Good morning, Wisconsin.
Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to WFHR's Morning Show.
Got your host, James J. I am joined by our head of news, our co-host, Melissa K.
Good morning.
And the best listeners in radio.
Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Hope you're having a good one out there.
We're going to kick things off the way we like to with our good friend, Brittany Merlot,
talking a little mother nature.
Good morning, Brett.
Good morning.
How are you?
We're wet here.
We're just wet.
We're all wet.
We're all wet.
We're all wet.
I did enjoy the sound of rain overnight, though.
I have to say.
That was wonderful.
Yeah, I couldn't get enough of that.
Yeah, yeah.
Are we going to have more of that soundtrack, Brittany?
No more.
But that soundtrack has come to an end.
That's all good things to do.
It was fantastic, though.
We are still looking at those cloudy skies right now, but the sun will peak out.
I see it right now in full force and lost on.
That's going to be the case as we go to the next hour or two.
The sun dominating today, very comfortable temperatures, right into those mid-70s.
The only pesky thing is the wind is going to be a bit breezy out of the northeast,
messing up to about 25 miles per hour today.
But hey, relaxing, dry, sunny day.
It's beautiful out there.
Nice.
Yeah.
Thanks for setting the tone, Brittany.
We appreciate that.
Good to have you back again.
You stay dry out there.
Have a good day.
We'll talk tomorrow.
Sounds good.
Have a good day.
You too.
Best in the business.
Best in the business right there.
From Brittany Merlot.
Nice of her to join us.
We always enjoy that.
She's with us every Monday through Friday, right in this time slide, everybody.
I'm getting my bearings back a little bit here.
We're pulling an audible this morning.
We kind of have to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We got the LKFA birthday and anniversary club on the way.
Some Olympic highlights.
Storytool.
Things that our price to high right now in what's worth paying for.
Some of that.
Some entertainment news.
Blah blah blah.
I was going to start off talking about a man and his eggplant.
But we have to see gears.
Yes.
For those that did not hear the news.
A presidential nominee, and vice president Kamala Harris, has selected Minnesota Governor
Tim Waltz to be her vice president running mate.
Yep.
Tim Waltz.
He's, you know, from Minnesota.
I know we have some maybe friendly rivalries with that state, but they've been doing a lot
of good things in Minnesota.
And I personally couldn't be happier with her pick.
Yeah.
I think it was, but now that it is made, honestly out of the candidates that she was looking
at, the names that we had heard, this was the only choice to make, honestly.
If you are looking to win, if you are looking to compete, this is the world we live in.
And there are a million, you know, details and gray areas we could touch on and talk about
and everything.
But if you are trying to compete with the other side that is doubled down, that you have
to go a different direction.
She has covered certain bases.
This covers those other bases.
And this is just politics 101, and this is how it's done in our country.
And this is the way that this usually works, where you don't see what their Republican
candidates have done very often, where usually you have somebody look at a, a, you know,
some other candidates in past histories.
And you see two very not too opposite people, but two people that cover multiple bases.
The Republican side has decided to double down and just cover one base and only worry
about one type of constituent, whereas the Democratic side is trying to cover multiple
bases.
What that means to you out there, the voter is your call.
That's just facts.
That was just the ways that things are lining up.
This is not an opinion.
These are the way that things are.
And it should be interesting going forward.
We've got less than a hundred days.
It is, it is, it is go time.
It has been.
And both Vice Presidential candidates are campaigning in Wisconsin tomorrow.
Yep.
They're going to be appearing in O'Claire, and I actually, I didn't get a chance to tell
you this, James.
So breaking news.
I get to go over and cover one of those presidential rallies.
So I'm looking forward to it.
It's going to be an interesting time.
I have to, I hold back a lot, which is shocking to the audience.
I'm sure this is him holding things back.
What are you not telling us?
Right, right.
I actually hold back a lot politically, but I grew up in a very political family growing
up in Chicago.
You are going to learn about politics.
You are going to talk about politics.
And I'm actually a little jealous of you.
I think that's really cool that you get to do that.
I think that's really interesting.
Yeah, I've never been to that, like a VP rally before.
So it's interesting.
Here in our state, which is, you know, I mean, we're one of the swing states, as they say,
we decide things, which is an interesting place to be in.
And just being able to talk with voters and see in real time what's happening at these
rallies, I think it's going to be fascinating.
I'm glad you brought up the swing state comment, because not only that we live in one, but
it's going to be one of the main topics going forward and everything.
And I think that we have a gift in this state, that we are a purple state, that we are
a swing state.
I think our station is a perfect example of this.
And I've talked to many listeners and even some people that work here recently about
this subject and the ways that we are.
While there might be voices on our station that may, you know, seem to or do lean a certain
way, I don't know what's in their heart, but I can tell you that from the very, very,
very top of this company to the top of this station, to the every single person that
is a part of it, what we promote, what we put on the air is not only bipartisan, but purple.
We are down the line.
We are a democracy station.
We don't care about the R or D in front of your name, at least here at WFHR.
What we care about are facts about making sure that you're informed, that you're out
getting out there and voting.
We are a station for anything you can say about, well, you lean this way in that way,
blue wise.
Well, we have on every month, Representative Scott Krug and Senator Patrick Teston.
We have them on at least once a month, every month, and we have been as long as I've been
in this chair outside of think, when their day job comes first.
Those two are on the airwaves and are welcome to talk about whatever they want about.
Just to let you guys look behind the curtain and everything, Pam reaches out to their secretary,
we set up a time.
Hey, do you guys got any notes?
Do you guys got anything you want to make sure to hit on?
They have a couple of topics, I bring a couple of topics.
We have a decent conversation.
These are Republicans joining our station all the time.
We have former Republicans on our station.
We cover all bases because we are a purple station and going forward, it is more and
more important that our audience understands that, that we are about democracy above anything
else.
Anybody who is against democracy, anybody who is fighting to, I don't know, be a dictator,
we're going to go against that, whether they have an R or a D in front of their name.
This is not about liking somebody or disliking somebody.
This is about democracy.
This is about the difference of one candidate trying to get into office and tell you what
they're going to vote for and where they're political feelings lean.
Another person who is not only trying to just stay out of jail, who has been a draft
dodger, who has been a number of different things, the list is so endless that you can't
even begin to get into without jumping into a bunch of other things.
It's like the person at the awards show, I don't want to forget anybody's names.
You don't want to get started on it because you don't want to forget something that's
vital to the conversation, but these two things are vital.
This is a person who has gone out of his way to destalk our military, who dodged our
military and did not fight for our country when he was asked to.
This is a person who has gone on many, many times and I guarantee you, we'll say it again
and again, that he believes in dictatorship, that he believes that in four years, if he
were elected, he should not be kicked out of office, that there should not be a new president
that it should just be him that you'll never need to vote again.
There's a gigantic difference there between those.
And none of this, well, I don't like her policy on this, but I like his on that.
That doesn't work this time.
There is a gigantic difference between a person who is very, has let you know exactly
how they feel, not hitting their cards at all.
They said the quiet part out loud, they want to be a dictator.
They are friends with, they are friends with other dictators in other countries.
There's no, there's no divide here.
There's no gray area.
It's black and white.
Do you want a dictator?
Okay.
I, I imagine that you might be able to travel to another country that has that because
I don't see that happening here.
I don't see the American people sitting for that.
Well, do we want to go backwards or do we want to move forwards?
You know, those are really our choices here.
I wanted to talk about a guy in his eggplant.
I want to, but, but this happened.
It's breaking news.
This is what we do around here.
We cover breaking news.
It literally happened minutes before we go on the air, so we got to dive into this and
you're getting my raw emotions on this one.
And as you say, James, we, as a station, we promote local radio, local issues, the things
that are happening right here in our state because, yes, well, these, these big national
things do affect us.
What happens in our state is actually, it's, I don't want to say it's more important,
but it's super important to be dialed in on what's really happening here in Wisconsin.
I make it very clear.
I will never, because I don't subscribe to either political party.
I make it very clear on the air here that I don't lean either way that both sides have
to try to earn my vote.
I'm not going to give that to them.
I've made it pretty clear how I feel about this topic, I think, because it has nothing
to do with politics, it has to do with democracy.
And I believe in democracy with every inch of my body, with every bit of my soul.
And if there's somebody who's challenging democracy, I don't care if it's my father.
Well, I'll go at him with it.
If that, if that coward was in this room right now, that orange coward was in this room
right now, I would have ins with him.
And he wouldn't know what to do because he's never thrown a punch and he's never gotten
dirt under his nails a day in his life.
This, there is a line in the sand.
Do you believe in democracy?
Do you believe in this country?
Mm-hmm.
Do you believe in freedom?
Do you believe in making the choices, your own choices for your body?
Do you, there are, as you say, are so many things.
And look, we're not at all telling you what to do.
We never would do that.
We encourage you to be informed to get out there.
You don't have to just take our news.
Go ahead and get other news sources, compare, see, take a look at these things.
The truth is very easy to see if you're looking.
If you don't want to see it, then it's easy to look away from.
It's easy to fake news and blah, blah, blah.
And that is a big part of the issue, I feel, James, is that we need to also have conversations.
I have some cousins that I talked with this last weekend who are like, I don't know
where to get news.
I don't know where to look.
Half of the time the things I see on social media are fake.
And one of the things that I recommend it is have a conversation with somebody next
to you.
You know, talk with someone while you're standing in line at the grocery store.
Have some just real factual, normal conversations with people, hear how they're thinking.
On many of our platforms, there is that option.
I found an interesting person who is actually another radio DJ who is having these conversations.
They're out there.
You can find them and you can hear things from other people's perspectives to help understand
what's happening to all of the people in not only our state, but our country and how
they're affected by these policies that are made by our politicians.
Well said.
A little bit later we're going to get into an article that Melissa sent over kind of about
this.
This actually worked out really well.
Just the way we planned it, Melissa.
Right.
Yes.
Crystal Ball.
We'll get into that before the end of the hour.
But before we go to break again, Vice President, our presidential nominee, Vice President
Kamala Harris, selects Minnesota Governor Tim Walsh to be her VP running mate.
That is the news that has broke minutes before we hit the air.
And they will be in our state tomorrow, in Eau Claire.
Kind of exciting.
And I got to think too, you know, for a state that doesn't always get that much attention
except for this time of year, hopefully, hopefully we can also get some of our issues in
this state heard by these candidates, not us, but all these candidates and make them
actually represent us and make sure that they are representing us.
Politicians work for the people.
Tell you, I have any Midwesterner in there.
It doesn't hurt.
It doesn't hurt when it comes back.
It doesn't.
It absolutely doesn't.
We'll come back with the LKFA birthday anniversary club.
We got some celebrating to do.
Coming up, it's Melissa and James here with you on Morning Show at WFHR.
It's time to do some celebrating with our good friends at the LKFA, over at LKFA.
It's their birthday anniversary club.
That's right.
Keep in mind our friends over at LKFA are taking some much needed time off.
They will be back on vacation.
Yeah, they'll be back on the 12th, everybody.
Looking forward to when they get back and when they do, join them on Tuesday the 13th as
they'll reopen their doors and looking for, looking to have some fun over there.
Get on over there, check out that amazing menu, the wonderful people.
Wish them a great one from us when they open their doors on August 13th.
Yeah.
And get us those birthdays and anniversaries.
Love celebrating with you.
Info at WFHR.com, James.mailf at civicmedia.us.
You can of course direct messages on our Facebook pages as well and of course call up.
That's right.
715-424-2600 or one button dialing with the Civic media app.
And then you can wish your happy birthday or anniversary live right with us right now.
We got a conversation.
Yeah.
Go ahead and jump in right now.
Jump in.
We'd love to hear from you, everybody.
Feel free.
Feel free to call up, join.
We'd like to hear from you right about now.
Let's go ahead and dive into our list.
Melissa, I need a one or a two.
Let's go with one today.
All right.
Give us that call for our first up.
We do want to remind the audience that we are still looking for Sam Anderson, our winner
of July.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Somebody let Sam know they won.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Otherwise, we will draw a new winner on Friday.
So if we don't hear from them by then and we'll have to do that, we've got to get this
call for us out there.
Sam, you mean El Caffe, you're going to miss it on this free El Caffe food.
Yes, yeah.
We don't want that.
It's so good.
The El Caffe is one of the most original menus you're going to come across.
Be sure to check that out.
And it looks like our, our, our, well, we got two of names today.
First up, we want to wish you happy birthday to Ken Hammond.
Happy birthday, Karen.
Enjoy your day, sir.
Hope it's a good one for you.
And our qualifier today, tell celebrating their 13th anniversary.
That's awesome.
Brian and Heather Stainbrook.
Oh, Brian and Heather, congratulations.
Happy anniversary.
I congrats to you both.
Happy 13th.
That's awesome.
Enjoy your anniversary, you too.
And you're our qualifiers.
Congratulations.
Taking a look at our celebrity list.
Leslie Odom, Jr. is 43, Tony Award winner for playing Aaron Burr and Hamilton.
One of those a great up and not up and coming actors.
He's been around for a while now, but he's been in a handful of things, a glass onion.
He's been in music.
Good night, Miami.
Harriet.
He's done a lot of good work.
Wonderful voice.
Not just a great singer, but just a even speaking voice.
He's got a great one.
Hmm.
The punky Brewster is 48.
Wow.
Celine Monefri is 48.
Of course, punky Brewster would end up playing Roxy and Supreme of the Teenage Witch.
Hmm.
Good actor.
Good actor.
Another wonderful actor, Vera Farminga is 51 today.
A Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring movies, Norma Bates in Bates Motel, a fantastic actor.
Wonderful actor.
Oh, yeah.
I recognize her face.
Yes.
I've seen her and stuff, but I have not, I did not know her name.
Yes, she's good.
She is one of those ones that, you know, you'd give anything to her.
Oh, no wonder.
I recognize her, but she's in a lot of horror films.
So, yeah.
Hence the reason up in the air, I saw her in that.
Oh, she's good in that, yeah.
Hmm.
Yep, with George Clooney.
M. Night Shyamalan is 54.
The Sixth Sense signs leading the water, the happening glass, and of course the new movie
trapped that features his daughter as a pop singer in it.
M. Night Shyamalan is possibly the most hit or misdirector we've ever had.
And because when he hits the Sixth Sense, or I think unbreakable, or some of those types
of movies, wow, they're really well written, very well directed, and a throwback to
suspense into some really great hitchcock type, yeah.
And then there's some really bad ones.
I mean, and when they're bad, they're really, really bad.
And apparently right now this new movie outtrap has got the whole internet unsure of which
way to go.
Like, I see reviews and people trashing it, I see people liking it, I don't see a lot
of people loving it, I don't see a lot of that.
But very mixed, you know, reviews on this one, decide for yourself of course, don't listen
to me, or to, you know, any of these people out there telling you.
Some of his movies I definitely, you know, could be because they are thrillers, which I can
handle the thrillers, as long as it doesn't have too much horror in it.
The Sixth Sense, I did really enjoy that movie.
And did he direct, she's all that in 1999.
I'm seeing that on his IMD page and I don't know if he was the director or if he was
in it.
Like, I'm trying to figure that out.
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
I did really like that movie.
She's like, wow, I didn't even know.
I had no, that is nothing.
I would have never put him in that category.
That's it.
Right.
And I cannot see how, I think he's in it, me, because he's not the director or the writer.
He's in it.
He's similar to other directors where he likes to show up in his movies.
Okay.
He is a horrible actor.
He is really bad.
So I don't know that, I mean, I guess he could see him getting cast in a movie that he didn't
direct, but that would be a little surprising to me, actually.
But honestly, get or miss, I'd love to work with him.
I would love to be in one of his films.
I think that he's a good enough director to wear, even if he's a bad movie, you're going
to get better as an actor working with people like him and he gets some good people to work
with.
David Robinson is 59 NBA legend, ex San Antonio Spur has got himself a championship, is in
the Hall of Fame.
And maybe one of the greatest nicknames ever, David Admiral, David Robinson, David Robinson
was in the Navy when he was drafted in Melissa, his nickname, the admiral.
The admiral.
The admiral.
That's a good name.
That's a good name.
Nice.
Nice.
One of the best actors in the world, Michelle Yao is 62, Phillipa in the Star Trek Discovery.
She is also in Crouching, of course, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
She was in the third mummy movie and so many other great performances as of late, Michelle
Yao's, everything.
Crazy Rich Asians, everything everywhere all at once, which I haven't seen yet, I still
need to watch it.
I don't recommend movies all the time, but everything everywhere all at once is one of those
ones I highly recommend to anybody, especially to, and not knowing what I'm talking about
here, but to moms, to daughters, to mothers and daughters, to, it, it has got some beautiful
storylines to it, but that storyline is one of the unique ones that I thought.
I tell my sister and my mom, you guys got to see this movie and both of them call me
up crying.
Why don't you make me watch that?
Yeah.
It was fun.
It was an action movie.
It's not all heart.
It's got a cool action in it.
She's also going to appear in the new Wicked that comes out this year.
Oh, interesting.
Cool.
I didn't know that.
But some people no longer with us, like one of the queens, if not the queen of comedy,
Lucille Ball, born in this day in 1911, passed away in 1989.
One of the bigger influences I will ever have.
Some of my favorite memories are watching.
I live Lucille with my non-empoppo, and them telling me, okay, that was funny, Jimmy.
Why was it funny?
Oh, yeah, why were you laughing?
Well, because she did this, this, and this, okay, but what did she do?
And really studying her and watching her work.
Lucille Ball also, a gigantic, if not the page one of women's rights in the entertainment
industry, fighting for that, she's got the first paragraph.
Back in the day, she's producing.
She's running the show.
She's running things together.
Which is not something women were doing then.
No.
And she didn't ask to do this.
She just did it.
And with her talent and her popularity, she made use of that to be able to fight for
other women to be able to do these things.
And that takes a while, but you see a Marley's child and more, and some actors like that
and everything, who end up doing similar things.
And you also see a lot of, I don't, maybe you haven't, or, I mean, you probably have.
But seeing these videos that are surfacing of her doing interviews and, or heard at a
talk show and telling the, the, the men reporters who are walking up to these women to interview
them and then just touching them inappropriately, like putting their hand on the small of a woman's
back without permission and saying, no, take your hand off of her and, and talk to her
as a person, not as a possession.
She didn't say that exactly and putting words in her mouth.
But that's what she is telling these men in a time where women were not allowed or, or
encouraged to advocate for themselves.
Lucille Ball wasn't just one of the funniest, if not the funniest person that we ever saw
on TV.
She was one of the strongest.
And just, just, I gotta go back and watch some seas for Lucille Ball.
I just gotta go back and watch some of her later interviews.
That's another thing.
I'm glad you brought that up, Melissa, because some of those later interviews that she
did in life, not that she ever held back or she ever put on airs, but boy, she really
just kind of like let it go as she went on more and more in interviews and like, I'm
gonna tell like it is.
My legacy's established.
I'm gonna tell you how it really was and what things really happened.
And I don't know, I marveled at her work and even though we lost her a long time ago,
I still miss her.
I really, really would love to have seen Lucille Ball working in today's day and age with
some of the actors and some of the people that are around, quite the legacy.
One more time, we wish a happy birthday to Ken Hammond.
Happy birthday Ken.
Happy birthday Ken.
Enjoy your day.
And we wish a happy 13th anniversary to our qualifiers, Brian and Heather Stainbrook.
Congratulations and happy anniversary.
Enjoy your anniversary, you too.
We will get to our news break.
We'll go ahead and take care of our partners here and we'll come back talking a little
Olympic highlights and a little bit later, we've got a couple of other big topics we're
gonna get into.
Some listen, James, taking the three of your morning here at WFHR.
Welcome back everybody, morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio, Melissa and James
here with you.
If you're having a great Tuesday out there, in a little bit, we're gonna get into a fun
interesting article Melissa brought over to us, looking forward to that, we'll dive into
that one in a little bit.
But first some Olympic highlights, catch you up on what you might have missed overnight.
Okay.
USA, USA.
I missed it all, film me and James, what happened?
Well, let me just get my notes here, USA, USA, team USA added eight more medals at the
Olympics yesterday, we're still also still tied with China in golds with 21 each.
Nice.
Valerie Almond won her second gold in a row in women's discus, China took silver in that
one.
Valerie, if you get a chance to see that performance, you gotta see it everybody, she just
is incredible.
Discus is impressive.
Yeah, it really is, it really is, I've always admired that.
We also won silver medals in men's poll vault, mixed skeet shooting and mixed triathlon
relay.
And Simone Biles had to settle for a silver in women's floor, Jordan Childs, took bronze
in that one.
And the women's three on three basketball team also won bronze.
But going back to that Simone Biles, I did see the picture of them like honoring the person
who won.
That was a really cool moment.
That's such a cool Olympic moment.
That's gonna go down as one of my favorite Olympic moments, I think, I'm not gonna forget
that one anytime soon.
Because these women have all been competing together for years.
Yeah.
So they are applauding each other for their victories, which is just wonderful to see.
And I give the younger generation so much credit.
We were raised as sports people, as sports fans and sports families, the competition, competition,
competition.
And you don't help the other person up and stuff like that.
This generation, these generations, I should say, have learned that you can be as competitive
as all get out and still help the other person up and celebrate the victories.
Yeah.
It hasn't affected Simone Biles.
She's the goat.
She's the greatest to ever do this by far in a way.
There's nobody even in second place necessarily when it comes to her.
She is competitive as all get out and yet is still able to do these things.
I mean, that's what they do on the balance beams impressive.
That's true balance.
Yes.
I don't want to ask the other day if she'll be back in 2028 and her response was never
saying never, but she added, I am getting really old.
She'll be 31 by then.
Well, I mean, to make your body do that stuff, that's a lot of years of bouncing and jumping.
You think about this, like a lot of athletes, she's been doing this since she was six, you
know?
I mean, maybe she wants to do some other things.
What does she got to prove?
What does she have left to do?
James, the thought of trying to do a cartwheel right now, like I would not even attempt it.
I think the biggest gymnastic move I could probably still pull off with confidence and
maybe not injure myself and I say maybe is a summer salt.
I might be able to do one of those, but I feel like I would break my neck doing it possibly.
Just the chance that I might might be a bad good idea not to do it, yes, would stop
me.
I kind of, in some ways, as much as I've enjoyed watching her, I feel like this has been
her swan song.
It always has been.
And I wouldn't count on her being in the next one, but I also wouldn't count her out.
No, Caroline Marx took home gold for Team USA Women's Surfing, that competition is being
held in Tahiti.
I don't know why they couldn't have the other competition, why they had to do it in the
river.
But after day 10 of the Olympics, Team USA still led the overall metal count with 79.
And as a distance second with 53, USA and China ended the day with 21 golds each.
So that port is noted as well, Australia and France have 13 great Britain have 12.
Just a couple of quick notes that are going viral.
As usual, women's gymnastics is all over the internet and Buzzfeed counted 39 superstars
who showed up to watch our women dominate yesterday.
Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Serena Williams, Bill Gates, Tom Cruise, Steph Curry, Greta
Erwig, Lady Gaga, Tom Brady, Tony Hawk, Nick Jones, Spike Lee, Snoop, Martha, everybody
there.
And speaking of Tom Brady, there's some really cool viral shots of him watching Simone
Biles routine.
And he is in awe.
He is blown away by this.
He talked about it afterwards and he had seen her routines, but never seen them in person
and seeing it in person.
His jaws literally on the ground.
And after all the surgery he's had on that thing, I mean, I'd be, I'm taking it easy
on that Tom.
It's interesting to be able to see reactions on his face too, you know, with a little
out of the plastic surgery and stuff, man, I mean, it's a word done.
But it is really cool to see game, recognize game.
There are very few people who would argue that Tom Brady is not the goat.
I'm one of those people, but most people that have a brain in sports will tell you he's
got all the championships, he's the goat.
Simone Biles is the goat edge gymnastics to see his reaction to her.
It's really cool.
It's a really unique moment.
And just wrapping up, you a shop putter, Peyton Oederdal didn't metal, but he did give
out some gold.
He proposed to his girlfriend at the Eiffel Tower and she said yes.
Cute.
Are you not say yes?
I mean, in that moment, you know, no matter what you, you know, when you get home might
be a little different, but in the moment, yeah, come on, in the moment, you got to go
with it.
Just go with it.
Propose at the Olympics at the Eiffel Tower and say no.
I mean, yeah, you too.
On national television?
Probably not.
Probably not.
Probably not.
You know, teach the road, but probably not to, you know, say they're not happy couple
or because I knew nothing about them.
I just think it's funny when you get to the punchline of these, any proposed and she
said yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Because there's always a pause.
There's always a pause.
I have proposed, I think twice, yeah, twice in my life.
And while I felt confident and 100% going into it, it wasn't until one time I was on my
knee the other time I was on a horse, both of them, I felt like my legs were rubber and
the person I was about to ask this to was a stranger.
Like even though they weren't and I know them for years and everything in the moment,
I'm like, ah, ah, you know, you ring, you're supposed to get something prepared.
But this is all I got words and ring here.
I like you.
You should put this on.
I also brought a piece of paper that with little boxes that say check, yes or no.
Would you please check one and then fold it up and hand it to me?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then maybe I'll open it tomorrow.
I'm so nervous.
We will take a commercial break.
Got a good one coming up and just a little bit here, everybody.
We're going to get it to when we come back on the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio, Melissa and James here with you.
Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.
We're going to take it right to the top of the hour and in the night of clock hour, we'll
get in this entertainment news.
We're going to talk about this guy in his eggplant.
Got that coming up.
And Abergene.
Yes, yes.
We'll get that.
This is another another word for eggplant, which I just think is fun.
It is very fun.
I like that.
That encores yet for zucchini.
Oh, nicely done.
Yeah.
Right.
Next hour, we'll get into our schedule as well in a couple of other things.
But in a morning of in-proving and just we had in there.
We're just thrown out the script, James.
Yep.
And that's all right.
I like that.
We're a article this morning, and I did have a chance to read the majority of it.
I didn't get through the whole thing to be honest.
But I thought it was too noteworthy.
And boy, it worked out timing-wise today that I think it really is poignant.
For many politicians and for many people in the media, politics is considered a game.
And they treat it like a game.
And even a lot of constituents where you see a lot of people waving around flags.
I can't like their sports teams.
Yes, I'm not talking about the American flag.
I'm talking about politician flags.
Or yard signs or whatever regalia they choose to wear.
Places where you would normally see a packer and a brewer flag or something like that.
They've replaced those with political flags and political signs and everything.
And we are treating these politicians like they are athletes.
And like we got to have their poster on our kids' wall or something like that.
Like we've really, and so much so Melissa, that we have changed talking politics,
whether it is in person or it is on TV with pundits, into sports talk radio.
I understand I am talking to somebody who is, you know, proudly, smartly, I should say,
not listen to a lot of sports talk radio.
But if you and I were doing a sport-
It's not my thing.
If you and I were doing a sports show, Melissa, the producers would come to us and say,
okay, James, you take this side, Melissa, you take that side, I want you to fight.
I want you to argue.
Doesn't matter what you actually think.
Just.
No, no, doesn't.
No, this is your script.
And then go and just do it.
And then that's what a lot of people have turned politics into.
Because honestly, sports talk radio for a while there was doing very well in ratings.
And even on TV and on ESPN and even Fox was able to do well.
But that's the thing you just said, James, ratings.
Yeah.
And why should politics be about ratings?
It shouldn't.
It should be about what our politicians are doing for the people.
And that's what this article really centers on.
It is.
And it is from Bernie Sanders, who I will not hold back from saying I have a lot of respect
for the man.
I've heard him speak.
I've been to a couple of his rallies.
Most recently, there was one in Steven's point that I got to go and see him at.
The man is smart.
He has a lot of experience.
But this article focuses on a poll that they just did of the swing states in our nation.
Because as we have mentioned, swing states are important during an election season.
As you said, the time we get the most attention here in Wisconsin, or the town to not live
in when you're in a horror movie.
So as far as the key findings of this poll, and I'm going to read this directly from the
article, because I think it's very well-worded.
One of the key findings of the poll is that on core economic issues, and I did briefly
look at the poll.
It's a lot of numbers and a lot of figures.
But it was taken over a wide demographic of a little over 1,000 people, like 1,156 people
I think was the number.
And they self-identify as around 46% Republican, 46% Democrat, and the rest are independent
or somewhere in that mix.
It's pretty 50-50.
One of the key findings of the poll is that on core economic issues by a wide margin, voters
are more likely to vote for a candidate who favors expanding social security benefits
by making the wealthy pay the same tax rate as the working class.
I'm going to just stop right there for a minute, because I think that that's an important
thing to point out.
Why don't the wealthy pay the same tax rate as the working class?
The article goes on to say they strongly support a candidate who favors expanding Medicare
to cover vision, dental, and hearing needs, who favors cutting the cost of prescription
drugs in half by making sure that Americans pay no more than what others pay in Europe
or Canada and who favors hiking taxes on the rich and multinational corporations so
that they pay their fair share.
The idea of just to note to that, Melissa, is usually the pushback, at least my whole
life since the 80s has been trickled down economics.
Every economic brain has proven that wrong and it has not worked.
And that's economic brains on both sides of the aisle.
We do have a call coming in.
I want to take it real quick.
Good morning.
What's on your mind?
Hello?
Hello?
All right.
Feel free to call back, please.
715-424-2600.
Feel free to call back.
I'm going to say a minute to hurry you off where you're working.
That's all right.
We want to hear from our listeners.
Yeah.
I want to get to our call.
Absolutely.
Any time they call in.
We want to break down this a little bit more, expanding Medicare to cover dental vision
and hearing.
77% overall support that.
That's 69% of Republicans, 73% of Independents, and even 67% of people who self-identify
as Trump voters.
The numbers are similar for cutting the cost of prescription drugs in half.
Why are we paying more than what people in Europe or Canada are playing for the same
prescription drugs?
Why?
Yeah.
Just so that pharma companies can make their CEO's more wealthy?
You look at what some of the people have done in recent memory, especially some of the
politicians that are currently running for office when it comes to insulin and keeping
the price of that down.
But that's one thing.
There are so many other medications out there that need that same type of attention,
that need to be brought down and need to be corrected.
These things are all tied together.
You do something like that and it starts to take a little bit off of the American plate
and freeze them up a little bit to be able to add more to our economy, et cetera, et cetera.
It's like any other topic we bring up.
It all bleeds into other things and bleeds to a more productive economy and society.
And how many of us have been hearing about social security is at risk and the concerns
about social security benefits?
James, you and I have been playing into social security our entire lives.
The fact that they can threaten that, that's something we've paid into, that our senior
citizens in this country are struggling to get by on something they paid into their
whole lives.
If we could expand social security benefits by making the wealthy pay the same, not more,
the same tax rate as the working class, 72 percent of people overall surveyed in this
post agree in this poll agree with that.
Not one of those people, not one of those millionaires or billionaires got there without
us.
No.
Without people, without their community, without their country, the very least they can do
is do what the rest of us do and pay their taxes.
And here's another one, instituting a cap on rent increases, 63 percent of respondents
to this poll also said, well, yes, my grand, we're seeing this more, especially in big cities.
Our housing market is so, it's got a lot of issues.
It's jumped up.
It's jumped up.
If you don't have enough inventory.
My grandfather was a landlord in Chicago and he was a bad one and he even treated my
mother badly.
It's something that I, it's very close to the chest.
I dealt with a lot of bad landlords in my life.
If you can't run a apartment complex or a house, if you have to raise rents and you
are doing certain things to your clients, you need to find a new job.
You need to get out of that industry.
That is not the, the law, the job of a landlord.
That is not what you, there are plenty of people that do the job very good, that are good
at it and treat their, you know, their people well.
If you can't, get out of the industry, go find something else to do.
And there is an argument to be made on the side of four landlords too of, of renters
coming in and destroying properties and taking advantage and lying on their rental applications.
And, you know, doing all of the things that you shouldn't do when you're living in a place
and, and supposed to be taking care of it, you know, landlords have a hard job.
But instituting a, a, a cap that doesn't allow people to skyrocket the amount of your rent.
I, people have been experiencing like a, as much as a 50% increase on their rent in one
year.
Who can afford that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And 63% of people overall agree based on this poll that there should be a cap.
Yeah.
Did you get to the expanding Medicare coverage dental vision and hearing part of this?
I think that that's a really, really important one, too, because especially for our senior
citizens and, and for our seniors on social security, those are the things we, we know
biologically, scientifically, we've got the data to prove it, those parts of our bodies
are going to fail.
Yeah.
At some point, you know, our, our cells break down, our eyes eventually, you know, I'm
pretty soon, eventually, or I'm in my 40s, I'm going to have to get bifocals because
our eyes don't last forever.
Yeah.
And having Medicare, expanding Medicare to cover dental vision and hearing, 77% agree
overall that this should be done, 73% of independent, 69% of Republicans and 67% of
Trump voters.
So overwhelmingly, on either side of the aisle, this is something that needs to get done.
Pay attention to the people that are looking to do something about this and not just
take it away.
Or when they, when they're asked a question, immediately pushing back or getting defensive
or whining or, or, or talking about the other person and what they're going to do, they
don't tell you what they're going to do, they don't give you their plan.
All they do is whine and complain about what's wrong.
Yeah.
Let's focus on what we can, what we want to see, what, what, what, what, what do we want
our country to look like?
What do we want our future to look like?
Eliminating all medical debt, 62% of people think that should happen, building two million
units of affordable housing, 59% of people think that should happen, re-establishing tax,
the child tax credits, 58%, 58%, capping the amount of money's family spend on child
care, 7% of their income, 54% of people think that that should happen.
Why should, why should parents have to choose between being able to, you know, put, put food
on their table or, or keep their child in child care so they can keep their job?
Keep in mind that this is also, this is a poll again, being done in swing states, uh,
inter, uh, asking the questions of all type of constituents, uh, there's not, across the
board.
Across the board.
Uh, one other thing I do want to get in, I wanted to make sure we got in raising minimum
wage to $17 an hour, 51% overall agree with that, 49% of independence, 47% of Republicans,
42% of Trump voters, so even over 40% of Trump voters agreed the minimum wage needs to
be raised.
Um, they, they know you cannot, you cannot live on less than $17 an hour, it's not possible
with the amount of rent, with the amount of food, you know, and there's a lot of reasons
for those things.
Inflation is not an easy thing to understand.
And this is a topic I have brought up with Representative Krueger.
I brought up with Senator Teston.
You can go back and listen to the interviews and hear how that interaction went.
And there is no answer to this.
The idea that we can let businesses decide this, what happens when we let businesses do
that make the rules?
The CEOs are making of grocery store companies are making bank, James, they are not suffering
at all.
And you know who is, all of us, and the people who work for them, but do they care about
that?
No, they make a huge profit because they can, because nobody is telling them, no, you,
you can't raise those prices.
There are the people that want you to constantly think that the, the sky is falling and there
are people out there that want you to know that the sky is there for you and that that's
the ceiling, that there, there, there is a difference of that and, and understanding
that in this, this poll, I think does a really good job of separating those things because
we have more in common than not.
We are closer to each other than we realize and we need to look out for each other more
than we ever before.
We need to do this together.
It doesn't mean we need to hold hands in Sincumbaya, doesn't mean that you need to root for
the same sports team, but we do need to stop treating politics like it's a game and we
need to stop treating each other like you're, you're, this person is rooting for the wrong
sports team.
We, we can do all this.
We can chew gum will walk at the same time.
We are Americans.
We can do this.
And I want to just say singing together is a lot of fun.
It is fun.
You can pick the song.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's just sing together.
That sounds good.
Maybe we'll do that when we come back on the morning show at WFHR.
This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming
on the Civic Media app.
