Megalomaniac Run Amok (Hour 2)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by UpMorth News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of UpMorth News, Pat Craiglo.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06.

It is Friday morning, December 19th, 2025.

It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota.

Always a beautiful morning up here as you join us from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media Radio Network and all the many ways we have found to get you here at six o'clock in the morning.

Thank you for starting your day right here.

I got a question for you.

Who was our very first guest on our first edition of what was then Up North News Radio on August 1st 2022?

I'll give you the answer in a few minutes here.

I will tell you it's it's not who you think it is.

Dr. Lerly was actually on our third show and we had a different guest but you know somebody from up north I'll give you that much of a guess and you can tell me your thoughts a little bit later on and I'll give you the answer as well eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two

Yeah, this is this is it.

This is the last live show here.

There'll be a couple of weeks of highlight shows, including a few new things that we've sprinkled in because we had so much stuff we couldn't pack it all in before we left.

So be listening over the next couple of weeks, we'll still find ways to either entertain you with old stories or with a couple of new interviews and conversations.

But

Again, just thank you so much for your listenership over these past three plus years.

It is a cold, windy, icy one out there.

Two below in Siren right now is the coldest spot in the state.

Single digits above zero mostly.

Practically every place else.

Low teens in some parts of eastern and southeastern Wisconsin.

But just windy and that cold front was

every bit as wicked as they advertised it to be with wind gusts that were pushing 90 in parts of the Dakotas.

wind gusts in the fifties in parts of central and southern Minnesota.

And it was still pretty nasty by the time it got here as well.

The roads are icy in many places, so please be careful along the way.

Let's see, I believe that Parker Olson should be down in Madison.

I mean, I can't get on the air if he's not producing this thing.

Oh

yeah, there he is.

That's right.

How are you?

Um

That's a loaded question.

Okay.

Well, then let's just jump right into Cindy and Appleton is on the line Cindy Thank you for calling in so bright and early.

How are you this morning?

Well, I'm a little disappointed to hear that you're leaving I have not had you in my market for very long.

So I'm just getting used to you and I'm going to miss you and I'm kind of wondering what's going on with civic

radio right now.

It seems like they're not having any hosts anymore.

Are they getting ready to go dark or something?

No, I don't think it's that, but it is definitely much in the same way, Sandy, that Courier Newsroom, the parent company of Up North News, is kind of

Shall we say repositioning things for 2026?

And they want me doing more things under the up north news umbrella, more videos, more things online, more more writing, more newsletter items, things like that.

Civic media is making their own plans for 2026 to the degree that it involves statewide shows versus, you know, local shows and news.

You know, those are those are things I haven't been as they say in Hamilton in the room where it happens.

So

I think we'll just have to stay tuned and find out.

The network's not going any place.

I don't think their mission is going any place, but it has been a great year.

I would love for the ride to continue, but the only constant is change, Cindy, so I guess we all carry on and see what the new year holds.

Well, have a good holiday and take care.

Well, Cindy, thank you so much.

I always appreciate your early morning calls.

It's not easy having people call into six in the morning, and you're willing to and bless you for it.

And I hope you'll just keep an eye out for whatever we're doing over at Up North News, and maybe we'll get a chance to talk in another way sometime soon.

Happy holidays.

Take care, Cindy.

Thank you again.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

8-5-5-7-5.

Civic 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Looking over at the YouTube comment section here.

Alicia, I'll bless you.

I'll miss your shows in the morning.

That's great.

She says they have been a great way to start my work days.

Let's see.

Greg rather says good morning, Pat.

Waking up dark and early to listen to your last show.

Love your shirt, by the way.

Oh yeah, it's not quite a Hawaiian shirt, but it's definitely my favorite Friday shirt.

It's very nice.

Yeah.

Thank you.

See Greg also asked where siren pad is that a town in Wisconsin?

Yes, in Northwest Wisconsin.

Claire Bear so grateful for this show to start the day.

Thank you Pat and Parker wishing you all the best.

And by the way, a couple of our trolls are already out there in the comment sections tap dancing on the grave of this radio show and I'll miss you guys too so much.

No, really.

No, you

won't.

No, no, actually I will because, you know, again, they could only wish to have a radio show with the kind of, you know, friends and listeners that we've made here.

So, you know, good luck to you with wherever you're taking your trolling in the new year.

So we are at a Friday here.

We do have a weekend just before Christmas, just before everything gets going.

So, I mean, even if, you know, the show itself weren't coming to an end, we'd still be talking about taking a holiday break.

I mean, next week is weird.

because you got Christmas Eve and day right in the middle of the week.

Some people have to work on Friday.

Some people are working Monday, Tuesday.

We were already looking for every opportunity not to work next week.

We were looking at up to two weeks of pre-recorded shows anyway, way back when, when we were looking ahead on the calendar.

So this was probably going to be the last live show for the year anyway.

And then we get into all the travels, you know, my family and Sherry's family.

kids, grandkids, every place, everything else.

So I mean, we are going to be busy for the next two weeks.

And then two weeks from today is Friday, January 2nd.

And again, not a work day for everybody, but for some people, you know, it's, it's that first big busy work day of the new year.

So yeah, folks will be traveling, but

Parker, I don't know if you will be or not.

Are you more of a, are you guys at home bodies?

Everybody stay in Wisconsin?

Our family is all in Wisconsin, actually.

So we've got pretty much everyone right around us.

So we'll be going to my aunt and uncle over in some prairie for Christmas is all.

So

yeah, not going too far, no big travel plans or anything.

Okay.

Hanging around.

Great.

And yes, I am hanging around here, Greg.

Yeah, Greg.

Greg says, is Parker going to stay with Civic Media?

Yes, he is.

And then Greg delivers the dagger saying, by the way, when I say I love your shirt, remember, Pat, I am totally blind from birth.

Thanks, Greg.

I appreciate that very, very much.

It's a great review.

The reliable review.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Let's take a look at the Up North News daily newsletter because really that was at the heart of all this was promoting Up North News and our products here.

And some great holiday traditions have been shared with the readers.

Then Ellie has put them in this morning's newsletter.

Oh, some more gorgeous pictures.

There is a cute little dog out in the snow in today's newsletter.

Dan from Wild Rose sending that in.

Let's see, we had sure to book her on yesterday talking about some of the holiday markets going on this weekend and there are some more listed in today's newsletter here.

Also a story about a record number of people expecting to travel for the holidays and and more so to get today's articles and beyond head over to upnorthnewswi.com and click subscribe up in the top banner and follow Ellie's weekday newsletter then you can follow what I do on Sunday mornings as well that newsletter will still be rolling on with more of a politics field to it more of a weekend review.

Jim on the text line from Appletons

says, thank you for starting my weekdays with an occasional smile whenever the political scene wasn't being destructive.

Yeah, same, Jim.

You know, we have to cover the news and certainly the political news around here.

And this has been a year.

This has been a year of challenges.

This has been a year of, you know, some division and of some setbacks.

But also this has been a year that

Some folks have kind of rediscovered their purpose.

They've rediscovered their love for America, for democracy.

They've had to overcome the disappointment of learning how many people, their friends and neighbors, are comfortable with, you know, essentially a megalomaniac in the White House.

Somebody who yesterday apparently renamed the Kennedy Center, renamed it the Trump Kennedy Center.

I will pause for those of you who feel the need to, you know, retch.

But yeah, he tries, he's on the website, it says the Trump Kennedy Center.

That is just one of many things we're going to discuss with our week in review panel, including the notion of somebody who in a ranty and raving address

promised so-called warrior bonuses of $1776 and people said, well, where's that money coming from?

Well, it turns out it's actually coming from a fund that's supposed to pay for military housing.

So as other people have said, it's not robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It's robbing Peter to pay Peter.

So we'll be getting into that.

We'll be getting into some of the funny math that Trump mentioned in his speech and how his cabinet members, I mean, this is

This is so like the fairy tale of the emperor's new clothes.

And the excuses they're making for his bad math are laughable as well.

And it is just, like I said, sad to see what has become of so many of our friends and neighbors and fellow Americans.

But in all of that, we have discovered the need to come together, whether it's in the mornings around a radio show.

or in protests that people have gone to on certain weekends throughout the course of the year.

There are people right now who are running for office for the very first time who never thought that they would be running for office but have decided they needed to get involved.

And by the way, it's not just the candidate.

There are people right now, maybe best friends of candidates who are now suddenly campaign managers or staffers or donors.

Somebody's writing their first check to a political candidate this year because of what they've seen.

And every little bit of that helps come together and try to put our country in a better place.

And that work is still gonna happen here at Civic Media, and it is still gonna happen at Up North News.

Alicia says on YouTube about Trump renaming at the Trump Kennedy Center.

My eyes rolled so far back, I wasn't sure they would come back to the front after that renaming.

Same.

Same here.

Let's see.

Now, as if the day wasn't melancholy enough, Parker, we have to turn to sports where, again, they went past my bedtime, but the Badger Women's Volleyball team

had a

great first set victory, 25-12.

Yeah.

And I thought, okay, we're rolling on here against One Seed Kentucky in the final four.

But then Kentucky took the second set 25-22.

At that time, I had to clock out.

So here's what

happened afterwards.

Oh, I stayed up the whole time.

Oh, bad.

In the third set, the Badgers came back and won that one 25-21.

And then in the fourth set, Kentucky won that one 26-24, because again, you play to 25, but you have to win by two.

So Kentucky needed to go to 26 to win that set.

Comes down to a fifth and final set where he only played to 15.

And the

The Badgers didn't get 15.

Kentucky got 15.

The Badgers 13.

They came as close as you can get, but just fell short.

The Badgers in the second set should have won.

They should have won the second set, but they had, I think, six serving errors that absolutely cost them and dug themselves into a hole that they just couldn't quite get out of.

Yeah, they had a hard time kind of getting out of some tough situations that they got themselves into.

It seems like every long point when Kentucky is away, which is obviously pretty tough.

Yeah.

And one more note, the Milwaukee Bucks lost at home to Toronto 111-105.

So allow me to editorialize on my last show, Doc Rivers.

He's got to go.

Yeah.

It's just, it's time.

From the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is a Friday morning, so hopefully we'll be catching up with Greg Bach here for one last edition of our daily history lesson.

That'll be coming up in less than 15 minutes now.

We'll start, however, with a trial in Milwaukee.

They say the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice, but it doesn't mean there won't be some injustices along the way.

Donald Trump's police state wins a round.

by securing a felony conviction of a judge who stood up for independent courts, free from chaos, interference, and intimidation.

The jury foreman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it was a difficult day after six hours of deliberation led to a guilty verdict against Judge Hannah Duggan on a charge of obstruction.

The foreman said they followed the judge's instructions quote faithfully in coming to a decision.

Now interestingly, they acquitted Judge Duggan of a misdemeanor charge of concealing a person in order to evade arrest, which is really at the heart of the charges here that she provided some kind of illicit assistance to an undocumented immigrant who was before her in another case, knowing that there was a group of agents out in the hallway outside the courthouse door

that were ready to arrest him.

It seems that Dugan trying to assert some judicial independence counts as obstruction under the current regime.

Steve Buscupic, Dugan's attorney, told reporters it's unclear how the jury could have reached a split verdict since the elements of both charges were virtually the same.

U.S.

Attorney Brad Schimmel

Yes, if you missed it, Brad Schimmel is now the US Attorney in that part of the state.

US Attorney Brad Schimmel denied the case was political and urged people to accept the verdict peacefully.

He said, quote, the defendant is certainly not evil, nor is she a martyr for some greater cause.

I don't know about that.

I don't know about that, Brad.

Donald Trump wanted to make her a symbol.

of how he can send troops and officers wherever he wants, even into courts where justice is being done by an independent branch of government.

Dugan, however, also becomes a symbol of police state abuse.

As we've discussed previously, when people cannot come to a courtroom for fear of arrest, they won't testify, and that could help other victims, or they won't show up.

and surrender to the charges that they might already be facing.

Now nobody, nobody is saying courthouses have to be bubbles.

There are circumstances that warrant a courthouse arrest, but there is a line and Trump is clearly happy to bulldoze right over it.

After all, this is a regime that arrests people while they're in the process of following the rules to become citizens.

It is utter lawlessness.

that will only be encouraged by yesterday's verdict.

By the way, thanks in no small measure to another Milwaukee judge there who in her testimony seemed to knuckle under under in ways no differently than the chickens who call themselves members of Congress or Supreme Court justices or journalists and you can all sit in that pot of water all you want but don't cry to me when you ask why is the water suddenly bubbling?

Dugan faces a maximum of five years in prison, though federal judges have discretion when making a decision.

No sentencing date has been set and an appeal is certain.

In another story, attorneys general in Wisconsin and nine other states have reached a four and a quarter million dollar settlement with Menards over allegations that the retailer misled customers with deceptive rebate advertising.

An investigation by the collection of states found that the Eau Claire based Menards advertised discounts in ways that suggested immediate savings at the checkout when in reality customers received in store merchandise credit for future purchases.

For example, Menards advertises 11% off or 11% off everything in ways that imply instant price cuts while failing to explain the limits of the rebate program, burying the key details and fine print according to the states.

Menards also told customers that Rebates International was a separate company that handles the rebates even though it actually is operated by Menards itself.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said, fine print shouldn't cancel out big promises.

If a deal isn't an immediate discount, companies need to say that plainly so customers can make informed choices.

Now under the settlement, Menards must research online rebates submission options.

and explore allowing customers to use rebates on online purchases.

Monards must also give customers at least a year to submit rebates along with other policy changes as a result of the settlement.

Because if you've never used one of these Monards rebates, yes, it's very old school.

You can need to fill out the form, lick an envelope, put a stamp on it, send it in.

I've noticed this with a lot of stores now where they advertise like an online special.

And then people go to the store and they're mad because they can't get the discount because it's online only and vice versa.

There's things that you want to buy online.

You don't want to have to go to the store, but the store makes you do it.

And so a case like this shows that there are still people looking out for the consumer who are saying to the retailer, hey, you can have specials all you want, but if you're going to play games with online versus in the store or rebates versus instant discounts.

You better be clear as day in what it is that you're advertising.

It just all kind of reminds me of the day as a TV reporter, we were called to an Eau Claire courtroom in 1997.

We heard that there had been some kind of like a John Doe investigation or something, but we knew nothing else.

And then in walks, John Menard himself, where he was found of illegally dumping chromium and arsenic-lated wood ash.

by taking the results of, you know, of fire burning lumber, taking that ash and instead of getting rid of it as a hazardous waste, he'd take it home and put it in his household trash.

It led to a $1.7 million fine.

And at the time, Menard had just become or was about to become a billionaire.

And so we looked at that $1.7 million.

And similarly, I'm looking at the four and a quarter million dollars of that settlement yesterday.

And that is quite literally pocket change to a billionaire.

It is the cost of doing business.

But hopefully that cost of doing business continues to involve attorneys general and lawyers who are always going to be looking out for the employees, the customers, and our natural resources.

Today's history lesson is coming up next.

I'm Pat Critello.

You're up north.

It's time once again for today's history lesson on mornings with Pat Cranklow.

To all who've come to this happy place, welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the Beatles!

That's one small step for man.

Well, I'm not a crook.

Do you believe in miracles

yet?

You know, this depression is gonna be so great.

We'll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.

That's gonna be fun.

Once again, it is time to take another revealing peek back into history.

Here's today's history lesson.

With a little Earth, Wind and Fire, starting with today's anniversary of the birth of the late great Maurice White, singer-songwriter, producer, arranger, band leader, Earth, Wind and Fire received

20 Grammy nominations, the first all black band to sell out Madison Square Garden.

They're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They're in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

They're in the Hall of Fame of your heart.

Not just me, but Greg Bach as well.

Yes, Greg.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah, totally.

Absolutely.

Anybody anybody else's anybody else want to say that their big earth went in fire fan?

Anybody

else?

I remember.

Oh, there it is.

There it is.

Who is that?

Who is that?

That appears to be.

Is

that

the voice that matters?

Yeah.

Welcome to welcome.

Luke was our very first producer.

So Luke is here to tap dance on the show's grave at the end of it as

well.

You guys keep talking on the live stream.

I have to fix something that's just bothering me right now.

You guys keep talking, though.

I know it's bothering you.

It's bothering me, too.

Hello, Mr. Malish.

Hello, Mr. Malish.

Good morning, Mr.

Crite Low.

I figured I saw some of your friends from the Wisconsin Public Education Network do a little surprise yesterday, and it gave me an excellent idea.

So I wanted to not dance on your grave, but congratulate you and celebrate one final.

Well, thank you.

Thank

you.

It is as Tony says on YouTube.

Is this the handsome and capable Luke Mathers?

I don't know for that.

We go to Greg Bach for confirmation who trademarked that phrase

originally.

We're getting breaking news right now.

The very handsome and very capable Luke Mathers is here in the virtual studio.

Correct.

Thank you, Tony

from Ashland.

All right.

Back to regular programming.

So, Mr. Mathers, I've been worried about you.

Mostly because, you know, Yana's being out and the bucks, you know, kind of stinking up the joint.

But, you know, we just, we're keeping you away from sharp instruments, right?

Oh, of course, of course.

But I'm also trying to calm down all of the folks that are going a little crazy online because it's definitely, it's not a great time to be a Bucks fan, but I don't think everybody needs to be hitting the panic button

all the time.

I don't know.

That seems to be something very- Did you hear they're going to double trade, Giannis?

Oh my God.

They're going

to cut him in half and trade him to two teams.

Crazy.

They're actually just making a total NBA in Greece, and he's going.

Did you hear that, man?

It's really weird when you have 29 other franchises that would absolutely love the player that is the star on your team, and they have all the incentive and motivation to be able to-

drum up things like that.

Of course they do.

It's a cottage industry.

We got to have content.

We got to have content.

Well, Mr. Mathers, you're here for a bit of musical history as part of the history lesson.

This week in 2019, 25 years after its initial release, Mariah Carey was number one on the Billboard charts with this song for the very first time.

Wait, is this a new song?

It may as well be, right?

I don't think I've ever heard this.

Yeah.

So here's the deal.

And we have all talked about this as part of the history lesson.

Who has spent the most weeks at number one?

And once upon a time, it was Mariah Carey and Boys to Men.

Their song One Sweet Day had been number one for 16 weeks.

from 1995 to 96.

Then that mark was passed in 2017.

It was passed by Despacito, Morgan Wallace last night, Little Nas's Old Town Road, and now Shaboosie's a bar song tipsy at 19 weeks at number one.

But as of this week, because Mariah Carey is number one this week, the record is hers.

Hit it.

You like that?

I've considered being a disc jockey in some future life here.

You hit the post pretty good there.

That was nice.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

I love this song very, very much.

It's in my top three of All Time Great Christmas songs.

And I will say the best version of it I've ever heard is the one she did on, I think it was the old late night with Jimmy Fallon.

I don't think it was the Tonight Show.

Oh, with the tiny instruments?

With the tiny instruments

and the little kids?

Oh my

gosh.

And everyone's having fun, but yet Mariah Carey still has to be dressed like she's going to a Paris runway show.

Of course she does.

Yes.

I hadn't even seen the original video in forever and saw that yesterday and then wanted to look up the Jimmy Fallon one and got a sideline.

But I got to go look for that because the kids are so perfect on this.

In this line coming up right here.

And the kids all come up and go, and it's adorable.

I mean, it's no having a magical, wonderful Christmas time, but you know, you can shoot for, you can shoot for better, I guess.

I think Paul McCartney is ever going to get 20 weeks for that schlock.

Oh,

let's take all of his number one weeks and put them all together, buddy.

Let's talk about that.

Who had five?

Who had the five spots in the top 10?

Well,

Taylor Swift, right?

Actually, no, they had the top five.

They had the

five.

I

know, I know.

What is happening?

I

think whatever Mathers was doing over there.

See, he's out of practice.

That's all right.

Anyway, so there's a little history there from Mariah Carey.

20 weeks at number one.

Granted, spread across 31 years.

But hey, a record is a record.

Oh, I see.

We're bringing in the technicalities of it all.

Well.

That's that's been part of the debate because when you look at who's spent multiple weeks at number one But outside of you know one cycle There's there's Mariah Carey here at 20 weeks.

Mm-hmm.

There's only one other song on that list Chubby checkers the twist which which spent three weeks at number one Spaced over two years

Yeah, so so this song is what they might call a juggernaut

I'll say this I'll say this anyone who wants to get into the the nitty-gritty about it and get all like whatever The only people allowed to be part of that argument are people who have number one hits other than that be quiet She it's a great song.

Well, I don't know it's not in a row shut up

Tony on YouTube.

Mariah Carey is okay, but have you heard DMX?

Oh God, that was

fantastic

yesterday.

I was

so pleasantly

surprised.

Now I have to know, did he do more Christmas songs before his passing?

I

don't

think so.

Oh,

please tell me that.

I think it was a

one and done.

There's

got to be

tape somewhere.

And I want to imagine there was a conversation where they said, all right, so we'll do like a little more Christmasy.

Like, what do you mean?

Like we'll do it like more Christmasy.

Well, like it'll be more like a different dilute.

Why would I do that?

I'm DMX.

You're very right, sir.

I'm sorry for even bringing it up.

Oh, Luke, are you still on board?

Did you hear our DMX tribute yesterday?

Okay, he'll be back.

Let's see.

Happy birthday as the history lesson rolls on to Walter Murphy, who is 73 years old today.

The only person I can think of who could take Beethoven and make him relevant in the disco age.

You can get all the disco keyboards in there and everything else too.

Kevin McHale is 68 years old today.

Basketball, great.

Former Celtic, former Gopher.

The late great Reggie White was born this day, 64 years ago.

We lost him way too soon at the age of 43 back in 2004.

Happy birthday to Jennifer Beals, the actress from Flashdance.

Turns 62 years old today.

Look at how Mathers is resisting the urge to dance.

You know, he has danced to this one so many

times.

You know, I know that Jennifer Veals is forever tied to this song, to this movie.

But for me, she's forever the L word.

And that's probably a very niche reference for this audience.

But for me, she's always,

she's bet.

She's always bet.

I had never seen that show.

Heard nothing but good things about it though.

Yeah, a lot of drama.

Alyssa Milano is 53 years old today.

Jake Gyllenhaal is 45.

On this day in 1964, the Supremes scored their third number one song of the year.

You know who would love spinning this song?

Venus Flytrap from WKRP.

Played so well by Tim Reed, who is 81 years old today.

Nice.

Thank you.

We're rewatching, we've been watching Simon and Simon over the past

year.

Oh, yes, yes.

And

he, he just, downtown.

Mm-hmm, yep.

Let's see, on this day in 2014, Darlene Love sings Christmas Baby Please Come Home on David Letterman's show for the final time as the host had announced his retirement.

Here is the first time she sang Christmas Baby Please Come Home on David Letterman's show back in 1986.

At that point, people were like, darling love, is she still alive?

Is she still alive?

Yeah, very much so.

And David Letterman got tired of hearing Paul Schaefer play it on the keyboard every year and said, why don't you just bring her in to sing it?

And she did, and a tradition was born.

I, uh, it's funny because, uh, David Letterman now has a very comprehensive, great YouTube channel with all the old clips and interviews.

And it's, it's wonderful.

And it's funny to watch Paul Schaefer just insert himself into all the musical

performances

anyway.

He can, and he'll be like singing back.

I'm like, no one asked you to do this, Paul.

Just take a break.

Take a break.

Have water.

Just shush.

Uh, let's see.

Two more quick ones here.

Titanic opened in theaters this day in 1997.

Obligatory Celine Dion song.

Before y'all hurt yourselves, we should bring that down.

This just

makes me this reminds me that Ariana Grande is hosting SNL this weekend.

I'm very excited.

If she lost her ability to sing tomorrow, she'd be set for life still because her talent is not just singing.

Her impressions and her comedy

is ridiculous.

Impressions are ridiculously good.

Yes.

Yeah.

I think I'm going to watch

the first one she hosted and then watch this one this weekend.

Greg Bach, I really appreciate you being in here for the last rodeo.

Yeah, this has been great.

Loving these history lessons.

We've learned so much about music together.

So many great milestones.

I actually have one more.

It was on this week in 1968.

There was a new number one album.

This was the title track off it.

Oh, he's

so happy.

This is for

you, Brittany.

And I

drive the main road.

He's finally singing along to the radio

someplace.

Can

you get triple sued by a company for playing the

song and then two dorks singing it too?

I don't know.

Quite possibly, but you know why?

Because it's the best sing-along song ever.

It

is.

It's funny we've talked about so much yeah that the other day someone would brought it up and like oh man Glenn Campbell's good What's that song I go which tall lineman they're like yeah?

I'm like I sing that song only five times wait really yeah, don't wait don't you all?

Isn't that

come

standard in your car nowadays like that song come standard on your car?

That's so funny.

Luke Mathers and Greg Bach joining us for the history lesson here.

What a treat.

This is just great.

We have more coming up after seven o'clock of course.

We've got our weekend review panel.

We'll be joining us too.

Look through the headlines one final time.

Mike Clemmons preview sports as well.

Packers Bears coming up tomorrow.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We are just kicking old school, 100% here.

Bringing back Stevie Ray Vaughn, bringing back Luke Mathers, Greg Bakas here, Parker Olson.

We've been singing Wichita linemen.

I mean, all the greatest hits are coming out today.

And now, Pat, here's your fourth grade teacher.

Mrs. Gavin, how are you?

You go to the principal's office, young man.

I don't like

your guff.

That would, yes, I could totally see that happening.

Mr. Mathers, what a year, but you've had some amazing travels this year.

Yeah, yes, I have.

It sounds like the Christmas card was delivered.

Where was the best one?

What was your favorite?

Best was probably Acadia National Park.

So that was, that was a bucket list item that it was on there for a while.

We got it checked off in October with the fall foliage and the lobster rolls and the hiking.

It was, it

was

fantastic.

Okay.

Any plans for next year?

And I know what a traveler you guys like to be.

Uh, we're going to try to squeeze some in, but you know, we might have our hands full, but that's all I'm going to say on that subject.

Oh.

Look at Parker's face.

We'll see.

Big things coming in 2026.

Or little tiny things.

You never know.

You never know.

God,

you guys suck at keeping things like secret

instead.

Tony on YouTube, Luke sent a physical Christmas card.

Yes, some of us still do that, Tony.

We still send actual cards.

I wouldn't know.

I don't have

Greg's address.

I bought this,

Greg.

I don't have it on here.

No, Greg.

Pack your bags, kids, because Greg's taking on the guilt trip.

Here we go.

Somebody throw him a life ring there in the pity pool.

OK.

What do we have for the national day calendar today?

It is

a

national hard candy day.

Hard candy day.

How appropriate is the old guy is wrapping up his radio show.

I got to pack it up.

Hard candies here.

A little worthy of originals.

I always wondered if you did.

Back in my day, I

was going to say back in my day, we wouldn't even leave them in the wrappers.

What else we got?

It is National Underdog Day.

Like overall or the cartoon with sweet polypure bread.

My guess was overall.

OK.

Well,

maybe you're right though.

I mean, we're all kind of underdogs in our own way.

Sometimes that was really deep.

And finally, on the national day calendar, it's ugly sweater day.

Oh, I forgot.

I should have looked ahead.

I don't have an ugly sweater because it's got Snoopy on it.

But it's, you know, it's like when your typical tacky Christmas sweaters, you know, very, very green, very white and red.

And it's got Snoopy on there.

You got everybody guilty of having a Christmas sweater.

You all have one now.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I've got it.

I've got.

But things, none of them are ugly.

They're all like, oh,

trendy, ugly.

They're all trendy, ugly, like they're,

they're

ugly sweaters, but they're just that design with something on it.

Mine has, uh, mine has Jesus and Santa in a roller coaster car and Jesus is killing aliens.

Of course you do.

Yeah.

Yeah,

that's not ugly at all.

That's

wonderful.

I

on my

season sweater.

You can wear that anytime you want

not according not according to a certain workplace requirements, but okay, whatever I Driving in every morning.

There's a billboard that always has that a national day listing and today is national oatmeal muffin day and I thought is also today National is that the last one left day because no one wants an opening once an oatmeal muffin you want a chocolate muffin or

Of

course Luke does of course Luke comes in and

Captain healthy is back.

Okay.

It's also national.

Hey, who ate the last oatmeal muffin day?

Okay.

There you go.

There you go.

Luke's guy's own day.

Okay.

Now it feels much better.

Um, we got, we got one entertainment note that I think is, is hilarious here, Parker.

I'm going to guess that this is the Wiz Khalifa one.

No, no, it's the Coldplay

one.

Okay.

Wow.

Did you guess

wrong?

I don't know.

I think the first one on the list there.

Anyway cold plague concert you remember that back in this summer when that woman and that man like made

the

worst meme of all time Yes, the woman she has spoken out Kristen Cabot.

Yes,

she says quote made a bad mistake Or made a bad decision had a couple of high noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss

She's blaming high noons.

Yes.

She's blaming high if I

work for if I work for high noon I'm suing her immediately

like I'm signing her up immediately.

Hey, you want to go viral have a few of these, you know You want

to make some high noons make a bad decision with style?

Don't worry, most of the time, you're not at a Coldplay concert.

You just go to Jumbotron and have your mistakes.

Well, that's what I said.

When she said she made a big mistake, I thought she was going to say going to a Coldplay concert, but hey, it was

fantastic.

I saw it at Camp Randall and it was an excellent show.

And it was the first show after that incident happened and Ben had a good time about it.

Like he gave a very, very keen warning not to be, you know, making any mistakes with high noons before.

Hi

noon, because who can afford to go to a Coldplay

concert?

Oh, great.

Barstool.

They'll

eat

that up.

Sorry.

I have a lasting dislike for Mr. Portnoy.

I'll say it on the air.

I'll say it right now, right here.

I'll say it.

I did.

It's my last show.

You can pretty much say whatever you want to say.

I've already advocated for the firing of dock rivers.

You know, it's true.

Go ahead and get it all out today.

Get it all

out.

Dear David Kersbaum, you made second grade awful.

I've written it down.

Right.

What is the Wiz Khalifa story that you were so excited about, Parker?

Wiz Khalifa has been sentenced to nine months in jail in Romania because he was smoking weed on stage.

Smoking weed on stage in Romania gets you nine months in prison.

A legal expert has said that it's unusually harsh.

Well, he can just do what the Tate brothers did and suck up to Trump, and Trump can be like, let him out.

Let him out.

He's a

friend.

It's the way things go.

You just ask for a pardon.

It's how things work.

It's what we're going to ask our Week in Review panel all about here in just a little bit.

But first, Mr. Mathers, again, I was looking back at the first week of shows.

And it was, it was so fun.

I knew immediately how much fun this was going to be having you there to help set things up.

And then, uh, you know, Greg, uh, Aaron Zommer and, uh, you know, the whole crew of producers, you guys, oh, God love you all.

Thank you, Luke.

It was an absolute pleasure, Pat, and the state has been better for the last three years with you on the airway.

It's my

friend.

Oh, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Happy holidays to you, and we will talk again in the new year.

Greg, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for

everything, my friend.

You are awesome.

You are awesome.

You take care.

We will take a break here for the news, come back and have our Week in Review panel up next.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Hey, good

morning.

Welcome back.

It's a Friday morning, December 19th.

Nice to have you here up north.

One more time.

Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.

Our Week in Review panel is here.

Former US Attorney Jim Santel, journalist Mark Jacob and Jennifer Schulze will be along as well.

And of course, we always like hearing from you, especially on this final day of the show, there will be two weeks of highlights before there's some new stuff from Civic Media coming up in the new year.

On the text line, let's see, Tom in Hartford.

Pat, your view on politics is what I will miss most, very informing and honest, so needed in these crazy times.

Jim and Appleton, thank you for starting my weekdays with an occasional smile whenever the political scene wasn't being destructive.

Julian Wasaw, I will miss your morning show.

Pat, thank you for your kind and reasonable commentary.

Roger and Stevens Point, you informed us on what we needed to know.

You were clear and concise and to the point.

I'd like to thank you for being a voice of reason.

Best wishes to you and your future with Courier and Up North News.

It's been quite a ride.

Let's see.

What else do we got here?

Joe and LaCrosse.

Thanks, Pat, for having a great show.

I'm really going to miss listening to you in the morning.

Good luck in your future endeavors.

And then a couple of people reminded me that I asked a question at the top of the last hour.

And then I forgot to answer it who was our very first guest and that would be then Wausau mayor Katie Rosenberg talking about goats in the park that were taking care of Buckthorn and also PFAS in the water and the ways that Mayor Rosenberg was showing leadership in that respect in Wausau and her decision to endorse Mandela Barnes in the upcoming US Senate primary, which would be days later.

as we began the show back on August 1st.

We did 62 mid-morning shows from 8 to 11 in the morning and then in November they asked us to move this thing to 6 o'clock in the morning.

And this is now show number 711 of those.

So what is that?

773 shows that we've all done together and I appreciate very much all of you for being here.

Tom says, I always wonder who is the announcer who introduced your show at the top of the hour?

Don Rue.

Don and I go way, way back.

We worked together at WAQE and Rice Lake.

My first job right out of UW Eau Claire.

Don was the morning guy.

I was the news guy and we had a lot

fun in Rice Lake and somehow we've managed to live and maintain marriages and healthy families and are still alive after all this time.

So the least Don could do was be my announcer for these past couple of years.

Don, thank you very much for that.

All right.

Now, despite all of the kind comments and I do appreciate them before we get to the weekend review panel, I'm going to share what I did in the last hour as well.

My thoughts on yesterday's conviction of Judge Hannah Dugan.

And there is ample room for people to disagree on the question of whether it was appropriate for her to have an undocumented immigrant who was before her on a different matter, go through the main door where there was a group of officers waiting to arrest him, or whether to avoid that scene of chaos and say, here, go out the side door, a side door that was literally 10 feet away and would not have disrupted her courtroom.

Now, again, people can disagree on this, but here's my view.

Donald Trump's police state won a round by securing a felony conviction for a judge who stood up for independent courts free from chaos and interference and intimidation.

The jury foreman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it was a difficult day, six hours of deliberation that led to a guilty verdict on a felony charge of obstruction,

although they acquitted her of a misdemeanor charge of concealing a person in order to evade arrest, which really seems to be at the heart of the charges here.

So it just seems like Dugan trying to assert some sort of judicial independence counts as obstruction in the Trump regime.

Steve Biskupic, Dugan's attorney,

told reporters it's unclear how the jury could have reached a split verdict since the elements of both charges were virtually the same.

U.S.

Attorney Brad Shimmel denied the case was political, urged people to accept the verdict peacefully.

We are.

He said the defendant is certainly not evil, nor is she a martyr for some greater cause.

On that point, I disagree.

Because Donald Trump wanted to make her a symbol

of how he can send troops and officers wherever he wants, even into courts where justice is being done by an independent branch of government.

Dugan becomes a symbol for him, but frankly, Dugan also becomes a symbol of police state abuse.

Because as I've mentioned previously, when people cannot come to a courtroom for fear of arrest, they won't testify in cases that involve other victims.

They won't show up and surrender to charges that they're facing.

And I'm not saying courthouses have to be bubbles.

There are circumstances that warrant a courthouse arrest, but there's a line and Trump is clearly happy to bulldoze right over it.

This is after all a regime that arrests people while they're in the process of following the rules to become citizens.

And this ruling only encourages the utter lawlessness that has come as a result of this.

Duggan faces a maximum of five years in prison, though federal judges have discretion when making a decision.

No sentencing date has been set, but an appeal is certain.

712 right now.

Time to bring in our Weekend Review Panel.

Journalists

Jennifer Schulze and Mark Jacob and former U.S.

Attorney Jim Santel.

Good morning to all of you.

Jim, as a former U.S.

Attorney who also hosts Amicus, a law review Saturday mornings across the Civic Media Radio Network at 9 a.m.

You know how very much I respect you and I gave you fair warning that I wanted to editorialize about this first without having any idea where you came down on the split verdict yesterday.

But by all means, the floor is yours.

Pat, first of all, it has been such a great honor to be with you on these Friday mornings, other times as well.

All of your guests, all of your wonderful friends and colleagues have said your departure from these airwaves is a loss to all of us, including on issues like this.

We anticipate more from you in the future, and that will certainly happen.

Thank you.

On this issue,

All of us need to be thoughtful about the ways that we talk about it as you have just done.

recognizing that people may have different views on this, including the initial decision to charge at all.

That's also a discretionary decision.

And I would suggest that much of the conversation should revolve around that issue as well.

Let me say something that I said last night and then get to some more particulars about this as well.

And again, coming from a former federal prosecutor for 30 years, I did this work involving the prosecution of people who have violated

our federal criminal code, and who engaged in conduct that is contrary to and upsets our basic notions of decency and rightness and safety and security, all those things.

It is important, as you have just said, for all of us to recognize that every single criminal prosecution is human tragedy.

It's human tragedy, whether it's Donald Trump,

Hannah Dugan, anyone who's charged in our state or federal courts, no one, no one today, no one at any time in the future should be reveling in this result and saying, yes, indeed, this is a reason for America to celebrate today.

When I was a U.S.

attorney, we always did this.

We said, you know what, your closing argument was well done.

Your argument on that evidentiary issue was respond on.

You did a good job in doing cross-examination.

We never congratulated anybody on a result in either direction.

acquittal or non acquittal.

And I would offer that that's one of the principal issues that should animate the discussion, which will slowly go forward today.

As we think about this, we also should celebrate the very notion that you and others, all of us, including me, can get on this public forum and observe things like that, make those points.

That's what our nation is all about.

We do, as you just indicated, we do respect the jury process.

And for those people who would throw out the

verdict, that is contrary to that basic view about the process.

Other questions related, again, to the legitimacy of the prosecution, the politicization of issues that are out there, those are fair game for public discussion.

But let's not forget the seriousness of this.

This is, as always said, the single most dramatic thing, significant thing that a government can do, charging with a crime, and potentially, potentially robbing you, taking away your personal liberty.

Let's not forget the seriousness of what has happened here and in every other case out there involving criminal prosecution.

One small example of it, I was stunned yesterday.

evening when a congressman from the United States from Wisconsin going to the United States Congress we send him there posted he's since changed it this morning I just noted but talked about this verdict and said those words which take back everything that I have just said and that undermine our system he said lock her up.

And this guy wants to be governor.

Exactly.

That's the

amazing thing.

That's the kind of conversation we cannot be having today.

It is deplorable that a congressman, a candidate for a governor would undermine our system and not talk about the merits and demerits of prosecution.

The larger issues which this case brings forward, that comment, that comment is condemnable.

Jim, nobody's going to accuse Tom Tiffany of being a deep thinker on this particular case, and it's easy politics for him to make.

Mark Jacob, your own take on things?

Well, you know, I don't have any like big legal nuances.

I would just say that on a moral standpoint, I think Judge Dugan did the right thing, and I think that she should be admired.

and there is such a thing as civil disobedience even if technically she violated law and I don't know if she did or not but I'm just saying regardless there's such a thing as standing up for what's right.

Jennifer Schulze.

I would agree with Mark and I would also just add you know just think about how we got here in the first place it's just it's just a stunning place for the country to be and for us to have been for almost a year now.

that this even happened, that agents are chasing down and plotting to grab people in courtrooms, in Home Depot, who's in everywhere.

It's just such a sad turn of events.

but it's been a year of that and it just it's really just makes me sad.

Well and I guess Jim the part that's the toughest the gray area that I talked about is uh you know having you know essentially you know gangs of officers outside of courthouse doors and again that's not to say that's never uh that there's never a place for that but you you know the concerns about having that kind of intimidation right there at the courthouse door should

Like chief justices or other courts officials, I know they've talked about this, but should they be even quicker to come up with with policies on arrests in courthouses in courthouse hallways?

Or is that all empty discussion because Trump's gonna

put stormtroopers wherever he wants.

It is not at all empty discussion, Pat.

And that's one of the productive things that can come of the discussion that we have today about this very controversial matter.

The law, of course, is a federal and state law enforcement officers with warrants and also with probable cause, even without warrants.

do have the capacity to make arrests.

That's also fundamentally embracing notions related to the rule of law.

Having said that, what do public officials do, including chief judges of circuit courts, including federal judges, all kinds of judges and policy makers out there?

This is not just a judge issue.

Make determinations that can preserve both that right and that prerogative of law enforcement to make arrests and also preserve access to

courts and other public places to ensure that they are also open.

And if they're not places of fear, that's a tough thing to balance.

That's the policy thing that needs to be worked on even more.

Still ahead, we'll talk to our panel about renaming the Kennedy Center, the Trump Kennedy Center.

Can we just can we just go ahead and use

the word

megalomaniac now?

Or is there a different word that comes into play from the heart of America's up north live from Lake Visota?

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Cricklow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

work.

Welcome back 722 back with our panel former US Attorney Jim Santel and journalist Mark Jacob and Jennifer Sholes you joining us as well and Mark today Theoretically is going to be a big day in Washington DC.

This is the deadline that has been set up for

the Epstein Files Transparency Act to call on the Department of Justice to release all unclassified records and documents tied to the convicted sex offender.

I'm sure stuff will be released and it's only a guess at this point, but do you think at the end of the day we will be saying, yep, that is a lot of stuff and here's what's in it?

Or at the end of the day will we be saying,

there's got to be way more than this that they're still holding on to.

Yeah, number two there.

I think, frankly, you know, I mean, really, they don't ever really fully follow the law.

And, you know, they're always trying to cover stuff up.

And, you know, if you didn't have any problems or hadn't done anything wrong, they wouldn't be working so hard to cover stuff up.

So, you know, use your brain.

I think we'll have to see what happens.

I mean, they supposedly they put

A thousand FBI agents going through it to looking for you know various Trump's name Especially and so will they redact all that all the references to Trump?

Well, they you know, they've got this dodge where they're like looking at people's Democrats, you know to further involvement and that has let me allow them to say that they have an ongoing investigation so they may hide stuff that way I guess we'll just have to see but

really expecting them to do the right thing is would it would be a full Sarant.

Yeah Jennifer some of the most hated cliches in journalism is we'll have to wait and see and only time will tell and yet I don't see how we can say anything but that at this hour of the day.

Well the assistant US Attorney General Todd Blanche was apparently just on Fox and said something about well

This is the start of the 30 days.

So I think something of that implies that they are definitely not dumping everything today.

And they seem to think that they have a window.

And he said something about how they're going very carefully through things to protect people.

Yeah, you know who they're protecting.

The president of the United States.

But as Mark said, I think

I think they will continue to do what they've done all along, and that is obstruct, obstruct, obstruct.

And will we ever know for sure?

You know, I don't trust them on this at all.

And Jim Santel, former US Attorney, again, it's all only guesswork at this point.

But what does your gut tell you we're going to be saying at the end of the day today?

Those trite phrases are especially applicable when it comes to this administration, right?

Both my colleagues and I think got it just right.

We will see.

And the reason why there should be doubt, not only because of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's sudden interpretation of this language, that in fact we've got a window.

I don't know that I've ever heard that before.

That's what this administration does routinely when it comes to attempting to sandwich things or wedge things into the law that they don't like.

recognize also that we're getting together on this morning at a time when we've got at least one if not two federal judges who are affirmatively conducting hearings about whether to find this Department of Justice in contempt.

This is James Bosberg in DC with respect to those 238 people who were transported to El Salvador without due process.

This is an administration that simply says no.

We're not doing that.

And that's why we're in the constitutional crisis that we have been in and continue to be in since March 15th.

We've got judges out of Chicago who have directed people to do things in certain ways.

And the answer from this administration, Homeland Security, is no.

We're not doing that.

And we will simply flout what judges and what the law requires.

We will see if that continues to be the tradition today and in the days ahead.

Exactly.

I just want to throw in that, you know, with the Susie Wiles interviews that came out this week, she said that she didn't know and the president didn't know.

why Jelaine Maxwell got sent to such a nice, you know, cushy prism.

Yeah.

I mean, if you believe that, you will believe anything.

I mean, there is really zero chance that that's the truth.

Well, I mean, again, these are top officials and cabinet officers who, as we'll discuss later, will even find a way to defend math that ain't mathen.

So we'll get into that as well.

Now, a couple of notes here from the live updates coming from USA Today, Zach Anderson, Bart Janssen, Joey Garrison.

In one case, it says here,

Congress set a 30 day deadline, which arrived today.

So based on that writing, it's supposed to happen today.

And in fact, they go on to say, in terms of what time will the files come out?

Pam Bondi has until 1159 tonight to release the DOJ records, the exact timing and method of release is unclear.

The law states the documents must be released in a searchable and downloadable format.

However,

the FBI and the Justice Department have said more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence from the Epstein investigation exists.

So far, only one gigabyte of material has been released.

So Jennifer, I'll go to you real quick before we go to break because everybody's going to want to go through things as fast as they can.

We normally see it in Supreme Court decisions, something like this.

Jennifer, for every newsroom, it's just going to take time and you're going to want to make sure you do it right.

Yes.

To do journalism and to be careful and smart and not rush it.

And I'm also just not very optimistic about that.

I'm sorry to

say.

No, no, no.

That's that's that's exactly right.

Mark, we've got less than a minute left.

But again, there are people are going to want to rush to get whatever salacious detail they can find first.

And that, you know, I guess I would just urge caution in that.

Yeah, well, what they may you may get is the Trump people whispering in some journalist's ear, hey, look, there's this.

Yes.

And there will be something that has nothing to do with Donald Trump for you can just count on it.

And they're all into misdirection.

And I suspect that's what we'll see.

Yes.

Yeah, look at this.

Here's here's so and so's name on page 450.

Never mind what's on page 672.

Exactly.

We will continue things with our weekend review panel coming up right after the break.

I'm Pac right low.

This is the Civic Media radio network.

you

All right, one final time with our Week in Review panel, former U.S.