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.

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.

Two, he was actually in the state assembly when Scott Walker reduced wetlands protections.

And so it's just this level of disingenuousness.

And there is this level of just misunderstanding.

Again, I'll go back to the car analogy, right?

Like just if you live in a city, chances are yet you may not ever see a wetland or experience a wetland does not mean they don't

Function in our ecosystem does not mean that they don't contribute to our overall well-being and folks have to have a just a better understanding of how the world functions how society functions And as much as we focus on the economy it's important to also focus on the ecology because they are part and parcel

And again listening to cotton you want us to this in this great interview you did you

you start to understand the implications to all Wisconsinites on these arbitrary cuts being made in Washington right now by Musk and Trump, that this is going to affect us in Wisconsin in rippling effects.

And that's not being talked about right now by a lot of folks.

It's not being talked about and I want to get this talked about I want to make sure people are truly understanding what's at stake because There's so much noise right now and people are being overloaded with information.

Some people have you know, some very unfortunate

theories of the case.

I'll put it that way.

I would say, well, isn't there, you know, a lot of waste in government?

Sure, of course there's waste in government.

Do you know how high oil subsidies got last year?

Do you know how much the wealthiest people in this country have been able to skip out on band taxes, front it?

by middle class and working class individuals in this country.

There is certainly waste, there's certainly fraud, there's certainly abuse, but firing somebody who is part of Wetlands Protection, somebody who's part of our National Park Service, somebody who is part of the Social Security Administration, somebody who's a part of the Treasury, like all these departments that make us function and make us whole as a society,

That's not what's going to save the money.

That's not what's going to get it done.

And Donald Trump taking these $18 million golf trips.

That's so much a cost to keep him protected on a golf trip.

He's very serious about it.

He's dedicated to the cause of saving people money.

He certainly wouldn't be wasting it and committing fraud and abusing the system as he is.

Well, Governor, can you stay with us just about five more minutes?

For sure.

All right, sounds good.

Lieutenant Governor Mandelman Barnes is going to stay with us.

We'll continue to talk about this important issue, what federal cuts mean to Wisconsinites all across the state, and maybe we'll even ask him what's worse.

Stay with us at the Town Hall of All Show on the Civic Media Rating

Network.

Welcome back to the Tunnelball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

It is nine before the hour of two o'clock at the top of the hour, ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to all across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready Network, followed by a check of weather on this pleasant Tuesday, a check of sports by our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, talking about some trades happening in the Packerland.

Thought maybe we'd get Devontae Adams, but no, not so much.

Mike Clemens left his and then after that at two of them two until four Maggie Dawn and the Maggie Dawn show followed by Dom Selvia and the Dom Selvia show and Pete Schwabba and the Pete Schwabba.

No, it's not the peace fight.

It's nightlight.

Nightlight with Pete Schwabba from six until eight right now.

We are pleased to have Wisconsin's former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes with us.

He is talking about his new project here in conjunction with the rica population area and civic media's own Dan Schaefer talking.

two folks like Katnia Wannish on this latest podcast, which you can see or hear, pardon me, we'll both see it here, at civicmedia.us and the recapobulationarea.news.

Lieutenant Governor talking to Katnia Wannish, who had worked as a wetlands engineer at the National Resource Conservation Service.

And she had been with, was a Bureau of Indian Affairs prior to that and had

for lack of a better term to put it in Todd terms, tenure.

And then she says, no, I'm going to go help folks and do my job even, you know, to help a larger sense in the natural resources conservation service.

And because she'd been there less than a year, now the Musk Trump folks come in and say, and they're cutting with a chainsaw pun intended and not a scalpel.

And they say, forget about it, you're gone.

And now here's this dedicated worker for Wisconsin wetlands.

just arbitrarily gone and talk about again, specifically if you can, based on this interview, what effect is that going to have potentially on Wisconsin wetlands?

So I'll say you spoke to Medford twice, cut once.

And this is something that they have failed to do.

There's certainly no craftsmen over here at the Elon Musk committee.

And very little, if any effort at all,

seems to have gone into what the impacts of these cuts will be.

So there is not a person to manage wetlands.

Think about the environmental degradation that stands to be done.

And you mentioned water quality on the front end.

I generally think people are concerned with their quality of water, regardless what their political party is.

You also mentioned duck hunters.

We have to think about...

who is going to manage these types of systems because local governments are strapped for cash.

The amount of support from the federal government is absolutely going to decline.

So if there aren't people from the feds who are coming in, who can provide the necessary resources and support to keep our wetlands healthy and thriving, you got to imagine the catastrophic downstream, you know, no pun intended impacts of all this.

Talk a little bit about, you know, you've seen this again firsthand, spending four years as Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor overseeing all parts of the state, along with Tony Evers.

And we see this at Department of Natural Resources, working with USDA and our Wisconsin farmers.

Talk about just the impact, the partnership that Wisconsin does have with some of these agencies and the importance of maintaining that relationship.

So I'll say, you know,

Having the relationships between state agencies and federal agencies is what leads to thriving communities.

Now, it had been a long time.

Like I said, when we first got into office, we assumed very little help from the federal government.

We got very little help from the federal government.

Things changed once a new administration came in and understood the importance of government functioning.

properly.

And so if you have your Medicaid services at the state level that is getting ever change in information from the Department of Health Services at the federal level, then

This leaves a lot of people in limbo.

If we have our Department of Revenue and then you have the IRS and the IRS is understaffed and unable to properly coordinate with the Department of Revenue, then we're going to have trouble when it comes time to, you know, during during tax season.

So these are just a couple of different ways.

And look at other, you know, state administered, you know, services, whether it's the.

the VA at the federal level or Department of Veteran Affairs at the state level.

We don't have a coordinated impact.

Think about the number of our former service members that are going to see a decline in quality of life because they can't get the care that they deserve.

They can't get the psychiatric or psychological treatment that they need to be productive members of society.

Think about if they have to go without those meetings, without the type of service or even the proper medication, they are going

to see problems that I don't even wanna imagine or think

about.

Well, you're doing great work.

I hope everybody checks it out.

Reconpopulationarea.news or civicmedia.us.

It's entitled Pawn in a Billionaire's Game.

A federal worker shares her story, our own Dan Schaefer along with former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barton's talking with Katnil Wannish.

And you're going to be talking more folks like this.

I hope people follow it.

A quick little bit of fun here before we let you go, Lieutenant Governor.

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

I'm going to go with

Maybe the screen you post.

I agree with you.

I am because you can kind of go around the jerks that have the bad bumper stickers.

But yeah, but the post getting your feed and it's like, I don't need to see

the post getting your feed and sometimes it's somebody, you know, in respect.

And then it's all.

Yes.

Yes.

Exactly.

Right.

Now here, this is on the ground news coverage from Claire.

My sister lives in Eau Claire there.

She and her brother, my brother in law and family were very excited last year during the marathon in Eau Claire.

When you ran by their house and she had to, she said the lieutenant governor ran by my house.

And so how?

Are you still running?

Oh,

for sure.

Look at that.

He gets it done.

Here's yours.

You are a part of what makes Wisconsin great Mandela Barnes.

We appreciate you stopping by.

Keep up the good work.

You're welcome here anytime.

Hey, thanks a lot.

I appreciate you.

We appreciate you, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.

Thanks to him.

Thanks to Luke Mathers and Aaron Zomers on the board and all of you for listening and calling in.

Stay tuned.

Make it on his next title.

I'll say whatever you're fighting for, whatever you believe in, do not give up.

Keep banging your drum.

We'll see you tomorrow on the Civic Media Ready

Network.