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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Hey, good morning.
It is 7.06.
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.
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.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 Redhawks.
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.
I mean, 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.
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.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
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
1235 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 esteem week and 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 Substack.
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 waste 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 our public servants could be doing that improve lives that actually, you know 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 recombobulation area.
And basically the value of these, because we hear about these big price tags, nearly a trillion dollars being cut from this or that.
And really at the individual level is where it matters.
And I feel like that's what you try 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.
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 he and I have some things in common.
We were both raised by a single mom.
We both relied on, you know, 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.
And I think that 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 do 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 La Crosse today.
When Vice President J.D.
Vance comes to Wisconsin, again, under the guise of stumping for this mega bill and all that it has done.
And J.D.
Vance is very much in the Derrick Van Orden category in that there's gonna be a lot of snark and sarcasm and accusing other people of lying about 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 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 with Derek Van Orden it's 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 Up Current News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
7.52.
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 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 gonna try.
Oh, there
was kind of hear something.
Okay.
Are you hearing us now, Mr. Alba?
I'm so sorry.
Yes, I can kind of hear you.
Not headphones, 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 me sure, 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,
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, with Todd Alba, the host 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 they, you can't, you can't get a fast and you can't use the restroom.
And it's just, it's like, you got to go and get all the lab work done.
I hope that, I hope things happen quickly and smoothly for you real soon.
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 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 still counting sadly, I feel like on one hand, the number of Republicans who are speaking up about this, and I'm engaged in a little hyperbole, but I still feel like that number needs to be higher Todd.
Yeah, I mean Triggy Olson's talked about this on our show as well with us and and the fact is that that Maga 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 these days would be the business of taking over companies and and
interfering in private business.
I mean, Reagan must be rolling over in his grave.
So yeah, sadly, no surprise.
I'm not unexpected from today's White House.
But yeah, if Trump wants to crack down on crime in DC, maybe start at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
You would think that.
I mean, that is where that's the high crime area in DC that he's talking about.
The Badger football team opens their season tonight.
Will you have former Badger player Brady Ewing on as part of today's festivities?
We're working on it.
His day job is taking him to Minnesota today.
So we're trying to determine whether or not he can pull over safely somewhere along the road in Minnesota to join us via phone.
But if not, we'll still preview the Badgers a little bit, as I'm sure you dealt with today, trying to navigate the headlines of our friends and neighbors in Minnesota and trying to move on to regular things as well.
So we'll do the best we can to balance that and navigate that.
But yeah, we'll touch on the Badgers a little bit.
The Brewer's
got it got one of the chin last night and am fam but the cubs got trounced by the right.
Roger and we for the for the brewers.
Yes, Roger reminds us that the magic number is now down to 23.
All right, Todd, all but thank you so much.
We'll catch you two to four.
Depending on what the doctor says, you
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