Even More Federal Layoffs with Luke Mathers (Hour 1)

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.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

And streaming worldwide, the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault.

Longing to be outstanding, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Tuesday, March 4th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsin.

Welcome, everybody.

It is a little cloudy, a little overcast in downtown Madison, the world headquarters.

I chuckled there as we came on the air because I'm not sure what's up, Zommers.

by my ears are off today.

And I just went to the doctor last week and he says everything's fine.

I think what it is is there's a big storm system coming in into the area and my ears are like a barometer.

And so they're crackling and popping, especially the one that has the tube in it.

And so everything sounds a little, a

little off.

That'll even do it for some people who have quote unquote normal ears.

Really?

Yeah.

So I get a little bit just not

everything sounds tinny.

in my ear.

Reminds me of my old, my old boss, Peter Thannis at W. R. C. O. E., of another, another colleague, Ray Schrader, who, uh, who played great music on Saturdays.

I think they were really great friends, but they're the kind of friends like old man friends who just pick on each other constantly.

And he used to say to our, my former and once again, our current colleague, Phil Knee at RCO, he used to say,

I'm always sad that son of a gun has a tin ear.

Yep.

So I feel like I've got a bit of a tin ear today, but we shall carry on.

It's going to be a great show today.

Our old friend Luke Mathers is, uh, is in here at the bottom of the hour for Tuesday tangents.

Luke's here.

We'll talk a little news and a little sports as well.

Badger basketball tries to get back on track tomorrow evening here.

I'm sorry.

I'll put the Minnesota.

at the barn as they still call up there.

They have one of those elevated floors up at Minnesota for basketball.

And I think they still do it under Greg Guard when Bo Ryan was there.

Before the game, as soon as the team got there and got their practice time on the floor, Bo or the assistant, they would roll balls, basketballs along the edge of the court and have guys go and dive after it and fall off the edge.

and so that they, so that they was ingrained in them that, look, you can do this and you're not gonna get hurt.

If you do it, if you go after it and just keep going and roll off.

You're fine.

But if you get scared and try to like prevent yourself from rolling off, then you're going to get hurt.

That's what you're going to get.

So it's always when they take video of this, you see guys rolling off the floor up there in Minnesota.

And I'm anticipate they'll do that tomorrow.

Anyway, the big game for the Badgers, they need this after a loss to Michigan State over the weekend.

And then the Badgers will wrap up at home against Penn State this weekend.

So we'll talk with that about Luke also broadcast tonight.

Donald Trump president Donald Trump delivering they don't call it a state of the union speech on their first year But that's essentially what it is.

It's technically called the presidential address Trump addressing Congress and all kinds of implications with that.

We'll talk to Luke about that We're going to carry that broadcast tonight via our CBS and ABC network anchors depending upon Which station you're listening to and but if you have the civic media app you can listen

You can select which one you want to listen to, depending upon the

station.

That is at 8 p.m.

What did I say, 7?

Sorry.

I think you also said 8.

I

just... It's 8 o'clock.

It's the bottom line.

So you want to tune in to that as well.

I'm going to talk a little bit about Secretary of Defense Pete Higgseth.

Now going after civilians, tell me five things you did this week.

Coming up at hour two, what's worse, Taco... Timely in DS Tuesday, Taco Tuesday.

So we'll give you a choice, homemade or Taco Bell.

What's worse?

And hour number two is all kinds of more things.

All kinds of more things.

Yes, I talk for a living.

All kinds of other things in this show.

So stick around your phone calls as well.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

The barometer is just throwing me off.

Here's where I want to begin today.

A story that we did yesterday.

And I got some calls.

from listeners who wanted clarification, not the least of which was mom.

Now she said, you had this story on yesterday about social security, I think you better clarify.

And this is good feedback.

And I had a couple other people because this is very serious stuff.

And I made clear yesterday when we talked about this story, I said, look, I'm not here to scare people or fear mongrel or mongrel or clickbait.

I just thought it was pertinent to pass on what I knew so that people could play in and know what's going on.

As we say, pursuing the truth wherever it may lead.

So this is I want to clarify now.

This was a story over the weekend on CNBC, one of the cable news outlets, part of the Universal NBC Network.

It was on online at NBC.com as well other places.

And this isn't the only source for other reputable sources out here.

The headline says social security has never missed a payment.

Doge actions threaten quote interruption of benefits on quote ex agency head says it was published on Saturday March 1st so over this past weekend and I want to clarify just and again everything we said yesterday was accurate But I think my mistake was I I didn't time the story out.

Well In terms of what I read it.

So we talked about part of the story We took a commercial break

And then we talked about the rest of it.

So I want to make sure that people understand, especially the second part of this story that we talked about after the commercial break yesterday, about whose benefits may be most at risk.

So the thrust of the story here is that the Social Security Administration for 80 years, not missing payments to people, 72 and a half million people receive some form of social security.

And the former commissioner.

of Social Security Commission, Martin O'Malley was interviewed by CNBC over the weekend for a governor on Maryland say, look, because of what Elon Musk and Trump are doing in their so-called made up department of government efficiency, but unfortunately it has real power, but given real power by Trump and Musk and not in check by Congress.

Anyway, because of what Doge is doing, all these severe cuts,

Without asking questions and I've made clear this program as someone used to work in the state and federal government I do think there's room for audits and efficiency and cuts But you have to use a scalpel not a chainsaw So for governor and administrator O'Malley was on CMBC over the weekend saying that some people P word some may may see interruptions, but I think it's important to clarify that

in terms of whose benefits may be affected, those people who are currently on social security and you receive a monthly check and it gets direct deposited into your bank account, you are the least likely to be affected.

Let me say that again.

If you are currently receiving social security payments and you get a direct deposit, your benefits have the least chance of being affected.

You will most likely continue on.

But in this story, they say that benefits Americans rely on could be at risk based on Trump's overhaul of the agency.

Quote, the American public needs to understand that one of their major social security safety nets is in dire jeopardy, unquote, said Jill Hornick, a union official at the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1395.

which primarily represents social security offices in Illinois.

These folks are unionized, and this is what the union officials say in this.

She said, quote, it'll take a while for the effects to be felt, but they're coming.

Predicting what will happen to social security is going to be, quote, far worse than the plan cuts to Medicaid.

Story says, for people who are already receiving social security benefits, most of that is automated and may not be affected, she said.

However, processing new claims, whether it be for retirement or disability benefits, may take longer since those cannot be processed without social security employees.

Now, last Thursday, Social Security Administration said to notice two employees that gives them until March 14th to decide whether to take an early buyout.

Unlike previous offer in January, this now includes service employees and staff reductions in that area that may impact how quickly the agency processes benefit claims and provides other services.

For example,

If a woman files for a survivor benefit after her husband dies, she needs to provide a copy of her marriage license.

A Social Security employee then needs to code the system to verify that they have sent that document and that the applicant is eligible for benefits.

Quote, not everybody can do things electronically, unquote.

particularly the older adults and disabled individuals who the Social Security Administrator serves," said Maria Freese, a senior legislative representative at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security Medicare, quote, if you don't have people to run an agency that requires hands-on customer service, then of course, there is a risk that you could end up with benefits either being denied or interrupted, unquote.

So I hope that makes it clear what we're talking about here is that if you have a particularly people with new benefits or a change in benefits and you're unable to do things electronically Or maybe even if you are there still has to be a live person within social security at some point to process that for you And if the Musk Trump cuts continue that could keyword could

slow down that benefit.

So I'll repeat it one more time for those people who are on Social Security right now, who are receiving a check electronically.

Most likely your benefits will not be interrupted.

I can't sit here.

I mean, none of us can, right?

I can't sit here and say I can guarantee you it'll never be interrupted.

But the likelihood is it won't.

But we're talking about our new folks to the system.

People have to file, file for changes.

that sort of thing.

So I hope that clears it up and apologies if I, for not including that all in the same segment, that's on me.

Because I think the people heard the first part of it that, you know, benefits could be interrupted.

And understandably, he freaked out a little bit.

Because this is nothing to mess around with.

There are all kinds of folks out there, good folks, hardworking folks who've worked all their lives.

And there was a promise that Social Security would be there for us.

or them or they retired.

And they rely on that to live, to pay house payments, rent, food, electricity.

And without that, be dire consequences.

So I hope that clears it up.

Welcome to call in.

We can talk about it as well.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

We'll come back.

Talk about another little part of Doge with the Trump system, and Luke Mathers is straight ahead as well.

It's the Toddleball Show for a Tuesday right here across Wisconsin and around the world on the Civic Media Radio Network.

truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

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

Twenty one now past the hour of 12 noon on a Tuesday, March 4th, 2025.

Glad to have you along.

Luke Mathers coming up at the bottom of the hour for some Tuesday tangents right now, talking a little bit about the story of the weekend on CNBC, on Social Security, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency looking to cut more positions across the board.

Many of those now in the social security administration and saying that that could keyword could affect particularly people applying for new benefits.

If you're new to social security, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Mark listening in Pernistack.

Mark, thanks for calling.

What's safe?

I mean, if you just old hat for the employees who are there to, you know, provide cautious and new benefits kind of thing and probably do them very efficiently and that now people are going to have to wait.

And Elon Musk is dancing around, prancing around, jumping up and down.

And I don't give a rip that he claims, well, he's on the spectrum, so he should be forgiven for his inhuman behavior that is just sad to me that

People are likely going to suffer pretty badly because of this kind of thing going on.

In the old days, when the king failed back in pre-Christian time, as I understand it, the reason about pre-Christian England, the king kind of paid for it with his life.

It was just sad.

We don't even have the choice of

of that when Thomas Beckett and I, Henry II made that comment about offhand common boat.

I want somebody to rid me of this cruelest monk or priest that can't even marry monks, monks, administrators and punishment that, um, and that unfortunately, you know, Donald Trump is immune to all, you know, all, all of this now.

Apparently now he wants to move his 34 felony convictions to federal court and I don't understand.

That is possible to happen, but who knows?

Right.

Lots going on, Mark.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for the call, particularly on that Social Security issue.

Yeah, I mean, it's looking more and more of these cuts that Elon Musk is making across government with Trump's helpers, at least support, is going to directly affect our lives.

Now, the least of which is, again, in the flurry of very important story from Friday, of course, the debacle of the Oval Office when Trump advance went.

apoplectic on president Zelensky of Ukraine was lost over the weekend that secretary of defense pete higseff put out a statement to not just department of defense military folks but also the civilian folks thousands of people work in the department of defense but are not military they're not in one of the branches they're employed for their skills and they are part

of the Department of Defense, and ultimately, those civilian folks, one of their supervisors is going to be someone in the military, but they do jobs within the military, and many of them, by the way, require security clearance, all kinds of background checks, because they deal with sensitive information.

Elon Musk, of course, put it out a couple weeks ago, the edict,

You have to email me through the office of Purcell and Management, OPM.

Five things that you did, five things that you did in your job to justify yourself, or if you don't respond, you'll be fired.

HagueSeth, vis-a-vis the Department of Defense official websites and Twitter said to hold off, pause on that.

And now over the weekend, he and Musk got together.

Hey everybody, here at the

Defense Department, we've got a lot of civilian patriots who dedicate themselves to defending this nation while working here at the Department of Defense.

And a lot of them, many of them, most of them are critical to our national security.

And as we work to restore focus on DOD's core warfighting mission under President Trump's leadership, we recognize that we cannot accomplish that mission without the strong and important contributions of our civilian workforce.

But it's a really big workforce as well, which we recognize.

Now, on February 22nd of this year, OPM sent an email to all federal civilians asking them to provide, you remember this, approximately five bullets of what they did last week.

describing their accomplishments.

Well, the Department of Defense employees received direction to, at first, just initially pause, responding to this request to OPM, just to pause.

Now, as we said, following a review of Pentagon procedures and consultation with the Office of Personal Management, because we work on topics of national security, of sensitivity, of classification, we needed to be careful on that front, I am now directing.

each member of the department's civilian workforce, just civilian, to provide those five bullets on what they accomplished in their specific jobs last week to reply to that email and CC their immediate supervisors.

It's a simple task, really, as Elon said, as the president recognized in our first cabinet meeting.

Just a pulse check.

Are you there out to DOD civilians?

Now, all those DOD civilians will receive an email, outline the next steps, get that email soon.

that they need to take in order to comply with this initiative.

And then the reports will be consolidated internally within the department to comply with the OPM directive.

It's really simple and straightforward.

The directive to civilian employees will be clear, reply to the email, CC your supervisor, provide without any classified or sensitive information, basic topics of what you did last week.

And that we will take that into consideration as we make sure we're being as focused.

and as tailored as possible in looking at how we streamline our workforce to both meet the fiscal demands of the moment, but also ensure we have the strongest, most viable fighting force in the world.

Thanks.

I want to bring that to you uninterrupted, unchopped up.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hagueseff, his message to Department of Defense civilian employees.

A couple of things about it.

Also very cheery, right?

Very cheery.

Hey, well, I guess when you're in communication in Fox News, you're able to really, you know, well, good communication skills.

I'll give them that.

As someone who worked for a former United States Congressman, Republican actually, and handled Department of Defense military issues, a couple of problems there.

First of all, what they are now requiring civilians in the Department of Defense is to email OPM.

Office of Personnel Management, which is outside of the secure email network of Department of Defense.

And tell them what you did.

Many folks cannot tell anybody what they did outside of Department of Defense unless they have security clearance.

And those OPM emails, not secured.

the way Department of Defense emails are.

You're putting our nation at risk.

We'll come back and discuss it with Luke Mathers and more.

It's the Toddler Ball Show for Tuesday on Civic Media.

I'll show on the civic media ready network 34 minutes now past the arm 12 noon on Tuesday March 4th 2025 summers on the board glad to be luck along with you on a Tuesday if it's Tuesday It's Tuesday tangents with Luke Mathers the one the only norm you love him Luke sir.

How are you?

I'm doing what's hot?

How are you?

I'm great.

It is that time of year the spring is in the air you can feel it

You could feel it.

Basketball season

is

coming.

March madness.

It's gonna be great.

Yeah.

It's, uh, it's muddy paw season.

So it's muddy paw season for the dogs.

Yes.

Uh, today.

I don't know why you have a Boston accent for one word.

Um, but yeah, it's, uh, if there's rain later today or snow or whatever the mix wintery mix that we'll get, uh, it's not fun for the muddy paws, but you know, you got to be on constant.

I'll look out for it.

for those this time of year.

Now, this is serious.

I started the show because my ears are a little off, but I think it's the bright.

I'm serious now.

My ears have become a barometer, especially since I got the two back in one of them.

And so my, my, my hearing, everything is tinny today.

And because there's a big dust point is this is serious.

There's a big storm system later tonight through tomorrow.

So particularly our listeners up in Hayward and Amory and Chippewa Valley area, Eau Claire could see maybe four to six inches.

Eau Claire, maybe around four, Richland Center, Wisconsin Rapids, maybe two to four.

And then here in Madison, an inch or less.

And I'm not sure in Milwaukee, things are still hot in Milwaukee.

It doesn't even get a snow.

I

would say that lake effect will prevent the snow this time of year.

But yeah, it's going to be the heavy stuff too.

So for up north.

For old people like me, don't go out and shovel.

Be careful.

Yeah.

We'll see how it goes.

But don't take it as a joke.

It's unfortunate that now we're going to see maybe our weather services as we're hearing about more.

We've got winter storm coming through now.

We've got some of those watches, I believe turning into warnings or vice versa.

I'm still not a meteorologist, so don't quote me on that one.

But there's some upgrading and stuff that's going out there.

And we see more and more severe weather every single year.

For in the sake of efficiency, we're going to just start cutting the National Weather Service and NOAA, which is the agency that oversees that.

And it's just mind numbingly silly.

Well, it is silly, but it's also dangerous, because particularly for folks in agriculture or

Really anybody, but I mean, they use those those statistics and to calculate on crops and planting and harvesting all kinds of great things like that.

So, I mean, those those things are all in jeopardy.

I want to just finish up with you on something we started before the break.

We play the cut of Secretariat Defense Pete Hague Seth as Donald will spill the water there.

It was so so alarming play.

And now Pete Hague Seth, he wants to incorporate the I didn't know he was a big Craig Kilborn fan act.

back in the day because Kilborn, when he hosted the late, late show, he always asked his guest five things, five questions to end the segment, which is a great segment, which maybe we'll steal at some point.

But now Heg Seth, asking now civilian Department of Defense employees, justify yourself with five things.

You did an email from your Department of Defense email to the Office of Personnel Management, which is outside the secure zone, as they say.

For many of these people still on the civilian side are doing jobs in which they had to pass security clearance because they are entrusted with military secrets, which if in the public are better said in the hands of our enemies.

could do great damage if not death to the men and women who put on the uniform.

What's a classified document these days, Todd?

All those classified documents, all the protocols, all the steps, those all went out the window when a former president was able to just say they were his and took them down to DeMar Lago and then there was just boxes and boxes in a bathroom.

I will say though, Pete Hexeth did mention if it's classified, you shouldn't include that.

But then that begs the question, what if

If everything you do in a week is

classified.

So people just say, I went to work.

And

that's not going to be

enough.

Just five bullet points.

You're saying classified.

It's classified.

It really just has the entire vibe of we don't know what's going on around here.

So please try to inform us.

Send us five things that you worked on this last week so we can get a better picture of what's going on around here.

It is one of the largest agencies in the entire federal government.

If it was its own independent workforce, it would be like one of the largest employers in the country.

It is, it is.

If you don't laugh, you cry because it is so just absurd, like in the sense like it shouldn't be happening for a weekend.

Television personality who did do some, you know, staff management, overseeing nonprofit organizations.

But nothing to this scale of this level and now he's just Jumping on the bandwagon of oh, yeah, we are gonna ask the what did you what did you do the five things that you did this last week?

And that's how we're gonna do a quote-unquote pulse check.

It's It's absurd

well, and I think it speaks a lot to Particularly for people who served or veterans on the military it shows the lack of trust from the commander chief in Trump from musk and even from the secretary defense you obviously don't have any confidence in your

in your military personnel, the field commanders, people over, because everybody who is a civilian at some point answers to a military person in DOD.

And so it just says, well, we don't have any trust in our majors, our generals, our captains out there, our lieutenants overseeing these people.

Yeah.

And I think it goes as far outside of just Department of Defense.

sentiment behind the email of saying, share the five things that you did this last week, is a disregard and lack of respect for all of our federal employees.

But that's what we're seeing.

We're seeing that on full scale.

There are elected officials who have federal employees.

Their office is staffed with federal employees.

like your legislative positions that you served once upon a

time.

I was a federal employee in the United States House of Representatives.

Yes, all staff with federal employees, federal employees that we're seeing reporting from Wisconsin Public Radio today, talking about now Lisa, the doge, doggy, whatever you want to call it, is canceling leases for federal offices here in the state of Wisconsin for Bureau of Indian Affairs, for

There's military contracts that there are a number of Texas.

It

was for an FBI office.

It is absurd.

It is.

Beyond the pale for any of this because if those offices are getting their leases canceled I'm going to go out a limb and say it's not too far from now that everybody involved in those offices here in Wisconsin that found out that their leases are being terminated today All of those positions are going to disappear as well It is disregard a lack of respect and a slap in the face to the the federal workers that Go about their job day in and day out every single day for the American people.

They're not making bank

These aren't $2.4 billion air traffic control contracts that are rolling out that Elon Musk somehow is just going to link to Starlink.

These are federal employees that are doing an honest day's work, that the people that have come into power now have such disregard for them, that they don't care what they do.

They're just trying to say, hey, if you don't respond to this.

We're gonna we're gonna fire you hey if you don't if we don't like the five things that you did last week then we're gonna fire you and it is just So disrespectful it is so absurd and it is just I gotta hope that there is going to be some aspects that our courts will be able to prevent these illegal firings But there's gonna be a lot of people a part of the federal workforce that regardless of what those legal outcomes are

aren't gonna come back.

There is going to be a vacuum because what is the point?

When you wake up every day and you go about your job, your livelihood, your meaning for a lot of people, whether it's serving the country in whatever department of the federal workforce that you are a part of, if all of a sudden that is ripped out from underneath your feet and it no longer there, why are you gonna go back?

Yeah, if if six months from now if a year from now a court decides that this was all illegal

No, what is

the hollowing out of our federal workforce going to be like?

Six months from now.

Yeah a year from now two years from now It's it's a scary thing to think about when you when you try to put it in that perspective.

Let's hear from United States veteran in Tennessee This comes to us courtesy of the Tennessee holler talking to a veteran

working for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, who just got fired, they said, for poor performance.

Yeah, I just feel like I just been swept up in a dustpan and flowed out.

James Diaz started his job at the IRS office in Galesburg last April.

First as a tax advisory specialist, then a few months later as a fuel compliance officer, a move he took as a promotion with a pay raise.

This right here is my termination letter.

A week ago today Diaz was fired.

receiving a letter from the Federal Office of Personnel Management.

Here's where it comes.

Taking into account your performance and in light of mission needs, the agency finds that your continued employment at this agency is not in the public interest.

Diaz is a combat veteran.

He served in the Army during the first Gulf War.

After working as a truck driver and in manufacturing factories, he got his college degree in 2020.

I

am upset, mad, and just confused at how they could treat...

People who put their life in the line for the country who put themselves in harms away can be treated like this.

He says his OMP letter implies he was underperforming something he calls a lie.

This was my first boss's narrative on my performance.

Diaz showed us his performance reviews.

You consistently take steps to identify and avoid work delays.

You attend.

You attempt to use your time in an efficient manner.

Whether waiting on customers, researching, or other duties assigned, you keep yourself constantly busy with productive work.

Absolutely directly contradicts the, you know, what I've gotten that OPM letter.

He took pride working for the federal government.

Now as he's left to find a new job, all he feels is frustration.

I

voted for Trump, but I still support, you know, a lot of his policies, but I don't necessarily support the...

the method that that is implementing them.

Like to me, there's no thought behind it.

It's just chop and roll, chop and roll, and then we'll fix it at the other end.

A lot of us didn't deserve this.

That comes just courtesy of the Tennessee Holler.

I got my agencies mixed up.

That gentleman worked for the IRS.

So we have another couple might get to next hour of a veteran who works for the VA.

But Luke, I think that was a good example.

Again, these are not.

Quoting Democrats being fired.

This is a Trump supporter who's saying look I voted for the guy, but they're not doing this, right?

This isn't a one-off.

Yeah either this isn't one story of oopsie as in last week's cabinet meeting the I don't even know what to call him the shadow president like he wants to be dark maga I don't understand what what the role special advisor leader it is so

Beyond anything we've seen before We have not seen somebody with the amount of conflicts of interest that Elon Musk has Walk into the oval office and just be handed the keys to the federal government Handed handed the the means to go and start sending because again, this is straight from his playbook when he took over Twitter now X This is exactly what he did.

Yeah, he hollowed it out took out the literally took out the kitchen sink and that's that's

Fine, I guess if it is a privately held social media company by all means if you want to spend 40 billion dollars on an overpriced for that social media platform and do with it what you're going to by all means But this is the United States of America.

This is the our federal government.

This is not a one-off story.

This is

There's gonna be not thousands of these stories Todd.

There's not gonna be tens of thousands of these stories There's going to be hundreds of thousands if not millions of these stories the way that the administration is running roughshot right now and attacking the federal workforce

We might find out more tonight President Trump going to address a joint session of Congress in the annual presidential speech It's not called the state of the state the first time first our state of the union story first the first year of the term, but it's essentially that

We're going to find out more tonight.

We'll come back here in a minute.

I know I just got a couple minutes left and talk about this, but I prepared to watch the speech tonight by last night watching Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, which I'm not joking around.

If you haven't seen or haven't watched it in a while, watch it tonight because there's a lot of similarities of giving an authoritarian power when people applaud that.

And it goes rogue, it goes crazy.

I've said that

all the time that he's really similar to Revenge of the Sith.

Yeah.

So I mean, I'm serious.

You should watch it before you watch the state of the, or before they watch the presidential address tonight.

There are stories coming out, Luke.

This one in the Hill, Hakeem Jeffery, Democratic leader, saying it's important to have a, quote, strong and determined, dignified Democratic presidents, unquote, at the Trump address tonight.

There's different reporting out there, but some saying that some Democrats want to go...

I guess you might say and either show up and use, you know, noise machines or or whatever disrupt the thing.

I don't know that that's the way to go because then I think then you become like like Marjorie Taylor Greene or in her in her Cruella Deville outfit

and start

yelling.

So we'll come back at Luke's thoughts on on what Democrats should do tonight in terms of the presidential speech, giving details how you can listen to it on civic media.

We might talk sports.

It's Luke Mathers, Somers, all ball on civic media.

Walking his dog across some prairie looking for the groundhog but not supporting the doggy.

It's Luke Bathers joining us for Tuesday Tangents with Lukester.

Nine minutes before the hour of two o'clock, but one o'clock at the top of the hour, ABC or CBS News.

Coming up at hour two, it is once again time to play What's Worse, a Tuesday Taco edition.

Luke, what's worse?

Tuesday Taco or Taco Tuesday, Todd?

Either way.

I'm dyslexic, so it can happen.

If you go to Taco Tuesday, you're Tuesday Taco.

Okay.

Do you put the fixings on the inside of the show or the outside of the show?

I'm just curious, like, how far does that carry?

Anyway, more of that nonsense in hour number two, right now, talking about some of these cuts happening via Musk, Trump, the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, other places, 855-752-4842.

Let's go quickly to Jack in Merrimack.

Jack always a pleasure.

What do you got?

Well, um, when, um, uh, Reagan was in office, I believe in, in, uh, 1980s, there was a, uh, uh, an article I read and it basically said something like, if the Republicans and act their entire agenda, they will never get voted back into office again.

And we're at that point, I think.

where they have this crazy agenda,

and

if there's a legitimate election, they'll never be voted back in again.

I don't think so.

But the catch for that is, of course, you know, Bannon, who I think he's one of the advisors now, that Trump has basically said, you know, we're going to have not just two years or four years, and then when Trump is out of office, we're going to have a 50-year right.

I think, excuse me.

50 year MAGA rule.

And the only way that that could possibly happen is if there is not a legitimate election in two years.

And that I think is what we have to look at and deal with.

Appreciate that, Jack.

I agree.

I mean, I've done this program before.

I'm not trying to be over the top about it, but I don't think you can say anymore that a legitimate

midterm election is assured anymore.

Luke?

I think the institution of our elections is going to hold steady.

If we start to see all of a sudden some foul play, we just had an audit release that despite there was no crying, no spilled milk over this election when you know they happen to be the victors.

Tammy Baldwin and Donald Trump, both accepted the winnings.

Huvdy for an extent there did kind of throw a tantrum saying that there was some malfeasance for his ballots.

He was upset he had to shave his mustache.

I think he liked that.

I don't think he liked the mustache.

I think he was

probably... Some

people did.

I think he was probably glad to get rid of it.

But, you know, we

just had an audit of the election.

All

of the tabulating machines across the state of Wisconsin counted every ballot, everything on the...

the election this last November was on the up and up.

Unless we all of a sudden start to see tampering and changes to the way that our elections are conducted, then all of a sudden I think there's gonna be some red flags raised and alarm bells going

off.

But as of right now, I have full faith that our country will go 20 months from now to the polling places and have a midterm election.

I love that Luke's positive off the text line.

John Milwaukee on the UK says it's totally it's totally observed that any employer shouldn't be able to ask the employee what they're doing to justify their job.

And don't feed your audience fear mongering by being concerned about national secrets being exposed.

Stop the gaslighting.

Well, John,

if Leon Panetta sends an entire DoD email saying, tell me the five things you did last week.

Fox News would be running special reports on the minute, just being like, the Obama administration does not know how our defense department works, and there's nobody, they're asleep at the wheel, not understanding how our military functions.

That would be the hair on fire reporting coming out of Fox News, OAN, all of those entities.

So the gaslighting is coming a little bit from John's text, I feel like.

Well, I was just going to ask, I mean, I don't know what John does for a living when he's done the past.

I actually worked with the Department of Defense and have been in meetings where classified material was discussed.

So I happen to know that if you, that is a standard protocol, the Department of Defense that you are not allowed normally to send emails outside of Department of Defense for security reasons.

That's just, that's just legit.

And also, as I said, all employees of the Department of Defense are in fact overseen, reviewed.

by their peers is called chain of command.

I mean, if you don't, but apparently the Trump folks don't have faith in chain of command.

State of the presidential address tonight, Luke, people can catch on civic media across the app, but across the airways beginning at eight o'clock.

Yes, beginning at eight o'clock.

We've got our CBS affiliates are going to be reporting with the CBS special report for the joint address tonight and across the network with the ABC news stations.

ABC News

special reports.

So it's going to be.

Wouldn't it be fun if we crossed them up?

No, I don't.

I don't

think they would like that.

I

would just say, Todd's got an interesting

definition of

fun, but no, it's going to be good for both the network coverage, ABC and CBS, depending on which station you listen to.

So

tune in.

Democrats, should they, should they go?

Should they, should we stay or should we not we, but should they go or should they stay or what should what should Democrats do tonight?

I think it's going to be really interesting to see.

There's been a lot of question marks.

There's new leadership at the DNC.

There's new leadership in the House of Representatives, or newish, more new, I guess, than in the Senate.

I don't know.

Chuck Schumer, nobody can call him new.

It will be interesting to see what they're doing with the changing of the guard at the DNC and how our elected officials are going to be receiving this.

Because I think there's going to be some raunchy aspect.

I don't think Marjorie Taylor-Green's going to contain herself any more than she would have during a Biden address like this

the last four years.

She's not going to shoot down or shoot down.

She's not going to shout down.

No, she'll probably be

screaming and...

Doing the you ra ra kind of thing

I just I just think either if Democrats don't want to go and that's the right and they should just not go if you're going to go I think it's fine just to stand there not clap But don't don't cause a scene because Republican media cycles are gonna amplify that

Yeah, but they're gonna do they're gonna find something to amplify and cry about

Badger's gonna win tomorrow night

border battle.

We're gonna take Minnesota's lunch

Take their lunch!

All right, we'll hold Luke's tour to it.

Thanks, Luke Mathers.

Appreciate you, Tuesday Tangerine Luke.

Come on back, what's worse?

It's a Taco Tuesday, Tuesday Taco.

We'll figure it out on Pacific Media.