The Union

Live from the Civic Media World headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd

Alba.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault joined today by the fantastic Mr. Sam Davidson on the board, our producer and engineer.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Friday, TGIF Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2025.

It is a great day.

to be a Wisconsinite.

Welcome in.

We appreciate you.

A little overcast skies here in downtown Madison from the World Headquarters.

And as we said, Zombers, who gave him a day off?

No one's a well-deserved day off, taking care of a little personal business.

And we are so happy.

Really, this is indicative of my sad dating life over the years.

Every man I've ever dated left me.

And so, you know, Zombers left me.

Today, Luke Mathers left me.

He's on vacation.

But God love, Sam Davidson.

Thanks for sticking around, my friend.

I'm glad to be here.

What are you going to do if I leave now?

I'm

SOL.

I'm absolutely SOL.

For those that don't know, Sam is our great producer on the John and Gordy morning show here on WMDX in Madison.

And I was filling in for Pat Critell on Up North News Radio this morning.

And at the same time, and I crashed into your show.

Yeah,

I just heard this noise coming from outside and all of a sudden in walk you with like a 40 foot long mic cable from the other room.

Yeah.

Trying to do two shows at the same time.

We did what was the radio equivalent of the Triple Indy in Back to School.

It's old reference.

You ever see Back to School Rodney Dangerfield?

I think I've seen

parts of it,

yeah.

It was filmed here at UW Madison.

Right, yeah.

Sam is a proud alum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I am, yes.

Badger.

And the move, the made-up swimming move in that movie was called the Triple Indy.

So we used my cell phone as the camera, and yes, we strung a great big long cord over to the main studio.

And so I was on the John and Gordy show, and they were on our show this morning.

It was a lot of fun.

It was.

And the food around here today has been fantastic.

Yeah, we had a listener just drop off some sweets for us, which was completely surprising.

I don't know if we've had that happen before.

They see people love you, Sam.

That's what it is.

Now, you have a significant other.

Do you have a Valentine's plans for today?

Well, I had Valentine's plans.

I'm going to be out of town this weekend.

I got to work up north, actually.

So we did Valentine's Day last weekend

instead.

Oh, look at you.

I bet she's very happy.

Yeah, she we went out to dinner.

It was romantic.

See, that's that's what I'm talking about.

You know how to you know how to treat your person.

So that's great.

Well, we're glad you're all along as our Valentine's dates today.

It's going to be a big show coming up here around 20 after this hour.

We are joined by our friend, Reed Galen, one of the co-founders of the Lincoln Project and now president of the spin-off called The Union.

Differences.

Lincoln Project is a little bit more political in nature with ads.

that kind of thing.

And then the union focuses more on voter registration across the board and voter turnout and democracy issues.

So while Reed's going to be in, he has a great podcast as well called The Home Front, which is also a sub-stack.

This is very interesting.

Reed Galen is taking our friend Trigley Olsen's seven rules of how to deal with authoritarianism and authoritarianism.

and going through it in his sub-stack and podcast, he's gonna be on talking about that today, as well as tariffs.

What that means to Wisconsinites.

This is great because we try to do it on this show, which is take this fire hose of information and put it down there where the chickens can get at it, so to speak.

And this is great, Reed's gonna talk about what tariffs mean to us here in Wisconsin, and also just why it's important to.

be a voter as Luke Mathers likes to say, especially in this spring election.

The primary, of course, coming up on this coming Tuesday, February 18th, big primary for the Department of Public Instruction here in Wisconsin, local elections as well.

Check your local listings.

And then the general election coming up on April 1st.

So Reed's gonna talk about that.

And then in hour number two are what's worse for today, yes, a Valentine's Day edition.

Now, Sam, you're a romantic.

You do a little something special.

But I think a lot of people get a little annoyed because, you know, there seems to be a lot of pressure if you have a significant other to make a show of affection.

And it seems contrived and made up to some people that gets people very salty.

Yeah, this morning on the John and Gordy show, which I normally produce, John apparently

hates Valentine's Day with a burning passion.

He hates the obligations that it brings, and apparently his wife hates it as well, so I guess it works out

for the both of them.

Why did that take by John to not surprise me?

I don't know.

I can see how a lot of people feel this way.

There's pressure.

So we'll get into that and do what's worse in hour number two.

Right now don't want to make people aware gonna be a perhaps in some parts of the state

Little dicey of a commute this afternoon.

We have winter weather advisories for a partner.

As my granddad used to say, the entire state except the far northern counties say superior over to Ashland Bayfield.

But every place else south of that area is under a winter weather advisory of some type.

Brittany Merleau, one of our meteorologists here at Civic Media says the snow will move in sometime between two and three o'clock this afternoon, depending upon which part of the state you are in.

then it's gonna ramp up and later this afternoon all evening long into tomorrow at some point some of the snows could be heavy at times some places from the southwest and kind of curve up into the right say take into Wisconsin Rapids our listeners WF HR over to some of our listen listeners perhaps in the southern portion of the WXCO was all listening area over towards Green Bay roughly that part of the state maybe six eight inches plus

in some locally nine inches in some places, slightly lower amounts north and south of that area.

But it sounds like everybody's going to get something out of this storm.

And then, wow, bundle up, starting Sunday and into Monday and Tuesday, temperatures are going to drop.

We'll struggle to have highs above zero a couple of those days as well.

So have you got your park already, Sam?

I'm not looking forward to the cold.

My house doesn't have an actual heater.

I just have electric heaters around the

base of the room.

Base heaters?

Yeah, yeah.

Those are not great.

No, it makes

my electric bill crazy high too, so not looking forward to the cold, but we'll put up with it.

Well, yeah, a lot of people feel that way, so just be prepared for that.

When you get in that situation, I've lived in places like that as well.

You have to open up like the, the counter doors below your sink to make sure the pipes don't freeze and all that kind of stuff.

Cause that, and of course that just gets messy if that happens.

So yeah, some seriously cold temperatures starting on Sunday into early next week.

So, so be aware of that.

Again, most of Wisconsin except the far, far north under winter weather advisories for today.

A couple of headlines for you before we bring on Reed Galen here.

According to a whist politics this morning, Susan Crawford.

who is the the people, the the what we're going to call her the rule of law and common sense candidate who is taking on the radical extremist Brad Schimmel.

But Susan Crawford, the more reasonable candidate in the state Supreme Court race, their campaign has launched two new ads today, hitting Supreme Court rival Brad Schimmel on abortion.

So those ads are up and going today.

Also, Congressman Mark Pockein here in Madison of the Second District, putting out statements on Elon Musk and federal contracts there against, of course, that's been kind of more than, more than a little to deal with.

If I get into some of that with Reed Galen here coming up, we talked a little bit about this yesterday.

It turns out that one of the contracts that was uncovered called for, I believe, was Department of State

or defense to spend $400 million in electric vehicles from Tesla, specifically from Tesla.

And when MSNBC kind of broadcast this, I mean, in real time, night before last, they went in and took out the word Tesla.

And after it was taken out, Elon Musk asked Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, why the lie?

Why the lie after they'd already edited their own the only on their own government contracts what the government put out so we might talk a little bit about that with greed Galen as well if you're looking for a debate between the two Supreme Court candidates by the way Crawford and Brad Schimmel the two have agreed on a debate ahead of the April 1st election gonna be on March 12th March 12th prime time 60 minute debate

going to be before an invite only audience at the lube our center at marquette university law schools a hall i'm assuming that civic media will most likely cover that as well that is coming up on march 12th a debate between the stews the two state supreme court candidates that should be very interesting and glad that they both agreed and uh uh to go along with that of course as well speaking of electric vehicles quick trips electric vehicles charging stations project

is now in limbo after a federal funding cut by the Trump administration.

Now, this is exactly what Reed Galen's been talking about at the union and on his podcast and substack.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, they said, quote, the current NEVI formula program guidelines dated June 11th, 2024, and all prior versions of this guidance are rescinded.

All right reimbursement of existing obligations quote will be allowed in order to not disrupt current financial commitments unquote Governor Evers criticized the Trump administration's move saying in a statement that Nevi essentially electric vehicle programs would have helped quote build infrastructure for the 21st century across Wisconsin unquote Quick trip and attended in installing a bunch of these

It all across Wisconsin plays like Ashland, West Salem, Menominee, Chippewa Falls, and a plan to install more in 20, 20 more in 2025.

And now all of this is up in the air.

Talk to a good friend of mine this morning.

Actually, she is a great idea.

She said, you know what the governor needs to do next week with the state or the budget address coming up on Tuesday?

I'll be angry at our coverage along with Dan Schaefer and others here on Tuesday night for both the spring primary and for the governor's budget address.

The governor should open up the budget address and say, you know what?

Speaker Voss said that this budget was dead in arrival.

I agree with him.

But not because of Speaker Voss.

It's dead on arrival because of Donald Trump and cutting the funding.

We no longer this budget I put together is based on norms Federal funding that they've already committed to to Wisconsin But we in Wisconsin can no longer You know have confidence in Donald Trump or the federal government and therefore if the government the federal government doesn't hold up their part This will be dead on arrival.

I think that'd be a great way for governor evers to open up his His budget address next Tuesday night

things like Head Start, Pell Grants, Child Care, all up in the air due to Donald Trump.

How do all these cuts affect Wisconsin?

How do you deal with authoritarians and authoritarianism?

Stay with us.

Our next guest, Reid Galen, will break it all down for us.

I'm sure he'll be open to taking your phone calls as well.

It's the Todd Allball Show along with Sam on the 14th on Civic Media's Ready

Network.

it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the All Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is nine before the hour of two o'clock.

Top of the hour, ABC or CBS News, depending upon which station you were listening to, a weather update, weather advisories for most of the state.

Several inches of snow going to hit during the ride home, drive home this afternoon through tomorrow.

So be aware of that of a weather update and then hour number two, including today's what's worse, which is Valentine's or every other made a holiday.

We'll take your calls on that.

at hour number two, Regis says yes.

Joining us right now for the rest of the hour, our friend, we always appreciate when he stops by, Reed Galen, the president of The Union.

You can find the organization at jointheunion.com and on all socials as well.

He has.

.us.

Join the union.

.us.

Oh, pardon me.

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarity.

Join the union.

.us.

And he also has a great podcast called The Homefront, of which there is a sub stack as well.

He was one of the co-founders.

of the Lincoln Project and a former GOP strategist.

We are happy to have him along.

Read a few texts.

Let's just catch up on these.

This is Matt from Middleton.

Earlier in the show, I called Brad Schimel a radical, a radical extremist.

That was something that is true.

And Trigvie gave me that one.

So Trigvie says, I'm frustrated and disappointed that we haven't been calling MAGA and the extremist movement from the start.

They ran an extremist group in ideology, and that is un-American.

John listening in Milwaukee, NWA UK says, do my research on the Tesla contractor was started under the Biden administration.

Yeah, that's true, John.

But the point is that it was

it was denoted for Tesla.

And then during the Maddow show a couple nights ago, Elon went in and removed Tesla and then said, Maddow was lined at $400 million was earmarked for Tesla.

So yeah, it was started at Biden, but it doesn't negate the point that it was going to Musk and Tesla.

Mount Horab, listening here on Madison's WMDX, Troy.

Oh, asking about our friend Jay from London.

We'll check in on that later.

Steve in Milwaukee says it's a constitutional crisis, and these folks are cheering on the dismantling of the country.

They are totally bamboozled.

And finally, Kevin in McGowanago, there's a great name for your read, Wisconsin name from Milwaukee station says Trump is doing exactly what he ran on.

The Democratic Party and liberal side of the aisle has become the screaming blue haired woman of politics.

Well, okay, I'm not sure about that, but.

What do you think, Reed?

Well, my grandmother was a screaming blue-haired woman, so I guess.

No.

Yeah, I think it's important to understand you, just to go back to the text about the Tesla thing.

This has been one of the key parts of Donald Trump's strategy, and he's been very smart, and people around him have been very smart, is making the Democratic Party and Democrats as bad as he is, right?

We're all crooked.

We're all dirty.

We're all in on it together.

They're no better than I am.

They're no better.

They don't care about you any more than I do, right?

I, you know, you're getting screwed.

I'm the only one who's going to tell you, you feel like put down by these people.

I know how you feel because he does, right?

Like he won't, he always wanted to be Mr. Manhattan and he was always going to be senior queens.

Like that's always how it was going to be.

Like they never were going to accept him.

And so that has worked for him.

I think the Democrats, as I have tried to tell my friends, like, if you're going to be the white hats, Todd, you got to be the white hats, right?

Like, if you're going to earmark $400 million for Tesla, right, even though you think that Elon's a bad guy, like, you better have a damn good reason for it.

And, you know, and if you are going to say,

Um, oh here's one when I was with my team in Chicago a couple of weeks ago We wake up and there's a there's a headline Paul Pelosi sells 83 million an invidious stock before the stock market takes a nosedive like I don't know the particulars of it But the problem is the headline says exactly what Trump has been parroting right told you they're just as bad They're just as crooked.

They're just as out for themselves as I am and so that's the other part about the Democrats like if you really want

regular people to come back, like you have to, you have to show them, not tell them, right?

It's shot said, talk like a normal person, show them you care, show them that you are better.

Because right now there's just too many examples where otherwise disengaged voters can say, you're right, they're all crooked.

What do I care?

Our time always goes too fast.

About two minutes left here, Reid.

Folks can go to again, jointheunion.us.

They can find you at the Homefront podcast on your sub-stack as well.

What should people be doing?

I know the union is always involved in voter registration.

We have a very important Supreme Court race coming up here on April 1st, a primary, not for Supreme Court, but for other things on Tuesday.

This election is going to be the election in the country this spring.

I think a couple of things.

One is, if you are able to get out and, again, talk to your friends and neighbors, gather people together, I wouldn't even necessarily make it partisan in nature originally.

I think I would just get people together and say, did you know there's a Supreme Court race coming up?

Did you know this?

And start those communications now, because as you and I saw, Todd, and I saw all over the country, if you're going to show up at someone's door two, three weeks before an election,

And they've never heard of you.

They've never seen you.

They don't have any idea what it is you're doing or even really what's going on because state Supreme Court elections are probably not particularly well attended Then it's just like there's too many other things going on So you have to have a much longer runway to having those conversations and then again to your point about what shot said like what does this actually mean for your life?

Those are the kinds of things I think you have to take into account if

Person A gets elected, here's what this means for you.

If person B gets elected, here's what it means for you.

And it's not high-mindedness.

It's not anything about very narrow band issues.

It's what is this going to do to you?

What is it going to do to me?

What is it going to do to our state?

Yeah, I think that's great.

I mean, one minute left here, but the Republican state assembly speaker and some of the people in the assembly Republicans now wanting to basically put parameters on postpartum care for women.

And I've said, you know, our Democrat, I'd be going out and saying, well, look, last time I checked, Republican women have babies too.

If Republicans want to hurt women, it hurts all of women and not just not just Democratic ones.

Yeah.

And this is this.

And that's a really good point, Todd, is like, first of all, why?

Right.

Right.

Why have all the things you could choose to do?

Would this be the thing?

Especially when Republicans are like, we got to have more babies.

So you want to have more babies, but you don't want to take care of mom.

Bingo.

You always nail it.

Read Gail.

And join the union.us, president of the union.

Read.

Thanks for taking time for us.

We got to do this soon.

Thanks, Todd.

All right.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

Hour two straight ahead.

Little Valentine's What's Worse on the Civic Media.

Ready

Network.

Dave goes on without me cuz

One o'clock.

That is my theme song on Valentine's Day.

In the end, you know, I'm just a jiggaloo.

Well done, Sam Davidson.

That was fantastic.

It is a great song.

I didn't know about it till you pointed it out to me.

It's a classic.

Now, I don't have my notes in front of me because I filled in for Pac Critlow this morning on Up North News, and he always does a today in history.

And the original, it's Otis, God, if Perry is watching, he can tell me who it is.

The original songwriter for that was an old, like,

There it is.

I think it was.

Well, Lewis Prima did a version.

That wasn't it.

But it was somebody else who did the original version, American version.

And that was based on a European or Austrian song.

And today it went to number one.

I think the Otis, whatever version was the Otis writing was somebody else.

The song went to number one today.

So that's why it was today in history.

But then David, the version you just played is David Lee Roth, which was because it combines the I ain't got nobody.

It fits so well, right?

It

really does.

That's not Sam's problem.

He has he has somebody right, but that's my

everyone has left you behind

though.

But not you, Sam.

God love you for being here.

We appreciate it.

I love that song though.

I can just jam out to that.

Oh, it's a great tune.

All right.

Twenty three past the hour, one o'clock.

We're asking the important questions of the day.

What's worse right now?

We're asking what's worse?

Valentine's Day.

or all the other made up holidays, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Brian in Milwaukee, listening via WAUK.

Brian, what's worse, Valentine's Day or all the other made up holidays?

Valentine's Day.

Right out of the gate.

Why do you have a particular reason for your disdain of Valentine's Day?

What?

There's a few.

One.

I'm single so that doesn't help

I get

it to it brings a bad bad memories of taxes

right

with me being LGBT so that's another reason but the other reason is With me being very religious and Catholic there's a lot of historical significance behind the other holiday right like with Halloween you have all hallows Eve and all souls day Christmas is birth of Christ Easter is the resurrection you got st.

Valentine you got st.

Patrick

You know and for me there was big times with the spending time with the family going to the Christmas Parade St.

Patrick's Day Parade, you know big You know, we'd all go to church Easter Sunday Christmas Eve, you know and have these big Meals, you know with family so they have

significance behind it.

Yeah to me

Totally, totally get that.

I appreciate it, Brian.

I get it.

And, you know, I think we call, yesterday was Gallentines and Palantines Day, speaking of made Apollo days, but it focused on friendship.

I've had a couple of friends reach out today and we talked back and forth.

We can still celebrate, I guess, you know, platonic love of friends on this day, but I appreciate the call.

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842, what's worse?

Valentine's Day, or all the other made up holidays.

Off the text line, Data, listening in lacrosse, says, here's a Valentine's tip.

Data says, buy two Valentine cards, write the saying from one into the blank space of the other.

All done.

So Data's saying buy one that has a poem or has something written for you, and then just copy that into the blank one.

Well, you can you can just like open up the cards at the stand.

Can't you?

You could just copy it right off of there and only buy one card.

Right.

Well, you know, a cell phone stuff.

You just take a screenshot

of it or

a photo.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

That's genius.

That is really genius.

Also, let's start from one a key or one a key.

Walkie shop says sweetest day is actually worse than Valentine's Day.

I had all the others made up now.

See, I think that's that there's a lot of validity to that.

Do you and your girlfriends celebrate sweetest day?

Can't say that we do.

Yeah, so I think the commercialized people are really trying to get a two for there.

Yeah, you can't you can't expect a card for Valentine's and sweetest day.

They're just trying to invent another holiday.

Exactly.

You're 100 percent right, Sam.

Julie listening on WXCO up in beautiful Warsaw says Valentine's Day is not too bad.

Christmas is the worst.

It's so wasteful just to holiday to get people to buy stuff no one needs.

Jesus wasn't born in December.

Well, there's that as well.

But, you know, I've told the whole story, but the short version is.

My first time going to El Salvador, I spent with my buddy from college and his family.

He went off to visit the local girlfriend.

So I was there with his family.

I didn't know hardly any Spanish at the time.

And, and they had no what we would call a proper Christmas tree.

It was the Arborvita with a string of lights on it.

And they had a very simple, but wonderful meal of turkey and a soda and rice.

And there's this great music.

And of course it was warm and palm trees.

There were no big gifts, no big tree.

It was just spending time and enjoying the company one another.

So I think that any holiday to me that that's what it should be about

Yeah, that sounds like a very nice time.

Yeah, it was it was it was a lot of fun.

So but you're but you're right to Who is there Julie saying that Christmas absolutely gets over commercialized What else we have here Brian?

No, that was a call.

Let's see here.

We have this is fantastic Mark one of our longtime listeners from prayer to stack mark says here's a poem I wrote for a friend quote

Though the stars may grant no wishes, and the gods may answer no prayers, I am glad you are my friend.

And for you, I'll always be there."

Now, how about that?

We have these poets that are our listeners that I had no idea were so talented.

That's great.

What else do we have here?

Mark and Prostak says, my response to the trolls.

Well, okay, we'll just end on that note right there, the nice part of it.

Yeah, there's always gonna be trolls, but that's fine.

I don't care about that.

Sam, what do you think?

Valentine's Day or all the other holidays combined?

I mean, there's so many other made-up holidays, like I think together they outweigh Valentine's Day.

Yeah.

I would say that all the others combined are probably worse than Valentine's.

I think it, like so many of these questions, it depends.

To one of the caller's points, it depends if you're alone, it might be more difficult, or if you have a significant other.

But for all those who celebrate happy Valentine's, that is what's worse.

We appreciate you dialing along.

We'll have all new what's worse coming up on Monday.

Right now, stay tuned a little off news, whether it's sports break back after this on the Civic Media or Ready Network.

it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Network.

34 minutes now past the hour of one o'clock on a TGIF Friday edition, February 14th, 2025.

It is Valentine's Day.

Do something for your significant other, at least unless you're like John in the morning, you know, John Gordy showing his wife is just don't like it.

That's fine.

But if your other person expects something, at least a simple note handwritten, some gesture.

I don't know.

Do something for your other.

I weren't joined today.

Mr. Zomers is on a well deserved vacation day today.

So we have the great Sam Davison.

I like saying your name like that because it reminds me when Brad Davison.

I know it's a little different spelling, I think, right?

What Brad Davison played for Wisconsin Badger basketball team.

The PA announcer, Mike Mankey, when he would introduce him or like three point shot, it was always Brad.

There you go.

So I like to say Sam Davison.

Do people like your name?

I guess I haven't asked them.

I think it's a great name.

It's a strong broadcasting name.

Oh, thank you.

Be that you're a broadcaster.

Yeah.

But you're also a historian.

Yes, I'm actually going to grad school right now to be a history teacher.

That's fine.

What grade do you want to teach?

Middle or high school.

Probably

you're gonna do them.

I'm not making them.

I'm not trying to be funny You're gonna be doing the Lord's work because people regular listeners this show some of my best teachers slash professors were my history professors and my social studies teachers so I had can feed for in Richland Center high school for social studies in a high school in Middle School who I often quote on this program Ken Lewis

And he put history in social studies the way that made it fun.

And so, you know, he would be preparing for quizzes, like, you know, on China or wherever it was.

And so he would play a game called The Wheel of Misfortune.

You would spin it and he'd ask you a question.

And if you are wrong, you know, he'd say, sad, bad, not glad.

So you learn those things stuck with you.

You learn it

then, yeah.

You learn it.

Some of the best things, right?

He would also, we studied China.

And of course, as a teacher, you probably can't say this anymore.

But you're studying Confucius.

Right.

And so he'd give us these little made up things, like a fortune cookie almost.

Confucius say, man who wears fig leaf should not own goat.

random wisdom which is true if you're gonna wear a fig leaf you shouldn't be where you should not be owning a goat

But and then that in college I had Jerry Bauer at the University of Wisconsin Center of Richland who for US history and just really, really great stuff.

And like we were talking about on the show yesterday with Eve Glanter and her great organization, Wisconsin Civics Games, trying to teach high school students across Wisconsin more about civics.

If you're, if people like you Sam, if you're teaching our young people history and civics,

That's going to make them more engaged citizens, certainly more informed citizens throughout the rest of their life.

Absolutely.

That's a big part of what is getting me back into it.

Once upon a time, I was doing my undergrad to become a teacher, went a different route, and graduated with a different degree.

But yeah, the last, well, more than a few years back to 2016 plus have shown me that we got to teach people a little bit better, I think.

I'm really proud of you.

I think you're going to be spectacular and your future students will be lucky to have you.

So, thanks for doing that.

Do you want to teach here in Wisconsin?

Probably, yeah.

I don't know.

Growing up, I didn't love Wisconsin, but I hadn't really been anywhere else and I still haven't been to a ton of different places, but I've grown to like this state more and

more.

You know, I'm not the most traveled person out there, but whatever I come back to Wisconsin from traveling somewhere, I'm never a story to come back.

I'm glad to be home and glad to be back in Wisconsin.

Well, that's great.

So there you go.

We've learned more about Sam today and his love of history.

There you go.

We appreciate you being here today, Sam.

Zomers, as I said, we'll be back on Monday.

So I want to take just a few minutes here.

Today to talk about a couple of these issues that we had talked about prior, at least kind of alluded to in the show, and one of them has to do with the Trump administration.

Overnight, this is reported by CBS's Scott McFarland, a great reporter, U.S.

Department of Veterans Affairs.

Confirms it has dismissed more than 1,000 employees McFarlane says a once unthinkable concept for an agency that operates 100 plus major hospitals and many hundreds more clinics and Processes here's the key veterans benefits And again as read Galen was saying earlier today One of the ways I think we should all be looking at these stories that come out of Washington

and the relevancy to our lives in Wisconsin.

You know, we haven't even talked about it.

I think I might have given it all of one minute, but mentioned that Donald Trump now has taken over the Kennedy Center Honors, or the Cultural Center in Washington, the Kennedy Center.

They fired the longtime chairman.

Donald Trump is now the chairman of the Kennedy Center.

They fired people like John Baptiste.

a great musician who was the band leader for Colbert for a long time on The Late Show and has won now a Grammy recently and just he performed the national anthem at this year's Super Bowl, fired a performer like that, fired him off of the, got rid of off the Kennedy Center board.

I find that appalling, but how many people in the state of Wisconsin will ever go there, go to a performance there?

If we try to have discussions with our friends and family,

probably want a lot of response to be like, well, it doesn't affect me.

You know, what does it have to do with me?

I still think it's important.

Don't get me wrong.

But I think stories like this that we're we're bringing to you here about the VA, the Veterans Administration firing more than a thousand employees overnight.

Now, this I'm going to read to you is a press release from the VA.

So remember that contextually because this is being spun by.

the Trump administration.

It says the Department of Veterans Affairs today announced the dismissal of more than a thousand employees.

Those dismissed included non-bargaining unit probationary employees who have served less than a year in competitive service appointments or have served less than two years in an accepted service appointment.

What does that mean in English?

It means that essentially if you're a newer employee,

and you're being deemed non-necessary.

Well, I don't know how many people are being hired at VA that aren't necessary, but by that it means essentially as someone who used to work for the federal government in a congressional liaison role, it means that if you're not there, will people still get the basic needs and care?

What it doesn't take into account is what they're not telling you is that many of these positions, or at least some of them,

are related to people getting their benefits, helping you to process your benefits.

So okay, maybe eventually VA folks will still get their benefit check, but when you have a concern, when you moved and you didn't get it, your new address, why is this not covering my last payment or my last bill, and you wanna talk to a live body, there will now be fewer of those people.

within the Veterans Administration to help you, America's veterans.

Anybody who's listened to this program for any amount of time knows, I and this program stand behind our United States veterans 100%.

We've done on location shows through the graciousness of Wisconsin National Guard, Air Guard, Army National Guard, to promote, talk about and lift up

our men and women in uniform, including our veterans.

I think this action is appalling.

I think that our veterans who put their lives on the line for each of us to enjoy the freedoms we have, deserve our respect, and by God, they deserve their benefits.

It's the very least we could do for these folks.

And to cut over a thousand people in the VA, many of whom

We're helping to process requests, casework, payments for our veterans of America.

I just find it appalling.

Of course, this is all being driven driven by Elon Musk and his made up agency.

Remember that?

Department of government efficiency doge as they call it.

I call it doggy.

If it's made up, it's made up.

There hasn't been, there's been no congressional appropriation.

There's no money for it.

They just made it up.

It has as much influence as if you and your golf buddies for some said, we're going to create us a department.

We're now the department of Wisconsin smart guys and we're going to go and cut a thousand jobs from the VA.

That is how much credence this has.

The only reason it's being done is because it has Trump's blessing.

And we have far too few people in Washington who are afraid to stand up as they noted Donald Trump.

We started the show with some of those people.

We talked about it this morning on Up North News Radio, villain for Pat Critelow.

Eric Adams, a Democratic mayor in New York City, is indicted, some very serious criminal charges in New York.

And now the Trump administration trying to

made a deal with him, a quid pro quo, saying, look, we'll dismiss these charges through the United States Department of Justice, but we're just gonna do what is called without prejudice.

Now, Maggie Dawn comes up after us and she can explain this as an actual attorney.

But in Laban's terms, by dismissing it without prejudice means that they can bring those charges back at a later date if they don't like what Adams is doing.

And you know what the quid pro quo is?

They want Adams to start quote unquote cracking down and helping them on illegal immigration in New York City.

New York City has ordinances laws that protect folks there.

And again, my former party, which I left in 2011, has long said we believe in local control, that people closest to government should make the decisions.

And here you have the new Republican Party under MAGA and Donald Trump.

Going in making a deal with a Democrat who is under indictment on serious charges and making a deal The local I think was a district attorney from Manhattan or a federal attorney Resigned and she was a Trump.

She was a manga person and she said no no I took an oath to protect the law

Rachel Maddow had a bunch of this on on MSNBC last night in total at least six people within New York and Department of Justice in DC resigned yesterday Because they were unwilling to break the law at the order of Pam Bondi Donald Trump's Attorney General So I think we have to ask ourselves as Wisconsinites when things like this happen when they make these so-called cuts and efficiency

Is it really about efficiency in terms of what we pay for our taxes?

Or is it the cruelty, just the point?

To score points.

And how does this relate to our lives in Wisconsin?

As someone who used to help handle Veterans Affairs for former Congressman Scott Kluge, I can tell you there are all kinds of wonderful veterans in Wisconsin who want to get help every day.

They deserve that help.

They served our country.

And now Donald Trump has gotten rid of at least a thousand employees.

And this is going on all across federal government.

We talked about earlier in the show.

Know somebody who in Southwest Wisconsin, whose spouse works for one of the bureau offices for a U.S.

Department of Agriculture fired yesterday.

Headlined in the Associated Press, Trump administration begins sweeping layoffs with probationary workers, warns of larger cuts to come.

Ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary workers who have not yet gained civil service protection, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands.

Say that again, hundreds of thousands of workers.

In addition, workers at some agencies were warned that large workplace cuts would be coming.

Think about how many people in your community.

Their spouse might be a farmer.

Might be a tradesperson might have their own business But their their spouse works for a federal government job because they get their benefits their health care How is that going to affect the community people that have money to buy things from local businesses all across Wisconsin Reagan was right.

There is a trickle-down effect But not in the way that he talked about These cuts these people going unemployed it will trickle down to each of us in the state of Wisconsin

Come on back Sam, Davis and I are going to wrap it up.

This is a little Valentine's Day look that's out of this world.

I'll explain on the Toddleball Show on Pacific Media.

Welcome back to the Tahleball show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is nine before the hour of two o'clock at the top of the hour.

News, weather and sports, ABC or CBS News, depending upon your station in the Civic Media Radio Network.

A little sports update from our friend Mike Clemens.

Always doing a great job.

Weather update with Brittany Burlow and the entire weather team.

Remember Wisconsin, all except for Superior, Bayfield, Ashland, all the rest of Wisconsin under a winter weather advisory going into effect about

Now or so expecting several inches across the state of Wisconsin making the evening commute dicey at best So slow down later on today poor Sam has to a drive all the way to Rhinelander tonight Sam.

I'm sorry about that man.

But thanks for being here

I'm

glad to be here.

It'll be a haul but I've done it before

all right very good Sam getting some love by the way Talking about I'm going into being a history teacher here.

He's not going to grad school for that off the off the YouTube Watcher there LA Tom says Sam don't teach it out of textbooks or please teach your class the three and end please teach your class the three branches of government and the difference between public and private

There you go.

All good points.

Little, little love for you.

Also, our own Terry Barr, of course, one of the co-hosts of a Max Ink radio, a big show tomorrow night.

You're not going to want to miss it on Civic Media's radio network.

And she does our announcing.

She's so kind to do that as well.

Terry says, that is terrific, Sam.

My high school history teacher is a dear friend today.

So how about that, Sam?

How about that?

Thank you, guys.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, wrapping things up here.

Talking a little bit before the break about all these firings by Donald Trump and federal agencies, amongst them the Veterans Administration and the USDA, which will impact people here in Wisconsin.

Let's go to the phone lines.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Wisco Paul.

Wisco.

Happy Valentine's Day.

What do you got for us?

Well, thanks

for

taking my call and thank you for the happy Valentine's Day.

I just want to very quickly say I grew up on a farm and my dad used to deal with the USDA Department of Agriculture a couple of three times a year if I remember right on what crops he was put in and I don't remember what all it was but you needed people there and my brother still farms and I know

He deals with the USDA or the Department of Ag.

Several times a year on everything he does, so I don't get this.

I'm a vet.

I don't use the Veterans Administration a lot, but it's going to reach a point here, Tom.

If you call in any of these departments, you're not going to be able to talk to anybody, maybe for a couple, three, four days.

How did Trump get the power to do this?

And

happy Valentine's Day to you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Appreciate it, Wisco.

I'm going to quote the late great Jock Ewing from the old CBS television show, Dallas, who once did the brothers Ewing, not Brady and Brandon, but JR and Bobby were fighting over Ewing oil.

And Bobby was complaining that his big brother, the more evil JR Ewing, had not played fair.

And Jock Ewing, their dad, said, boy.

Power ain't something you earn, power is something you take.

And you know, to Wisco's point, Trump's just taking it.

And nobody seems to have a backbone in DC to stop it.

All right, let's end here on a Valentine's Day.

I have a photo in front of me.

It's not gonna show up that well on the YouTube cameras there on Facebook.

This is from Voyager One, the spacecraft from near the planet Saturn.

3.8 billion miles away from Valentine's Day in 1990.

And about the photo, the great Carl Sagan wrote this.

Look again at that dot.

There it is.

That's home.

That's us.

On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every human being, whoever ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering thousands of confident religions Ideologies and economic doctrines every hunter and forager every hero and coward every creator and destroyer of civilization Every king and every peasant every young couple in love every mother and father Every hopeful child inventor and explorer every teacher of morals every corrupt politician

every quote-unquote superstar, every quote-unquote supreme leader, every saint and every sinner in the history of our species lived there on a moat of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Unquote.

Carl Sagan.

That kind of puts it in perspective, Sam.

You know?

Just a pale blue dot.

Just a pale blue dot.

I love that.

You know, we get wrapped up and, you know, did we make our loved one feel good enough today?

Did we buy the right thing?

At the end of the day, we're just traveling through space and we're a dot in time.

It's a drop in the bucket and the time continuum.

My best advice, enjoy today.

Tomorrow's never promised.

Enjoy the people you're with.

Tell me love them and enjoy the day.

Enjoy the weekend.

Badgers have a big game tomorrow.

Here, I believe, taking on Purdue there.

I think the game is at Purdue.

You can hear it on the Civic Media Network and for free on the Civic Media app.

I think game time tip-off is around noon-ish.

Don't quote me on that, but you can find it out on civicmedia.us as well.

Zomers, we'll be back on Monday.

We'll be back, God willing, again on Monday as well with a whole new week for you.

Remember, the primary for state school superintendent is this coming Tuesday.

Make sure to be a voter.

We'll have election night coverage as well as Governor Evers.

on Tuesday evening with Dan Schaefer and others as well.

Sam Davidson, thank you so much my friend for filling in.

Glad to be here.

Always a pleasure, safe travels.

Happy Valentine's Day to you and to each and every one of you.

Thanks for listening.

Whatever you're fighting for, whatever you believe in, do not give up.

Keep banging your drum.

We'll see you Monday.

Maggie Dawn is next.

Stay tuned.