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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Good morning, welcome back.
Nice to have you here Up North on a Tuesday morning, September 16th, 806th the time.
Cam Stevenson is standing by from Courier Newsroom, live from the nation's capital to talk about recent events which
could have something to do with avoiding a government shutdown, could have something to do with the trade war, could have something to do with fighting inflation, but instead the theme is vengeance.
And we will get into that in just a little bit than Dan Schaefer in our next half hour from the Reconbobulation Area and Civic Media Political Editor talking about the growing candidate field for governor for 2026.
But first, let's get a quick update on the forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merlot who joins us to talk about how there are some rain.
There is some rain.
There is some thunder in the north central part of the state, but
Uh, that is, uh, that is not going to be the case around the rest of the state.
It's, it's, it's just summer, summer again.
It really is.
We're digging that.
Gorgeous.
Yeah.
The only things we have to deal with, like you said, is those views, scattered showers and storms up towards Phillips Park Falls, Tomahawk, Monaco area.
Otherwise foggy conditions by the Great Lakes, Superior, Sheboygan, even Manitowoc, you're seeing some dense fog off the lake.
Otherwise.
Super sunny as we go through the afternoon highs in the mid eighties.
We're going to put that on repeat again tomorrow.
We could have some isolated body showers and storms spark in the early evening tomorrow and then we could see some more storms up north on Thursday.
But otherwise the rest of the state still holding muggy and warm and still into those mid eighties for the entire week basically until we start to cool down into the weekend and more rain starts to roll our way with a big system.
Oh, no, it just occurred to me.
First day of fall is coming up for too much longer, isn't it?
Monday, the 22nd.
Oh, what are we doing here?
We're
in second summer right now.
We can't have fall.
Right.
Let's see.
On the text line from Tom and Hartford is Eagle River going to get some rain.
Oh, yeah.
Just a little bit of sprinkles looks like it's headed your way.
Doesn't look like the storms well, though.
All right, there you go.
How's that for spot forecasting right there, huh?
All right, Brittany.
Thank you very much.
Talk to you
later.
You're welcome.
All right.
Remember, you can sign up for our newsletters, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
And UpNorth News is part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy newsroom that is filled with state outlets and newsletters and podcasts.
And one of those newsletters is below the beltway.
Cam Stephenson puts it together from Capitol Hill.
Head to couriernewsroom.com or beltway.news to learn more.
Cam Stephenson joins us now from Washington DC.
Cam, how are you?
Hey Pat,
I'm
doing
all right.
I was actually wondering if Brittany had a text line I could call in case So I can check and see if it rains before I wash my car.
She probably could do that for you.
I'll get you guys Yeah, we do the personalized forecast here on demand Full full service is what we're up to here.
So this week we we have spent a lot of time Well Friday and then Monday and then again today talking about Congressman Derek van Orden from Western, Wisconsin who
arguably, because I can't track all the members of Congress, but I would contend arguably has done more than any other member in terms of threatening behavior, insulting behavior, obscene behavior.
But I know he's not alone.
And I know that that starts
Not only at the top with Donald Trump's rhetoric, but you had the vice president of the United States, J.D.
Vance, doing Charlie Kirk's former radio show live from his government office.
He had Stephen Miller on, and so between all of those guys and the folks you cover on Capitol Hill, it sure seems like the theme this week has been vengeance.
Yeah, yeah, and you're 100% right.
They are, I guess, invoking Reagan's trickle-down theory of vengeance.
Where it starts at the top, you know, the president of the United States has said some very incorrect things about what happened to Charlie Kirk, about how he died, who killed him, and that's just kind of been trickling down ever since.
And, you know, J.D.
Vance, he...
He had a broadcast from the White House talking about leftist violence, which isn't really a thing especially compared to far-right violence And now we're seeing well now is in the past three days and and since late last week people I represent Van Orden who are Turning this into a battle cry when you told me about when you said he was tweeting a lot I thought okay, this guy's you know, he's he's posted some stuff online.
He's saying some you know
whatever, he's doing his thing.
But I was scrolling through his feed and I don't know if he has slept in the past 72 hours.
He is on constant watch trying to get people fired for using their first amendment rights.
And it seems like, I don't know if he's even in DC because it seems like that's his full-time job right now.
We stopped counting at 550, and there have clearly been many more tweets since that time.
But it's not fair to any intern or anything to make them counted up.
So we've seen it from the president, the vice president, this member of Congress.
I know other members of Congress as well.
Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee was putting up other people's posts calling for them to be fired.
And so I don't doubt that that's still the theme on Capitol Hill, but it begs the question,
They have an actual job that doesn't involve violating people's First Amendment rights.
Are we not getting closer to a government shutdown and the need for Republicans to probably need Democratic votes to pass a budget?
Yeah, I feel like we have entered some bureaucratic version of Groundhog Day where nearly every day you wake up and there's another government shutdown coming.
down the pike but yeah uh they you know the last reconciliation bill was not long term it was through september uh it's mid september now and i have heard very little about budget negotiations but that is an important part of getting a budget passed is actually meeting members of congress legislating discussing negotiating and compromising uh which i think is going to be the hardest part because
So far under Trump's second term Republicans in Congress seem not only allergic but disgusted by the idea of compromise
Yes, and there was a report yesterday that the president was telling congressional Republicans to cut Democrats out of any negotiations and look from a
coaching standpoint, I guess you could see the logic in that is to say, look gang, you've got the majority.
If you all hang together, you can pass anything you want.
But they have proven year after year after year after year, they cannot all hang together.
They end up needing democratic votes to pass something.
So cutting Democrats out doesn't sound like a great idea, especially when you have these Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that were put in place during the Biden administration.
getting set to expire and you had Speaker of the House Mike Johnson yesterday saying, yeah, you know, keeping those subsidies from expiring, that's not really a priority for us right now.
That's a heck of a thing for the Speaker of the House to say is it, it really doesn't matter to us if everybody's health insurance costs go up.
Yeah, well, and especially after they did something even apparently even worse than compromising, which is they were able to agree on a budget a few months ago, that is cutting
healthcare for millions of people.
And now that they're talking about getting rid of ACA subsidies, and I mean, just the idea of saying, you know, we're going to cut millions of people off of healthcare, and now we're going to cut more funding for healthcare.
All the while, billionaires are paying less in taxes than ever before is absurd.
And it's, I mean, to throw this back at Speaker Johnson,
It's an immoral way to legislate where you value someone's bottom line versus over someone's health and their survival.
Well, yeah, and again, it deals with what's happening here in the real world.
We're talking to Cam Stevenson, Courier Newsroom, political correspondent up on Capitol Hill here about what Congress should be working on versus what they've been doing in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder.
We certainly talked about the shutdown and we've talked about Affordable Care Act subsidy assistance expiring.
Agricultural
stuff is is no longer as sexy on Capitol Hill as it used to be back in back in olden times when you can always count on the the House and Senate agriculture committees to make a big deal about what happens in rural America.
But with Trump's trade war right now, and you have China, which normally purchases about $12 billion worth of soybeans has not placed a single order yet.
I'm sure there's going to be talk about
you know bailout payments to farmers to try to keep them whole even though their crops are going to be rotting somewhere either in the field or in these storage bins all around the country.
Have you heard any any chatter like that yet or are they still too focused on the Charlie Kirk murder to think about our farmers?
I haven't heard anything about any bailouts for local farmers.
What I personally think would be more likely and more in line with this administration
would be an opportunity for large corporate farms to buy these struggling local farms for pennies on the dollar to create huge conglomerates to cut down costs for corporations and and the wealthy and and not only waste all of that food you know that the billions of dollars of soybeans that China is not buying it's not being sold so no not only is no one buying it but
this is all just going to waste.
This is all getting thrown away in the trash while people starve.
And so I don't, I haven't heard anything about what they want to do to remedy that.
And I don't think that that is an accident.
I think that they have no intention
to remedy it.
Which again, ought to be something that every family farmer across Wisconsin pays attention to and look for any
any glimmer of hope that they give a damn about what's going to happen to this year's harvest and how it's going to pile up.
Now a lot of this is obviously the environment that it is in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder and it was again a horrific incident that had no justification whatsoever.
But there are still these other matters out there, including the case of to what degree Donald Trump was involved with sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
And in your newsletter, you've talked about ways that the late sexual predator Epstein, you know, how he came to be, you know, funded for all of his many travels and activities.
And so this is all to say that, that you and the folks at Courier Newsroom and elsewhere, you've not taken your eye off the ball that this Epstein case is still very relevant.
Yeah, not only is it relevant, it honestly ties into what's happening right now perfectly.
We keep talking about how there's these billionaires who are able to get huge tax breaks, who are able to brazenly start consolidating even local farms and local produce.
This isn't just a blatant.
money grab that we haven't seen in probably a century.
And that's because the wealthy and powerful have been allowed to get emboldened and allowed to get away with so much.
And a big part of that is what was going on with Jeffrey Epstein.
You know, the finances between him and billionaires, you know, like, like Leon Black, like potentially Donald Trump, like Les Wexler, who founded Victoria's Secret, among other things.
these wealthy people, you know, those are the people that we know about.
There's dozens, hundreds of other people who paid for services from Jeffrey Epstein, who are now purchasing farms, who are now working in our government, who are able to do these bold things because we've allowed them to get away with so much for so long.
And so continuing on that thread and
pushing the US Treasury to release the financial information of Jeffrey Epstein so that congressional investigators can actually find out who he was financially tied to and hold them accountable that way.
I think is just as important and integral to solving the wealth disparity that we're seeing right now.
Again, you can read more from Cam Stevenson at below the Beltway, head over to beltway.news and couriernewsroom.com for more.
Cam, appreciate you joining us from DC.
Have a great start to your day.
Thank you, you too.
All right, thank you.
When we come back, we're going to be talking in a bit here to Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation area with another big name candidate in the Wisconsin governor's race.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Welcome back.
It is 822 Dan Schaeffer coming up in just a little bit.
The American College of Physicians says that over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives worldwide.
That's equivalent to nearly six lives a minute.
And so in recognizing this, the American College of Physicians is saying they're going to continue emphasizing the vital role of immunizations in healthcare and in public health policy, particularly they write in the face of rising vaccine skepticism and the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation.
The American College of Physicians remains steadfast, they say, in their commitment to advancing evidence-based immunization practices.
equipping physicians to educate patients and promote policies that ensure equitable access to vaccines for all communities.
Well, all of that tells me they probably will look kindly on what Governor Tony Evers has done.
Signing yesterday a new executive order to beef up state protection of vaccine access despite what Robert Kennedy Jr.
and Dr. Oz and Donald Trump and other assorted quackery representatives are doing at the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.
The governor on Monday signed an order directing the State Department of Health Services, that's DHS, the State Department of Health Services, to do what's necessary to ensure that Wisconsinites can have access to vaccines and keep themselves and their families safe.
The governor slammed the Trump administration for its reckless and dangerous efforts to undermine science.
and the decisions of medical professionals and public health experts.
They've caused panic and confusion around the country, the governor says, and arbitrarily limiting access to safe vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.
So DHS has been instructed to monitor immunization recommendations, which we know that Trump and Kennedy and others are trying to undermine.
DHS is also going to issue its own guidance on the COVID vaccine, take steps to provide clarity and guidance on other routine vaccines, and help ensure that Wisconsinites have access to vaccines at their local pharmacies as well.
And then this last point is the one I think needs to be emphasized a little more.
The order also directs the state office of the commissioner of insurance to work with health plans to develop guidance to insurers regarding safeguarding their access and limiting the cost of vaccines in various healthcare settings, including pharmacies.
Well, what does that mean in plain English?
It means that if there are any health insurance companies or health plans.
that are going to use the Robert Kennedy Jr.
Donald Trump misinformation as a reason not to cover vaccines?
State governments like the one in Wisconsin are going to be right there saying not so fast, that it would work better if you say went where the medical evidence is pointing rather than what a politician is telling you.
Now again, none of these are necessarily vaccine mandates.
but it is a way to stave off the lack of access.
And you heard Robert Kennedy Jr.
saying to Congress was last week saying that, you know, nobody is limiting access by changing these guidelines.
And members of Congress pointed out, pointed out examples of where you don't have to say you're limiting access.
But by casting doubt on their effectiveness, you give other people permission to limit access to vaccines.
Suddenly, they're not covering it.
Or they're not recommending it.
And when you're not recommending evidence-based medicine to your patients, to their children, or maybe to your employees, you are doing them a disservice.
And you are, in fact, cutting off access by not providing all of the relevant information.
we are getting into a critical time right now where people need access to this year's COVID vaccine, this year's flu shot, and maybe the, what is it, the RSV vaccine as well for respiratory ailments, and...
We're already hearing stories of people who are being told, well, you no longer fit into the profile of somebody for whom a COVID shot would be required, which is either going to force people to pay out of pocket or worse, they will simply not get their COVID shot.
We already have measles that is running so hot and heavy now in this country.
I can't believe I'm saying that in the year 2025.
but here in Wisconsin as well, more so than almost any other state, our childhood vaccination rate for measles, for incoming kindergartners has sunk so low, it no longer meets the medical definition of herd immunity, which is when you don't have 100% vaccination, but you have a high enough level that you greatly reduce the risk of transmission.
to people who aren't immunized because so many other people around them have been immunized.
When instead you have this growing pool of people who are not immunized, this growing pool of children who are not immunized, it only increases the odds that measles will spread.
And we could be seeing the same thing happen to the flu this winter.
We could see the same thing happening to COVID-19 this winter.
COVID is still very much around us.
We've all seen that people are getting it and it's not just people who are 65 and frail.
The kind of people that the Robert Kennedys of the world are very happy to throw to the wolves.
For the rest of us who would like to keep our family and friends healthy.
It is worth it if you hear somebody talking about not getting their flu shot.
If you hear somebody talking about not getting the COVID vaccine.
You don't have to wrestle them to the ground.
You don't have to drag them to the clinic, but you can urge them to do more to not just go with what some guy like me yodels on the radio, but to actually talk to their physician and find out where the evidence points in terms of keeping themselves healthy, keeping their children healthy, keeping their unborn baby healthy, keeping their neighbors and their parents healthy.
There are better ways to do this than to listen to the ramblings of Robert Kennedy Jr.
and Donald Trump.
Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area is coming up next.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Milwaukee Brewers are back in action after an off day starting a three game series with the Los Angeles Angels tonight, tomorrow night, Thursday night.
Coverage begins at 6.05 each evening on Civic Media stations around the network.
Head over to the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us to learn more.
And while you're online, head over to the Up North News website, upnorthnewswi.com.
and sign up for our newsletters, including our Sunday morning newsletter, which features our question of the week.
And for that, we'll bring in Dan Schaefer, Civic Media's political editor and founder of the Reconbobulation Area.
Dan Schaefer, how are you this morning?
I'm doing well, Mr. Kritelow.
Always wonderful to join you here on Mornings with Pat Kritelow.
Fun, having to hear.
Let's get into this.
I broke my listeners.
I broke some of our newsletter readers in asking the question of the week and the way that I worded it.
Now, I know you caught Dan last week that Ron Johnson was again, encouraging the conspiracy theory that maybe it was more than two planes that brought down the World Trade Center.
that may, you know, there's that theory that building seven had all these explosives in the basement or something along those lines.
And so here he's doing this on the anniversary of 9-11.
And I asked in our newsletter, if you could get Ron Johnson to stop talking forever about just one of these conspiracies, what would it be?
Option A, the COVID vaccine is dangerous and ivermectin isn't getting used enough because of a conspiracy.
B, claims about Russian involvement in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf are part of a conspiracy.
C, the 2020 election results are faulty because of some conspiracy when Johnson actually had a potential role in Trump's attempted coup.
Option D, the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center involved more than two airplanes and a conspiracy is preventing us from learning more.
Ask people to pick one.
I cannot tell you how many people have written back in going,
I
can't pick one.
You have to give us an all of the above option.
Yeah, folks were not happy about that.
Not mad at me, but just like, how do you pick one of these coming from the senior senator from the state of Wisconsin?
He sure has become one of the chief conspiracy peddlers in the United States government, that's for sure.
And most of these are so obviously absurd and ridiculous that it almost isn't even worth talking about.
I'm going to give my own answer an answer E.
OK.
Are you ready, Pat?
Yes.
I'm going to say that the conspiracy to get rid of for Ron Johnson is that trickle down economics works.
Oh, very nice.
OK.
That was very well played.
And he loves that one and, of course, was able to pass that big old bloated budget bill to prove it.
and now we get to careen toward another government shutdown.
For all the talk about the Charlie Kirk murder, and of course we will get to that, and Derek Van Orden's reaction and everything else, while we're on the subject of things they could be doing otherwise, I mean, a government shutdown is looming out there, and I would expect, once again, Ron Johnson is probably gonna be cheerleader number one for that.
He's never seen a government shutdown he didn't like.
Yeah, he's never he always seems to want to be I guess more open to this than anything else because he doesn't really actually want to Fund a lot of government programs and so he's always wanting to cut spending cut spending cut spending and Or we got a we got to worry about the debt right until a bill that would massively slash taxes is going to explode the debt and then he's going to vote for it every single time So, you know, I am interested to see how Democrats play whatever leverage that they might have with this
um, shut down battle that is that is looming ahead of us.
But we can, uh, I think at this point, Ron Johnson, the 15 years, uh, that we've seen of him in office, we can kind of expect how he's going to operate in these types of scenarios.
Can't we?
Yes, we do.
We, we definitely have a look at that.
All right.
Let's take a break from Congress.
We've talked so much about Ben Orton.
We will, we will get back to it, but we had, you know, some, some more recent news with yesterday's entry into the governor's race of state senator, Kelda Roy's, she's a
frequent guest here on Civic Media on all the various shows and got into the race, surprising nobody.
She's run for office before, but for whatever reasons, picked this week to launch her campaign.
Tell us a bit about what...
We think we can expect from Senator Keldoroy's and how the Democratic primary contest is starting to shape up.
What do you think of it?
Yeah, these announcements are ramping up after Labor Day.
We were talking about in the summer that some of these candidates who said, yes, I'm planning to run.
I'm planning to announce.
And we talked about how that's probably not going to happen right in the middle of August when people are maybe not paying as much attention to the political news cycle.
Once they get back to school, back to the regular fall news cycle, they expect some of these to ramp up.
So we had David Crowley.
Last week, we were talking about on this show and then this week, Kelda Roy's.
I imagine we're going to get more announcements in the coming days and weeks as well.
But Kelda Roy's, I think, you know, obviously she ran in 2018 for governor, you know, didn't.
Didn't make it out of the Democratic primary but had a pretty strong showing And then I think you know one of the things that I really have been impressed by with Kelda Roy's is the job that she has done in the state Senate and on the joint finance committee You know she in in the period in between gubernatorial runs.
I guess you could say she has really gotten a whole lot better as a politician I think she is she's really gotten better as a legislator and You know speaks to a lot of these issues
She's had a lot of really standout moments in the Joint Finance Committee and things like that.
And I think she's in her second term as a state senator representing the 26th district in Madison.
And I think that is going to help her in this campaign, in her prospects for winning a primary, because I think the work that she has done since 2020, since she has been in the state Senate on Joint Finance Committee, there's a lot to point to that she's been able to
accomplish and and I think she can also speak to you know just the challenges that reside in the halls of the Wisconsin State Legislature in the Republican controlled you know Senate and Assembly that.
has dominated state politics for the better part of the last 15 years.
I'm interested to see what type of endorsements she might pick up over the course of this.
She, having a lot of work on reproductive rights in her background, I do imagine that some of those groups will be getting behind her in this, but I'm interested to see which other state legislators, which other community leaders, other groups might be endorsing her in this run and where some of those
groups are lining up and what is going to shape up to be a pretty crowded primary, I think?
Yes, it is.
And yes, you're absolutely right that some of these groups will get a lot of scrutiny.
I'm sure they're feeling a lot of pressure from one candidate or another to say, look, you know, I'm your favorite, you know, I've done more for you than anybody else.
And some groups will endorse and I'm sure there'll be some other groups that say, you know, there's just there's there's multiple good candidates.
We will just wait and help you in the general, which is
really what no candidate wants to hear when you're in a crowded primary field.
You want to get whatever extra dollars or door knockers that you can possibly handle.
However, you've got
What we said was going to be happening here.
You've got a primary now for governor in both parties.
You're going to have a primary in some of these other seats.
We had Jocasta Zamorrepa on yesterday running for Secretary of State.
There is already another Democrat.
I believe a young man from the Stevens Point area who is in the race.
We talked to Emily Berge earlier today, one of three Democratic candidates in the third congressional district.
We're going to have candidates running in multiple candidates running in primaries.
in various legislative races.
We're gonna probably have a story about another one tomorrow in the 17th Senate District here.
So Dan, never mind the candidates.
We always say candidates, just get used to it, there's gonna be a primary.
Now we gotta talk to voters and get them used to the idea that, you know, you really gotta pay attention and you really gotta go vote come August.
Yeah, I think there's two things that I see as primaries being a benefit to Democrats in this election cycle.
One is, I think, Democrats have avoided primaries to their detriment, to a certain extent, in the past.
And I think there is this iron-sharpens iron quality that can come from having a competitive primary.
If you're tested in the primary, that's going to have you more ready for the general election.
And I think we've seen a number of examples of that over the years.
And I think that is one piece of it.
But another piece, too, I think, speaks to the changing media environment that we all live in.
And I think part of what is so
what the Trump and MAGA Republicans have understood in ways that Democrats have not, is that we are living in an attention economy now.
And we need to get people's attention.
And that is a real competition.
And I think, you know, Republicans are very good at getting people's attention.
They're not very good at governing, but they're very good at getting people's attention.
And I think primaries in this sense can get people...
get people's attention.
If there is competition here, if people are like choosing their candidate or rooting for their person or wanting to see a debate or whatever it might be, I think there is a benefit to that that would get people...
Looking at what Democrats are doing and saying in ways that they might not be able to break through Otherwise and I think that these primaries that we are going could be having this year next year in Wisconsin You know, I don't love that our primary is in August.
I wish it was part of the April spring election That's perhaps a conversation for another time But I
think that there is a lot to be gained from a primary.
And I think in Wisconsin, you're right, we're going to be looking at a lot of state Senate primaries, congressional primaries, and then all of the statewide office holders going through and all of that.
We're going to have governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, maybe state treasurer even as a primary.
Who knows?
But I think these can be a very good thing for Democrats.
And we still don't know what Josh Call is going
to do.
So we don't know
what Josh Call is going to do.
That's
right.
Primary for attorney general.
Alicia notes on
YouTube, there's a primary in the eighth congressional district on the Democratic side for the first time in a while as well.
And so again, this is just the nature of a primary though.
And one of the, one of the potential drawbacks is that there will be people who, you know, they all want to fight her and they're, you know, at the risk of almost running a purity test.
And to that end, there was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel all about Scott Walker's reaction.
to the Charlie Kirk assassination and talking about, you know, the security for, you know, conservative activists.
And quoted in there, I heard from somebody else, they were really unhappy that Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley, who's running for governor,
Had a quote on w isn where he said we need to stop the violent political rhetoric on both sides of the aisle When he asked of some republicans about republicans suggesting some democrats are to blame Crowley said it's unfortunate that we're literally pointing the finger at partisanship We shouldn't be focusing on what political beliefs people have on who to blame when it comes down to this And again that that may be the right things in the moment
But there were definitely people unhappy that he both sides a quote about, you know, violent political rhetoric on both sides when, you know, the record does not indicate that that is so.
You're right.
The record does not indicate.
But I tend to agree with the Milwaukee County executive on this point.
And I think we need to celebrate the leaders who are looking to
Looking to calm things down and have a rational conversation about things and and I do think yes We can say that there's been more violent rhetoric coming from the right, but I think we are we would be wrong to say that is only
Coming from the right.
I think I think we do need to recognize that there are certain problems on the left as well And I think we need to recognize that and and not overlook it in this conversation, too I think there are pieces that we need to you know, and I don't we had we ran this piece at the recon population area last week from From Emily seffos talking about how so much of the reaction that we've seen since Charlie Kirk's death has been amounted to this
trying to score points in this endless online game.
I think we just need to stop running around in circles about this and just, you know, I think we all need to grieve collectively that political violence in America is on the rise and it is a bad thing and we need to condemn it and it needs to stop.
Dan Schaefer.
political editor for Civic Media and founder of the Reconbobulation area is with us.
We will get into Derrick Van Orden's reaction, the ongoing stream of obscenities and threats as part of it.
And of course, we'll get into Curls basketball coaching as well.
Still some more final news and notes here from Lake Minnesota coming up 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.
Tomorrow on the program we've got Bryn Horton from the Wisconsin Public Education Network talking about what kinds of education related bills are hanging out at the state capitol looking for action now that the state budget bill is done.
Some would do some good, some not so much.
but also tomorrow we will have state representative Francesca Hong who's been teasing that she has some kind of an announcement to make tomorrow and Karine Hendrickson.
Karine has been on the show many times from Nuglarus talking about the issue of childcare and she too says there's an announcement that she wants to make tomorrow so a very busy day coming up on the program.
Jim and Appleton on the text line says, yep, unilateral disarmament.
Again, win-or-win will the Democratic Party and all of its pundits play the game they are in and not the one they wish they were in.
I've been waiting for 40 years now.
Jim, we appreciate that.
You can text us through the Civic Media app anytime and use the voice note feature as well.
Let's bring Dan Schaefer back in, founder of the Reconbobulation Area and political editor for Civic Media.
And we were all set to talk about CapTimes IDFS last week anyway.
You talked to Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, who was one of the speakers last week.
Now comes the breaking news that Governor Tim Walls has decided he will run for a third term as Minnesota Governor, which will not be a slam dunk for him.
There are some headwinds for him in Minnesota.
But what was your conversation like, Dan, with the Minnesota Governor?
Well, it was at Cap Time's idea fest.
He sat down on stage on Friday night with John Nichols from the Cap Times to speak about his run as VP and a whole host of other things.
And while discussing that, he did touch on his political future as well.
There was a question about that, asking about running for reelection.
And Tim Walls said that he's going to make a decision soon and notes that no one has ever won a third term as Minnesota governor.
And he said, it sure doesn't seem like now is the time to leave the field with all that's going on.
So not surprised at all to see today that our neighbor to the west is.
friend Tim Walls is running for a third term after some of those comments that he made there.
And overall, I thought it was a really interesting discussion.
You know, he's obviously had a pretty unique perspective on political violence this summer, given what has happened to one of his closest political allies, Melissa Hortman, which she was assassinated along with her husband in their home.
And he talked a lot about the different reactions nationally to that assassination and the one that we saw last week with
And I think there was, he talked a little bit about how some of the different reactions, how there is not a shared humanity in mourning some of these losses, the way that there should be.
And I think the governor is right to point that out.
Without a doubt and of course we
the ongoing story of Congressman Derek van Orden's reaction Continues to loom out here simply because again of its sheer recklessness and the appearance again of a member of the government Wanting to a fringe on people's first amendment rights you look at the rest of the congressional delegation probably more so than I do of all the other Republicans is anybody even
approaching Derek Van Orden in terms of the vile language, the invectives, the obscenity, the
threats, anything like that?
I think Tom Tiffany to a certain extent has continued the type of rhetoric that we've seen from him, but I don't think it's come close to reaching the
I was going to say heights, but I suppose I should say depths of what Derek van Orden has been saying over the past few days.
He is really in his own category.
And I think it goes to show that he is more of an outlier than anybody else in this.
I think there are more people talking about wanting to calm down the rhetoric and take down the temperature and all of these different things.
And I think van Orden has been the outlier in going the other direction.
But at the same time, there's also
Also, it doesn't seem to be anybody on his side telling him, hey, maybe cool it with several hundred tweets a day about whatever witch hunts or the types of things that he's been talking about on his Twitter feed.
I'm still going to call it Twitter.
And I think it's problematic, but it's also just like, is he actually going to do anything about this?
Or is he just saying stuff?
And I think
that's the real divide with Van Orden, because he's not
and a particularly active legislator.
No, no.
And so I mean, it would be a full time job just to try to follow up on every single one of these threats to defund this person, this group, this city.
And so consequently, you realize he's wasting time, he's wasting his time, he's wasting our resources, which, you know, again, is part for the course, but really gives you insight into the character of the man.
Brewer's
clinched a playoff spot over the weekend.
They are looking really hard to get past whatever first round of the playoffs they happen to be in.
Are we feeling good about that?
Or are we careening toward the postseason with a sense of nervousness given our past?
I mean, if you don't have a sense of nervousness going into the playoffs, you're not a Milwaukee Brewers fan.
We're hoping to host a lot of home games here in Milwaukee for the playoffs coming up.
So I hope they're able to get the home field advantage.
Hope they're able to win that division.
And let's get that bullpen healthy.
I'm a little bit worried about some of the injuries that they've had in that bullpen.
We need a good healthy bullpen going into the playoffs.
about the Brewers right now.
That's what's making me nervous.
Rightly so.
And still a little too soon to talk Milwaukee bucks.
So why don't we get to your other favorite basketball team, which is whatever girls basketball team you're going to be coaching.
How's it looking coach?
You got the clipboard ready?
We're getting together for some.
Yeah, I'm going to be coaching some girls basketball this year.
I have as many of your listeners may know a girl dad.
I have two daughters and my oldest of the two is getting interested in some basketball.
Must be all
hundreds of bucks games that have been on in the background in our house over the past over many years all the time.
So I've successfully brainwashed her into being a basketball fan and now we'll be coaching this fall.
That'd be fun.
I'll be looking forward to kind of like talking to Joseph Becky and Jimmy Koska to hear about the games that are getting coached.
So I hope it's a lot of fun and takes your mind off of the news business for a little while here.
Dan Schaefer, again, follow him at the Reconpopulation area.
Thank you very much for being part of things today, Dan.
Have a great day.
Thanks so much, Pat.
Be well.
All right.
And again, it's the ReconpopulationArea.News is what I meant to say there.
I'm Pat Critello, founding editor of Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
Thanks for being part of our Tuesday.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
We'll see you Wednesday morning, bright and early 6am, right here, back up north.
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