Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It is a Friday morning.
It is 606 on the September 26th, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here, not from the Lake Wissota Studio, but from here in Madison Studio A2 at the top of State Street, just off the Capitol Square.
But we are pleased to have you live across the Civic Media radio network from wherever you're spending your mornings listening or watching and appreciate you wrapping up your work week right here.
I got a question for you.
Uh, it's, it's not much of a pop quiz, but we'll, we'll bring Parker Olson and anyway, who's producing this thing.
Literally right across the room from me right here, but, uh, lighting, lighting is everything.
I've come
to
learn.
I got a question for you.
Packers, Cowboys, who do you got?
Well, America's team.
is not exactly America's team anymore.
It's never been America's team.
There you go.
You heard you
hear
first folks.
That
is what we take here at Up North News.
It's amazing that the Cowboys still get the attention that they do.
They've done nothing.
Well, they just keep blowing themselves up so well.
That's why.
They are the Kardashians of the NFL.
The
Kardashians of the NFL.
That is a really good
line.
They're famous for being famous.
They don't actually do.
Anything of any consequence except fight and create drama.
Yeah, that's it and so The Packers head into there like like they've walked on to a soundstage like I'm in a reality show.
It's you know, you've got Jerry Jones's, you know version of Disney World there under the was at the AT&T Stadium, whatever I believe that's why I just call it Jerry's World Jerry's World, you know where it's it's just it is so far from City Stadium
where the Packers used to play before Lambeau Field, where it was just folks on the bleachers and enjoying a football game.
It is such show business now.
However, it is a national stage.
It is Sunday night football coverage will begin at five o'clock Sunday on some stations across the Civic Media Radio Network.
And so, I mean, it is a fair question after what happened, you know, against Cleveland last week.
Yeah, it didn't look great.
Yeah.
Do we, do we think the Packers can get back on track against the Cowboys?
And so that's, that's one of the questions heading into the weekend.
Maybe it's not your biggest question.
I think it'll be okay.
I'm not too worried.
You're not too worried.
I'm not too worried.
All
right.
The Packard defense is fine, except for when they absolutely need to be not, you know,
well, you know, when, when we are.
Starting this show on Monday, sleep deprived, we'll have a rough idea of where things are going here.
So again, that's kind of our question, getting set up for the weekend here.
And of course, you can let us know your own thoughts on the packers taking on the Cowboys.
You can also just ask any other questions or make comments, of course, by just heading into the comment sections of Facebook or YouTube.
for up North news or for civic media or using the civic media app to text us.
Remember, you're going to need that civic media app to text us about an hour from now when we give you the keyword for the go for the green and gold text to win contest where you could win tickets to see Green Bay take on Minnesota come November.
So that's the football end of things.
Then we've got baseball because again, we're heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
And in many places, it's the final weekend of baseball, but not here as the Brewers go for wins 97, 98 and 99 on the season, which would each be a franchise record.
They're taking down the Reds and the pregame begins at 635 on some of the stations of the civic media radio network.
And the Reds are, I mean, they're in the fight of their lives right now.
Parker along with others.
So they, they're going to be motivated.
Yeah.
I worry a little that we might get our doors blown off because I think we're starting to mail it in a little.
I think, well, I think mail it in means we're, we're resting up the starters.
Even though they will have like a week off, but trying to avoid injuries, you know, trying to avoid dumb mistakes this weekend.
You know what I want to see this weekend?
What do you want to see this weekend?
I want
to see Jacob Mizrowski out of the bullpen.
Yes.
Yes.
You know what?
Here's my bold prediction, which isn't that bold.
I think they'll do that.
I think they'll try that now.
Good.
Why?
Because I'm pretty sure I heard Pat Murphy say that.
Oh, really?
Saying, saying a few days back, like, yeah, we, we might try him out of the bullpen just to see how that goes.
I did not know that.
Okay.
I, you know, I'm a genius.
I could be making it up.
Maybe, maybe you're not that clairvoyant.
I don't know.
Uh, but I would, I would like that very much.
And it's, it's nothing against him.
I mean, again, those first couple of starts were magical, but I think, I think hitters were able to dial into them pretty well.
Yeah.
I mean.
MLB is so hard.
There you go.
Put that on a
plaque.
Ultimately, that's what it is.
MLB is just so hard.
It is.
And he's finding that out.
As many pitchers have when you come in with all kinds of heat, and then they turn you into meat.
And that's just...
That's how it goes.
Reminder that you can stay up to date with what we're doing at Up North News by signing up for our newsletter, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
And Ellie has created a special edition today, a chock full of fall festivals and October fests and even a preview of some of the Halloween attractions that are going to be coming up across Wisconsin.
So get yourself signed up for that newsletter, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
get today's special edition.
And then of course we've got our Sunday morning edition as well that I work on.
Sunday mornings with Pat Kright, low coincidentally enough.
And I ask this week, will there be, if there is another government shutdown next week, who will be to blame?
And a lot of people want to answer both congressional Republicans and Donald Trump.
And I'm asking, look if it's either or who's, who's to blame more and how many people think it's Democrats.
Perhaps the other question and maybe
The next week's question I should ask is if there's a shutdown, you know Will Democrats cave?
Because that's exactly what the Trump administration is hoping for as I'll discuss with Kia Vekil coming up here So again, that's part of our question of the week you get that on Sunday mornings by signing up for our newsletter there Roger reminds us on Facebook that the Brewer's magic number is one
for home field number one seed all through the playoffs.
It just takes one brewer win or one Philly loss over the course of this weekend.
And we'll get that home field advantage, which will be great.
I mean, extra home games, extra tickets.
I still need tickets for tomorrow night.
I was talking to my
friend.
Still?
Yes, I'm like, how you doing on those tickets?
He's like, I'm gonna work on that later.
Dude.
I know.
Well, I think he's, again, we've talked about this.
He's trying to, in the stock market, they call it trying to catch a falling knife.
And he's trying to bank on people going, ah, you know, if they're in the playoffs, there's going to be playoff games.
I'd rather go to that and not go to the series this weekend.
But a lot of people thinking, hey, this weekend's the last time tickets are affordable.
That's
what I'm thinking.
I would have thought that with you being in town and having come down primarily for
the
reason of going to that game, I kind of thought.
I did too.
I'm not
gonna lie.
That's just
my two cents.
I'm not gonna say too much about your relationship with your friends, but just so you know, that's my two cents.
His wife is away on a trip this weekend, and so it's been great just catching up.
We have told all kinds of stories.
We've asked each other, hey, hey, whatever happened to, you know, so-and-so.
And it's been really, you know, grilling out in the backyard and things like that.
So, yeah, it's been kind of good to catch up.
It's been a good little break.
It's been good to finally see you.
We got to go to coffee yesterday.
That's a joke, by the way.
People know Parker does not drink coffee, but you sat there and watched me drink mine very nicely as we talked about how to move things forward here.
And we're moving things forward in a nice way in today's history lesson coming up in a bit.
We can't give many details because Greg Bach might be listening in, but we've got a part of our history segment, Taylor Made, for Greg Bach's weekly visit to come see us.
I'm very excited.
I think this is going to be a lot of fun.
I'm looking forward to this too.
You think the pressure's on me and Greg to be entertaining, it's actually all on Parker because
it's all
technical.
It's all about production and whether we can pull this off or not.
So we'll see.
So stick around for that coming up 20 minutes from right now.
There's so many different ways that we can head into the news and talk about what is happening here in terms of, for example, the trumped up literally charges against former FBI Director Jim Comey.
But we'll wait to talk about that in our next hour with Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze because again, it does indicate a weaponization of the United States Department of Justice, which again, as we've said so many times, it has always been about projection with America's right wing, is that they accuse you of the thing they want to do.
You know, Donald Trump did not like being
finally hauled into court and ultimately convicted for fraud when he committed fraud.
And he called that the weaponization of government.
So that when he gets in, he is actually weaponizing it.
And in the case of Jim Comey, you've got a trumping up a charge that would not be prosecuted in any other way.
And no career prosecutors were involved in this, by the way.
Nobody wanted to handle this case yesterday.
It was a political appointee who has never tried a case.
who went to this grand jury to get the indictment.
And what's the old saying in law?
You can indict a ham sandwich, but the trick is getting a conviction.
And so, you know, there, there are tactics at work here that Keva Keel will talk about in just a minute.
So I, we could talk about that, but I do want to mention a few words about the teacher in Ellsworth, Crystal Assecki.
And after communicating with her,
uh, last night, it appears that she will no longer be teaching in Ellsworth.
She could not give, you know, details of, uh, any kind of a separation agreement or anything like that.
But it is a case of, even if she agreed to it, even if she put her name on the bottom line, let's keep in mind that she has lost her job teaching, not because of any words that she posted.
She has the freedom to do that.
She lost her job because of a sitting member
of the United States Congress, her congressman, Derek Van Orden, who then threatened the city of Ellsworth with a loss of federal funding if this one teacher was not disciplined, called out, you know, made public, doxxed, everything, for making comments about Charlie Kirk that he didn't like.
But again,
While Christa has expressed regret for bringing some unwanted attention to Ellsworth and takes responsibility for her words, they do not rise to the level of hate speech, and that's what Derek Van Orden and all the others were claiming.
Good Lord, no, not hate speech.
There is a saying, the way you die does not change the way you lived.
Charlie Kirk's record is clear, and so is Christa Lesecki's.
One of them
taught children well for 30 years in Western Wisconsin.
The other taught children to hate.
And some of Charlie Kirk's acolytes are in true hate mode right now, which, I mean, ultimately is not a surprise.
What it has done in our country, it has brought a new red scare to America.
It is costing Americans their jobs.
for actions that do not rise to any legal level of impropriety.
But when you have people, people from Wisconsin like Joseph McCarthy then and Derek Van Orden and friends now who have no regard for the rule of law, only the rule of a dear leader, only a cult of personality, you will have Americans having their freedoms curtailed.
And that's exactly what happened to this teacher in Ellsworth.
And that's exactly what has happened to now countless Americans around the country.
No different than the red scare of the late 40s, early 1950s.
This entire administration and the people who conducted themselves in this manner will bring a dark stain to American history.
We're always told by the right wing, oh, you're teaching people to hate our history.
We don't hate our history.
We tell an honest record of our history, and that honest telling will be one of hateful people doing harmful things right here in Wisconsin and across the country.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
All right, welcome back.
It is 622 on this Friday morning.
And let's begin our week in review.
Get you caught up on all the things you might have missed over the past week.
Of course, we've got our panel coming up in the next hour.
And in this hour from Courier Newsroom, we've got National Political Editor Kia Vakil from Los Angeles.
Kia, how are you?
I am all right, Pat.
How about yourself?
It has been another week in Trump world where, you know, the norms mean nothing.
And I think that the headline from yesterday, and frankly, the one from the day before, frankly, the one from the day before that really captured this, okay?
It's a sitting president.
directing the Department of Justice.
Yesterday it was George Soros who finances lots of left-wing causes.
Courier Newsroom gets some support from him as well.
The day before that it was the FBI former director Jim Comey and of course before that was ABC.
Jimmy Kimmel put back on ABC and I kind of thought, well, maybe the tide is turning, but clearly Donald Trump didn't get that memo and it sure seems like he's content to continue trying to turn the US Department of Justice into his own personal, you know, legal vengeance tool.
He's
going to push every single limit, law, rule, norm, whatever you could think of.
And he's not going to win all of them, but he's going to, you know, it's going to
It already has in a lot of cases forced company like companies have just settled and given in rather than deal with the legal onslaught they or you know risk over being regulated in some way they don't want and It's alarming because it's essentially you know
one man using the mighty power of the American federal government to go after anything he doesn't like or approve of, whether that's a TV station, a show, a host, a George Soros, a liberal organization, a voting rights group, the ephemeral thing that they claim is antifa.
There is no shortage of targets they could go after.
And again, they're not going to be successful in every case, or maybe necessarily in even most cases.
But if you force these groups, most of which don't operate on huge budgets, most of which may not even have in-house counsel, to have to fund legal fees and defend themselves, that could force a lot of them into bankruptcy.
This is a favorite tool of authoritarians to use the power of the state against any enemies real or perceived.
Yeah, and the fact of the matter is we have continued sliding toward that authoritarianism, toward that autocracy, and there are very few guardrails left.
Now, one potential one that certainly has public support is finding justice for the victims of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
And that, in some way, shape or form, we still don't know how.
But Donald Trump is named in those files.
And there's this petition in Congress to release them.
And now, thanks to an Arizona special election, Trump's effort to distract from anything but the Epstein files might not work.
So can you talk a bit about what a discharge petition is and what happened in Arizona to maybe change things?
Yeah.
So basically, an Arizona special election to fill the seat of a lawmaker who died,
The daughter won the seat.
She had been a longtime lawmaker.
So that gave enough representatives to sign on to the discharge position, just filed by Republican Thomas Massie from Kentucky, who was a Tea Party guy and has been one of the, I mean, pretty much the only Tea Party guy who's still held to some principle in the Trump era and has become a Thornin' Trump side.
you know, I don't want to, I don't want to lionize the guy.
We have a lot of disagreements, but he's been pretty consistent on Epstein, which, you know, in the face of everyone else who's backed away from giving a crap about it on the, on the right.
So Thomas Massey introduced this discharge petition that will need 218 signatures, a majority in the house.
And right now they've been at 217 for a little while.
It's been every Democrat, Massey and a couple Republicans.
But the win from the Arizona.
Lawmaker the Democrat gives them to 18 Which would essentially then force a house floor vote on the release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein And so that would one put every Republican on the record for either voting for or against that to Presumably if they have enough votes on the discharge petition they could get enough votes for the actual release of the records You know what would happen after that with the Senate is unclear, but that's what would happen
Right now, what we're seeing is the White House and congressional leaders are really, really pressuring those couple Republicans who signed on, trying to force them to retract their signatures, basically.
I am not a conspiracy theorist by nature.
I am not someone who was always chasing after the Epstein files.
But the way in which they've responded over the last six months, and especially to this discharge petition, really suggests there is something really, really nefarious and not good for Trump in those files.
And by the way, let's make clear that if you say you stand for law and order, if you say you stand with getting justice for Epstein's victims, you should know that most Republicans don't agree, at least not enough to sign that discharge petition.
No Republicans from Wisconsin are on there, but if that petition is filed, they would then have to be on the record voting for or against the release of those files.
And then finally, we have the prospect of a government shutdown next week and
President Trump is ratcheting up the pressure more than a couple of notches with threats of layoffs far beyond what would be required in a government shutdown.
Kia, my own question to you is, do you think the Democrats will hold the line and hope that public pressure falls harder on Republicans rather than Democrats to be the good guys and stop the shutdown?
I think in the short term, yes.
I think
we're gonna head for a shutdown, because Trump doesn't wanna meet with Democrats, doesn't wanna negotiate, has no interest, canceled a meeting, and is now essentially trying to mob boss bully them into agreeing to pass a spending bill without extending affordable care act subsidies, which really is the one key thing that Democrats are pushing for.
I think we're gonna have a shutdown.
The question of how long it is, I don't know, I think will Democrats,
hold firm, I don't know, depends what the politics of it turn out to be in the coming weeks.
I could see it going either way.
This is a shutdown I could see going on for honestly quite a while because you have Trump and his loyalists in Congress who have no real respect for anything and Democrats need to show fight.
And so this could be a recipe for an extended shutdown.
It truly could.
Kia Vakila, Korean Newsroom's national political editor, telling us about all that and more as we get started on the weekend here.
Kia, thank you very much.
You bet.
Thanks,
Pat.
Coming up, we'll have today's history lesson.
I'm Pat Craglow.
You're up north.
Hey, Greg Bacchus here, everybody, and we're gonna do TV themes.
You know the words?
Sing along.
Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum
bum
bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum
bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
They were very very oh no, you know what I'm the and the shadows ventures in the shadows.
Okay.
Sorry.
That's all right.
How are you?
I'm great.
Good.
It's Friday.
It's nice to be here Friday.
Yeah, I have I came in super early this morning to do some work and you have that thing where you
you go to the office and there's nobody there and you get more done in like 25 minutes, 30 minutes, then you're like, I've been here for nine hours and I got one thing done.
Oh, I know.
It is.
Sometimes you just need that little isolation at it.
Anyway, for today's history lesson, Greg, we're going to make a game out of this.
We have so many anniversaries today of TV premieres that
we're going
to make you our first contestant on the TV tunes pop quiz.
Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.
Okay.
You're hearing the first of four TV themes.
We're
going to play
three more.
And then your job is to put them in order by the date the show first premiered.
Oh,
oh, this is just a fun and easy quiz.
This'll be
easy.
All right.
Well, here's hint number one.
All four of these shows premiered on September 26th.
Well, this today is history.
I got that going for me.
All right.
Here's here's hint number two.
They all premiered in the 1960s.
Okay.
All right.
Oh my god.
I'm not cheating.
I'm writing it down.
I know.
None of them in the same year.
Okay.
And then bonus points if you correctly guess the year of each show, not just in what order.
Okay.
More bonus points if you can correctly guess the network.
And even though this is overwhelming you, I'm hearing some listeners out there going, Oh, bring this on.
This is, this is going to be great.
Only Roger is saying that.
Okay.
It is only Roger's
point.
It's true, but at least there's one.
So
here we go.
I felt less anxiety when I took my ACTs.
I know.
I love
this.
So make a note of the show, your guess on what year it debuted, what network is on.
Are you ready for TV two number two?
I guess.
Yes.
He's made this way more.
Okay.
Hit it.
Number two.
Here's the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls.
Again, this
was a
show that premiered in the 60s on September 26th.
Can I guess what show it is?
No,
you can't.
Oh, that's my job.
We only have one contestant here.
All right.
He knows what the show.
I'm Alex Trebek.
You're Don Pardo.
Stay over there, announcer.
Sir, yes, sir.
OK.
All right.
So, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, will Greg get this one right?
We'll see.
All right.
Here it comes.
Oh, by the way, a quick reminder.
Florence Henderson from the Brady Bunch performed at my high school prompt.
I know.
You just said the name of the show.
Like you weren't going to get it.
Here comes TV Tune number three.
And again,
he's looking to figure out what year these all premiered.
Have you got this one down, little buddy?
Just shut up.
The guy was, he was so happy.
He got so much work done and now I go and throw this pop
quiz at him.
Yeah, he like really, like you took away everything from me, sir.
I
took away his joy.
I feel like, deep cut, I feel like Scarlet Witch and Endgame, you took everything from me.
Here, Greg, is TV Tune number four.
All right, all right, all
right, I got him, I got him.
Got him?
This
is the one.
Well, we're
gonna leave this go because everybody loves this part coming up.
Texas Tea, there we go.
All right, Greg, for a grand prize of absolutely nothing but pride, or a consolation prize of public embarrassment, put these four TV tunes and their shows in the order of their premiere, as Todd Alba would say, what say
you?
Well, a really quick question for clarification.
Yes.
None of them premiered in the same year though, right?
Correct.
Okay, that'd be a rude guess.
Yeah.
Oh
Okay, all right I'm gonna go with the first one being the Beverly Hillbillies Premiering on in 1964.
Okay, Beverly Hillbillies is
the correct answer
for the first
one.
How about that?
On NBC?
It was 1962 and on CBS
But you still got it right, so give him a ding for that.
All right.
That'll work, too.
I don't have a ding.
That's all
I got.
All right.
That's fine.
OK.
Which one?
1962.
Which one was next?
The next one would be, if I'm going to guess correctly, if I want to guess correctly, would be Gilligan's Island.
Oh, you are very good
at this.
Yes.
Congratulations.
And that would be 1964.
That is 1964.
You want to guess the network to CBS that is correct as well.
Oh Boy, we got to get in we're gonna wear this key
out here.
All right Which
one
was third
Brady Bunch.
Oh No, sorry.
It was Hawaii 5-0.
It was Hawaii 5-0 in 1968 also on CBS
and
then the Brady Bunch 1969 1969 do you happen to know that network?
Uh, uh, uh, ABC.
No, that is correct.
No, no.
You got it.
You got it.
All right.
So
Beverly Hillbillies on this day in 1962, Gilgames Island on this date in 1964, a Y5.
Oh, premiered on this day in 1968 and the pretty bunch premiered on this day in 1969.
What an easy, peasy, enjoyable music quiz that was for you, Greg
Bach.
That was great.
I'm gonna go get a drink I mean
what else was I
gonna do with four I had four TV themes sitting there in front of me what else could I do with that but have a little
fun
very true and
I know I have a question for Parker really quick yes how many of those shows had you heard of before this
every single one of them you'd heard okay I have heard of every single one of them I have seen
A little bit of Gilligan's Island.
I think I've seen a little Brady Bunch.
I had not seen Beverly Hillbillies at all or Hawaii 5-0.
Gotcha.
Okay.
So you never watched the reboot
of
Hawaii 5-0 from a few years ago?
No.
Okay.
Hawaii 5-0.1.
Yeah, right.
Pat's Island.
Pat's
Island.
It does kind of feel like Pat's Island here.
We're just now right here in the middle of Studio A2.
Shall we get back to some traditional history stuff on this day in 1964 when that was was that Gilligan's Island premiered in 1964?
Which I forget now.
Anyway, the number one song was by Roy Orbison.
And oh, Pretty Woman would be the number one song for three weeks.
I love Roy Olberson.
My dad loved Roy Olberson.
That black and white concert from what, like, 89, 90, something like that.
It was on PBS.
Amazing, amazing
television.
Such a good artist.
So again, Pretty Woman, the number one hit this day 61 years ago.
On this day in 1905, Albert Einstein publishes his theory of relativity.
RFK Jr.
still doubts it today.
On this day in 1960, the first televised debate took place between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy at a Chicago TV studio.
This day in 1986, this is another one where I'm 100% certain Parker's got nothing on this.
This was on this day in 1986 when Bobby Ewing, played by Patrick Duffy, returned to this TV show Dallas.
His death this
previously was attributed to his wife Pam having a bad dream, which when Patrick Duffy wanted to come back to Dallas, gave them a hook to erase the entire previous season and restart all the storylines.
Look at Parker reacting
to
this.
Because it is as stupid now as it sounded then.
I
wish that happened with the new Star Wars trilogy.
Yeah.
What year was that again?
That was 1986.
19, okay, so I was eight years old that when that happened, I remember, I watched that show as a kid, shouldn't have watched that, I don't know what my parents were thinking, but I watched it.
I remember when Bobby was shot and we were like, what's gonna happen?
And then when he, I remember at that age being like, this is junk.
What?
He walks to the shower and he's like, hello there.
I'm like, what are you doing?
Yes, it was that it was JR who was shot by the way by his brother, but then brother Bobby wanted to leave the show
and
did and then was like What did I just do?
I left the number one show How was this character supposedly supposed to die?
How was he was like?
I don't remember how Bobby I don't know Parker's right away.
He's get the
It's got the fingers working across
the machine right now.
Oh, you jumped right on the keyboard.
I thought for sure.
All right.
You listening to WBA?
Yep.
It was on this day in 1969.
Abbey Road, the last recorded album by the Beatles was released with songs, including Here Comes the Sun and Something and Come Together and Golden Slumbers.
Again, Abbey Road this day was 1969 when it was released.
On this day in 1974,
in Beedle member history, Apple released John Lendon's fifth studio album, Walls and Bridges, which featured this number one tune.
Sounds like Saturday Night Live.
Doesn't it
though?
Yeah,
it does.
And this was the year before it premiered and it was a bit of a duet with a relatively unknown Elton John.
We'd only had one or two hits at this point.
So whatever gets you through the night and number nine dream were part of walls and bridges released this day in 1974 Let's get to birthdays the late country singer Lynn Anderson who sang I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden was born this day in 1947 She died about 10 years ago country singer Carleen Carter is 70 today She had a string
of hits in
the late 80s and early 90s
The late, and I'm always sad to say this, the late Olivia Newton-John was born this day in 1948.
Interesting,
fun fact about Olivia Newton-John and Carly and Carter.
I mean, Carly and Carter comes from royalty and country music, basically.
Direct lineage is to almost the birth of it.
And Olivia Newton-John, originally a country singer in America.
People weren't happy about it.
not happy about it, but she started out as a country polyton singer.
Yes, although there was so much what you would call what country rock or, you know, look at the Eagles.
The Eagles were essentially a country band in the beginning of some of those tunes
too.
And
then Olivia figured out, hey, there's money over here.
on the pop side.
She did it before Taylor Swift did it.
Yes, she did.
Serena Williams is 44 years old today.
Let's see, on this day in 1987, Whitney Houston scored the fifth of seven consecutive number one hits with this number one song.
On this day in 2012, Pink lands her first number one album with the truth about love.
It was her sixth studio album and it featured blow me one last kiss and just give me a reason.
And it was on this day in 2020 that Donald Trump nominated judge Amy Comey Barrett for a U.S.
Supreme Court seat to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg made the nomination despite it being so close to an election which we'd been told previously you weren't supposed to be able to do.
I know.
Crazy stuff.
I know.
It's weird.
It's a mystery.
And in the coming days, she would lie in front of a Senate subcommittee about her views on abortion.
But let's get back to the music,
Pat.
Yes, exactly.
That's a bit of today's history lesson.
Our Week in Review panel will be along the way in our next hour.
And of course, on the eight o'clock, our Mike Clemens previews a busy weekend for the Brewers and the Packers.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Do you feel classy now?
We've got Greg Bach with us, Parker Olson, and George Gershwin, the composer who was born this day in 1898, and of course his masterpiece, Rhapsody in Blue.
Somebody, again, passed away way too soon, 1937, so that would have made him what, 38, 39 years old?
I believe from cancer or something related to that?
When he was born in what year?
1898.
And he died when 1937 39.
Wow.
Yeah.
Oh,
yeah.
So I know, but Rhapsody in blue and just one of those, it's, uh,
It's worth a listen, the whole 17, 18 minutes of it.
But again, to show what an uncultured slob by him, I'm like, you know, if we could just lift like the best six minutes out of that, that'd be great, you know.
And of course, United Airlines said, here's the best 60, and it's the only 60 seconds anybody knows of Rhapsody
and
Blues from all the United Airlines commercials.
Your call is important to us.
Please stay on the line, and the next available operator will be with
you.
Exactly.
Hey, we, we.
We, everybody except Greg, had a little fun in the last segment with a little music history.
So it's time to bring the room down as I continue a few notes about history today.
It's, it's this day in Trump history and I wouldn't have to
read this,
but again, I just think it's noteworthy of the times that we're in.
I already mentioned 2020 nominating Amy Coney Barrett just days before the election on this day.
Two years ago, 2023, Donald Trump was found guilty of fraud.
A judge ruled that Trump and his family, the family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets.
Meanwhile, on that same day, 2023, Joe Biden became the first U.S.
president to walk a picket line with striking auto workers in Michigan.
And yet Michigan went to Trump anyway.
So.
Yeah.
Can't be nice to people apparently
yeah, and
yeah, let's let's get off of that and one more historic note from this day in 1580 Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world Sailing back into Plymouth, England after nearly three years at sea and I have to say Greg that again this is from you know
400 plus years ago, but you have to think that for the time, how cool was that?
Like I've gone around the world.
Nobody else has done this.
And I don't think he said how cool is that, but
whatever.
Those were his first words when he got off the boat.
How cool was that?
Do you know how awesome I am?
I only lost a third of my staff to
dysentery.
How cool was that?
There were some beheadings, you know, we brought back some enslaved people, but yeah,
how cool was this?
Okay, wow.
In your retirement, are you going to do that on the pontoon
boat?
Do
what?
Circumnavigate the lake.
Circumnavigate the lake.
I can
barely circumnavigate the lake.
I live on a river.
I can only go so far.
My whole life is between two dams.
You've heard of between two ferns?
I'm gonna start
a new thing,
between two
dams.
That can be your, you can do a podcast interview show on your pontoon bow called Between Two Dams.
I'm liking
this.
I like
this a lot.
I
am.
I think this could work out.
This would be great.
What's happening with Matt and Aaron air these days?
You having
some fun?
Yeah, we are today.
We have it's Friday.
So that means we're gonna have Dan Schaefer on the show in the 10 o'clock hour 10 o'clock he's gonna be here talking about all the news we need to recombobulate as he is the founder of the recombobulation area and
Civic media's political editor.
So you want to stick around for that?
And then, you know, in the first hour, we're going to be catching up with all the news.
Jamie, get ready for Friday.
It's the weekend.
I'm excited because I'm going to the brewers game tonight.
I know they have everything locked up, but I love to see them walk away from this season as the most winning team in baseball.
And I don't want the Phillies to win anything.
I like that.
Yes.
And I will be at the game tomorrow night.
Nice.
I think.
I will for sure.
I don't know what you're doing over there.
I know.
Somehow, somehow we'll, we'll get it figured out.
Um, and then we've of course got the Packers on Sunday night where I think Greg, uh, again, I, I know you miss me here in the early mornings, but thinking about the Packers playing Sunday night and then having to do a six a.m.
radio show.
How lucky do you
feel
right now
compared to Parker?
Oh boy.
Oh boy.
Parker, are you a big football fan?
Of course he's from Whitewater.
I mean, that doesn't, so you can't say are you, I can't say, are you a big football fan?
And he says, of course he's from Whitewater.
That doesn't make, there's no logical connection for me there.
Do you like cheese?
I'm from Wisconsin.
That's not the same comparison.
Well, I don't think of football in white water.
I think of football in Green Bay or football in Wisconsin, but not Oh, you've offended
Parker now.
Oh, you should see the look.
Well, I don't know and instruct me inform me.
Let me learn from you.
This is so cool.
Wait, what?
Do you know how cool I am?
How white water football has six national titles and they won them all in like nine years.
Okay, that's great.
Wonderful.
I don't know those things.
I'm one not the gigantist of sports person.
You're not a college football guy.
Yeah, sorry.
I only D4 and below, you know, give me a good D7 team.
I'm on board because that you have a chance of actually being asked to play on the field for them because they're like half team and show up.
They circumnavigated the globe and they're like they're like Indonesia right now.
And Jimmy Koska is coaching them.
He's so tired.
He's just yeah, Jimmy is absurdly tired.
Then he's got a meeting after that.
Then he's got to take his kids to a thing.
And they say, it's, it's, the guy doesn't stop.
He's going to like, he's doing this
with the kids and he had a social media post last night that at one point while, while talking to the team, his voice cracked.
And that the, the kids never, they just
harassed
him the whole rest of the night.
And how do you like being the coach?
And you, that happens like, no, listen, you kids, they're just merciless kids.
Kids are the worst.
They're
the worst.
Yes.
And the best.
Now go run some laps.
Exactly.
Greg, you were such a good, you were a moderate sport for playing along with that music
quiz today.
You were going to give me a compliment, then you took it away.
I was going to say
you were a good sport, but you were, you got three out of four.
You got through this without wetting your pants.
I appreciate that very
much.
Oh,
so you know.
Well, it depends.
Have a
wonderful weekend.
Have fun at the game tonight.
Thank you very much.
You guys have fun at the game tomorrow night.
Enjoy your time in Madison, Pat.
All right.
Have a great weekend, you two.
Okay.
Bye, Greg.
Weekend review panel coming up after the news.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglo.
Uh, not coming to you from the Lake Wissota studio for one more day here down in Madison studio A2 along with producer Parker Olson.
Nice to have you back here on this Friday morning.
It is September 26th and coming up, we will have Mark Jacob and Jennifer Scholesy, two thirds of our regular week in review panel.
Uh, that's because former US attorney Jim Santel has a, a court thing and apparently Parker, these court things take precedence over goofing off on the radio with us.
So.
I guess if you're going to do the whole like uphold the law thing.
Yeah.
Well, Lord knows somebody's got to.
Um, I think it also might be, and I'm not one to question Jim Santel's motivations, but it might be that he just wanted to avoid saying a bad word because I'm sure he has some strong feelings about the former FBI director Jim Comey being charged with.
Pretty much nothing but being charged just for the sake of being charged So if you want to know what what exactly Jim Santel's gonna say you're gonna have to tune into a show amicus a law review tomorrow morning 9 a.m 9 to 11 replayed on Sunday on Civic Media stations around the state had the civic media dot us to learn more
I'm going to be tuning in now just for that, just a year's reaction on this.
I will, I will be interested in seeing how he keeps the FCC compliant.
Well, can anything be FCC compliant?
I mean, now with Brendan Carr patting the FCC, you know, the rules are whatever they say they are.
And that's, that's exactly what we're dealing with these days.
Brittany Merleau is off today getting an early start to the weekend.
So I'll give you her state forecast right after I give an update from Robin Tigerton.
who says good morning from Tigerton.
It's partly cloudy and 52 degrees yesterday.
I mowed five yards in Tigerton, then went for pizza at Blazers Bar and Grill in Split Rock.
which is a suburb of Tigerton.
Did you know Tigerton has suburbs?
Yes.
I was unaware.
Says he's got a few more alons to mow than off to his sister Lori's house to celebrate Lori and Dave's 39th wedding anniversary.
And then they're going to have spaghetti and meatballs.
Says that tomorrow is Tigerton Apple Fest, 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m.
at the Tigerton Community Park.
And whether wise says he noticed that September's had become
warmer and warmer over the years.
I agree with you, but then we had that cold snap, what, about a week ago or so where we were all breaking out the hoodies again.
So things, things can kind of, you know, again, theater of seasons, I guess is what we're, what we're trying to say here.
So Brittany did leave us a state forecast that goes like this.
High pressure holds over the weekend, bringing lots of sunshine and warming temperatures with highs hitting the eighties.
So for today around the state she says partly sunny and nice near 70 up north touching 80 in the south with a northeast wind at 5 to 10 miles an hour for tonight clouds will roll in close tonight in the upper 40s up north to the mid 50s south and an east wind at 5 to 10 miles an hour and of course we'll have local updated forecasts throughout the course of the day on your local civic media station.
What say we go for the green and gold over here?
It's our text to win contest where again, you get to use that civic media app and then we get to play funky music in the background here.
So green and gold, you get a chance for cash and jewelry.
Use that civic media app, look up a station.
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That's the prize of the day, every day.
And then one really lucky winner from everybody who enters is going to get the...
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You ever notice when you have to, it's not like Andy Rooney now, you never notice, when you have to spell out a word and you actually have to think about the spelling now, it's like, who thinks of prize?
Yeah.
I had to do one of those.
I don't remember what the word was, but I had to do a keyword for like the Stephanie Miller show like really quick VO for it and I think it was family and I kept I could not
Tell if I was spelling it correctly.
It's the worst feeling like when you're double-checking yourself your second guessing yourself on basic spelling Yeah, am I am I getting this right?
I haven't taken a spelling test since fourth grade.
I don't know I spent years trying to figure this stuff out fall out and that of course is when you make a mistake is when you when you overthink it, but no prize PRI Zee is the the text word here Let's see there is going to be some Green Bay football coming up this Sunday night Packers versus the Cowboys
Coverage begins at five o'clock Sunday evening on stations across the civic media radio network.
And of course there is baseball brewers were off yesterday coming home for the final regular season home stand of the, uh, of the regular season, I should say coverage begins at 6 35 tonight on stations across the civic media radio network.
It'll be the brewers versus the Reds.
And we do know that the Brewers have a first round buy in the playoffs.
They don't have to compete in that best of three wild card thing.
Thank
goodness.
That's been a bit of a bugaboo.
Seems to have been.
So now we'll see if having some extra days off before the divisional round is a plus to the Brewers.
I mean...
It can't be worse.
You can't break our hearts more than going out in the wild card round.
And it gives you a little bit of time to get hot too.
A couple of guys have been really cool lately.
This will help them.
maybe heat up a
little bit.
Sometimes you just need a good rest.
That's exactly what some of these players needed for as banged up as we've been this year, and so we'll see about that.
Mike Clemens will be joining us at 835 to talk more about sports with us, about the Brewers and the Packers.
Badger football team is off this weekend.
Badger volleyball team has a match tonight here in Madison.
And I didn't put the note in front of me, so I forget who it is, but it's, uh, it's going to be a good match regardless.
Uh, Badger women's volleyball, uh, continuing their season seventh ranked in the nation.
And I want to say seven and one, I think is their record on the season.
Yes, they are.
All right.
Um, you know who they're playing tonight.
I do know who they're playing tonight.
They're playing Rutgers.
Oh, yes.
Rutgers.
That's right.
They're opening the big 10 season, uh, tonight.
So that'll be at the field house.
Uh, this has not been the best week ever for Bill Barion.
the soon-to-be former candidate for governor.
That's my prediction anyway.
Bill Bering was supposed to show up at the Manitowoc County Republican Party picnic last evening and did not.
This, according to WBAY TV, he canceled.
He was supposed to be the keynote speaker, but a few minutes before 6 p.m., organizers placed a call to his campaign.
Saying, um, hello, are you coming?
And we're told Barron would not be showing up and decided to cancel after what they described as a very rough week.
The county party chair then made the announcement to the crowd inside the picnic shelter.
And apparently some people applauded.
Oh, no.
Yes.
Yeah.
See it.
It all comes after that report by Dan Bison, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that revealed his, his social media footprint.
Uh, it was a little wider, shall we say, a little more encompassing than your typical Republican family values candidate, including liking many sexually explicit articles and following a transgender porn star.
And the thing is to look at the report and what some Republican voters are saying, it's not even, it's not just that it reflects poorly on Bill Barion and, you know, his.
uh, flailing gubernatorial campaign.
But again, because he was so insistent on talking about family values and anti-trans issues, that this kind of hypocrisy is the kind of thing that stains other Republican candidates.
Uh, there will be other people who will run on these so-called family values, in other words anti-LGBTQ platform.
who don't have a social media footprint quite like Bill Barriens, but they will be, you know, cast in the same way as people who, you know, say one thing when maybe personally they're doing something totally different.
And by the way, the, the trans porn star that Bill Barriens was following has now spoken up.
And in a way that I think that you would expect and, uh, let's see, the, the transgender porn star, Jizz Lee, uh, has commented, uh, saw the, all the attention.
The story has apparently gotten some international attention.
It's been picked up by the Daily Mail and others.
Uh, Lee, who identifies as a queer trans non-binary adult performer and uses, uh, they, them pronouns slammed burying on social media for being hypocritical.
But again, listen.
to the statement.
It's okay to follow trans porn stars.
It's okay to read articles about sex and relationships," wrote the post.
What's not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that reflects what people trans and otherwise can do with their bodies.
That is shameful.
And that's all true.
Every bit of it.
This is
much less about judging Bill Barian's, you know, personal tastes and web history as it is then stepping forward and speaking out against the very things you give the appearance of being a fan of.
I think if we're helping appreciate more things in our politics today is that we stop expecting people to be perfect.
I mean, we had
like nominees for Supreme Court and Attorney General in the past who had to have their nominations withdrawn because they had once smoked marijuana in college, okay?
We've come to the point where we understand people are people.
All right, we all, nobody's perfect.
Everybody has something that they'd just assume rather than talk about publicly, which is absolutely their right.
So the problem isn't that we're expecting perfection in our candidates.
The problem is we're getting too much hypocrisy in our candidates and in our politicians.
And it isn't just about social media.
It's about saying you're against the debt and deficits when you then approve a bill that adds another $4 trillion to the national debt.
It's being a gubernatorial candidate like Congressman Tom Tiffany who's saying well state law is 20 weeks and so I'm gonna uphold state law and yet Planned Parenthood is about to temporarily halt abortion care services in Wisconsin because the big bloated boondoggle that Tom Tiffany voted for would take away funding, Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood to do all of the other non-abortion related health care things that they do.
It's that kind of hypocrisy from our politicians that people have less of an appetite for all the time.
It's saying that you're gonna go after the criminal thugs and drug cartels when it comes to undocumented immigrants and instead you're getting moms and dads who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their kids and keep them safe.
These are people who want to be here legally.
But the same hypocritical politicians shot down the greatest chance at comprehensive immigration reform in a generation.
So Bill Barion, you're in good company in that you say something, but then you do something differently.
The difference is this time around, you're not going to be elected governor.
Unfortunately, others have been elected president and in other important roles, and we are going to be in a world of hurt dealing with this level of hypocrisy, at least for a little while longer, you know, until the midterms.
Our Week in Review panel is coming up.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Brewer's baseball coming up tonight.
It'll be the Brewer's versus the Cincinnati Reds pregame begins at 635 on several civic media stations.
Head over to civicmedia.us if you'd like to learn more.
All right, we've got two thirds of our weekend review panel joining us now.
That would be Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze, a couple of veteran Chicago area journalists joining us.
Former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel has to be in court today because
We've got to have at least one honest lawyer left in the courtrooms after what we've seen this
week.
Is he being a defendant?
Well, he did not, he did not say.
And, uh, honestly, uh, I'm a little concerned because of the way things have gone this week.
Uh, let's see, let's start with the indictment of Jim Comey and, you know, the old law school saying you can indict a ham sandwich, you know, the, anybody can get an indictment.
It's a conviction.
That's a whole different matter.
And one of the things I was, was hearing about how this indictment against the former FBI director, which is, I mean, loose at best.
and was done entirely by one political appointee, like who's never tried a case and that
there are
like no career prosecutors worked on this whatsoever.
Mark, if ever there were, you know, exhibit A in the weaponization of the American justice system, what happened yesterday would be it.
Yeah, it really should alarm everyone.
Trump's own prosecutor said there was no case.
You know, that should have been the end of it.
But really, Trump shouldn't have been involved at all.
You know, if you remember, there was a big to do when Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch had a little meeting on the tarmac, you know, what's he doing talking to the attorney general?
Well, in this case, Trump is openly, openly announcing that he wants somebody charged with a crime.
And, you know, the person in charge of that says there's no case here.
He forces that person out and he appoints this, you know, insurance lawyer from Colorado to, uh, who's never prosecuted anyone for anything to, you know, charge the former FBI director.
And they also Pat, they really didn't indict a ham sandwich.
They indicted two thirds of a ham sandwich because there was a third mysterious charge that the grand jury actually refused to indict.
Yeah.
So I mean, that that's just how flimsy these things are.
And yet I'm glad you mentioned Bill Clinton, you know, actually seen talking to his attorney general.
And I mean, that was you talk about your tan suit scandal, Jennifer, in retrospect.
And yet now what you get is a New York Times headline today.
Trump gets the retribution he sought and shatters Justice Department norms.
So when he does all that he's doing, he's simply shattering norms.
I would think that the headlines, if I were the editor, might say something a little different and maybe for you too.
I think the use of the word norms is officially overdone.
Yes.
But it is a go-to for the New York Times, which does not generally state the facts as clearly as it should.
And frankly, most of the news stories do very clearly talk about
this case and I know there's you know how unusual how potentially illegal how all of those things are usually in the news stories that the New York Times does on these various Trump things but the headlines are always a little squishy which is a problem you know I had a problem yesterday with the leaving out the part about that the prosecutors had refused to bring the charges you know charges
against Comey.
And then in the story, I think the key part is the charges that the other prosecutors refused to do it.
And I think that should be upfront in talking about all this.
I do think, though, generally the press coverage of this particular thing has been really good.
Well, we do have to keep in mind that sometimes things are better described in hindsight.
I don't know exactly when the term Saturday Night Massacre
was coined, I don't think it was that Saturday night.
So it might take a little while, but when I heard somebody this morning describe this as the Saturday night massacre of our era in going after a former FBI director simply for political retribution, I see exactly why they would say something like that.
And I think that in hindsight, people will really appreciate what kind of a line we have crossed here.
Yeah, and the scary thing is that this is not a one-off.
I mean, you know, also in the last day or two, you know, a member of the Justice Department ordered prosecutors in various cities to go after George Soros's foundation, you know, so and they also was an order issued yesterday by Trump.
Saying that you know in effect saying that all leftist organizations need to be looked at for possible domestic terrorism I mean so it's so I mean this is this is the maybe the start of this
legal retribution, but it's not the end of it at all.
And we may forget about Comey in two or three months, because even worse things will happen.
People need to be so alarmed by what's happening now.
This is not one of those things where, well, I don't know how it's gonna turn out.
No, this is going in a really clear direction, and it should scare the hell out of all of
us.
Yeah, until some people stand up and call it out for what it is, Jennifer, and in my case,
I am equating it to a new Red Scare.
The way that Communist was thrown out at people left and right is, I think, domestic terrorism is the phrase that you're hearing from Derek Van Orden and others now, calling people domestic terrorists for having the temerity to criticize a current administration.
I don't think Red Scare is overhyping it when we look back at this time.
No, I don't either.
And part of the...
burden is going to be on what's left of the mainstream media but also everybody else in pushing back and helping define all of these things you know pointing out exactly what's wrong how this isn't about norms this is about something much larger and sticking with it and doing it every day being as
vigilant and diligent as the right is when they're hammering a point.
That's right.
Jennifer Schulze and Mark Jacob are here and when we come back we'll continue our talk about some of the headlines of the week and I'll remind you again that in our Go For The Green Angle text-to-win contest you've got to text us the word prize before 8 a.m.
I'm Pat Breitlo.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
All right, this is day five of our two week go for the green and gold text to win contest at Civic Media.
Use that Civic Media app and the text feature to text us a keyword seven different times throughout the course of the day.
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Text that before eight o'clock and then your next chance to enter and potentially win will be with Matt Nair on air, Jane and Greg coming up in the nine o'clock hour.
Chicago veteran journalist Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze are here.
Former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel is off doing court stuff, justice.
Somebody's got to be looking out for us there in what has become an increasingly politicized government, including justice as well.
When you have like the former FBI director now facing a trumped up criminal charge Going after other you know basically just political enemies without any kind of basis and then comedians.
I mean late night comedians and Mark I I'm trying to determine whether I'm You know overreacting or if I'm capturing the barometer in saying that as outrageous as it was that Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air
The fact that ABC put them back on in less than a week gives me reason to think that the network and others are aware that this this attempt at state controlled media can overreach.
Yeah, I mean, it was actually was a really good sign.
And it should tell us that unfortunately, the only thing that these big corporations care about is money, money, money.
So.
when you start, you know, canceling Disney Plus or you, you know, take other actions to hurt them in the pocketbook, they're going to react.
I don't think they, they didn't put Kimmel back on the air because they thought they made a mistake.
They, I think they thought they'd made a business mistake, not, you know, a moral mistake.
And, and so, so it's, yeah, it's good news.
They brought them back now.
Still those, you know, the, some of the stations don't, don't air it because they're still being pressured by the FCC.
And, you know, and Brendan Carr is talking about going after the view next.
So he's not finished trying to, you know, censor, you know, American media.
He sees it as his job.
But pushback is really important.
If you know if and support the people who are doing a good job, cancel people are doing a bad job.
That's that's just got to be the way it is in today's world.
And so that ties in.
I would imagine to stop the presses this week, your newsletter that you can get at stop the presses.news or courier newsroom.com.
The headline can comedy help conquer fascism.
Loudly mocking Trump now may help us avoid whisper jokes later.
We never think of America as a place where we could only tell jokes in a whisper.
And you're reminding us that we're not immune to that possibility.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was, uh, I wrote this, uh, version of the newsletter because my wife and I were talking about it and she, I think comedy is really a good way to assault, you know, bad actors and politics because, uh, you know, verbally assault them because I feel like, um, like.
Some people who don't really care about politics and don't know much about politics and actively try to avoid the news are exposed to it by these comedy shows.
And so Klobair and Kimmel and John Oliver and shows like that I think have a real place.
Now, on the other hand, my wife thinks that's not true at all.
She thinks that it's a bad thing because it trivializes and normalizes the behavior.
And that it makes people think this is all just part of the show and it doesn't matter much anymore And so I think there's a middle ground there and and I try to get into it in this this newsletter and I did, you know, I write history books also so I got back into the history of what they call whispered jokes Which is what they in the Nazi Germany when people, you know whispered jokes because they couldn't tell them out loud without getting arrested, you know, and so We don't want that in this country.
We don't want people to only be able to say funny things, you know
privacy their own bedrooms.
Yeah.
And I see.
the truth in both ways of looking at that.
And Jennifer, the way I'd throw it to you is this way.
I was noticing a New York Times headline.
The headline is, Late Night Investigates Trump's Claims of Escalator Sabotage.
Famously, the escalator, you know, was broken in the middle of Trump riding it at the United Nations.
And, you know, that's the subject of late night jokes.
Okay, fine.
But when I first saw the headline, I thought, can we not trivialize this stuff?
There's some big serious stuff going on here.
So
you know, that's, that's what, you know, Mark's wife is saying, but I feel like, yeah, you actually do have to strike a balance between the two in your overall coverage of, of the times that we live in.
Well, I'm all for the all of, all of the above.
I think that talking about politics on comedy is essential.
And it is the gateway for a lot of people, as Mark said, who do not use other sources of information for political news, in fact, actively avoid it.
So I'm all for them doing it.
I think it's great.
And I would venture to say that more people are going to find out about this absurd UN sabotage claim.
from Stephen Colbert than any serious news source.
And so that's okay.
The other thing I want to say though is these giant companies that own these local television stations are a big problem.
And it's not, you know, they own them.
If they don't want to run Jimmy Kimmel, that's a business issue.
But they are already too big and they want to be bigger.
Together, Sinclair and Nextstar own half.
of the local television stations in America.
And the Trump administration is soon going to let them own more of them.
And the problem with that is just that they're decimating the actual local news and they have too much power and too much say over something that they shouldn't be that involved with, frankly.
I think the 39 percent cap is reasonable and going over it is not okay.
Uh, and it seems just so quaint the times when I was growing up, when the limit was seven, you could own seven TV,
seven AM and seven FM.
And that was it.
And when we saw this deregulation come, you know, there were those of us saying, uh, this may not end well, we didn't foresee it being quite like this, but this is where we are now, including Jennifer, a government that if the defense secretary has his way,
basically is going to make journalists sign some kind of a loyalty pledge or oath if they want to cover the Pentagon.
What's that about?
Well, it's absolutely terrifying.
Honestly, I'm not sure.
I know of any.
time in history and marks the history guy, so maybe he does, where the US government has basically said, we're going to write your stories for you.
You can't write a story without our approval.
That's what they are saying with this pledge that these reporters at the Pentagon are being required to sign if they want to continue to cover the Defense Department.
They have until September 30th to either sign this agreement
that they will only publish information that is approved by the Defense Department.
That's not journalism.
It's just not journalism.
So it'll be really interesting to see where this goes.
If anybody actually signs it, I say turn in your press pass, you're done.
You're not a journalist anymore.
Absolutely.
And in a related note mark, one of the things that people would probably want to report about is that the Defense Secretary has summoned top military leaders from around the globe, wherever they are stationed, to come back to the U.S., to come back to the D.C.
area, to Quantico, for a meeting.
And I mean, I thought about titling this episode, this meeting could have been an email because I can't imagine anything.
You know,
or it could have been a zoom.
It could have been
a zoom.
And yet all these, I think about the millions of dollars in transportation costs, everybody getting on airplanes to get here and the security and putting them up and feeding them and all that to, to tell them something that could only be told in person.
Again, in a normal time mark and or if a democratic president were doing this, that would actually be the story right now.
Yeah, it was you know, I watched Turner classic movies sometimes and I watched seven days in May the other day which is in the 1960s is a movie about a military coup in the United States and I'm not saying that's what's going on now, but I don't we don't know what's going on now with a Hegseth and he's capable of a lot.
I mean obviously he You know, I feel like that the reason that Trump picked him for Defense Secretary or war secretary is stupidly they call it now
Um, is because he's willing to do just about anything that Trump wants, including, you know, fire on order the people to fire on American citizens, you know, to occupy American cities.
So, so I feel like there's sort of an ominous tone to this meeting next week.
And we have no idea what it is.
Well, you know, maybe he's
You know, somebody on joked on social media, maybe he just wants to organize a nicer parade next time for the military.
So who knows?
But, you know, and I don't want to be alarmist, but these people are capable of a lot of terrible things.
They were already doing a lot of terrible things.
And also, not just in the present, but looking back at the past.
And Mark, maybe I'll start with you from a historical standpoint that Pete Hegseth is making clear now that 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor
for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee, which many regard as a massacre, made clear they will keep their medals of honor.
Hegseth's predecessor, Lloyd Austin, ordered a review of the medals last year as part of a congressional bill because, again, this was something back at the time when an estimated 250 Native Americans, including many women and children of the Lakota Sioux, were...
They were, they were killed attempting to disarm Native American fighters who had turned out had already surrendered at their camp.
This
is hardly metal of honor stuff here, Mark.
And yet Pete Exeth is taking time out of his busy day to say that, well, that might have been a massacre.
They might have been butchers, but, you know, we're not going to do anything about it there.
How did he put it?
American heroes or whatever, and they're going to keep their medals.
This is the kind of thing where people go, oh, they're teaching us to hate history.
it's not about hating history, it's about honestly telling history and kind of hating the present.
Right.
Well, it's also just respecting, you know, the idea of facts and learning from it.
That's what history is for, is to learn from it and do better next time.
And whenever someone says, well, history doesn't important, you know, why are you getting into that?
Obviously, Pete Hegseth thinks history is important because he wants to cover it up.
And, you know, and so he can, and the reason they want to cover up the bad
Deeds of the past, you know the racism and all this other stuff is because they want to do it again And they don't want they don't want any lessons learned, you know and and you know Pete Heg says when he was at Fox News was a big campaigner for letting off these Soldiers in Iraq who were doing war crimes, you know and and they were to clearly doing war crimes like she is shooting, you know unarmed civilians and stuff like that
And, um, Hexas was successful in, you know, in, in getting in and having Trump, uh, you know, let them off.
And, uh, so, so really he's, he's pro atrocity.
He like, he's a fine with the U S army doing whatever it wants to do in, in war.
And, uh, you know, and, and you see this with like blowing up boats in international waters today.
So this is, they're running roughshod and he wants more of that and he wants to.
cover up the past.
And Jennifer, it's all about, again, this whole notion of there's so many plates to keep spinning right now that it's tough for any single newsroom to do an honest accounting of a story like this when there's so much more going on.
And yet it doesn't make the story any less important.
Right.
Well, I mean,
We're all in the business of keeping track of information, and I know, I don't know about you guys, but I can't do it.
So I can't imagine what it's like for people who aren't like us, right, in this business, because it is impossible.
I think, though, generally, there is clearly a sense in the country that Trump is doing really bad stuff and Americans do not like it.
The polling...
time and time again, it's just cratering on everything.
So even if the very specific things might not be getting what we would all think would be enough coverage, the notion that he's doing bad stuff and not helping people and prices are still too high,
is breaking through in a very big way.
Whether it translates at the ballot boxes.
I got a hit break.
Hold that thought.
And again, we'll be back.
I'm Pat Crite.
Well, the Pacific Media Radio Network.
Less than seven minutes remain to text us the word prize, P-R-I-Z-E.
Text that using the Civic Media app as part of our Goal for the Green and Gold Text to Win contest.
You could win a daily prize of cash and jewelry or the grand prize of tickets to see Green Bay play Minnesota, play a little football in Green Bay come November with some great indoor seats.
So again, prize before eight o'clock, your next chance to win is during the nine o'clock hour.
Dr. Kristen Lierly is joining us in our eight o'clock hour.
We've got
several things in the news to cover once again in terms of women's reproductive health rights.
And then Mike Clemens will take us into the weekend talking a little sports, a little brewers, a little packers and more.
But for the last bit of this hour, back with Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze talking about some of the headlines of the past week and who's going to do the headlines in the future?
For example, Jennifer, 60 minutes ends at summer hiatus and is coming back with, I'm sure,
The hard-hitting independent journalism that 60 minutes has been known for for low these many decades or not
So this will be 60 minutes first season with new owner David Ellison, you know the right wing
owner of Paramount Skydance or Skydance Paramount who has already agreed to put a government or a minor in the CBS newsroom to make sure that there isn't too much or
no
pro anti-Trump content and you know did this deal with the FCC to get this merger approved.
We now see
As the 60 minutes PR trickles out that when they come back on Sunday after having I believe four or five months to put together a lot of stories They'll have a profile of Dana White That is the head of the UFC, you know that fighting group that
Trump is letting do a spectacle at the White House for the 250th anniversary of the country, and also very close friend of Donald Trump's, also very right wing.
And, you know, so that's an interesting choice.
But in addition to that, they're also doing a profile on the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, who was also a pro Trump.
guy.
Now I think I understand the Spencer Cox story because you know he's been in the news a lot lately but the combination of those two stories seems a little bit unbalanced to me and I think is not a good look for 60 minutes.
I want to also point out
that last week when they're doing reruns, the rerun that they led the show with was a feature on Barry Weiss's faux university in Austin, Texas.
So I think overall that paints a questionable picture about where 60 minutes, no, it's not questionable at all.
It's clear to me that they're going right.
Are we on mark going to have to do a special edition just for you and Jennifer and I and others to engage in primal scream therapy based on whatever we see 60 minutes turn into?
Yeah, it's kind of it's just kind of sad that, you know, this storied program is has been conquered really.
And that's what it is.
And and only for money.
I mean, for CBS, you know, not
you know, deciding that they just wanted to just roll over.
You know, they did the same thing with their Sunday show where they, you know, they got, Christie Noam complained about them and they, you know, they just decided, okay, well, we won't edit anymore.
We'll just, you know, let her lie, let anyone lie on the air and we'll broadcast it.
You know, it's, we're seeing this with corporate media.
This is why, you know, I always like to say,
There's good media out there.
There's there's pro-publica.
There's the Guardian There are a lot of independent and non-profit outlets that are actually trying to do a good job And so it's for these big conglomerates these big giant corporations.
They're not they're just trying to make a bunch of money and so
They just, it seems like you don't have to trust them.
You can trust other people who have, you know, more journalistic standards.
Yeah.
Let's switch gears over to the potential for a government shutdown next week.
Congress has been off this week, so they only have like
two business days, tops to reach some kind of a deal.
Jennifer, it's clear that there's no interest on the part of Republicans and the president to reach any kind of a deal.
They want a shutdown.
They want to make the shutdown even worse by adding extra firings.
And this only reaffirms the note that, you know, they say, well, Trump is taking federal workers hostage and he's taking, you know, the country hostage.
Trump always shoots the hostage.
He always does.
And then it's a matter of how much do you let the hostage bleed before Democrats have to cave and go, okay, we'll, you know, we'll let you do all the other bad things you want to get away with through all these massive cuts to healthcare and things like that.
So for me, the question isn't, is there going to be a shutdown?
It's going to be, can Democrats hold united so that public pressure comes down on Trump and the Republicans?
Because Trump has caved previously over shutdowns and things like that.
I think the fact of whether there's a shutdown or not,
Is one thing the narrative behind it all and the media's role in spreading that narrative is really critical for example I like lose my hair stands on end every time I see a headline that says Congress did this when it's Republicans did this and I would just beg all media to
be specific.
Republicans are saying this.
Republicans did this and not make it generic.
And that's part of the problem.
It's a narrative fight as much as anything else.
Who's going to get blamed?
Well, I think we have to be absolutely crystal clear about what role different parties are
playing.
Mark, your thoughts on what Democrats will do once this thing really starts to take hold?
I think maybe they learned something from the last time and that they will not cave.
And let's look at the three branches of government are controlled by the Republicans.
So how are they going to blame the Democrats for this?
They're going to do it anyway.
Yeah, I know they will, but it doesn't stand up to any reason.
No, no,
it doesn't.
But again, it is it's much less a battle of votes or dollars as it is about narratives and messaging starting next week when or even starting now, frankly, you can read Mark Jacobs newsletter at stopthepresses.news or at couriernewsroom.com.
You can read indistinct chatter from Jennifer Schulze.
Head over to Substack search for at news Jennifer and Jim Santel is off this week.
But you can always catch him on amicus a law review tomorrow morning starting at nine.
Thanks to all of you.
Mark will see
you in a couple of weeks in Jennifer.
We'll see you next week.
All right.
Thank you.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Kristen Lyrely is coming up next.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
For one more
hour actually from here in Madison at Studio A2 at Civic Media.
World headquarters, as they like to say here, right next to Parker Olson, who is producing things and Dr. Kristen Lyrely is here as well.
So we're going to have a lot of ground to cover in this half hour.
And then Mike Clemens will be along in just a bit to talk about sports.
We've got a busy weekend for the Brewers wrapping up the regular season and then getting set for the playoffs.
The Packers have a big Sunday night game coming up against Dallas.
In fact, as long as I'm here, let's let's take care of the housekeeping right here.
Let's talk about the
Packers first, that game will be Sunday.
It's a Sunday night game, so the pregame begins at five o'clock on several civic media stations.
The Brewers, meanwhile, begin their series with the Reds at American Family Field.
Tonight's pregame coverage begins at 6.35.
No Badger Football coverage this week because there's no Badger Football game.
they have this weekend off.
Also wanted to let you know that we have a special edition of our Up North News daily newsletter.
Ellie's put together a special edition on fall in Wisconsin, all of the very many fall festivals, October Fests, the preview of some of the Halloween stuff.
You heard Sherita and me talking about it yesterday.
about some of those places.
So read about it in our newsletter there.
While you're there, you can also sign up for our Sunday morning newsletter, which includes our question of the week.
This past Sunday, it was if there's a government shutdown, who's to blame?
So if you want to be the first to see our next question of the week, get signed up and get that delivered to you bright and early on Sunday morning.
And while I'm promoting things, I should tell you that the Dr. Kristen Lierley show can be heard Saturdays.
and Sundays, 3 p.m.
in Oshkosh and Appleton on WISS 98.3 and 96.5 and Sunday mornings in the Green Bay area, 9 a.m.
at 97.9 and 15.90 a.m.
for WGBW or you could listen to her right now because here she is, Dr. Lyrely, good morning.
Good morning and wherever you get your podcasts.
And wherever
you get your podcasts.
That's the easiest way, I think.
I'm
going to remember saying that one of these times for
as much as I plug
my own Spotify.
But yes, get it as a podcast.
Yes.
Oh, and Pat, this weekend is a wow show.
I just listened to it.
And when we taped it, I was thinking to myself, I just feel like I, this is a monumentous conversation.
It is.
some parents of a three-year-old student who attends Assumption Catholic School in Minneapolis and they share their story.
They literally live in the backyard of this church and they tell their story of the school shooting that happened in August, what they heard, what they did, how they've reacted and what they're doing now.
It is incredibly moving.
It is so personal.
Please listen.
Oh my goodness.
Yes.
Because again, nothing's going to change until more people can put themselves in other people's shoes without having to be in those shoes themselves and demand that some action finally take place.
So yes, by all means, give a listen this weekend.
We do have some nice weekend plans to talk about, but I feel like we're going to reward ourselves at the end with that stuff because there's just, there's too much.
Well.
serious or depending on your frame of mind, stupid stuff to talk about
in the news.
I promise Parker I wouldn't swear.
I know you got it out of your system during the break and I appreciate that.
Me too.
But it is, the way it frame it is this, there has been a lot of pushback.
There really has been more so than maybe we might expect over these baseless claims and bogus advisories that are coming from Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr.
about Tylenol use for pregnant women.
But the question is, has that blowback
been nearly enough or have the non-doctors in the White House sown medical misinformation that is going to take a long, long time for doctors like Dr. Liarley to debunk.
So, Kristen, to what degree are you encouraged by some of the public blowback?
But, you know, how much harder is this making your job for maybe the foreseeable future?
Hey, I don't care how hard my job is.
I want my patients to get health care.
And it is making it so hard for people to know what they're supposed to do.
And for these families who are living with folks who have autism, and they are looking for answers, we all want answers.
So for the president of the United States, who can't even pronounce the word acetaminophen, to come out and tell people to tough it out.
It's not about toughing it out.
It's about treating medical conditions.
headaches, fevers, other things that can affect your pregnancy in a profound and long-standing way.
There is a reason people take medication in pregnancy, not just Tylenol, but lots of other things.
Listen to your doctor.
Let us talk you through it so that you can make really good decisions for your own individualized health.
Do not get your medical advice from a politician, especially one who can't pronounce the name of an everyday medication that he has in his medicine cabinet.
Oh,
like he's ever gone into his own medicine cabinet, you know, have the butler bring whatever it is that he needs.
And I just feel like this has been in attacking the misinformation.
I feel like we haven't properly captured this as quite literally an attack on families with autistic children and quite literally an attack on pregnant women.
I mean, these two groups have been just thrown for a loop because of this.
And yes, thank goodness there's doctors like you and my wife and others to be there.
But what would ever make them think, well, if we just single out these two groups and make them frightened, that will.
be better for us in the long run.
Well, you have two funny assumptions there that they're thinking and also that they care about women because they don't.
This is just the latest attack.
on women, on trying to control our bodies.
I mean, let's be very clear here.
They want women to have more babies.
They don't want us to have birth control.
They don't want us to get abortions.
But they also don't want us to get care.
They don't want us to take medications.
They want us to be in pain.
And when we deliver, they don't want us to have hospitals to be able to go to because they're defunding all of our rural hospitals and making it very challenging for us even to get care.
Pat, at what point are we as a society going to stand up and say, hey, wait a minute,
Something's wrong here.
I think we are reaching that point.
I would think so.
It appears that way in the polling, but again, there's a lot that can happen between now and November of next year with the midterms.
But in the near term, you have for all of the things that we talked about in Trump's big bloated boondoggle that did pass and is now the law.
We've talked a lot about all the health care cuts.
But now we're learning because there was so much in there, because people didn't read the bill, because it was massive, but that Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood is in jeopardy to the point where Planned Parenthood could lose out on providing its non-abortion care services at its many clinics unless they halt or at least pause their abortion services.
And so that's what they're doing.
Again, it's kind of a de facto ban.
Here we go again, Kristen.
This is Donald Trump's backdoor abortion ban because he knows that he can't do it through the front door.
When the American people were presented with the potential for an abortion ban, the American people pushed back.
So now they have to do it in all of these tricky little backdoor ways.
Defunding Planned Parenthood, which means depriving Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funds because they provide abortion care, is one of those ways.
Planned Parenthood, the bulk of what they do is not abortion care.
The vast majority of what they do is preventive care, STI testing.
birth control, cancer screening, routine care that people otherwise wouldn't be getting.
Because all of us don't get insurance through our employers.
There are many, many people, especially young people, who get their health care through Planned Parenthood.
So this is the Trump administration's way of trying to defund Planned Parenthood entirely.
But in Wisconsin,
We're pausing.
The Planned Parenthood clinics that offer abortion care are pausing.
And it is my understanding that all of those other services are still going to be there.
Those clinics are going to stay open because they know that you need them, that your short and long-term health depends on them staying open for you.
And that's just the federal government.
Meanwhile, at the state government level, again, lacking an abortion ban, you have the attempts to micromanage health care and a new bill introduced by Republicans that they say will clarify that even if there is an abortion ban, there are still things that can be done.
They say they're addressing those other pesky things.
And so the new proposal would exempt medical procedures designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman and not designed or intended to
kill the unborn child, including emergency C-section, the removal of a dead embryo or dead fetus and procedures to remove a miscarriage or an ectopic or molar pregnancy.
But why even micromanage all that care in the first place when you could just allow women to have and doctors to have the full range of care options?
If the authors of that bill want to practice medicine, they should go to medical school.
Otherwise, they should leave it up to the people who know what they're doing.
And doing this micromanaging, spelling out which procedures are possible and which should not be allowed just puts another barrier in between my patient and her ability to get the care that she needs.
It makes me so profoundly angry because all they have is a political agenda.
All they want is control and power over people of reproductive age.
I cannot wait until the midterms because the conversations that I'm having with my friends, they are starting to recognize, even in a place like Green Bay, which is kind of traditionally pretty red, they're starting to recognize what this means for them, for their health, for their families, for their communities.
There are economic impacts and social impacts when you really start to look at what this means for all of us.
The midterms are going to be very telling, Pat.
Yes.
And again, they're getting started already with multiple candidates for governor, for Congress and some districts, for legislature.
So there is a lot of work that we've got to get done.
However,
we get to take a break now and then.
And our,
our, our favorite mascot, our favorite rodent, our favorite gopher is, is going to be busy this weekend.
Go for football for our little Minnesota alum.
Are you alum, alumnus, alumnae?
Whatever you are graduate alumni.
There you go.
Thank you flight water guy would know well,
you know
Newspaper editor AP style okay, okay, so
anyway before that I get to go to Minneapolis and I get to Give hugs and support to our friends at Planned Parenthood in Minneapolis who are picking up a lot of the slack the people who are Driving across the border to get the care that they need because they can't get it here in Wisconsin So that's gonna be great.
These are people also importantly who are
survivors of political violence.
These people were on that list.
Remember, it wasn't that long ago when that crazy person killed Senator Melissa Hortman and her husband and her dog and attacked other politicians.
These people were on that list.
So to be able to spend a little time with them before I go to the football game, it's going to be just amazing.
Well, and it's important to show that kind of support because again, this has been
actual deadly political violence and they're again given everything that's happened in the wake after the Charlie Kirk murder when you uh you know see what Derek Van Orden is is saying and and doing frankly I mean we talked at the beginning of the program about the teacher in Ellsworth who uh you know emailed back and forth with her yesterday and it appears that you know they've worked out some kind of a resolution in that she won't be teaching for the district anymore she can't give details on it but I mean a 30 year career ended because
a congressman wants to limit her freedom of speech on social media.
These are, now that in itself is not political violence, it's professional violence, basically, and this is what we have to live with in this, in this era, sadly.
He is a peach.
Also, Tony Weed, these people who are saying that they are victims of political violence, yes, they're in the public eye and I get it, like we feel threatened, but...
When it comes to actual things that are happening, their total failure to recognize what's happening on the other side and then call it out and pretend that they are victims.
I mean, they are snowflakes.
Buck up.
put aside all the political divisions and actually support each other regardless of who you voted for or what party you stand with.
Dr. Kristen Lyrely is here and coming up in 15 minutes, we'll be talking to Mike Clemens about a very busy weekend in sports.
And then Matt Naranair follows at nine o'clock with your next chance to win in the Go for the Green and Gold text to win contest.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show weekends, Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m.
in Oshkosh and Appleton, Sunday mornings at 9 on our Civic Media Station in Green Bay, head to civicmedia.us to learn more or subscribe to it as a podcast at Apple Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts for the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show.
Oh, good.
Not too far away from you down in Manitowoc County.
The Manitowoc County Republicans had their picnic last night and their guest speaker.
didn't show.
And according to a story by WBAYTV, when the organizers called out to Bill Barion's campaign and said, where's the candidate for governor who's going to be our keynote speaker?
They were told he's had a difficult week and will not be appearing.
It might have something to do with the journal Sentinel article about his expansive internet footprint and the trans porn star that called him out on it and said, there's nothing wrong.
with following trans porn stars.
There's nothing wrong with liking a lot of things and being curious.
What's wrong is doing those things and then coming out in favor of suppressing the rights of LGBTQ people.
It's, I mean, it is the living hypocrisy of certain family values, politicians.
And Kristen, I don't know him.
I don't wish him ill, but I'm here for it because.
I believe in his freedom to surf wherever he wants.
Just don't be a hypocrite when you run for office.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
He doesn't just suppress the rights of folks in that group.
Those people are afraid.
I have friends who are in the trans community and they are literally afraid to be in public because they have been so demonized.
So when people like Bill Barion step up and say,
things that turn others against these members of our society who deserve to be embraced and included.
It creates a huge problem.
It creates division.
It's just bad, especially when, in secret, he seems to very much support these people.
And Pat, you said a big word, hypocrisy.
Let's just unpack that a little bit.
That's when people say one thing and do a different thing.
remember a time when people valued truth and wanted to believe what they heard and wanted to trust people.
And I don't think that people have changed that much.
I just think people have been hoodwinked by the successful marketing campaign of Donald Trump.
He is a brilliant marketer.
He can sell anybody anything.
And that's been the template for Republicans in recent times.
But it's not working as well as it did before.
I believe that if we continue to call people on their hypocrisy, call people like Bill Barion, who says one thing and does another, that's going to work.
That's going to break through because at our core, we still are Wisconsinites.
We're still nice people.
We're still neighbors.
And as I've stated before, we're not.
perfect people.
So I want to come to the front end of all this, to Bill Barry and surfing, because I know that you have patients come in and express either concerns or curiosities or whatever the case may be.
And I mean, frankly, I think it carries over into the suspect in the Charlie Kirk killing who grew up in a very conservative family.
And people want to blame, you know, a trans roommate.
I think it's more a case of the shame that we make people feel.
for being curious rather than saying, look, read, research, experience, whatever, you should have the freedom to do that.
Just don't hurt anybody along the way and don't be a hypocrite because of it.
Oh, for sure.
I don't care who you voted for.
If you come to see me with a problem,
I want to hear your problem and I want to hear the whole thing unfiltered.
It is so hard to get to that point when you're having a visit because you first as a patient have to figure out if you can actually trust your doctor and the person who is listening to you.
It shouldn't be that way, you know, like we all deserve to be heard.
We all deserve to have good solid information because we are making decisions about our health and the health of our families and our communities based on.
that interaction.
So let's be honest with each other.
Let's tell the truth.
Let's support each other instead of saying one thing and doing another.
Yeah, exactly.
getting back to how we escape from all of this.
And it turns out we're doing something similar this weekend in hanging out with people from college.
You know, I'm spending nights with a buddy here while his wife's away and my wife is on call and doing a brewer's game and telling stories.
And you know, you were saying during the break, just how much you're looking forward to getting back together with the drumline marching band people there, the lifelong associations that
I mean, is there anything like a friendship where you haven't spoken in maybe a year and yet the moment you get together, it's like you're picking up right where you left off.
It's the best.
I thought I was way too cool when I went to college to join the marching band.
But when I did, oh, these people, they're just so good and they're for you.
And you know, it could be longer than a year.
I mean, I stay in touch with my high school friends too.
Those are the people who make your life rich.
And yeah,
they're the
reason, aren't they?
They are.
And a lot of times it will, it will, what's the word I'm looking for, go beyond
like politics and things that are in the news.
Although there are those frustrating moments.
I saw another acquaintance recently who I hadn't seen for a long time, and I knew was mostly a Republican voter.
And of course, this white guy says to me, I just, you know, Trump is just so frustrating.
And if Joe Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, were on that ticket, I mean, I would have voted for it, but
I just couldn't vote for Kamala Harris.
And I was either too good of a friend or just too cowardly to just look and go, really, really, tell me again, you would have voted for the Democrat, the white guy, but you couldn't bring yourself to vote for Kamala Harris.
Why?
Why is that?
But yeah, let's explore that
question.
Why?
Yeah.
And of course you can't because there's a lot going on and you're kind of getting, and that's where you walk away and just go.
I clearly need to keep doing my job because there are more people to reach and there's more hypocrisy to point out.
We have to keep having these conversations and we have to keep doing it in all the different ways and we have to invite others and stay open and yes, all of those things.
Hey, safe travels, have lots of fun.
We'll talk to you Monday morning.
Thanks, go gophers.
Oh, well, this this time for you.
Yes, exactly.
All right, Mike Clemens has sports coming up a busy weekend.
We'll tell you all about it after this.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You know, before we get to Mike Clemens in sports, let you know that, you know, if we just gave you one doctor, Kristen Lyrely, I mean, that would be enough.
That's more than enough for all the ground that she covers.
We got two.
at UpNorth News.
We also have the new Raising Wisconsin series with pediatrician Dr. Kelly Snooks.
Look for her videos, Raising Wisconsin with Dr. Kelly Snooks and UpNorth News on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as well.
And then of course, sign up for our newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com and sign up for Civic Media's new daily newsletter.
It's on Substack.
Go to CivicMediaToday.substack.com
dot com and get yourself signed up for that.
All right, let's start with sports here.
Just a quick note on Badger volleyball.
The the women's team ranked seventh in the country.
There's seven and one on the season.
They opened the Big 10 season tonight at the UW Fieldhouse against Rutgers coming up at seven o'clock and
Then, you know, we've got football to talk about in a bit, but we're going to start with the Brewers who are into the last season or the last regular season weekend series.
Easy for me to say.
And here's Mike Clemens who's joining us now to talk more about that.
Mike, how are you?
Good, Pat.
Yeah.
Brewers tonight and the Cincinnati Reds.
Reds trying to claw their way in.
Brewers with the best record in baseball at 96 wins.
So they've tied the franchise record.
If the Brewers win one game this weekend, it's the final, as you say, it's the end of the regular season, then they clinch home field advantage.
So let's say, you know, they've been win one game this weekend, or, or if the Phillies lose one this weekend as they host the Minnesota Twins, that gets the Brewers nut to 97 wins.
They'll have next week off, they'll watch what happens with the Wild Card Playoffs.
And then beginning October 4th, they will host
at home when they get going into the divisional rounds so you know that that's a great way your time for some of these pictures they've got like their closer trevor mcgill with the sore elbow time to rest up and maybe you will get back on to the mount and help out on the other hand it's a long time off when it comes to baseball right you know a little rusty
but uh... waiting to see who comes on it by the way if you are in anywhere in the milwaukee area you want to be sure to turn the car around and i'm not american family field or they're handing out free pocket pancakes this morning did you see
that yes we actually had that on on the text line didn't we park we did jim and brook you'll let
me
know where
it's not like a big day you know i think we're about six weeks ago pat murphy you know
character of a manager they've got he's in the middle of a net live network interview and he he whips at this pancake out of his pocket and the woman says you know what what is that it's my pocket pancake little car pick me up during these games you're not the seventh inning or so might need a little pick me up
and you know it went viral it's just typical him so of course the other person you know sort of cashing out at their head out free pocket pancakes and i'm reading here the first three thousand fans show up they get the pocket pancake t-shirt from the brewers they have a convenient drive-through or the pocket pancake tent where they have a polka band playing
oh my gosh
And Murph, who's got a game tonight, he's supposed to be down there in person, siding out of grass.
Oh boy.
Hey, I'm out with the fans.
So yeah, they're having fun with that this morning in Milwaukee.
Well, let me say then the fact that the magic number is one, I actually like that they have something to play for this weekend for this reason.
Cincinnati.
is still very much in the thick of things looking for a wild card spot.
And
meanwhile, the Phillies are playing the Twins who have absolutely cratered.
So there's not a lot of confidence that the Twins can even win one of those games.
And so if the Brewers want that number one seed, they cannot just say, throw up their hands and go, ah, we got this.
They're gonna have to actually play a driven Cincinnati team hard throughout this series to get that.
at least one win.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And the Reds have played hard.
They lost their last game by a run or so.
But no, it should be some good baseball games this weekend to keep the Brewers sharp before they have their bye next week.
That's right and so you can hear the brewers and the reds coverage begins at 6 35 this evening on several civic media radio stations head over to civicmedia.us to learn more.
One thing before we get off of a baseball and again I don't know the particulars of it and whether you do or not it's it's just the whole notion of
the collapse of the Detroit Tigers.
When something historic is happening, whether it's, you know, Shohei Otani or, you know, Mike or Aaron Judge or, you know, this thing with with Detroit being up like 15 games in the division at one point, this is people in Detroit got to be just ripping their hair out.
Yeah.
Well, it's, it's, I believe it's the worst at baseball history for the month of September.
Yes.
Yeah.
They were 10 up at the start of the month and just absolutely collapsed.
I don't know how you do that.
I don't know the particulars if it was injuries or what it was, but I mean, for all the good things about that, I'm not taking anything away from the Brewers.
I'm just saying when they look back at this season, they'll look at the Brewers winning streak, but they're also going to say.
Can you believe those tigers?
Well, yeah.
And I was just in Cleveland last week in cover of the Packers game, but that's what everybody was.
I mean, they could not believe that the guardians had this opportunity and they have now that coming into this morning, they're now tied with the Tigers over there in.
the central division on the American League.
Yeah.
And it's just unbelievable collapse for the folks in Detroit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Tony puts on YouTube, but he says being a Cleveland fan like he is, Cleveland has also, you know, surged having won something like 14 of the last 15 or something like that.
So, you know, so there's a lot of stake for some of these teams.
And so that's
getting hot at the right time.
Right.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Boy, there's something the Badgers would like to do at the Badger football team would love to get hot at any point after, after losing at home last weekend.
27 to 10.
But, you know, despite the chance of fire fickle, I don't know if anything is really going to be changing there.
I feel like we're kind of locked into what we got right now.
What do you think, Mike?
Yeah, so the Wisconsin Badgers football team, they win their first two non-conference games as they should have.
They lost at Alabama.
Okay, no surprise there.
But the overall picture is like, and even though they're having to do this with a backup quarterback because their starter got hurt,
week one.
What is the identity of the team?
What are they supposed to be?
After 30 years of strong defenses, great running game, where is this offense going in particular?
Last week, their heavily favored to beat Maryland is their first game on their Big Ten schedule.
The score was 27-10, but it looked a lot worse than that.
To the point where you're at home at Camp Randall on a
beautiful, beautiful day.
And they didn't have 100% turnout from the fans to begin with.
By the fourth quarter, the place was over half empty, and the people who chose to stay are chanting Fire Luke Fickle.
I mean, it's bad.
It's a bad-looking product.
The next day, the athletic director, Chris McIntosh, is spotted at a Badgers volleyball game up there in a suite.
Talking to Mike McCarthy, who made the drive down from Green Bay.
And you gotta imagine that Chris is saying to Mike, did you see the game?
What do I do?
Where do I go from here?
I mean, it's not good.
It's not good.
On the other hand, you can say, well, it's not good for any of these college football coaches right now.
that the sport is in such transition with n i l with paying players uh... there's gotta be maybe so these other teams that have much more deeper public topics but the pockets but there was a there was a report in the wisconsin state journal said no no you know wisconsin's actually one of the top prank teams in terms of what their financial resources are in bringing in players there's supposed to be have a pretty good roster i guess he you give credit for uh... recruiting but it does it does and it doesn't get the easier because they got a by weekend
And then next week, they got to go to Ann Arbor and play number 19th ranked Michigan.
And on and on and on.
I mean, it could be a month before they get a win.
Oh yeah.
I mean, you've got Michigan next week.
That's followed by Iowa.
That's followed the next week by number one ranked Ohio State.
That's followed by number six, Oregon.
So this is going to be a rough patch.
And yet, Mike, what I've been led to understand is between his original contract and now the extension, how did one person put it?
ain't got enough money to buy Luke thick allowed even if they wanted to because it's a very expensive contract.
Yeah.
So that's the challenge.
And you know, and, and, you know, as one guy I was talking to who covers the badgers says, you know, he says, and this
This was Chris McIntosh is higher.
It's like, I don't know if he's got another coach before they might consider replacing him.
So tough times for the Badgers in Madison right now.
Yep.
So the Packers, meanwhile, they had to AT&T Stadium for Sunday night football.
I assume you'll be heading down to Dallas before much longer.
And can can they get down there and put that collapse to the Browns?
behind them in time for for playing the Cowboys.
Can they get up for that after such a such a fail at the end of the game?
Yeah, they should.
Yeah, we leave tomorrow for Dallas.
You know, here's the situation.
I'm covering that Browns game and I'm seeing the Packers defense look great again.
You're seeing the Browns defense, you know, led by Miles Garrett, their defensive end, great pass rusher, getting pressure on Jordan Love.
And if it wasn't him, those Collins or Malik Collins or some of their other guys
from that browns defensive front very strong team uh... but uh... for the packers first of all zack tom tried to come back out with this very sore uh... quad miles uh... and and the like in the first drive he's like oh god i can't i can't do this so you gotta replace him and then erin bank please uh... that the left guard by you know the midway through the first half they had three different guys
on the offensive line.
That led to five false start penalties, jumping off sides.
I found out yesterday, talking to Tucker Kraft, part of the reason for the false starts was they were screwing up what they call their silent cadence, because it was pretty loud, you know, in that ballpark.
So that was going on.
And then, you know, next thing you know, you hang around, you only go up to 10 to three or so, and you throw an interception.
your attempted field goal gets blocked and you end up losing to the browns and that you know the folks in cleveland are celebrate they had won a game since last november pat you know so they you know it's like they'd won a championship so you yesterday at practice three of those offensive linemen still were not on the practice field uh... coming back from injury and you go up against kenny clarkin and those guys uh... and dak presscott so should be a pretty good game and of course it's michael parsons
who, by the way, you know who the leading quarterback sat guys in the NFL right now?
Rishon Gary.
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
The Packers, Rishon Gary.
So you see, Michael Parsons has opened up the doors for his teammates to get to the quarterback just because of his presence.
I mean, he's a man.
When you see this guy with that number one jersey from, you know, the press box, it looks almost like a dorsal fit.
We use in and out and gets home like that.
So this should be a heck of a game on Sunday night football on NBC.
Yeah.
I mean, where Sean Gary was the one who he was so happy with hearing Michael Parsons was coming because he said basically other teams have to go pick your poison.
You know, you're going to get one or the other if you're not, if you're not getting both.
And I see a headline in the journal Sentinel that about Kenny Clark and no hard feelings.
He understands how the business works.
And he's also going to try to kill the Packers now while he's coming.
So,
I mean, Dak Prescott and Jordan Love, you know, they're nothing to shake a stick at, but there's going to be a lot of watching these defensive stars at the game as well.
No, for nine years we watched Kenny Clark drawing double teams and this weekend it could be, you know, backup offensive line that had to go against Kenny in this game on Sunday night.
Oh boy.
Yeah, that offensive line thing, that really concerns me.
Last thing I'll leave you with then, and because again, I don't mean to keep reliving the Cleveland loss.
However, the Jordan Love throw that was intercepted, bad play calling, bad throw, bad offensive line.
Is it too simplistic for me to say, just run the ball?
That's what they should have done in that down in distance, although I'll tell you what, I've watched that thing.
I mean, the safety made a heck of a play.
You know, and you got Jim Schwartz over there, the defensive coordinator from the Browns.
And so they did a three-in-one.
They got three guys on the left-hand side, three receivers, one on the other.
And so, you know, you're watching Tucker Kraft come out.
He's lined up outside the left tackle.
He runs a little slant.
And then Don Tabian Wicks is in the middle.
He runs a slant.
And that safety faked like he was going to cover Tucker Kraft.
And as soon as the ball came out, he went back to cover Wicks.
So he baited love and ended up getting the pick and game changing and pretty good play by the Brown safety.
It was.
And let's take nothing away from that.
Mike Clements, thank you.
Safe travels.
Have a great weekend.
Thank you, Pat.
We'll be back to wrap things up here after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Hey, remember, you can be the first to see our question of the week by subscribing to our Sunday Morning Newsletter Sunday mornings with Pat Kratlow.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com, click subscribe in the top banner, and be a subscriber to the Weekend Edition, the Weekday Edition as well.
And then follow this show.
Head over to Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and make sure that you don't miss a single episode like the one yesterday when I first
got in here to studio A2 in Madison and, uh, you know, we're ending as we began here, bathed, bathed in a, in a blue light and all the other things that, that Todd, all that, but this is how it all was doing.
By the way, this is, uh, you know, Luke offered to do it.
Todd actually executed it.
I mean, there are sandbags, there's warning tape all around here, all these cords for all these lights he's got plugged in.
Yeah.
Just to have, just to have a backdrop.
Instead of it being a white wall is a monitor with, you know, the wrong show logo in it, but it's, it's got a logo, you
know, it's on brand.
And I noticed that next to that is the, the, uh, the window out to the bullpen where all the cubicles are.
And we left the shutters open where I'm expecting John and Gordy or Alba or Mathers at some point to stand at the window and do dumb
things.
Pat, I hate to break it to you.
You're getting, you're getting up there a little bit.
You don't quite pitch a full game anymore.
You're not pitching complete game
sometimes.
I didn't mean that
kind of a bullpen.
There's nobody coming in here.
There's no relief.
We take this all the way through.
Absolutely.
But this, this has been fun.
It's been, it's been good coming down here and being able to connect with everybody.
With a heavy heart.
I really like it.
Yeah.
I'm a fan.
And get to do fun things like, like the Brewer game that's coming up tomorrow.
I hope.
Yeah, I was going to say I'll see
you
there.
Maybe I'll run into
you.
Still working on the ticket end of it.
The other thing about coming to Madison, especially, you know, being a former legislator or somebody who's run for office previously is, you know, you.
You just can't help but see people.
And that's exactly what was happening yesterday.
I was doing meeting people over coffee or over lunch or whatever.
And I'd finished what I thought was the last one.
And I'm heading back to one of the parking ramps here.
I walk out onto one of the small side streets.
And who do I see dining together on the sidewalk, but State Representative Christian Phelps and Heather Dubois-Bornon from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
And Christian is on the Assembly Education Committee.
So we had a wonderful chat, um,
just crashing their
dinner, crashing, getting, yeah, and getting, and getting some great guest ideas.
And so yeah, there's, there's work that gets done.
at these things.
It's not just all coffee and donuts.
It's all about networking.
There's a lot of networking that goes on here.
That is very much the case.
So before we go, we have the history lesson.
And when time allows, we look at the National Day Calendar or some of the entertainment stories.
We mentioned National Pancake Day.
Were there any other?
national days that we missed for today.
It's a better breakfast day because this is build a better breakfast month.
So today was supposed to be better breakfast day.
I
failed at that.
I did too.
I just had my
food
snacks.
Yep.
We've got the world's biggest coffee mornings, world's biggest coffee.
It has to do with like a cancer fundraiser or something.
I think I gave it a little.
I thought it was like world's best coffee, you know, kind of like that scene in Elf, you know, when I don't remember that.
Will Ferrell, you know, sees the world's greatest coffee in the window and he sticks his head in there and goes, congratulations, you did it!
Yes, I do remember
that
now.
And it's Lumberjack Day for whatever reason.
So give Sean Duffy a hug, I guess, if you see him today.
From an entertainment standpoint, what do we got going on here?
What have we got going on?
Well, the ratings are officially in from Jimmy Kimmel's first live
show.
Oh, yeah.
What a failure he is.
I'm sure the president called him a failure.
And what did the president end up doing to Jimmy Kimmel's audience?
Well, his ratings are so awful.
He only had 6.3 million viewers in this one.
That is a 343% increase.
That's good, right?
That's good.
I mean...
I mean, Donald Trump should want that for his own, you know, personal wealth or radiance for the apprentice or anything like that.
Oh, by the way, speaking of the apprentice, let me do this.
Oh, I know.
Among the conversations I was having yesterday with people, some political people in Madison, and we said, how odd it was that Tom Tiffany did not get Donald Trump's endorsement right away.
And this person had the best response said, he does not care about Tom Tiffany.
I mean,
Tom Tiffany, how many times has Trump, you know, just cut somebody loose, who is so loyal, but whenever it's expedient to him?
And this person pointed out, what does Trump like?
Trump likes the show.
He likes the game.
He likes kissing up.
In other words, he likes the apprentice.
And so...
If he doesn't endorse Tiffany right away, then Josh Shulman stays in there, the Washington County executive.
I'm sorry, Bill Berry, and you've already been voted off the island.
But Josh Shulman has every reason now to keep thinking he might get Trump's endorsement.
And so much like an episode of The Apprentice, Trump is basically playing these two off each other, Tiffany and Shulman.
as far as who can be, who can kiss up the most, who can compliment him the most, and he just kind of keeps that endorsement dangling out there, which frankly could really weaken Tom Tiffany.
It's not wrong to describe him as the presumptive nominee simply because of his name ID, but if he doesn't get Trump's endorsement and Josh Schoeman's out there conceivably getting it, that can only hurt Tiffany in the long run.
So the smart thing to do...
would be to endorse Tiffany right away and not worry about a device of primary, but then you wouldn't have the apprentice.
And so that's what Trump's got going right now is an episode of the apprentice.
Well, the apprentice is not anymore.
The office is not anymore, but there's a spinoff of the office that's on, right?
Yeah, the paper,
which apparently, according to our very own Pete Schwabba, who has seen the pilot episode of the show, his advice for the show.
is to just bring back the office actors.
Cause apparently there's like a, an office cast guest appearance, like somebody from the show comes on.
They
might be a writer, right?
Yeah.
And he's like, how about you just bring the entire cast back and call it the
office?
Yeah.
So my,
I guess it was that bad.
I don't know.
The translation to me is just don't do spin offs and reboots.
Just,
just leave it
as
it was.
If you want to be inspired by something.
Yes.
But if it's so blatant that you're just going to the same well over and over again, then yeah, maybe, maybe not do that.
But.
You know, shows have started off very slow and then caught on later.
So maybe that happens.
Maybe that happens when you make a sitcom about a newspaper because newspapers are doing so well these days.
So we'll see.
Have a fun weekend.
Have fun at the Brewer's Game.
Maybe we'll see each other.
I hope so.
I hope so.
Well, we'll see how that all pans out.
Thanks to all of you for joining us here from Madison as well.
I'm Pat Critello, founding editor of Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
Have a great weekend.
See you Monday morning back here up north.
Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Rosota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglo.
Hey, good morning.
It's 706.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you here up north on a Wednesday morning, September 24th, 2025.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison and meteorologist Brittany Merlot standing by as well.
Coming up.
we will have the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Jill Underly joining us for our weekly homeroom segment.
She recently gave her annual State of Education address at the State Capitol, and we'll be talking to us more about that in our next half hour.
And we have Brittany's forecast coming as well.
But as you know, this week we've brought back
One of our text to win contests.
It is time for today's first round of the go for the green and gold text to win contest.
Yes, green and gold, you'll get cash and jewelry for the prize of the day.
Of course, you need the civic media app.
Look up a station, use the text button for the 7am hour here.
Once I gave you the word, you will have until 8am to text it.
There will be seven chances throughout the day, each with different keywords, so seven chances to enter each day of all of the day's entries in this multi-state, multi-station game.
One lucky winner is going to get $200 cash and a gold-plated chain, and then one really lucky winner for the whole enchilada will get the grand prize, two club-level indoor seats.
To see Green Bay versus Minnesota play some football, it's a Green Bay home game on November 23rd.
There's a gas card to get you to the game as well.
Total value of the grand prize package is more than $1,500.
Now, the first time you enter, you are likely going to get a return message giving you a way to earn another entry linked to a specific activity like signing up for a newsletter.
Winners will be contacted by Civic Media within five business days first by text message.
Full contest rules at the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
All right, if you got all that, then I can give you the new keyword for this hour until eight o'clock.
The word is morning, like morning of the day, M-O-R-N-I-N-G.
Morning, M-O-R-N-I-N-G.
You get till eight o'clock to text that, and then you've got another chance in the nine a.m.
hour with Jane and Greg for Matt and Nair on air, and then throughout the day for the go for the green and gold text to win contest.
Again, the keyword is morning.
All right, Brittany's here now, and we have another...
foggy morning here on Lake Wissota.
A lot of what the advisories were just basically the northwestern portion of Wisconsin, right, Brittany?
Yeah, pretty much goes from Winona Eau Claire all the way up towards Hurley and then everything north and west of that line.
You're in the dense fog advisory, but there's still fog creeping into places northeast as well.
So Monaco, Eagle River, you're still seeing that.
But it is pretty thick, especially north and west, huh, Pat?
Yeah, it is.
I mean, I can't take the pontoon out right now.
I just couldn't
see
where I'd end up on the golf course across the way.
So
that would be eerie.
Yeah, we need a little sunshine or something.
Now, what you got in store for us?
I've got a little bit as we go later on throughout the day.
More and more will peak out further south in the state though.
You're going to have to wait maybe until tomorrow to see more sunshine.
You do have a chance for some spotty sprinkles on occasion, but no heavy rain or anything like that.
It would just be a sprinkle here or there.
So less clouds later in the day.
We're looking at breezy winds out of the north today.
Beach hazard statement two from Milwaukee through Racine and Kenosha.
Those waves are building up about three to six feet out there.
So not a good beach day and temperatures right now about 55 or so to 60 degrees for a majority of us.
It is mostly cloudy and we will make it today to the mid sixties to about 70 degrees.
So slightly cooler today than the past few days.
Then we start our warm up tomorrow.
Slow at first, but it really bumps up as we go into the weekend and next week.
So tomorrow, a few mid to upper 70s scattered throughout the state.
Friday, all of us hitting the upper 70s and then nearing 80 by Saturday.
And then places south will be hitting 80 all throughout the weekend and into next week.
A lot of places north flirting with that as well.
And it's going to be dry and sunny.
And you won't even need me for a little while because it's just going to be gorgeous.
out there.
Well, we'll need you.
We'll take it.
Just
to remind
you, keep reminding us how beautiful it is.
Rob
says good morning from Tigerton, cloudy and 54.
I have mowing jobs in Wittenberg today.
One of the places where I mow in Wittenberg, Rachel's Roadside Bar and Grill, made it on YouTube's best American restaurants.
I couldn't make it to the broadcast because I had to work.
I mowed two huge yards in the rural areas of Tigerton with no cell coverage.
Yesterday it was a very beautiful day till the
came out in the late afternoon.
No fog right now in Tigerton, just cloudy, but Brittany always brings sunshine anyway, regardless.
Oh, thanks, Rob.
And Tony, of course, being up in Ashland, talking about the green and gold contest.
Forget the pack idea.
Forget the tickets to the football game.
It's the gas card.
He's like, you're going to pay for my gas too.
That's like getting another ticket.
True.
Yeah.
Which is, which is true with the, what they're charging for gas to get from Ashland to Green Bay.
So yeah.
Um, I don't know if Tony can win, but all of his neighbors in the Ashland area, they could.
I
want to call.
I want to
go.
I want gas.
I don't even have to watch the game.
You're giving me, you're giving me a gas card.
Somebody
else can have the
tickets.
Yes.
That's true.
Yeah, Tony then can give him a ways in his own way.
But anyway, Brittany, thank you so much for the update.
Appreciate it.
You're
welcome.
Talk to
you next hour.
All right.
Hey, remember sign up for our newsletter up north news wi.com.
At that point, you can see Ellie talking all about music.
Turns out Ellie's a fan of some of the older music here.
And we some of us appreciate that very much.
In fact, I
I like it so much.
I think that starting next week in this time slot, we're going to bring Ellie on to talk more in person about what's in the newsletter.
I think we've given her enough of a grace period.
And we now need to subject her to this radio show.
And so look for that starting next week.
But she's busy working on not just, you know, getting used to the new digs and everything, but she's working on a special fall edition of the newsletter that'll come out this Friday.
It's all about fall festivals and October Fests and get ready for some spooky sights as we get closer to Halloween.
So I mean if you're looking for
ideas for weekend road trips or things right in your community, go get signed up for the newsletter up north news wi.com, click subscribe up in the banner at the top of the homepage.
And while you're doing that, sign up for civic media's new daily newsletter.
For that, you got to take your browser over to substack specifically civic media today dot substack.com and get the best of all the shows.
Of course, you could also take the shows with you and to do that.
Well,
go over to Spotify while you're doing all the surfing just get it all done but get over to Spotify follow this show and all of your other favorite civic media shows and that way uh you're never going to miss anything from what we do throughout the course of the day here on Civic Media and at Up North News.
Speaking of Up North News and over on our Facebook page we were looking at you know some of the posts and you know monitoring some of the comments because
Every so often you get a troll in the comment section and we got we got somebody in the comment section.
I I don't know that He would consider himself a troll but he does a lot of trolling out there That'd be Derek van Orden.
That's right.
The congressman jumped into our comment section about a story that we did late last week about all of the
threats that he's making to people's employment and threats to cut federal funding to like entire cities like Eau Claire like the entire Mayo Clinic system because he doesn't like what some people said about the Charlie Kirk murder and he wants to equate it to domestic terrorism and I wish I was kidding, but I'm not and so when we noted in our article, you know the ways that
What Derek Van Orden is doing runs counter to the First Amendment.
He got in our comment section and he said the following.
Not all speech is protected speech.
18 US code subsection 2331.
Look it up.
We will not be sending money to organizations or municipalities that keep people on their payroll who advocate for domestic terrorism.
For people who advocate for domestic terrorism.
That's what he thinks when people put up posts that indicate that they were not fans of Charlie Kirk.
So as for that citation that he made, we just put up a post.
You can find it on our social media sites where we basically we correct the record.
We note that in the US Code, Chapter 18, Section 2331, paragraph five, does indeed outline domestic terrorism.
It covers activities that are dangerous to human life or try to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.
We read it.
We read it again.
Did not see anything in there about social media posts that make a congressman angry as somehow defining domestic terrorism.
In fact,
That law that Van Orden cites does not designate domestic terrorism as a crime.
It defines domestic terrorism so that people can be charged with other crimes like murder and hate crimes and weapons violations.
But by Derek Van Orden's logic, countless free speech posts seem to him to quote, advocate for domestic terrorism and could be punished.
by the government.
And so we ask people to get in the comment section and tell us, do you agree with him that when people were criticizing Charlie Kurt or simply echoing his words back?
Is that not protected speech?
Because Derek Van Orden said, not all speech is protected speech.
And he's right about that part of it.
There is hate speech.
There's the, you know, yelling fire in a crowded theater type of speech as well.
but posting on social media that he didn't like Charlie Kirk and it leads to I mean, perhaps a thousand posts by now from Derek Van Orden.
In fact, the Washington Post took note of it.
They have a new article this morning, co-written in part by Patrick Marley, who was at the Journal Sentinel for a long time.
And the Washington Post article focuses on a teacher in Ellsworth, Chris Lisecki, who
was looking at the coverage about Charlie Kirk and grew exasperated because not enough was being made of the horribly racist and hateful things that he said.
She tapped out a Facebook post about it and it was where we actually first saw Derek Van Orden threatening to cut all funding to the city of Ellsworth unless this teacher was fired.
Well she has been suspended with pay and she's waiting to find out if she will be fired or otherwise disciplined and she told The Washington Post
People are upset that people wanted to silence Charlie Kirk, but they're not upset that I'm being silenced.
I may not be proud of what I said, but it was my right to say it.
And that is really what it comes down to.
And it's the point Jimmy Kimmel was making yesterday as well, when he came back on air, was that the First Amendment works best, works to its utmost when it protects speech that you don't like, that you don't agree with.
That doesn't make it domestic terrorism.
That doesn't even make it hate speech.
It's simply something that you didn't like might make you outraged.
But as long as you don't instigate violence or government threats as a result of it, then the First Amendment is doing what it's supposed to do.
So Derek Van Orden can get as snooty as he wants with reporters as he has.
He can get as confrontational in comment sections.
He can use all the cuss words that he wants.
And he does.
And he can cite a specific chapter, section and paragraph of the U.S.
Code about domestic terrorism.
But he said, read it.
Well, we did.
It doesn't cover social media posts that make a congressman get his fee fees all hurt.
Still to come, we'll be talking to the state superintendent of public construction, Jill Underly.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We are getting near the end of the regular season for the Milwaukee Brewers, but thankfully there will be some post-season action as well.
But as for the regular season, well, there's a three game series starting in San Diego tonight, then tomorrow night, Wednesday afternoon, a day off on Thursday, then a home stand against the Cincinnati Reds Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then that does it for the regular season.
Tonight's game against San Diego, the pregame coverage begins at 8 0 5.
on several civic media stations head over to the website to learn more and while you're there.
Check out again the details on the go for the green and gold text to win contest Which we'll be doing in the seven o'clock hour throughout this week and next week where again with that civic media app you're gonna text in a keyword and That'll get you entered for a big grand prize tickets to see Green Bay versus Minnesota It's a Green Bay home game and you can get more details on the go for the green and gold contest from Jane and Greg part of Matt Nair on air coming up next
here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
The fall session of the legislature is getting going.
We talked to State Senator Kelder Royce an hour ago.
She's candidate for governor.
And we talked about the package of education bills put forward by Democrats, the package of education bills put forward by Republicans.
There's not a lot of common ground there.
And unfortunately, it seems that even when there is
a hint at common ground on something, there usually are some kinds of strings attached.
And that appears to be the case with a different package of bills that Republicans are saying they'll introduce this week to deal with our elections, specifically absentee ballot drop boxes.
Now keep in mind that absentee ballot drop boxes
were used for years in Wisconsin with no issues and with the support from both parties.
Republicans really liked it because in rural areas, places with older populations, it was a matter of convenience.
Democrats liked them in urban areas.
Again, people who might have had busy schedules or young families, again, they could drop off their ballots as securely as when you drop your mail off in the mailbox.
All right.
They're fine.
They work.
When Donald Trump knew he was going to lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden, and the documentation is there months before the election, he started laying the groundwork toward trying to steal the election, or at least to circumvent it or to cast doubt on its integrity.
And one of the things that he flailed at was absentee ballot drop boxes.
And then in the wake, for reasons I can only log as, quote, a cult of personality, unquote, suddenly so many Republicans didn't like absentee drop, absentee ballot drop boxes either.
And there were court challenges and there were conservative justices who said, yes, these things, it's like we just discovered them and they're bad and we have to get rid of them.
Well, thanks to voters in Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court was put into progressive hands.
And Progressive Justice has looked at that and said, what are we talking about here?
They work, they're fine, let them be.
Let's turn to another matter, and then I'll bring the two together.
And that is the processing of absentee ballots.
Again, they're put into these envelopes.
If you've ever filled one out, you know that you have to sign it, you have to get a witness to sign it, you have to put the address on there.
Again, the ballot is sealed.
You just know that there is an absentee ballot in there and you either use the ballot drop box or you mail it in or you bring it back in person or you fill it out in person at your local clerk's office.
And then it goes into a box, goes into a locked box in place until election day.
When they're opened up, you have to check the addresses.
You have to check to make sure the signatures are there and they're valid.
And then you can open up the envelope.
You can pull the ballot out and then you can process them.
Well, there's a lot of places because they're big cities and there's only so much time and so many people and so many ballot counting machines.
In these larger cities, you have election results that don't come in until late at night.
There's a way around that and that would be to allow the absentee ballot envelopes to be checked the day before.
Make sure that they're good, toss out the ones that aren't.
And that way, right away on election day, you can then just open them up, open up all the good ones, and then you can run the ballots through the machine.
That makes sense too, right?
Right.
So Republicans are now saying they're willing to go along with this.
Well, that's nice of them.
I mean, for the past couple of election cycles, we've known, Republicans and Democrats alike, that processing the absentee ballot envelopes the day before would be a good thing.
And yet Republicans in the legislature have fought against that, have not supported it for only one reason, and it has nothing to do with security.
It enables some of them to continue the talking point, basically the conspiracy theory that, well, if the ballots are taking so long to count and the results are coming in in the middle of the night, there must be something shady going on in bad old Milwaukee.
or Madison or Green Bay or Racine or Kenosha there must be something that we can't trust there.
But they won't of course pass the bill that would allow the processing of the absentee ballot envelopes so that you wouldn't have that talking point.
Well now we come to Republicans saying that this week here comes a new package of election bills and it would allow for Monday processing of the absentee ballots.
Well thank goodness and it would allow you know for
widespread use of absentee ballot drop boxes.
Well, yeah, there should be.
But of course, here come the strings.
And there are definitely strings attached to this, as explained yesterday on up front by Republican Representative Scott Krug, who is vice chair of the Assembly Elections Committee.
And he said on the program, I think it's fair to say that some of these things, you know, Republicans might not like them and Democrats might not like some of the things.
Well, I don't know.
There's definitely things for most people to not like in terms of the strings that are attached, because we're now suddenly treating absentee ballot drop boxes like their Fort Knox, just waiting to be robbed.
or something.
Because in return for Republicans supporting the Monday processing of absentee ballot envelopes, the bills include security changes for the drop boxes, including 24-hour video surveillance that must be live-streamed on a municipality's website.
So in other words, these cash-strapped local governments, whether it's a little township or a big city that's already having a tough time meeting expenses because of cuts by the state legislature, would now have to put 24-hour video cameras on the dropboxes and then reconfigure your websites to live stream a picture of a dropbox.
Which, I'm sorry, you're begging.
for people to just go to these dropboxes and put on a little theater presentation because they know they're having an audience there.
It serves no other role whatsoever.
But wait, there's more.
The ballots, according to this bill, would also need to be transferred from the Dropbox to a storage facility only under the constant supervision of a law enforcement officer.
That's how
little respect they have for law enforcement.
I mean, you've already got police departments and sheriff's departments that they too are cash trapped.
They too have better things to do.
And yet the Republicans in the legislature would require that there be an officer or more to go to these drop boxes when these ballots are picked up.
So let me ask you this.
Are you aware of any mailboxes out there?
that are live streamed, that have 24-hour video surveillance, and that they're on the US Postal Service website?
No, because it doesn't happen.
You know why?
Because mailboxes are secure, and if you fiddle around with them, if you try to commit some kind of mail fraud or theft, that's a crime.
You'll be charged with a crime.
The same goes for absentee ballot drop boxes right now.
If you monkey around with them,
it's a crime.
And who's going to take the risk of that to affect what the the 10 ballots that might be inside that box?
But we're going to add a law enforcement officer that's got to be there like you're transferring gold bars.
These are the strings that are attached in order to get Monday processing of absentee ballot envelopes.
Why?
Why can't we just have a clean bill?
Why can't we ever just have a clean bill and up or down vote?
Are you OK with Monday processing of absentee ballots?
If you're not, say so.
Say you want to continue the conspiracy theory about late night ballot counting.
But don't tie these strings.
And then, of course, when they get voted down because they're ridiculous.
They then get the talking point of, oh, the Democrats, they voted no on it.
The Democrats voted no on election security.
Yeah, they voted no on armed guards.
I mean, why didn't you just ask for an armored car to be there to carry the ballots in as well?
Maybe a full police motorcade.
But always the strings and always the talking point rather than just doing what is best and most most efficient for our elections And so my hope is and my expectation is that if these bills actually make it to the floor and frankly in the committee process as well The Democrats will put up amendments that would strip out the ridiculousness
Maybe even find some other kind of middle ground, whatever it may be, whether it's strengthening the penalties that already exist for monkeying with absentee ballot drop boxes or something else.
But get us to the point where we can do the Monday processing.
Have some more respect for your local clerks.
Have some more respect for your local law enforcement.
And stop making them engage in all of this performative politics.
so that you can continue talking points rather than having elections that just do what they already do here.
They are safe, they are fair, they are efficient, and in the ways that they could be made better, just make them better and stop screwing around with them.
Oh, but speaking of screws, how's that for a transition?
The headline from the New York Times, Trump's tariffs are damaging America's biggest foreign source of screws.
Taiwan has long been a top provider of screws to the United States, but the factories are struggling to survive because of Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Most people know Taiwan as making all the semiconductors and other electronics.
It's a lot of intricate work, but then there's that everyday essential, almost invisible component of everyday objects, writes the New York Times, screws.
But Taiwan screw makers are wondering how their businesses will survive over the next few months.
And to what degree will China gain ground in the meantime?
Because again, it's not like this is going to be creating American jobs.
We're not opening up some kind of new markets for American screw makers.
Okay.
These are tiny things that are best made overseas more cost effectively.
But now they won't be along with everything else that is more expensive.
Now, think of the things that require lots and lots of screws.
At Courier Newsroom, we've had a video series for a time.
I'm not sure if the person still does or not, but this would be a perfect episode for it.
Talking about the things that you don't normally see in politics but are working against you, the ways that you're being nickled and dimed.
Instead, the name of the series is, You're Probably Getting Screwed.
And in this case, it is quite literal.
So again, a story in the New York Times, one of the many ways that a made up trade war is hurting rather than helping our economy.
Some final news and notes from Lake Wissota and a preview of Matt Nair on air with Jane Matt Nair coming up in just a bit.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back, a reminder that our goal for the green and gold text to win contest is going on this hour.
And the key word for this hour is morning.
M O R N I N G like the morning part of the day.
Text morning using the Civic Media app before 8 AM.
And you will be in the running for a daily prize, which is $200 and a gold play to change, see green and gold.
And also in the running, every entry is in the running for the grand prize, which includes tickets to a Green Bay versus Minnesota game in Green Bay, playing a little football in the month of November and a gas card to get you there.
Again, details at the Civic Media website, Civic Media.
But morning is the keyword to text before eight o'clock, and then your next chance to win.
There are seven chances every day.
Your next chance to win an AML or on matinee on air with Jane Matinee.
Time for our weekly homeroom segment where we talk about public education, opportunities, and threats.
And the threats are out there, but there are people who are willing to lead.
And one of those folks is the state superintendent of public construction, Jill Underly, who joins us this morning in the wake of her annual state of education address delivered last week.
Well, Jill Underly, good morning.
How are
you?
And well, good morning to you too, Pat.
How are you?
Very good.
Thank you.
It's so nice to have you here today.
I mean, you've seen the headlines in the coverage of your remarks.
And so we're going to start there.
I mean, there are definitely issues that are internal to education in Wisconsin.
But there's some real external pressure.
And it's reflected in headlines that had you taking note that the biggest schoolyard bully
that Wisconsin schools face right now is our own federal government is the Trump administration.
It's a, you know, it's a very assertive thing to say.
Tell folks why that was a central part of your remarks.
Yeah, well, so the overall message from the state of education address is that
Wisconsin Public Education is a living story.
It's written daily by students, educators, and communities.
The themes in the state of education were about belonging, love, community, pride in our communities.
And what we're seeing right now is that the federal government is really trying to destroy that, right?
They're taking away funding for teachers.
they're taking away funding for special education students.
The one that was in the headlines was students who are deafblind.
They have threatened funding for school nutrition, you know, programs in our schools.
And so it's just really, they are the ones that are really causing a lot of chaos, I think, and uncertainty in our schools.
Schools are wondering, are they going to get this money?
And at the Department of Public Instruction, we're left to navigate that and stand up for our school districts, which is what we'll do anyway.
But the federal government is really inserting themselves into the everyday operations of our schools and really threatening the good work that our schools are doing.
especially for a group that says that all the time that they're looking to give education back to the states, they see sure seem to find ways to continue to to micromanage or to interfere.
And you touched on one of them that really got my attention yesterday, as up north news reporter Selena Heller was working on this story about how under Trump, the US Department of Education is canceling funding that would go toward the Wisconsin deafblind technical assistance program.
And why is it being endangered like this?
Because it falls under Donald Trump's definition of DEI, that you're singling out a group for help.
In this case, children who are deaf and blind, talk more about the program and its value, as well as the assertion that there's something divisive apparently about this.
Well, that's just it.
It's just so arbitrary.
I think, you know, when they were going through...
these programs they're just doing a find and search you know in the grants for anything that mentioned diversity or inclusion or equity and the deafblind community I mean it's a very specific population very vulnerable population very specialized when it comes to instruction and when you look at special needs or you look at
the deafblind community, you know, as an example.
I mean, what we do in public education is we try to ensure that every human has an opportunity to be included and belong in their communities.
And so we provide specialized training.
We provide, you know, this grant money provides specialized instruction, but also training for the teachers, materials, I mean, Braille.
Um, you know, so it's really just, um, it's really just disheartening and rather it's just cruel to be honest, um, that they're just kind of that they're doing this to our communities.
I mean, they're just ripping things apart that we have spent time building and investing in over the years.
Well, we we've had politicians doing that at the state level for some time as well.
We're talking to Jill Underly, Wisconsin superintendent of public instruction.
And you focused on that about pulling resources away from our public schools in order to fund the you know, the private voucher scheme that that's going on and is taking up, you know, it's getting mighty close to a $1 billion price tag that I still think plenty of taxpayers around Wisconsin don't know about.
What they know is that there are these referendums.
all the time, these referendums.
And you have some politicians that are painting the school districts as being greedy and having to raise taxes.
And it feels like you're the one connecting the dots saying there's there's a reason for these referendums.
And it's not any kind of selfishness on the part of your local school board.
Yeah, I think people are starting to put it together.
I mean, because the the money is, you know, the money that the legislature puts in every year.
You know, it is pie.
I mean, if you want to think about it that way, it's just that the piece of the pie that goes to privatization just keeps getting larger.
So therefore, even though the money might appear that.
you know, the legislature is putting more money in every year.
It's just that the portion that goes to our public school districts is getting smaller.
And I do feel people are putting it together.
I'm seeing a lot of signs of hope, you know, like, for example, like in the Green Bay area, they were able to put it on their tax bills, you know, how much money was going to private schools from their tax, from their property tax.
So I mean, I know people want this information on there.
And my hope is that, you know, in, you know, in the next few
years if the legislature is able to you know get more gains with more public school advocates in the legislature that this will be on everybody's tax bill.
It's just transparency is so important in government and I do see some signs of hope there.
As we talk about moving from the you know the 30,000 foot level of federal funds and state funds into the classroom itself, current practices,
you know, technology, teaching methods, everything else.
When you look at that part of the state of education in Wisconsin, are there are there things there that need particular investment that need more of a focus that than they've been getting these days that where Wisconsin kids might risk falling behind if we're not funding, you know,
something to its proper level or not keeping our teachers trained or anything like that.
Where were those opportunities?
Yeah, I think it's all of the above.
So as you're probably aware, but maybe you're your listeners or not, we did undergo a strategic planning process over the past couple years, and we listened to people throughout Wisconsin about what they want in their public schools.
And so we came up with four different pillars and
The one that I'll talk about right now, I mean, is the innovative education.
We really need to start preparing kids for their future and not our past.
I mean, when you think about how school is done in many ways, it's still done the same way as it was 50 to 100 years ago.
And so we really need to start looking at innovation.
We need to look at how we're able to meet students where they are and where they're going to go.
I mean, technology is moving.
so fast right now.
And we need to expand personalized learning and competency-based learning in our schools.
We need to use career pathways to our advantage.
We need to improve access to learning opportunities and library resources.
And our goal is to prepare kids for their future.
We're also looking at educator recruitment and retention.
We know that the number one indicator of a child's success in school
and when they're in the school is the quality of their teacher.
And when we have this turnover with our teachers, when we are struggling to fill high need areas like math and science and global languages and special education, that's hurting kids.
And that's hurting our future, not just our economy, but I mean, just these humans, their future.
So we have to really look at
and agree that strong schools need strong educators.
And we know that we need to expand access to grow your own programs.
We need to improve teacher compensation, mentorship, professional development.
But going back to the federal aspect, this is an area that they are really leaning in on cutting funding for is our educator workforce.
It also sounds like people in the legislature, certain folks have wanted to stress standardized tests and the method of scoring and tracking that.
There's been some back and forth in the legislature about that.
How would you describe the current standardization test and grading process?
Are there still changes that need to be made compared to where we are right now?
Yeah, I think that was that was the interesting criticism I think about my state of education.
You know, it's just that the speech was about, you know, belonging and community pride and the things that we need to do to make our schools stronger and in the opposition or the people who criticize it really are like, well, you know, she's just lowering, lowering standards.
The thing is, it's like the test is just a one point in time and.
it's always undergoing review.
When you look at our standards, our standards are updated every seven years.
And it's not the same ones every year.
So it's like, you know, math has done one year, literacy is another year, science is another year.
And so it's like the test is constantly undergoing changes.
And so you do have to update the metrics.
And so it's
you know that that's one piece of it but then the other piece of it is our school report card our school and district report cards which were put into place 15 years ago and they're in state statute as far as what you know is measured and so
We did look at that for the first time in 15 years and just to make sure that things are on track.
It's kind of like when your computer undergoes an update, it always seems like, oh, it's at the worst time or your phone has to download an update.
But that's what we did with the state and district report cards.
It was due to get an update and just make sure everything was aligned.
But again, it's just one.
piece of information.
We've got lots of other indicators of the health, I suppose, of our public schools.
And finally, you were recently elected to a second four-year term.
There's going to be a change in the governor's office one way or another, a brand new governor.
We won't know the makeup of the legislature, but with you being freshly elected, you're certainly positioned to be the most
I guess fearless advocate is the right way.
You've got the job security, essentially.
How do you see your role over the next four years, the public facing part of your role?
Look, I have never shied away from saying what I need to say or what needs to be said when it comes to public schools.
I mean, that's always been my, you know, I guess just one of my characteristics, right?
And so what I'm going to continue to do is just continue to advocate for public schools.
I'm going to continue to advocate for the things that I know work, you know, when we look at
child development and we look at success academically.
I mean, I talked about teachers and them being the number one indicator for academic success, but there's a lot more that goes into it.
School nutrition, making sure kids have access to mental health, but also.
health, medical health as well, and dental health too.
And we also need to just continue to modernize our public education system.
So I'm going to continue to speak out in favor of all of those.
Dr. Jill Underly, we've run out of time, but it was so nice to hear all about the state of education.
Thanks for joining us today.
Thanks so much, Pat.
All right.
Much more in the eight o'clock hour ahead of mornings with Pat Krightlow, powered by UpNorth News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
you
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You never miss a quip.
And that includes topics like healthcare.
And we're going to discuss that right now with our guest, Catherine Hampstead from the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, we're going to talk about, you always hear us talking about, you know, the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare kind of at this very overarching umbrella of health care, etc.
We're going to get into kind of the nitty gritty of it.
What is it that makes it more affordable?
And why is that a bit of a political football lately?
As we talk about, you know, the federal budget and things like that.
Catherine Hempstead, good morning.
Nice to have you here again.
Hi, Pat.
Good morning.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, good to see you.
And for telling us more, we're going to get into specifically these health care tax credits.
It's tax credits that really kind of put the affordable in the Affordable Care Act.
So why don't we kind of go back to when the earth cooled here and explain how these tax credits, how these subsidies, how they essentially are the foundation of the Affordable Care Act.
Yeah, sure.
Thanks.
That's a great question.
The Affordable Care Act was designed to help fill a really important gap in our health care system, which was to provide affordable coverage to people who didn't get an offer from their employer, weren't old enough for Medicare, didn't have low enough income for Medicaid.
So they sort of
Updated, improved, re-regulated the individual market and required insurers to accept everyone underwriting for medical conditions, rating only for age.
And to make that actually work for people, to make the coverage be affordable, they also included this set of tax credits that were based on income.
And it was an amazing accomplishment and filled a really important gap, but there was definitely
the perception that the tax credits.
were not sufficient to make coverage as affordable as people wanted.
So for example, when you reached 400% of the poverty level, which is only about $62,000 annual income for a person.
So it's not a very high income.
You actually would hit what people call the subsidy cliff.
You wouldn't get any tax credit at all.
So coverage was really unaffordable for people at that income level and over.
And for people with really low income, there was also the perception that the tax credits were not really sufficient and a lot of people were not taking the offer of coverage.
So in 2021, they enhanced the tax credits.
They made them more generous and they also eliminated that subsidy cliff and just had a cap of a percent of income that you would be required to spend on premiums so that that kind of smoothed that.
top part of the income distribution and made the coverage a lot more affordable for people at the lower end of the income distribution.
And as a result, in every state in the country, enrollment really soared.
Like for example, in Wisconsin, you went from close to 200,000 people in 2020 to about 313,000 in 2025.
So that's like a 50% bump up in your enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
And those kinds
of results were seen all over the country and enrollment in the marketplace soared to like 24 million.
But the reason I'm on the show today and the reason we're talking about it is that those enhanced
credits are set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress takes action.
And as you probably know, open enrollment is going to start soon for the 2026 plan year.
And that plan year is going to reflect the end of those tax credits unless something happens.
So you had those expiring.
And then to add insult to injury, you had the massive cuts to Medicaid and other things that made life more affordable for Americans in the so-called big, beautiful bill.
And now it comes time to pass a new federal budget for the new fiscal year.
Republicans most likely need democratic votes in order to pass that.
And Democrats are saying, well, in return for our vote, here's some things that we would like to see restored.
or extended.
And so when you look at what they're talking about, I guess, I don't know if I should ask best case scenario or the most realistic good scenario that could happen between now and next week, that would be beneficial to most Americans in keeping their health care affordable.
Is it just focusing on those enhanced tax credits and restoring those?
I think that's the most feasible thing that's on the table right now.
You did mention some other looming threats to coverage that are going to impact people in the Medicaid program, work requirements and some really important.
changes that affect how states are able to finance the program and pay providers.
And there are lots and lots of concerns about what those things are gonna do to coverage.
And in fact, CBO is estimated kind of all in, maybe 15 million Americans are gonna become uninsured over the next 10 years, which is something like a 50% increase in the size of the uninsured population.
So it's a massive assault on health insurance coverage.
all the pieces, but I think the thing that is closest to really hitting the road and being enacted is this situation with the enhanced premium tax credits, and that's what people are trying to incorporate into.
budget discussions in Congress, and certainly there have been talks about a permanent extension, there have been talks about a one-year extension, there have been talks about a two-year extension.
I mean, right now, unfortunately, the parties are not talking to each other at all, it seems, at least that's what the public face of it is.
So it's very, very difficult to suss out what might be happening.
Our guest is Catherine Hempstead from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and we're talking about the enhanced tax credits that help folks afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and them expiring or potentially being extended.
And I like the point that you made that there's talk about making them permanent or maybe for another year or two.
Obviously what was approved in 2021 is expiring now.
Why was it set up that way?
Because like in all things, politics is the art of the possible.
And there were plenty of people in 2021 who figured that by 2025,
they would see how many more people are being helped by those enhanced tax credits, how much more affordable health insurance has become for more Americans, and that they would then see that and want to make it permanent.
Obviously, that's not what we're seeing proposed by the Trump administration or by congressional Republicans.
But Catherine, there's no shortage of either anecdotes or mentions in news stories that there are individual Republican members of Congress who have indicated they would be open to extending or maybe even making permanent the enhanced tax credits because they, well,
They understand the help.
They also understand the harm going into an election year of saying that these credits were allowed to expire.
But I'm wondering if you get the same sense that there are more than zero individual Republicans in Congress who might be amenable to extending these health care tax credits and avoiding a shutdown next year.
I think that's definitely right.
And there have been a number of individual members who have said they're open to talking about it.
There's been some proposals from Republicans of maybe a one or a two-year extension.
So I think you're right.
And the truth is that states that voted Republican are really in general, as a rule, have disproportionately higher use of the ACA marketplace, especially
some of the states that haven't expanded Medicaid, which I know is partially true in Wisconsin, but states like Texas and Florida are really dependent on the marketplace.
And they're going to see massive disruptions and coverage loss if these tax credits go away.
So I think there's a lot of concern in.
All members of Congress, but I think especially a lot of Republican members that their constituents are gonna experience really massive sticker shock when they start to see what they're gonna be asked to pay for coverage.
And unfortunately a lot of people are gonna drop coverage and that's gonna create a spiral of bad consequences for individuals, for hospitals, healthcare providers, everybody.
So I do agree with you that there is a lot of interest.
from some individual members, Republicans and certainly Democrats in trying to come to an agreement.
We were talking in the last hour about a New York Times article that cited Republicans who were pointing to the cost of all of these enhanced tax credits and citing that big price tag as a reason to oppose their renewal.
But what was missing from there was the comparison, the contrast with
What's the cost if suddenly all of those people can't afford their health insurance anymore?
Either have to pay a lot more and decide to drop it or just are no longer eligible.
And I don't know that that's a number you have at your fingertips.
But again, I would imagine the cost of extending these tax credits probably pales in comparison to the long range cost of having that many more million Americans go back to being uninsured.
Yeah, I think I think that's I think that's a great point It's also worth noting that you know, this is the only tax credit that
didn't get extended.
So when you think about what was in the reconciliation bill, which included a lot of extensions of tax credits and then some really drastic cuts, historic cuts to the Medicaid program.
And then you see this, it seems like there's a real concerted effort to undermine health insurance coverage in recent policy.
And to your point, yes, it costs money to cover people, but it's also very costly when people aren't covered because you see people neglect symptoms.
because they are terrified of having medical debt or not knowing what they might be asked to pay if they go into the hospital or clinic and they don't have coverage.
So people neglect symptoms until they're much more serious, then they show up in more expensive settings like emergency rooms.
And unfortunately, sometimes it's too late for things to be treated.
And there have been a lot of great studies of the health benefits of expanding coverage.
And unfortunately, we...
We kind of know what's going to happen when you throw that process into reverse, which is something that I think we're really looking at in this country from a multiple set of sources.
And then you also see, you know, the consequence on the healthcare system when people lose customers that can come in and pay for preventive care or for elective surgery or for things that improve the quality of their life, but they won't do if they don't have coverage, then you see some hospitals, especially in rural areas becoming very financial.
may be having to lay people off, may be having to eliminate certain specialties.
And then that has a spillover effect on the health and access to healthcare for the entire community, especially in rural areas when there may not be a lot of healthcare systems.
So.
you're right there is a real negative ripple effect when people lose coverage and it's also not just people's health and not just the health care system but health insurance coverage is a really important form of financial protection so when people go into debt or people have big medical bills to pay they stop paying other bills they may not pay their rent they may not pay their credit card bills and so you see a sort of a downward spiral in people's financial well-being too so it's extremely costly to not
cover people.
Catherine Hempstead is with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation helping explain this very important part of keeping affordable in the Affordable Care Act and some of the background on what may lead to a government shutdown fight next year or next week rather when Congress is back in session.
Catherine thank you again.
It's always great to get background from you.
Hope you have a great day.
Thanks.
You too.
Pleasure.
Yep.
Take care now.
All right.
Some final news and notes from Lake Wissota coming up here and again a reminder tomorrow.
We'll have some of our regular Thursday guests here.
That'll include Joseph Pecky.
It'll include Sean O'Malley talking about your money in the markets as well.
All that ahead for more information.
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