The Tremendous Highs and Lows of Nicolas Cage (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 Tom Allbaugh, a lot of our producer and engineer, the fantastic Mr. Zommer is on the board.

It is six past the hour of two o'clock on this beautiful Wednesday afternoon, the 30th of April, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite, and

it is pump

day.

There you go.

The camel has made it to midweek from the civic media world headquarters in downtown Madison, Wisconsin on State Street.

Overcast skies right now.

Same.

Maybe some weather coming in later tonight and tomorrow for parts of Wisconsin.

Some some rain.

That's all right.

We'll take some spring rain and then.

And then get your suntan lotion out if you're on a lake with soda pond tune boat, because it's going to be a beautiful weekend.

And then 70 degrees and sun all next week, laying out there and enjoying it in every afternoon, getting rid of his pasty white thighs, turning into a well tan man.

The one, the only, the host of mornings with Pat Crichtlow, Mr. Pat Crichtlow.

I

don't

think

I've been pasty.

in my life.

Oh, every Wisconsinite is pasty this time of year.

My wife jokes that this time of year, you know, when the snow hasn't quite melted, I will open up the garage door to clean out the garage

for the

winter and I will have a perfect hand.

by the end of the day.

I just

really tan that

quick.

I do.

The melanoma pack.

No, so far so good.

Melanoma.

What's the what's the stuff that melanin.

That's melanin.

We don't want to have melanoma for God's sake.

No, no, no, no.

You know,

I'm part George Hamilton.

What can I say?

That made my day.

We're

skewing old right off

the top.

I love it.

Speaking of old, our old friend, uh, Trigvie Olson.

Now he promised us now at the time change, you would join us today on Wednesdays again.

But alas, he's a big time guy as a meeting.

He says, tell Pat, I'll be there next Wednesday.

Yeah, whatever.

Old man, Trigvie needs a nap, you know, whenever, whenever you want to come join the youngins again, you, you, you know, the door is always open.

Well, we're going to get the band back together next Wednesday.

So looking forward to that, by happy the pad is here with us.

You can hear them every morning now for three hours, six until nine across the Civic Media Ready Network with mornings at Pat Crite Low.

Coming up later on today in hour number two, a little what's worse for you, menus with QR codes or paperless tickets.

We'll ask you that question in hour two.

And Tim Gerson.

Senior US Film Critic that screened daily and also at the LA Times will be joining us from Los Angles talking about Nicholas Cage films and maybe we'll work a little bit of what's coming up for summer blockbusters as well But better while since Tim has been on the show always happy to have cage as Superman Do you have a now are you a Nicholas Cage fan Pat?

I Wouldn't say fan, but I'm also not a detractor.

I mean,

you

know

No, no, I mean not at the top of my head.

I've definitely seen things.

I've liked them, right?

I've also, you know, I you

could take your leave.

I have several off the top of my head that are.

Yes,

he's

a. Oh, Zomers.

Zomers

do it.

Go.

Well, in face off, a hilarious over the top action movie in which Nicholas Cage and John Travolta switch faces and Hilarity ensues is great pig

in which Nicholas

Cage plays.

Guy who lives out of the know out in the middle of nowhere with a truffle hunting pig and it's the love of his life Just hanging out with his pig and finding truffles the pig gets kidnapped and he has to go and get it back

Is the is a pig named babe by any chance

I don't believe so but it's like

John Wick, if instead of going and killing everybody who killed his dog, he was just like, come on, man, I just want my pig back.

Well, there you go.

See, Zombers is set to go for this later on.

So

we're at the

Nicholas Cage Film Festival ready to go here.

I was very impressed as we were talking about this this morning.

Zombers is set to go.

And I appreciate that.

So we'll talk about all of that.

But right now, Pat, you know, like every other day of this news cycle, always something going on.

Thought maybe we would start with, and again, we don't play a lot of Fox News clips here, but.

Part of the reason I do it is because I know there is a certain segment of our audience and friends and neighbors across Wisconsin that are big Fox News viewers.

That ain't my cup of tea.

I find it more of an entertainment channel by and large.

But I think it's important sometimes to play and say, look, even the Fox News folks are reporting this.

It's so truthful.

Even they can't spin it.

So here now, here's how things started off with the old Fox News this morning with Maria Bartiromo giving.

to their audience tragic news.

Welcome back.

We're breaking news right now.

We're getting the GDP in for the first quarter and it is a contraction negative three tenths of a percent.

This is the first contraction since the first quarter of 2022.

Markets this morning have reversed.

The Dow industrials right now down 115 points on this contraction of the GDP.

First quarter GDP first read.

We've got more coming up in terms of advances.

But the first read on the first quarter GDP.

is in fact a contraction down three tenths of a percent versus an estimate of up three tenths of a percent first contraction since first quarter 2022 markets reversing down at the lows of the day down 120 139 right now on the down industrials

not quite Walter Cronkite and moments ago president I mean not quite that but who was

Who was president when this whole turnaround started back then in 2022?

Who was that?

It was Sleepy Joe.

Who did, who did, whose economy did he put, bring back to?

Oh, it was, it was Donald Trump's, wasn't it?

Market calendars, kids.

Market calendars for 90 days from today.

Because 90 days from today, we will get the GDP report for this current quarter.

And if I may read the definition of a recession, please, a period of economic decline during which the GDP falls in two successive quarters.

Stay tuned.

90 days from today for the Trump slump to officially become a recession.

Am I cheering for it?

No.

Am I predicting it?

Oh, yes, yes.

Here's this lovely recovery best on the planet that you've trashed and rooted for a recession and you've made one happen.

Congratulations.

Well, and this was fantastic because I saw this on Twitter this morning.

Somebody posted these two tweets.

This is from January 29th of this year, January 29th of this year.

This is real from Donald Trump's own true social.

Trump tweeted out true social doubt quote.

This is the Trump stock market because my polls against Biden are so good that investors are projecting that I will win and it goes on from there.

So he says, quote, this is the Trump stock market on January 29th of this year.

Now, this is real from this morning, quote, this is the Biden, this is Biden stock market, not Trump.

I didn't take over until January 20th.

I mean,

folks.

Folks, I'm not kidding around, folks.

Folks, aren't you tired of trying to find a way to defend this guy by now?

I mean, I know it's only day 101, but aren't you exhausted at this point?

Are you really gonna do this for another 1,341 days?

That's all I'm saying.

And look, folks, folks, I know I hear all the time, don't blame Trump voters, don't, don't, whatever.

I'm just asking, are you tired of it yet?

I'm just

asking.

This is a great quote, by the way.

I did not say this.

Somebody else made this up or pointed this out on Twitter yesterday regarding Trump's 100th day in office said, William Henry Harrison had a better first 100 days and he spent 70 of them dead.

I thought that was good.

I'm not I'm not wishing a bad economy for America but

again

just the hypocrisy when things are going well suddenly he owns it it's all him he is the reason why and within the same time period when things are going poorly no no no and ain't

me.

This is the Biden economy.

Again Donald Trump inherited a good economy from Barack Obama and tanked it by his horrible response to COVID.

Things were gonna get bad anyway with COVID.

Yes, folks, but.

He managed to make things so much worse than they needed to be.

And here he is again, making things so much worse than he needed to be.

Again, not to say there isn't a role for trade negotiations.

Not to say there isn't a role for playing hardball here and there, even with your allies at times.

But to do it in such a ball in a China shop way is, as has been described many times, the most amazing self-inflicted economic damage in modern economic

history.

If you want to weigh in with Pat Critell, give us a call at 855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to up to Appleton.

Cindy listening in Appleton.

Thanks for listening.

Cindy, what do you want to say?

Well, Ron Johnson is having his Lincoln lunch this coming Saturday in Appleton.

And I find it kind of ironic because wasn't Lincoln actually the person who

basically started at DEI, which is Ron Johnson

is

so against because I mean, if you think about it, Lincoln was the starter of DEI.

He was the Emancipation Parcalation and freed the slaves.

Well, thanks.

I appreciate the call, Cindy Pat.

And let's remember, though, the way that the parties have flipped.

Yes, this was the party of Lincoln.

I love when people still say it's the party of Lincoln.

No, no, no, it used to be the party of Lincoln.

And Democrats, that was the party of segregationists and racists.

And again, things started to flip.

And I will always, again, credit goes to Lyndon Johnson where do.

But I always give ample credit to Hubert Humphrey for his 1948 speech at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia about getting out from under the shadow of states' rights and walking forth rightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.

And people said, hey, we could do this.

The Dixie Crats, Strom Thurman, they all left the Democratic Party.

Nixon brings in the Southern strategy.

This is where we are today, which, by the way, is John Dean's birthday.

And it's John Dean who has written several books about how he went from a berry goldwater, the conscience of a conservative to one of his more recent books, conservatives have no conscience.

And

it's, it's, he's not celebrating that.

He's just, this is what has happened to,

to his party.

A five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Let's go to Charles in Milwaukee, listening to your AUK.

Charles, I got about a minute.

We'll see you.

Good afternoon gentlemen, so I I was just thinking I caught my mom.

She she I couldn't talk to her about it But I'm wondering if Trump knew this news was coming out today About the growth of the economy not being great and that's why he wanted to have this bogus cabinet meeting today where they all praise them

Yeah, great point Charles Pat you see part of this is go.

I'm not sure if it's still going on or now, but it's like it's like North Korea or

something

praising dear leader.

Again, you mentioned Fox and Friends.

We have a there's a clip that was making their rounds over the weekend of of them just fawning over his sports knowledge and everything else is so wonderful about him.

We actually played a Fox and Friends clip this morning of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and talking about how we need to keep air traffic controllers from retiring because there's such a shortage of them.

Really the most stressful job in the country.

Right.

And you're so anti-immigrant that you're just telling people, well, make more babies and don't retire.

That is not sustainable, but that's the kind of thing they're talking about over there.

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

Let's go quickly to Middleton.

Matt and Middleton on MDX.

Matt, if you could make a brief, please go ahead.

Hey, guys.

I just wanted to take you again for civic media and then bring up the point that I hoped once MAGA destroys America when we rebuild.

We can then implement universal health care because it is an economic issue and we'll never get our fiscal house in order until we fix that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Pat.

Appreciate it.

I mean, I don't know about you, Pat, but I mean, I'm not hoping to make it destroys America.

I mean, I

guess it's a contingency and it's something that people, some people believe will happen.

However it gets there, we need to get to solving this whole health care notion that again, every other developed country in the world has figured out.

Yeah, absolutely.

I got to come back.

I was on Pat's show this morning and he brought up a New York Times headline, which I had not seen yet.

Want to get his take on the fallout from Donald Trump because the Trumpster has tweets, tweet, or what do you say?

Truth socialed?

That sounds weird to say that.

But on his social media platform, he's already responding to this.

Want Pat's take on that?

Yours as well.

It's the title of the show for a hump day edition, April 30th, last day of April.

You're on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

I'll take him out of here soon!

He puts his own line on his pole, who ties his own fly fishing ties and digs his own worms in anticipation to the start of Wisconsin's fishing season over the weekend on Lake Wistota.

Pat Crichtlow, you can hear him every morning from six until nine now on mornings with Pat Crichtlow.

Always a pleasure to have

a long translation.

Pat goes where the, Pat knows where the fish fries are.

You don't do a lot of fishing off the dock.

Sets a 20 on the bar and gets a fish fry in an old fashion and gets changed back because life is good up north.

That's a good way to put it.

You're not a big fisher person then.

I am not.

I've told the story a couple times on my show about, and again, I loved my father.

God bless the soul.

But he was not the most patient man and both as going deer hunting.

and fishing as a as a preteen or a teen or something.

In both cases, I was, uh, invited to go back to the truck and invited to go back to the dock because, uh, it's going to shock you all.

I couldn't keep my mouth shut and apparently you need to be quiet while fishing or deer hunting.

All

right.

Well, but you're a great boat captain

because you like to be out on water.

You just don't put a line in.

I am extremely pro hunting, pro sportsman, pro all those things that I did not really get the biggest opportunity in which to partake, but do support.

But I just tell people like, look, I'm a Packer fan.

I never played football.

I never played on the team.

Still a fan.

Go team.

Go team fishing.

Unless it's ice fishing.

I know you're not a fan.

No, but nobody should be a fan of that.

You can't possibly hate your wife that much.

But anyway, I beg your pardon.

Are people very excited?

I mean, the big fishing season starts on this

weekend.

Oh, yeah, there are people that get very excited.

And in fact, I've the governor's fishing opener is up this way up in the lake.

Yeah, I attended one governor's fishing opener as a state senator.

It was actually on the river by Rosa Prescott or Pepin.

And it was a wonderful time.

They went out with a guide.

And again, he did all the hearsets, the hook is the lines and everything.

Here, Senator, hold on to this poll for about eight seconds and I caught a fish.

It was like, this feels so wrong.

I was going to say, the ultimate politician photo op.

It was.

I didn't end the word thing.

goodness, no photo.

I would never have allowed that.

And the next year, I believe, if not in Rice Lake, then in that area, the governor's fishing opener that year was canceled because there was still ice on all the lakes at that point.

Yes.

So I only attended one and said, this is, I've seen politicians do this and I am not going to engage in that kind of

stuff.

Pat Kretlow is a man of many talents amongst being a politician, a former politician, a long time journalist and broadcaster.

Pat,

I was on your show this morning.

It was a lot of fun.

You brought this headline at the New York Times regarding journalism and I want you to read that.

I'm going to read what Trump

sent out and then we're going to discuss it.

Yes.

This was a news analysis piece by Peter Baker of the New York Times, who of whom I'm not really a fan for his takes on Trump.

Here's the headline and the subhead.

After the arrests and bullets, Trump takes on second term with a new fervor subhead having escaped imprisonment and death.

President Trump has returned to power seeking vindication and vengeance and done more in his first 100 days to change the trajectory of the country than any president since Franklin Roosevelt.

Now that sounds like the they're describing somebody in a Marvel movie or something you know

they're making a guy

out like a hero We discussed that this morning now I I can't see exactly when a Trump sent this out So I don't always yesterday or today in fairness and the the it was one of his long diet tribes and it's on going after 60 minutes in CBS and Paramount We discussed this in our show yesterday a long time executive producer of 60 minutes step down Bill Owen

because he felt that Paramount, the parent company of CBS in 60 Minutes, was putting undue pressure on him.

He couldn't do the stories he wanted to anymore.

And so Trump truth-socialed out on that on his social media platform.

But then he includes this, quote, the failing New York Times, which is fake news, both in writing and polling, claims that people said the case is baseless, the one that he has against CBS and Paramount.

They don't mean that.

They just have a non-curable case of Trump derangement syndrome, possibly to the point where the Times' injection makes them liable for torturous interference, including in elections, which we are already intently studying."

And it goes on from there.

And I guess- I liked the headline better in the original Hungarian when Victor Orban wrote it.

Trigby can tell you more about that.

It's just-

And we've discussed a little bit, but I want your take as someone who studied journalism, who was in it for a long time and did it very well, this ongoing intimidation and seemingly capitulation by many of the major media outlets in

this country.

That's just it, as long as they continue to capitulate if you give a mouse a cookie.

I mean, do we really have to say anything more than that?

And at some point, enough people will have studied what happened in Hungary, what had happened in the Philippines, what has happened in other countries out there where you had flourishing democracies until times got a little bit rough and people took the shortcut of embracing somebody who promised the moon and stars when he had no intention of giving you the moon and stars.

What he wanted was power.

and started using that power in ways that maybe at first made you happy, but at some point made people go, hey, wait a minute.

I thought he was gonna go after everybody except me.

And it doesn't work that way.

So you can cheer who he's going after right now.

You don't like CBS in 60 minutes, fine.

Don't for a moment think he's gonna stop there till at some point you're going, hey, wait a minute, my daughter-in-law is a good person.

You know, she came to this country legally.

Why is she in prison?

Well, because she spoke out.

And that's the path we're going down if you continue to give this mouse yet another cookie.

I just think about the journalists, guys

like Scott McFarland, women like Jane Crawford, who are great journalists at CBS, who really do wonderful work.

And you think, wow, what's their lives like right now, trying to do what they journalistically know should

they be doing, but.

This comes from the top.

Exactly.

Not getting the respect and appreciation they should.

Always respect and appreciate.

Pat, quite low.

Thank you, my friend.

I appreciate it.

Have a great day up at Lake Mesota.

Thank you.

We'll see you next

Wednesday.

We'll see if Trevi can make it.

Come on back.

We have Mark on the line.

We'll take his call next on the Civic Media.

Ready to network.

We're glad to have you along on a Wednesday, April 30th, 2025.

Aaron Zommer is on the board, glad to be here.

Glad to have Pat Krightlow with us as well from Mornings of Pat Krightlow.

I almost said Up North News Radio.

It's

powered

by Up North News Radio.

But it's powered by Up North News.

Up North News Radio was the name of the show.

All right, well.

Okay,

fine.

I

know.

Pat Kraitlo is on the air every morning from six until nine now.

That much we know for certain is a great program.

Hope you will tune in.

And then after Pat, you've got Jane McNair and Greg Bach with McNair on air.

And then you've got the Tom program, Tom Hartman, and then us and then Maggie Dawn and then Pete Schwab.

So that's the new lineup.

And you can enjoy each and every day here on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Talk a little bit about

The gross domestic product GDP announced this morning was lower than expected.

According to the Associated Press, US stocks began this morning with a thud after reports suggested the US economy may have shrunk at the start of the year.

But the big losses soon eased in the latest sharp swings to hit Wall Street and uncertainty about what President Donald Trump's trade war will do to the economy.

S&P 500 was down a half percent this afternoon in trading on track to break a six-day winning streak.

The Dow Jones industrial average down 94 points or 0.2% as of 227 Eastern time this afternoon.

And the NASDAQ composite was about 0.9% lower today.

They had been on track for much worse losses earlier in the morning.

when the S&P 500 was down as much as 2.3% and the Dow dipped 780 points.

But again, the first thing Donald Trump said this morning was, look, this ain't my fault.

This is, this is Biden's, Biden's economy.

But we read to you earlier in the broadcast with Pat Crichtlow on Trump's own social media in January, right after he got elected or inaugurated.

He said this is my economy.

This is the Trump economy is going well And now this morning this is Biden's economy Even David Portnoy Who is from Barstool Sports?

We've talked about him before one of the big bro influencers has the big Barstool Sports franchise Influences a lot of predominantly young men Even Portnoy To kind of put it nicely said you know you can't

take a week on my back and tell me it's raining.

Either tell the truth or fess up.

So when you're losing guys like David Portnoy and kind of the Bro's fear, you know, you got problem with your Donald Trump.

Yeah, it's people who are willing to give him the benefit of it out and say, this seems crazy, but I think he knows what he's doing long term.

And at this point, they're like, yeah, all right, you've had your you've had your long term.

You've had 100 days and you've only made things worse every day.

Yeah.

Absolutely

eight five five seven five two four eight four two if you want if you want to weigh in eight five five seven five two four eight four two on The Trump economy so far mark and per to sack me a way to a long time.

I appreciate you hold on mark.

What say you

Yeah, I mean for Donald Trump.

I mean that the You know, he's a drowsy Don on one day.

It's actually done another day on duplicitous Don on another day devious Don despicable Don

Dictator Don I mean it's all you know, it's a different Don every day and that's just using the D words,

right?

I mean there's got to be a whole whole Plethora of words we could use for describing Donald Trump I mean that and the scariest one of all is dictator Don and the way that these people just all Vassalate before him and just entire cabinet is just a Complete lack of any kind of integrity or courage at all.

Yeah, it's it's disturbing to say the least and

I think what Pat was saying before as well is it's just that the use of the types of things we're seeing in so much of the media kind of capitulating on.

And so I'm looking more at individual reporters who I follow within CBS or ABC or CNN or New York Times.

Some of these were long term trusted publications, which they, and I think this is important to say.

For my frustration with the corporate companies of Paramount Global and Disney which controls ABC Paramount controls CBS and others and Jeff Bezos controlling papers as well My frustration at the corporate level of the ownership Should not be mistaken for my admiration of many of the individual reporters within those organizations

who are still doing really great work.

And so I think it's important to note that and know there are still people like Scott Pelly and Jan Crawford and others at CBS and others and all the other aforementioned national publications, but also really important to note and to support local journalism in your own community.

We are fortunate in Wisconsin to still have many

local newspapers, buy a subscription, support them that way.

We have state newspapers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal.

And a lot of magazines, too.

And magazines.

We have Wisconsin Examiner, Wisconsin Watch, others, you know, who

are... Reconpopulation

area.

Thank you.

Reconpopulation area.

Our friend Dan Schaefer.

So, more important now than ever,

that we have people that are dedicated to true journalism and who will suss out the truth and report that.

As it's known to press the fourth estate, right?

Just keeping people in line.

What are your thoughts on this?

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

We mentioned earlier one of these Trump cabinet meetings, which is basically

Let us tell you how much we love you meeting Donald Trump.

I thought this was great to this Trump was asked by the press in this so-called cabinet meeting.

Oh By the way, Steve Steve Milwaukee at a UK says major Garrett.

Yes at CBS one of the absolute greats major Garrett and Caitlin Collins at CNN doing great work as well agreed Anyway, this meeting this morning Trump was asked about

The tariffs and we had we've been talking about this now for several days several shows and Reporting to you that what's happening in China right now.

There are a lot of container ships who are that are empty or They simply have been taking other leases or other deals of their places and they're they're not there Many of the big shipping ports in Los Angeles in Seattle look, I don't want to say vacant but

the amount of container ships in their ports are dramatically down right now.

And that's because U.S.

companies are not buying and bringing things from China due to this 145% tariff.

And for every day this stays in place, it's going to mean fewer goods getting into the United States, which will ultimately mean, and I know this sounds crazy right now because people go to the stores and say, well, Todd, everything is filled up.

There's no empty shelves.

You're right.

But we're about, according to experts, four-ish, maybe five weeks away from many of the things we buy, not being there.

And I'm not trying to start a panic bind.

Experts are saying, don't panic buy, don't hoard.

But they're already saying things like notebooks, pens, things like that, that back to school items.

If this continues, Trump's tariffs on China, you might not be able to find him.

And this includes toys for Christmas of this year.

And President Trump was asked this morning about Christmas 2025.

Here's what he

said.

We're not talking about something that we have to go out of our way.

They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which, not all of it, but much of which we don't need.

You know, Trump just, we don't need it.

Yeah, your kids, instead of having $30, we'll have $2.

I don't know very many people who are buying their kids $30.

That's just another little detail that shows his disconnect from reality.

Right.

Yeah, right.

Maybe in Trump world, maybe they do buy their kids $30 for

Christmas.

I don't know.

It's like, I can't remember what show it was from.

How much could one egg cost?

$10?

Right,

right.

And to Trump, you know, a couple of bucks means $100, right?

Really, I mean, I had a friend of mine, he's passed away now, but a guy was a landscaping business from Chicago.

And he dealt in big volumes of stuff.

And so if he said, oh, it was a couple of bucks.

it meant $200 bucks.

Every time you said bucks, it meant $100 bucks.

Yeah, it cost me a couple of bucks.

And 200, something like me in Trump world, you say, yeah, it might cost you $200 more, which to most people in Wisconsin, that's a heck of a lot of money.

It means you're not getting it.

Exactly.

So, if we can make sure we save that somewhere, because I want it handy when we get to Christmas later on this year.

Did you watch the Milwaukee Bucks game last night?

Let's bring that up for a second because I I did not Because I couldn't find I don't subscribe to fan duel and I don't think I have like NBC TV and or NBA TV and I was reading this morning our own sports reporter Mike Clemens great sports reporter that he is he tweeted out this morning Mike Clemens did a tweet of pack Pat McAfee

Who is as the show on ESPN is on college game day all that And he's he's lives an indie big Pacers fan and McAfee could not find the game last night apparently And so Mike Clemens tweeted out and said here's a multi-millionaire Sports media personality that couldn't get the game and yet the NBA wonders why their ratings have gone down

So I did not watch the game yesterday last night, but the Bucks choked and Lost it over time to the Pacers.

They're done for the season Not happy about that by the way And afterwards the press asked Giannis onto the cumpo about his future which I mean I know why the press has to do it But again if you're Giannis, I mean it's just not the time for that.

I thought he handled it Well, here's what Giannis said in the postgame press conference last night

You've always kind of stated about when to win and win championships and win a second championship and how important it is to you.

Do you think that you can still win that second championship here in Milwaukee after a third straight, first round exit?

Look, I'm not going to do this.

I'm not going to do this.

I know how this is going to, whatever I say, I know how it's going to translate.

I don't know, man.

I wish I was still playing, I wish I was still like competing and going back to Milwaukee.

I don't know.

Yannis last night after the Bucks are eliminated in the postseason third straight year, first round elimination.

And again, he's emotional.

What's his name?

The guy, the player originally from Wisconsin plays for the Pacers.

Now his dad, his dad gets all up in Yannis' face on the court after the game.

And the dad had an apologizing today on Twitter.

I mean, that's just how bizarre this stuff has gotten.

So Yannis had a rough meeting, played great.

And he got dame out now until hopefully he comes back next season.

The Bucks keep him.

But what is Yannis supposed to say in that situation?

And a lot of people are nagging on the whole, well, he's got two more years left as a contractor.

The Bucks could have tried to trade him and all that kind of jazz.

Look, I think Giannis has given everything to Milwaukee, and I hope he stays.

But I would not blame him if he wants to go somewhere and win a championship.

I'm not saying I want him to go, but there's a guy with a lot of character who's given everything to Milwaukee.

Come on back.

We're ever it may lead and having fun doing it welcome back to a ball show on the civic media ready network Glad to have you along eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock at the top of the hour Well news weather and sports for you Mike Clemens a great sports reporter tell us what's going on probably have a little Bucks update of his own there and then what's worse in hour number two menu QR codes or paperless tickets

I have feelings.

We'll talk about it in hour two.

And also Tim Greerson, senior U.S.

film critic at Screen Daily and at the LA Times joins us live from Los Angeles to talk about Nicholas Cage, Nicholas Cage movies in particular, and maybe film as well.

So looking forward to that conversation.

Right now, talking about some of these Trump tariffs, ramifications.

Economy not doing well once again today Trump trying to blame it on Biden and also we brought up the the bucks lost last night And just to put a button on that again.

I want you honest to stay.

Let me make that clear.

I hope he does But he's also a you could argue I Mean, you know, you've got other players out there that are still LeBron obviously one of those fantastic

players out there, um, get, uh, you know, there, there are other people out there.

But my point is that Yannis has to be within the top five players in the NBA right now.

And if Dame can't come back next year for the bucks without Dave and Yami, what else?

I mean, yeah, there's some talented players, but I would not personally blame Yannis if he said, look, I've only got so much time in my prime.

I want to win another NBA championship and if the Bucks can't give me the tools to do that around me then You know That's just the way the world works these days and someone said to me recently loyalty is transactional and What a company thinks of you is directly directly related to how much they pay you and the assets they provide you So if the Bucks aren't going to give Yanis

the assets to win.

I mean, you can't blame the guy.

I don't want that to happen.

And he's part odor of the Brewers.

His family loves Milwaukee.

He's indebted to Milwaukee, but he has to do his best for it.

I want him to be happy.

He's given Milwaukee everything that in Wisconsin that we deserve.

I want him to be happy.

Let's go to the phone lines eight five five seven five two four eight four two Troy in Mount horror blessing on WM DX Troy.

Thanks for calling.

We'll see

Yeah, thanks for bringing us down with the

bucks Sorry, I'm a realist.

So We you said that Trump said, uh, you know, there was stuff we don't even need because they do that all the time

You know, great business sense is always the load up ships with stuff people don't even need.

Look at my pantry.

There's all

kinds of things I

don't

need.

That's for everybody.

No, I mean I

mean every every car I

appreciate me think about it think about it try every every Costco run Oh, I went in for detergent and I come out with a hundred and fifty dollars and stuff.

I don't need but it was

Thanks

Troy, I appreciate it eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two cam listening to Appleton cam.

Thanks for calling in.

What do you got?

Hey, I am

uh fairly frustrated that um we aren't getting enough coverage on at least on civics primary shows for the election truth alliance and smart elections data because they have been showing on other shows major shows like uh tom hartman's show they've shown on um the titus broadcast christopher titus and

What would it take you, Todd, in order to be able to look at this?

Because right now, you blindly say, for good reason, that the election wasn't manipulated, but there's EHDs, computer data scientists, people that were involved with the elections.

One of them is from Tennessee.

They're saying, this is messed up.

There is manipulation signs.

So I don't know who's Tom Titus or whatever.

I never heard of that program.

Who's Titus?

Christopher Titus?

What

network is he

on?

He is on his own network.

That can be knocked down if you want to knock that one down, but he's been on Tom Hartman's show.

All right.

Well, I mean, with all due respect, Tom Hartman is a progressive left-leaning broadcast.

And if they want to talk about that stuff, that's fine.

That's up to them.

But if, I mean, I have faith in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the DNC,

and every other major democratic institution.

If they would have thought there was any sort of hanky-panky or election interference that would have made any difference in the final outcome, they controlled the executive branch and the federal, not the federal government, but they controlled things at that time.

Don't you think they would have raised this question before they turned over power to Trump if they thought there was election interference that made a difference in the outcome of the election?

Yes, but they could not get enough of the information on how they did it because finding noise curve manipulation takes time.

That is a fact.

When it comes to math collections of data, you have to wait for the states to be able to post that data.

I can't always appreciate you, Colin.

I appreciate your listenership, but I would be remiss if as much as I, you know, as armor as you can tell me if I'm wrong, I think I'd probably go after my former party 90% of the time on this show.

compared to maybe 10%, I go after Democrats on the show.

And as much as I denounce the Donald Trumps and the MAGA leadership and those who say the 2020 election was stolen, I feel equally as passionate about those on the left.

like Hartman or whoever, then try to bring up these conspiracy theories and try to say that, oh my gosh, somehow Elon Musk at the computers, you know, stole the election or that there were, you know, I got people right now on the YouTube saying, oh, there were 200 bomb threats or whatever, that that's not fair.

Look, there are threats in every election, but at the end of the day, did those things make a difference in the outcome?

And Democrats just don't want to look in the mirror and say, we should have done better.

that we lost young people, that we didn't get people out to vote, that the far left said, well, we'd rather have Trump than Joe Biden, because it's a lesser of two evils.

I mean, those are the reasons that Democrats lost, and they need to fess up to that, and move on, move on.

Come back to the show, it's hour number two after

this.

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 Albaugh, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers.

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two of the big program.

It is Wednesday, April 30th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite, and it is somewhere.

The camel is taking, even the camel is throwing off, but the time changes a little.

Oh, he was here to take a bathroom break.

Oh, really?

Good to know.

TMI.

Welcome into hour number two.

Glad to be along with you.

Coming up here at hour number two at the bottom of the hour, Tim Greerson, senior film critic in the United States for Screen Daily and Los Angeles Times will begin to talk a little Nicholas Cage with us and films as well.

Always appreciate when Tim takes the time to stop by.

And coming up in a minute, what's worse?

Dealing with

Analog versus digital.

That's how I'll characterize it.

So we'll take those for you as well.

A couple of things to get to.

First of all, ended last hour.

Ended last hour with a couple of callers and people on YouTube and like keep bringing up this.

What I think is ridiculous.

No disrespect to the callers, textors and that sort of thing.

I'm saying whoever's perpetuating this at the top of whatever chain.

They're just ridiculous claims.

Somehow the 2024 election was somehow thrown off and not fair and not accurate.

And I just said, look, I spent 90% of my time roughly on this program going after my former party, the Republicans, which I left in 2011, long before Donald Trump ever got on the scene.

And I spent about 10% of the time roughly trying to, not trying, but

To suss out the truth on the Democratic side because you know, I'm an independent.

I don't think either side is 100% right all the time I vote Democratic voted that way ever since 2011 doesn't mean I'm not a card-carrying member a and b I don't think they're always right and so this whole theory

that somehow there's data there that shows that it was off.

And there's this whole other theory out there.

I don't like to talk about it very much because I don't want to give credence to it.

But when people call in and then say that Tom Hartman on the show performing the national show talks about this stuff and gives it credence, that's just fueling the fire.

And people say, well, Todd, you say sometimes there are people on the far right and the far left.

Who is far left?

If you believe this kind of Sasquatch Bigfoot stuff, you're far left.

I'm sorry you are.

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

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

Tom and MacFarlane called him during the break.

Tom, what do you want to say?

Thanks for taking my call, and I am so with you.

And you know, I think that if there's anything that could be put to rest, is this idea that Elon Musk is some kind of IT genius, like we like to depart batter himself.

after Tony Stark on the Marvel Universe, but he is just as much of a character as Tony Stark is in the Marvel Universe.

And he knows as much about IT as Donald Trump does about business, which is diddly over squat.

I mean, look what he did to Twitter.

So the idea that Musk can somehow or another engineer something like this, hey, it literally is impossible.

Our voting systems, as we've demonstrated from the last time that we came up,

The system that they say would be needed to hack into the system, our voting systems don't use those systems.

They're not connected in the way that they want to be.

I have the state having its own system, its own podge podge collection.

There's not some uniform federal election system that they can hack into.

It's 50 different ways.

And to think that any one entity could hack into this,

It boggles my mind, particularly since our systems aren't connected to the Internet.

How would they actually be able to do this?

No.

So, yes, thank you very much.

The idea that Musk is some kind of another super genius when everything he touches, this is destroyed exactly like he does with Trump.

Give it a rest.

Instead, look at how Democrats are lousy at messaging when they're great at governing.

That's the problem is we need to change up our messaging.

Republicans are great at it, which is why they won.

Democrats, we suck at it, which is why we lost.

We don't connect with voters at a messaging level.

And until that changes, well, I guess we're going to go after the conspiracy theories.

because I guess that makes more sense.

Sure.

Okay.

Great call,

Tom.

Thanks.

Great.

Appreciate it, Tom.

Tom McFarland.

Great call.

855-752-4842.

Want to get to what's worse, but let's go up to WCFW, beautiful Eau Claire in Chippewa Valley up there.

Jean Eau Claire, what's your

name?

Hi.

Well, you know, I'm no computer expert, but I remember watching...

You know, when all the bikers are at the Black Hills, you know, for the big motorcycle rally, watch it every year.

Before, they had all kinds of Trump signs.

Everything was Trump, Trump, Trump, F, Biden, all kinds of stuff like that.

Nothing.

Nothing supporting Trump.

So I thought, whoa, that's a good sign.

I don't know anything about computers.

I know that Wisconsin elections are safe.

but are all of the other ones.

See, I don't know anything about this stuff, but boy, you know, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

I am concerned, though, about what the devil's going on in our country right now and the way that Trump's attacking all of the structures that make America safe, make America, you know, be able to thrive.

And the way that he is bashing every single one of them, going after everything, you know, with all the confusion and things.

And I'm really concerned about our country and I hope the people really and truly wake up and I'm really proud of all those people who are out there in the streets having their voices heard saying this is wrong.

So you guys are doing such a great job.

I am so thankful for civic media to get information back out to people.

So thank you very much for the outstanding services that you provide to the state of Wisconsin and even to...

to the United States.

So thanks, guys.

Keep up the great work.

And have

a good day.

Bye-bye.

Appreciate the call, Jean.

Thank you so very much.

Always a pleasure.

13 now past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for What's Worst.

Let's go.

Time once

again for What's Worst.

No surprise, money involved, nothing to give away, but it is your chance to have your voice heard all across the state of Wisconsin here.

On all 11 news, talk, station, sports as well across Civic Media's radio network.

No better way to get your message out than to advertise with us.

Go to civicmedia.us to have, to have your chance to learn how to advertise on Civic Media.

Join our team.

We would love to have you.

All right.

Timely.

Timely indeed because, you know, nicer weather is on us.

People are going out.

I think.

I love to eat outside during this time of year.

What is getting warmer?

It's very nice,

yeah.

Exactly.

Well, now, and as someone who worked in the service industry for a while and managed a sports bar, I'll tell you one of the things that gets the dirtiest in a restaurant, the menus, like the, whether they're paper or they're plastic, because if you're a good restaurant, you take sanitizer and you wipe those down at least once a day, if not a couple of times a day.

And so now here's our what's worse category today.

Menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

Menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

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

We'd love to hear from you.

Now,

I don't blame you if you don't know what the menu QR code is because there are some areas that just don't have them yet.

It's in pit places like Madison.

They're cropping up a lot.

Green Bay, I've seen it.

What Wisconsin would consider bigger cities.

Right.

And so what it is is you go in and you sit down at a restaurant and they have a QR code.

It's a square that looks like a bunch of squiggly lines within the square.

And you take out your smartphone.

And you take a picture of it and that takes a to a link of a menu for that restaurant.

And so you look at the menu on your phone and they don't have a paper menu.

And, you know, it's probably more sanitary, obviously, because you're not touching something else.

But you got to have the phone.

You got to take it out.

You got to, I don't know.

And then paperless tickets, you know, again, whether it's brewers or packers or badgers, it goes to your smartphone now.

and you have a ticket on your phone, you don't have a paper ticket.

Right.

And with a lot of the apps now, you can't have a screenshot of your ticket because then they think, you know, someone else might use it.

You have to have the app and have it open and it'll have like lines moving over the ticket.

Not every app does, but Ticketmaster, I know, does that now.

So what's worse, menu QR codes or paperless tickets, 855-752-4842-855-752.

4-8-4-2.

Let's go to Brian in Milwaukee.

Brian, thanks for listening.

Thanks for listening to WAUK.

Let's say you.

Yeah, no, I love this game.

I wait

for this every day.

I appreciate that.

I really do.

Yeah.

Just from experience, I'm going to say the QR codes, because like you said, you got to pull off the phone, and then you have to line it up exactly with the code, take the photo.

Sometimes the link doesn't open.

There's bad Wi-Fi in the restaurant.

And I will say from experience, go to like the Market Center to see a pormat or whatever, at least with the paperless tickets, like you stated, you open up the app, pull up the ticket, they just scan it, bam, you're done, you're in.

It's so convenient, but those QR codes should be a pain in the butt for all

the time.

I agree.

I agree.

It's not it does.

And that's the analog guy living in a digital world.

That's the bottom line.

Can I just have a regular menu?

Oh, you haven't got it right over here.

Great.

And I like the feel of it.

I like to have it in my hand.

I can look it over all at once.

And you're trying to scan through when it's just a

mess.

I hate it.

Totally agree.

Thanks, Brian, for the call.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What's worse, menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

We have several texts, but there's one I want to highlight.

particularly annoys me about this.

Travis in Greenfield, listening on WAUK, texts in and says, the menu QR code is fine, but I don't like having to download the menu just to see it.

Just take me to the website to read it.

I totally

agree.

A lot of menu QR codes make you download a PDF and then

that takes

longer and then it's just junk on your phone.

And then it'll be like, oh, you need another PDF for the drink menu.

Oh, you need another one for the dessert menu.

Like that, you know, I agree with Travis.

That's really annoying when they do that.

It's more work at the end of the day.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

You can text us on the Civic Media app.

You can download it on your Apple or Android device.

Get the Civic Media app today.

What's worse, menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

Let's go down to beautiful Green County and Monroe.

Angie and Monroe, always a pleasure.

Angie, menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

What's worse?

that lately, so I don't know how the QR code part goes.

I'm curious to how easy it is for walkouts.

And if the servers have to pay, they usually, that's how it always was, you know, you get to start paying for that.

But how would you know when they're walkout and paying on these QR codes?

That's my question.

Well, right.

Go ahead.

I

personally would pay cash because when you pay cash, the server gets to claim a lot less of it.

Right.

just point it out there and it's better for the business also they don't have to pay for the like the master card charge stuff just point it out there so

I appreciate it thanks Angie not that we did that once before we did

cashless or cash only or cash only yeah and she brings up what either way try to leave your tip and cash it's better for your server back after this and more what's worse and Tim Greerson from the LA Times and Scream Daily ahead as well as the title of all show a Wednesday edition on the Civic Media Ready Network

Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

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

What's worse, menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

Menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

22 now past the hour.

Glad to have you along.

Coming up from the bottom, Tim Greerson, senior film critic.

at Screen Daily and also writes for the LA Times.

Talk to the little Nicholas Cage coming up at the bottom of the hour as well.

Casper weighing in on WMDX says, I haven't printed a physical ticket for an airline ticket in 10 years.

10 years.

He's clearly for the paperless tickets.

Very good.

Adam in, I'm not, now this is great, Adam.

Are you in, are you in Oregon or are you in Oregon?

Adam says, menu QR codes are worse because I'm old enough when you save your concert tickets as a souvenir after seeing a band.

I agree with you 100% Adam.

I am the same way.

I've still got somewhere because I never got it framed.

my ticket when I went to the Overture Center across the street and saw Tony Bennett live.

I have a ticket from my friend Jeff Daniels, took me to the big Nolan Ryan game at County Stadium.

I'm 100% with you on that.

I would always save movie tickets too.

When I was

younger,

like, I think I got to see if I still have it.

Take a look.

But I think I still have my ticket from when I went to go see Star Wars, episode three, Revenge of the Sith, in 2006.

Very good.

855-752-4842.

Go to beautiful Acconto and Tom, listening in.

Tom, menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

What's worse?

I'm going

to be honest with you.

I like them both.

You like them both.

All right.

Ew, and the reason the QR code menu can be up to date if you've got 20 servings of sea bass and now you serve 20 servings, you just gray that out.

If your special is meatloaf, it's on the menu.

If there's rotating seasonal beers, they're on the menu.

They're not a printed menu that the server has no idea.

what's actually available and what's not.

Right.

That's a really great point, Tom, because having worked in the service industry, that's one of the hardest things or one difficult thing.

You're right.

When you only have so many servings and you're out, you know, in, you know, 86 it, you know, the menu means we don't have any more.

And so it's tough to keep track of that.

So yeah, if you have really, if you have a good system where it can keep track of inventory, yeah, that's a big plus.

Or some restaurants do like a daily menu.

As in, here's what we're cooking today.

If you want it, you can have it.

If not, go home.

Yeah, absolutely.

8-5-5, 7-5-2, 4-8-4-2, Zomers, menu QR codes or paperless tickets.

What's worse?

Even though I just said that, and I know there's logic for it, I think I have to say that menu QR codes are worse.

I think in those situations where you need to keep it up to date, they're great.

But otherwise, I feel like having a paper or a...

Laminated menu is part of the experience of eating at a restaurant.

You know, it's just another piece of the vibe at that place Whereas a ticket to a concert or a game or a movie is usually just a rectangle and It I mean it doesn't do anything for you while you're there

I have a very specific reason for for the one I think is worse and it has everything to do with me and Nothing to do with anybody else.

It's my lack of

of confidence in myself for digital technology.

And so therefore I think paperless tickets are worse because I always think

Oh my God, what if my phone battery dies?

What if it doesn't come through?

What if it doesn't show up?

It's out there in the cloud.

I can't hang on to it.

If I have a paper ticket, whether it's to a sports event or a movie or whatever, I have it in my hot little hands.

I can put it in my pocket.

I know exactly where it's at.

I know I'm getting into the thing if I have my paper ticket.

If I, if it's on a phone, if it's on the device, there are a million things that could go wrong.

It all goes back to almost everywhere I've worked in my entire adult career.

At some point, somebody in the company has said, well, you can't mess it up.

And inevitably something on my computer or whatever.

And I go to the IP person, the company, and they're like, wow, I don't know.

Never seen that before.

I've witnessed this happen to Todd.

I've seen the

person to say, oh, I haven't seen that.

Right.

And people are like, well, I don't know.

I've never seen that before.

It always happens to me.

Now, if that happens at a restaurant, worse comes to worse, the server can tell me what the menu is, or I just order a burger.

If I'm stuck three hours away at a concert or whatever, they're going to look at me and say, I don't know, dude, here's the number to call.

So, I mean, that's.

So yes, I think paperless tickets are worse.

Off the text line, WMDX QR code menus are great for those of us that are losing our near sightedness.

Oh, very good.

And so it's backlit and you can make it larger if you want on the screen.

Now there, that's fantastic, right?

Because I've gotten to the age where you go out in the evening, like to a nicer place or they bring you a menu and the lighting is so bad.

And I gotta take up, I do take up my phone and I either use the light from the screen or I have to turn on my flashlight on the phone in order to read the menu.

And younger, you know, my God, sons, whoever, my nieces, you know, they laugh at this.

They think it's hysterical that Todd has to take out his phone in order to read the paper menu.

So I agree with you caller MDX Tina, I guess that is Tina.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for calling in here in Madison MDX.

I totally, I totally agree with that.

Tim watching on YouTube says paperless tickets are worse in its historic game.

I like having the ticket stub like young's 3000th hit opening day at Miller Park, et cetera.

There you go.

Yeah, that's Zizou says oh Todd one of those technology impaired folks the kind where things don't work in a weird new way

See, I'm just, as I said, I'm an analog guy living in a digital world.

It doesn't make a lot in QA testing for software.

Yes,

probably could.

It doesn't matter whether you like to read your movie reviews in analog form or digital, digital form.

You can see his work at Screen Daily and the LA Times.

Tim Grierson is next.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the title ball show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Saddleball show on the Civic Media Network.

It is Wednesday, April 30th, 2025.

35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock all across the state of Wisconsin.

Glad to have you along in a midday edition.

Always fantastic to have along our next guest.

He is the senior United States Film Critic at Screen Daily.

Also writes for the LA Times and several other publications.

Always great to have you on the program.

Welcome back.

Tim Gerson, how are you?

I'm doing very well.

How are you doing, Todd?

I am.

It's fun to have you here because I enjoy talking film and movies with you.

You know the genre.

You're in Los Angeles.

You know what's going on out there.

And you bring knowledge to the broadcast, which is something that I don't do a lot of.

So it's great to have you here.

I will do my best to bring a lot of knowledge.

But no, I always love talking to you as well, Todd.

So yeah, thanks for having me today.

Yeah, you're welcome.

We're going to get into a little Nick.

Los Angeles Cage Film Fest here, but before we do, give us kind of the overall feel right now out in Los Angeles, in the industry, writ large, I guess.

because we had a couple of the people on before talking about Los Angeles.

I talked to somebody just last week who works in live theater in Los Angeles area saying that some of the houses, maybe not quite as full as they have been due to the economy or people kind of withholding their dollars that they might spend on fun and entertainment, reserving it for things at home.

Have we seen the ticket sales at movie theaters go down lately, Tim?

I would say that in the last few weeks because obviously Sinners has been a real phenomenon and that's the new film by Ryan Coogler that's been a huge huge hit and is a an original story which is even more exciting I think for Hollywood's the vampire film with Michael B. Jordan playing two roles that one's been a huge hit

Um, the fact that a 20 year old, uh, Star Wars movie, the Phantom, uh, or, uh, the, uh, the Sith, that,

that final

one.

Revenge of the Sith, yeah, that was brought back to theaters for its 20th anniversary and was also very successful this weekend.

The fact that Minecraft movie is still doing very well.

We're about ready to move into summer movie season this weekend with Thunderbolts.

And I think the fact that the box office is already doing really well is a great sign.

I think that in general, you still are experiencing

the effect of two strikes, the writers and the actors strike, you are facing an economy that's in a bit of flux just in general because of all the Trump tariffs and like that.

But I would say that right now the mood is optimistic because it's been a strong last couple of weekends at the box office, the fact that I think Thunderbolts is going to do