You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime,
anywhere.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Good morning.
Once again, 806.
Nice to have you back here up north on a Thursday morning.
It's October 23rd.
Chad Holmes standing by from Warsaw.
Sean O'Malley is going to talk to us about your money and the markets.
And Joseph Becky is going to talk to us about Wisconsin politics and beyond.
And also,
being one of the chief Milwaukee Bucks fans of Mornings with Pat Quitelow, powered by Up North News.
He might have some impressions on Game 1 as the Milwaukee Bucks start the season 1 and 0 after upending the Washington Wizards last night.
Let's see, over in the mailbag here from YouTube, Robin Tigerton says, good morning from Tigerton, partly cloudy, 37 degrees.
I had a meeting in Shawno, then had lunch with my family at Luigi's in Shawno.
It was great food.
And he's already looking ahead to the Packers playing in Pittsburgh this weekend against Aaron Rodgers.
That's a Sunday night game.
And he notes the Packers, the last time they won in Pittsburgh was when Bart Starr was quarterback back in 1970.
I mean, it's not like we play in Pittsburgh every year.
We don't, but I guess since 1970, we haven't done so good about that.
You probably hear about that from people like Chad Holmes because he doesn't just have the big high school sports show.
He follows all the sports and joins us from 98.9 WXCO, where you can also hear in the background, you're listening in Wausau, you hear this big sigh of relief.
Coming from the mayor Doug Denney now that special prosecutor Eric Tony the Fond du Lac County DA has decided to run for attorney general Probably won't have any time now Chad to look into the mayor You know perloining a drop box and moving it from its designated spot I think the mayor think the mayor is off the hook on this one now.
I think he's gonna skate.
Oh wait He was going to anyway with Eric Tony as special prosecutor
two things number one
The Packers beat Pittsburgh 20 to 12 in 1970 and what would be, I believe, Bart Starr's last win as starting quarterback in his career with the Green Bay Packers.
And number two, Doug Dinney.
Yes.
I mean, was there ever any doubt when Eric Tony was named the special counsel, whatever you want to call it?
And the thing that's interesting about the mayor and
we did have in the past week, the ethics committee say that he did something wrong, which I think is significant.
I think, you know, at this point, whether or not he does have any, I would call tangible consequences to this, I do think it's still important that this group, after all these months, after all this pressure did decide, hey, that yes, he did something wrong in that he deserves to be.
said so, that he did break ethics rules in his movement of the Dropbox.
But another thing I will add is it's not changing who Doug Denney is.
The mayor of Wassa right now, just today, a headline in the Wassa Daily Herald is that he's threatening to veto the budget, that he is upset that the council's budget actually
involves any kind of taxes, because I mean, if you look at the issues involved, that there are things that just naturally the prices go up on, and that you have to make adjustments.
And in the big picture, the policies that the federal government affect the policies of the state government, the policies of state government affect the policies of the county and local governments.
So Doug Dinney is just, his first thing is he put out a release saying that, hey,
Oh, the first thing that the council wants to do is raise taxes.
Well, I agree 100% that every dollar of taxpayer funds needs to be guarded with your life and that anything that we do spend on needs to be vetted exceptionally tightly.
But the whole problem is that on the other side is they will never ever touch a dollar of taxes to the U lines of the world or the Diane.
Hendricks of the world or the all the wealthy people of the world there has to be something in between That we have to start in terms of working on these budgets where where there's there's red lines all the time You will never see a Republican do what George HW Bush did is said This pledge doesn't work that we have to actually come together and make a deal because then it ruined his Standing within the Republican Party.
We've not we have not seen anybody
with any kind of courage on that realm in the 25, 30 years since then.
And what they have proven since then is this.
Like you said, there is middle ground in there someplace.
But it is not middle ground to say that, we're, you know, read my lips, no new taxes.
Because at that point,
when they say, well, we're not going to raise taxes.
And so you're going to have to tighten your belts more.
You know, we can't help it if you can't keep up with inflation, you're just going to have to cut things.
Well, when you're saying that, you are doing the bidding of the billionaires.
Because like you just said, we're not going to raise Diane Hendricks taxes, we're not going to raise John Menard's taxes, we're not going to raise Dick E. Line's taxes.
You know, we're going to just make a school district or make a city.
deal with inflation without any new dollars.
It's what 70% or so of school districts are seeing right now with that 0% increase in general state aid.
Well, inflation ain't 0% folks and so either they got to come back to the public through a referendum.
or hope that a legislature is going to recognize that there's inflation, maybe raise taxes at the top end of the margins, and help adequately fund our schools.
And if they're not doing that, like I said, in my book, they're just doing the bidding of the billionaires in the first place.
And the things that more money is needed for in the WASA budget, and I will say thanks to WASA Daily Herald reporter Eric Vance for
putting this in his story because he says, what are the significant additions to the budget?
And one is a 3% cost of living rates for non-union city employees and a $4 raise for employees represented by police and fire unions.
That is not up to the level of inflation for the past year, is it?
I mean, you're not giving an overwhelming raise for these employees.
There's a net increase of $175,000 for homeless shelter costs, which I think, and anybody that lives here in Wausau knows that is a very vital issue.
There's a renewal of the trash and recycling contract and a $400,000 increase, an increase for about $293,000 for debt service and capital projects.
I mean, these are things where these are the prices of doing business in our community.
And I have no problem with looking at some other discretionary spending and trying to be as frugal as possible, but you also have to look at the other side of it as well.
Number one priority is I'm never going to ask anybody that is doing well to maybe give a little bit more in order for the betterment of our whole community.
Then you have this loggerhead that nothing ever gets done with.
Right.
And we hear all the time, well, what it really is, is it's a it's a spending problem.
No, it's attack.
Exactly.
No,
no, no, it's a tax system that is out of whack when people at the higher margins pay a lower and lower, you know, rate compared to, you know, every blue collar worker, every every nurse, every social worker, every teacher, when they're paying a rate that's even less than that.
then that's a sign of a broken system and it is not sustainable.
We're talking to Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO.
You can hear his updates throughout the morning.
Here on mornings with Pat Crite, low powered by UpNorth News.
Hey, we in our history lesson.
I wished a happy birthday to the folks over at Channel 7, which launched on this day 71 years ago, first as WSA UTV and then as WSA WTV, which they are now.
And I share this only because it took until today, thanks to Wikipedia, which is never wrong.
So it must be the case.
I never knew the story behind.
The logo there every time I did see you know channel seven out of wasa they'd have that little knight in armor and and all that Then it notes your channel seven originally operated from the is it the plumber mansion?
Plummer Mansion, a Romanesque-style building on North Fifth Street, which was torn down in 1972.
The castle-like exterior and the suit of armor displayed in the mansion inspired the medieval-style Seven Logo, along with an accompanying cartoon mascot, the fully armored knight, Sir Seven, which I always thought was one of the goofier TV logos ever, but it sure had staying power.
I have a
brush with greatness when
it
comes to number seven.
Okay.
Back in 1991, I was going to college here at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County.
And we were, I was part of a student theater group.
And we did the show play it against Sam.
And I had the lead part of that show.
And as part of the set design, the set design, it was a bunch of old movie posters and blah, blah.
And for some reason,
Whoever designed the set and actually I one of my close friends designed the set and we Called up where they had retired a sir seven as the the mascot at that time Okay, and he was Sir seven was being held somewhere and I don't know where I don't know all the all the story But we called up we got sir seven and we had sir seven on the stage
in this apartment as the part of the set.
So I mean, literally there is a suit of armor.
It's about six and a half feet tall.
I mean, it's not a small, I guess you can get in there and move around, but sir seven is on the set.
And I should, I should post that on my, my social media.
Cause I do have pictures of that where sir seven was right there.
I have the top of the set part of the part of the show.
I'd be on stage and there would be sir seven right there as well.
And you know, the locals all recognized it and loved it.
That
had to be,
that had to be fun.
Oh, that
was fun.
It was great to be hanging out with sir seven.
Yeah.
No, that's great.
You know, you don't see a lot of TV station mascots anymore.
No, you don't.
And
you're right.
I mean, sir seven.
sir seven is cool.
I'll say that they should never take away sir seven.
He should be out front for everything that they do.
Well, why not if you've got something like that?
I mean, for there was a time when NBC and that we're talking, you know, 70s, 80s, tried to like get rid of the peacock, you know, it's like, Oh, we're too cool for the that's so 1960s.
Somebody like, why wouldn't you lean into this?
And they've had the peacock thing going ever since you've got a brand and it's working, you know, then then run with it.
Because
other places would kill for branding that has that kind of longevity.
So that's great.
How are you doing with high school playoffs for football?
You've got to be one busy fellow this week.
Well, tomorrow
night heading down to the Milwaukee area, actually, because Wausau West plays Heartland Arrowhead.
They're very good.
But for what I've heard, I got a friend who's a broadcaster says that's the greatest place you'll ever go to the broadcast from because some places sometimes you have to actually sit in the crowd and sometimes it's very tight.
And for what I've been told, it's a wonderful place.
I was going to say it's it's heartland.
Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be plush.
Yeah,
that's the good news.
The bad news is you'll see Heartland Arrowhead football team on the other side of the field.
So well, there is that, you
know, it's a very, very
test, but it's also a fun time of year.
had a young man from Merrill High School and our big high school sports show last night and asked about, you know, level one playoffs, a playoffs at the beginning.
And it's such a cool thing.
And their team hasn't had a home game in a while.
So it's like, it's very exciting for them to be at home.
And it's just, and now this week, finally, the weather's cooled down.
It actually feels like football.
So there's gonna be a lot of fun tomorrow night throughout the state of Wisconsin with the kickoff of the playoffs.
I saw a story here from channel 13 about Altoona.
Did not realize Altoona has never hosted a home
playoff football game.
And so they're kind of excited about that.
And, you know, every so often, you got to you got to remember to put yourself back in your high school shoes about what a big deal that is, not just to be in the postseason, but to be able to play in front of the home crowd and everything.
So you can see, I bet you know
this, I bet you know this.
Do you know the most famous Altoona High School football graduate?
I do not.
Red Fuzzy Thurston.
No, of course.
I actually, yes.
Now that you say that, I remember hearing that a very long time ago.
Many, many years ago, many
years ago, I think the only time I've ever been to Altoona, I went to a game.
They were playing Moseley and in the special event and Fred Fuzzy Thirst, it was actually there.
And I thought that was in the fields named after him.
So
that's
right.
That's right.
I remember that now.
This is why
our and Fred Fuzzy Thurston, both Green Bay Packer, Glory, your figure.
This is this is why our discussion on Facebook.
Chad Holmes is a great reporter.
I call him a local hero for all he does in the community.
Thank you, Chad.
Appreciate it.
Almost as heroic as sir seven.
Almost almost.
Sean O'Malley is coming up next year up north.
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.
The Milwaukee Bucks were winners over the Washington Wizards last night to start off their 2025-26 NBA season with a 1-0 record.
Civic media radio stations have several options for sports in the coming days here.
Of course, you heard Chad Holmes talking all about high school football playoffs.
Also, coming up Friday...
The Badger Men's basketball team is going to be on the radio.
Still their exhibition season, but they will be at Pfizer Forum on Friday night.
Taking on Oklahoma, coverage begins at 6.30 on several civic media stations.
Then on Saturday, the Badger football team is at Oregon.
That's a night game.
Coverage begins at 4 p.m.
Kickoff around 6 p.m.
Again, on several civic media stations.
And several civic media stations will have the Packers taking on Pittsburgh in
Sunday night football kickoff the 720 so coverage will begin at 5pm Sunday on stations around the Civic Media radio network.
If you want to know which specific stations have which particular sports, then you're going to have to head over to Civic Media.
.us to learn more.
Let's talk about your money and the markets here with Sean O'Malley now, a Hudson native who's also had a lengthy Wall Street career in anti-money laundering, financial risk management, data analytics and compliance, fraud and risk management.
And yet for all of that, he still gets confused sometimes.
He thinks MAGA stands for Make America Great Again.
Sean, you and I both know there's a new definition of that, right?
That's
There we go.
Who knew all this time we thought we had it nailed down, but but mega is actually about Argentina.
do
So yeah,
all because what
happened it dropped the price in the market So the soybeans that they wanted to be able to sell that they wanted a market for that they wanted to be able to sell at a price Higher than what it cost them to grow Well, they're gonna have to keep waiting for that because we're too busy supporting Argentina But we have doubled down on that bet with Argentina
We are now deciding, President Trump has decided that we need to help Argentina some more and is currently considering buying 80,000 metric tons of Argentinian beef.
To put that in perspective for you folks at home, because I don't know how much metric ton is either, that is 176 million pounds of beef.
That is as a lot of people across rural America are saying insane because yeah, I mean first off when you heard the initial news about the bailout To a country that is currently selling all of its soybeans to China I'm sure you heard a lot of people in rural Wisconsin rural America going oh good thing.
I don't farm soybeans It's a good thing.
I'm just raising these beef cattle.
Oh wait Now here's a kick in the pants for you and by the way that 40 billion and
in the in the aid, in the direct aid, in the private sector aid that's being raised, that would pay for about two years worth of the health insurance premiums that Trump and the Republicans are allowing to expire.
And so instead of the bailout, if you take that 40 billion and apply it toward Affordable Care Act, you know, health insurance premium tax credits,
people would not be seeing their health insurance costs spike to the degree that they are about to.
So as we said about the, you know, the big bloated boondoggle bill of theirs, it's not about not having the money.
It's about deciding
where the money should go and it shouldn't go to
Apparently not.
Yeah, but Pat, you're overlooking one of the best things of buying Argentinian beef.
They have a disease problem right now.
They have hoof and mouth.
So not only do we get the benefit of
You know having this, you know, basically infected beef coming here, you know Republicans are clearly trying to just make us, you know finding another way to
make America healthy again.
No That academic was wrong too.
It's make America hurl again Well, you
Oh and by the way health food and food safety inspections risk being curtailed because of the government shutdown
here as well.
I mean, it's just, it's a disaster on all fronts.
They've already been curtailed.
They used to scan for a much broader range of potential pathogens.
They are now down to three that they scan for.
So they've already had to cut back, and now we're looking at potential elimination entirely.
So eat at your own risk, America.
You know, the old James Carville line is it's the economy stupid.
And it's as true now as as it ever was.
I mean, you can have all the bluster that you want.
But you know, performance matters in the economy.
And since we don't have any economic data to look at because of the shutdown, let's let's look at some polling data.
And how are they doing on, you know, it's the economy stupid as a scorecard.
and
compiled a whole series of different sources, different polls that have all been done fairly recently.
And the range is basically from you've got a lot of sort of, you know, approve and disapprove.
There are a couple where that are a little bit more unique, like Axios says, you know, what percentage of people think that the economy is going the wrong way.
But that's roughly in line with what we're seeing with everything else.
They're saying 65% of Americans feel that the economy is going the wrong way.
And Pew Research had something a little bit different also.
They basically asked, you know, do you think economic conditions are sort of, you know, poor, fair, blah, blah, blah.
And 74% of Americans said economic conditions are only fair or poor.
So we're definitely seeing a lot of disapproval across the board from the NORC Center for Public Affairs to Quinnipiac University.
CNBC, Fox News, CBS News.
The scoreboard's not working out well.
And as mentioned by a text just now from Christopher and Beaver Dam, let's not forget Argentina is a non extradition country.
Trump's going to need somewhere to flee once the poop emoji hits the fan.
So we'll talk more about this.
It's John O'Malley after the opening bell.
And then Joseph Pecky to follow.
I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
Get yourself signed up for Civic Media's new daily newsletter, chock full of links to show highlights and much more.
Head over to CivicMediaToday.Substack.com again, CivicMediaToday.Substack.com.
Time for a little money in the markets after the opening bell with Sean O'Malley with Joe Specky standing by to talk about more about what's in the news this week.
But one new story I wanted to ask you about Sean dealt with the state of Wisconsin investment board and reports that Well, I recall talking a few weeks back.
Maybe it was a couple months back I'm not exactly sure but that it was discovered that the state of Wisconsin investment board had invested in multiple cryptocurrency funds and It was it was a little concerning that they'd invested 187 million but
By the end, the initial $99 million investment had grown to $321 million.
And then they did the thing that, I mean, I'm no financial advisor, but even I recommend at the time is like, if you're there to make money, make a little money and then get the heck out of there.
What were your own impressions about the story?
My experience goes back 21 years with SWIB to actually 2004.
when I worked for the financial guarantee company that was providing the financial guarantee for the state of Wisconsin investment board.
It's interesting to see that they've gone from a much more conservative mix, what I recall back then, which was primarily municipal bonds, to ETFs that trade in crypto.
I also thought their comment about, well, we're not buying crypto directly was
a
Right.
And the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, now, they've managed the assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System with more than 692,000 participants.
And so, again,
not saying that you have to put it in a shoebox and bury it, but it is very indicative of, you know, the financial times themselves when you and I were growing up, you were very happy if your local savings and loan gave you 5% on your passbook savings account.
And that was it.
But now it's always the push for higher margins and better returns.
And it's just, it was just weird to see that the state investment board is no different.
Yeah, and it reminds me of something someone else who did something similar back in Orange County back in the mid 90s.
Robert Citrone, who is the treasurer of Orange County, who invested in a series of interest rate derivatives.
that of course when suddenly interest rates went the wrong direction.
Mr. Citrone's bets went bad and went bad rather significantly and nearly bankrupt Orange County.
So, you know, more risk means more risk.
I don't know how else to put it.
I'm glad that they got their money and did well and got out.
Staying out, I think, is the wise move going forward.
Yeah, yeah.
And of course, I can hear people all throughout the Milwaukee County talking about the pension scandal there.
So there's no shortage of caution flags that are out there.
And I'm glad in this instance, it ended well, but that's the high risk, high reward thing.
I don't know that you want your state investment board to necessarily play.
Sean, thank you for the insight.
Appreciate it very much.
We'll talk to you next week.
All right.
Yep.
Have a good week.
Let's bring in Joseph Becky now to talk a little bit about what's happening in the news as well.
Joe, I'm sure you heard that discussion and you and I have been around state politics long enough to know and we're familiar with things like, you know, the Milwaukee County pension situation that
I mean, I was very surprised to hear about the state investment board making a big crypto investment like that.
Maybe you're a little more jaded than I am and go, eh, it's OK.
They do what they're going to
right
What I would say
Yes, it amounted to less than 1% of their total assets, which were more than $162 billion as of last year.
So yes, that point is very well taken.
the obsession last week over JB Pritzker, winning $1.4 million playing Blackjack, which to you or I is like winning 500 bucks, maybe a thousand.
The scale matters.
So I don't think people should be losing their minds about that.
The statewide investment board is well run.
It is one of the most well respected and regarded statewide pension funds in the country.
And yeah, they know what they're doing.
Yeah, and let me give proper credit.
Some of these notes that I'm getting are from Ricardo Torres, a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
But now let's turn to a story in the New York Times and then a story or an editorial, rather, in the Milwaukee Courier.
In both cases, I mean, if you're Mandela Barnes, the former Lieutenant Governor and potential candidate for governor, you got to be looking at these stories going
Who did I take off to get a story in the times which in which you were quoted talking more generally about the race but that cast doubts or Expresses doubts of other people on math Mandela Barnes's effectiveness in 2022 running against Ron Johnson and whether he should run again for governor and then the Milwaukee Courier editorial which is just flat out saying Mandela don't run you can't win That's not Mandela is not having the best week right now.
keep everything in perspective.
And one of the things that we know about Mandela Barnes is that he has never been an establishment favorite.
Frankly, he wasn't in 2022, which is why he was not given the nomination for the United States Senate.
That was a crowded field with other really good Democrats in it, like Alex
uh, Lazarie and Sarah Godlowski and Thomas Nelson.
And despite the fact that Mandela didn't have the full, you know, support of the establishment behind him, he won that primary.
And he was so far ahead that every single one of those other candidates didn't want to face the prospect of a huge loss to him and then got out of the way so it could look like they paved the way for him.
And
You know whether it's the primary challenge he ran against a sitting Democrat in the state Senate before he became lieutenant governor or whether it's you know the way that he is clearly perceived by the establishment right now He's not a guy who's ever been the favorite and given how much frustration there is out there with the Democratic Party
I'm not so sure that's not exactly where you want to be, which is running against the establishment.
So that's my first thing that I just want to remind people about Mandela's reputation over the years.
He's not afraid to sort of call people out, challenge the status quo, and that might be a winning message.
But before it can be a winning message, he's got to decide whether or not he gets in the race.
You mentioned that I was quoted in that story.
and my take on it, I'll share with listeners, which is that right now, this part of the quote they cut, but right now, Sara Rodriguez is the leader, is the front runner in my estimation, given the amount of money she has reported raising, given the amount of financial support she has gotten commitments from, from outside groups like the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, she's in the catbird seat.
That dynamic will change if Mandela gets in the race.
He would be the front runner on day one, given his electoral history.
And, you know, that's my opinion.
It's not a fact.
We don't know until we see how this thing goes.
But this won't be a rerun of 2022, where for as many candidates as there were in that Democratic primary, everybody played nice.
There wasn't any contrast messaging.
People weren't going after one another.
in a gubernatorial primary with this many candidates, this many good candidates, nobody's going to be given anything.
Mandela will have to earn it.
And, you know, if he decides to run, we will see what happens.
But what I am frankly pretty tired of is...
this level of insider nonsense from operatives and activists who think they know better than the voters.
Because if I've learned anything in the last five years, it's that the political class of which I am a part to be clear, doesn't know a darn thing about what the.
vast majority of Wisconsinites and Americans are going through on a day to day basis.
If you read that, you know, that courier thing, which is ridiculous, you know, that's clearly written by one person and you might have noticed that there was not one name on it.
Right.
And so I don't think we need to be talking about 2022 spending and margins.
I think we need to be talking about
what this Trump administration is doing to farmers in northern Wisconsin.
We need to be talking about what the Trump administration is doing to limit access to rural health care, how the tariff policy is hammering folks, and it's going to get worse.
And we need to talk about the role of the state of Wisconsin in combating that, in standing up to an out of control executive branch that is infringing on states' rights and abilities to govern themselves and make their own decisions every single day.
If you want to have a debate about that, if you want to criticize something that any of these candidates may have done that cedes power to the federal government rather than taking power here.
state level.
Let's have that debate.
Let's draw contrasts there because the polling or the fundraising from 2022 is not what puts food on the table.
It's not what helps, you know, parents afford childcare in Wisconsin.
So I don't have much time for nonsense like that courier thing.
And in between all of that, by the way,
tearing down part of the White House, which is not what the guy said he was going to do to put up his gilded ballroom.
And again, I know that that's that's only symbolism.
But it's not just symbolism of of excess and and of, you know, of grift and everything else.
But it's symbolism of how whether again, it could be Derek Van Orden, Ron Johnson, Brian Stiles, they have all just completely knuckled under in a way that you never would have
heard from them pre Trump to them, you know, Congress was there to be part of the series of checks and balances.
And now they're just like, yes, sir, yes, sir, how high can we jump, sir?
It's, it's just depressing from a civics standpoint.
The idea that the state of Wisconsin is going to run out of money for snap so that working families, including some military families who don't make enough money.
so they need a little bit of help to put food on the table.
In eight days, those dollars run out, but we've got $250 million to demolish a ballroom and build it back even bigger.
The idea that we've got, you know, that Trump wants $230 million from the Department of Justice for
DOJ investigating him for crimes.
Oh, that's
just a shakedown.
Can we just call it a shakedown?
That's what it is.
And
we don't have, you know, but meanwhile, we have $20 billion to give to Argentina while the United States soybean market is like collapsing in on itself.
The Republican Party is making clearer than ever its priorities.
They have money for their toys.
and for their little pet projects, but they don't have money or any interest in supporting we the people.
People should be infuriated by this, not because you're not allowed to update the White House.
It's happened before, but the idea that you get to do it
Without Congress without local authorities anybody listening to this they try to add on to their house They know they got to go to the village or the town or the city and get those approval But Donald Trump doesn't think the rules apply to him and Republicans in Congress are just going whatever you want
Oh, yeah, enabling him to do what's only been done one time before.
And that was the British in 1814.
But anyway, we're talking to Joseph Peckie here and on the other side of the break, we'll have some final news and notes from Lake Wissota and, you know, the box.
they're one and all.
We'll ask Joe how they how they looked as well as we talk about that and his impression of all of the no Kings rallies that took place across the state and across the country.
Tomorrow, of course, it'll be Friday.
We'll have our regular week and review guests former US Attorney Jim Santel, Mark Jacob, Jennifer Scholesi as well, helping follow the headlines of the day, as well as Dr. Kristen Lierly from Pittsburgh.
I'm Pat Krightlow from Up North News.
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.
All right, welcome back.
It is eight fifty-two on a Thursday, which means Todd Alba does a little drop in as well to join me and Joseph Pecky and talking about the issues of the day, although Mr. Alba appears to be joining us remotely from, I don't know, is that the, is that Sagebrush?
Are you in the desert southwest?
Where
the heck
are you?
Pat and Joe, I'm happy to be here.
I'm reporting from Sun Prairie, where Jimmy the Groundhog and I are waiting to see if Dr. Jill Underly will emerge in a committee hearing today.
Oh, my goodness.
We're seeing the effect.
No,
no,
no.
I'm on my way out to Richland County.
And so I stopped here at a beautiful Black Earth next to the Black Creek here.
So a beautiful day.
I got my, Joe Thomas Hall of Fame beef hat on because, you know, if Donald Trump was as adamant about
keeping beef out of the country as he is actual Argentinians, we might have something.
Well, yeah, there is something to be said for that.
So Todd will have all this and more from two till four this afternoon.
Joe, you did not get a chance to watch the Buxes.
He's an opener because you're on the road for work and doing things, but you checked out the box score, Joe.
How are you feeling 1-0 at this point?
The
Lookout League, the association has not seen Yanis play like he's apparently ready to go this year.
And anytime you have one of the top five players in the league, you're going to be good.
Whether they've put the right pieces around him to contend.
that will emerge over the net, probably the first 50 games of the season, but a very good start.
Todd, you've been so immersed in the movie, No Packers, No Life.
And before that, the Brewer's movie, can we get you to put on a bucks hat for just a moment and tell us if this is the year?
I think it is.
I mean, one of the cool things, I did not watch the entire game, but I mean, Joe is a much bigger fan.
I wait until the season actually starts in May and then I get excited.
But I thought one of the cool things to the organization was the welcome video and everything they had.
Welcome back for Chris Middleton.
I thought that was all class and there's a real relationship between he and Giannis.
And I just thought that was really spoke well, the Bucks organization.
Yeah, again, much like the Willie Adams welcome back.
It was it was a nice moment.
We need moments like that in sports now and then Joe wants your impression on the the No Kings marches around Wisconsin and around the country last weekend.
Incredibly moving to see so many ordinary Americans, not your typical activist, you know, like every day, every week protesters out there.
the number of veterans who were out there, you know, living up to the oaths that they swore to the Constitution when they served and saying, this is not who we are.
We, you know, there is nothing more American than protesting the idea of a king.
And I know that some of the pushback on the right was like, Donald Trump's not a king.
He won an election.
And I guess my question was, no Kings doesn't have the name Donald Trump in it.
No Kings is a bedrock.
philosophy that this country was founded on, if you are criticizing the No Kings marches and protests, I guess my question is, when did you become pro-king?
Do you think we should have kings in America?
And I haven't
Well, it's kind of like Antifa.
It's like, wait a
I don't I don't know what they want us
and that that is a real concern How is the view from that of a former?
Republican and again not a Democrat but a former Republican who spent many years at the state Capitol watching Democrats and Independence and some Republicans marching over the weekend mr. Alba
I think it's fantastic, exercising first amendment rights.
I think overall, it gives people a sense of belonging, because I think in this world, we're all stuck on devices.
It's like, is anybody out there?
That's a line from musical.
But I think people find out, yeah, there's a lot of people out there like us.
And I'll just note the act where 100,000 people show up during Act 10 against Scott Walker.
My former boss was the only Republican to vote against that.
And he was on this committee that oversees the state capitol.
And there was all this, all this damage.
There was almost zero damage to the state Capitol.
A hundred thousand people showed up.
And I think it just once again, no King's rally proves Americans could do it peacefully, joyfully, celebrate America and rise up against, you know, once again, tyranny 250 years late.
Yeah, well, somebody continues to prove why there's the need for these demonstrations.
Todd, I know that you talk about Wonder State Coffee quite a bit, but in the comment sections on YouTube from somebody named Dylan, Todd, if you're looking for good coffee on your way to Richland County, stop at 1855 Coffee House in Maison.
Really?
I'm going to be going through there in about 10 minutes.
Maybe I'll have to do that.
There you go.
Did you know that there are quite lows in Maisel Manning that I've never met?
Really?
Yes.
I can say hello if you want me to.
You can do some, you can do some really dreadful investigative work on my behalf.
We're all about bringing people together.
Pat, you know, I mean, so quite low on quite low.
I mean, that's that'd be fantastic.
Sure.
Sure.
That that's where we roll from here.
Joe, you've got the little time there and then you're, you're coming back for the start.
of the week here.
Now that the No Kings rallies are behind us and the shutdown just rolls on, I mean, I kind of feel like how do you not, how does the public not lose the momentum coming out of last weekend and we just continue to see pain pile up from, you know, this shutdown is, it's almost a helpless feeling.
Can people do anything?
They can call their Republican members of Congress.
There's five of them across the state of Wisconsin in the house.
There's United States Senator Ron Johnson and the tens of thousands of Wisconsinites who get their health care plans through the Affordable Care Act.
next week is when open enrollment starts and there is going to be sticker shock.
And
we need everyone to understand that the reason that Obamacare health care plans are spiking in price is because Republicans refuse to extend premium tax credits that have been on the books for years.
They got $20 billion for Argentina, but they don't have enough to make your health care more affordable.
They got $250 billion or $250 million for a ballroom, but they will not make your health care.
more affordable.
Continue to ride them on that.
All right, Joseph Pecky, Safe Travels for you and Todd, who's got the hat and the shades on it.
Looks like he's about to shoot an elk that's going to come up from behind him here.
I mean, I don't know which.
What hunting show I'm watching, but this is a true sportsman right here.
Hunting Wabbits.
Todd, thank you very much.
Good to talk to you as well.
Always good to see you guys.
All right.
We'll see you later.
Thanks to all of you for joining us as well.
We'll see you Friday morning with our weekend review panel.
Dr. Chris Mlyerly and Mike Clemens with sports here on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
The national news cycle never stops.
but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
