Mandela Barnes On Trump’s “Deliberate Destruction” (Hour 2)

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 on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Albault, along with our engineer and producer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon.

Welcome in on a Tuesday, March 11th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Sun is out in downtown Madison here at the World Headquarters on State Street.

Glad to have you along for a Tuesday.

Mr. Well, some Mr. Mathers.

Mr. Zommers, how are you?

I have not recently gotten married or changed my name.

But I'm doing well, you know, despite still catching up with daylight savings time.

You and me both.

It has an effect.

It has an effect on our bodies.

It does.

And just trying to fall asleep at the right time yesterday.

You know, it's an hour.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Even though I know it's spring ahead, I always get confused.

Do you really?

Yeah.

Some I feel really stupid, but I always get

confused nothing we feel stupid about our bodies all adjusted things differently Well, I'll look a big show today really happy to have our guests with us today at 12 30 the one the only Luke Mathers You know him you love him Tuesday tangents with Luke stir talk a little news talk a little sports We'll talk about my alma mater.

You'd be a plethora being upset by Wisconsin Lutheran College in the NCAA

Division three tournament also talk a little Wisconsin basketball They're getting ready for the big 10 tournament this year and much much more.

Maybe maybe was grinding Luke's gears as well at 1230 Just after what a clock a what's worse addition bumper stickers and social media

We'll explain and take your phone calls then.

And then very excited, very honored to have Wisconsin's former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes will join us.

He has a new project where he is speaking with Wisconsin folks who lost their jobs due to the Elon Musk Trump doge or doggie cuts.

And we talk about this and make a little fun of it.

But for a lot of people, this is a real deal, particularly people in Wisconsin.

So the former lieutenant governor is going to be here to kind of help tell their stories, or at least a couple of them.

And also, and perhaps even more importantly, what that means to all Wisconsinites in terms of the services that are no longer going to be available.

So.

And these aren't just, he's not like seeking out random people in high towers or whatever.

These are average people.

Like this first person to interview to somebody that he runs with.

And he, not everybody knows this.

He is a big runner, like a marathon type runner.

And here's a hitherto unknown fact.

You know, my sister and brother-in-law live in Eau Claire.

And I think it was a couple, maybe when he was running for a US Senate.

Different kind of

running.

Different kind of political running.

He also ran in the Eau Claire marathon and ran right by my sister's house.

How about that?

And apparently he's a very, very good runner.

Seems

to be, yeah.

He's all around all around great American and so we'll talk to him coming up at 1 30 this afternoon So a very full show indeed your phone calls as well 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Zombers do you ever listen to the mat and air on air program?

I do I didn't today, but of course you did

Because I was on it, you understand?

See, he listens except when I'm on it.

I don't take so much time in one day.

No, I'm

kidding.

That's well said.

A lot of people feel that way.

Oh, no.

Jane McNair.

The Wonderful and Talented, and Greg Bach, The Wonderful and Talented, they have the Matt and Air on Air program, and it comes on every morning before us from 10 until noon.

And I hope people listen to it because you always learn something, at least I do.

And you also get a few laughs, which is good and healthy as well.

And let me tell you, if you're looking for a traveling partner, if you want to travel somewhere and you say, well, I'm all alone, or my spouse doesn't want to go, dial up Jane Matt and Air.

Because as it turns out, she's a wonderful traveling companion.

She and I took a week and traveled around Wisconsin together and did our shows.

And she's a wonderful person.

She's a people don't know this.

She's a fantastic singer.

We sang musical numbers all across Wisconsin.

So I heard.

Yes,

mostly from Brooke, Brooke, mostly from Book of Mormon.

Yes, exactly.

So that was that was that was a lot.

That was a lot of fun.

So anyway, I was on her program this morning with she and Greg.

We talked a lot about a lot about stuff.

And one of the big stories that we talked about this morning, I thought we'd lead off today.

This for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Democrat Rebecca Cook launches bid to unseat Derek Van Orton in Wisconsin battleground seat.

Now, this is fascinating to me.

Absolutely fascinating because.

For those that aren't familiar, Wisconsin's third congressional district is in the western part of Wisconsin.

It goes just south of Rice Lake in Barron County and it runs all along the Mississippi right down to the Wisconsin Illinois border in the southwest corner of the state.

And then it makes little juts out.

The furthest it juts over, there's a little tail that goes over.

It was gerrymandered years ago into Stevens Point.

And then it goes back into the Western part of the state.

So that's kind of the rough geographical area of the state.

I grew up in the, in the Third Congressional District in Richland Center, still spend a lot of time back there.

My sister, as aforementioned, lives in Eau Claire, one of the largest city in the Third Congressional District.

So that's a, that's a cool area as well.

And so I know it pretty well.

I ran twice for state assembly in the Third Congressional District and lost twice.

And I've worn, I've run assembly races and state Senate races and won those for other people.

And then ran in 2004, helped run my former boss, Dale Schultz's run for third congressional, third district congressman in the third district as well.

So I have a little experience of this.

Rebecca Cook has run twice for this seat and has pointed out in this story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today, last time around.

In November did pretty well lost by about 2.7 percentage points and She actually did better and this is a kudos to her She did better in the third congressional district than either Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket or Tammy Baldwin United States Senator Tammy Baldwin who of course one reelection across the state, but she actually lost

Tammy did, the third congressional district.

So here in this story, it says Cook gained about 9,000 more raw vote to the district than former vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who lost in the third to Trump by 7.4 percentage points.

And Cook got about 5,000 more votes than Tammy Baldwin, who lost the region to Eric Hovde by four, although she won statewide.

So I think that I think she's a good candidate in in some ways if you just look at the raw numbers I find it interesting that we're already what we're three months into 2025 here.

The election isn't until 2026 I understand that you want to get out there what I think part of this is about having run congressional campaigns is she's trying to scare away other Democrats

So to get rid of the competition and the primary, because of course, last time around, she had a very competitive, contentious primary with state representative Katrina Shanklin, who was endorsed by Second District Democratic Congressman Mark Pockean, who is a great guy.

I think he does a great job.

I think part of the part of the challenge here is it was very contentious primary.

Shanklin kind of thought she had it in the bag.

She didn't cook, ran a great primary beater.

Well, then the Democrats were divided and never really healed after that.

And then we get into the general with this guy, Derek Van Orden, who has no, in my opinion, been this being a nine states congressman and cook kind of ran this milk toast campaign.

I want to be liked by everybody, but not really stand for anything kind of campaign, which was weird to me.

to use the Tim Walls word.

We tried to get cook on this, not just this program, but on this network.

And she had, you know, remember back in grade school, uh, with a stranger danger and you had patch the pony and patch the pony said, nay, nay, from strangers, stay away.

Remember, did you have that growing up?

Uh, stranger danger.

Yes.

Patch the pony.

No.

That's how.

Let me know if you remember, if you remember, patch the pony because they used to teach us.

Nay, nay from strangers.

Stay away.

And that's kind of how Rebecca Cook was with civic media.

Nay, nay from civic media.

Because she didn't want to be labeled as as I guess to left, which I don't think I've left.

But but for whatever reason, she said, I don't want to do civic media.

And that's fine.

That's fine.

People have a right to do that.

But I think that she made a mistake in being insular.

And this is the concern I hear from Democrats at the grassroots level.

county Democrats in the third district that that Rebecca Cook doesn't really consult her or make, you know, deep relationships with local party officials that much.

And it might be nice if she kind of included them rather than running kind of this, you know, campaign from wherever she's running it from.

And also, and that's great, you know, she's she's a waitress.

That's fantastic.

But I've run, as I said, campaigns in third congressional district.

You can't keep running three times in a row for Congress on a waitress's salary or a server's salary.

Yeah,

that's, that's rough.

So, so I mean, either A, her family has money to help her, and that's great.

Just say it.

Or, or she's taking, you know, a lot of outside money, which again, fine, just say it.

So.

A, I feel like there are probably other people.

You got State Senator Brad Paff in La Crosse.

I don't know that he's gonna make another run at it, but he's not ruling it out.

But I think there are other people out there who are leaders in the Third Congressional District who may take a look at this.

So I would just say, welcome Rebecca Cook.

Thanks for taking another run at this.

There needs to be somebody out there calling Derek Van Orden to task.

But I think that there may be other people that emerge.

So we'll see.

Let's talk about Derek Van Orton for a second.

This

guy

lists a guy who, of course, tried to get a loaded gun as Jane.

I forgot it was loaded.

Jane reminded me this morning.

Tried to get a loaded gun on a plane in in Iowa.

He verbally assaulted a teenage girl at a library in his adopted hometown of prayer to Sheen.

And then he verbally assaulted teenage pages at the US Capitol after having a few too many beers.

It's important to remember that he does not deny any of these things.

He was also at the U.S.

Capitol on January 6th, yucking it up with the insurrectionists.

More importantly, in my opinion, he supports Donald Trump pardoning January 6th insurrectionists who assaulted law enforcement officers.

So whoever the Democrats nominate, I will support that person.

But I think it's important for Democrats, in my opinion, being independent, focus on the issues that matter to people in the Third Congressional District.

We heard this from people at Altoona that showed up at the Birdie event this weekend, paying the bills, keeping the lights on.

Do I buy eyeglasses for myself or my kids?

Get veterans to come out and support the Democratic candidate and have veterans call out Derek Van Orton.

for supporting Trump's pardon of insurrectionists who attacked police officers.

Back with more after this is the Tahla Ball Show right here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Where ever it may lead and yes having fun doing it welcome back to the town of all show on the civic media ready Network glad to have you along 21 past the hour of 12 noon on Tuesday March 11th Good old Luke Mathers gonna be here at the bottom of the hour Tuesday tangents Luke Then what's worse at the top hour to follow by a little interview not a little a great interview Hopefully if I do my part, right?

with former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes could be here talking about the impact of Doge cuts on Wisconsinites and how it affects services here in Wisconsin.

Right now, I'm talking about Rebecca Cook announcing a third run for Congress or the third congressional district for the Democratic Party on the western side of Wisconsin.

Before we get back to that, as Matt Flynn likes to say, all color as well, what does he say?

All opinions, what is it?

All colors welcome all opinions taken or something like that

or no topic is off limits.

That's right.

No topic is off limits.

No top.

I love that.

So, you know, look, we read the good, the bad, the ugly.

Here's Christine from slinger from WAUK.

We always appreciate that.

Todd, she says, quote, none of this is funny, Todd.

You would serve us better if you took this nightmare seriously.

good show but kind of naive about the horror story going on, unquote.

Look, I appreciate the comment, Christine.

That's why we say, that's why the moniker of the show is pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Because I just feel, maybe I'm wrong about this, I feel based on what people tell me as I travel around the state, they say Todd,

I can't tune in every day and just hear that the world's coming to an end because it depresses me and there's nothing I can do about it.

So that's why we're trying to bring some news, but we also try to lighten it up a little bit and give folks a break.

I just think it's good mental health.

I mean, we spent the better part of last summer and fall trying to warn people, bringing them news information facts, using words like authoritarian dictator, trying to say that our democracy may not survive.

And there were people on both Republican and Democratic side who didn't go along with that and didn't believe it.

And that put us where we're at today politically.

So I appreciate the fact that you want to take it seriously.

And we do.

That's where we take the new, we're talking about this, what's happening in the third congressional district.

But if I could just doom and gloom all the time, I just don't think that's what people want to hear every day.

I don't know.

Am I wrong, Xamers?

Tell me if I'm wrong.

I don't think so.

And I think it makes it harder to get new people to want to listen and find out what's going on if it's only negative things.

Because I know before I started working here, I heard so much negative news.

I was like, that's it.

I'm just not reading it or listening to it.

And so I feel like hitting the balance is hard.

It is.

And I appreciate the comments, Christine.

And I appreciate you listening to us.

So.

I mean, the reality, I mean, if we want to be completely serious just for a second, the horror of it.

And we were talking about Rebecca Cook running for third district Congress in 2026.

We don't know for sure there's going to be elections in 2026.

If you want me to be blunt about it, I hope there are.

I think right now the anticipation is we probably will have that.

But we're not even two months into the Donald Trump term, 2.0.

I am not convinced that if polls show that Republicans will lose both houses of Congress, that Trump won't try to find a way to prevent that from happening.

And people say, oh, Todd, Congress will never let that happen.

We have the courts that will stop that.

Really?

Really?

We're not even two months into it.

How has that worked out so far?

Tell me the number of Democrat, pardon me, the number of Republicans

who have stood up to Trump and said, oh, no, we can't do that.

We'll sacrifice our political careers to stand up against that.

I have too many fingers for that number.

So anyway, I mean, but I don't want to come on the air and just talk like that every day because I think because I see hope in people all across Wisconsin.

I see hope in our communities.

I see hope in friends and neighbors helping each other out, regardless of political affiliation every day.

And so I think we have to bring those stories as well.

And yes, we have to have a little fun.

We have to, I mean, I just think it's good for our mental health, but I appreciate the call or the text.

855-752-4842-855-752-4842.

Mark and Perzac calling in.

Mark, if you can make it quick, let's say you my friend.

Yeah, I mean maybe somebody's Republican should start getting concerned that we actually do have elections then because what happens because The way they've got America armed these days that are any of these are any of us going to be safe go in any place that You know that it's What would the how violent could the outcome be if they said Trump says why I'm just going to cancel elections this time around And I don't put any guarantees that people are going to take that with just lying down

I mean, because

these good

Republicans need to start speaking out for democracy itself, for small-d democracy itself.

If they don't believe in that right now, they might as well just resign and go back home and live off their dividends and their millions of dollars that they're going to scrape out of the economy after Trump tries to, and must try to get rid of Social Security and Medicare itself, because apparently that's their dream mission right now.

Musk is calling it both but Ponzi schemes now.

Here a guy who was once his Canadian citizen gets gets canceled They should just say well since that guy canceled there must be something wrong with them So his American citizenship should be denied denied now and ship his ass back to South Africa

Yeah, we haven't even gotten to that by the way we haven't got Donald Trump this morning on his true social Gonna put another 25% in tariffs now on our friends up in Canada making it a 50% tariff on many goods

and says this is real, that the only way to prevent this is for Canada to become the 51st state.

Now, look, I get it, it's not real, but it is the sitting president of the United States, tantamount to declaring war on Canada.

Because if you say the only way to avoid this is to become the 51st state, that means that you allow us to take you over.

And if you don't do it, my diplomacy, we're going to send out the Marines to attack Quebec.

I mean, that's and in Chippewa Falls says, go Rebecca Cook.

We love her.

And Democrats did vote against an authoritarian.

Republicans are to blame.

I hate to say it, but it's the truth.

And with all due respect, you're by and large correct.

But there is a significant number of progressive Democrats who sat the election out.

Partly over Palestine, partly over Gaza.

It's the lesser of two evils.

I just can't bring myself in good conscience to vote for Kamala Harris.

Trump won't be that bad.

So you're right.

I mean, but it was people on both sides of the political spectrum that either voted for Trump or voted for someone else or sat it out that got us to where we're at today.

Luke Mathers on the other side has taught all of us to show unsympathetic media.

on the Civic Media Radio Network, 34 minutes now, past the hour of 12 noon.

On a Tuesday, March 11th, Zomras on the board were joined on a Tuesday.

Once again, if it's Tuesday, it's Luke Mathers.

You know him.

You love him.

The Lukester.

How are you, Luke?

I'm doing well, Todd.

How are you doing?

The sun's out.

The sun is out.

And it's warm as yesterday.

We're not gonna set any records across the state of Wisconsin today, but it's a nice spring day.

I took a two-hour walk last night.

Yeah, my hips are a little sore.

You could say you don't have time for a dog.

Come on.

You could have had a little furry friend who would join you for this.

Mental

health is what

it was.

But it was good.

It was good.

We explored a new Madison City Park yesterday.

Did you really?

Yeah.

It was still a little soggy because, you know, still some of the snow mountain stuff.

So we had to be careful with the muddy paws.

Are you and your wife, are you the kind, all right, when you answer the question, are you folks, the kind of folks that put little dog booties

on it?

No, no, no,

no.

Well, if it's if it's really bad in the winter, yes, we have a pair.

We didn't need them.

It was such a mild winter this past year.

So, Aurora does not have a pair, but Remy does have.

He hates them, but he has a pair.

It's important when there's a lot of salt and ice and all that stuff,

but.

Lots to get to today.

A couple of phone callers, we'll get to them in in just a minute.

But first, and this is fantastic because number one, I just, the wonderful James Kelly, our news bureau chief up there in northwestern Wisconsin.

and in Chippewa Falls in Eau Claire, was listening to the first part of the show.

Wish it turns out one of the few people in Civic Media who actually listens to the show.

No, but I've gotten to know James a little bit.

He's joined us on some live broadcasts.

Nobody does his homework better.

Nobody is better at just talking off the cuff and putting up with me than James Kelly.

I appreciate his support.

And so here now, we're talking about the third district race in coming up.

And a year and a half, Rebecca Cook announced that she's taking a third shot at this today at her own James Kelly.

And you can view this story on civicmedia.us and simply go to a headline, Cook Shares Campaign Focus in Chippewa Falls Announcement.

So here, James Kelly was on the ground and brings us some of these, some of the quotes.

from Rebecca Cook this morning.

And here's what she said, quote, Rebecca Cook, I think we'll certainly be a lot more aggressive.

I think we're going to hold his administration's worst instincts accountable.

And Derek Van Orton has proven that he's really locked up with what this administration is attempting to do.

And that's going to be hurting our veterans.

That's going to be hurting our seniors, that type of cuts that they're proposing.

Unquote well number one fantastic James Kelly was on the ground to bring us that and number two This is exactly Luke when I was talking about in segment number one where I had hoped that cook and whichever other Democrats decided to get into this race talk about I think these are the right kind of issues

Yeah, it'll be very interesting.

It's I mean I'm kind of trying to today just like come to terms with the fact that I I

do not like the fact that we are constantly in a political cycle.

We have a spring election coming up three weeks from today.

That is something that pretty much started immediately after last November's race.

perpetual election cycle here in Wisconsin.

And I don't know, maybe it was the optimist in me that was hopeful we would wait a little bit on the 2026 conversations.

But here we are March, March 11th, Tuesday, March 11th.

And we're already going to be discussing 2026.

It kind of reminds me of when Tom Nelson up in out of gaming County announced before the 2020 election was even.

held that he was going to be running against Ron Johnson, running in the Democratic primary for the 2022 U.S.

Senate seat.

And it's just here in Wisconsin, we've got some perpetual campaign cycles.

And I think part of this doesn't matter which side or what party or what major party you're talking about.

This is a political tactic and it's a smart one by Cook and her team.

You try to announce early, thereby discouraging other people from getting in the primary so that you can be a standalone person and not have to spend your money in a primary.

I just think it's too early for that in terms of to say that well cook's gonna be the the person

I

think there are other talented people that live in the third district whether from agriculture Education or business that might want to take a shot at this so I admire cook for being out there and calling Van Orden to task But I would just you mean I'm you're closer to the Democratic Party than I am but I

I think maybe...

I don't know about right now.

Keep their powder

dry because I have a sense for maybe other people.

Yeah, I'm definitely a fan of primaries.

So I hope that it's not the case that there's kind of just a everybody coalescing around Rebecca.

I think it'll be interesting to keep an eye on Cook's campaign for 2026.

But I'm a big fan of primaries.

I think that voters should have a say in who represents them.

And I think that that comes in both the form of a...

partisan primary, um, as well as a general election.

And so, uh, it'll be interesting to see the, the messaging that Cook takes to, uh, Derek Van Orden, Congressman Van Orden over the next, what do we got here?

Like, I don't know, 20, 20 months, 19 months.

Uh, so it's, it's going to be some time.

I do think it will play an interesting role though.

We've already seen Derek Van Orden put out a press release earlier today because Senator Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came to his district over the weekend was in Altoona and had a pretty jam-packed 2000 people.

Yeah, that's a good turnout for a Saturday in March because again folks

Yes, we do have an election coming up in April, and if you haven't already made a plan to be a voter, please do so.

You got three weeks, early in-person voting starts a week from today.

So you can make a plan, head over to myvote.wi.gov to do that.

But like 2,000 people in Altoona, Derek Van Orden's not holding any town halls or anything.

He's kind of taken the national party chair, excuse me, for the Republicans was giving the advice of stop holding town halls.

for Bernie Sanders to pack 2,000 people in a room.

And then today, DVO saying that, hey, I sent a strongly worded message to Elon Musk saying, please make sure that any of these cuts that we're doing to the federal government don't affect our veterans or farmers.

I think kind of has a pretty.

tangible response to somebody like Senator Sanders showing up in his district.

And so it'll be interesting to see if Cook can apply that similar pressure to Derek Van Orden and make sure that individuals, at least in the third congressional district here in Wisconsin, kind of have some input and say on what's happening with their elected officials at the federal government.

We'll talk more about that April 1st election, which is coming, of course, much closer than 2026.

So three weeks or so and lots of importance there.

But first, let's go quickly to the phone lines.

752-4842.

Good old Jack from Merrimack.

Always a pleasure, Jack.

What have you got for us today?

Well, first of all, you guys are right about one thing.

There are a lot of people that are just getting exhausted with this perpetual election cycle, and that's really, you know, it continues to be very dangerous for our democracy.

My wife is one of those people.

Now, she votes every time, but

She is definitely getting tired of this.

And I think a lot of people are.

I think that is, to some extent, partially the tactic of the Republicans just exhaust people.

It's what they're doing at the national level, just throwing, basically throwing anything against the wall.

And if whatever sticks, it gets people concentrating on it.

Hopefully they know that the whole purpose of this their hope is that they're going to ignore the giveaway of trillions and trillions of dollars to billionaires already Yeah, anyway, whatever.

I don't know if you've got more time, but my comment make it quick.

Please go ahead Okay, my comment then is this Van Orton's district is unfortunately one of the still left over gerrymandered districts.

We never did redistrict

our house seats, and that's really too bad.

If our representation were proportional to the vote, Wisconsin would basically have four Republicans and four Democrats, and the majority of, and this is what's really disturbing to me, the majority in the House would be one vote for the Republicans in that case.

I agree, Jack, but remember that the third district was gerrymandered for Ron Kind.

that was gerrymandered to be a democratic district.

That's why it swings over and catches Stephen's point.

Decade and a half ago, though.

Let's talk about if we had an actual fair.

But it was gerrymandered for to lean democratic.

A deal was made with, I've literally seen this happen with Paul Ryan, when he called up John Sharpless, who wanted the second congressional, he was Republican.

They make this deal to protect the

incumbent.

And that's the terrible aspect of how redistricting went done by elected officials.

we should have some nonpartisan and reform to gerrymandering.

We should have the Iowa model or something close to it.

Something similar to it, I think would be beneficial.

And maybe we would see a 50-50 congressional delegation from Wisconsin, or at least closer to, not 75, 25, which we currently have if we had some fair maps.

855-752-4842.

Let's go quickly to Wausau, WXCO, the home of Chad Holmes show every morning from eight until 10 locally.

Dale, thanks for calling in.

What do you have for us?

Yeah, I have something to say on a terrace.

I think the ultimate objective of terrace is to alienate as many of our NATO allies as possible to leave us by ourselves weakened and vulnerable to our authoritarian impulses in our own government and authoritarian governments in the world disguised as retribution and protecting ourselves from supposed

on fairness from our NATO ally countries.

I think we will see tariffs imposed on additional NATO allies.

I think also that the tariffs are also being used to weaken our NATO allies.

And there's one other thing I want to mention about Greenland.

There is something strategically and geographically important to the Trump administration for this push.

to buy or make Greenland part of the United States.

And something is going on there with Greenland.

Appreciate it, Dale.

Thank you so very much, Luke.

We'll get to that in a second.

First of all, I want to go quickly to Los Angles, California.

L.A., Tom, L.A., what have you got for us?

Yeah, the problem with elections, honestly, is one, Wisconsin has way, way too much power when it comes to, along with the other electoral states.

have way too much power when it comes to electing a president.

And second, money in politics is the evil of all of us.

Thank you very much, Citizens United and the Conservative Supreme Court.

Because of you, we have a perpetual, not only just election system, but we have perpetual commercials that are on the television.

constantly where that's where people get exhausted and that's where people become apathetic and that's the reason they run commercials.

They are running commercials because they want you to show up for that their candidate.

They're running them so it tires people out.

Like the gentleman that called before Jack who called before about his wife even.

People are sick of the commercials.

People are sick of the lies in the commercials.

That's what I think the problem is.

I don't think so much that the elections are happening.

I think it's so much that there's so much campaigning through commercials and all the money and dark money that goes on in our country is absolutely what is destroying the United States of America.

Thank you, L.A.

Tom.

Thank you so very much, Luke.

Lots of problems.

And people say, when I'm on the street, when I'm walking the dog, which is I because I don't have a dog, but I'm out and about.

They say, they say, Todd, Todd, what can I do about it?

Luke, there's something people can do about it because we got an election coming up on April 1st and we're going to be highlighting that this week.

Yeah, we're going to encourage everybody to be a voter.

Our friends over at Up North News are going to be putting on their first live event.

You're going to be participating in it.

They had they had a one one final spot to fill and they couldn't find anybody else.

So quite low says, can you join us?

So I said, sure, I'm the last man in the boat

to use

a crew term.

Sure.

OK.

Yeah.

But it's going to be here in Madison at the Orpher or Overture, excuse me, not the Orpheum at the Overture Center.

Oh,

wait, wait, I got the email from quite a little bit.

or

field.

of the excellent panels, including the one that is going to be moderated by you, Todd.

It should be fun.

I'm looking forward to it.

Lots of people going to be there.

And I'm looking forward to it.

I appreciate Civic Media taking time for this.

One of the many reasons I enjoy working here is that you allow opportunity for, we call them long form discussions.

This is not snippets.

These are opportunities for people to really get ideas out there, have a good conversation.

So that's what I'm looking forward to

about Wednesday.

Real news, great conversation.

That should be a slogan.

Wait, it is.

Wait, it is.

So yeah, it's going to be an excellent event.

So if you haven't yet registered, head over to the Up North News website.

Also, we've got the opportunity to listen to it here on the Civic Media Radio Network, 5 to 7 p.m.

tomorrow, Wednesday, March 12th.

Come on back for Tuesday Tensions with Luke, talking a little sports, find out what's grinding his gears, and more is the all-ball show for a Tuesday on the Civic Media.

Ready to work.

Pack

your bags, suntan lotion and handball glove ready.

We're gonna play some baseball.

Wait.

I'm not on the itinerary.

It turns out.

Welcome back to the title of all show at the Civic Media Ready Network nine before the hour of one o'clock coming up an hour.

Number two, a little what's worse for you bumper stickers or screamy, not creamy, but screamy social media posts.

We'll talk about that in our number two.

And also very excited former Lieutenant Governor Nelson Mandela Barnes.

I knew I was going to do that.

I was hoping

the other Mandela.

My sister

warned me that I would say this.

Because here's the thing, I was watching, do you know who Jiminy Glick is?

The Martin

Short character.

For those that don't know, Martin Short is a character where he puts on a big fat suit and stuff and he acts like a stereotypical over-the-top host who doesn't know anything and is very condescending.

And so I was watching a bunch of this last night.

I told my sister, would it be funny if I open up the interview today as Jiminy Glick?

And I said, so Mandela, you spend a lot of time in prison.

Are you claustrophobic?

Because don't even pretend because you're going to

do that.

I think your sister might have been right.

Yeah, she is.

My sister is always right.

And so here I messed it up.

So I'll be on my best behavior in a half an hour with Lieutenant, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.

He is doing a great project right now speaking to Wisconsin folks who have lost their job due to the musk.

Trump doji doggie cuts and what impact that has not only on people in Wisconsin, but the services.

So I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, it'll be an excellent conversation.

And Mandela and Dan Schaefer over the recombobulation area that put this together.

And it's a I think very important coverage to be telling those stories.

Yeah, it really is.

And kudos to you and to them for putting this together and the opportunity to talk to Mandela Barnes at the bottom of the hour.

Right now, the reason why I opened up this segment with all this travel talk.

You're going to spring training.

I'm going to head out to spring training.

Yeah.

I'm going to catch some spring training games this weekend.

Looking forward to it.

The cactus league as it's called and should be a good time.

And really, you're going to, you're never been there before.

I have not.

I have not.

I fortunately did not have to wait as long as our friend, Mr. Crite low.

Did not have to wait until I was 16 and then sneak away there, but it'll be a good time.

I'm going with my brothers and my dad.

So little, little boys trip out to the desert to watch some baseball.

I'm so happy for you.

I think it'll be a great time because I've heard it's just a different vibe there you get to Physically be and sometimes the players interact a little bit more with the fans because you know these games quote-unquote don't count in terms of the postseason

It matters to the players getting these reps in you're playing against other big leaguers like it's important But it's it's kind of the vibe of whose line is it anywhere?

Anyways where the the points are made up and they don't really matter so

The record doesn't go to anything at the end.

One of the big brewers has a big birthday coming up.

Yeah, Jackson, Jackson Churio.

Finally of age today.

21.

21 years old who is buying Jackson sure you'll be here.

I'm curious to know who in the clubhouse might have got him because I'm sure he's never

had a drink

before No, no, no, no with all the maybe Last year when they won the one the division

they gave him that baby carriage or whatever like non-alcoholic

sparkling lighter No, it might have been just I think it was Coors NA.

I forget what it was cuz I don't does Miller do I don't know if Miller

Does an NA I know that course absolutely does and I think it might have been a non-alcoholic Coors the Bank

would be Every time I think of you can now all I can think about is Norm MacDonald doing Bob Euker

One way to commemorate the icon sure They're up there cracking jokes with each other.

I'm sure I'm sure

of course.

Oh, this is great the Brewers

A lot of people are, some people are getting very excited.

Christian Yelich had his first home run here a couple of days

ago.

It's a care of business yesterday against Seattle.

So they were playing Seattle in spring training yesterday afternoon.

And so they had a good showing there.

It's going to be interesting to see how the offense can keep up with the pitching.

So we've got obviously a lot of new faces this year.

It's going to be, again, a relatively younger roster compared to the rest of the league.

And so I'm really hoping we can see some production.

Garrett Mitchell.

He's looking good.

He's getting back into, hopefully, 100% health as well.

So seeing some of those players trending in the right direction, they're already dealing with some injuries, though.

We've got a pitcher.

His name is escaping me right at this moment.

It's already going to be sidelines.

I

can't say it either.

JB, I want to say, but I can't think of his last

name.

Against the Brewer's

for

several years and now he is a Brewer so that's fantastic.

So hopefully he'll get healthy We still wait and see Brandon Woodruff is gonna be starting to pitch against some of the miners this week So it'll be hopefully him get not like young players, but like the minor minor affiliates and everything at the Cactus Lee Yeah, yeah, what we've taken on a 14 year old batter Yeah, just sort of a 95 mile an hour fastball just right past a 12 year old.

No Come on, you know what?

All right, let's talk quickly because we could talk about the Badgers debacle over the weekend.

They're in the Big Ten tournament.

They play on Thursday against the winner of the Minnesota Evil Golden Gophers and the Northwestern has been.

So they'll play that.

And if they win there, they'll probably play Michigan State.

I'm hoping they match up against Northwestern, though, because Minnesota almost gives them trouble.

Minnesota is coming off the

season a lot like Penn State.

Oh, my God.

Let's give a quick shout out to Wisconsin Lutheran College, our own Jimmy Cusco was calling game of the weekend.

My alma mater, the Platteville pioneers, Greg, our brother, Jeff, as the head coach down there, been doing a great job.

And they were in the second round of 32 on the old Bull Ryan court in Platteville and by golly, Wisconsin Lutheran College of Southeast Wisconsin went in and beat the pioneers in overtime.

Yeah, I heard I heard it was an impressive call.

So our buddy Jimmy Cosco doing an excellent work on it.

But good for them.

It's that time of year.

It's it's the the matchups.

It is it is called the madness of this month for a reason.

And it's pretty exciting.

I'm hoping the Badgers can kind of reverse some of the trends that they've been having and past the luck to Marquette, too.

They got the big East going on.

Marquette also a team on the decline end of the season

and

a big shout out to Wisconsin Badger women's hockey.

Another championship.

What are the

WCHA, the number one seed for Coach Mark Johnson, the Badgers.

Wow.

It's going to hopefully continue to win.

All they do is just keep winning those Lady Badgers.

Thank you, Luke Sir.

Have a great time in Arizona.

Come back.

See you later.

You come back in the second hour.

What's worse is next on the All-Ball Show and Civic Media.

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 on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault.

Long fantastic.

Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board, our producer and engineer.

It is six past the hour of one o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two with a big program.

Glad to have you along on a sunshiney Tuesday.

Fantastic day at the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison.

Mr. Zommers, this is a beautiful day.

I love spring days like this.

It's pretty sunny out there.

Yes.

And yeah.

It's as long as you got your sunglasses.

Yes.

Got to have the old sunglasses on.

It's Tuesday, March 11th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Big second hour coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes will be here to this.

And this is a great project.

And if you if you want to learn more, we'll talk about this at the bottom of the hour.

You can go to civicmedia.us.

You can also go to the RecombobulationArea.com, our friend and colleague now, Civic Media's political editor, Dan Schaefer, has been helping this project.

He joins the former Lieutenant Governor, Barnes, on this new podcast.

And the title is Pawn in a Billionaire's Game.

A federal worker shares her story.

And this is the story of Katya Wanich and the Lieutenant Governor and

the former lieutenant governor and Dan Schaefer sat down with her.

And so Mandela Barnes will be here at the bottom of the hour to talk about this.

And this is great because here's a guy like the former lieutenant governor who spent four years in the governor's office, traveled the state, ran for U.S.

Senate, traveled the state, has talked to a lot of Wisconsinites, and now is helping us understand what goes on at the federal level.

and how this directly impacts Wisconsinites, so this'll be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I got to listen to the conversation, because I recorded it.

And it's kind of exactly what you expect in that, wow, this is hurting, exactly what you and I expect

anyway.

Wow, this

is hurting everyday Wisconsinites for no real discernible reason.

Yeah, and I think it's important when, pardon me.

Well, we can put it in local context like this.

So we're looking forward to our conversation with the former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin Mandela Barnes at the bottom of the hour also gonna have what's worse coming up here as well This is this is interesting interesting one with bumper stickers and social media.

So talk about by the way Many thanks to Luke Mathers.

Here's a guy who has like a million different responsibilities And he has the kindness to stop by our little dog and pony show

So that's great.

And he's getting ready to go to spring training on top of it.

So we always appreciate Luke's top of buy on a Tuesday and chatting with us.

Want to talk about a couple of national issues going on today.

Stock market continues to fall.

And this ain't fun for folks like me and a lot of others who might have a 401k and people get very understandably so nervous when they see the stock market.

going down, down, down.

And people say, well, what about my 401k?

Again, I cannot give you financial advice.

I'm not a financial person.

I know people that are.

And most folks will tell you, you got to let it ride.

You don't,

you know,

don't, don't be pulling out your 401k.

And, you know, I mean, unless I guess, again, I'm not giving financial advice out, but if you're going to retire the next few months, maybe,

but dad was planning on retiring later this year, but.

Given all this,

we'll see.

But this is scary stuff to a lot of people.

And part of what's causing this, the big story, this is courtesy of CBS News, President Trump said he will impose even higher tariffs on Canada beginning on Wednesday.

That's tomorrow.

Doubling, doubling the levy on steel and aluminum imports to 50 percent, five zero.

Trump's the decision came in response to Ontario's move to impose a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the US.

Mr. Trump has already imposed 25% tariff on nearly all imports from Canada and declared a 25% tariff on all steel aluminum imports from any foreign country.

Here's what and normally I don't read the entire Trump.

social media posts.

This is on his personal social media platform called truth social.

Lots of there's a lot to that title.

Anyway, here's what Trump truth out tweeted out today, quote, based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% tariff on quote unquote electricity.

Not sure why I put quotes around that.

Coming into the United States, I have introduced, instructed rather, my secretary of commerce to add an additional 25% tariff to 50% on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States from Canada, one of the highest trafficking nations, tariffing nations anywhere in the world on quote, instead of they go into effect tomorrow.

Stocks continue to tumble again.

amid uncertainty over the president's tariff regime and fears that the U.S.

economy could slip into a recession.

And by the way, he was on Fox News yesterday and did not deny that.

Evelyn asked by the host was given an opportunity to say, no, no, no, I don't think that's where we're going.

He wouldn't rule it out.

Trump would not rule out going into recession.

The president, according to CBS News, the president also today reiterated his desire for Canada to become the 51st state of the United States, a proposal Canada opposes, suggesting the Northern neighbor won't face tariff pressure if they acquiesce.

That's the line written by CBS, which I have a lot of respect for.

But that is, in my opinion, that is a placating sentence to write in a news story.

Because it's bizarre.

Here's what Trump actually said, quote, the only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished 51st state.

This would make all tariffs and everything else totally disappear.

Canadian taxes will be very substantially reduced.

They will be more secure militarily and otherwise than ever before there would no longer be a northern border problem And the greatest most powerful nation in the world will be bigger better and stronger than ever and Canada will be a big part of that unquote This is all a direct quote today from the president of the United States I mean if any other president before Trump had said this

The head the line I'll bring this again from CBS quote The president also reiterated his desire for Canada to become the United States 51st state a proposal Canadians oppose Suggesting the northern neighbor won't face tariff pressure if they acquiesce I'm sorry.

That's just Terrible news writing by CBS Because of any other president before Trump

had put into words or said verbally, which Trump now has done, that the only way to avoid tariffs is for another country, an ally, to become the 51st state.

The headline would be, President of the United States is back crap crazy, and they wouldn't use the word crap.

Trump out of it for a second, take all of his craziness, all of his looniness, and put in the office of president of the United States.

It is the most powerful position for better or worse in the world, given our military, our economic strength, everything else.

For that individual, the holder of that office, to tell an ally,

The only way to avoid crippling tariffs is for us to overtake you.

That's tantamount to a declaration of war.

That should be taken deadly seriously.

And for Republicans not to be coming out and saying things like, hey, maybe the 25th Amendment is in order here.

It shows you how far we've slipped in less than two months.

Trump went on to talk about going after his car industry, crippling the car industry.

Think about all of your friends and neighbors have car dealerships.

Think how this affects them.

855-755-248-42, 855-755-248-42.

Let's go to the phone lines quickly.

CFW, the TAP, up on Eau Claire, Jean Eau Claire.

Quickly, if you could please, Jean, we'll see you.

Oh, okay.

This is a pattern of abusive behavior.

You can see this with people who abuse others.

And he's been enabled by the Republicans.

I mean, he's going after people left and right.

He hates

to people that he's going after and that includes all of us.

Pay attention.

There's never anything positive toward America.

It's hate and revenge.

Thank you very much and keep up the great work.

Bye.

Thank you, Gene.

I appreciate it.

And what's equally disturbing is, again, the Trump administration under the direction of Trump, cutting off to Gene's point, to cutting off intelligence cooperation, not now just with Ukraine.

But also with other US allies the five eyes To the point now where there are reports that our American allies in Europe Are considering icing the United States out of information for fear that will be passed along to Putin in Russia Never seen anything like it It's 17 past the hour of what o'clock we're gonna take a turn

Try to lighten things up for a moment.

Time once again for what's worse.

Time once again for what's worse.

Nothing to give away.

No prizes right now.

Although stay tuned soon.

Another text to win contest is down the road.

But right now a little fun before we bring on the Lieutenant, former Lieutenant Governor at the bottom of the hour.

Timely, timely indeed.

It's that time people washing their cars.

I mean lots of people wash their cars now when

when it gets nice out and people put bumper stickers on their cars in the election season and you have to make that decision.

Do you take the bumper sticker off or do you leave it on?

And so today is what's worse.

What's worse, bumper stickers or screamy social media posts.

Screamy.

So here's an example.

Are they screamy social media posts?

If you're a journalist whose boss insists you ignore stories that make Donald Trump look bad and you agree, you're not a journalist anymore.

You're a propagandist.

That's a screamy social media post.

What's worse, a bumper sticker or a screamy social media post?

855-752-4842 or text us on the app.

Come on back, we'll discuss.

It's the all ball show on Civic Media's radio network.

Having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media.

We're glad to have you along on a Tuesday, March 11th, 2025, Zomers on the board, eagerly awaiting your calls.

After the bottom of the hour news update, going to welcome former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, talking about a new project where he is interviewing folks who have lost their job in Wisconsin as a part of the Trump Musk Doge cuts and

Well, the impacts on Wisconsin looking forward to the conversation with former lieutenant governor Barnes at the bottom of the hour right now having a little fun ahead of that today is what's the worst question for you on the lighter side?

What's worse?

bumper stickers or Screamy social media posts and what we mean by this our social media posts you find where they call them memes right not Mimi's but me

I knew that when I was just having a little fun.

Memes, it could be a meme, it could be just a post where people are just kind of screaming at you with an opinion.

And you open up your, you're going through your Facebook or whatever, Twitter or threads or Blue Sky or whatever.

And you come across this thing and people are just screaming these opinions at you and you're like, oh geez, what's worse, that or you're driving around and there's a person in front of you

that has like 20 bumper stickers on the back of their truck.

Maybe it's somebody that you didn't vote for.

It might be bumper stickers with swear words on them and you got five-year-old kids in the car.

I mean, that's also annoying.

So what's worse, bumper stickers or screamy...

social media posts, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Christine and Slinger on WAUK says, screaming social media posts, but both are awful.

Yeah, right?

Neither one are great.

Zomers, do you have an opinion on this one?

I gotta say, so I think it's a little nuanced because...

So the screamy social media posts I think are worse though Ultimately, they're worse in that they are usually Formatted worse like at least a bumper sticker has been proofread by somebody right and for me grammatical errors and spelling errors and stuff annoy me and so when people have bad opinions and they can't write and Everybody has to look at it like that's just annoying

The thing that's good about Screamy social media posts is if they post an opinion that's super out there and people comment agreeing with it, you know who not to talk to anymore.

That's true as well.

Our own Casper on WMDX and Madison says Screamy social media posts are worse.

MT in The Grove, as in Monona Grove on WMDX says.

I can drive around the cars with stickers and I can shut off my devices.

Maybe I'll just move into a cave until those Republicans figure out what their, uh, sacks are and get that squatter impersonating the president out of office.

Well, uh, empty the grove.

Very, very, very direct today.

Uh, appreciate the listeners ship Dave, uh, into Berlin.

Oh, that's something else actually.

All right.

Very good.

Just try to think of this.

Anything else here on the, uh, on what's worse, let's go.

Paul says bumper stickers are worse.

Very good.

Wisco Paul saying bumper stickers are worse.

What's worse, bumper stickers are screamy.

In other words, very opinionated, annoying social media posts.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Now, occasionally, you don't see this as much anymore.

But occasionally, you'll see a bumper sticker that really makes you laugh.

And that's always a lot of fun.

But then like I said, then the ones that I think are just the ones that just have very vulgar swear words on them because especially if you got a kid or something in the car, I mean, they don't want to see that.

Nobody wants that.

And it's like, well, it's pre-country.

I can say what I want.

It's like, okay, but really.

8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Brian listening on WA UK Milwaukee Brian Thanks for calling in what's worse bumper stickers or screamy social media posts

Bumper stickers and the only reason I'm saying that is there was one time I was driving with my brother to a family event And he is LGBT and has a whole bunch of LGBT Supporting stickers on the back of his car like dude state dudes get over

it

And we stopped at a gas station with the family.

And when we came back to his vehicle, because I was riding with him, there was like 10 people outside of his vehicle taking photos of his bumper stickers.

Wow, really?

And it was like, oh, you guys are such a wonderful couple.

And, you know, we're really supportive of everything you stand for.

And I'm like, nope, he's my brother.

Oh, no, no, no, no need to be embarrassed about it.

We support you for who you are.

And Mike's like,

No, this is my car.

I'm his brother.

Thanks for

sharing that, Brian.

That was a good story.

That's a good reason to say those are worse.

Yeah.

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

Ollie up in the Northwoods.

Ollie is always a pleasure.

Bumper stickers or screamy social media posts.

What's worse?

I'm not sure exactly which to pick.

I don't use social media for the simple fact that it's always rude, and I prefer to get my news and fun facts for the day from civic media.

So I guess I'll have to go with rude bumper stickers.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

We appreciate you sticking with us.

I like to appreciate you laughing with us on occasion as well.

Read the word.

We appreciate that.

Thank you so very much.

Great to have that listenership up there and in Hayward and Amory up there in the north woods of Wisconsin.

What's worse, bumper stickers or screamy social media posts?

855-752-4842.

If I had to choose, it's kind of a tough one for me.

It is.

I guess I would say probably screamy social media posts because like one of our listeners or callers saying you can just go around me if it really offends you or whatever.

You could just go around that person if you don't want to look at their bumper sticker.

I'm always amused by bumper stickers that are offensive.

And then you look and see who's driving.

That is funny.

Right.

That's true.

It's like really that person put that on their truck or their car or whatever.

I just think the screaming social media posts because it just clogs up my.

Timeline or whatever it

makes it harder to see the stuff you're there for whether it's family updates or news or whatever

Yeah, exactly.

So I guess I would say the screaming social media posts are worse But I appreciate everybody played along that was fantastic and it will have more what's worse in our number two tomorrow tomorrow also we're gonna have Trig the Olsson on the show and our number one senior advisor in the Lincoln project and our number two Pat Crite low the special accommodations now, you know, he's a big deal

No, I thought he just didn't want to talk about being old with Tricky again.

Don't say that.

He's going to be, uh, Krightland's going to be here in hour two if Zomers didn't defend him.

Uh, and,

uh- Sorry, talk

about- Because we're, we got this deal tomorrow night on Civic Media, so that'll be fun.

Stay tuned next, after the news and weather update, we have former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, not going to want to miss it, live on the Civic Media, Ready

Network.

Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it welcome back the title of all show on the civic media ready network and it's 34 minutes now past the hour of 1 o'clock on Tuesday March 11th 2025 bombers on the board glad to have you along before we go to our next guest little breaking news across the wires according to CNBC at this hour Ukraine has agreed to a United States led ceasefire plan if

Russia accepts.

This is breaking now.

We'll continue to have more details on our updates at the top and bottom of each hour.

Keep it here at Civic Media as we continue to break this or follow this breaking news story.

Get the headline from CNBC at this hour.

Ukraine agrees to a U.S.-led ceasefire plan if Russia

Excepts we turn a page now and welcome our next guest to the program always fantastic to have him here on civic media He is Wisconsin's former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes who joins us now via stream yard lieutenant governor.

So happy to have you here.

Thanks for coming

Thanks so much for having me really excited to be here.

How you doing?

Well, I am well It's a beautiful sunny day in Wisconsin is it's always great to talk about Wisconsin and and you have a unique perspective and I appreciate you coming for those that

might not be familiar.

You've been on the show before as a part of this program called Democracy Defense Project, and it's a bipartisan group as one of my former bosses, former Republican Congressman Scott Kluge, along with yourself and former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair, Mike Tate, and as well as former Republican Attorney General J.B.

Van Hollen.

And so I think it's just important at the outset of this to note, because we hear so often, you know, while nobody's trying to find solutions.

And I think

You folks and you in particular are saying, hey, let's sit down in a bipartisan fashion.

We're not going to agree on everything, but let's find ways to move forward in democracy.

And I just want to say thank you publicly for being part of this and being a leader in this.

For sure.

Thank you.

And I think it's also better that we don't agree on everything because it drives the point home how important our democracy is.

And I think we're learning

every

day how.

more fragile it is and many of us even preached about.

In your time as Lieutenant Governor here with Governor Tony Evers, you were in a lot of meetings and dealt with people at the federal level as well.

People like yourself understand how critical federal partnership and support is to the programs in Wisconsin

i'm just curious did you in your wildest imagination in your days lieutenant governor think well there might be a time when the federal government just kind of gives wisconsin the middle finger it says we're not going to help you out

well so when i was lieutenant governor uh it was an interesting time uh it was somewhat like it is now but this time it's like it is everything has been just it's it's been

I can't even find the words, right?

What was going on eight years ago compared to now?

This is like level 10.

And so with what we were doing, especially as it related to clean energy, I would say that, you know, we assume very little help from the federal government.

When it came to infrastructure, we assumed very little help from the federal government.

We were promised infrastructure week for years.

It never happened.

And so a lot of it, we, you know, figured we were going to be going it alone and we took that risk.

We took the chance to still try to do what was best for the people of Wisconsin.

But now it's worse than not just being there to help out the state of Wisconsin.

It is more than just a middle finger to the people of Wisconsin.

It is an absolute and

deliberate destruction of the opportunities that have existed, the ones that we have worked so hard to create the many achievements of the Biden Harris administration.

And not just to say, oh, the Biden Harris administration did all this, they did do a lot, but even the work of the administration here in state, so much of that is being undone very intentionally, very deliberately, very willfully and forcefully.

And we're seeing very

real world, um, uh, very real world implications of that.

And it has not even been two months.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the remarkable part.

I mean, you know, we talked about last segment, I don't want to open up that bottle of wine right now.

But again, having to forget, let's forget Trump for a second, just the office of president of the United States, essentially declaring war on Canada, saying the only way you avoid tariffs is becoming the 51st state.

That's beyond aggression.

I mean, that's just it's preposterous But I want to get to what this project that you're working on and again, I think this is healthy for us as Wisconsinites not only to just acknowledge the dangers and and the darkness out there But I guess also and you you know this as as somebody who is one statewide office.

You got to give people hope

You gotta give people hope that there's people out there fighting, and you're one of those folks, along with our own Dan Schaefer, who's our own political editor here at Civic Media, has the founder of the Recobobulation area, and you can find...

this work at recombobulationarea.com, as well as civicmedia.us.

It's the recombobulationarea.news.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you, miss.

See, this is why, Lieutenant Gover, you've got to have a good producer like Zombers.

He keeps you on track.

Thank you, recombobulationarea.news.

This article entitled, Pawn in a Billionaire's Game, a Federal Worker Shares Her Story, the Story of Katnia Wanich.

Lieutenant Governor Barnes, tell us how you came to this project and why it's important to

you.

Well, I remember, you know, one of the most sensational stories I've seen surrounding folks getting fired up.

That's what got shared around so many times.

There was a person like the National Park Service talked about how he got his dream job and how this was all being taken away, not just from him, but for the people that visit the parks that he works at.

He talked about the services that his staff, his office, he is an individual provided to people and how without them it is going to be a completely different national park experience, if any at all.

And there aren't going to be people to do the level of enforcement, to do the level of maintenance that's necessary with maintaining a flourishing and thriving national park system.

And for a lot of people, it can be easy to hear federal worker and think, oh, that's a person, you know,

and Washington, DC, and, you know, oh, DC governments bloated and all this other stuff.

But we're talking about water quality.

We're talking about public health.

We're talking about veterans affairs.

We're talking about the delivery of health care and health services.

We're talking about very large operations that make the world go round.

And it can be easy.

if you have never driven a car to open it and say, oh, that part must be useless because I never have to put my foot on it.

Oh, I never have to put my hand on this piece.

Well, it must not mean anything for the function of this vehicle.

And that is exactly what's happening right now with the Elon Musk committee.

I refuse to give it any credence by calling it.

What do you like for us

to call it?

I call it the doggy.

But

anyway, the doggy, you know, I've tried it once, it didn't work for me.

But, um,

not gonna go there actually like and we don't want to give it that name right and so with um the point of uh you know all of this right like I wanted to be sure uh I mean I guess I should say that these stories touch on and then I saw a post from Katya we are friends right we

were part

of running her together um

but

honestly we hadn't probably we probably hadn't had more than a paragraph for the conversation at previous times

But I saw what she posted, and she's real passionate about the work that she was doing, that she was tasked with.

I was upset, you know, because she was working on issues that have been important to me for a long time.

So there was, you know, one, the person I knew, two, the issue she was taking on, and three, just the callousness and disrespect that she and so many others were treated with.

And I reached out to her even before I talked to anybody over here at Civic Media because I knew that this was something that need to be shared, something that need to be talked about.

And I was going to figure out one way or another to get her story out there because there are thousands of other people who

or in her shoes?

I think this is fantastic that you took time to tell this story because I think the way that we as Wisconsinites learn about what another and educate isn't so often on national news stories or what's in our social media feed, it's about listening to and discussing things with our friends and neighbors.

And here now, you bring a story of a Wisconsinite, Katia Wannish, who

as a federal worker, but what she does impacts so many Wisconsinites.

Let's take a listen if we can zombers.

This is just a cut from from this project by the Tenant Governor Mandela Barnes and our own Dan Schaefer talking to Kourtney Awanich.

What's the thing you want people to know?

Yeah, I guess I just want people to know like that this is impacting real people.

It's not just

random people working behind a computer.

These are real people with real lives that do real things to help the Americans and the people living in this country.

I guess one thing that keeps on really stinging to me.

So I worked a year and a half for Indian Health Services like I was telling you about earlier.

And then I switched to USDA for one month.

Well, I was there in that brief period of time.

And, you know, I was super excited.

I remember texting my sister on the first day of the job and saying,

I think this is my dream job.

I was a wetlands engineer there.

So working to restore wetlands primarily in southern Wisconsin.

And I was super excited about that position.

You know, I finally felt, you know, I had four years of schooling and, you know, started with a different public job in the federal government and finally transitioned into like my dream job.

And I was so excited about it.

And I guess I knew when I started, you know, I could start to sense that there was a little turmoil.

I was the last batch of hires to get brought on before they.

had the shut down on hiring.

And something that still stings me to this day, I guess, is had I stayed with Indian Health Services, I was not a probationary employee there anymore.

And I would have still been around.

But because I transferred to USDA, I started a new probation and I was let go.

Cotton Yawanish, one of the federal workers filed recently in the Elon Musk, Donald Trump cuts.

Lieutenant Governor...

Mandela Barnes, the host there, this program with her, our own Dan Schaefer.

I thought that was so powerful, Lieutenant Governor, to hear that in her own words.

You can hear the emotion in her voice, how dedicated she is to wetlands.

And I think, again, on its face, too often in politics, oh, wetlands, that's just a liberal issue.

Wait a minute, time out.

If you're a duck hunter, if you're somebody who enjoys that, if you're a fisherman, a fisher person,

wetlands are extraordinarily important, not to mention this little thing called drinking water.

So this is not a partisan issue.

Clean water and wetlands is critical to all Wisconsinites.

For sure.

And, you know, I would say there was, I'm trying to remember, this was either Tom, I think it was Tom Tiffany, actually.

He was talking about

getting rid of solar panel incentives because it is taken away from farmland one as if you can't.

farm any sort of crops or graze at all, where there are solar panels.