed it once and then I got it repaired and I haven't, uh, I just haven't really taken it out much since, but I, I can see.

how nice it would be to get it to go farther and farther away from whatever it is that you're shooting and being able to get these wide vistas, or I don't know, deliver a cup of coffee, maybe, or a pizza or an Amazon package.

I mean, we hear about that all the time.

But it's really difficult because, again, once it's out of your line of sight, I mean, you can see what the camera sees on the drone, you know, on your phone or your controller.

But you can't, you have no peripheral vision.

You don't know what's just off to the sides, whether it's, um, you know, a power line or a building or a small aircraft or a hot air balloon or

anything like that.

This is why there's like licenses and stuff that

you need to fly drones.

Yes.

Why there's, why there's rules.

Yeah.

But on Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

announced a proposal going to lay out a process according to this national public radio report by which companies could be approved to use drones and follow certain rules that would give them an exemption from the operator's line of sight.

So, you know, long distance drone delivery.

So, so truly, they're more like aircraft.

At this point, you know, we're really entering the world of the Jetsons, essentially.

And, you know, Sean Duffy said as much in talking about loosening these rules, said, oh, you could, you could get a cup of coffee delivered by Starbucks.

And I just don't know that that's really where we're going, that we're delivering cups of coffee and pizza.

I mean,

that is a thing.

Like,

I think there are companies that do that already.

I'm pretty sure.

Let's see, according to the report here, under the proposed rule, drones used by businesses would have to be built to certain industry standards and have collision avoidance technology to ensure they maintain a safe separation from other aircraft.

Commercial drones would be banned from flying over large outdoor gatherings like concerts and sporting events.

Asked whether the skies are already too crowded.

an FAA administrator said it was an example of why the proposal is necessary because he said you got a little bit of the Wild West out there right now.

So regulating to a common standard, making sure the vehicles comply with our regulations and then surveilling is a much better place than where we are today.

The proposed rule will be open for public comment in 60 days.

So on the one hand, you've got

Sean Duffy, who's, you know, like, like many of today's Republican politicians has never met regulations that they didn't want to get rid of.

And yet saying that this process is going to lead to regulations that will give us more drones that can do, have more commercial benefit to them.

And in the same breath, I want to be a little excited or optimistic about the potential.

Even while at the same time, I'm thinking, I don't know.

I don't know if this is such a great idea, you know?

I think whatever you do, collisions are going to happen same as they do with cars.

I mean, we didn't not authorize cars because they might crash into each other.

They do.

And tens of thousands of people die every year.

We're going to have that happen with drones as well.

So we ought to have at least, you know, a rule book that works and is all about safety and looks into things like privacy as well.

You know, I mean, I've been to places where suddenly a drone appears out of nowhere and just hovers over you.

We're on a beach on vacation one time and there's a drone just hovering over and I'm like, okay, is it, you know.

Some some pervy guy, you know looking at the the women on the beach.

Yeah

Are they are they even worse?

Are they looking at me?

Because then there's really something wrong.

I don't know They're messed up.

Yeah Let's see from Tony on YouTube.

I have a Mavic mini 2 fits in my camera bag.

The dogs hate it You can't fly them in state parks, which I get but it annoys because that's where I'd like to fly it But not when people are around right see there's only

yeah

There's only so many wide open spaces out there, you know, that are convenient to folks and to be able to fly them.

I'm not even sure to be honest, you know, if I'm flying that up above Lake Wissota, you know, to what extent, you know, how far, you know, you can't go too high because there's there's small aircraft there.

And again, there are privacy concerns.

And as somebody who has already crashed a drone once, there's also collision avoidance to keep in mind.

So

I'm trying to keep an open mind on this.

I just don't want to get it to the point where it is literally just delivering pizzas.

I think that's a step too far.

Yeah.

And it's from Sean Duffy.

It's a like,

can

you really?

Well, and that's why I say, you know, it starts with a rulemaking process, but whether whatever those rules will ultimately be, let's just say we should follow this carefully.

as this process unfolds.

When we come back, it's going to be a great summer weekend and there are some wonderful events out there.

Maybe events you wouldn't normally think of going to, but Sharita Booker is going to tell you all about it right after the break.

And then we'll hear from Earl Ingram talking about the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the conditions we find ourselves in these days when it comes to voting rights and race based gerrymandering.

It's an unusual place.

Never thought we'd be here.

in the United States of America in this day and age.

But the Midwest Farm Report is coming up next.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Crichtlow.

Hey, welcome back.

It is time to plan out your weekend.

Maybe you have plans, but maybe you don't and would like some ideas on things that are happening all around you.

I mean, it is, it's county fair season like crazy.

There's local festivals as well.

Here to talk about some of those is our social media manager, Sharita Booker.

Sharita, hello.

How are you?

Hey, Pat, I'm doing well.

How are you?

I'm good.

Did you make it out to the Wisconsin State Fair already?

I did and I want to go back because I didn't get a turkey leg.

What did you try?

What did you like or not like there?

So I had these, they were brought pot stickers or something like that.

Um, it wasn't a fan.

It had some kind of like a really sweet sauce on it.

And I didn't think the sauce was very overpowering, but I did have like a, a broth wrapped in a pretzel bun.

Oh, you had

that.

Yeah.

But it had like pizza filling too.

So like pepperoni pizza.

Uh huh.

It was really good.

It was my favorite thing.

All right.

So there there's there's another option for folks.

There are today begin the county fairs, Bayfield County and Washburn, the Pierce County Fair in Ellsworth, the Russ County Fair in Lady Smith, the Violas County Fair in Eagle River, also already underway the Clark County Fair in Nealsville, the Lincoln County Fair in Merrill.

And now as we get to some of the local festivals, let's start over in the Oshkosh area.

I saw this big old empty field when I was on my way to

Air Venture and a lot of signs for Crossroads 41 and their big weekend starts today, right?

Yep, starts today and it'll run through Saturday and the headliners today include Cody Johnson and Dustin Lynch and Friday's headliners will be Kane Brown and Nelly and Saturday will be Parker.

McCollum and Jesse Murph.

And of course, there'll be tons of food and drink options as well as camping if you want to hang around for the entirety of the fest.

One day tickets are $145 and three day tickets start at $220.

So if you want more information or tickets, visit XROADS41.com and that's just an X.

Yep, just XROADS41.com for Crossroads 41.

You noticed two elses on the lineup for Saturday though.

I didn't see who.

Flo Rida.

Oh, who recently performed at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and Chippewa Falls.

Flo Rida's got a thing for Wisconsin.

He does.

He must love it here.

Hey, what's not to love?

We got it all.

We got brats that we cook a million different ways.

And we're also, you know, the home of the hamburger.

That's what the folks in Seymour will tell you.

So they're a burger fest.

That's coming up this weekend.

yep so that's on the eighth and the ninth and burger festival feature a hamburger parade the bun run kids games live music a burger eating contest and a giant kitchen or ketchup slide and more this even is also taking place at two different locations so downtown seymour at depot street and on ninth on the ninth it'll be at rock ledge school and park oh i'm sorry that's on the eighth and the ninth it'll be at rock ledge school and park

and that's where the hot air balloon display will be and other family friendly activities and that mission downtown is just four dollars in advance or six dollars at the gate kids 12 are under getting free with the paid adult and your ticket also gets you access to a car show the model railroad exhibit the world's largest hamburger memorabilia display at the steamer county museum and a little fun fact

burger fest started in 1989 and celebrate the birth of the burger in Seymour in 1885 and it said that Charlie Negrine aka Hamburger Charlie of Hortonville actually invented the hamburger first selling it at the Seymour fair.

So for more information visit homeofthehamburger.com

And look, again, homeofthehamburger.org is what I see here.

Yeah,

I'm sorry.

And click on history.

And I am reading from the history.

How do we know that Seymour is truly the home of the hamburger?

And that says here, numerous communities claim to be the birthplace of the burger, but no one can supply any evidence dating back to 1885, like Seymour.

Early newspaper articles, interviews with contemporaries, and Charlie's daughter all verify the burger was served at the Seymour fair.

in 1885.

This isn't just some made-up thing.

This is real history, folks, so get to the Seymour Burger Fest this weekend, homeofthehamburger.org.

Then finally, let's do the Jewish Food Festival in Mequon.

Tell us about that.

And that will be this Sunday and Monday at Rotary Park in Mequon.

And more than 8,500 people are expected to come together for this free two-day festival that'll be packed with food and culture.

and tradition, you'll find foods like pastrami and corned beef sandwiches, falafel, stuffed cabbage, shawarma, sweet noodle noodle kugel, matzah ball soup, and more.

The festival will also feature live music, family-friendly activities, and a petting zoo.

Visitors can also explore a matzah bakery, leather shop, farm, or try their hand at shala making and other hands on heritage demonstrations.

And if you want more information or tickets, visit jewishfoodmequan.com.

There you go.

And so along with all of those, let's see, there's the Waukesha Blues Fest coming up tomorrow and Saturday.

There is Irish Fest in La Crosse, which is tomorrow through Sunday.

The Sean O'Folk Music Festival begins tomorrow.

The Boulder Junction Muskie Jamboree is on Sunday and then right here in beautiful Chippewa Falls, Pure Water Days, and the Cruise Inn Car Show, all taking place by and large on Saturday.

And there's plenty more that I

didn't get to in that.

Sharita hasn't covered here.

Go to travelwisconsin.com and then they've got a little filter put in the filter for this weekend for the dates and you'll see the dozens of things that you could be doing this weekend.

Or like me, you'll be doing none of them because you got a hammock in the backyard and that feels pretty good.

Did you make a plan yourself yet?

No and

that's that's how I love it.

No plans.

See it starts that way.

It does sometimes things come up

And that's great.

You know, it's like, oh, I would not have done this otherwise.

But sometimes it's nice to start with a blank canvas and then see what fills in from there.

Sherita Booker, thank you so much.

We read everything she posts at our social media sites.

Search for Up North News, WI.

If you're going to one of those social platforms for the first time.

Thanks, Sherita.

Have a great day.

You too, Pat.

So Sharita along with posting some of those stories also compiles the statistics for them and then shares what are some of the more popular posts of the past week or so and so I thought I'd pass that along.

One of our more popular Facebook posts lately is an article all about Wisconsin's five cleanest lakes and most pristine beaches.

And again, we got 15,000 lakes to choose from.

So to get the five cleanest is really saying something.

And so that post proved to be rather popular.

We also had a popular post on Wisconsin scene, its first confirmed case of West Nile virus in 2025.

And to do what you can to avoid those mosquitoes, long sleeves, insect repellent, things like that.

There was kind of a lighthearted post on Instagram from video that came out of Marathon County.

People who have occasionally protested at Congressman Tom Tiffany's Warsaw office.

And gosh, so coincidentally, every time there are people protesting outside Tom Tiffany's office, the sprinklers turn on and get the protesters wet.

And...

At a recent protest, they decided to be, well, you know, forewarned as forearmed.

Sure enough, the sprinklers turned on and they were ready.

They were in swimsuits, umbrellas, life jackets, dancing around, carrying signs, and that turned out to be a popular post of making light of what was otherwise, you know, a jerk move by some political staff or someplace.

And then finally, there's a popular post on Facebook about wildfire season.

This isn't about the Republicans blaming Canada, which is a silly thing that we're going to get into later on because another sternally worded letter is being sent by a Wisconsin Republican to Canada telling them to do something about all their wildfire smoke.

Insert I roll here.

No, this post is about the.

DNR crews from Wisconsin who are going to help out in northern Manitoba as well as out west in Oregon and California to help with fires there and the skills that they then bring back to Wisconsin for managing, you know, fires and emergencies that could happen here at some point in the future.

So all of that, sir, all of those are among our most popular posts again on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, what used to be Twitter and more.

If you missed it yesterday, we visited in our eight o'clock hour with Earl Ingram of the What's Going On with Earl Ingram podcast, which you really ought to check out.

Go over to civicmedia.us to learn more.

And I also in our conversation noted that yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

Now I'm 61 years old, Earl is 71 years old.

And so for him, looking back,

60 years at how far things had come and how far things have regressed.

Truly made an impression on him.

Here's his response to my question about the Voting Rights Act.

You know, Pat, it is, it is more than frustrating as I watch the clocks being turned back on the gains that took place during the time that I was a young boy and

It always takes me back to my dad, who had to live through a time that inequality was the order of the day for the majority of his life.

And as a very young man, watching Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights struggle and the fight, it took place to make it possible for a young boy like me.

to be able to get an education in the system that was different to what my parents and my grandparents had to go through.

It's really disheartening as now you see your great-grandchildren looking at the same kind of reality that your father and your grandparents look to.

And I think that the part of this that is so heart-wrenching is that

who's left to fight for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren is the battle that was waged in the 1960s for equality and those kinds of things.

There were great people who came together, black and white, who fought for justice and I just don't see that on the horizon with the future.

generations to take this battle on.

So it's, it's more than frustrating as heartbreaking.

And Earl visits with us Wednesday mornings in our eight AM hour here on these mornings powered by up north news on the civic media radio network.

Along those lines.

Again, you hear me talk about headlines a lot.

And I especially pick on the New York Times, but it's everywhere.

They're just one of the more better known newspapers.

And so I would expect better.

But

Here on the front page this morning, it says, Trump's redistricting campaign tests his power in the states.

And the subhead is, the effort by President Trump and his allies is the latest example of them trying to rewrite the rules to squeeze out every possible political advantage.

And that, again, is an example of sanewashing.

We're trying to make something sound normal here that he's trying to rewrite the rules to squeeze out every possible political advantage.

No, he's cheating.

He's cheating and doing it in one of the most racist manners we've seen since prior to the Voting Rights Act passing.

in taking states like Texas.

And we've seen this in Louisiana and Alabama and other states as well.

And we have certainly seen it in the way that Wisconsin legislators treat the city of Milwaukee.

And in looking for ways to diminish representation among people who tend to vote Democratic.

Why do they tend to vote Democratic?

look at what they're trying to do right now to prevent them from voting for the Democratic candidates they want.

Again, this is a matter of respecting the voters and letting them pick their representatives and respecting the rule of law.

This isn't rewriting the rules to squeeze out every possible political advantage.

It's cheating.

And we need to stop sanewashing something that

had other presidents done this prior to this would have been called out so much more loudly.

But again, we continue to give this guy a pass for reasons that remain a mystery to me.

Today's history lesson is next as we always do mornings here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

you know somewhere out there right now there's a couple married couple

probably because they're old enough to remember the song.

They were just singing that to each other right now.

They're just kind of lip syncing along, having fun.

And then we go on to ruin it by talking over it.

Welcome to today's history lesson for this August 7th.

That was Elton John and Kiki D. The number one song this week in 1976.

It would be number one for four weeks, but it would it would stick around like a permanent earworm for the rest of the 70s and beyond.

And why wouldn't it listen to it?

It's happy tune.

On this day in 1782, General George Washington ordered the creation of the Badge of Military Merit.

To honor soldiers who were wounded in battle, it was later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart, making this national Purple Heart Day.

The number one song this week in 1965 was by Hermans

Hermits.

So

here's here's my next question for for young mr. Olson here Yeah, so you'd get these novelty songs every so often when when I was growing up sure What what recently would count as as novelty songs?

You know that are not like anything else you hear on the radio and they're meant to be intentionally funny.

Yeah This is a bit niche, but I like Irish music

And there is a band called Gaelic Storm.

They have a song called the night I punched Russell Crowe in the head.

Did not see that coming.

Yeah, I don't know if it's a

true story.

Allegedly, it's true, perhaps, I'm not sure, but I guess that's in the right vein.

Yeah, if there's anything else that counts, you know, somewhat recently as a novelty song, I'd love to hear about it.

I just don't know.

Maybe that's just not a thing anymore.

Which sucks because I like funny music.

Yeah, I am it's gonna take forever to listen to this particular podcast.

It's called a history of rock and roll and 500 songs by Andrew Hickey.

And I don't know where he's up to right now.

I'm only up to episode number 30 in all these songs about early and it's not even early rock and roll this predates rock and roll and a common theme in those early years.

is that you would have songs that were written, performed, produced, and sold by black artists, but then record companies would take advantage of very lax copyright laws and have, you know, white artists remake them and they would go even higher.

So here's the original version of Shaboom by the chords from 1954.

But of

course as often happens, it only got as high as number nine on the charts, but it was on this day in 1954 that the number one song was the White Guy Cover by the Crew

Cuts.

Yeah,

that's the one guy.

I never feel whiter than when I'm hearing these comparisons.

Yeah.

Honestly, you know.

Happy, I was going to say happy birthday.

No, BJ Thomas is not with us anymore.

He passed away back in 2021.

But this is the anniversary of the birth of BJ Thomas in

1942.

Happy

birthday to actress Charlize Theron.

She is 50 years old today The number one song this week in 1971 was by the Bee Gees

Doing so cheery right

now Well, that's the thing about the Bee Gees is yeah pre disco

And more and more folks don't know this.

The Bee Gees were quite popular pre-disco, but they were for these kind of slower, you know, schmaltzy types of things like this.

And then disco came along and they had a whole new career.

Happy birthday to Bruce Dickinson.

We'll explain which one he is 67 years old today.

Yeah, that's the Bruce Dickinson.

We're talking about lead vocalist for Iron Maiden.

Not the Bruce Dickinson from the SNL Cowbell sketch portrayed by Christopher Walken.

And not Bruce Dickinson who was an actual record manager who was mistakenly given credit by the writers at Saturday Night Live for producing Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Ice Your Cult.

Here's the story behind that, according to Wikipedia, so it must be true.

The original song by Blue Ister Cult was originally produced by David Lucas.

He's the one who discovered Blue Ister Cult and signed them to the label.

There was a Bruce Dickinson producer at Columbia Records, but he was only some mid-level manager.

His name appears on the Greatest Hits compilation under the title Reissue Producer.

An intern at Saturday Night Live was sent out to get the original album, Agents of Fortune, but instead picked up the Greatest Hits album

and mistakenly thought that Bruce Dickinson was the guy who fictitiously but famously said, I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.

None of them are the Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, singing Power Slave there, who is 67 years old today.

The things you never thought you'd learn that you learned on this show.

Yeah, I didn't know who any of the Bruce Dickinson's were.

There you go.

There you go.

I've learned

so much now, you know,

so so many Bruce Dickinson's so little time along with it being National Purple Heart Day.

This is National Aged Care Employees Day.

And as I come closer to the need for aged care, I too would like to say how much I appreciate the work you do.

Please be kind to me in the in the very near future.

And as I often often say on days like this IPA day,

For folks that have never had an IPA, the proper way to drink it is to open it and pour it directly down the drain.

And here's where I get all the hate messages again.

I know, if you like it, you like it.

I like it.

More after the seven o'clock news on these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

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

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

Hey, good morning to you.

It is 706.

It is nice to have you along on this Thursday morning.

It's August 7th.

Parker Olson is our producer down in Madison Studio A2 meteorologist Brittany Merlot will be along in mere seconds.

Coming up this hour, we will be talking to Luann Bird about the recent town hall held by Congressman Brian Stile in the southeastern part of the state.

And it's one thing to give a member of Congress credit for holding an in-person

Town Hall.

It'd be another if the content were a little more say on the up and up and Lou Ann Bird is going to talk to us about that.

We'll visit with Todd Alba and find out what he's doing on his program later today afternoons from two to four.

You normally hear him on Wednesdays along with Trig V Olsen from the Lincoln Project Well, Trig V is going to be joining us here this morning.

He's actually in Lithuania where his wife is from so he's visiting family out there and is going to talk about his work promoting democracy around the world helping countries that are new to democracy get a feel for the systems the norms the safeguards and now

some of those same lessons have to be taught here at home.

So we'll talk to Trig Vielsen about that as well.

A reminder that tomorrow is Friday, so that means it's going to be free Ticket Friday.

We'll be giving away Milwaukee Brewer's tickets again.

We'll also have Courier Newsrooms Kee of Akeel, former U.S.

Attorney Jim Santel, journalists Jennifer Schulze and Mark Jacob.

We'll have Mike Clemens with sports.

Dr. Kristen Lierly will be along as well.

So again, a very busy Friday edition of these mornings powered by Up North News across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Let's see, in a bit here, I'll go back to the mailbag because as Brittany Merleau joins us now, and Brittany, I did not ask if you are

Much I don't know what your adult beverage choices are we've been talking about IPA beers and then things like bourbon and scotch and whiskey what?

What what is your if there even is a maybe you're not even a an adult beverage drinker?

Are you a big fan of her?

Well

Yeah, I So funny you have talked about all three things that I do dabble it I don't drink much but on occasion I do and I've had to force myself to drink Merlot just because of my last name.

So now yes, I do like Merlot But you know, you had to start with the sweet white or wine and then you work your way to the red and darker wine So that's how I had to do that.

But craft beers.

I do enjoy that I love the craft breweries and the different places and the

Just seeing them work so hard and make such amazing, different kind of beer and

the

styles and the flavors that they come up with these days are outstanding.

So I do love to go to them, collect growlers.

Those are pretty cool.

You collect growlers.

I do

all across the north, you know, from Minnesota to Michigan to Wisconsin, even Illinois.

Um, so that's pretty cool, but I do enjoy whisking a bourbon to occasion.

So yeah, on this, uh, national IPA day, uh, Tony put up on YouTube IPAs are trash and the garbage is where they belong.

He says bourbon, Scotch and whiskey.

That's the correct, uh, order of taste.

Uh, from Adam now, instead of just, you know, calling names, you know, when, when we say we don't like IPA, I'm like, well, just tell us what, what is your favorite?

What's a good IPA?

Adam, uh, puts up on YouTube.

Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing is seen as the gold standard in IPAs.

Let's see, Tony says, I did have a hazy IPA from Three Sheeps.

That was okay.

That was about it.

And then finally from Alicia.

You know what's not fair?

The second I turned 40, vodka gave me heartburn.

Right?

Yeah.

And

I always talked about my my preferences bourbon, but now I get a headache rather easily from it.

which I'm gonna say is a self-control mechanism and has prevented me and the age of social media from putting up anything really stupid online.

It's just a

way to say,

hey, young man, settle down.

The two old fashions, that's good, that's your limit.

So thanks for joining us for alcohol talk at seven 10 in the morning.

Why don't we turn to the weather now where things are gonna be getting a little hot and steamy here.

It is.

Things are changing.

First and foremost, that wildfire smoke is pretty much gone.

We're all at moderate AQI levels.

That's the yellow out there.

So not too bad.

Finally, finally, after an entire week of that, we're finally breathing in some much fresher, cleaner air right now.

Temperatures are at about 60 degrees and superior 72 right now in La Crosse.

Everyone else is in between there.

We're looking at more clouds north and patchy fog too.

dense in some places, more sunshine shining through down south in the state.

And today we are getting much more muggy.

I'm talking about dew points at about the mid sixties to nearing 70 degrees.

So very sticky.

It's going to be mostly sunny out there, too, with highs reaching the mid to upper eighties today.

So the heat index already feeling into the nineties this afternoon.

And we do, of course, have storms, active weather.

All of that is starting up and it's going to start this afternoon.

I think around three or four o'clock or so around southwest areas of the state.

It is going to be moving towards the Madison area, maybe around eight o'clock or so, and then in towards the Milwaukee, probably around midnight and after.

Now we could see a few more scattered showers and storms lingering in the Fox Valley still tomorrow morning.

And then tomorrow afternoon, Lake Superior towns get a little swipe of some showers and storms and then even bigger storms start to form as we go into the evening tomorrow.

And that trend continues too as we go into Saturday because another cold front is going to be hitting and that's going to spark up some strong to severe storms as they work through the state.

So in between the storms, we're going to see the extreme heat right this afternoon.

We're also going to see it tomorrow afternoon where there is an extreme heat watch right now for Northwestern parts of the state.

And those heat index by tomorrow is going to be feeling like 100 degrees.

So we're going

to be sweating there.

And that is going to hang on Saturday for the southeast part of the state, while the northwest part of the state is going to be feeling that cold front and getting some relief.

So hotter, longer, further southeast, still getting just as hot up north, just not as long.

And with the chance, but not certainty of precipitation, I just want to let folks around Chippewa County know whether you're farmers or growing things.

I am now taking offers, financial offers from you on whether to put the top on my Jeep up or leave it down.

Because if I leave it down, that guarantees it's going to rain.

Whereas if I think it might rain and I put the top up, it's not going to rain.

So whichever one you want to have happen, you know, my Jeep top is for sale.

Just as a weather barometer.

I've got my Jeep shirt on, a Wrangler shirt.

Oh, that is a Wrangler.

That's perfect.

Love it.

From Rob, good morning.

From Tiger 10.

It's partly cloudy.

62 degrees with light fog.

Yesterday morning I mowed four yards in Tigerton, then a doctor's appointment in Shawno, then a late lunch of spaghetti and meatballs at the Shawno Cafe, and I went for a ride along Highway 29.

Today I have lawns to mow in Tigerton.

Things are getting dry and could use a good drink.

I heard that this is the driest start in many areas in about 50 years.

Um, he says Wisconsin had another tornado from the severe weather outbreak, uh, in Northwestern Wapaka County or five miles from my residence.

Uh, let's see, uh, Alicia says side note, the drive to and from Annago from Kimberly is really long.

So that's good.

Uh, let's see.

Rob says, I like Brittany's shirt with the Jeep.

What I pulled with my lawnmower tractor earlier this summer for Todd, my mechanic.

So there you go.

Back to the IPAs.

Adam says, speaking of IPAs, it is the great taste of the Midwest this Saturday in Madison, which is the largest outdoor beer festival in the US.

So cheers.

All

right.

That sounds great.

And let's see.

We talked about novelty songs during today's history lesson as well.

And a listener in the Chippewa Valley puts on the text line if you're looking for more recent novelty songs There's an artist from Australia named Tom Cardi whose entire catalog of songs was meant to be funny and from Jim and Brookfield Pat you made my day from now on whenever I have a fever for more cowbells I will know the correct Bruce Dickinson director direction to channel my fever for more

Cowbell, so I'm glad we've we've schooled everybody and all the various Bruce Dickinson's out there in the world and who knew who knew there were so many

who knew there were so many and that we've been giving credit to the wrong one all this time.

And it's not even the lead singer for Iron Maiden.

And if you missed all this in today's history lesson, may I again suggest, first off, getting up earlier so you can join us for the history lesson every morning at 6.50.

And let's open, here's one more from Stephen Milwaukee, Bell's Two Hearted Ale.

Must be another IPA to recommend as well.

Or again, you can subscribe to the show as a podcast head over to Spotify or Apple, and that way you can listen back.

And as you listen back, you can then send notes correcting us whenever we get something wrong.

That never happens here, does it?

No.

Brittany, thank you so much.

We'll talk to you in our next hour.

Sounds good.

Keep in mind that you the other way you can follow what we're doing here is to get our newsletter head over to upnorthnewswi.com and click on subscribe up in the top banner.

There's also our new Sunday morning newsletter given the original name Sunday mornings with Pat Crite Lowe where we talk about Wisconsin politics.

I've started trying to outline what's going to be in this weekend's newsletter about Wisconsin politics.

And it is not easy and we're going to be talking to Joseph Peckie in our next hour.

about this week's Wisconsin political headlines.

And it's not going to be easy.

I sent him three different stories that came in late yesterday.

And when I got done looking at these three stories, I posted them to social media with this comment that I am almost literally begging some Republican politician to talk about something of substance rather than

the carousel of what we're dealing with here.

That would include Congressman Derek Van Orden, the headline from Anna Kleiber's story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Derek Van Orden escalates Mark Pocan feud by posting a photo of a naked man in a ski mask with a sex toy.

This is what Derek Van Orden finds funny.

is in trying to, you know, say something insulting about a fellow member of Congress on his social media feed, you know, where kids go.

He's posting a photo of a naked man in a ski mask with a sex toy and thinks that he's being very funny.

And that's really all I can say about that without getting into details that are not good for morning radio.

I would ask, does this mean that Derek Van Orden is not suitable for Congress?

The answer is Derek Van Orden is currently not suitable for middle school.

But yeah, here he is.

We've got also, coming out of Madison, 20 Republican lawmakers call on Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson to act on Milwaukee violence.

They want him to take specific steps to address violence in the city, according to this article in the Journal Sentinel by David Clary and Allison Durr.

Here's the problem with that.

Crime is down in Milwaukee.

But of course, whenever there is something that is bad and gets a lot of TV attention, well, it's going to get a lot of political attention.

It's just that the Swiss are known for their precision timepieces.

The Swiss could only wish that they were as predictable as Wisconsin Republicans when it comes to playing the Milwaukee cart.

That's all they really know how to do, it seems, and they're doing it again, grabbing, you know, a particular high-profile crime and saying that it's indicative of an entire city when the statistics show that it's anything but.

And that there are also reasons why the legislature previously interfered with how the Police and Fire Commission can manage the way that the Milwaukee Police Department has run.

But it's always easier to throw rocks from the other side.

It's easier to throw rocks from the other side of the border, too, because a Wisconsin legislator, a Republican from Tomahawk, has now joined other lawmakers from Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota in filing a formal complaint against Canada about wildfire smoke, also from Anna Kleiber in the Journal Sentinel.

Yes, asking the Environmental Protection Agency and the International Joint Commission

to investigate Canada's wildfire management practices because Canada's north woods are burning down.

Again, I am begging for something of substance to come from our GOP lawmakers, not photos of naked men with sex toys.

A local update is next for some of you, and then we'll be talking to Luann Bird coming up in about 15 minutes.

You're up north.

Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network with outlets in several states, plus podcasts, newsletters, video series and more.

One of those video series is called How Is This Better with Akilah Hughes.

In her season finale, before taking the rest of the summer off, she has an episode about Trump's media takeover.

and why Americans are increasingly split into the informed and the manipulated.

And it includes interviews with Tara McGowan, the founder of Courier Newsroom and our friend Chicago journalist Mark Jacob.

You can watch that over at YouTube.

Go to youtube.com slash courier HQ to learn more.

On the text line is a comment saying, for those who claim the crime rate is down, I suggest you ask an officer who actually works on the streets in the city of Milwaukee how much crime is down.

You know, the crime rate is down because you actually look at the numbers, okay?

It's like asking somebody who's on the front lines of a war that has been reduced everywhere else except on that particular battlefield.

It's like we talked about fog yesterday.

When you're in the bank of fog, you think it goes on forever.

When from up above, you're here in one area.

So obviously, an individual who is affected by crime or is busy fighting a crime in progress, that's all they know.

The crime rate, well, that's writ large.

That's everything.

And it is just so easy for politicians to magnify the isolated rather than be honest about

the big picture.

From Marys Pacuza at the Journal Sentinel, a follow-up to gubernatorial candidate Bill Berrien.

And I am happy to note that Bill Berrien no longer wants to tax corn that comes here from Iowa.

And I don't know that that was ever his intent, but he had a little trouble putting his thoughts out in an earlier interview, and he's now clarified it.

He sat down with the Journal Sentinel during a visit to the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center.

He said he definitely wants to help implement Trump's quote America first strategy He says I really see the opportunity for Wisconsin to be a shining example of the success of his policies However, there there was this confusion, I guess about his comments to a WMTV reporter

late last month about wanting to put, quote, a tariff on corn from Iowa, according to the reporter, then Bering responded, look, you know, the benefit to Wisconsin would be businesses investing here to make product here.

So in the follow-up by the Journal Sentinel asking about putting tariffs on products from other states, Bering said, I don't know where that

State tariffs came from I mean no tariffs state to state.

Well, we know where it came from You were asked a question.

We can roll back the tape.

We've played it on this show if you like If you're confused about tariffs that it's fine to say so But your answer gave the appearance that you liked Trump's tariffs nation to nation so much that you would consider Wisconsin having something like tariffs rather than you know, trying to attract businesses with

healthy schools, infrastructure, investment, things like that.

Philip Shulman, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told the Journal Sentinel, quote, Bill Bering is so obsessed with trying to win Trump's love that he'll support any policy, including wanting to increase the GOP's tariff tax.

And after this flip-flop, it's clear he'll say whatever he thinks will help him win, not what will actually help working Wisconsin.

Bering was asked about the Canadian wildfire smoke that we talked about earlier, and he said he wasn't sure to what extent climate change was a factor or what could be done to fix the problem and give him credit here for saying, you know, I just haven't looked at the root causes enough.

I know that the DNR is sending up some firefighters, but it's certainly challenging.

So, you know, that's that's a good answer.

It's not a great answer because again, you're afraid to acknowledge the changing climate caused by fossil fuels, but at least you're not in denial.

And in fact, when pressed about the issue, he told the Journal Sentinel, human activities are one of the causes of climate change.

I think it's definitely a combination of factors, Barry and said.

But you know, people are going to be one of those factors.

So again, not a denialist.

That works in his favor.

He was also asked about the campaign contributions that he received from the Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler who founded a cryptocurrency company known as Gemini and perhaps are better known for their legal dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over, you know, the creation of Facebook.

Anyway, Bering has raised one and a quarter million dollars, but one million of that one and a quarter million came from the Winklevoss twins.

and he was asked about that, Bering was, and he said, quote, I've known them for about 30 years just through their parents, and that he's had conversations with them about bringing more, quote, unquote, hard tech to Wisconsin.

So again, the Wisconsin State Fair is a great opportunity for people to get to talk to candidates, reporters, finally get to talk to them as well.

You're not hand picking your audience the way that, you know, Derek Van Orden did recently.

You're not doing the

so-called teletown hall, which is not to say you shouldn't do a teletown hall, but it's not a substitute for meeting in person.

I did more than 100 in-person listening sessions as a legislator.

They weren't always easy.

They were necessary.

I didn't sneak up on people.

I didn't leave phone messages the night before or the morning of that said, you know, hey, come join me.

I know it's short notice, but come join me.

I mean, we put ads in all the little small town newspapers or notices in the newspapers saying, hey, here's where you can talk to your state senator.

Had some great conversations, got some good ideas.

Members of Congress could do the same.

You know, I watched Russ Feingold all those years holding listening sessions in all 72 counties.

And as the years went on and as the electorate got more hostile, some of those listening sessions weren't a lot of fun, but there were also some great questions, some great give and take, and that's what responsible elected officials do.

So the ones that'll come to the state fair, shake some hands and do interviews, hey, that's a good thing, but it would be better if you actually held your own form and kept yourself

accountable.

Congressman Brian Stile kind of sort of did that and we're going to talk to our guest Lou Ann Byrd coming up next about that right after the Midwest Farm Report all across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Don't forget Matt Nair on air follows this program from 9 to 11 and tomorrow free Ticket Friday here on these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Remember, you can sign up for my weekend at Wisconsin Politics Newsletter Sunday mornings with Pat Critello.

Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.

And in that newsletter, we also put in a question of the week.

And this week, we're looking at the redistricting in Texas, where Republicans are trying to add five seats artificially and asking, what should democratically controlled states like California do?

Should they respond in kind or not sync to that level?

and again folks can answer that by being subscribers to our newsletter head to upnorthnewswi.com click subscribe and the top banner we were just talking about the wisconsin state fair

getting out there and talking to people.

And we were talking in the last segment about a couple of Republicans who have done that.

There are plenty of other folks, a lot of good progressives working at the State Fair as well.

I'm looking at the Facebook page of our friend Luanne Byrd and seeing her doing a little pressing of the flesh at the Wisconsin State Fair as well.

And she joins us now live to visit with us.

Luanne, good to see you.

How are you?

Well, I'm great.

Good morning, friends.

Good morning, Pat and company.

It's so nice to see you.

Thank you.

Like I said, I did see you in that same resist t-shirt that you were wearing at the Wisconsin State Fair.

So let's start there before we get to the Congressman Styles listening session.

You get to do your own listening when you're at places like the fair.

Tell us about those conversations.

Well, they're the same, really.

I have

A lot of people need hope right now and a lot of people are very tired of the regime and the autocracy that's in place.

So I have a great time talking to people, not really talking, mostly again listening to what their concerns are and giving them a place, a space where they can actually be part of the change.

I invite people to join the Democratic Party.

I invite them to join our protests that we have every weekend on Saturday at 10 o'clock on the corner of 76th and Layton.

And we hold up our signs and we rally in support of democracy.

So, yeah, those conversations are great.

It's also hard because, you know, there's such a division.

It's not even like we just disagree.

There's, you know, people that don't agree with Democrats can be kind of a little bit rude, not rude, but, you know, they're not.

willing to engage in a conversation.

And that's, that's something I always like to work on.

But it was great.

It's just great to be down there.

And the thing of it is, what we do need are more conversations.

And you are perhaps the quintessential person, the opening of if somebody does not agree with

democratic or progressive points of view, but you want to start a conversation, you want to start it with somebody like Lou Ann.

It is, it has always been nothing but respectful.

I've seen when you've gone up to for, you know, like Senator Ron Johnson, and it is, it's the kind of discourse

we all wish we could have when we start from places where we don't agree.

At no point have I seen you know some Republican want to accost you because you're simply a very easy person to talk to.

Well I've been

I've been treated pretty rudely by a few.

There was a guy that came up to me.

We don't need to talk about that.

What we want to talk about is, yeah, I like people.

I respect Republicans.

I respect Democrats.

I think Republicans that are Trumpers.

are in a different space they just are full of fear and they want power and control and so I still think we need to talk with them we need to understand where they're coming from because democracy it's so serious what they're doing now and they don't even realize it I had a short conversation with the chair of the republican party because you know me Pat I just go

up and talk to anybody

yep and I saw him at the fair and we were just chatting and being very nice and you know family and summer and whatever and then I did ask them about Trump

you know, do you think he has too much work?

But then I said, I asked him about the executive order that Trump signed, because he said, you know, I really care about people with disabilities.

And I said, me too.

See, there's that common ground.

However, what he didn't know is that Trump signed an executive order allowing new businesses within agencies, the federal agencies to not have to make their buildings ADA accessible, if it's going to limit their ability to be prosperous.

because those things only benefit a few.

So it's really scary to me that even some of these Republicans that I think share some of our values don't know what Trump's doing.

So we have to get in there and we have to keep having these conversations and doing our own research.

Don't just accept.

What they say because they're good at talking points.

Well, and that's where we make the the pivot to the town hall here because again in conversations, you know, people can be very nice and pleasant.

They don't have to be rude.

However, there's a difference between having, you know, a pleasant tone and having a pleasant tone and not being completely truthful would be my word.

And for that, I would turn to Congressman Stile, who is continuing to defend

an indefensible bill for the cuts that it makes and continuing to be an advocate for Trump's, you know, deportation policies and things.

What I'm saying, Luan, is a lot of people want to give him credit for having an in-person town hall, but I think that credit gets negated a bit when if you're not willing to be truthful with your constituents.

Well, it was clear that the attendees weren't going to accept that.

And when he pivots to blaming Biden for open borders as to the reason we have an immigration part, we didn't let him do that.

I mean, the crowd cut him off, which is.

how we were feeling at the time.

I know for some people that kind of an angry town hall they don't like and I don't either.

It's too bad we've had to go to that but we didn't let him and here's the thing.

It was a quote listening session and the speakers, thank you to all of you who spoke up.

They were very respectful, very direct and it's all on my website.

If anyone wants to go watch, we just put up a shortened version today so you don't have to watch the whole clapping and everything.

Give me the website.

quick so I can put that up on screen.

It's luanbird.com.

Okay, luan.

luan.bird.com.

Yeah, and it's also well anyway, so here's where I struggled at every time someone stood up there and spoke eloquently like about internment camps in Florida, which he he would then say, Well, I disagree with that.

Um, description, you know, he would say, I disagree.

And then on all the issues, like on immigration and on feeding children in, in Gaza, you know, he had his Pat answers.

So I don't call that a listening session.

I'm not sure what he did that.

for because a listening session would be acknowledging what you heard and then maybe being open to what we're saying.

And I didn't sense any of that.

So he thinks on immigration, we just have to follow the law, which means kicking people out.

But one of the listeners kindly reminded him that it's just a misdemeanor if you're in this country.

illegally.

And we reminded him that it's an internment camp because there's no due process.

You can't call it a detention center because it's actually an internment camp when you arrest people for no reason and you throw them in and they can't see their attorneys.

And that's happening in America right now.

So it wasn't a listening session.

I call it a rubber stamp for Trump.

That's what it was.

Well, it was, there was a lot of, it's performative now.

It's a matter of taking your, your lines and being able to deliver them not just to a friendly crowd, but to a crowd that may not necessarily agree with you.

And I think that too many politicians are doing just that.

They're treating this as theater or something as a performance that they have to make, but stick to your guns rather than actually having the back and forth and showing

Some independence showing at least a little daylight between yourself and in this case Donald Trump to say you know I don't agree with him on on this thing or that thing and that's the problem with this entire congressional delegation right now is I mean They're all afraid to show any daylight between themselves and Trump aren't they?

They are and we we

In my home, you know, my husband's very sick and we have a lot of AIDS that come in and help out and they're all on Medicaid.

And I, you know, I wanted to share the story about that about how.

One of our aides is actually on the Affordable Care Act.

His premium is $900 a month and he finally, I knew all along he was going to lose that.

He finally figured it out and he was heartbroken.

So those are the kind of things where what these Republicans and what Congress is doing is hurting people.

It isn't just we disagree anymore, but there are children that are starving in Gaza because we are not.

America used to be at the forefront of foreign aid and instead Trump is negotiating with his friends with with Netanyahu instead of America being the people that care we are the people that care it's just that our leaders don't you know this is heartbreaking and that all these people are going to lose their health care and all because pat they wanted to lower the tax rate

for the wealthy and the big corporations so that they could spur innovations.

It's all about the big people and prosperity, but that has shown in history to never, ever work.

So we could take care of a lot of these problems that we're facing and that the people in that room were angry about if we would just.

make everybody pay their fair

share.

We're talking to Lou Ann Bird, former candidate for Legislature and continues to be active in the community, louannbird.com, l-u-a-n-n-b-i-r-d, louannbird.com or on Instagram, bird for w-i-b-i-r-d, f-o-r-w-i, where I mean, there's no shortage of pictures of you, you know, meeting with people, continuing these conversations.

Here's an aspect of the conversation that I wonder about and you just hit on it that

All of these cuts, they're not actually saving anybody anything because they're just going right to tax cuts for the very wealthy.

It's not like it's coming back to middle class taxpayers.

But I always get the impression that there are still far few people who know that.

In your conversations, do people get that these cuts aren't actually saving anything?

Do they know that or is it?

or do you see them realizing it after the fact and feeling like they've been hoodwinked?

Well the people that really need Medicaid, for example, don't know.

They really don't know.

what's going on at the federal level and I didn't I mean they really just don't know so we have to educate them we have to help them understand and don't you wonder like oh they're always cutting billions and billions of dollars they're holding money back from grants that they owe universities and education and things like that that money's all going to detention centers now to internment camps so

When you just have to help people connect the dots, what are they doing with this money?

This budget wasn't about lowering the deficit.

It actually increases the deficit.

I mean, it is it's still at $3 trillion.

So it's not watch what they say.

Watch what they do not what they say.

Okay.

Exactly.

And again, just this week, you know, new numbers came out on the big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill.

And it's it now crosses $4 trillion.

that it adds to the debt.

Yeah,

it's just for all those folks that say that have always said, Oh, it's about the deficit.

The deficit is killing us.

Or the you know, as Tony notes on YouTube here, it's like they're only talking about balancing the budget.

There's never been anything this far out of balance.

And that's your that's your big mission is conveying that to people.

Well, that's right, because even my aide that didn't understand how that all works was asking me, he's like, no, because I protest all the time and I'm off to go protest after we take care of Phil.

It's like, well, now what are you protesting for?

And when I explained democracy, he's like, well, what do you mean?

What's going on there?

And then I explained to him that, well, right now the president is totally in control.

Congress isn't doing their job.

They are not standing up to the president who is constantly breaking the law.

We have lost our balance of power.

And when Congress goes ahead after

After Trump cut the $9 billion, then that Congress had already approved and allocated toward great programs that help people all around the world, then Trump cuts it, and Congress, instead of standing up to Trump, rescinded that money.

That is not democracy.

So by technical terms, we've lost our democracy at the moment.

But the good news is that when this happens,

People can rise up and we can take it back.

We can demand when we stop, when we get to those people that are so loyal to President Trump, we can unravel this autocracy that we're all stuck in.

So I stand up on my street corner every Saturday at, you know, 76th and Layton with my signs

because we've got

to sign people up.

We've got to educate

them, Pat.

And we can, we can change things.

And learn more at luanbird.com.

Luan, thank you so much.

Great to connect with you again.

Well, you're welcome.

Thank you so much for

what you do.

We'll talk to Todd Alba and Trig Vilsen coming up right after this.

You're up north.

Cross Wisconsin on Civic Media.

You're listening to Mornings with Pat Cricklow powered by Upmorth News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Upmorth News, Pat Cricklow.

Back with you at 8.06.

Good morning.

It's a Thursday morning, August 7th.

Nice to have you along here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Parker Olson producing us down in Madison Studio A2.

Meteorologist Brittany Merleau here in just a sec, and then we will be rejoined.

by Todd Alba of the conveniently named Todd Alba show weekday afternoons two to four and Trigvielson senior advisor to the Lincoln project who is visiting family in Lithuania.

And at 75 cents a minute, I can't keep putting quarters into this pay phone for much longer.

So Brittany is going to give us the abbreviated version of a forecast that is going to get hot and a little bit stormy in spots.

Brittany, yes.

Yes, it is.

So we've got the air quality going down the allergies and grass pollen going up.

We've also got the heat and humidity rising.

It's going to turn warm and muggy today.

We're looking at highs in the mid to upper 80s, feeling like the low 90s in some spots.

Mixed skies to start, but then we've got storms starting maybe around three or four o'clock in the afternoon.

Far Southwest kind of headed towards the Madison area around eight and then towards Milwaukee around midnight.

Few of those could linger early tomorrow morning in the Fox Valley and then another late morning round of storms expected by Lake Superior before even more start to spark potentially tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow, of course, we are looking at highs anywhere from the upper 80s to low 90s.

Heat index could reach 100 degrees.

We've got an extreme heat watch right now into far northwest parts of the state, and then we've got severe weather on tap potentially for Saturday and into Sunday.

Guys, what do you think?

Why do we keep joking about me or Todd running for governor?

You think we can get behind Brittany for this?

I mean, wouldn't

people vote for her over us?

Heck, yeah.

All right.

Oh, good.

Let's get the draft.

By the way, by the way, Brittany, hot and stormy.

We're Trig V's two old girlfriends at UW River.

Or you'll be able to click.

Moving on now.

Brittany, thank you.

Have a great day.

We'll catch up with you tomorrow.

Anyway, while there is still an FCC license in place, let me tell you that you can subscribe to our newsletter.

Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.

subscribe up in the top banner there.

Trig Vilsen, senior advisor to the Lincoln Project and joining us live from Lithuania and Todd Alba here as well.

You can catch Trig V and Todd Wednesday afternoons along with yours truly when we appear right at the top of the show at two o'clock.

So Trig V, again, thank you for being part of an early morning radio show by it being four o'clock in the afternoon in Lithuania right now.

And let's start with, because we don't get to hear you on this show very often, and people haven't frankly heard about the Lincoln Project for a while.

So can you give us the quick elevator pitch on what is the Lincoln Project and what is it doing like nowadays?

Right.

I mean, from the outset, we've really tried to stay on mission.

There have been two things that the Lincoln Project is focused on.

One is stopping Donald Trump, and the second is

pushing back on Trumpism and extremism more generally.

And, you know, a lot of what we do, what people know us for is the ads where Donald Trump gets really angry at us and threatens to sue us, or I guess now that he's back in the White House, do whatever worse things.

But what they don't see and you guys know this is We spend an awful lot of time working and doing ads that are driven as we are now At small subsets the electorate because elections really end up being about small numbers in a state like Wisconsin You know, there's probably 40 or 50,000 households that that typically decide how elections go

and one of the reasons why I'm excited to be on your show, Pat, and it's kind of like coming home, being a River Falls boy, is, you know, you speak, as does Todd show, right into the heart of where elections in Wisconsin are decided and thereby elections in the United States.

It's in places like Eau Claire County, Richland Center, River Falls.

Those are the places where three or four points matter, and we spend a lot of time targeting ads directly into those voters.

quite frankly, not just during elections, but as news cycles and events are unfolding.

And I think part of that, Todd, as a former Republican staffer in the state capitol, and now a former Republican as well, is that there is still, in you, in me, in your former boss, former state Senator Dale Schultz, there is still that kernel of, crazy as it sounds, service.

which is really at the heart of democracy and an honest government is actually wanting to serve people not just win elections and power, and you keep doing your show in the afternoons because you still see that in people in Wisconsin, I believe.

Yeah, I mean, I mean you've you've been with this Pat I always appreciate it when you take time out of your busy schedule to travel with this whether it's Northern Wisconsin State Fair or downtown Eau Claire and Trigby and I have been all over the state as has Jane Matt, Aaron, Greg Bach and I think the key is just listen to people, right?

I mean Bob Euker once told I think Elaine Grindel right before he died or at some point in their career He said don't be looking at the stat sheet all the time Don't be looking at the numbers the games out there call just watch the popcorn guy messing around with somebody in the state

Look at the guys messing around with each other, you know, joking around us trying to steal base.

That's where the game is at.

And I think the more we just listen to people around the state, we'll figure out what's important to people.

And I heard Joseph Pecchino has been on your show, Pat.

He was on Jane's show yesterday.

And I think he nailed it.

He's like, Donald Trump ran lower in prices and a better economy.

Neither one of those two things have happened.

And we have to, if we want to win, as Trigvie says, keep him earned at that and don't pay attention to the periphery.

So, TrigVee has a newsletter on Substack called Searching for Hope.

And you can get it over at trigvielson.substack.com.

TrigVee is T-R-Y-G-V-E.

And he spells Olsen the proper way, O-L-S-O-N, Parker.

Hey!

With an E-N.

And you can catch Todd's show weekdays from two to four.

But I want to get to the gist of your newsletter there, TrigVee, Searching for Hope.

Because again, in all the work you've done in other countries with groups that have been promoting democracy,

You've had to take those lessons and write about them as they apply here at home.

And I can't get you to sum up, you know, six months worth of newsletters in one fell swoop here.

But what is it that you're trying to convey to either Americans or Americans who are still involved in politics as far as what are the steps that they can do to ensure that we don't see further erosion of democracy?

Yeah, I think the most important one and searching for hope the title It's an ode to my my oldest daughter who unfortunately was

still born at

38 weeks and it's buried not far from here in Lithuania Her name meant hope in Lithuania, but it really is deeper than that in the sense that When you think about and this is what I learned from working in 40 countries that those fighting autocrats

The game that we're in, not the one that we know of electoral democracy, but the game we're in is one between autocracy and democracy.

And that is really about one side wanting to impose fury of each other, and the other side trying to impose faith and hope in each other.

And democracy, for it to work, you can't just say that everybody on the other side is evil.

And quite frankly, I was looking at a Facebook post from a friend of mine in River Falls, somebody who I've known since I was three or four, and she's active in Republican politics.

And she got going sort of like Scott Walker at the talking point, Democrats have left Texas and we know how that is in Wisconsin.

The irony in that, and what people have to ask themselves, and I wish she would, is if your side, if the other side were doing it, if Democrats were redistricting in California,

unilaterally to keep Joe, the Congress from becoming Republican, they'd be going bananas, just as Democrats are right now.

And democracy never works unless you can put yourself in the other person's perspective.

And for individuals, and I really, every day I give people three things that they can do from the lessons that I learned around the world.

The most important thing with that

Each of us has to take inventory of what agency we have and say, how can we take that and apply it to this battle that we're in?

And for some, it might be whatever their area of expertise is.

If they know a lot about technology, figuring out a way to use technology to help in the battle.

If they know how to write, maybe it's writing letters to the editor, maybe it's running for the school board and doing something locally.

But everybody has to look at where do I have agency to be part of the part of the solution?

And where can I find hope in what I can bring?

Because that's what democracy is really about.

It's about all of us coming together and being the sum being greater than the parts.