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8.06 now on a Wednesday morning.
Good morning.
It's November 19th, 2025.
Nice to have you back here up north.
Parker Olson's down south.
They're in Madison Studio A2 producing things for us today.
Earl Ingram is standing by.
talk about his What's Going On podcast.
Melissa Baldoff has our climate check for the week.
Tomorrow here on the program, we'll talk to Sean O'Malley about your money and the markets as we talk about the economy and some of the investments that can be made.
And then again, today at 835, we're going back to the mailbag.
We have a very
busy question of the day and it's a fun one.
Basically a friend is coming to Wisconsin for the first time or maybe a professional colleague or something like that and you're going to greet him at the airport or wherever and you can take him anywhere in the state.
What do you like to show off about Wisconsin?
And we've had you know some of the usual supper clubs and the Apostle Islands and the Dells and Summerfest and things like that but what are we forgetting?
because there are all kinds of great things about visiting Wisconsin.
So think like a first-timer.
and what you would like to show a guest.
And we'll talk more about that at 835.
In the meantime, you can either get on hold for the phones at 855-75 Civic, or you can just text us your thoughts at 855-75 Civic.
You can use the Civic Media app for those as well, or record a little voice note for us, or put something in the comment sections of YouTube or Facebook where you can watch us stream the show every day.
All right, let's get to Earl Ingram from the What's Going On podcast.
You can learn more over at civicmedia.us and then click on shows to learn all about what's going on podcast with Earl.
Earl, good morning.
How are
you?
I'm doing fine.
Good morning to you, Pat.
Hey, good to hear from you.
Good to see you.
You were mentioning folks can hear us during the commercial breaks on the radio.
They can still hear us on Facebook and YouTube.
And you talked about having Sandy Williams back on one of your episodes.
And Tony couldn't get in the comments section fast enough to say, I love listening to Earl and Sandy.
So you're getting the band back together for an episode.
Yeah, you know, Sandy Williams is one of the most brilliant.
people I've ever met in my life.
Again, he graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1959.
I believe it was.
He is as learned a man as I've ever met.
And so we talk about politics a lot.
And I asked him because when I was on the air, he read
project 2025 and so we spent a solid week going over everything that was in it and so since I haven't talked to him in a while we kind of went down the list and I asked him if he was surprised by anything that was taking place and today and he said no it basically is just the way they scripted it.
And so we talked about where Americans are today and if he thought that there would be some changes in the way people look at things, especially people who live in rural areas, maybe, I think, as he stated, that he doesn't believe that the Republicans really understand people who live in rural America.
And he's got a lot of friends who live in rural America.
There clearly is going to be a come to reckoning in 2026.
He believes that.
And so we kind of touch base on a lot of those things.
You know, I believe that.
And I know from talking to Fred Clark, who's a Democratic candidate for Congress up north in the seventh congressional district, you know, people would say, well, the odds are kind of long for him.
And I'd say not not so fast there.
A Dave Obey, a Democrat.
represented that large district for 40 years.
And then once the Tea Party came in and made all kinds of promises about smaller government and local control, you know, people in rural Wisconsin started voting more Republican.
But I really feel like after 15, 16 years of this, they're seeing, well, they're not smaller government.
They're certainly not for lower deficits.
They've been jacking it up.
They're just for taking everything away from people in rural Wisconsin, taking everything away from people in the middle class and moving it up to their rich buddies.
And so I agree with Sandy that rural America is not something Republicans, they take that for granted at their own risk.
Yeah, well, they're taking it for granted at their own risk as a new poll.
that says most Americans fear the decline in democracy.
And so you can't, you know, people aren't exactly not connected.
You can't say things are going well.
You can't say that as President Trump continues to say, the economy's
great when people know themselves and what they're going through and the struggles that they face on a daily basis.
He can say those things, but long term, that damage is going to be laid at the footstep of Republicans.
And to continue to hear Republicans talking about Joe Biden is the reason that inflation.
Hey, Joe Biden's not the president.
I don't want to hear Joe Biden's name mentioned anymore, Pat, as it relates to.
you know where we are today
well especially from a guy who's who promised to lower prices on day one he said prices were going to come down on day one he was going to end the war with ukraine on day one and people just realize how full of it he is one last thing about your your episode coming up with sandy williams you you get in some other big issues uh taxing the top two percent rather than the working majority the growing wealth gap
between the rich and the poor, and I think people are really waking up to that now.
And you also get into the impact of AI, artificial intelligence, and whether it's helping or hurting, this is a very well-rounded episode you guys have worked on.
There's no question.
You know, Sandy is one of my best friends in the world, and just to be able to, you know,
have this dialogue back and forth with him you know there's there's only one other guy who kind of comes close and as you but Sandy but but Sandy and having those conversations he's such a well-rounded guy he's a guy who who lives in that world and and yet he can connect with the average person and so we talked about all those things it's a great
episode.
I'm going to be doing another podcast with Sandy on this Friday, so we're going to bring it back.
As well you should thank you for the kind words and head over to civicmedia.us and click on shows It will be an hour very well spent listening to Earl and Sandy I know you had some thoughts as well that Governor Evers indicated that he could support a bill that would expand online sports gambling now not the kind with your draft Kings and you know the the other ones that are out there but
through the state's tribal nations through their casinos where instead of going to the casino you have to go there.
You have to go to the sports book and you place your bets and this would allow online sites to be established through the tribal nations casinos so that you could bet on sports at your own home, at your leisure.
The governor kind of indicated he could support that.
I mean he didn't promise to but he also didn't shoot it down either which I was a little surprised by Earl and wanted to get your feelings on it.
So, Pat, let me say, you and I remember a time when gambling was only allowed in Las Vegas and New Jersey.
I think we were a much better nation when that was the case.
And yes, bingo that our grandmothers used to do at the Catholic Church, those things were fine.
But the proliferation of gambling and what is transpiring in this nation right now is not right.
And so people are being manipulated and taking advantage of.
And we're not a better nation because of it.
Because there are people who are suffering tremendously.
And this, you have a right, freedom in this nation to make a decision.
whether you want to do it, yes or no.
It's as addictive as anything.
It's more addictive, I think, than smoking or drugs.
And so people lose everything.
And we've allowed this to take place.
And what's taking place in this state is that Republicans who don't normally agree with Democrats on anything kind of agree with allowing these Native American nations to have
soul control over this gambling.
It is certainly not right.
The people suffer, and I'm opposed to
it.
Yeah, and I would add as well, and I know it feels like Pat just learned a new word and he uses it all the time, but the word is friction, that there's friction involved in having to go to a place, go to Las Vegas.
Well, now we've
took away some of the friction.
You only have to go as far as a local casino.
Now we're taking away more of the friction.
So it's so much easier than ever to bet, which means it's so much easier to lose your house or to throw your life away or something like that.
And, you know, at what point have we taken away too much of that friction?
And who's benefited financially from this?
Not
the people.
No, Earl Ingram is with us.
The What's Going On with Earl Ingram podcast, get it at civicmedia.us and click on shows.
I do have to throw our question of the day at you as well, Earl, because you know, folks come into Milwaukee all the time.
I once had a job in Milwaukee, working for a billboard company where I would greet our business customers at the airport, and then I would drive them all around town and show them some of the sites of Milwaukee and things like that.
You, of course, being part of the very Milwaukee landscape have had
your share of first time visitors.
So somebody's coming to Wisconsin for the very first time or at least the Milwaukee area for the very first time and they say just take me to one of your favorite places.
What do you like to do with a first time visitor to kind of impress them?
The lakefront man.
Yeah.
It's it's the lakefront and you know you you drive down by the art museum and you just take a look.
It doesn't look like Milwaukee.
It doesn't look like Wisconsin.
It is a
absolutely beautiful, beautiful area that I think people don't get a chance to see enough.
Yeah, we got an answer about that earlier.
I added an amen for that from, you know, up in the Manitowoc area, the Sheboygan area as well, that that is, you know, that's definitely, these are the places that you want to show off to people.
And you know, when you mentioned the Milwaukee Lakefront, I got to ask you about one more thing here.
There is an interchange there down at the end of 794.
I forget the name of the interchange, but I'm sure you know the one that I'm talking about.
Yeah,
they want to tear it down.
They want to, well, not just the, and even if they don't,
don't tear down the elevated freeway.
At least that interchange, I mean, you are right on top of it.
And there are like five different choices right there of which way you're going to go.
It was called the most overbuilt interchange.
I mean, they overthought that one so much.
And I think even if you're from Milwaukee, sometimes you get to some of these interchanges and it's like, that's not the way you would have designed it.
That's no knock on traffic engineers.
Well, okay, a little bit or maybe.
Driving can be a character builder there.
Well, you know, I live in the city and have my entire life, but that interchange is still confusing to me.
No matter how many different times I go on it, it was unnecessary.
Do I support tearing it down?
Maybe because where does all of those trucks moving merchandise go on the streets?
I mean, you know, there is
You know, the port is down that way.
And so there will be some pain, some bloodletting if they do it.
But you know, my decision is it's certainly if they tore it down.
We could beautify a lot more things,
you know, and we know the the market interchange there that big one downtown is not that old So you wouldn't want to do something right away, but if for some reason you had to redo the market interchange Yeah, I would think of a totally different way to incorporate 794 and the pork traffic and everything All this is not to dissuade anybody from going to Milwaukee.
You got to go you got to go to summerfest You got to go to the lakefront and you got to catch your ol Ingram on his podcast.
What's going on?
Click on civicmedia.com click on shows
I'm sorry, civicmedia.us and click on shows.
Earl, thank you for the visit.
Hope you have a great day.
Always great talking to you as well.
All right, thank you, Earl.
Coming up, we will be talking more about our question of the day.
Where would you take a first time visitor to Wisconsin?
I'm Pat Krightlow from UpNorth News.
Follow us at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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We will get to Melissa and our climate check in just a sec.
Yes, all of Wisconsin's Republicans flip-flopped yesterday and voted on a measure that should lead to the release of more of the Epstein files.
But in the meantime, some 20,000 files, mostly emails from the Epstein estate, have already been released.
How do you go through all those?
Well, Cam Stevenson at Courier Newsroom figured out a way, and he has created a searchable database with all of the 20,000 Epstein files released so far.
You can put in various keywords and see what comes up.
Head to couriernewsroom.com to learn more.
All right, let's do our climate check with Melissa Baldoff.
Let's start with the question of the day since it's getting such a nice response here, Melissa.
Good morning.
You doing well?
All right.
Well, let's start with that because you're you're in the Milwaukee area as well.
And I'd love to know because I'm sure you've had
share of first time visitors.
Where do you take them?
So I when I've had first time visitors, which largely has been my
friends and family from Florida.
When they get here, I'm usually just so excited to see them.
So it's like, we're going to do something in Milwaukee, even though I do like taking people to other parts of the state and letting them see how beautiful it is, you know, taking them up in your neck of the woods, taking them to, you know, Door County, to Managua, taking them to, you know, Devil's Lake, right?
Any of our beautiful outdoor spaces.
But generally speaking, what we're going to do is we're going to go get cheese curds in an old fashioned.
So for me in the Milwaukee area, I think Lakefront Brewery has the best curds.
So oftentimes, that's where we're headed right out of the gate is we're heading to get some cheese curds and a good beer or an old fashioned.
Yeah, that's a perfect answer.
That's a perfectly Wisconsin answer.
So I'm glad to hear that.
As we're looking at climate issues, we actually have a couple of
positive stories to share.
But we got to get you know, through we have to we have to slog through some stuff to get there.
And that would be in this case, the Trump administration is going to push to weaken protections for wetlands and make it tougher for the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Clean Water Act.
And Melissa, I feel like we went through this with the legislature years, years and years ago, when they wanted to basically allow all kinds of development on wetlands, and we have to explain to
people that wetlands, do you think of it?
Oh, it's just a swamp.
Wetlands are so much more valuable than a lot of people understand.
And, you know, this is something, it's one of the many false choices that the Trump administration likes to set up, right?
That we can't be pro economy, pro development and pro environment.
And we know that
we, in fact, can and have to.
So this is something that we saw in 2023.
The Supreme Court set the stage for this decision and really limited the definition of what a wetland is and made it to where it's going to make it a lot more difficult to have any kind of meaningful protections
for the wetlands across the country.
And this is something that is a problem for our farmers, for our communities, for everybody in Wisconsin, really, to lose these protections for waters that keep us safer from floods.
help our drinking water stay clean and you know provide habitat for for the environment so it's really really
It's really unfortunate that this is happening.
It's not surprising, but this is really a bad, another bad decision.
Yeah.
And I'm sure people go, well, wetlands, what does that have to do with drinking water?
But again, these are the sources for a lot of our rivers and lakes and other bodies of water.
So if you're polluting the wetland, you're putting in danger, you know, the very source of a lot of our drinking water that we use.
Melissa Baldoff is here to talk about the climate for this week.
And there was some positive news about how there will now be
even more EV charging stations across the state.
And that was, again, it took a court case up against the Trump administration to do it, but what's going to be the net effect, Melissa?
Yeah, the net effect is that Wisconsin is going to be awarding $14 million in EV charging grants around the state.
So like you said, this is something where
had to get in a legal fight with the Trump administration and very happy that Governor Evers and Attorney General Call are always ready to take the fight right to Trump, not afraid of him and not afraid to really do battle.
So this means that we're going to get some support to expand the EV charging network across the state.
This is something that we know is really being driven.
by consumers, by the industry, which is something that Republicans always claim that they want to see.
But we know that there's a demand.
More and more people are driving electric vehicles.
It is an issue for tourism.
It's an issue for development to have access to a really well-connected
and broad charging network.
So this is about meeting our transportation needs.
And this is I think a really exciting, exciting development.
It's good for the economy as well that folks know from out of state, they can they can drive their EVs here and still be able to charge them up.
Got less than a minute here, but I did want to shout out as well to Wisconsin Rapids, the Water Works and Lighting Commission is working with Great Lakes Utilities and One Energy Renewables to develop a five megawatt project.
And it's just that local
of energy sources, that's a net positive, Melissa.
This is a way to, you know...
get more power and do it fast.
Solar is cheap.
It's quick to deploy.
And it's good for the environment.
It's good for ratepayers because it's going to help keep costs down.
And everybody's feeling pinched.
Everybody's feeling the pain because of Donald Trump's disastrous handling of the economy.
Everything's more expensive.
And this is a way to get.
those utility bills a little bit lower.
And that's what we've said all the time is we don't have to just wait for national leadership.
We can lead at the local level as well.
Melissa Baldoff with our climate check.
Great to check in.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
All right, when we come back, we will have our question of the day and take more of your phone calls and texts about where you would take a first time visitor to the state of Wisconsin.
I'm Pat Breitlau, here up north.
We are just all about your input here in this segment at 855-75 Civic, 855-752-4842.
We've got a question of the day.
A friend is coming to Wisconsin for the very first time and you can take them anywhere.
Where are you going?
I've got a few responses to read off to you.
But while we've got this time together, you can also, if you choose, address our question of the week.
We talked more about that on Monday, but I'd still be curious as to your own thoughts about politics and friendship.
Do you have a close friend?
who is your political opposite and do you guys find it kind of funny and amusing and you play off each other or is it a potential source of tension and so you just avoid politics at all costs or maybe you're in that other group you don't really have a close friend who's the opposite party of you uh is that just cuz or is is that for a reason we've had answers from people that will say they have purposefully
basically, you know, cut some people out of their lives because of the divisions and it's just hard to respect somebody whose values are so antithetical to your own.
So we've got a couple of great ways that you can have your say on Wisconsin Sites and Friendship and Politics all at 855-75CIVIC or you can use the Civic Media app to call us, to text us, to leave us a voice note.
Or you can get in the comment sections of YouTube and Facebook the up north news Facebook and YouTube pages and the civic media Facebook and YouTube pages as well All right on the text line.
We had a couple of responses here Tom and Hartford earlier mentioned Schomburg's and I said that I had not been familiar with it out there on Lake Emily and he follows up
to say, Schomburgs was a stagecoach stop in the 1800s.
It has high ceilings, a large bar, a huge window that looks west, looking out over Lake Emily, absolutely beautiful year round, and a great fish fry, including light and flaky bluegill.
All right, you got me at bluegill.
love a good bluegill fish fry.
Not that there's anything wrong with cod or perch or anything like that, but bluegill would be great.
So that's at Schomburg's.
And I love that he mentioned that it was a stage coach stop because there are still a few places, not many, because they would have had to stay maintained, but you do see a few kind of run down places that had better days.
And they were stagecoach shops along the way.
Stagecoach stops, I should say.
There's one just north of us here in Chippewa Falls that, you know, you can just imagine like a scene out of Gunsmoker, Bonanza, or one of those other old West movies.
And that was, that was real life for these folks.
Let's see, Ronnie in Huracan says, I'm partial, but I would take visitors on a boat tour of the Huracan Marsh.
Largest cattail marsh in the U.S.
Then to the endless trails for bird watching, especially in the spring and fall, when over 300 different species of birds migrate through, that is a fantastic answer.
To be in the hurricane area and to, again, imagine just how much area is covered in cattail marshes.
And I could get into the whole geological reason for it, but it's, we're really nerding out at that point.
But there are parts of Wisconsin's geology that just lend themselves well to very shallow Bodies of water wetlands, you know swampy areas marshes things like that and yeah the bird watching you can't forget about that I know I've mentioned the lakes even snowmobiling on the lakes I've mentioned the fiberglass walleye up there in Hayward or musky just a walleye or musky musky But you know just the fishing up there and being able to go to some of these cabins now look I'm
I'm up north.
Okay, I'm on Lake Wissoda.
I'm north of Highway 29, barely.
That qualifies as up north, but it's a busy lake.
It's a very recreational lake.
Contrast that with some lakes that you can still go to further up north.
You get a little farther up and you get on some of these small lakes and it's so quiet.
You'll hear just the occasional boat going through and things are so still and peaceful and then you hear a loon calling.
or something like that.
And there's just no better escape and people from other states, they'd come to a place like this and they can't believe it actually exists.
Let's see what else do we have on here.
This one's about friendship.
This is about a guest.
Let's get to Jim and Brookfield.
who says he's looking forward to hearing the upcoming podcast episode with Earl, Earl Ingram and Sandy Williams, both provide thoughtful insight.
And as Pat said, it'll be great to have the band back together.
Well, thank you, Jim.
Jim and Brookfield putting that one on.
Also on the text line from John and Oshkosh.
about having to cut off some friends.
He says after enduring countless tasteless jokes and gaslighting by some lifelong friends who are on the right, I've had to cut a few people off.
I couldn't handle all the negativity anymore and needed to move on.
It's sad, but it was well overdue.
Yeah, I've definitely had that with people in my life who again, they'll say well, I'm just joking Or of course, there's the eternal I'm not a racist but and then there's always something after the but that just Leaves you in a position of okay.
Do I say something or do I just turn and walk and go okay?
You know you you can tell those jokes to other people so I completely get that and again, there's
There's reasons for everybody to say, nope, I'm going to engage in this person.
Or maybe instead of engaging, let's meld the two questions together.
Instead of talking about politics, how about I go take you on a little field trip and we go do something fun together?
Alicia asks, there's a reason why cranberries are so good here.
And yeah, again, I feel it's the way that we have a lot of shallow bodies of water, the way that you can get those bogs done in such a way.
your cranberries, for your wild rice, and for things like that.
So again, 855-75 Civic, 855-752-4842.
Where would you take a first-time visitor to Wisconsin if you could?
And also, we've had our question of the week from our Sunday morning newsletter and whether you have close friends who are your political opposites.
Parker, you were saying, and it does call to mind Melissa Kay at our station in Wisconsin Rapids did a story on cranberries, which sounds about right.
It's that time of the season.
I think she got a really cool chance to go and tour a bog and was talking with some of those cranberry farmers about
just what's going on.
I believe that was kind of in relation to what's going on politically with tariffs and such.
But yeah, no, I definitely I'm trying to find the article right now because it's definitely worth a read.
And you can head over to civicmedia.us to learn more to look up all the news stories that the team does including Melissa K's story about cranberries in Wisconsin, which brings up the topic of Thanksgiving dinners.
And if you missed Ellie Bordeaux earlier, our newsletter editor at Up North News.
She does outline the way that even as food pantries, you know, still face an increase in demand, there are also people who don't have a place to go for Thanksgiving.
And there are restaurants and organizations all across the state that are working to ensure that no one goes hungry on Thanksgiving Day.
And there's a link that you can click on in the newsletter to learn more about where you can get Thanksgiving dinner at no cost, or maybe these, these are places that you can support.
maybe send them a little donation so that they can continue to do good things in the community.
Also in today's newsletter is a story that I did for our website.
It says the clock is ticking on a popular land stewardship effort in Wisconsin.
And I talk about how there's really a need.
We had a guest on State Senator Jody Habers-Sinneken saying we really need the State Senate, one of the committee chairs, to take up a bill
that would continue the Knowles Nelson stewardship program, which helps purchase and set aside sensitive areas, protect them from overdevelopment.
They could still be used for recreational purposes.
They could still be used for things like forestry and things like that, but they wouldn't be turned into a strip mall or a golf course or something like that.
This program has been successful for 36 years and now there are enough
Republicans who would rather side with the bulldozers than with the woods and the waters that they zeroed the funding out in this new state budget for the Knowles Nelson stewardship program.
Now there are a few Republicans who think that that's wrong.
that maybe they wouldn't fund it at the same level that say Governor Evers and Democrats want, but taking it to zero is not the right approach either.
There are still some environmental people on the center right side of the spectrum, and they'd like to get something done, but to do that, they'd have to set up a committee hearing.
So I've got an article on the website, a link in today's newsletter, all about the situation and what would need to happen.
And yet there's indications that it might not.
happen.
Because to see a press release here from a better Wisconsin together, the group says that the state Senate, which met yesterday, had a full floor session and passed dozens and dozens and dozens of bills.
But apparently that's the last floor session of the year of calendar 2025.
And they are not scheduled to meet again until 2026.
And we have spoken previously to Lucy Rip, who is the communications director for a Better Wisconsin Together.
And she put out a statement that said rather than take this final opportunity to address the important issues facing our local communities like rising costs.
health care access and more, Republicans spent yesterday pushing through an anti-abortion agenda, trying to starve Wisconsin's public schools and more radical right-wing nonsense that only serves themselves and not their constituents.
And she's right, a lot of the time was taken up yesterday on a bill that we've discussed here that would redefine abortion.
And as was noted by Senator Chris Larson and others,
Doctors don't care what you think the definition of abortion is.
They don't.
These are medical definitions.
This is medical care where politicians are still trying to insert themselves into the examination room.
And they don't like the fact, the fact, that abortion is healthcare.
That is sometimes necessary for the life and health of the mother.
including protecting her fertility for future pregnancies.
Something's gone horribly wrong with this one and abortion is necessary to protect her options to start a family at some point.
Since the Dobbs decision, so many heartbreaking stories have been shared by women about how this abortion care is necessary and the women who have been left bleeding and dying
because of abortion bans.
And a few politicians on the Republican side said, Oh, well, we'll take care of that.
We just will take like ectopic pregnancies and other other, you know, things that can be done procedures.
And we'll just remove that from the definition of abortion.
And that's not going to fly because again, who are you to micromanage what medical procedures do or don't count for legal purposes?
Why are you still trying to regulate women's bodies?
There's not a single thing a man can ask in a doctor's office where politicians would go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we've got to do something about that.
You can't do that with your body.
But we sure don't seem to have a problem doing that with women.
At least that's the view of Republicans who worked on this bill yesterday to change the definition.
It's not going anywhere.
They continue to pass bills up to the governor's desk, knowing that they're going to be vetoed.
And yet they do it anyway.
As Alicia puts on YouTube, our state legislature has done nothing this session.
They passed a budget.
The budget has no increase in general state aides for our school districts.
And while they said they were going to reimburse special education costs at a higher level, the new numbers came out yesterday and that actually hasn't been done yet.
So Republicans are done for the year.
And I will tell you again, in Wisconsin, the legislature gets a full time salary.
It is considered a full time job.
And there is no reason to be done passing legislation for the year, holding committee hearings and things like that, but there will be no more bills passed because that's your legislature in action.
Inaction is one word, not two.
Some final news and notes from Lake WSOTA coming up.
I'm Pat Crichtlin.
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.
8.52 on a Wednesday it's November 19th and again coming up tomorrow on the program we'll have some of our usual Thursday guests including Joseph Pecky and Sean O'Malley talking about your money and the markets.
We'll have our regular Friday panel as well and then a short week next week so on Thanksgiving Day we'll have some leftovers.
Even before you have your turkey we'll be having some of our favorite conversations of the past few weeks on Thanksgiving but then the day after Thanksgiving a fresh
show for Black Friday, lots of fresh conversations, including our regular Friday weekend review panel.
So you'll want to tune in for that as well.
Back to the legislature for just a moment here, Alicia wanted to make sure that we also noted that not only has the legislature done nothing, they underfunded homeless veterans.
Yeah, they had the opportunity and zeroed out the program that helped take care of homeless veterans in Wisconsin.
So
It is rather difficult to see what it is that they're going to be running on here.
And we'll get to Cindy with that in just a moment as well.
Yeah, she's on the phone line from Appleton.
Cindy, are you there?
Good morning.
I am.
I just have one quick comment.
There's
no
saying if you can't say anything good about somebody, don't say anything.
That's how I feel about this legislature.
If they're not going to do anything good, then it's best they just do nothing.
Yeah, they can't make any worse trouble that way.
That part's true.
Cindy, thank you very much.
Hope you have a good day.
All right, there goes Cindy.
The problem with that from our standpoint is if we had nothing good to say, don't say anything at all.
That's a lot of dead air here on the radio.
So we will call attention to that and let the voters chips fall where they may, I guess is a good way to put that.
Our question of the day was for a first time visitor, where would you take them in Wisconsin?
We talked about several recreational aspects.
There was one that I missed and that was hiking.
There are two areas they're connected.
There's the entire driftless area of Wisconsin where there were no glaciers during the Ice Age because they got to a certain level and stopped and this is on the edge of where they were and then the glaciers began to recede.
Well, that borderline of where the glaciers began to recede and then has all of the ground was carved and gouged and all the rocks and boulders and everything else.
And that's where you would find the Ice Age Trail is all along that particular border.
So there are a lot of folks who love their hiking on the Ice Age Trail and maybe get to see some parts of the Driftless area as well.
If you missed it earlier in the news, I did want to share again, this is the Western Wisconsin Congressman.
and parts of central wisconsin derek van orden he like all the other wisconsin republicans flip flopped on the epstein files after months and months of helping essentially covered up kind of wishing it would go away once donald trump saw that public momentum was not going to let that happen they want answers to these questions and derek van orden and all the others flip flop derek van orden was on cnn
And listen to the anchor trying to ask him, what are your thoughts on President Trump and the delay on this and what would you tell him?
And Derek Van Orden will have none of it.
He's so trying to change the subject to a Democratic delegate member of Congress from the Virgin Islands.
He was just infatuated with this one particular woman and tries to keep talking over the anchor.
You know, the Ron Johnson School of don't answer the question, just make the point you want to make.
Here's Congressman Van Orden doing that.
I was a Democrat member of Congress on the oversight committee responsible for the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Sure.
Live texting with Jeffrey
Epstein during the hearing.
Congressman Ms.
Plaskett.
Ms.
Plaskett has refuted.
We have a limited amount of time because you're going to interview her next.
Is that right?
Is she going to be on your show and explain herself?
We'd be more than happy to have her on Congressman.
I believe that Mrs. Plaskett has refuted those characterizations.
However, that doesn't answer the question of what questions you might have for President Trump based on these emails.
Hold on a second.
Congressman, I asked you about President Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
You started talking about Mrs. Plaskett.
I want to get your thoughts on President Trump and what you might ask him based on this information that's come out.
I get it.
So you're just not going to get away with this.
So there you go.
That's that's that's what Derek Van Ord has been doing in this interview and in others and other Republicans as well.
But he does such a remarkable job of looking foolish this way that I thought it was worth sharing with you.
is when you go, well, why hasn't there been a town hall scheduled by Derek Van Orden and many other Republican members of Congress?
Because they don't want those direct questions.
And by the way, it's a little free advice to that anchor and to others.
When you want to ask a question directly and you know they're liable to not answer it, don't add all of the other extra stuff.
Like, you know, what would you say to Donald Trump given his relationship and given all the emails and everything?
You know, already they're going to start talking over you.
just get it short and sweet.
What's your message to Donald Trump about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein?
And then stop.
And that way you can repeat the question again.
You can talk over them.
It may not get you the answer, but at least you shouldn't filibuster if you've got somebody that doesn't want to answer the question.
Make that question short and to the point where they have to give it an answer or prove that they are just tap dancing.
And it gets back to, you know, again, my
idea for the networks is to not even do the live interviews or let somebody else do the live interviews.
And then later you play those back like we did here and make sure you explain that they don't want to answer any of the questions.
They'd rather like belittle reporters.
I think we've got the Donald Trump cut as well.
Here's Donald Trump attacking an ABC reporter for asking why he's allowing a murderous dictator from Saudi Arabia such a privileged position in the Oval Office.
Mr. President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files?
Why not just do it now?
You know,
it's not the question that I mind.
It's your attitude.
I think you are a terrible reporter.
It's the way you ask these questions.
You start off with a man who's highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.
And you could even ask that same exact question nicely.
You're all psyched.
Somebody psychs you over at ABC.
You're a terrible person and a terrible reporter.
So there you go.
Masterclass in answering questions.
Just keep asking the question over and over and let people see how they're not answering.
My thanks to today's guests and all of you for being a part of today's broadcast.
I'm Pat Crightlow from Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
We'll see you bright and early 6 a.m.
tomorrow.
You're up north.
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