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Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Upnorth News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
Happy Friday, 706.
Nice to have you back here up north on this October 17th, 2025.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
And of course, on Fridays, we have our stellar Week in Review panel with former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel and journalist Mark Jacobs and Jenner Pritolsie out here.
One hour from now, we'll be talking to State Senator Jeff Smith of Eau Claire.
And we'll be talking on the campaign side of things because of redistricting.
Now, there were new maps, new fairer maps for Wisconsin voters the last go-round, finally, after more than a decade of rigged maps that Republicans of gerrymandered.
And it made a difference in 2024.
There was turnover in several assembly seats because things got a little bit more representative of the actual Wisconsin electorate.
Well, it didn't impact all of the state Senate races because state Senate terms are four years instead of two.
And so only half the Senate is up for reelection every two years.
So that means that next year in 2026, the other half of the state Senate is going to have some interesting races with people in new districts because in some places.
People were drawn into similar districts.
Republican Senator Jesse James of the Altoona area and Democratic Senator Jeff Smith of Eau Claire had been in two separate districts.
They're now in the same district.
Where they will be for next year and Jesse James made official yesterday that he is going to challenge a Democrat Jeff Smith Jeff Smith has said that he's gonna run for reelection and so these two incumbents will be squaring off in What is definitely a proxy for the way that the entire?
2026 is gonna shape up with a race for governor races for Congress and this big battle for a key seat in the Wisconsin legislature and so Jeff Smith is gonna talk to us about the race and
So far, the case that he is building for Wisconsin voters, that's all coming up in just a little bit.
Again, a reminder that you can sign up for our unabashedly Wisconsin news by heading over to UpgroundNewsWI.com and clicking subscribe up in the top banner.
Today's edition includes from Ellie Bordeaux, our new newsletter editor, a small business shout out on Fridays this time.
geared specifically to local pizza places and we rattled off a few of them in our last hour.
We'll try to bring it back up a little bit later on but you'll want to see that newsletter to see who the readers saluted for having among the best local pizza places in Wisconsin.
You of course are free to also
nominate some business, just get in the comment section of YouTube or Facebook, where you can watch us do the radio show, the Up North News, Facebook or YouTube pages, or the Civic Media Facebook or YouTube pages, and put a comment there about pizza.
In fact, Rob does from Tigerton.
Rob says, good morning from Tigerton.
It's cloudy, 54 degrees, picked up just about a tenth of an inch of rain with some lightning and thunder too.
Last night, he had homemade pizza.
at his sister Laurie's house in Caroline and it was excellent.
So I guess that's not a local pizza joint.
You can't go to Caroline's house necessarily.
And he says today I get to try a new place in Tigerton called the Yeager Bomb Bar and Grill.
It's great to support a new local business.
Oh boy.
We say what Greg Bach said during the commercial break, probably not.
You know, we'll just say the sloppy drunk saloon.
I mean Yeager, but your name in the place for Yeager bombs.
that's
something right there.
But hey, it's a bar and will.
So how do you do?
How do you incorporate Yeager mice into your?
Oh, that means you've got ammo.
Yeah.
We also, we also talked about national pasta day.
And Tony up in Ashland puts on YouTube ravioli, but only from the classically trained chef boy Rd.
Real class.
That's fair.
Yeah, or the like Greg said, the Franco American that he and I grew up with.
So we'll take your nominations, favorite local pizza joint, favorite pasta, and maybe your favorite bar names too, because Jager Bomb Bar and Grill, that's that's got to go up there on the list of some of the best, most classically, Wisconsin bar names that are out there.
Alright, like I said, Jeff Smith in the next hour, but I want to talk about
something that was done at the state government level yesterday right now when it comes to the state budget.
And we haven't talked about this for a while because the state budget has been written for the next two years to fund education and, you know, take care of our natural resources, our roads, infrastructure, all the things here that make Wisconsin such a great place to live.
And we have for a number of years now had a budget surplus once we came out of the pandemic.
And again, Wisconsin had a really nice recovery coming out of the pandemic.
and then had a surplus.
Yes, there was a chunk of that that was federal pandemic aid, but there was also because people continued to work in Wisconsin and generate taxes because we didn't, you know, our unemployment situation was better here than in other states that also contributed to things.
So Governor Tony Evers yesterday put out a press release with an update on the state surplus.
And the press release reads in part Governor Tony Evers today celebrated Wisconsin's continued fiscal success and outlook despite continued national economic uncertainty and volatility.
The Evers administration today announced that the state ended the fiscal year back on July 1st with a positive balance of
$4.6 billion in the general fund.
That would be the state's main checking account.
So they ended the year with a $4.5 billion surplus, which exceeded all previous estimates.
Additionally, the state's rainy day fund now stands at $2 billion, the largest balance in state history, and more than six times what it was prior to the governor taking office.
And that should all be, you know, a reason for everybody.
Republicans as well as Democrats to say, yep, let's give ourselves a little pat on the back.
Really nice job.
Job well done.
We don't always agree on things, but let's celebrate the fact that while other states are struggling, we still have a four and a half billion dollar surplus.
But no, that wasn't good enough for State Assembly Representative Jerry O'Connor, Republican of Fond du Lac, who felt the need to put out a press release that said,
The $4.6 billion surplus is a result of strong fiscal responsibility by legislative Republicans over the past decade.
Contrary to how the governor has misleadingly framed the report, this is not the result of his fiscal planning.
If our tax and spend governor had enacted his proposed budgets, we would have a scarily different report and fiscally dire situation to discuss.
Well, a statement like that deserves a proper response, and so here it is.
Give me a break.
You guys needed to be dragged, kicking and screaming to support the people whose taxes helped fill those coffers in the first place.
You would have been happy to let the surplus money sit there and collect dust.
Until you could do with it what Donald Trump is doing with our federal treasury right now.
giving it away to the wealthy in the most reverse Robin Hood style scene in this country since the first Gilded Age.
You talk about tax and spend things that Governor Evers would have done.
I don't know.
Where do you want to start?
Should we start with the nearly two million dollars you cut for services to homeless veterans?
I mean, veterans haven't forgotten how you literally cut that line to zero dollars and tried to blame anybody else but yourselves.
There's also the zero new dollars in general state school aides.
Yes, there was some money put in other specific parts of the education budget, but generally, well, it turns out that the official numbers have come out for Wisconsin's 421 school districts and only 26% will receive more general state aid this year than the last school year.
while 301 districts, 71% of school districts in Wisconsin are getting less general state aid.
And frankly, you had to be dragged kicking and screaming to even that point when you'd rather keep starving our children's education.
As a result, we will continue to see more school referendums in Wisconsin hiking property taxes because of this lazy legislature.
Don't forget the child care accounts program you killed that as well Some extra child care money elsewhere in the budget is not going to stop the ongoing wave of child care providers who are getting out of business Forcing more parents into financial or personal crises There's also the fact that you haven't accepted the federal boost for Medicaid to cover more families.
Oh sure Donald Trump is gutting it for now, but
Up to this point, you have cost the state billions of dollars because of your ongoing temper tantrum that the Affordable Care Act passed.
It was 15 years ago.
Let it go, man.
And take care of your constituents who need your help, not your right wing talking points or your lectures.
And then finally, there is that state's rainy day fund, which now stands at $2 billion, which you didn't touch during a pandemic.
When COVID was new, when Wisconsinites were losing their jobs left and right, when Governor Evers was trying anything possible to try to make sure that families were supported, y'all took nine months off, never came into the capital.
Let that rainy day fund just sit there.
What good is a rainy day fund for emergencies if you guys decide to take a paid vacation during a national emergency?
So no, you don't get to lecture this governor on financial responsibility.
It was his shepherding, a federal pandemic funds that gave Wisconsin one of the healthiest post-pandemic recoveries in the country when you would have let Main Street businesses wither and die so long as WMC's members could keep their big, fat corporate tax breaks.
So you can put up all the press releases you want, but you will face voters next year under fairer maps.
who wonder what the heck it is you guys do for a living to earn your taxpayer funded paycheck.
So cash those taxpayer funded paychecks while you can because there is no guarantee that after next year you're going to be around to squander a state surplus any longer.
It's 717 right now.
And again, as we have mentioned a couple of times, there are going to be no Kings rallies all across the state.
In fact, talking yesterday to Cindy Greening from Chippewa Valley Indivisible, that last count 97.
different locations in Wisconsin will be the site of No Kings rallies at some point during the day tomorrow.
And the time is very widely.
There are some that start as early as nine in the morning in Little Medford across from the farmer's market.
Many of them start at 11 o'clock, say in Shawnoe at Franklin Park.
Some start at the noon hour, like in Friendship at the Adams County Courthouse.
Others are in the afternoon, like Oshkosh starts at one o'clock at Hiker Park.
But in Chippewa Falls, it doesn't get going until four o'clock at the Peace Circle.
So head over to knowkings.org to learn more about where you can take part and put your two cents in on what is happening in the state of this country right now.
We're going to talk to our weekend review panel in just a little bit about the state that our country is in right now, including the US Supreme Court taking the next step.
toward completely gutting what remains of the Voting Rights Act troops in the streets of places like Chicago that are frustrating even to Chicago police because of the lack of coordination.
But before we get to all of that news, we have the equally unhappy task of telling you that the Brewers are now down three games to love in the National League Championship Series after losing the game last night at Dodger Stadium three to one.
three games now in the league championship series, just three runs scored for the Brewers.
In the past five games, they have just 18 hits.
That's the fewest amount of hits in any five game stretch in team history.
Not exactly the kind of time that you want to pick for setting that kind of a team record.
However,
We keep the 2004 Boston Red Sox in mind because at least once a team has come back from a 3-0 postseason deficit to win a seven game series.
So there's that.
Our Week in Review panel is coming up live from the lake.
I'm Pat Critello.
Thanks for listening to us here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Back in a bit.
All right.
Please forgive me.
I was so deep in the pity pool of the Brewers losing to the Dodgers in Game 3 that I neglected to tell you that there is a Game 4.
And that is tonight.
Coverage begins at 7 o'clock tonight on several Civic Media radio stations.
First pitch at 7.38.
And of course we are hoping that we don't get a Dodger sweep in four games if there is a Game 5.
that will take place tomorrow in Los Angeles.
And if the Brewers happen to win tonight and tomorrow, then game six would be Monday at American Family Field.
And if we're really getting crazy and there's a game seven, that would be Tuesday night at American Family Field.
So, you know, keep hope alive.
We got that going for us.
It's time to talk to our weekend review panel, former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel, along with Chicago journalist Mark Jacob and Jennifer Scholes.
You all here joining us now.
Good morning to.
Good morning,
morning.
Good to see you all.
Let's start with Mark, because a lot of the foundation of this segment was grading the media for the way they covered the week's events.
And Mark has literally done that now.
The title of his latest newsletter is, I'm handing out pro-democracy grades to the media.
Read more at stopthepresses.news or couriernewsroom.com.
Professor Jacob, let's hear about those grades.
built for haughty
I mean people ask me all the time, you know, I mean there are two things going on here one people on social media say you can't trust anything in the media Don't pay attention anything.
It's all you know, which to me is a formula for disaster I mean if you don't believe in anything then you just you know, you camp out on your couch and watch old movies and Trump does what he wants.
Yeah, so
To me, that's not an option.
And people have asked me, what do I regard as credible media?
And I mentioned the Guardian gets an A, ProPublica gets an A, the New Republic gets an A, MSNBC, B+, if they got rid of Joe Scarborough, I'd like them better.
And I go through it.
The New York Times, they give a C, but maybe they...
slide to D some days.
You know, it's hard to know.
NPR, I just wish they were better.
I gave them a C and C and NC minus.
Hey, let me stop you at the NPR there because I am not a regular listener because of all my work here on another radio network.
So when I hear you give NPR a C, I'm a little surprised.
Tell me why.
know,
they, they decided that in order to be fair, they're going to have Democrats on, they're going to have Republicans on.
And if it's a Republican who is a liar, which unfortunately today is most of them, uh, they will, the Republican will lie and lie and lie and lie.
And then, uh, the NPR host will say, thank you, please come back.
You know, there's not the kind of pushback that should happen.
I mean, what I've been saying for a long time is that.
The journalists need to be so respectful of the truth that they are personally and professionally offended when somebody lies to them and their audience, and they need to push back.
And if you don't do that, you're not really defending democracy.
I totally get the grades that you would give, say, you know, the Wall Street Journal and Fox News.
But I want to ask you about one other one, because not everybody, everybody sees the commercials for News Nation.
Not everybody knows about it.
They're certainly trying to brand themselves as this independent, you know, new news network.
And yet you put that in your F column.
Why?
unbiased.
I mean, they really want to be a right-wing network, but they want to pretend that they're fair and balanced.
You know, because Chris Cuomo is there, he's a, well, the star and he's, he got kicked out of CNN for ethical breaches and they keep on having Bill O'Reilly, you know, because of Bill O'Reilly's, you know, sexual harassment, Fox News has paid millions of dollars to people at Fox News.
I mean, these are not legitimate people.
And then
nation news nation wrote along on that horrible ice raid in on the south side of chicago where they you know repelled from helicopters and and terrorized people they brought news nation along on that and you know because they could trust them to give the administration side
okay well now let's let's get uh let's get the professor graded by professor schulze uh who i'm sure is looked at do you do you take issue with any of your friend marx grades
I was mostly in agreement with Mark.
I would have edged a little bit here and there on some of them.
I would give a higher grade to NBC News.
Overall, I'm a big fan of NBC because it is currently the only news network that has not written a check to Donald Trump.
And that's like a big deal.
And I think they do really good work, especially on certain issues.
Um, so I'm a, I'm a bigger fan of, of NBC.
Um, I do agree, um, with Mark on pretty much everything else.
However, news nation, no, they are, they are not, I
used to
say they were Fox light.
I think they are now at least Fox medium.
Okay.
Fox medium.
I like that very much.
And I will say this about NBC, having worked at an NBC affiliate for many years, I find that particularly frustrating because they
Yes, they have their moments, but they have fallen so far in some areas.
And Jim Santel, former US Attorney, you get to provide your own take on these grades as a viewer, as a news consumer.
I don't know what else that you're taking in, but do you want to hand out either A's or F's for anything that you notice as you watch coverage of things?
On Wednesday, when the United States Supreme Court all but announced that the Voting Rights Act is going to be done as of June of 2026, the New York Times has a headline that says, Supreme Court appears skeptical of key provision of voting rights act.
That's the headline.
The reality is that we...
that we had members of the Supreme Court led by Brett Kavanaugh saying on the record, quizzing the attorneys, how quickly can we get rid of this?
Aren't we done with race now in America?
And isn't it time for sections with the Voting Rights Act to be over?
That's more than skepticism, New York Times.
That's signaling that America is about to change.
Once again, dramatically, at the pen of the Supreme Court, robbing us of yet another, the core, this shining gem.
of the civil rights movement.
Right.
Legislatively, it's about to be gone.
And that's the response to the New York Times.
Again, calling out extremism as extremism is not bias.
That is actually the more accurate reporting.
We will continue this conversation with Jim Santel, Mark Jacob and Jennifer Stolzi coming up right after this little pause.
And then at the top of the hour, State Senator Jeff Smith, and then we'll have Mike Lemons with a weekend preview of sports.
I'm Pat Kraitlo.
You're up north.
We sure do like it when you take us along with you on the radio or listen in your car or listen through the Civic Media app, but sometimes you can't get the whole three hours in one setting and maybe want to listen later on on demand.
Well, we've got a podcast for that.
All you got to do is head over to Spotify or Apple wherever you get your podcasts and follow this show as a podcast.
Each hour is a different episode of the podcast.
So, you know, six, seven and eight AM hours you can
pick the hour that you want to listen to, catch up with guests, catch up with topics and get some fodder for sending us a note with your questions or comments.
Again, follow us as a podcast over at Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Back to our Week in Review panel now with Jim Santel, Mark Jacob, and Jennifer Schulze.
And Jennifer's column, her latest one on Substack, Indistinct Chatter is the name of it.
Search for news Jennifer at Substack.
And the headline is The Abuse
uses of federal power are far worse here in Chicago.
Don't look away.
Jennifer, what what are you trying to tell folks?
Well, I want to remind people who may not be aware or on listening to the news every day about what's happening in Chicago that something very bad is happening here.
And it's getting worse every day.
You know, federal courts, as Jim has pointed out, have have
issued orders and ISIS ignoring them.
They've been told not to do harsh treatment towards the press or the protesters.
Well, yesterday they were flinging those tear gas canisters like mad at everybody again after being ordered not to.
They've been ordered not to wear their masks or wear cameras.
It's a very serious thing that's happening here and I think that
the whole country should be paying attention to it.
I think the local press in Chicago is doing a phenomenal job covering the story and getting the facts out.
What we found is that every single time the Department of Homeland Security issues a press release about an incident that happens in Chicago, it's mostly lies.
In fact, I'm going to probably go with it's all lies and the press here is really digging into those things and then of course the
residents with the videos of what actually happened.
It's helping tell the story.
I wish there was more national press here on an ongoing basis because I think this story is really important to the country.
That's a let's take that point as I bring it over to Mark for his thoughts being in in Chicago land as well that again maybe it was just because first it was DC and then it was Los Angeles that oh troops on the streets of a city not a big deal but
Mark, you think national media should be paying more attention to this as well?
I mean, and there's some of it, but there's not enough.
And because the scary thing is Trump said it himself.
He said he wants to use troops in American cities as training grounds for the military.
I mean, that should scare the hell out of everyone.
And he really does plan to do it throughout the entire country, I think.
And of course, he's starting in
you know, big cities that voted against him.
I mean, Pat, it's not like he's targeting cities that have high crime rates.
Because Chicago's homicide rate has fallen, you know, dramatically.
He's targeting places that voted against him because he's trying to crush dissent.
And if you see it in any other way, if you see it, well, this is Trump's attempt to lower the crime rate, well, then you're just buying into the lies.
Yeah.
James, there's just so many
court challenges to what he is doing with troops that I don't know maybe maybe you do follow all of them I just wonder if again because of Trump's clear flood the zone strategy is there any single case that frankly all the resources should be put into to try to get the court system to ultimately say you can't do this
Your district courts, your appeals courts are doing the right thing, and that is not a political assessment.
That's a constitutional assessment that they're upholding the law.
They're upholding the ways in which, as Mark and Jennifer just said, that America works.
And so we should be celebrating those even tomorrow in the demonstrations and the protests and the advocacy around our nation.
You know, just yesterday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said yes to Judge April Perry.
She is the one who has said, you know what?
The National Guard can be there physically, but don't you dare deploy them, Donald Trump.
The Seventh Circuit of Three Judge Panels said yes.
This is not a close question.
Again, the National Guard, not to go in.
They are different plainly.
The listeners appreciate this from the ice and all the things that Jennifer has just identified.
But there are, once again, the lower federal courts are still across the country looking at these things and saying, there is no insurrection.
We've got no rebellion.
There's no justification for doing this.
No crime would justify this.
And that's the reason for solace.
The difficulty, the profound difficulty, of course, is what happens when these get to those nine folks in Washington, DC, who seem to be inclined to give the president whatever he wants.
Tangy Brown Jackson calling it Calvin Ball, which basically means there are no rules anymore and the administration wins.
That's the concern.
But we should take some solace in the fact that there are good and decent judges across the board politically who are doing the right thing in America.
Let's look at a different case that's going to come for the courts because of the new indictment handed down against one of Trump's early national security advisors, John Bolton, who then became a critic of Trump and therefore became an enemy and is now facing criminal charges.
And I can't say that...
I'm terribly surprised.
We all know the saying everything Trump touches dies I mean every everybody that has tried to say oh, I'm the one that can tame him has found out no it doesn't work that way and so whether it's it's this new one or it's James Comey Or the other cases Jim, what is it about this new one with John Bolton?
What can we glean from this about the way that Donald Trump has weaponized the United States law enforcement system in a way that only
a wannabe dictator can.
There is a takeaway from the Bolton indictment that also underscores the notion that he is going after his political adversaries.
You might think, gee, Arthos, all the same.
Let me parse that apart.
about 18 counts yesterday.
He's basically accusing him of using personal email and messaging to share about a thousand pages of his diary notes.
There's some very interesting issues related to attempted extortion from someone who's going to release them.
Interesting things here, but that larger point is the one that you were implicitly stating, Pat, which is just this.
We know that the indictments against James Comey
And again, Statisha James, our paper thin, as an evidentiary matter, almost certainly not going to be able to prove those cases beyond a reasonable doubt.
And may, even before you get there, be subject to a vindictive prosecution dismissal.
The problem here with the Bolton matter, which has been under investigation for a long period of time, is this may be one of those cases where his political enemies, that is Donald Trump's political enemies,
may indeed have actually committed a crime.
And so the problem is that when you indict someone who has committed a crime, but also happens to be on this laundry list of all the people the president hates, the natural reaction is to say, of course, that prosecution, perhaps legitimate, again, he's innocent to prove and guilty, that prosecution may also be illegitimate and therefore also subject to the attack.
in court and out court that it's vindictive.
That may or may not be the case, but it underscores the problem.
When you've got a president who's out there who's saying these things, who's telling people that he doesn't like these, and demanding that his Department of Justice indict people when you do get to a legitimate prosecution and that person happens to be on your list of enemies, that one also gets thrown into the bin of illegitimate prosecutions.
I fear for the future of the grand jury process and the legitimacy of what Americans appreciate.
about criminal federal prosecution in America.
It just, Mark, makes your your head spin to see a president of the United States in the Oval Office with the Attorney General, with the FBI Director, with the Assistant Attorney General, saying, saying, not demanding or asking, because, you know, mob bosses know you just say things out loud and then things magically happen.
You know, I think that, you know, Senator shift of California is a criminal, again, in any other time in our country.
The media would have been doing their job.
But I mean, they are being overwhelmed to some extent.
I used to say come right out and say what's actually happening, which is, you know, Trump is trying to marshal all the power of the federal government against his enemies in a very vindictive and lawless way.
You know, Pat, there's also this whole IRS report that just came out that that he's organizing
the IRS to go after a long list of people who fund leftist organizations or liberal organizations or just plain democratic organizations.
And I mean, he's just, he's going after all of his enemies using all the power that he's not supposed to have, but that he's claimed.
And it should scare the hell out of everyone.
He is trying to crush all opposition.
The IRS one, by the way, was specifically mentioned in Richard Nixon's
you know, Watergate impeachment.
Again, this is the kind of stuff that would get a president impeached.
But Jennifer, by Republican senators, failing not once but twice to vote to convict Trump in legitimate impeachment charges against him, just makes me
wonder if there is if there's any way back from this precipice or if if we should just go ahead and start calling it what it is martial law when you've got troops in the streets and when you can give a persecution in the courts of your enemies when you can use the IRS I'm starting to wonder when the term martial law applies officially
Hello, Pat.
That just scared the heck out of me.
But
yeah, no, I agree.
Look, it's it's bad.
And I think most people know that it's bad.
You may not be able to keep up with every twist and term because every day, you know, there are dozens of transgressions and you know, breaking
the law
here.
And it's just it's overwhelming.
But as Mark said, the overarching thing is
that
he's trying to squash the opposition and using troops and his Department of Justice, which is not really interested in justice anymore, as James has so correctly pointed out time and time again.
It's an overwhelming time.
Americans are going to have a little something to say about it, I think, very loudly tomorrow across the country.
you know, where we go from here.
Oh man, I don't know.
It's
a
very scary time.
Because because again, you're incredulous that we're hearing about charges about mishandling classified documents from the guy who hello had boxes of classified documents in his bathroom and a defense secretary that was sending battle plans to people through signal.
Right.
I mean, these are the people who are least have the least amount of credibility to bring these kind of charges and yet they are.
Jim we're gonna talk a little bit about the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act and then We're gonna pause and some folks will catch their local news and the rest will hear us talk more about it on the civic media app But give us the very beginnings of an overview of what the question was that the Supreme Court took up on the Voting Rights Act and you know Ultimately what that means right comes
It is once again line drawing as we do in Wisconsin, Illinois and
And the question is there, a narrow question, but important question is whether there should be two majority black districts.
That's technically what's in front of the Supreme Court.
But the larger issue is whether or not race can be used as a determinant factor in drawing those lines.
Voting rights act since 1965, do the math.
That's 60 years in America has said that, yes, indeed, you can bring challenges.
And it appears yesterday that led by Brett Kavanaugh, who asks,
At what point, at what point does all of this end that the intentional use of race to create districts comes to a conclusion?
And that's a big takeaway.
That was the focus of the oral argument for two hours.
And again, prosaging this notion that probably at eight months, we're going to see the end of section two.
And to again, this framing of addressing racism.
is somehow racist, is absolutely mind-blowing, but still has legs in this day and age, which tells you, even after 60 years, how much longer, how much farther we have to go.
Jim Zantel, Mark Jacob, and Jennifer Schulze, our guests, our stellar week in review panel.
I'm Pat Kratlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Assuming that there is time left in this segment and I work really hard too, we're going to put our panel on the spot because in our newsletter this morning, sign up at uppermostnewswi.com includes a little piece where we get some reader feedback on their favorite local
pizza joints.
And two of the people on this panel are from Chicago, so they are therefore pizza experts.
And we're going to tell us where to get a slice next time you're in Chicago.
Jim Santel, of course, is a global traveler, he'll probably mention something in Italy.
But maybe you can go to the Wisconsin one.
But again, you can see what our readers said over at Upcom with news wi.com.
So we'll get to that.
But first, let's type or wrap up our discussion on the Voting Rights Act that Jim Santel set up so nice for us from a legal standpoint.
point, Jennifer, the problem with the argument that, oh, well, how long is this stuff supposed to stick around?
It makes it sound like it's tied simply to the discrimination of, you know, the post-Civil War era.
When the answer should be, how long do we keep addressing racism?
Well, as long as there's racism, but apparently there's supposed to be a statute of limitations and after which racism is okay, I guess, if I'm understanding Brett Kavanaugh correctly.
I think it's, yes, that is it, and it extends beyond the Supreme Court.
to everything, right?
I was just reading about how Florida has another new rule where you can't use certain words at any state-funded university in Florida.
And some of them, of course, have to do with racism and diversity and things like that.
You can't even use the words.
So I think it's...
There's a move afoot to say it doesn't exist or we will pretend it doesn't exist and anything that touches it, we are going to get rid of.
So laws, you know...
courses, I mean, you name it, and people themselves.
I mean, you know, Trump has purged people of color and women from the government.
It's an across-the-board assault on what the reality of the country and it's...
And I think we got a very depressing look at it at the, you know, the celebration mark of Charlie Kirk's life that so many people bought into what he was selling.
I mean, if you didn't understand why the court is trying to dismantle the Voting Rights Act before this, the comments on Charlie Kirk probably help illustrate it.
Yeah, I think there is this like kind of movement to say well, you know, this isn't fair You know, I mean it's what it is is a complete ignorance of history and where we're at and and you know And the and the fact that systematically black political power has been diminished in this country, you know over over centuries and And so now we have the situation in which the right-wing majority on the string court seems to think that you can't use race to try to give
Black people, they're fair representation based on their population.
But the Republican Party, which is drawing the lines, can certainly use race to diminish Black political power.
And what's really happening here, if you look at it in the historical view, they're reinstituting Jim Crow in the South.
I mean, that is what seems to be happening here.
Back when black people couldn't register to vote, they had to wait in long lines and answer stupid questions, and everything was done.
The government was designed to keep black people from having political power, and we're going back to that.
That's to make America great again to these people.
It's funny that this is a group that believes racism doesn't exist, but Antifa does.
Apparently, I've never been to any of the meetings, but what does it tell you, Mark, that they're working so hard to put spin on tomorrow's rallies about it being Antifa and Caroline Levitt, the White House spokes thing, said, oh, the Democratic Party, their whole constituency is Hamas and just other...
disgusting things like that, but it tells you they're running a bit scared here.
Yeah, well, it's what I've been saying, which is, you know, they hold Congress, they hold White House, the White House, they hold the Supreme Court, but we have people power and that still matters in this country.
And public opinion still scares them and good, which is good.
I mean, that's maybe the only thing that keeps us out of disaster.
And yeah, so they are making up all kinds of crazy stuff, you know, or it's all Marxist.
It's all violent criminals.
It's all, you know, this or that, you know, 75 million people voted for the Democratic candidate for, you know, for president last year.
And so are they trying to say that, you know, and she's, Levitt said that, you know, that the major constituency in the Democratic Party was Hamas people.
violent criminals and illegal immigrants.
So do the math.
I mean, is that possible?
It's not.
Not for that many tens of millions of voters.
Mark Jacob's latest column is I'm handing out pro democracy grades to the media.
Read more at stopthepresses.news and couriernewsroom.com.
And if you ask Mark Jacob where he'd get his favorite pizza in the Chicago area, he would say
There you go.
And Jennifer Scholesy, you can read her indistinct chatter column on Substack.
Look for news.
Jennifer, her latest, the abuses of federal power are far worse here in Chicago.
Don't look away.
But if you are in Chicago, Jennifer would tell you to get pizza where?
I agree with Mark.
thin crust.
I go to Peace Pizza in Bucktown, Wicker Park, which has a fantastic New Haven style, but they've made it Chicago and it's amazing.
Okay, I've heard of Detroit style, but New Haven style?
Okay, well, there's one for me to look at.
And finally, Jim Santel, former U.S.
Attorney, has amicus a law review Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 across the Civic Media radio network.
You can hear it again on Sundays.
And Jim would tell you his favorite place for a good local pizza shop is
Jim, you're killing me.
Marty's now?
This is why we can't have nice things.
We live in the strangest timeline.
Jim Santel, Jennifer Scholesy, Mark Jacob, thank you so much as always.
Really appreciate it.
Have a great start to your weekends.
That's right.
Yeah, go to your no Kings rally, no Kings dot org for all the details.
Senator Jeff, Jeff Smith is standing by and we are going to talk about redistricting and the shape of the 2026 race in the Chippewa Valley amongst other Senate districts.
Coming up, I'm Pat Crichtlow.
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