Transcript
Free Speech For Him, But Not About Him (Hour 1)
Mornings with Pat Kreitlow · Mon Sep 15, 2025
You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is 6 0 6 on a Monday morning, September 15th, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the civic media radio network.
And whether it's on the radio or by a podcast over the website, social media, we appreciate you getting your week started right here.
I got a question for you.
Should I question whether I even own a TV or if it is some other kind of weird device?
I mean to watch the Emmys last night and all the shows I have never heard of win awards Maybe my TV is some kind of relic Or maybe I'm the relic.
I'm not sure we'll talk about that Including however one particular moment during the Emmys was it was emblematic of how TV is different now
compared to when TV used to bring us all together.
And we got that moment in a single song that we'll talk about later this hour.
Also coming up the candidate list for 2026 for the election.
It's growing longer.
Just this morning, about an hour ago, we got the email with confirmation from State Senator Kelderoy's.
She is now a candidate for governor.
She made the announcement early this morning saying, quote, with everything on the line, Wisconsin needs a governor who's been training for this moment her whole career and knows how to deliver.
We can't afford to wait no matter who you are or where you're from.
You deserve the freedom to thrive.
right now.
Again, that's Kelda Roy's announcing this morning that she's running for governor.
Let's see, of course, this all started with Governor Tony Evers deciding not to run for a third term.
So Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez is also a candidate for governor.
Now that leaves the Lieutenant Governor spot open in 2026.
Current Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi is now running for the LG Post, opening up the Secretary of State role.
And that leads us into today's show where we will talk live with Milwaukee City Council member, Jocasta Zamiripa, a former legislator who is now running for Wisconsin Secretary of State.
And of course, we may have other candidate announcements even right here on the show in the coming days.
So stay tuned for all of that.
But again, Kelder Roy is in the race for governor along with Lieutenant Governor Sir Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley all on the Democratic side, Washington County Executive Josh Schoeman along with businessman Bill Barion on the Republican side for a primary election that will take place 11 months from now.
Also this morning, we're going to be talking about how far right provocateur Charlie Kirk symbolized the fight over
free speech, as universities faced pressure to cancel his appearances, but they also faced pressure not to give in to so-called cancel culture.
And that makes it really ironic that the most tangible activity in the country in the days after Charlie Kirk's murder has been a wave of firings of people for expressing their own points of view.
And threats of firings
from people like a member of Congress from Western Wisconsin, who we did talk about a bit on Friday to answer the question from Tony on YouTube.
I wonder who we're going to talk about today, he says.
I have one one guess.
Yeah, the guess is Derek Van Orden, because when we mentioned him late last week, he had posted dozens of times with emotional reactions to Charlie Kirk's murder and the reactions to
that killing dozens of times.
It is now in the hundreds.
He has posted hundreds.
He has been on a stream of posting all weekend long on what used to be known Twitter, mostly threatening to cut off federal funding for people or groups or now entire cities.
entire cities.
The entire city of Ellsworth, he says, is in my district, but I'm going to cut funding to them because I didn't like how one city employee reacted to Charlie Kirk's death.
The entire Mayo Clinic system, he's threatening to cut off federal funding for the entire mail.
He can't do that.
He doesn't have the time to do that.
He's wasting our time and resources, but he's also giving off a vibe that should genuinely concern his family and loved ones.
So we'll get into all of that.
Also, the current president and his party may be shamelessly trying to drag America back to the days of coal and oil generating most of our power and pollution, but plenty of other people are pushing back against that.
And we're going to talk to Robert Craig from Citizen Action Wisconsin about the ways they're making sure lawmakers are aware of the direction being demanded by most Americans.
And it does not involve being dragged back to the past.
and ignoring the problems of a changing climate.
So that and oh my goodness, so much more.
We've got Jimmy Koska talking about sports, I think Jane Matten.
There's back from vacation.
Brittany Merlot is still on hers, and so she'll be back tomorrow.
John and Gordy from our Madison Station.
And if you can't stick around for all of this, and you know, you probably have jobs and things like that, but we always want to make sure that you have this program as an option any old time.
Get over to Spotify.
and sign up to be a follower of this show.
Subscribe to it on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and take us along with you so that you can listen on demand.
Okay, I mentioned Brittany Merleau coming back tomorrow.
Where am I next on the list?
Oh, I got, I got food and I got weekend stuff.
I'm going to need somebody to help me out with this.
Parker Olson is standing by.
There he is now in Madison Studio A2 as I learned which buttons to push to bring him up.
Mr. Olson, how are you?
to talk about.
Those are two things I'm a fan of.
The Krightlow kitchen was a busy one yesterday.
Well, once again from neighbors who shared, you know, what what they pulled off their apple tree.
And so once again, from Sherry, another delicious batch of apple crisp and some apple sauce as well.
So very good.
And then
This one sounds a little odd, but we we went for comfort food as well.
Yeah.
In part because I said on the radio, I think a week before last, was it like National Shepherd's Pie Day or something?
and I said, Oh, I'm gonna make that.
People say, Have you made it yet?
No, it's summer.
It's hot.
But I got the ingredients.
Yeah.
Look, let's do that.
So I got out the big cast iron pan and I put together another shepherd's pie after Sherry made the apple crisp.
So it was a little hot in the kitchen yesterday on a hot day.
But you know what, to have comfort food like that, like shepherd's pie and like apple crisp, I mean, I got the leftovers now for the next couple of days on the shepherd's pie.
You know what I had for breakfast this morning?
Shepherd's apple crisp.
No, I'm not a savage.
obviously, I got that going for me right.
It was and it was good.
It was there was the fall festival in Eau Claire downtown Eau Claire.
And that that goes on for many blocks of boots and exhibits and entertainment.
And it was a perfect Saturday morning to do that.
We did the last pontoon ride of the season, we think, because of the dates that we've set up to have the boat taken out and put the dock up, you know, before winter and all that.
We've got other plans and things.
So, you know, and the weather was perfect when we did this on Saturday.
So we're like, yeah, let's, let's call this one good.
Let's make sure we end on a high note.
So one last boat ride.
And then from my point of view, getting in the hammock one more time for an extended period, I'm getting better at that.
I have to admit, I haven't mentioned this for a while now, but a couple years back, I would talk about being in the hammock and I could barely stay in there 60 seconds.
Because as soon as I would start to relax, my mind would start to go to all the things I could be doing right now.
I should be cleaning the garage or I should be doing this and I'd feel guilty and I'd eventually get out of the hammock and I'd start working again and get tired again.
And I'm definitely better now of like look if I'm getting in that hammock my butt is staying right here for a while So it's a good place to be yeah Let's see from Tony here I was watching the kids this weekend trying to figure out what to make for dinner then saw your post about shepherds pie and Said that's what I should make the kids loved it.
Thanks for the idea.
Well, all right, Tony
Pat, making a
I know.
Well, I and I also I may have posted I'm not one of those people that posts a lot of food pictures.
I was especially proud of this post.
And so Alicia, what's up on YouTube?
I saw it.
It looked so good.
Well, there you go.
Oh, yeah.
So little shepherd's pie.
And I know, I know, I don't want to get I don't want to get the note.
Like, it's not shepherd's pie.
You know, shepherd's pie is made with veal or whatever.
And apparently, if it's made with ground beef, it's called something else.
No, that may, maybe, maybe back in the mother country, you know, you, you, you know, and the Brits want to talk that way.
That's fine.
But we don't need veal.
We don't need mincemeat.
This America, we got ground beef here.
We got lots of ground beef.
And that's how we make our shepherd's pie.
So there you go.
Luke Mathers on the text line.
Pat Crichtlow food influencer.
Well, I mean I influenced Tony.
I don't know that that makes me an influencer yet, but I'll take and you might have made Alicia hungry too.
So Yeah, that's right two people
Tony, it's called better, I believe.
Yes, when we make it, we make it better.
And of course, there was plenty of sports to watch.
And granted, the Brewers couldn't come back yesterday.
They did fall short to the Cardinals three to two, so they couldn't quite pull off the sweep, but great victories on Friday and then again on Saturday.
And that's Saturday night one.
I tell you, that was an amazing comeback.
I feel bad for anybody who gave up on the Brewer Saturday when they were down in like the sixth inning and said, nope, it's time to go to bed.
Anybody like that is me because that's what I did.
And woke up early Sunday morning and looked at my phone.
I was like, what?
Called up the highlights where the Brewers tied it in the bottom of the ninth then they fell behind in the top of the tenth Then they tied it in the tenth and then they won it in the tenth and it was if you don't if you go back and look at the game highlights Don't worry about yesterday's game go to Saturday's Brewers Cardinals game.
That was a fun-looking come come back
As for yesterday again, losing three to two, the Brewers could only muster a pair of solo home runs by Caleb Durbin and Danny Jansen.
The Cubs won as well, so the Brewers magic number to clinch the central division stands at eight.
But let's not bury the lead here.
That's the magic number clinched the division.
Over the weekend, the Brewers did in fact clinch a playoff berth, meaning conceivably they could lose every game for the rest of the season.
They would still make the playoffs.
That's not going to happen.
They're in.
There's going to be October baseball.
Very
seven out of
Yes.
And wasn't the the one year we didn't make it wasn't it just by like a game?
We missed it.
I don't think it was a particularly bad year.
But I don't think
so either.
I could be wrong.
Anyway, the Brewer's Homestand continues.
The Cardinals have left town, but today is an off day as the, what are we calling them now?
The
Los
Angeles Angels.
Yeah.
As the, as the Angels of Anaheim in Los Angeles County come to town Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
That's right.
think we should go with that
for the rest of
the week.
I would be fine with that.
So again, off today, but Brewers and Angels coverage begins tomorrow at 6 0 5 on several civic media radio stations.
That again, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night games, all of them.
And then they travel to St.
Louis to play the Cardinals again.
Of course, the Packers won back on Thursday against the Washington Commanders, and so now they are off until next Sunday.
They will play Cleveland at noon next Sunday.
And the Badgers were simply no match for the Crimson Tide, Alabama overpowered Wisconsin, 38 to 14.
Up next for the Badgers, they opened the Big Ten part of their schedule, and that will be this coming Saturday, hosting Maryland, and that will include a 9 a.m.
kickoff on several civic media stations.
We'll get you updated on all that throughout the course of the week.
Coming up, Derek Van Orden has crossed a line, several actually, politically, professionally, and perhaps the state of mind or his health.
We'll get into that right after this.
First, from the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Remember, you can stay up to date with our unabashedly Wisconsin news by signing up for our newsletters over at UpGrowthNewsWI.com.
Click subscribe up in the top banner.
Today's edition from Ellie includes how to apply for FEMA flood relief and also a timely reminder from her that tomorrow is National Voter Registration Day.
Reminder to check your voter registration status and maybe make updates if you've moved and encourage other family and friends to register Don't wait till everything gets busy next week and in our Sunday edition from yesterday.
I Unfortunately, I think I broke our readers and I didn't mean to but I
I passed along that Ron Johnson last week on the 9-11 anniversary was again sharing a conspiracy theory about the World Trade Center and that maybe there were explosives in the basement of Building 7 or just something ridiculous.
My question to the readers yesterday was, if you could get Ron Johnson to stop talking forever about one conspiracy, which would it be?
Would it be the World Trade Center one?
Would it be the COVID one?
Would it be
2016 was was actually a job by Ukraine and not Russia.
Was it that 2020 was irregular?
And I did not leave an option for all of the above and that's what everybody demanded from all of there were so many emails.
How could you not give us an all of the above?
Well, because I want to know which which if you could get rid of one of them.
But what's the most
Yes.
What's the most disturbing of these?
And so people gave it their best guess.
If you'd like to be first to see our question of the week, sign up for our newsletters up North News W I dot com.
All right.
There seems to be a free speech issue, causing a serious case of irony when it comes to discussing Charlie Kirk, both the murder and the legacy of his own speech during his life.
There appears to be basically a growing trend that could be summed up as free speech for Charlie Kirk, but not free speech about Charlie Kirk.
The far-right provocateur symbolized the fights over political free speech, especially on our college campuses, because Kirk would be booked for certain engagements on universities, and then they would face pressure to cancel his appearances knowing the hateful things he was about to say, but then they would also face
pressure from others not to give in to so-called cancel culture.
That's what makes it so ironic that the most tangible activity in this country in the days following Charlie Kirk's murder has been the wave of firings of people for expressing their own points of view and threats of firings coming from people including members of Congress who would normally be the first to defend Charlie Kirk's right to speak out.
There are members of Congress like Derek Van Ord, and yes, we have to talk about him again.
It was one thing for him to be emotional about Charlie Kirk's murder and tweet more than 80 times in the first 24 hours after his death.
Then on Friday, he tweeted another 161 times, and he is now well into the hundreds of tweets.
Many of them with insults and profanity, but that's simply the nature of the man.
He lacks the emotional maturity to be an effective public official.
The more troubling tweets are the ones that call for people to be fired or for federal funding to be cut simply because he doesn't like how they reacted to Charlie Kirk's murder and or his legacy.
On the federal funding alone, this needs to be said.
If Van Orden actually tried to follow through on the many, many tweets, he would have a full-time job just doing that, having to look up each person, each institution, each item in the budget of the United States government and try to get that number changed to zero.
He's now threatening to do it with the city of Ellsworth in his district because he didn't like what an employee had to say.
He's threatened to do it for the entire Mayo Clinic because he didn't like what somebody posted on there.
He can't do all that.
He doesn't have time to do all that.
And even if he did, he'd be wasting his time, which means he's wasting our money that we pay him to do a job other than scrolling and trolling on Twitter.
I mean, if nothing else, maybe the Congressman could travel his district a little bit more and notice all the soybean fields.
The crop's looking good out there.
But as we learned last week, China purchased more than $12 billion in soybeans from the US last year, but thanks to Trump's made up trade war, they have so far purchased no US soybeans.
So maybe Van Orden and Trump think it'll be enough to simply send support checks to farmers, but you won't be able to escape the image of soybeans piled up and rotting.
So maybe he could work on that for his district instead of tweeting.
But let's get back to what he is doing on Twitter.
There's the firings as we've seen in around the country.
We've seen it on TV.
We've seen it nationally.
There's no shortage of examples, including here in Wisconsin.
It's just rich that these demands for firings from Van Orden and other Republicans come from people who love to claim that they've been persecuted for the things that they want to say.
I mean, if anyone should be a champion for these newly jobless folks, it should be the Derrick Van Orden's out there.
But like I said, free speech for Charlie Kirk apparently was on a higher plane than free speech about Charlie Kirk.
Now, don't get me wrong, we all have freedom of speech, but we are also subject to the consequences of what we say.
This show, for example, could be canceled with one phone call.
If someone heard me say something that they thought brought shame or damage to the business, that's how it goes.
But this isn't about the consequences coming from employers who bow to pressure from customers or advertisers or politicians.
It's about the politicians demanding those consequences.
The First Amendment doesn't protect you or me from employers who are angry or afraid, but it is supposed to protect us from the government infringing on our freedom to express ourselves.
And Derek Van Orden right now is part of the government.
And he and Donald Trump and so many of Charlie Kirk supporters would love to infringe on the free speech of anyone whose speech they don't like.
That's not how the First Amendment is supposed to work.
But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that if they're not being true to the First Amendment, it's in line with how they've muddled up the Second Amendment and things like that.
But that's a question for another day.
In conclusion, this should be a time of unity, all of us together acknowledging that political violence has no place in a civil society.
But that's not where we are right now, with a congressman who's
Obsession with tweeting threats and insults right now should be truly concerning to the people who care about him.
Today's history lesson is coming up next.
You're up North.
Welcome to today's history lesson where on this day in 1949 the Lone Ranger appeared and premiered on ABC.
They do love their gunfire in shows like
this.
I had a little cap gun.
Did you have a cap gun when you were a little?
Oh,
of course.
Yeah.
And we used to like go on the couch on the edges of the couch.
My sister and I would hold on to the arms and
we
would gallop like by bouncing up and down on the couch while we were watching the Lone Rangers.
That's a fond memory for me.
Okay.
Well, there you go.
Lone Ranger premiered this day in 1949.
Let's go way up to 1986.
We're doing like the season premiere series premiere thing, of course, because it's that time of year.
In 1986, this show
premiered on NBC.
Can you guess the show by the theme song?
Hit it.
You're not supposed to have it.
It's
like
law and order or
LA law.
LA
law.
It was the first of the law shows.
Yes, and it was created by Stephen Bochko.
The ensemble cast included Corbin Bernsons, Jolycan Berry, Susan Day, Harry Hamlin, and of course that sax in the beginning, which was on anything made of the 80s.
Everything in the 80s had that sax in some way, shape, or form.
That's why I played the sax.
Oh, did you?
For like one year, I wasn't good.
All right, well.
There it is again.
Yep.
Mike Post.
Mike Post did like 500 different TV themes.
Did that one for LA Law.
Let's see the number one song this week in 1962 was by Frankie Valley in the Four Seasons.
Is this a special song in your house?
It is not.
Hard no.
Somebody does not like that song.
I love the
song.
Apparently, it was sung to her a lot as a kid.
So it's kind of it's it's worn out.
It's usefulness.
Same goes, by the way, with Steve Perry's O'Sharry from the from the 80s.
Also, she's just not one of those doesn't want songs about her.
Do you have a song about you, Pat?
Uh, do I have a song about me?
I don't know.
Muskrat Love, maybe?
Juggernaut.
One.
Oh, the Juggernaut song.
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out if that was... Oh!
You actually have a real song that's actually about you and yourself.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
The song's title is quite low, but it's a very disturbing song about something or another, and I have no idea how they came to call it that.
And one of these days, I'm going to work up the courage to reach out to the band and say, what the heck was that about?
Or since they're an Eau Claire bass band, we send Selena Heller who joins us now from Up North News.
Ms.
Heller, how are you?
Really?
right, let's get back to our history lesson.
Helen Reddy had the number one song this week in 1973.
Who's
version of this song was bigger?
Hers or Tanya Tucker?
Good question.
Definitely Helen Reddy on the Hot 100, Tanya Tucker on the Country Charts.
Had really good short performance with it.
Prince Harry has a birthday today.
Little Prince Harry is not Little Prince Harry anymore.
He's 41 years old today.
Actor Tommy Lee Jones is 79 years old today.
So many, he is so good.
There's been so many good movies with Tommy Lee Jones and yet you cannot mark his birthday without playing one clip in particular from the
fugitive.
of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, or doghouse in that area.
Checkpoints go up to 15 miles.
Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard
Kimball.
He's just so good.
I really like
79 years old today, former roommate of Al Gore.
back in college.
Oliver Stone is also 79 years old today, former NFL quarterback Dan Marino from the Miami Dolphins, 64 today.
On this day in 1983, one of those early 80s albums that I wore out was released on what is the September 15th, 1983.
That would be Huey Lewis in the News and the album was Sports.
There
were five hits off that album.
I want a new drug walking on a thin line heart and soul If this is it and of course the heart of rock and roll the album would sell more than seven million copies on this day in 1982 the first issue of USA Today was put out by Gannett and everybody thought that was gonna save newspapers because it was all colorful You know and had just the four same sections every day and it was it was a big deal for the longest time When was the last time you bought a newspaper?
Period,
you know, I've never bought a paper in my life.
There's the line.
Yeah.
If you're ever looking for the generational lines, like if you're digging through sediment and you get to a line and go, wow, there must have been like a doomsday event here.
That's marker was born and then nobody bought newspapers anymore after that.
This week in 1990, the number one hit was by the group Wilson Phillips.
Oh, dear.
My apology.
Yes, this has released me.
I meant to get you somewhere up in the chorus rather than the intro, but they do have some good harmony here in the beginning.
Wilson Phillips was made up of sisters, Kearney and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and China Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.
And this song released me was their second single.
and their second number one hit.
Their first single, hold on, also went to number one a couple of months earlier.
I always wondered, like, did they play together when they were little kids?
Is that how they knew each other?
Yep, they are childhood friends.
Exactly how it worked.
All right, so let me ask you now, Kristen, you did not watch the Emmys last night at all?
I did not.
Okay, I knew I should have sent you a homework assignment.
Selena, do you catch the Emmys
I'm not surprised for this reason.
There's 9,000 networks out there.
I mean, they made a joke yesterday in one of the categories about how just these five women are up for these awards.
I mean, how many actresses would be eligible for it?
And you think it's maybe whatever it is, they joke that it was 25,000.
And it feels like that way.
It feels like there's 25,000 potential shows or actors or actresses.
There was a moment that unified them all that I want to talk to you about in just a minute.
But first off, the show was hosted by Nate Bargatze.
And where are we on Nate?
Everybody likes Nate.
Doesn't like Nate.
Don't know.
Don't care.
I
think he's funny.
I
vaguely remember the name.
Oh, OK.
All right.
Got nothing here.
Oh, there's a
Saturday Night Live ticket about measurement that
you
really need to see.
Yes.
And that's how he opened the show.
He opened the show as the inventor of TV, Philo T. Farnsworth, and all the other guys in the lab who also worked from Saturday Night Live last night.
we're asking him questions about it like you know we will have channels like oh what's one that does it now cable news network that does news what about one called the learning channel nope that will just be shows about something else what about the history channel oh that will be shows about aliens
you know music
television is no longer about music or anything like that he pulled it off far better than I'm describing but he also had this stick to try to keep people
to 45 seconds or less in their acceptance speeches?
Starting off by saying he was going to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America, but he was going to take $1,000 off for each second that anybody went over 45 seconds.
you were.
Yeah, some people's speeches were like, come on, sit down already.
You're doing it for, think of the kids.
And then other people, like one time when John Oliver got up, he gave like the fastest, like, you know, I'm going to thank this person, this person, this person.
All right, pay up Nate.
And then you rush off stage, you know, and then you'd have to put $1,000 back on for every second.
But in the end, the windbags won.
And so the money was essentially wiped out, which and then Nate Bargazzi said, no, no, we're going to keep the money and add to it.
And actually $350,000 was donated total.
So that was nice.
But I did.
I really was wondering if I owned a TV based on the show.
I've never seen the White Lotus.
I've never seen Severance.
I've never seen Seth Rogen's The Studio.
And the studio was like the big winner yesterday.
It set some kind of a record for Emmy wins.
13 total Emmys.
Has anyone here seen Seth Rogen's The Studio on Apple TV?
No, but I'll tell you because I've been laid up for a couple weeks.
And
so I've been doing some channel flipping, which is unusual for me.
And it's overwhelming the number of shows that are out there and the way that they're trying to convince you to watch all the different shows.
I just didn't ever know what to pick.
So I ended up not watching anything.
See, that's what you're opening
up
all the time.
Yes.
Well, here's one I think you would be watching.
Noah Wiley has a narrative that just can't be denied.
He got five nominations.
for ER a quarter century ago and never won.
30 years later, he puts on scrubs and he last night won his first Emmy for playing another emergency doctor on the show, The Pit.
That's nice.
Yeah.
So I was an
ER person.
I did watch that back then, but I have not watched The Pit.
But although my doctor friends who tend to be pretty critical about doctor shows tell me it's actually quite good.
Oh.
Well, and as evidenced by the awards that it's been nine out
I cannot verify those statistics.
Yes, that seems about right.
So let me say this about the way that TV's all fragmented and everybody's off watching their their own thing.
There was a moment when they paid tribute to another show that had premiered 40 years ago this week.
So if I were to say the first line from the theme song,
Would you be able to fill in the next line from Golden Girls?
If I said, thank you for being a friend, you'd sing what?
down the road and back again.
Yeah, why?
And you know what?
The whole audience was singing it.
The whole audience was like moving to the song and like, you know, digging on the Golden Girls, they put up clips and Sherry put it perfectly.
She's like.
That's when TV was what we thought it would be.
Is it brought us all together?
Everybody watch Golden Girls because there were only three or four channels on your TV, not 7000.
And maybe we need more of that of shows that we all want to watch that aren't just called the Super Bowl.
I
remember, I remember Dallas when JR got shot and the whole country was wondering who shot JR and they kept us in suspense for an entire
I mean, I was a little kid at the time, but that was like a huge cultural thing.
anymore.
No.
And frankly, I think part of the part of the reason we watch reruns of the Big Bang Theory so much is it might have been like the last show that got that many millions of viewers at once on network TV.
And now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Abbott Elementary on ABC.
Was that the only broadcast network show that was even up for Emmys?
I think so.
Shout out to one of my neighbors up in Dorkani who actually developed that show.
So there's a Wisconsin connection there and she has an Emmy for Avid Elementary.
Oh,
That's going to be a good story for you in the future.
Yeah, and we're going to hear more from Selena and stories that she's working on, including an unusual demonstration that was held last week against budget cuts and health care cuts, complete with a movie theme and costumes.
Selena's
going to
tell us all about that coming up after the news.
And we'll talk to Robert Craig from Citizen Action.
pushing back against Donald Trump and others trying to drag us back to the days when your cell phone was powered by shoveling coal into it and other things that big oil would love to have us be doing going ahead and continuing to just tear up the climate.
A lot of people would like to say no thank you to all that.
Alive from the lake you're listening to Mornings with Pat Brightwell powered by FNR News here on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome back at six fifty-two.
It is sixty-six degrees here in the Chippewa Valley La Crosse coming in at sixty-eight.
Amory at sixty-nine over in Oshkosh.
It is sixty degrees right now and in the Green Bay area at the Kovarna coffee shop it is fifty-four degrees and they are trying to figure out why Kristen isn't there getting her mocha, latte, macchiato thingy.
What is your go-to drink there?
I am a black coffee kind of gal.
Of
course you
are.
But they have
great, it's like a sip of black coffee and one of their amazing treats.
Oh, they're fantastic.
Should every coffee shop like basically be a bakery because some have really nice treats and others, you can tell it was totally an afterthought.
We're a coffee shop.
You know, here's a brick cleverly disguised as a blueberry muffin, you know, I'm just
going to speak on behalf of my partner, Craig, who I do believe is listening and he is a police officer.
And the answer is yes.
And there must be donuts.
Craig,
you
are welcome.
What?
Oh, boy.
Why are you feeling the stereotype that way?
I don't understand.
This is true.
For Craig, it's true.
Well, in that case, then never mind.
I retract all that.
Kristen, what was on the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show last week and what do you got next?
Oh, it was so good.
I just sat down with my friend representative, Ahmaud Rivera-Wagner, who is a delightful person who loves Green Bay.
And we talked about all things Green Bay and Wisconsin and his vision for the future of the state and the area.
And then this week is going to be really spicy.
We're taping it tonight.
We're talking about the Charlie Kirk assassination.
And we're talking with Republicans, former Republican
leaders and getting just a broad overview of what happened, where we are now, and what do we need to do as we move forward?
It's going to be very engaging and interesting.
I had a couple of different conversations, run-ins with people that I knew, like one was at the International or at the Fall Festival in downtown Eau Claire.
Another was up in Chippewa over the weekend.
Again, just having conversation with folks where I know we don't always agree politically on things.
Those conversations I think were very emblematic of what you were hearing around the country of saying, you know, we really should be able to all come together on political violence is wrong and that your reaction to the political violence should also be in the vein of taking the temperature down rather than talking all about retribution, which of course when I first started, you know
counting Derek Van Orden's tweets.
It was a little concerning when I got to 60 and then I got to 80.
And then the next day when I got to 161.
And then I hadn't looked back until last night or early this morning.
I mean, there are just literally hundreds of these things ramping up the violent rhetoric and the threats to fire people and the cut off the federal funding.
And it is so nowhere near what
I think most people who would consider themselves, you know, that they knew Charlie Kirk and, you know, might call them fans or at least they'd say, well, I agreed with him on several things.
I don't think they'd necessarily be with the, the Derek Van Ordens right now and saying, oh yeah, let's, let's get out there and threaten revolution.
Besides the volume of those tweets, the content of the tweets are really interesting because they're all quote tweets.
So they're, it's clearly he's spending all day long scrolling and then just.
reposting these tweets with his little comments.
He, he, he has a real job, right?
Allegedly.
Yes.
I mean, and like I said, in the newsletter and earlier this morning, if he chose just to actually follow through on these these cuts to federal funding, that would be more than a full time job in and of itself.
So he's saying, you know, we're gonna cut their funding, we're gonna cut their funding, we're gonna cut their funding.
No, you don't nobody has enough time to do all that.
you know, plus you got things to do, like, you know, find a market for that soybean crop that's going to start rotting, you know.
Things are about to get very real.
I think for the Republicans who voted for the big, beautiful bill as people start to realize what the no tax on tips and no tax on like all
of the little one of them are anything like they're being advertised.
Correct.
They're not.
And when people start to see prices rising, you know, there are a lot of consumers out there who are looking at the stock market and saying, but the stock market is still rising.
Yeah.
But most of us are actually really struggling to pay our bills.
So that's going to head home sooner than later.
And that's going to feel very real to people like Derek Van Orden, who are
going to be
held accountable.
A lot of the stock price is going up because these corporations are understanding that, you know, even with the tariffs and inflation, I mean, grocery prices are more insane than last year.
They realize, well, people are still going to pay for the stuff that they need.
So they may be struggling, but we, the corporation, we're going to be OK.
Oh, and there goes Pat's mic.
Oh,
wow.
And wealthy people are still spending.
And that is what is really buoying the economy right now.
But people who don't have a lot of extra are starting to pinch pennies.
So the more that the longer this goes on, I think the more our purse strings are going to be tightened and the more our representatives are going to feel it.
Did you, Selena, get to the fall festival this year in downtown Eau Claire?
right.
It was our, it was our first one.
And Sherry suggested going there.
I said, well, we've never suggested going there before.
Yeah.
But Sherita made it sound fun.
Because Sharita Booker talked about it last week.
And I kind of just gave her a look like, Sharita's never been there.
Sharita's in Milwaukee.
She was just reading through the things that are going.
Yeah, but she made it sound fun.
Sharita makes everything sound fun.
She's
like, that's my favorite segment of the week, which is interesting because she's married to like the host.
But yes.
So Sharita made it look good and it was good.
It basically was a great way of taking an entire town, in this case, the city of Eau Claire.
and saying, okay, I know you're all over the place with your stores and your shops and everything, but you're all going to come down to downtown.
You're all going to get one booth and the entire population is going to walk past you.
And it was great.
It was very well organized.
We had a lot of fun.
See, look at that.
Now you're here with us.
I'm sure Rita's here with us making all these things sound fun.
We went to the drag
It wasn't the firehouse where they were serving the beer.
I would have sworn that was with the Badger game on TV.
All right.
Well, more after the seven o'clock news, I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
