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Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.
Good morning, 806.
Nice to have you back here, Up North, on a Wednesday morning.
It is December 10th.
Earl Ingram is standing by.
A reminder, you can always join the show at 855-75 Civic, 855-752.
4842, our question of the day.
What's your next Wisconsin license plate going to be?
Two new designs were unveiled yesterday.
I keep calling them new designs.
They weren't.
They're actually retro designs.
Going back to the yellow and black plate and also a blackout plate.
which sounds really fancy and new who a blackout plate.
You know, license plates were like that in like the 1920s and 30s as well.
They were black plates with white numbers and we're going back to that.
So you want one of those and therefore you'll surrender your current plate a little earlier to get that or.
Not that big a deal.
You're gonna stick with what you got eight five five seven five civic or use that civic media app to text us or even record a little voice note to Let us know what you're thinking about that subject and more we'll talk about our question of the week from our Sunday morning newsletter Coming up in just a little while but first Earl Ingram joins us from the what's going on podcast and you can learn more about that over at civic media
dot US, click on shows and Earl got himself a heck of a good guest last week as we continue adding candidates to the race for Wisconsin Governor in 2026.
Earl, good morning.
Good morning to you, Pat.
How you doing?
I'm doing great.
Good to talk to you and as you you'd mentioned more than once that the former lieutenant governor was quite interested in getting into the race for governor.
He formally announced last week and then you had a chance to sit down with him, which is that's not a first for him.
He's almost almost made that like a tradition.
Yeah, you know, he goes back.
He's still a very relatively young man.
Oh, yeah.
39 years old.
I don't know.
you know I've got underwear older than he is and and and so you know he's been at this for quite a while he's a polished politician uh very well spoken and he is going to create havoc for those uh in the democratic primary and if you listen to him not just on on my show but if you listen to him speak
He's a young man who clearly speaks well.
He's able to articulate his thoughts and just to show people just how dangerous a person he is for those in the Democratic primary.
The first thing that happened right away is they started, the Republican party started attacking him.
and spend an awful lot of money right away.
They didn't do that for any other candidate on the Democratic side.
They did it for Mandela Barnes.
So they're concerned.
They know that he has an opportunity.
He's not only named recognition, but I think he's traveled the state many different times as he's stated.
and people across the state of Wisconsin know who he is.
So I think he's got a great shot at it.
Well, absolutely.
I mean, as the nominee for Senate in 2022, who very nearly knocked off Ron Johnson in a year when no Republican incumbents lost their elections that year, but Mandela Barnes came closest, closest Senate race in Wisconsin history.
And he's also very well aware
of the expense of this race.
He told Baylor Spears from the Wisconsin Examiner that his aim was to raise $50 million in the governor's race, which sounds like a lot and it is, don't get me wrong, but the last governor's race in 2022 cost a record $164 million because all these outside groups, they pour in money too.
So I mean, Mandela really goes into this about as clear-eyed as it comes.
in terms of knowing that this is again gonna be an expensive race and the stronger candidates are gonna be the ones who have experience and savvy when it comes to fundraising.
You know Pat, whether we like it or not, whether those who are also running like it or not, he has proven that he can raise the money on a national level.
And I don't know of any of the other candidates who can raise that kind of money.
Are you sure that wasn't a type era, 150 million?
I mean, I know you're right with that, but that's astounding to me.
Isn't it though?
Yeah.
And yet he's a guy who's named on a national scale.
Well, how many of the other candidates you think can even raise 50 million?
Right?
Well, the thing is, nobody's ever had to when these figures are from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign from 2022.
$164 million race.
Governor Evers and Sara Rodriguez is running mate.
They raised $42 million last time around.
Tim Michaels
just about twenty twenty nine million dollars so twenty nine million forty two million for Evers Mandela Barnes already knows he's got to raise fifty million because you know that there's going to be at least another eighty million dollars put in by outside groups and we know what those outside groups you know we're doing a mandela Barnes when he was running against Ron Johnson so
You know, Mandela knows you're going to have to fight fire with fire.
You don't like the system, but it's the system we got right now.
Well, you know, Pat, one of the things that he has and the Democrats have in their favor is that, you know, Governor Evers has been the governor for the last two terms and meaning Democrats have been in charge of the gubernatorial seat.
In addition, there's, you know,
The drumbeat clearly stating that Democrats can possibly reclaim after what seems like an eternity the legislature or maybe the Senate and you you put those things together and and I think all things point towards Democrats maybe keeping the gubernatorial seat and if that's the case I look at all the other candidates and
and Mandela Barnes is one who I think is whether whether people like it or not but he has again the name recognition and the gravitas to raise the money necessary and I thought in the end Pat what people want to make sure happens is that the Democrats maintain that seat.
Yeah Earl Ingram is with us from the what's going on podcast learn more at civicmedia.us click on shows.
Some of the analysis of the candidates has centered on
the notion that there really is not much that separates them in terms of the issues themselves.
You're not going to find any wide disagreements.
And so a lot of this does come down to
Intangibles, management style, the ability to convey a message, the ability to, on the one hand, sometimes work across the aisle, but on the other hand, to stick true to your convictions.
Every one of these six candidates in the race, and there might be seven before too much longer, every one of these candidates, you can't really judge if you're a primary voter on the issue, you really gotta come back to which one can, A, win the election, and B,
actually get things done as governor and I'm betting that you talk to the former lieutenant governor all about that as well.
Well absolutely I will tell you this Pat that that one of the things that is clearly separates Mandela and we'll see this where this will come to fruition is the debates.
The part of this is when you've got six candidates and you
You talked about possibly seven.
Are you thinking of throwing your head in the ring?
No,
I keep hearing
reports about Joel Brennan.
Quite well taken.
Let me take that off the table right now.
Thank you.
God bless you for that.
But yeah, we got six now.
Let's leave it at that.
Yeah, Joel Brennan is a really good guy.
I know him well.
I've known him for a number of years.
A couple of decades at least.
Very brilliant man, but he hasn't been in this arena.
And I will say this, defeat the candidates at the debates, right?
That's where this all is supposed to all shake out.
It can't shake out before it has to shake out during the debates.
The only problem with all of that, Pat, is when you've got that many candidates, they're not going to get a chance to, unless there's a plethora of debates.
They're not going to get a chance to really give you an idea of who they really are.
Mandela, on the other hand, people already know.
So that's a benefit to him that people may not see right now, but he's a known entity.
The others have to prove their mettle.
Yeah,
Earl Ingram is with us the what's going on podcast You can learn more at civicmedia.us and then click on shows and as I'm looking at the lineup here We've got Sandy Williams who's been back on the show to talk.
I'm sure about the governor's race as well as other topics
Oh, absolutely.
You know Sandy if you haven't heard Sandy Williams you you really ought to he's a treat.
He's been on every national news Outlet
for decades.
So he's a real jewel and he's right here in the state of Wisconsin and we get an opportunity to give him an opportunity to speak before the state where he's grown up and loves and still lives in.
And again, you can get all of this along with, I mean, we hardly get a chance to cover all of the various issues that you bring up.
You've had Dr. Robert Craig on recently.
You've talked about health with a couple of, with a pharmacist, with a doctor that are on there.
And in all of these cases, the doctor ones especially, I was so happy to hear that once again,
You didn't get hurt frying up all those turkeys that we learned about.
Did your Thanksgiving go off without a hitch, I hope?
Yeah, yeah, it did.
But what I would say to you out of all the different things that we do on the podcast, the health aspects of it are the most important.
And we have access to all the doctors at Freedurt Hospital and the pharmacists.
The doctor of medication is the pharmacist and rarely do we hear from them.
But I think it's the most important out of all the segments that we do.
Yeah, from Chris Hambock Boiler friend on Facebook.
Hi, Earl.
Still miss your radio show?
Follow your podcasts.
And I get notes like that every week.
I never get a chance to tell you about them off air, Earl, but folks are still there.
They're glad to have the podcast and glad to have you shown up here on the radio.
And we definitely appreciate that kind of insight very well as you know, here on this program.
And, you know, pretty soon we're going to be heading into the
the next round of holidays here.
So do you, I mean, you made Thanksgiving sound like a really big thing there, like multiple turkeys being made and things like that.
Is Christmas kind of the same way?
Are you prepping the same way for that holiday?
Well, yeah, you know, I'm a guy who I found out, I got into things late in life.
I didn't get a chance to get into this business until I was 53 or 54 years old.
I didn't get into, you know, cooking.
to the degree that I have until I was in my 50s.
So, life doesn't always start at 25.
You know, we really round out, as you well know, as we, the years pile up, we start realizing different things and the importance of doing different things, getting involved, and experiencing
who we really are and finding out who we are as we age.
Yeah,
no, we love talking about all of this with this.
So again, give a listen to Earl's podcast, head to civicmedia.us, click on shows to learn more.
Earl, always a pleasure.
We'll talk to you next week.
Thank you, my friend.
All right.
Thank you.
Take care.
All right.
Coming up, we're going to be talking about climate issues.
We're going to be talking about our question of the day, which is all about the license plates that you might put on your car.
You might choose to you might not choose to.
And before we're all done, we'll also say a few words about Wisconsin.
I because it is very much in danger of just
being just going dark.
And that would benefit none of us who want to make sure that there's transparency and accountability in Wisconsin politics.
I'm Pat Crightlow live from the lake here in Chippewa Falls, and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
822 on this Wednesday morning time for our climate check.
check in with Melissa Baldoff about some of the stories that were that she's following about a changing climate and both the challenges and the opportunities that come along with it.
Melissa, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm doing okay.
I'm doing better than my computer, which is I think under protest because of the weather this morning.
So yeah, I'm in slow part, but she's still going.
can't can't say that I you know blame it you can't blame the weather for this it's just it's affecting all of us so again some some of these stories that we follow sadly they're not a surprise
but they still deserve mention so that a record is out there.
And this headline from the New York Times, the Environmental Protection Agency erases mentions of human causing climate change from some of its websites, an EPA site listing the causes of climate change no longer includes the main one, human activity.
Again, this is what in the business we would call wish casting, you know, as opposed to news casting, where you just put out there what you wish was the case and, you know, the Trump administration can wish us all to forget the actual causes of a changing climate, but apart from this kind of government censorship, you know, that's really all they got.
Yeah, and you know, we know we know this story from Wisconsin from when Scott Walker was governor and You know banned all mention of climate change throughout state agency and Across state government and that was one of the very first things governor Evers did when he took office was bring science back to the DNR and back to state agencies Acknowledge science acknowledge reality that
humans are contributing in main cause of climate change and of the negative effects that we're seeing.
So like you said, just saying the opposite doesn't make it true.
And we know that Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax, his word.
But that's
the thing.
Let's let's jump on that word.
Let's jump on that word hoax, because he he did it again about affordability, calling that a hoax.
Now, people can see prices for themselves.
And so whether he knows it or not, I mean, I know he doesn't play poker, but you know, there's something called a tell.
And when he uses the word hoax, I mean, I think more and more people are on to him of, Oh, that's the thing that's true that he wishes wasn't so he's going to make stuff up.
I mean, hoax has
really
become his tell.
Exactly.
And maybe affordability is a hoax to him because this is somebody who has been given every advantage and benefit in life.
I don't know about you, but when I wanted to get into my line of work, my parents weren't handing me buckets of cash to
to get it going.
And I would never have been able to bankrupt multiple businesses and keep it going.
So this is somebody who doesn't understand the struggles that real people face because he's never had to, has no connection to reality.
So it's not a surprise that he might think affordability as a hoax because he doesn't
He just doesn't know what the word means.
It is an actual crisis to the vast majority of Americans who are seeing their energy bills skyrocket.
We're talking to Melissa Bullough here in our weekly climate check.
The headline here from WISC is that the city of Madison has completed its second year of building energy savings program.
And again, this is the kind of thing that we've talked about that if you're going to have denial at the federal level.
Well, you can certainly do things at the local level.
The article notes that, you know, the city of Madison has completed its second year of a program with 330 buildings successfully benchmarking their energy use, you know, trying to figure out to what degree they're responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and what they can do to reduce that.
And, you know, these are just, again, the local initiatives that are going to take us through at least for the next few years.
Exactly.
We've seen local leaders like Mayor Rhodes Conway really be out at the forefront here and leading the charge, setting an example, and being committed.
And these are the kinds of things that maybe don't sound particularly sexy to some folks, but make a really big difference.
The reality is,
that buildings are responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
And the article notes that buildings in Madison are responsible for 65% of local greenhouse gas emissions.
So improving energy efficiency is a really important tool in everybody's belt that they can reach for to help address the negative impacts of climate change.
And then finally, if you needed any further evidence of the impact of a changing climate comes this headline.
Americans lost more power last year than any year in previous decades.
The energy interruption, the electricity interruptions, I should say, was nearly double the annual average of the last 10 years with hurricanes being a leading cause.
And for people here in Wisconsin, it's not just hurricanes.
It's again, these storms that are more severe.
They are stronger and they're doing damage to our energy infrastructure as if we needed more evidence.
Exactly.
And while Wisconsin isn't really, you know, directly dealing with impacts of hurricanes, we do deal with the impact of hurricanes and what they do to the grid because we have much of our energy is imported into the state.
So if there are strains on the grid and other places on the sources of energy, that's going to affect consumers here, which is all the more reason that we need to focus on local
affordable solutions like solar power, like wind, things that are able to be, you know, homegrown, Wisconsin solutions that put us in control of our energy usage and generation.
Melissa Baldoff has our climate check each week.
Melissa always appreciate the check in.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
You too.
Bye.
All right.
When we come back, we'll talk a bit more about Wisconsin Eye and the possibility that it might be going dark and we'll have our question of the day as well.
Wondering if you're going retro with your next license plate.
All that more just ahead as we continue on a Wednesday morning, December 10th.
Live from the lake, I'm Pat Krightlow with coverage that's unabashedly Wisconsin, as we like to say.
Back after this.
So a little earlier, you heard from Earl Ingram talking about his interview with Mandela Barnes, and you can listen to interview through the What's Going On podcast at civicmedia.us.
Then another chance to hear from Mandela Barnes will come this Friday morning, eight o'clock, right after the news, when we get a chance to talk to the candidate for governor about his decision to get into the race.
Might not be the only gubernatorial candidate that we talked to yet before the week is out.
We'll continue working on the field as it is and give you an update along the way.
Our question of the day today, what is your next Wisconsin license plate going to be?
Two new designs were unveiled yesterday.
Bringing back the old yellow ones and a blackout design or would you rather just stick with what you've got with a little bit of Wisconsin scenery on the top of it 85575 Civic 8557524842 Let's see Carol says I will keep my license plate.
I have I love the barn on it
Yes, exactly.
So I'm not feeling like in a rush to do that.
And frankly, there are so many specialty license plates out there, all kinds of worthy causes.
And I just have never really given them a good look.
And I think if my options are yellow and black, I might take a look at some of those specialty ones that are out there.
There's ones for the brewers.
There's one to support the Ice Age Trail.
There's Road America, which is kind of the thing that inspired the blackout design.
That's coming, one for the Packers, one for endangered resources.
And so all of these special license plates are available as well as the yellow and black.
Oh my gosh, I finally just called up the list here.
There's one for the International Crane Foundation.
We had them on just yesterday, I believe, Ducks Unlimited, Donate Life, Civil Air Patrol,
and boy on and on and on it goes.
So I don't know that the plain yellow or the plain black would would appeal for me if I have that kind of an option but we'd love to know your thoughts 855-75 Civic 855-752-4842.
We also along with our question of the day we have a question of the week in our Sunday morning newsletter and in that one we have been asking about wedding barns and whether the laws regarding alcohol sales need to be loosened up
for these small rural businesses, or if they need to abide by the same rules as bars, taverns and banquet halls, even though they are not full time businesses to get a first look at our question of the week.
Sign up for our weekly Sunday morning newsletter Sunday mornings with Pat quite low over at up north news.
W I dot com.
I want to talk a bit about Wisconsin I here, which is Wisconsin government's version of C span because it
is such a unique opportunity to maintain transparency for Wisconsin government, but it might be going away.
I mean, as Tony puts on YouTube, so city council meetings can be broadcast on YouTube, but assembly floor sessions can't.
Come on, man.
He says, WSI really feels like it should be funded entirely by the state.
Well, it's not.
It does depend on donations.
It depends on some very wealthy people to provide the funding for it, and a lot of that has dried up.
And so, Wisconsin Eye is looking at going dark as early as next Monday, unless they can find somewhere in the couch cushions $877,000.
And that's just to maintain current operations.
Now, the Isthmus notes in an article about this that
There's still as much demand as ever for the services that Wisconsin I provides the unedited coverage of, you know, the assembly and the Senate sessions.
There are committee meetings.
There are pre-session press conferences by Democratic and Republican leaders.
There are various boards and commissions.
All of these things are done by six staffers.
Who are I've seen them scramble all over the capital to get cameras set up and make sure that signals go through They're also recording videos in their studio there.
There's the morning minute.
There's their rewind show as well They've got some 30,000 hours of archived footage that will be going offline as early as Monday and
Again, the value of it should be pretty easy to understand.
It was launched in 2007, my first year in the state Senate, and people were like, oh, people are only going to play to the cameras.
I have never seen that.
And to the extent that on C-SPAN, politicians are playing to the cameras, well, again, they're playing to an audience that was going to be tuning in anyway.
So it's not like they're having some kind of untoward
you know, influence on public debate.
Most people who are tuning into channels like these want to see, you know, the raw footage of what their elected officials are saying and doing.
And at a time when we have fewer people in, you know, what you would call the state Capitol Bureau than ever, because more and more newspapers, TV and radio stations just don't cover the state Capitol full time anymore.
How much more useful is it?
to simply have an unfiltered camera and microphone that's in there to record these things.
And we know that when there are no watchdogs, when there are no reporters, when there are no cameras, things can happen.
And they still do.
We still see the occasional news story in other states, mostly, I'm happy to say, about boards and commissions that make
you know, borderline corrupt or self-serving decisions, and then only later is it discovered by a taxpayer or by a journalist.
And so to have this kind of level of coverage of state government is really a bonus.
Now, in the beginning, it was funded by Diane Hendricks and her late husband Ken, who founded ABC Supply in Janesville, former Lieutenant Governor Margaret Farrow, who passed away in 2022, was also a leader and champion for the network.
But what they've always been missing is a long-term funding plan.
And here's the article in the, or here's the line in the ISMA's article that stuck with me.
The idea of a small surcharge on cable TV subscribers was never seriously considered.
Well, why the heck not?
I mean, if you knew how much of your cable bill was going directly to ESPN so that, you know, millionaire athletes can get multi-million dollar contracts, you might lose it.
But there are parts of our cable bill.
that go in all sorts of directions, why wouldn't some of it be a sense of transparency in covering state government?
Or frankly, you know, it should just be mandated coverage, and that this is mandated to carry.
You know, cable companies only exist and have a business model because they are able to be licensed to essentially print money.
by hooking people up and giving them 5,000 channels.
Well, fine, you can do that, but you've got to be covering, you know, the channels that make sure that government is more accountable.
And that would include your C-SPAN channels and your Wisconsin I1 as well.
A paywall has never been seriously considered and shouldn't be because, again, this kind of coverage of your state government should be free.
But here's the other thing that
kind of sticks with me.
State officials gave Wisconsin I $250,000 in the current budget.
And then they could qualify for up to $10 million if they could match that amount.
So matching funding of up to $10 million if they raise up to $10 million from other sources.
Otherwise you get $250,000.
I have to admit that I have never really been a fan of the matching grant setup that people say, oh, your gift is matched dollar for dollar by such and such.
And I guess I understand that they're trying to gin up interest like, hey, your dollar goes twice as far.
But it seems to me that if a person or a group is willing to give a certain level, you know, up to a certain level, then just give that level.
You're clearly willing to commit that much for a worthy cause and hey if other people are motivated by your generosity Well, that's wonderful, but what are you doing?
Given $250,000 and then saying hey, but you could get 10 million, but you got to go beg and scrounge for 10 million yourself That's just not gonna get the work done and and the folks at Wisconsin.
I Totally understand that they they know that they have to raise
Like I said, so $887,000 in the next few days, just to keep from going dark on December 15th.
And so far, according to one of the leaders of Wisconsin, I President John Hankus, he told WISN TV that
If we only succeeded in raising $4 million, there would still be a $4 million match, yet to think that we could raise $10 million between now and the end of next June is a pipe dream.
And so Hankus is asking the governor and lawmakers to change the plan for those matching funds that could keep Wisconsin Eye afloat.
To which I would again say that I already know what Republican lawmakers are going to say, well, we don't have the money for that.
Well, you clearly are willing to match up to a certain amount.
You're clearly willing to put all kinds of money toward things like, you know, tax cuts for the very wealthy and a whole host of other things.
Wisconsin, I should just be part of that mix.
You should want people to see what you're doing because you believe in the work that you're doing.
And it is frankly,
You know, it's better than you hiring a camera crew to say, look at me.
Look at what a good job I'm doing on the assembly floor and in these committee meetings.
Let the people see it every day in the work that you do.
We'd love to know what you think of that at 855-755-CIVIC 855-752-4842.
Let's see, we talked earlier about Sean Duffy.
the US Transportation Secretary, former member of Congress, acknowledging that he does not have a plan to reduce costs at airports.
We have talked about Congressman Scott Fitzgerald and his seemingly pro-monopoly or friendly to monopoly views on the bidding over Warner Brothers between Paramount and Netflix.
And there's one more member of Congress to pass on some news about and that would be Tony Weed.
the member of Congress from the Eighth Congressional District in Northeast Wisconsin, who is crowing about a bipartisan bill that he's saying would give small business owners a bigger voice because it's in something called the Dump Red Tape Act, which will create a dedicated hotline for small business owners
to report overly burdensome or unnecessary federal regulations to the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy.
So in other words, his idea that he thinks will save money and help small businesses is to spend more of your tax dollars to create this dedicated hotline where
people can get on and gripe that a certain rule is overly burdensome and unnecessary, you know, the red tape.
Here's my question.
Will that include the red tape that they just added to snap benefits?
Will it include the red tape that they're adding for people to qualify for Medicaid health care coverage?
Because the people who like to gripe the most about red tape for business,
sure have seemed to master the art of putting red tape in the way of American families, struggling families, farmers, anybody other than big corporations or anybody in the business world who likes to complain about regulations, you know, the things that are otherwise known as protections for consumers and for employees and for the environment.
So while it may feel nice,
that Congressman Weed has authored something that went through Congress.
It would be really nice if he'd focus on removing the red tape that he just voted to put in front of the people in his district who simply want to have health care or eat.
We'll wrap things up with some final news and notes from Lake WSOTA.
After this, I'm Pat Crite Lawyer up north.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
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to listen to Matt Nair on air because we're down to three shows left before Jane's retirement, so tune in to Jane Matt Nair and Greg Bach coming up right after the news at nine o'clock here across the Civic Media radio network.
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Parker's been looking through the
specialty license plates here as we've been talking about the you know the bringing back of the retro yellow and black license plates and
I mean, it is not a small list as you've looked through them.
Did any one of them?
Let's just assume somebody's gonna foot the bill for, you know, the additional cost, which I think it's a $15 annual fee by and large.
If somebody else is gonna do that, did you see one here that you would like to have?
One that I would get.
I would probably get one of the Brewer's ones.
I think the one with the M logo on the Wisconsin, the old picture of Wisconsin.
I like that.
Well, I think it stands out better than the ball and glove does.
Now, is that is that the old wheat logo?
Is that still available?
No, it's um, I think it's the one that's on the shoulder of the sleeve patch of the.
Oh, okay.
The Navy jerseys that we have.
It's the yellow brick of Wisconsin kind
of.
Oh, there it is.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
I see it now.
The old that's the old school M. Yeah.
Okay.
I like
I like that very much.
Yeah.
What are you
looking
at?
What
do you want?
Well, that I was scrolling down to that for a moment.
I also see one here for the Medical College of Wisconsin, which is where Sherry went to med school.
However, I'd quickly add we paid them plenty.
We gave them a lot of money and we're in debt for a long time.
So I don't know that we'll definitely be getting a license plate there.
Have you ever
seen?
the John Mulaney bit about paying for college.
And then
they
ask you to donate because you're an alum of the college.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, I've already paid you $120,000.
And you want more?
You spent it already?
Yeah.
We we went to a dinner once for one of these institutions.
And I'm not going to say which one.
But they they basically botched up, you know,
Sherry's name and job.
And we
were just
like, you know, you're here asking for money.
And then you completely, you know, screw things up that way.
It's not not a way to look, I would not want to be in the fundraising business.
It's not easy, believe me.
But you still got to do your homework before you're approaching donors.
Here's one for the Muskie clubs alliance with the big old muskie.
I have never seen that one on the roads.
Nor one that says nurses change lives.
It's got a little heart and a stethoscope on there.
Uh, so that's cool.
Holy cow.
The operating engineers union has a license plate.
That's on here as well.
Yeah.
My good.
There's, here's one for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation with a big old elk over on the left side of it.
Boy Scout alumni.
What they,
uh,
Uh, here's one for spay, neuter and adopt pets.
Uh, it's got Bob Barker's face over it.
No, no, it's a little puppy dog and a cat.
Oh, and a rabbit.
And so you'd have a license plate that says spay, neuter, adopt on it.
Okay.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Here's one for trout unlimited.
So it's like, like the musky, but, but the trout instead, do you have people competing for that one?
I got another one here with Bucky Badger on there.
I
can always get
behind Bucky Badger.
Do they have for the, here's Whitetails Unlimited, the Wisconsin County Forest Association, the Wisconsin National Guard, Women's Health.
What I don't see are for all of the UW schools like Whitewater, Eau Claire and all of that.
So they must not have something like that.
I would think that they would.
That would be an easy one, I think.
I would think so too.
I'm seeing the Badgers and Marquette.
are
the
two and medical college of Wisconsin.
There is a general and I would like to point out that it says university of Wisconsin system.
Not universities of Wisconsin.
Not universities.
No.
We're not even get it back into that one.
So anyway, so there there ends the license plate discussion for today.
One other note from the Milwaukee Journal sent those Molly Beck that a judge has refused calls from Donald Trump's former Wisconsin lawyer to recuse himself from the fake electors case.
This is over, of course, that felony forgery charge that is being faced by Jim Trupas, who himself was a former Dane County judge.
but who represented Donald Trump's campaign in Wisconsin back in 2020.
The judge in this case, Dane County Circuit Judge John Highland, refused calls to step down in the case.
This really does, again, come down to the fake-electors scheme of which Trupas and another Wisconsin native, Kenneth Chesbro, were a lead architect in Donald Trump's efforts to stage a coup after the 2020 election and delivered false-elector paperwork
to a Pennsylvania congressman's staffer to give them to Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021.
Ron Johnson had played a role in that as well.
And if Mike Johnson had gone, I'm sorry, if Mike Pence had gone along with it, there is no telling what kind of chaos this nation would have faced.
But Mike Pence, still containing some degree of human ethics lacking in the president of the United States, said no.
Now again in the fake electors case troopers and Chesbro and the the fake electors themselves Have all indicated while this was just a legal fallback strategy just in case you know a recount showed that Trump had won the election But Trump was never going to win the election by recount because there was never any any any any Evidence that would point to some kind of wrongdoing to the point that would require a court to look at elect paperwork from other electors
In other words, they knew it was a criminal conspiracy all along.
They've managed to evade it this long, but there are still some state cases and still hope that justice may still be done someday before somebody else.
tries to overturn an American presidential election.
My thanks to today's guests, representatives Angelina Cruz and Christian Phelps, as well as Melissa Baldoff, Earl Ingram, Jimmy Cosca, Ellie Bordeaux from Up North News, and all of you for being here this morning.
I'm Pat Kratlow from Up North News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
We'll see you back here tomorrow morning, bright and early.
You're Up North.
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