You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
For the last time in Dallas.
For the
time for me saying, in Dallas.
Yeah, for today.
He's now retiring.
Bye, Beth.
For one more day tomorrow.
And clearly, I got to do a better job pre-writing these things.
But yeah, here I am.
One more day.
today and then the first part of tomorrow in Texas and then back home because back home in the Chippewa Valley right now is 32 degrees whereas here it's depending on whether you're in or out of your car it's anywhere between 90 and 125 it's just another one of
It's just another Texas kind of day here, but it is nice to have you here.
Whether you're up north or down here in Texas on this Wednesday morning, October 8th, that's Parker Olson producing us from Madison Studio A2.
We will have Earl Ingram along in just a bit.
Melissa Baldoff will have our climate check for the week.
And then coming up less than 30 minutes from now, Chuck Collins from patriotic millionaires will talk about his book all about the billionaire class, what it's doing to our country, what it's doing to our planet, and what we can do about it.
So again, another busy hour ahead here.
So let's get things started with Earl Ingram, you can catch the what's going on with Earl Ingram podcast, head over to civic media dot us to catch all the episodes of it.
And we'll talk about one of the more recent
right after we cover some of the other headlines of the day with Earl.
Earl, good morning.
How are you doing?
I'm doing fine, Pat.
I think I'm doing better than you.
People can have 105 and 90 and all those kind of things.
just not my cup of tea.
No, I mean, and it's just it's it's always every everybody's got their ceiling fans working on high and the air conditioners are only all the time kicking in it.
I think what they're doing here to the ozone layer in and of itself is is really impressive stuff.
But
the bugs have to be pretty outlandish down
there, right?
Yes, they are.
I was at the Fort Worth ock yard yesterday.
We wanted to eat outdoors at this barbecue restaurant.
That was a mistake.
They've got Texas-sized critters here and you do not want to mess with them.
Let's get into, you know, Jim from Brookfield is already on the text line kicking off some of our discussion here.
He says for Trump to cut special education because of DEI is borderline criminal.
My mother taught special ed in public schools for over 30 years and never used the term DEI.
Who do they think they are helping?
That's the text from Jim in Brookfield who clearly knows that Earl and I want to have a chat about
the Trump administration.
I mean, look, we've known all about their, you know, their war on diversity, equity and inclusion, the whining that somehow being working toward diversity and equity and inclusion is some kind of weird reverse racism in their world.
And so they're doing everything to go after groups that they feel are getting special treatment.
But in doing that, not only are they going after, you know, minority racial
groups, LGBTQ.
But I mean, anything, we've talked about the cuts to deafblind student education programs.
And now we're going to talk about the cuts to special education programs.
Earl, tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't feel like special education students are getting some kind of special DEI treatment.
Like Jim and Brookfield says, who the hell is this supposed to help?
Well, you know the insanity in all of this is I've said it before I'm a treatment foster parent and so the one thing that helped us through the early stages and the 20 years that the young man that we're raising went to school was he was always in the special ed programs and and so those people who dedicate their lives to
doing what I think is a mission of mercy.
Many times often forgotten.
And so there aren't enough of them across the spectrum.
And to cut a $10 million program is more than punitive.
It's trifling $10 million.
And but it certainly impacts many educators who don't have they really need a
PhD and those kinds of things or master's degree in order to really be able to spend an elongated period of time as a special ed teacher, but so they need financial support.
Because they have to continue to work at their trade and to improve themselves.
They can't financially go to school afford to do that and then make this something that they're going to do for the rest of their lives.
And that's the injustice in this is that these people are so hateful and blind that they can't see that this is not about diversity, equity and inclusion.
And well, it is about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
But as you stated, that includes special ed and special ed people and children and all of these kinds of people who through no part of their own have to live in the kind of conditions that they have to live in.
So it's more than heartbreaking.
It is and it's frustrating and it's stupid.
There's just no other way to put it.
From Education Week, they note that 25 ongoing projects related to special education recently received cancellation notices jeopardizing more than $30 million worth of federally funded efforts in 14 states to help educators
better serve students with disabilities.
Again, students with disabilities, hardly some kind of, you know, special treatment class that's out there.
So it leads me to the next follow up to this Earl is again, this is weirdly punitive.
And it's not even clear what it is they think they're getting away with.
But could it be
That they have overreached to such a point that it's one thing to all they're always talking about cutting waste fraud and abuse We're cutting waste fraud and abuse.
Okay.
Now you're cutting special education teacher funding you're cutting funding for for the education of deaf blind kids I mean, I feel like I feel like the country is truly at a crossroads if you can't get upset about that and realize that your guy Trump
overshot the mark.
If you can't get upset and rain that back in, I kind of feel like everything is lost and I don't want to think that that would be the case.
Well, you know, Pat, I'm like you, I just can't comprehend how people can can look at this and think it's alright.
I think at the root of it is people don't know it, right?
I mean, this is not in bold letters.
It's not on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times and the Washington Post.
And so people on the web, it's buried somewhere.
And so unless we're, you know, scour the news outlets to find out that this is taking place, this information doesn't get out.
And you're talking $30 million.
That's a mere pittance.
You know on a budget that the United States has every year But it's it's it's heartbreaking to families is heartbreaking to the educators who can't stay in Those kind of career fields because it doesn't pay enough money So what we should be doing is doing everything within our power to increase the pay so people who have taken on that you know kind of career well
and they've done it for a reason because that's what's in their hearts, uh, are compensated properly to keep them there.
That's right.
Now, I will say that one of the things that we hear occasionally from people with the Trump administration is that these things aren't being cut.
They're all being reviewed and, you know, to make sure that there isn't waste, fraud, and abuse, and then they'll be like renewed or released or whatever.
But A, that's still going to do a lot of damage.
In the meantime, while that money is suspended, but B, I don't necessarily buy that it's temporarily suspended and under review.
I think they're just hoping people stop paying attention.
And then that money stays cut.
So it really does come back to your point and the point we were making from our Texas education guest in the last hour is it has to be about communicating this.
Stop worrying about
changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico stop.
You know, yes, it's it's a distraction that they're blowing up boats in the Caribbean.
You look at what's happening in your life in your backyard right now.
And you've got to know that these things are happening or else you let them get away with all the distractions.
And you know what else I would say, pet, I would say to those who are listening, who may not know about
this and what's taking place, I would say to them, because it's not in your backyard, it doesn't mean that this is not important.
I can't think of many more things, Pat, as important as making sure that people who are born in the kind of conditions they're in, that we do everything we can to support them.
You know why?
It's the right thing to do.
We've always done it.
And the only reason it's not being done now is there's a different guy in the White House.
That's that's exactly it.
A couple minutes here to talk about what else is happening with the what's going on podcast with Earl Ingram get it at civicmedia.us and you we talked about how our newsletter question of the week is about the governor's race and now that Josh Call is running for attorney general instead of governor what does this mean to the race and you talked to Dr. Robert Craig from Citizen Action also about how the governor's race is shaking out at this early stage.
Well you know not only did I talk to
you know, Dr. Robert Craig, I had a personal conversation with Mandela Barnes.
So people are gonna, maybe it's not a surprise now, but I've said it all along.
It would, I wouldn't understand why a guy in Mandela Barnes's situation, there's still a very young man in his late 30s and who has a statewide recognition, ran a national.
race and just about unseated, a United States senator would not throw his hat in the ring this time around.
And I know he hasn't officially announced it, but I can tell you, it won't be a surprise to see that Mandela Barnes, his name is going to come into play.
And I'll tell you something, his name recognition, he'll come right to the top of the list for Democrats.
And, you know, it's got a great opportunity.
So throughout the state, then you're going to have people with name recognition like Mandela Barnes as a former Lieutenant Governor, who also, of course, is a son of Milwaukee.
You also have David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive who has, you know, a base in Milwaukee, maybe is not as well known across the state.
Why?
Pardon me.
He's not statewide.
He's not known statewide.
Yeah, exactly that.
So does the if again, we're talking if if Mandela Barnes were to get into the race, does he how much of the primary becomes a fight over Milwaukee Milwaukee block of voters versus the name ID advantage she has in the rest of the state.
It is a great question.
I have to tell you that there are some people in the black community in the city of Milwaukee who aren't big supporters of Mandela Barnes and they are of David Crowley.
I just hope that people are educated enough to understand.
It's not about the city of Milwaukee.
It's a statewide race.
And so you can come out great in the city of Milwaukee, but it's only one city in the entire state.
That's right.
And so I would hope that they would be able to understand that.
Yeah.
And again, a primary can go in all different ways, either stay above board or get very divisive.
And at this point, you've got a slate of quality candidates in there that probably can have a very good debate on the issues and who'd be the best nominee to go forward.
So to hear more of that discussion with Dr. Craig, check out Earl Ingram's What's Going On podcast civic media dot us.
slash shows to learn more.
Earl, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
All right, have a safe trip and bring back some of that.
They've got the best.
What is it?
Not prime rib, but oh,
that brisket that barbecue is good stuff.
I will do that.
I will do that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Earl.
Appreciate that very much.
All right, we will continue on here.
I'm Pat Kwayler from UpDark News.
This is Pacific Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
All right, welcome back time for this week's climate check with Melissa Baldoff.
And so as we get this conversation rolling, I will tell you that being down here in Texas, I haven't followed some of my usual workflow here.
And so Melissa was kind enough to send a few notes over to me.
And thankfully, we've got some some good news to talk about.
But we got to get through some other garbage before we get there.
Melissa, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing okay at least I was till I saw the the headlines that you sent over so we're gonna we're gonna cover those quickly and then we're gonna get to the good useful stuff that you can
help your home in however, you gotta you gotta have here's here's FEMA withholding 300 million dollars in grants That's again.
That's the federal emergency management agency is withholding 300 million in grants until states account for
deportations.
In other words, mixing disaster relief with their official racial profiling policy.
So as we see more of these disasters that have ties to a changing climate, it gets caught up in the rest of the garbage that's out there, sadly.
And you know, this is one of those things that is, you know, such an unserious
demand from the Trump administration, but is certainly exactly in line with the petty and reckless way that they have operated the government, you know, that they are going to be withholding this money from communities that desperately need relief.
you know, we're in Texas, obviously, we know they had floods that were devastating and deadly.
We had, you know, a thousand year flood here in Southeast Wisconsin recently.
And the money that FEMA provides is to help folks recover.
So this is, you know, wrong on its face.
And when you think about the fact that it's really, you know, it's uncertain how states are supposed to, you know,
Know the number of people who have been deported when that number it could be changing daily And for you know, most states especially ones with larger populations that are the ones I'm sure being targeted here You know that that can't be a number that's going to really move the needle on the size of the awards that they're getting So it's really this is you know, not serious policy.
This is intended to
hurt and harm.
And by the way, it takes us to the other headline in terms of, you know, the Trump administration, again, intending to harm and trying to make, you know, the people suffer more because of their government shutdown.
You have the energy department that has canceled more than $7 billion for hundreds of projects, not surprisingly,
Mostly in blue states now in in the past when you had government shutdowns, you know You saw funding cuts across the board, but not this time Melissa where you you have an administration that is Politicizing the way that federal money gets handled in a government shutdown again I can't call it shameless because you they'd have to have a sense of shame
you know, last week that if Democrats in Congress didn't vote for a funding bill to keep the government open that he would quote, do things during the shutdown that are irreversible that are bad for them.
So he is not operating as a president for all people.
He is operating as somebody who has political scores to settle and wants to inflict pain.
on his political enemies and that is the top priority and that's always been his top priority across the board is how can he hurt the people who disagree with him.
and don't go along with whatever crazy ideas he has.
Right.
And, and even if that hurts people that voted for him, he does not care about that.
It's about, you know, any kind of retribution for perceived slights.
And so there's all kinds of ways where he's been trying to claw money back that has already gone out the door been approved by Congress.
And
Thankfully, there's still some things that he can't touch that have gone out the door because of the Inflation Reduction Act.
And that takes us to the good news that's out of Madison, where Governor Evers and the Public Service Commission are announcing that Wisconsin residents can now access through the Inflation Reduction Act some home energy rebates directly at retail locations through instant discounts.
and through post purchase rebates, what can you tell us about those?
So we know that the hear and homes programs that have been made available in Wisconsin, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act with money already allocated, are incredibly successful in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is the state and the nation that has done the most work here, gotten the most folks served.
really doing fantastic work because on the front end, we had a really wonderful program in place with Focus on Energy to be able to implement these programs in a very streamlined, efficient way for people.
So that's already exciting news that we've talked about before.
But the fact that we now can get these rebates available at retail locations just makes it easier for people to actually use the programs, access these rebates, and get those energy saving, money saving products in their home.
So some of the rebates that people can get when they're making the switch from
gas-powered appliance to an electric appliance up to $1,750 for an electric heat pump water heater, up to $8,000 for an electric heat pump that's used for heating and cooling, up to $2,500 for electrical wiring updates, up to $840 for electric stoves, cooktops.
So these are really big savings for folks that
are able to access these appliances themselves, you know, from a retail store, or working with an IRA registered contractor, and they are going to be able to save quite a bit of money on the, you know, purchase of these products, which is wonderful, and save money, quite a bit of money on their utility usage for years to come.
And to learn more, FocusOnEnergy.com, FocusOnEnergy.com.
Melissa Baldhoff, thank you very much, appreciate it.
Have a good one.
Alright, Chuck Collins is coming up next and we're gonna hear all about the billionaire class in this country and what we can do about it after this.
Right.
Well, our next guest is somebody who we've heard about a lot from listeners every time a commercial comes on from Chuck Collins talking about patriotic millionaires and wealth inequality in our country.
We hear people saying you should get him on as a guest.
And so we're going to but I'm gonna get there by way of a personal tale as folks know, I'm traveling this week.
And down here in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, I spent yesterday afternoon down at the Fort Worth Stockyards.
where you had both swift and armor were the two big meat packing plants down here.
They later combined as swift armor.
We all know what kinds of kids eat armor hot dogs.
And then of course, people know about Oscar Meyer.
and how, you know, once upon a time worked in, I believe, the Chicago Stockyards for both Swift and Armor before starting a little company of his own.
And his grandson, Chuck Collins, is one of those folks who should be part of the family dynasty, the wealth that comes along with it.
But Chuck has seen the world and has decided to use his life to point out the wealth inequality and the widening gap here in the world, starting with families who may be
but then it's what they've done in trying to protect the wealth and grow the wealth that has really had negative impacts on our society, on our politics, and on our planet.
And so it is an honor to welcome Chuck Collins to the program this morning.
Chuck, good morning.
Thank you for being here.
How are
Good morning,
I sang it to my daughter and grandkids yesterday, and it just didn't resonate with them the way that it did, or the old Oscar Meyer jingles for that matter.
You you come from that Oscar Meyer family and you talk in your book burned by billionaires and thank you again for the copy to Peruse before the interview here you talk about the I guess I would say the old timey companies, you know the Carnegie's the Vanderbilts the Rockefellers and we were all familiar with the gilded age of that time and
it seems like more people than ever, but still not nearly enough people understand just what a gilded age we've entered with this new generation of family wealth.
growth of wealth inequality in the U.S.
And it's pretty much taken over 40 years to get to this point.
You know, for people who grew up in the years after World War II, we were kind of growing together, the middle class was expanding.
And then in the late 70s, we made this turn and we've become more and more unequal.
And I would say most of the wealth and income now, it's not just growing to the top 1%, it's going to that top
one tenth of one percent, the folks with $40 million.
So that's the time we're living in extreme inequality.
And it's like you said in the book, and you make a great point about this, it's one thing to acquire wealth.
And a lot of Americans, frankly, don't begrudge that if you've built yourself from virtually nothing into something, okay, that's one thing.
And then maybe some people are familiar with the next stage of how you protect that wealth and looking for the tax shelters and the corporate acquisitions and all that.
But it's these next two phases that I think people are less familiar with, basically about regulatory capture, if you will, but then wealth extraction.
Can you talk more about those stages and where you think we're at right now?
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of us respect people who start companies and create something useful and
are rewarded financially for that.
But as you say, Pat, there's a stage where then once people get a certain level of wealth, and I would say it's sort of around that 40 million mark, they start to invest in wealth defense and they invest in what I would call billionaire capture, the capture of our political system, influencing the writing of rules, policies, laws, kind of in their favor.
So the wealthy use their wealth to
get more wealth.
And then we're in this final stage, and this is the most complicated to understand, where the ultra wealthy are starting to say, well, how can we extract more wealth from the healthy real economy?
And I call that we're living through the hyper extractive phase, where every corner of our lives, healthcare, housing, how our pets are taken care of everything, there are these billionaire back private equity companies coming in and sort of hoovering up the wealth.
perfectly profitable companies they're buying sometimes, but they just want higher and higher returns.
So that's kind of the complicated moment we're in.
And hoovering is the perfect way to put it.
And again, it seemed like a relatively small amount of people understood in the beginning that this isn't just about protecting some tax loopholes and oh, good for them, they don't have to pay as high percentage of taxes as we do.
But it really has gone beyond that to
coming up with these ways to basically have that wealth transfer.
You know, the thing that a lot of conservatives said was actually happening was there was this transfer of wealth from hard-working people to, you know, lazy people on their couches when, if any of that was going on, it is a pittance compared to the wealth transfer going from the middle class to the, you know, the millionaire billionaire class these days.
And what we've seen is just what you're describing.
The middle class, people who used to be able to save money, purchase a home, are locked into rental housing, deeper in debt, wages have pretty much stayed flat.
And as they rise,
So have the cost of living.
So people are more and more squeezed.
And that is a result, I would say.
And most people say, ah, does it matter how rich the rich are?
Do I really care?
I don't begrudge them that.
But actually, it really matters because huge amounts of that wealth is going to that top 1-tenth of 1%.
And it's really affecting each of our pocketbooks.
And you say that it has impact not just on society, not just on our politics, but frankly, the planet as well.
There is a tipping point at which you have so much wealth concentrated in such a way that it is literally bad for our health and the planet's health.
And then, you know, the ultra wealthy are the super polluters, the super emitters.
They have bigger houses, they're burning more fuel, they're flying at private jets.
Some of them have yachts, which are like the most polluting form of transportation in the world.
Again, we're not begrudging individual behavior.
We're just saying, look, that's affecting us.
we're subsidizing that as taxpayers.
We're subsidizing private jets flying around and they're trashing the planet.
And each of us maybe are wrestling with, well, should I do a little bit more in my own life?
But we feel like chumps when we see somebody flying in their private jet to go have lunch with their friend.
It's like, why should I give up anything to have a healthy planet when these folks are reckless?
I was actually just having a conversation down here yesterday with somebody who works in, you know, the private pilot world.
And the, you know, the ways that these jets are used, it's not just a family going down to the Cayman Islands.
It's, you know, I, you know, I miss my pet.
And so we're flying a family pet across country.
It's that kind of, you know, it goes some well beyond luxury.
And I'm noticing a similarity to something we talked about in the
last hour about the taxpayer funded voucher school program and how it's not that people are against private schools, it's that they're realizing how much tax money, how much of their money is going into it.
So they're not saying shut down the private schools, but they are saying, why are we paying this much for it?
Similarly,
You're not making the case.
Oh, we got to we got to get rid of billionaires.
We've got to cause harm.
We've got to make them lose their wealth.
You're saying no, no, no, it again, it's the system and find a way that we don't put as much of our money or frankly, as much of our political power into the hands of just a few concentrated wealthy families.
It's not about individuals and individual behavior.
although I can think of a few annoying billionaires out there.
But there's actually a few decent folks who care about the problems you and I are talking about.
It's about a system.
It's about how the economy's kind of been rewired over the last couple of decades to funnel wealth to the top and not lift the floor and create, expand our middle class.
And that's when it's really, really backfires, I think.
on the health of the society.
So it's an opportunity for us to say, well, I don't resent individuals.
Some of us would like to be wealthier, but at this stage, these billionaires are blocking opportunity for everyone else to have just even a decent life, let alone become wealthy.
Chuck Collins is our guest from Patriotic Millionaires and author of the book, Burn to Buy Billionaires.
again has ties to you know, the Oscar Meyer family and can as a result talk all about the wealth inequality and how it has become exacerbated in the current system.
So if we're not talking about going after individuals but more about the system and yet the system feels like it's been captured by you know, the super wealthy then
Where is our starting point?
We can't change the Supreme Court tomorrow and get rid of Citizens United, which has played an outsized role in putting so much corporate cash into our politics.
So where do we start to affect change in the very system itself that has been, for lack of a better term, hijacked?
Well, this is the pickle we're in, and I would say let's all look at where we do have some room to move.
For instance, at the state and local level, we can sort of do things that protect the health of our local economies.
We can protect local hospitals from private equity funds, billionaires buying them up.
I'm involved in where I live in New England now.
trying to keep our local hospitals from being snatched up by these wealth extractors.
We want to elect people who say, hey, I'm going to work for the growth of the benefit of everyone, not the billionaire class, and really measure them.
And the more we start to see people run for office and saying, I'm running because I want to lift up.
everybody, not just the yachts.
You know, I want to lift up all the boats, not just the yachts.
And they defeat some of these folks who keep voting for tax cuts for the rich.
That's going to change the conversation and change the politics.
But part of it is we just need to talk to our neighbors about, you know what, that problem, your local property tax bill, why it's so high is because the billionaires have been shifting taxes off of themselves and onto states and localities for decades.
And we're having to pay more because of that.
Well, it is so much easier to talk about a flat tax and the quote unquote fairness of a flat tax, rather than trying to explain marginal tax rates, and why we would be so much better off, you know, with making the tax system as non flat as possible.
But somehow or another, we have to try that because this getting away from a progressive tax system, taxation system, it has got to be right at the top of the list of things that need to be fixed.
And most people agree with that.
Most people understand the billionaires aren't even paying their end of the flat tax, let alone paying their progressive tax that used to be in place.
I live in Vermont, so my senior senator says things like, under the socialist presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, we used to tax the wealthy at high rates and invest in education, infrastructure.
affordable housing, things that lift up everybody, not just the rich.
And I think that's probably the we need to kind of rekindle that conversation again.
Oh, without a doubt.
And and hopefully with with more in that style of speech, it resonates with people.
That's when Senator Sanders was here in Wisconsin, not that very long ago.
Chuck Collins, again, the book is burned by billionaires.
You should be looking for that.
And of course, you hear him here across the civic media radio network.
Thanks to patriotic millionaires.
And I'm sure we'll be hearing more from you in the coming days as well.
Chuck, thank you so much for your time this morning.
It was a real pleasure.
You bet.
All right.
Appreciate it very much.
We will have some final news and notes from down here in Dallas coming up in just a bit.
And a reminder that we've got Brewers Playoff Baseball coming up later this afternoon.
It will be the Brewers versus the Cubs.
Brewers could conceivably clinch the National League Division Series and move on in the postseason pregame starting at 3.30.
Back in just a bit.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
All right, once again, we've got Brewers baseball against the Cubs on some of the stations across the Civic Media radio network.
Game three of the National League Division series that's at Wrigley Field Pregame beginning at 3.30 this afternoon.
I was looking at some other headlines here and Parker, do you remember Sharpie Gate when the president of the United States altered a hurricane map with a Sharpie?
You see, that's just it.
There's so much stuff that this guy does that you forget about, you know, how stupid something is because then the next thing comes along.
And it was, it was all about, you know, this 2020 thing during the hurricane season, sorry, 2019, where the president of the United States holds up a hurricane map with the hurricane cone, you know, the forecast cone, and it's very clearly
has an extra line on it, drawn by a Sharpie, and the guy who was kind of the acting director for Hurricane Forecasting at the time, his name is Neil Jacobs.
He was found to have violated the Code of Ethics for the National Weather Service Parent Organization by bowing to Oval Office pressure back then.
and releasing a statement critical of his own forecasters in Alabama, who had stressed that a hurricane was not expected to impact their state, even though Donald Trump said that it would.
He alters the map with the Sharpie to include that part of Alabama And why am I telling you all of all of this about the guy who is running the hurricane?
Forecasting office at the time Neil Jacob I'm telling you this because last night the United States Senate confirmed him as the new leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the parent organization of the National Weather Service.
I Can't even anymore,
That's the only way I
Pat.
Until I know you got to keep going that way because at some point, when do these weather forecasts much like the you know, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and everything else?
At what point do you are you unable to put
any faith in the things that your government is putting out, because it used to be a service-driven thing.
Here, as a service to all Americans, we the government will collect this data and we will share this data about a forecast, about markets, about climate conditions, about all of that, and keep the politics out of it.
And we're at a point now where the politics are so deep that if
If they were in charge of sharing tonight's baseball scores, I wouldn't believe them if I hadn't watched the games myself.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
Like we talked about in the last half hour there with Melissa Baldoff, that FEMA grants are being held up until states do something about.
deporting people, which has nothing to do with disaster relief.
This is, this is not the adulthood I signed up for.
This is so beyond it's beyond parody.
And yet here it is.
And here's where we are.
And we had Pam Bondi yesterday putting on a, you know, a show worthy of daytime trash TV and her congressional testimony, just hurling insults rather than than answering questions.
And there for some people,
This is just what they want.
They want our government to be like something out of the movie Idiocracy, where it's all wrestling all the time.
It's all, it's all entertainment.
And, you know, it gives me job security, because we're
always going
to have something to talk about.
Usually under the vein of, hey, it shouldn't be this way.
Don't normalize this.
Okay.
Let's not normalize what we're going through these days.
Please.
this.
I do too.
I have high hopes for your adulthood someday.
It was great to have Chuck Collins on, though, after how many times we've heard him through those commercials, through patriotic millionaires, which again, just want to call attention to the inequities of the tax system.
These are things that can be fixed.
But then to be able to take it a step further and trace him as a grandson of Oscar Meyer, and to be able to talk about
you know, Oscar Meyer versus Swift and armor from down here in in Fort Worth, Texas.
It just was a great reminder.
And he's got a chart in the book about how, you know, where there once was, you know, Oscar Meyer and Swift armor and, like I said, you know, the Vanderbilts and and the Rockefellers.
Well, now you've got Elon Musk, you know, and you you've got Mark Zuckerberg.
And you've got just
you know all of the other Peter Thiel and all the other people from these giant companies who are no different and we're living in that age now where they can they can almost
get away with murder, they simply can get away.
They are getting away with murder of the credibility of the United States government.
So it was a real treat having him on today.
I hope more people read that book.
I got a text on the line here from Roger and Steven's point saying, thank you for bringing Mr. Collins onto the program.
I will buy his book and I hope more people will understand his story.
So that worked out really well today.
And if folks want a preview of it, again, the UK newspaper The Guardian did an article a couple of days ago about Chuck Collins and this book.
So if you just Google up Chuck Collins, you'll probably have it show up right away in your news feeds for that and learn much more about it.
All right, well, it's time for naps for Parker and for Pat and for lots of other Brewer's fans because, you know,
If we got it, we got a game tonight and we want to be well rested.
Thank God it's not another eight o'clock start.
Oh, I could not do that again.
No, definitely.
So we've got that coming up again, we've got the coverage coming up at 330 with the pregame a little bit later.
And then Parker and I will be talking about it bright and early 6am tomorrow from down here in Dallas for one more day.
And of course, it being Thursday, we will also talk to Sharita Booker as well.
Find out about some of the events going on.
And then stick around for Congressman Mark Pokan at 735 tomorrow morning.
I'm Pat Crightlow from Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom a pro democracy
University
News Network.
Have a wonderful Wednesday.
See you tomorrow morning.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
