Big Beautiful BS (Hour 3)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Upnorth News.

Now, from our Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Upnorth News, Pat Craiglow.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06.

It's a Thursday morning, August 28th.

It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake WSOTA.

from wherever you're spending your mornings, listening across the civic media radio network, or listening through the app or podcast, maybe on the website, civicmedia.us, however you got here.

Appreciate you being here for what some people wink wink is the last working day of the week before a long and well deserved Labor Day holiday weekend for every American worker out there.

I got a question for you.

Does that include Parker Olson?

Is he a great American worker who deserves a long weekend for Labor Day?

The answer is yes.

We'll go ahead and answer that question now.

Parker, you too are a great American worker who deserves Labor Day weekend off.

Congratulations.

Aw,

thank you.

Never had anybody say that to me before.

That's the kindest thing you've ever said to me, Pat.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm overtired.

I'm not myself.

Oh, I understand.

I'll try to fix that along the way.

Although I'm not sure I'm looking at how the day is starting here.

Yeah, I we have literally before we even but for even opened up opened up the microphone first comment on on Facebook.

I'm just reading opinions here.

I don't see any facts and I'm really curious what exactly you're talking about.

You're curious what he posted on curious what exactly you're talking about.

That's the

point of what you were

reading.

before the show had even started.

So, you know, we're off on a great note here.

So let's tell you what we're talking about.

We're going to talk to Joseph Pecky about today's Visit to La Crosse by Vice President JD Vance.

It's another effort to spin the narrative on what's in the Republican package of massive cuts and record deficits used to deliver lots of goodies to people.

in the wealthiest tax brackets.

And like his buddy, Congressman Derek Van Orden, you can expect a lot of forceful denials and sarcasm and name calling, but will help you keep an eye on those pesky facts that keep getting in the way of their brand of performative politics.

You know, Van Orden frequently talks about growing up poor and having to eat government cheese, which only makes it easier to identify him as what I call a ladder pusher.

someone who was able to take advantage of policies that could help children and families climb up out of poverty, only to then push the ladder away before anyone else can benefit.

We're going to talk to Kate Felton of Eau Claire about her new column at the Reconbobulation Area that calls out Van Orden for continuing to lie that the new Republican budget law doesn't hurt people who rely on Medicaid and nutrition support to stay out of poverty.

We will check the latest Kennedy quackery going on at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A woman with Wisconsin ties is out of a job less than a month into her new role leading the CDC.

And predictably, it is setting off alarm bells throughout the country's health and science communities.

So we'll check on a Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., a spreader of medical misinformation who seems hell-bent on steering the country on a crash course with more public health emergencies.

Because isn't that what this country needs on top of everything else?

Brittany Merleau's forecast for the state today.

says that Labor Day weekend is looking warmer, plenty of sunshine and dry days ahead, and that's some great news.

She says there are some showers possible early in the southern part of the state, otherwise a quiet cooler day, plenty of sun, highs in the upper 60s up north, mid 70s to the south, a northeast wind today at 10 to 15 miles an hour for tonight, clear and chilly patchy fog.

Lowe's will be in the upper 30s up north to 50 in the southern part of the state with an east wind at five to 10 miles an hour.

And we will get her full forecast coming up right after the seven o'clock news right here across the civic media radio network.

I have been saying for the past couple of days that you know not having 80s for temperatures.

Do I sound like I've been complaining about it?

I

probably

sounded like I was complaining.

Yes.

I noticed you didn't even hesitate.

Nope.

Didn't even hesitate to say that I was complaining.

I so I find it weird that you've been complaining about how nice it's been.

It's

great.

It hasn't been some summer is like 80s and hasn't been in the 80s.

It's been in the upper 60s and 70s.

Anyway, I got to eat all those words yesterday as we went for a pontoon ride.

You know, we've got one of the daughters and her family here today, another one arrives tonight.

And see, Tony, you're right.

Says no way Pat never complains.

We don't you know, they still invent they haven't invented a proper sarcasm font yet for online comments.

And I'm, I'm guessing that it would be there on that one.

Anyway, so we're, we're going on a ride up the river.

yesterday and Sherry had to work and she sends me a text, you know, how are things?

So they're great.

We're heading up river, heading to Mallard.

We're going to relax for a while.

And she's like, is it is it too cold?

I had to send back.

No, it's glorious.

It was perfect.

It yesterday could not have been a more perfect afternoon to be out and about.

You know, it was, it was jeans instead of shorts, but you know, t-shirts and everything else.

And it was, it was just the most wonderful day.

So what you're saying is we've brought you over to the white side.

You brought me over to the, it doesn't have to be 85 with a triple digit heat index.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

Alicia says on YouTube, no real fog here in Marinette, but on the way up, the bugs were so bad in areas, they looked like smoke rising from the trees.

Well, there's some good news.

That's an image.

Yeah.

But we're we are getting to that point, though, where some of the critters start to sense there will be a change in the season.

Some are migrating.

Some will be looking at your house and going, Hey, I'll bet it's warmer in there.

You know, whether it's the the what is it?

The beetle, the little Japanese beetles, the little ladybugs.

All

the other box elders also start

coming box elders.

Yep.

They're they're all going to start to be on the move here pretty soon.

And so we'll have the ant traps laid out yet again and try to spider one more round of spider spray.

You know, the critters.

Hey, you know, if you're out in there in nature critters, you know, go nuts.

You

can't come in here.

I

if you come in here, I have an amendment to that.

Okay.

If you're outside critters, give me like a one foot

radius away from anything I need to touch on my house.

There is currently a spider that has made its home in the garage door, like code panel.

Okay.

And I am have to flick it every day to get into the garage.

And I'm not a fan, not a fan of feeling a spider web.

But I mean,

have you considered instead of flicking it, you know, smush, you know, I mean,

I haven't found it

all your

Oh, you're just flicking the web away.

I'm only seeing the web.

I don't think I've seen the spider yet, but it keeps coming back, so there is a spider there.

I'm not crazy,

Pat.

And getting more and more angry at you that you keep...

blowing its house down.

Probably true.

That's probably why those, but the webs keep getting bigger.

Yeah.

So maybe if the little pig could build a web out of bricks, you know, it might have a better chance, but maybe you're right.

Maybe he needs to go find a new zip code to do that.

I see you have your, your badger right on.

You must be ready for today's badger football season opener.

Of course.

Yes.

I, I am such a big college football guy.

However, I will make an amendment to that.

I know little to nothing about the badgers this year.

Um,

Um, I think most people would tell you that this is

not a team of household names, exactly.

And I just haven't kept up hardly at all in the last couple of years because I've been so busy with covering whitewater sports in college.

So it'll be, uh, from what I understand, not a great year to pick it back up, but, uh,

well, we got

to start

somewhere.

Yeah.

And I, and I, I guess.

The way I'd put it is for Luke fickle, the coach, you know, you get those first couple of years of a grace period because it wasn't your recruiting class and all that.

I know these aren't all his recruits necessarily.

But you've had a couple of years to get your feet wet, you know, to respond to what you've got there.

Yeah.

And I think it is entirely fair to have not outsized but high expectations.

from him.

I mean, if he's everything that they said he was when they hired him, this is the year to put up.

Yeah.

And if not, I

don't know.

Maybe we go in a new direction.

I don't know.

You know, I have always been huge on you have to give a coach four years so that they can get all their own guys and be involved in the system and everything about the new school that they're at.

Okay.

But in today's world, I don't know.

What to think though, because there's so many transfers, it seems like there's

never is your own team anymore, because yeah, that transfer portal gets used more than the portal on the on the on the enterprise on Star Trek.

His kids are just beaming from place to place to place.

It's you know, Tony says looking forward to a more balanced offense and getting back to running it.

Yeah.

So is that is that the thing we're supposed to be more of a running team?

I

mean,

I

have always, we

really haven't had NFL quarterbacks, shall we say?

No for a few years.

So maybe we should stop trying

for a few years.

Okay.

Russell Wilson was the last NFL quarterback we had in like 2010.

Yeah, exactly a few years.

So the Badgers are taking on Miami of Ohio, which always, you know, to have a footnote like that.

Miami University, Ohio.

You think by now they'd get the hint.

You know, I guess their their school motto is hey, at least it's not Miami of North Dakota.

So we got that going for us eight o'clock is a start time late start to the game here.

Big 10 network or or right here on the civic media radio network stations in Richland Center, Amory, Wisconsin Rapids and ripping

We'll have the pregame starting at six o'clock this evening and then kick off at eight o'clock Badger football new season getting underway In baseball the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Brewers last night three to two It was the first appearance for the newest Brewers pitcher Eric Feddy 32 years old now with his third team in 2025 His record is currently four wins and 13 losses

So I guess low expectations.

Well, there's that and this whole notion of look at all the players who have overperformed who've come here.

And so I guess that makes Eric Fetti, you know, a reclamation project like, well, let's see if we can turn this one turned strong to gold once again.

And what happened Andrew one.

He pitched four and a third innings.

He gave up two runs on eight hits.

So, you know, nine.

Not terrible by any stretch.

And just like you said, the bar is low.

Yeah, for what we've got.

Because again, and we haven't talked about this for a long time.

But I mean, there are still injuries in that core.

There's players, you know, I mean, look at all we've done without Jackson Churio all this time.

And everybody, you know, everybody else pitchers and hitters like William Contreras though hit a home run.

And so

grass is

green.

He's had a hot bat lately and they're gonna do it one more time with a day game today wrapping up the four game series and the pregame is gonna start at 1235 on Civic Media stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine, Park Falls and Hayward.

So a little daytime baseball before the Brewers hit the road and they're off to Toronto.

for a quick series here Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then they're back here on Monday on Labor Day for a game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

And then they're off on Tuesday before continuing the series on Wednesday and Thursday.

That Tuesday off day will be their first off day after

Is it 18 games and 17 days or 19

games, 18

games and 18 days.

And it's it is starting to show, you know, you're hearing that from folks and yes, it is.

So give the boys a break.

But first, they got to go to Toronto, which is hard to say you don't pronounce it other T Toronto.

It's like Fond du Lac, you know, from the heart of America is up north here on a foggy lake with soda.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your morning.

I'm Pac right low.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

And now we're with Sherida Booker, our social media manager, since she's online more than anybody, also looks at other things that are going on around the news world and around the state.

and then joins us to talk about some of the events that you could be attending.

Yes, I know it's Labor Day weekend.

Yes, you've probably made your plans already, but maybe not.

Maybe you can squeeze one of these in.

So let's ask Sherita about that right now.

Sherita, hello, how are you?

Good, Pat, how are you?

Very good.

Let's start with, well, let's go from things that are starting today and then into the weekend.

And so starting today, there are big Labor Day weekend festivities at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

Tell us more about that.

Yep, that kicks off and will run through Sunday.

And tonight is Ladies Bike Night from 5 to 9 with musical performances by Dandy Freeling and Big Heart Kind Band.

All weekend long will be Harley-Davidson's Outlet Sale, where you can save major deals on gear and merch.

You can also join the MKE Labor Day Challenge, where you ride to five Harley-Davidson locations, including the museum, to unlock 500 member and loyalty points, where you can earn your challenge badge.

And the weekend finishes up with the eighth annual big unit.

Poker Run, which benefits Fisher House, Wisconsin.

Registration for that starts at 8 AM with breakfast ready to go.

And you can pre-register online to win a signed guitar from the Sturgis Rally Performers.

For more information on that event, visit Harley-Davidson.com.

That would be cool.

All right.

So that's coming up in Milwaukee here.

Have you been, are you a motorcycle rider or Harley rider?

I am not, and I have never been.

Have never been?

Okay.

Well, down to the museum.

I would like to see the museum.

If I were around, this would be a good weekend to go down there and maybe get some, some bargains, like you said, at the factory outlet sale and things like that.

So that's on Canal Street down in Milwaukee, not far away from American Family Field.

If you're not familiar with the Valley there, let's head down the road to Madison, big event this weekend, taste of Madison.

Tell us more.

Yep, and that's the largest picnic on the Capitol Square, and that'll be happening this Saturday and Sunday.

There will be more than 80 food vendors participating this year.

Some of those include Auntie Jill's, Banzo, Common Pasta, Curd Girl, David's Jamaican Cuisine, Draper Brothers' Chop House, El Grande Taco Gato, and Marie's Soul Food and much, much more.

There's plenty on the list.

In addition to several food and beverage options, there will be live entertainment.

Saturday's lineup includes Pop Evil, The Haunt, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus,

NERP, Never Tell, A New Revolution, Fool Food Dolls, Super Tuesday and No Limit.

Sunday's lineup includes George Spurge, Madison County, Preston Cooper, Elizabeth Mary Band, The People's Brother Band, Frank Martin-Bush, and the names.

The Rotation and Take Back the Sun.

And that mission for this event is free.

And for more information, visit tasteamadison.com.

All right.

Have you been to Taste of Madison or anything similar to that?

I have not been to Taste of Madison.

I want to go though.

Like I've only been to Madison like three times in my entire life.

Oh,

okay.

Well, you could you could pick worse weekends to go there.

Right.

I was mentioning before some of the events coming up next weekend for people if they wanted to start planning and that includes barbecue fest up here in Chippewa Falls, which I've not been to that.

I think this is the third annual in Chippewa.

I have been to in two other different cities, a rib fest.

If you ever get a chance to go to a ribfest people, go to the ribfest.

It's just unbelievable.

And I'm sure Taste of Madison is going to have a whole lot of great choices as well.

And if I'm not mistaken, Taste of Madison was the scene.

There was a scene up on the rooftop for that season of Top Chef that was in Wisconsin as well.

I'll have to ask Luke Mathers all about that since he knows.

everything about Top Chef.

All right, let's move on.

We've covered Milwaukee, Madison.

Let's get up here to Western Wisconsin.

And look, you're going to find a lot of mazes out in fields this year.

You're going to go, Yeah, it's a corn maze.

That's a corn maze.

This is not a corn maze.

What do we got going in this case around Eau Claire?

we

have the sunflower maize and that will be sunflowers and that'll be held at jakewish farms and it's their annual sunflower maize and family fun event and that's happening saturday and sunday from 11 a.m to 6 p.m in addition to the sunflower maize there will be a picking patch barrel rides wagon rides a scavenger hunt a sandpit and photo ops there will also be food trucks and concessions available the price is ten dollars per person or 25 dollars per carload and children five and under are free

And for more information about this event, you can visit their Facebook page.

And that's J-Quish Farms.

And the spelling is J-A-Q-U-I-S-H Farms.

And the location, by the way, is just southwest of Eau Claire.

Get on to 37.

But then don't get on the interstate.

Just keep going.

It turns into Highway 85.

And just a little ways down kind of there along the Chippewa River is where you'll find a sunflower maze.

That's got to be a first.

Definitely would be for me.

I've done the corn mazes.

Doing the corn mazes though, I've done them with small children.

And that's, that's an adventure because small children have no respect whatsoever for mazes, especially in corn.

They're just going to barrel right through go over where they want to go.

And then you're, you look like the parent who is cheating, you

know,

chasing the kid through there.

So just keep in mind, keep in mind the spirit of what these young kids are doing when they go out to these corn mazes.

Sharia Booker, thanks for telling us about the corn mazes and everything else coming up.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

In some other news right now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy would like you to know what a great job President Donald Trump is doing with Amtrak.

He put out an announcement yesterday, a tweet that said announcing

Next, Jen Asella.

Asella would be those high-speed trains out on the East Coast.

These are brand new, beautiful train stuff, he says, delivered by the US Department of Transportation and Amtrak.

They will increase reliability, lower ticket costs, and improve Amtrak profitability.

This is all part of the president's vision to make travel great again.

Wow, that's so great.

And it had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump.

If you go to the Amtrak website or talk to anybody who was awake during the previous four years, you'd know that the improvements that Sean Duffy is talking about are in fact part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which was led by and signed into law by President Joe Biden.

I really think he should have stuck with Build Back Better instead of Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to make it a little bit easier to see that it was the Biden agenda, but at least we can keep calling it out when...

Other people try to take credit for the work that actually got done over the past four years.

Today's history lesson is coming up next.

You're up north.

The lesson begins with little Mary J. Blige.

Family affair was part of Mary J Blige's fifth studio album No More Drama, which was released this day in 2001.

I always pause now because you just sometimes you just know one is going to get people in the fields.

There are people right now when they're like, let's say late 30s, early 40s.

No, 2001.

Yes, it was.

2001 when No More Drama was released.

On this day in 2009, again, 2009, after the latest in a series of incidents between feuding brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, Oasis splits with Noel walking out for good, it says here.

Well,

Maybe not for good, but 16 years.

I mean, that's pretty good.

16 year breakup.

I mean, I think they just wanted to beat the Eagles record of 14 years because now they're back together selling out concerts.

Dan Schaefer flew to London to see it for goodness sakes.

So, you know, not every breakup lasts.

I get it.

So I'm, oh, I'm getting, I'm getting shushed by Alicia on YouTube patch.

you're reminding me that I'm 41.

Sorry.

Yep.

Here's another one.

You won't believe that she's 43.

Leanne Rimes has a birthday today.

She was everywhere at the age of what 16 or so I think this is I think she was 16 when she made this a hit From the movie con here if I'm remembering correctly, how do I live without you and Made all kinds of music from ages basically like 16 to 32 and then said I'm out

Yeah,

and we didn't hear from her for years and God bless her for it.

You know just knowing when to say okay

You don't want to be one of those, you know, quote unquote, child stars that just completely goes off the rails.

Sure.

Better life and good for her.

Yeah.

When you said at first that she was 16 when this came out, I was like, that seems horrible.

I would hate to have people recognize me as a 16 year old.

Oh, and she, but she had had, you know, one or two hit blue was her, her big breakout hit at about that time when she was 15 or 16.

And, uh, yeah, Alicia's getting it right.

Hey, she made money and retired.

Yes.

Good first.

So that she's come back a little bit recently on her own terms.

So that's good.

So Leon Rhimes 43 today shares a birthday with Shania Twain, who is 60 today.

Twain

was born Eileen Edwards in Windsor, Ontario this day in 1965.

Shania Twain 60 years old.

The late David Sol from Starsky and Hutch, the 1970s crime series, was born this day in 1943.

He passed away about a year and a half ago, had that schmaltzy top 40 hit Don't Give Up on Us Baby in the wake of, you know, riding the fame from Starsky and Hutch.

Wayne Osmond of the Osmond Brothers, born this day in 1951.

Another well-known female singer with a birthday today and that would be Florence, a pre-machine.

She was Florence Welch and she is 38 years old today.

Actress

Jennifer Coolidge is 63 years old today.

Jack Black is 55 years old today.

But you know, he'll always be basically a 16 year old boy.

I mean, yeah with the or at least with the humor of it Wow, I did not think he was that old Mm-hmm.

Yep, 55 years old today the let's see the The John one of John Denver's first pop hits peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 this day in 1971

It is funny that there are sports events.

I know one team in particular plays this song all the time.

Oh, yeah, and I'm I'm blanking at other sports events do because it's such an easy thing to sing

along to true

It's West Virginia

that you're thinking

of and and sound ridiculous in the process on this day in 1960 a 17 year old Barry White I wonder if his voice had changed by that time or was he that way when he was like five years old

Hello, kindergarten teacher.

How are you?

Anyway, on this day in 1960, a 17-year-old Barry White completed a four-month prison term for stealing 300 tires from a Cadillac dealership.

Now, I thought that might lead him into a particular line of work, but while he was in prison for that four-month term, he heard Elvis singing, It's Now or Never.

and he determined that he was going to make music his life.

It's being inspired by an Elvis

student.

You would think, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And let's see.

On this day in 2001, Puddle of Mud released their debut album, Come Clean, selling over 3 million copies, thanks to hits like She Hates Me, Control, and This.

That's blurry from Come Clean, again released this day in 2001.

On the National Day calendar, it's been a quiet week this week, but there are several today.

This is National Cabernet Day for you wine drinkers out there.

This is National Burger Day.

There we go.

Now we're talking.

Yeah.

It's also Cherry Turnover Day.

I do like a good cherry turnover, but I don't know.

I get them at Panera when I stopped there, which isn't very often anymore because of this whole morning radio show thing a little tied up.

But I do have a good cherry turnover.

Don't know.

There's just not as many bakeries out there as there used to be.

That's true.

Yeah,

you get whatever the grocery store decided to crank out that day.

And it's just not it's not the same.

This is also National Power Rangers Day for some reason.

Nice Power Rangers a thing for toys or cartoons when you were growing up.

They

were

I wasn't into him, but that was a really big thing while I was a kid.

Yeah, I think it was like mainly 90s very early 2000s and kind of tapered off as I was getting into the age that I would have been into that.

OK, I was reminded by Luke Mathers yesterday that I guess I either owe you an apology or clarification when it comes to talking about New Coke and how you you did not.

understand the uproar about new Coke back in 1984.

And it was Mr. Mathers that reminded me that I might make too big a deal out of these things because I made a big deal out of a different Coke flavor three years ago.

He actually reminded me of this and I pulled up the clip.

Do you see it in Dropbox there?

There's a Coke clip from Luke.

Luke was producing the show in August of 2022.

So actually three years ago this week,

when I saw a different flavored Coke product and decided to give it a try it was called Coca Cola what dream dream world or something like that.

Yes, let's let's play my sampling of that there.

So we're gonna open up the bottle here.

We're gonna find out right here on air.

Here we go.

Here we go.

I'm tasting it.

I'm sorry Coke.

Yeah, they called it dream world because coca-cola roba tussin wasn't going to have the same marketing appeal cough syrup boys and girls It's cough.

So there's a chance that I might get a little overdramatic about coke flavors and things like that So I thought you would enjoy hearing that little clip from three years ago that it might it might be me what no kidding that you don't have to

I don't think I've seen a reaction like that from Parker.

He literally spun his head like no kidding.

No kidding.

Oh my God.

What did Coke ever do to you because you have had

scathing reviews.

It was just such a big cultural touchstone or at least that's how I perceived it at the time.

Maybe I read too much into marketing.

I don't know that I don't know that I do though because look at look at the furor over a cracker barrel.

changing their logo.

Look how people lost their minds at the cracker barrel logo update.

And so from today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hannah Kirby, the headline quick trip has some fun on social media with cracker barrels, new logo fiasco.

And Hannah Kirby nails the lead.

The lead is quick trip understood the assignment.

The beloved Wisconsin convenience store chain is taking notes from cracker girls logo rebrand fiasco.

They posted on Twitter.

Never update logo ever is what it says.

We basically, you know, periods between every word there.

Never update logo ever note as they

as they noted how cracker burl got all kinds of flak because they got rid of the folksy man and overalls on a chair they got rid of the wooden barrel they got rid of the pinto bean shape behind the words and that lasted less than two weeks and the company caved amidst all the backlash as predicted on this program boys and girls as predicted right here they came back

because people were talking about their their culture was being erased, the nostalgia was being erased.

No, it was just a crappy new logo.

And and they were going to be updating the stores, updating the stores quote unquote, to remove some of the individuality, much like you've seen with

pizza huts and McDonald's, which had very distinct looking restaurants.

And now they all look like boxes.

It's

just like these gray boxes.

And the reason why somebody put together a great video of this, explaining that we've all seen a pizza hut or McDonald's that goes out of business.

And then somebody tries to repurpose the building.

But it's always going to look like a pizza hut.

You know, it doesn't matter.

It's like, Oh, yeah, the vape shop.

That's a that's in the old Pizza Hut building over there.

Yeah.

And so, so now they've got these generic buildings with these generic logos, because they're always thinking about, you know, repurposing, reselling these things, recycling them.

This isn't the good kind of recycling kids.

You want to do that with your aluminum and your plastic, not your individuality for corporations.

It makes me

so

sad.

I like good branding.

Good branding is what makes the corporate world a little more bearable.

Yes.

Alicia says some people were literally claiming the updating of Cracker Barrel went against their traditional values.

No, it didn't.

They're a corporation.

If you have that

deep of a connection to Cracker Barrel, please seek help.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alicia.

And Alicia also notes the Power Rangers were huge in the 90s, which yes, would have been pre Parker.

And by the way, little vindication, she says you're 100% right, Pat.

The Coca Cola thing was a huge social thing.

There we go.

Parker is frustrated.

If it was a big

social thing, fine, but you cannot expect me to understand it.

I just, I assumed it was in all the history books.

I mean, right up there with, you know, all of the- Right next to the

claps of the USSR?

Yes, right up there with it.

I just don't understand what, what they're teaching you kids in school these days that you just- You know, I

don't either.

I don't understand what they taught us either.

I'll be honest with you, Pat.

That you've got me.

Well, I mean, hey, look where it's gotten you so far, right?

So, you've got that going for it.

Yeah,

it's got me bickering about Coke with you on the radio.

Coming up in our seven o'clock hour, we're going to be talking to Kate Dalton.

She's Penn to Column and Dan Schaefer's Recombobulation Area, all about the upcoming cuts to SNAP and Medicaid and the impact it's going to have on families like hers and families throughout Derek Van Orden's third congressional district.

That's after Brittany Merleau's updated forecast after the seven o'clock news.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

Thursday morning August 28th.

Nice to have you along at 6.52 here.

It's a foggy morning here on Lake Wissota dense fog advisory here and So again leave yourself a little extra time if that's the case where you are as well and drive carefully out there We'll get Britney Merleau's updated forecast in just a little bit here.

I'm not going to dwell very long on the school shooting in Minneapolis Because again any regular listener knows where I'd be going with this

I would just again remind people that a 23 year old man, again a 23 year old armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol shot dozens of rounds yesterday towards some 200 children who were sitting in the pews during mass at a Catholic school.

in Minneapolis before taking his own life.

Two children died, an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old.

14 other kids and three elderly parishioners were also shot and wounded but are expected to survive.

Mayor Jacob Fry put it quite succinctly, your thoughts and prayers are not enough.

These kids were literally praying at the time and that still didn't save them.

from the guns because again, it's the guns and thoughts and prayers aren't going to cut it.

President Donald Trump put out a statement offering thoughts and prayers.

Vice President J.D.

Vance put out a statement offering thoughts and prayers.

But until those statements start to say things with some significance to them like maybe we do need red flag laws after all, maybe we need to stop voting against

increasing mental health care for our young people, maybe then and only then, once we start addressing root causes like the guns that are everywhere, can we avoid the school shootings of the future?

But we haven't done those things yet.

And so the saddest thing I can say here is there will be more school shootings.

And it won't just be in, you know, some high crime public school area.

It'll happen in a Catholic school like this one or any place else.

There is no place immune to gun tragedy.

So the potential of mass shootings.

We had another one recently on a military base.

Lots of guns.

Yeah, they're locked up.

But again, this whole notion of, well, if we just get more people with guns, that'll take care of it.

It hasn't yet.

Look at the shootings recently at the CDC headquarters where a policeman was killed or at the NFL offices where a policeman was killed because they're the funds for once targeted.

They don't know when exactly a mass shooter is going to show up.

It's the guns, kids.

Speaking of the CDC, the new director there, Susan Monarez, is no longer there anymore.

Less than a month on the job, she is out of a job.

because she and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

disagreed on things like, you know, vaccine safety, because science.

Dr. Ramon Perez is an infectious disease researcher.

She was sworn in less than a month ago, but after clashing with Kennedy on vaccine policy,

She was dismissed.

She claims it was not done appropriately and denied being dismissed as going to try to fight to keep her job.

But four other high profile CDC officials quit in frustration over the vaccine policy and over Robert Kennedy Jr.'

's quote unquote leadership.

This is fully expected, of course, from what

Robert Kennedy has been about and who he said, you know, what he said he was going to do.

It's interesting to note the four other high ranking CDC officials who resigned.

Dr. Deborah Howery is the CDC's chief medical officer.

Dr. Dimitri Daskalakis ran the center that issues vaccine recommendations.

Dr. Daniel Jernigan oversaw the center that oversees vaccine safety.

Dr. Jennifer Layden led the Office of Public Health Data.

Dr. Jernigan was deeply involved in the agency's response to anthrax and swine flu and COVID.

Dr. Descalicus helped the nation cope with an Mpox outbreak.

Dr. Layden established the COVID Strategic Science Unit, according to the New York Times here, and Dr. Howrie built the agency's opioid response program.

Not surprisingly, former CDC leaders said those departures would harm the agency and they would harm the nation as well.

Dr. Anna Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director until May of 2021, called them the best of the best.

They are physician scientist public health superstars.

And I think she said, we should all be scared about the nation's health security.

The resignations coincided with a decision by Trump's Food and Drug Administration to put new restrictions on updated COVID vaccines for the fall and winter season.

Morale, of course, is plunging at the CDC.

There have been plenty of other departures.

There have been plenty of budget cuts.

One of the agency's most well-known directors, Dr. William Fauji, who helped eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, recently wrote that Robert Kennedy Jr.'

's words can be as lethal as the smallpox virus itself.

And as a result, also stepped away from any further help with the CDC simply because it has been so politicized.

Now look, there are people who voted for Donald Trump for many different reasons.

Some thought that he was going to lower prices on day one.

That hasn't happened.

Some believed he was going to end the war in Ukraine on day one.

And that hasn't happened.

But he has made happy the people that voted for him because, you know, they believe that they're, you know,

culture is under attack because of diversity.

Well, so far, they're getting what they want.

And the people who want to get rid of vaccines and scientists because they don't trust them, but they trust a failed businessman, reality TV host, those folks are happy, or even happier now.

But for the rest of us, God only knows, we'll have much more in the seven o'clock hour of these mornings with packed right low powered by up north news here on the civic media radio network.

you

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.

It is 706.

It is nice to have you here up north on this Thursday morning.

August 28th, it's a foggy one here on Lake Wissota.

Parker Olson is down in Madison Studio A2 at the top of State Street, one block off the Capitol Square, producing this fine little shindig and meteorologist Brittany Merlot is here as well.

Again, to tell us about the fog that's out there now, and what we hope is going to be an extremely pleasant Labor Day weekend.

Brittany, I was telling Parker in the last hour here that maybe I should rethink this.

Catterwalling about it not being in the the mid 80s like it normally is in August it could not have been a more perfect day yesterday to be out on the pontoon and You know again, it wasn't you know, you know flip-flops and swim trunks But if you were if you're out there in jeans and a t-shirt, it could not have been a more perfect day

Perfect.

Good.

Now, was the sun warm enough still to allow you to maybe take a dip in the water or was that kind of awkward?

It was for the

grandkids.

I mean, the grandkids could not wait when we got up to the Mallarder Resort there.

They were jumping off the dock as quick as could be.

And

the

younger one, the 11-year-old, like any 11-year-old boy chasing after frogs and crayfish and everything.

I mean he his body his core body temperature had to be something like you know 50 degrees But he was not getting out of that water.

He was having

such a

good time as as they normally do.

So yeah, it was it was good

For the kids, you know, summer is summer.

They're going to they're going to play no matter what the weather and

well, no matter what.

Yeah, they're not going to listen to what the whiny old men have to say.

You know what?

I found a little patch of shade.

I had my can of a locally produced brew and I was a happy camper.

So

it doesn't get much better than that.

No, we need we need more of that throughout the weekend.

And I think the weather is going to cooperate.

We are.

It's going to be beautiful, but we've got a little bit going on this morning.

Dense fog advisory from Park Falls all the way through Hayward into Eau Claire.

Visibility less than a mile.

This should clear on out of here within the next hour, hour and a half.

Temperatures is head outside.

It's about 50, 60 degrees or so across the state.

Later today we will make it to highs in the mid 70s.

More and more sunshine out there.

fog clearing, clouds clearing, this front is pushing through and it is going to be a gorgeous afternoon.

Now, if you're headed to the beach, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, heads up from Sheboygan all the way down to Kenosha, even in Douglas County up by Lake Superior, beach hazard statement, those waves are growing, those winds are whipping pretty hard across the water.

So three to seven foot waves, rip currents are expected.

I'd avoid that through today.

Those waves will calm down by this weekend and through tomorrow.

And then tonight, we've got a frost advisory far northeast.

Ashland and Iron County up into the UP, 35 degrees is what they could crash to.

So it's about that time to bring in sensitive plants and things like that far up north as this cold front really clears the skies and allows us to drop so cold tonight.

But as we go through tomorrow, it is gonna be cooler, mostly sixties, sunny.

few seventies far west and far south in the state, Saturday staying dry, partly sunny, low seventies all across the state and still sticking comfortable mid seventies for most of us on Sunday, coming warmer and a bit more humid on Monday for Labor Day, mid to upper seventies.

No rain in the forecast until next Wednesday.

Everything holds off.

It is going to be a gorgeous weekend.

Oh, so nice about that.

Well, I mean, 35, I could go back into my whining mode at that.

You could.

Yeah,

I know.

congratulations granted tomorrow.

Good morning from Tigerton Rob says it's partly cloudy and 57 degrees with 15107 inch of rain overnight mowed six yards in Tigerton yesterday loved seeing the crystal blue sky fair weather clouds and it's nice not having smoke filled air the way it was most of the summer.

Rob, you could not be more right.

We really we spent so much time talking about the smoke.

Let's talk about how nice it is now that it's gone.

It's so great.

Yeah.

Let's see.

He also says when I was mowing yesterday, my Dr. Elizabeth was out for a walk and stopped by to make sure I have water or Gatorade with me when I was mowing.

I can still hear Greg telling me to drink my water.

He also goes on to say, Brittany, will we have a cooler September?

And what are other meteorologists talking about?

Alicia says it's a buggy one here on Lake Michigan.

So

I

don't know.

Do you want to give the cooler September forecast or the bug forecast?

The bugs are going to be there, unfortunately.

But the September, I do think it might be on the cooler side of things.

We are transitioning into a La Nina, which would send us cooler than average and wetter than average kind of precipitation and temperature.

So it's a possibility.

Um, but we're not fully into the La Nina just yet.

So I do still think that eighties are going to be creeping in and we'll still get warm spots too.

That would be really nice.

Just it's just one more wave before we get to fall.

Brittany, thank you so much.

We'll talk to you next hour.

Have a good one.

All right.

Remember, you can sign up for our daily newsletter up north news w i dot com, including our Sunday morning one that has our question of the week asking, uh, should Wisconsin keep mail in voting despite President Trump vowing to somehow get rid of

voting by mail.

So far, it's really no contest what you think of it.

But if you want to see our question of the week first, then get signed up for our newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Coming up later across the Civic Media Radio Network, of course, Matt Nair on air is followed and follows this show.

And our friend Jim Santel, former US Attorney and host of Amicus a Law Review, will be joining Greg at 9.35 this morning.

And so get your dose of Jim Santel today at 9.35 because tomorrow we'll have a best of program and you won't get your usual Friday morning fix of Jim Santel there.

And at 10.35, sports writer Paul Noonan of the Acme Packing Company.

We'll be talking to Greg, then coming up on Matt Nair on air at 430.

A really a glass from the Center for American Progress is going to talk about unions and workers' rights ahead of this Labor Day.

And so no more important time to be talking about the American worker and whether there is a, shall we say a respect for the American worker out of both corporate America and out of the current administration.

Spoiler alert, there's definitely room to grow on that front, shall we say.

And sports, the Milwaukee Brewers fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks last night.

Three to two was the final.

It was the first appearance for the newest Brewers pitcher, Eric Feddy, the 32 year old, now with his third team this season, pitched four and a third innings, giving up two runs on eight hits.

There was a home run by William Contreras, but just not enough as the Brewers fall again by a score of three to two.

They wrap up that four game series this afternoon at American Family Field.

Coverage begins at 1235 on Civic Media stations in Hayward, that's WBZH, Park Falls, Racine Kenosha, Oshkosh, and Richland Center.

But that's not the only sports that you can get on the Civic Media radio network tonight.

The Wisconsin Badger football team kicks off their season and that will be at Camp Randall hosting the Miami of Ohio Red Hawks.

eight o'clock is the kickoff, but you can hear the pregame starting at six.

So if you are ready to launch college football season, you'll be listening at six tonight on these civic media stations, WRCE in Richland Center, WLAK in Amory, WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids and WRPN in Rippon to get your fix of Badger football getting going for a new year.

something that I know Parker takes a bit more of an interest in college football than I do.

I'm more of just a very casual observer, but Parker's really going to try to follow the Wisconsin Badgers this year and figure out who are who are these guys.

I am going to try to figure out who these guys are.

I will probably see more badger games now that I that's sort

of I might see

more badger games than I have in the past.

Well, you were all about whitewater for all those years.

Well,

I still am going to be is the other thing.

I don't know if I've told you this, Pat.

I've been

I've been going to whitewater football games since I was like seven because my dad went

to

school there.

So I've been to basically every game basically since then.

So I've never had a huge chunk of time for Badger games unless they were night games.

So.

So are we are we like now the official morning show of the whitewater?

What are they?

The Warhawks.

Hey, OK.

Well done.

Yeah, great.

OK.

Yeah.

So we we we got to start to you're going to keep me filled in on how they're doing.

When do when do they play?

When did they open the season?

They open the season on September 6th.

They will be hosting Carleton College.

It's a team in Minnesota.

Carleton.

I was going to say Carleton College

out of Northfield.

They have a football team.

I think

I think it's the

same one.

That's the thing about when you jump

into D3 football, Pat, you realize that there are a lot of schools with the same name.

Yes, definitely are.

I just I was a little surprised.

I just think of it as this little teeny, tiny school in Northfield that, you know,

it is known

for its sport isn't isn't like the sports powerhouse that white water is, shall we say, you know.

There's white water, white water being the national champions of college

baseball, right?

Yeah,

it's been a while for football.

I'm sad about that.

You'll get there.

This could be the year.

From the investigative news site, Wisconsin Watch comes this headline, Wisconsin's budget shifts money from schools to Milwaukee prosecutors that may violate the state constitution.

Let me tell you about the state budget process.

It is, you know, what it appears to be most of the time that the state assembly might take up the state budget bill after the Joint Finance Committee gives it to them and then they might add some amendments and then it goes over to the Senate and then they pass some amendments to it and then you go back to the assembly to make sure that they concur with the things that the Senate added.

But at the very end of the amendment process, you know, the first few amendments are always prepared properly.

People are getting set for them.

They've had them typed up.

They're ready to go.

But the last amendment always, it seems, looks like a bunch of chicken scratching on the back of a cocktail napkin right before closing time.

And some people refer to it as a 999 amendment because there's amendment one, amendment two, amendment three.

And like, this is always the last one that comes in and, you know, does things that people weren't really prepared for, but they're tired.

They want to get out.

So they may vote for this and not really, you know, know what all is in it.

That seems to be the case with this one where one of the, in the last amendment that passed, the amendment redirects.

all traffic fines and forfeitures in Milwaukee County to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office.

And that will help fund 12 Assistant District Attorney positions that had been created with federal dollars, but the federal dollars are running out.

However, Wisconsin's Constitution, Article 10, Section 2, according to Wisconsin Watch, says that all clear proceeds from traffic fines are required to go to the Common School Fund.

And there's then a discussion in the article about, you know, just what exactly does that mean in terms of clear proceeds and money going to the common school fund?

It appears that the office of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which manages the common school fund, became aware of this and found that this late amendment might violate the Wisconsin Constitution.

And so the article is essentially just a, so to let you know,

that there may be this court challenge at some point, which may redirect money away from Milwaukee prosecutors, which isn't what anybody necessarily wants to see.

But it also shouldn't come at the expense of our children and the education of them.

You should basically have to find that money through proper channels.

I don't know, maybe fewer tax breaks for some of the upper brackets.

Coming up in about 15 minutes, we'll talk to Kate Felton about cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in a column she wrote for the Recombobulation Area.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Again, the Wisconsin Badger football team kicks off the season this evening against Miami of Ohio at Camp Randall.

Coverage begins at six o'clock on Civic Media stations in Richland Center, Amory.

Wisconsin Rapids and Ripon head over to CivicMedia.us to learn more.

The Brewers, meanwhile, they wrap up their four game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Coverage begins at 12.35 this afternoon on stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls and Hayward.

It's currently 56 degrees here in the Chippewa Valley, 60 in La Crosse.

Amory is at 57, Oshkosh is at 57, and in front of Hiregrounds Coffee there in Beaver Dam, it is 55 degrees right now.

Now, as I mentioned, we won't be here live tomorrow.

And so I asked our Steam Weekend Review Panel if they had any new columns and notes that they wanted me to share.

Jennifer Scholesi sent a link to her latest column on the sub-stack.

It's called, the best most accurate look at the DC occupation is coming from the locals, local news and local residents capturing violent arrests.

peaceful protests, safe tourist spots overrun with board troops.

It's a powerful reality check on Trump propaganda.

And again, you can find what Jennifer Schulze is putting together on Substack.

Just search for news Jennifer and look for her column called indistinct chatter.

She's I'm sure going to raise this very excellent point about the Trump military occupation of a couple of American cities and his hope to do some more of them.

What are these National Guard troops doing in DC right now?

Are they preventing any crime?

No, they're picking up trash.

Quite literally, they have been put on trash duty, which has led again to a lot of snark online as these men and women in camouflage, but are also wearing fluorescent vests.

as you often see with you know grounds crews when they're picking up litter so like they can't decide do they do they want to be hidden or do they want to be seen it's it's just an awkward kind of look but the look notwithstanding again this comes after tremendous cuts to federal programs federal services so many layoffs and firings so of course in our national park system and elsewhere

The trash is piling up.

Trump is sending the troops in.

The troops really don't have anything to do, so they're put on trash duty.

Is this the way that we want to spend our resources?

Is this the way that we want to use our military?

Because again, that appears to be the way that it works for

Donald Trump because he believes that he has, you know, this direct control over the military, whereas in the, you know, quote unquote, bureaucracy, there are all these pesky, you know, rules and worker protections and guidelines and things like that.

So I don't doubt that it's part of a larger trend where you're going to find members of the military doing more and more things that don't seem very military.

but they are under the direct control of the President of the United States.

And so you're going to continue to see a downturn in things like tourism in the nation's capital because people are less likely to go to a place where there's like fully armed soldiers on street corners.

It doesn't really give the impression of safety.

I mean, there's people that clearly think it does, like, oh, well, the streets are so mean and dangerous, we'll put troops on them.

No, I mean, there are fourth grade field trips that walk around the streets of Washington DC every day, and people who go about their business every day, who are a little bit less likely to be out and about if they're seeing soldiers with guns.

That's what gives the impression that there is a danger that's out there.

We all know the resources could have been better used in so many different ways that would address root causes of crime, that would help local law enforcement.

with crime prevention, with crime investigation, and things like that.

But it is just a stunning misuse of our resources that we're paying so much for military presence in these cities when those funds could be used more efficiently elsewhere to prevent the situations that make you think you've got to put the troops into these cities in the first place.

And yet this is what some of our politicians continue to cheer for.

Congressman Scott Fitzgerald from Wisconsin recently spoke out in support of National Guard troops being dispatched to Chicago.

Because again, Congressman Fitzgerald, like so many other folks who are from more of the periphery of Milwaukee, make a really good living bashing Milwaukee and Chicago and all of our cities, rather than contributing to anything that might actually help.

our cities to become safer, to become better economic engines, to be more welcoming, to be more inclusive.

It's a lot easier to simply trash what's out there.

And if it wastes resources, that's okay, because you know what, you've got the talking point, the talking point that we're doing the thing that's against the criminals and, and, you know, against the the unsafe streets that are out there in those big bad cities.

It's just such a

It's very bothersome for those of us who know that there are things that our public servants could be doing that improve lives, that actually lower prices, for example.

But instead, we're getting an administration that's ruling by talking point.

And if you're talking about the troops on the streets, you're not talking about inflation, for example, getting worse.

Well, we are.

We're going to talk about that with Sean O'Malley an hour from now when we talk about your money in the markets.

Maybe that distraction that he's putting out there keeps you from talking about Donald Trump's name being scattered throughout the Epstein files because nobody's really talked much about that lately.

The government by distraction is good for national media.

They love having these things to talk about.

But don't take your eye off the ball.

which is the waste of your tax dollars both in the budget and in the day-to-day expenses like this and the failure to deliver on the actual promises that were made during the campaign.

We'll talk to Kate Felton about cuts to Medicaid and SNAP coming up next.

You're up north.

Welcome back at 735.

Here's a reminder.

You can follow up north news on social media.

We are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and also on Blue Sky now as an alternative to the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter.

So come follow us on your favorite social media platform.

You know who else you should be following.

That of course would be Dan Schaefer, political editor for Civic Media.

Founder of the Recombobulation Area.

Go to therecombobulationarea.news and subscribe because not only do you get all kinds of Dan Schaefer columns and updates, but he also has plenty of guest columns, guest authors who like to keep you up to speed on current events.

One recent guest column has this headline, Medicaid and SNAP helped my family.

Derek Van Orden's vote to cut these programs will be harmful.

That comes from small business owner and Main Street Alliance member, former Eau Claire City Council member, Kate Felton.

And Kate joins us this morning.

Kate, good morning.

How are you?

Good morning.

Doing well.

Thanks for having me.

Well, thank you so much for being here and

for your work with small business, also with Main Street Alliance.

We'll maybe get into that in just a bit as well.

But let's start with the column that you did for the Reconpopulation area.

And basically the value of these, because we hear about these big price tags, you know, nearly a trillion dollars being cut from this or that.

And

It really, at the individual level, is where it matters.

And I feel like that's what you tried to do with Medicaid and SNAP in your column.

Yeah.

I mean, for me in my upbringing, being on SNAP and BadgerCare,

when I was a kid didn't feel like a big deal.

It's something that I'm not sure I even really realized.

And now as an adult, I think that is a real testament to me of how

much the program works and how impactful it can be for children.

The fact that I never really had to worry as a kid about whether I was going to be able to go to the doctor when I was sick or worry whether we were going to have food to put on our table.

I think that that really raised me into an adult that was brave and

willing to take the kind of risks that being an entrepreneur requires.

So I really think about the recent changes to these programs and the impacts that it'll make to our future generation and how they'll approach their lives and the impacts to entrepreneurship and other things that take a lot of bravery too.

Yeah, we just seem to live in an era now where a certain political class wants to blame the poor for being poor.

that they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps even though there are no bootstraps that can be pulled and that there is instead this you know social contract that we've made that we all pay for things like Medicaid and SNAP and Social Security and Medicare and all of that and people think well that you know there's something lesser about them them there's always the them

Without recognizing that there only one job loss one layoff one car accident one disability one illness You know as you put it one price spike on basic food items away from being in those same dire circumstances You know the the poor if you will that's not a static description all kinds of people face, you know life crises where You you want to have programs like these that are designed to be

a safety net for people and you've experienced that and you've met countless people I'm sure who understand that this is the way it is supposed to work in America.

Right and I think that we don't talk about enough the fact that the majority of the people who are on these programs are children like I was when I was on this on badger care and food stamps and you know

Children don't have any sort of option to be pulling themselves up from their bootstraps and we can't be blaming them for the choices that they're making.

Just like we shouldn't be blaming their parents for the choices that they're making.

So I think that that's something that we don't talk about enough.

But just for me, for my story,

You know, we were on BadgerCare because my family was seeking about our life and sort of trying to pull ourselves up from our bootstraps and trying to advance ourselves.

And we just needed a little help in the meantime as we got there.

And so we were a family also that were able to show like...

Yeah, with a little bit of support, we were able to get off of AdderCare and food stamps.

And I think that that's really the goal of these programs and the goal of everybody who's using the programs to seek that dignity and being able to eventually get off the program and seek a better life too.

And I think that's where, when I get a little worked up about this, it's not simply because of the

attacks on people simply for being in difficult circumstances.

But for me, it goes a step further.

When you have people who love to claim that they also came from humble beginnings, but now they're the ones pushing the ladder away.

And of course, I'm speaking specifically about Congressman Derek Van Orden, who he and I have some things in common.

We were both raised by a single mom.

We both relied on federal nutrition benefits to get by.

Van Orden likes to talk about having to live off government cheese, which again, in my mind, if that's the phrase you're using, it kind of tips, you know, your hand on how you really feel about these things that benefited you, but you don't want to benefit others.

And I just feel like that probably was an extra special frustration for you prior to writing this column is having a congressman who loves to talk about humble circumstances, but doesn't really want to help people in those circumstances now.

Right.

And I think that for me, that makes me just question the character of this particular leader.

And for me, disqualifies him from the privilege of serving the public in this role.

Yeah.

That's the ultimate conclusion that I've come to from that

point.

It is a point that needs to continue to be made for the simple reason that Derek Van Orden and others continue to accuse you and others, me and others of lying about these things.

But, you know, statistics are funny things that way.

And you quote a few in your column about, you know, how many people are going to be impacted by this, you know, mega bill and all of the cuts that it's making.

Talk all about you know, just how many millions of people are gonna be impacted

Yeah, I am you know, we hear that from their fan or don't a lot that that we're all lying about what he's done and You know, my feeling is that Americans are smarter than that.

We know better We are we're gonna start to see the impacts of what he has done and the administration has done and I think

I have hope that our American voters and the voters of the third congressional district will hold them accountable.

We're talking to Kate Felton, who is a column at the Reconbobulation Area right now called Medicaid and SNAP helped my family.

Derek Van Orden's vote to cut these programs will be harmful.

Head over to thereconbobulationarea.news for more.

The cuts that she mentioned in her column include

This note that says, this law will take healthcare away from as many as 16 million people and take food assistance from more than 3 million people, including many kids and seniors, despite decades of fighting poverty and increasing opportunity for millions.

And that is something that I wanted to touch on for a bit here because it's always easy to take an isolated number of people who are

abusing the system, defrauding the system, Ronald Reagan's infamous welfare queens and say, there, that's proof that it doesn't work and that, you know, we need to cut this for everybody.

What you see far less of are, you know, like you said, over the decades, how many people have been helped?

How many people avoided poverty because of this?

And I feel it's why we need more people like you willing to speak up and say, yeah.

times were tough once upon a time and they might still be tough if it weren't for these things.

But you know, I'm sure it wasn't the easiest thing to do to speak up and talk about your circumstances, a husband losing a job, having surgery and things like that.

Yeah, I mean, I think I think the more that we talk about it the more it becomes real to people The reality, you know, we talk a lot about the statistic of of abuse in the program But when you talk when you start to think about all of the people who are sharing their stories and will be sharing their stories I hope that we can start to think about, you know

Are we really going to be telling 100 children that they don't get to eat dinner tonight just because one person maybe, you know, abused the system?

And so I think once we start to talk about it, we can really start to put in those kind of terms for people.

So I think it's really important and I'm happy to be here doing that.

Well, and not just you there will be people in lacrosse today when vice president JD Vance comes to Wisconsin again under the guise of stumping for you know this mega bill and all that it has done and JD Vance is very much in the Derek Van Orden category in that there's gonna be a lot of snark and sarcasm and and accusing other people of lying about their their records

So there will be people down there protesting that but there will still be people in the audience as well and Kate I have a feeling that you know if you were given the choice of communicating to JD Vance and Derek Van Orden or the people in that crowd that you would probably choose the people in the crowd and what else do you wish that they would hear today either before or after they hear from JD

Vance?

I think I would wish that they would connect with normal people on a personal level and hear stories like mine.

There are so many stories like mine, both in experiences of being on government assistance, but also stories of being failed by the healthcare system that

you know, you can't hardly walk down the street without meeting, you know, meeting somebody that has a similar story.

And so I'm, I hope that folks in that audience will take some time to just seek out connection with those people because I really think that that is what changes the hearts and minds of American people.

Truthfully, you know, I think that JD Vance and Derek Van Orden, I'm not sure that they are, they're in a place where they can really

connect anymore with with you know American people and voters who have stories like mine they're so dug into these these positions but the American voters are they're kind and compassionate people and whether they're Republicans or Democrats and I think that I think that

that sharing our stories with each other can really move the needle.

And that's how we move the needle with our leaders at the top is moving the needle with our voters.

it just reminds me that when you know JD Vance was so well known for this book Hillbilly Elegy that he wrote several years ago now and I remember being so put off by the book that here's somebody trying to talk about his humble circumstances but in the end by the end of the book you know he's blaming people for being in in those circumstances less so than you know corporations or the government and you could actually

You could sense in that book the ambition that he was already feeling.

And the same with Derek Van Orden, it's that the closer you get to ambition and power, the more likely you are to forget your roots and remember where you came from.

And it's why I'm thankful, Kate, that you wrote this column.

Again, Kate Felton's column is at therecombobulationarea.news, a guest column about cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

Kate, thank you again for your time.

I appreciate it so much.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

All right, good to see you.

Now again, go to the recombobulation area.

And that's where Dan Schaefer has a lot of guest columns that folks should be reading just a lot of great information and personable stories that can be shared with others.

We're going to talk to Joseph Peckie in our next hour and and Sean O'Malley about your money and the markets.

That's all coming up here on these mornings with Pack Right Low, powered by UpNorth News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

752.

Welcome back.

Fog is starting to lift and burn off here off Lake Wissota.

Hopefully happening by you as well.

Nice bright sunshine out there.

It's 57 here in the Chippewa Valley.

La Crosse here at 61.

Oshkosh is at 58 and at Ellie's Ice Cream and Coffee in Amory.

It is 59 degrees right now.

The president of the United States is trying to remove a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

And that's not supposed to happen.

I know, hard to believe.

But this, like the Department of Justice, like so many other agencies, they're supposed to have a degree of independence so that they are not politicized.

because that's what happens in dictatorships and in banana republics.

In a democracy, you know, we elect a leader, but we also have people who are public servants and who do what is best for the American people independently of partisan political pressure.

And as cynical as some Americans want to be, that's still a thing, and there's still plenty of good people who do that.

But...

Donald Trump has been trying to remove Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Governor, and is citing allegations of mortgage fraud that were made by the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

I'm not going to get into the details of the allegations of mortgage fraud.

I'm only going to get into this part of it that I want to leave you with.

What's the President of the United States doing looking at people's mortgage applications?

in order to look for some kind of pretext to replace to fire somebody so that you can put one of your political appointees in their place.

Again, this was the kind of stuff that Richard Nixon talked about doing, wanted to have done, but didn't get done and ultimately faced impeachment and resigned in disgrace.

It's one of the things Donald Trump tried to do during his first term was to weaponize the IRS and the Department of Justice.

There were some guardrails there, and so by and large he was thwarted, but not entirely.

And now that he's been returned to office, the guardrails are off.

And we have seen as a result the mass roundup of people who have not committed any crimes, some of whom are even citizens, and have been flown out of the country anyway.

And we are now seeing things like a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors having their mortgage paperwork pulled up

in order to find some kind of pretext to let them go.

These are stunning abuses of power that I know that even a good fellow Republican like Todd Alba didn't think he'd see in his lifetime.

I can't hear anything.

Oh, Mr. Alba can't hear us.

Okay, he's going to try.

I kind

of hear

something.

Okay.

Are you hearing us now, Mr. Alba?

I'm so sorry.

Yes, I can kind of hear you.

I had phones, but through my computer, here's the deal.

I'm getting

my annual physical tomorrow.

And I have to go get all my labs done this morning.

I have anything to eat or drink, and it makes you purr, because I was going to do this yesterday, and I got up in the morning, and I did my morning routine, and I messed it all up because, you know, I...

nature called in the morning.

So I put a piece of painter's tape over my toilet.

So I wouldn't use it this morning when I got up before I went to the lab.

So that's the condition I'm in this morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Todd Alba Overshares, our weekly visit with the toilet talk of civic media from two until four daily.

I hope things get better.

I'm fine.

I feel fine.

It's just the annual physical, you know, that's what you and so you got to do all this lab work and everything and so nice.

You can't you can't get a fast and you can't use the restroom and it's just it's like you gotta go go lab work done.

I hope that I hope things happen quickly and smoothly for you.

How's your morning going, Pat?

It's going well.

It's going well.

It's our last full work day here before the long holiday weekend.

I'm going to get things started a little bit early here.

And I was just talking about the ways that President Trump is trying to get one of the Federal Reserve governors fired, even though that's not supposed to be a thing.

Alicia puts up on YouTube here.

Wasn't Trump convicted of some sort of fraud in regards to his property and businesses?

Well, yes, Alicia.

Yes, he was.

And that's what makes the

these things especially rich is anytime Donald Trump is trying to tell you that one of his political opponents committed a crime, when there isn't evidence of it, just keep in mind the 34 felony convictions that are still on this guy's record.

It is Todd just one more step toward the authoritarianism that you know who warned us about this?

Republicans.

for years and years, warned against government overreach, government abuse of power.

And I'm, I'm still counting, sadly, I feel like on one hand, the number of Republicans who are speaking up about this, and I'm, I'm engaged in a little hyperbole, but I still feel like that number needs to be higher, Todd.

Yeah, I mean, Triviel has talked about this on our show as well with us.

And, and the fact is that

and in particular, Trump and Trumpism is just not conservative.

It's just Trumpism.

And I never thought I'd see the day when my former party, emphasized former of these

days,

would maybe be in the business of taking over companies and interfering in private business.

I mean, Reagan must be rolling over in his grave.

So yeah, sadly, no surprise.