Sunscreen, Social Security, and Free Speech (Hour 2)

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

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, one of our outstanding producer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.

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

Welcome into hour number two of the big program.

It is Wednesday, May 14th, 2025.

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

There you go.

Made it halfway through the week.

Cannot wait.

Later, I said earlier on the show, later on, going to be hanging out at Cooper's Tavern.

Tonight with the Montae Ball, a fireside discussion moderated by our friend Kristen Brie.

All proceeds going to Mental Health Awareness and Montae's foundation and Journey as well.

So really, really a great cause.

I'm looking forward to a lightning, a fun, but also an informative evening tonight at Cooper's Tavern.

I look forward to hearing about it.

Also, Cooper's Tavern is just really delicious.

Also Cooper's Tavern.

They have a they have all come out.

How many taps do they have there?

It's crazy.

A bunch.

I don't know.

I don't

know.

And the cool thing is they have unique beers from different places that you might not always have them.

And there's going to be mocktails as well, which is pretty cool.

So looking forward to that tonight.

Many thanks to Trig V. Olson, Senior Advisor at the Lincoln Project for being here, as he always is.

Each and every week he'll rejoin us next Wednesday.

And Mr. Krightlow will be back from Portugal.

Is that where he is?

I think so.

No, it is.

I know.

You knew that

I just didn't know if it was an undisclosed location.

Oh,

I don't know.

It's not any more I thought he had talked about

it probably

did I don't know uh Pat Kretlos European vacation

I'm pretty sure if we say he is in Portugal there like nobody who's trying to find him is gonna be able to find him I just hope he gets back in

I just hope he gets back in I

think he will

I'm only half mean less than half joking,

but

It's a scary, kind of scary thing, right?

Here's the thing, he's a white man.

For now, that's enough to get let back in.

Yeah, you're probably sad that you're

probably right.

Coming up, speaking of white men, a different kind, Ron Johnson, U.S.

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, according to Politico.com, threatening to tank the GOP mega bill.

As Trump calls it, the big, beautiful bill.

And he's been here before.

We'll talk a little bit about that.

Also, uh, Trump's legacy of the federal court system, young Americans, as long as you're a young American, the support for free speech in the United States amongst young Americans on the decline.

We'll discuss that a little bit.

I'll be interested to hear your take on that.

And of course, your phone calls as well.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

But right now, it is nine minutes past the hour of three.

Time once again for What's Worse.

Let's

go.

Time

once again for What's Worse.

Nothing to give away, no prize, money involved, but it is your chance to have your voice heard across all 11 news talk sports stations around the state of Wisconsin.

Well, that's kind of true as I'm not sure if the Brewers have the Brewers concluded yet because the Brewers were on the Brewers stations here.

I do not know.

Let me let me look it up live on the air.

This is the hot, hot breaking news here.

Hey, Milwaukee Brewers got a win.

They're in the bottom of the eighth.

Why does it say win on my says two minutes ago?

It says Brewers win on their on the Twitter feed.

Well, I guess the thing that I'm looking at is outdated.

Or maybe the Brewers are just projecting a win, which, you know, they could use that right now.

Brewers are wrapping up against the Guardians this afternoon.

And it looks like, yes, the Brewers indeed have one.

And so all those stations that we're listening to.

The Brewer Game, welcome back to the talk network across Wisconsin.

Brewers will go at it again on Friday.

They have tomorrow off and then we'll be back home at Amfam Field, 635 pregame show.

The Minnesota Twins are in town against the Brew Crew.

So there you go.

So anyway, what's worse, your chance to have your voice heard across the state of Wisconsin.

Here is the category today and on a day like today.

in Madison right now, mostly sunny skies.

Could be some rough weather for parts of Wisconsin tonight into tomorrow, so be aware of that.

But you have the allergies going on, right?

All the trees leaving out.

Do you say leaving out or budding out or blossoming out?

I

don't know.

I would probably say blossoming or blooming.

All right, very good.

And you got the flowers and all that, which is fantastic.

But for people of allergies, no fun at all.

And then with weather like this, you've got sunburn.

So the category today, what's worse, allergies or sunburn, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

You can also text us on the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, you'll want to download it because on Friday we're going to continue our free Friday ticket giveaway big time show.

And it's, we're giving away a four pack of tickets.

on this show alone, as well as on the other network shows, your chance to, and that's the great thing about it.

You can listen all day to Crite Low in the morning, Jane McNair from nine until 11 along Greg Bach, then you got the Tom Hartman show, then us, then Maggie Dawn, then Pete Schwabba.

And on each of these shows, you can listen and text in during, we'll give you a word for that particular show.

And just from those entries alone on that show, we pick a winner on Fridays.

And those winners get a game with four tickets to the.

Civic media seats will call the clubs.

They're very nice seats in the club section of Ampham field.

So the point is, you got to have your app ready to go.

Go to your app store, type in civic CIVIC.

It'll come up, takes less than a minute to download.

It is free.

It's what CBS's Gale King calls a deal.

The civic media apps on Texas or call us on days.

What's worse, allergies.

or sunburn 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 let's go to the phone lines brian listing on w a uk in milwaukee brian allergies or sunburn what's worse

hey guys uh from experience i'm gonna say allergies just because they're trickier in my point of view to prevent or treat you know because once once allergies get into your system right there's the eyes

the nasal sprays, you know, and all that, at least with sunburn prevention, you can at least put on sunscreen.

And if you do get sunburn, then you at least can use yellow treatment or you know, wear a hat or something like that.

But once the allergies get in your system, you're miserable.

And it's not just for a few days.

And a lot of people are dealing with allergies right now.

And they're lasting like a week and a half, two weeks just for one dot of allergies.

Does yours depend on on whether or not

Like well the year-to-year because I my allergies have gotten worse, but like so far knock on wood They haven't been that bad this year

You know what's what's funny is it's like pre-covid.

I never used to have allergy problems really maybe sometimes with my parents and it was only when I would you know visit my parents and

You know, you could tell there was dander in the air and stuff like that, but now I'm on this purifier at home.

I live with her.

She tries to, you know, keep the pet dander down, but it seems like since COVID, my eyes would water all the time and then I'm sneezing all the time.

And now it's at the point where I literally have to take a Zertuck.

I use phone haze and I use eye drops for my allergies.

They're that bad.

And it just seems like they keep, if everyone tells me

this, if they just keep getting worse.

Yeah, interesting.

Well, take care of yourself, Brian.

Hope for you.

Thanks.

Appreciate the call.

Appreciate the listenership.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What's worse?

Today's category, allergies or sunburn.

On the text line, Chris listening in beautiful Rock County in Janesville on WMDX says, until I turned 48, I would have said sunburn is worse.

Now that I somehow have allergies,

I'm going to get a sunburn at four, but 48 seemed to be the key there.

Okay.

Uh, interesting.

Uh, Christie listening up a beautiful WCFW in Eau Claire.

I'll be up there next week for my youngest niece's graduation.

Christine Eau Claire says sunburn hurts, but goes away.

Allergies are all summer long.

So allergies are worse.

You can feel sick.

for months.

Yeah, that's that's the thing at Lingers, right?

Matt in Madison, or pardon me, Matt Middleton, listening on WMDX says sunburn is far worse, worse, as you can end up looking like some of those hideous gold digger women who frequent Mar-a-Lago or even orange like the man himself, gross.

I watch I'm laughing because I think it was last night at NBC.

They had like a Joan Rivers.

Do you know who that is?

Yeah Joan Rivers for those who might not know was a comedian a groundbreaker.

What really she was one of the first big women I mean she in comedy and she ended up co-host or was the permanent guest host of the tonight show when Johnny Carson would go on vacation and then was the first woman to have a late night show of her own and it took 18 years

until Chelsea Handler was the next woman to to host a late night show.

It's a pioneer in entertainment.

Anyway, she was she was she passed away like 10 years ago.

So they had this tribute to her last night on NBC.

I watched a little bit of it and some of her jokes.

Oh my gosh.

I mean, really raunchy and really funny.

And she was going after, you know, you know, cougars and gold diggers and women had, you know, plastic surgery and everything.

And.

We make fun about women's body parts that I can't say on the air, but we're really funny.

Joe, I'd forgotten how funny Joan Rivers was is well was Greg and Genesee Depot on the subject at hand.

What's worse says sunburn is the worst Tyler listed in Columbia County on WM DX sunburn is the worst I live in my IT world closet and light burns I'll go back to my cave now.

Oh, that's true, right?

People that work indoors all the time.

It's certainly harder

Megan, listening in beautiful Sun Prairie here in Dane County, hometown, well, not the hometown.

It's right down the street from Luke Mather's house on WMDX, says allergies are worse, especially food allergies and sensitivities.

Stomachs are difficult to diagnose when there's a problem.

Well, that's kind of a whole, I guess we can clarify.

but that's a whole different kind of allergy, food allergies.

I think the category refers to seasonal pollen type of allergies.

Allergies or sunburn, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Zabbers, what's worse?

I think I'm gonna have to go with the call we got earlier from Brian in Milwaukee and the text are saying that allergies are worse because you can feel sick for months.

I lately, the last few years have not had nearly as bad seasonal allergies as I did.

But when I was younger, it was debilitating for in the spring and the fall where like I'd go and help my dad with something outside.

Well, just kidding.

Nope.

I'm going to have to sit in the truck the entire time because I can't breathe.

Sneezing all the time, running nose, all that kind of stuff.

Like I said, might have gotten worse as I've gotten older, except so far this year, I'm a little.

Stuffed up a little more nasal than normal right now, but not as bad as I have been in other years I would say that Sun are pardon me the allergies are worse because as other callers have said Sunburn kind of lasts for two or three days the worst part of it if you really get burned again use some I don't call it lotion, but

Some of them are suntan lotion

or

some kind of blocker sunscreen.

So that's the word thank you use sunscreen folks That's the key use sunscreen and you won't have the sunburn,

but it's easier to prevent for most people some people burn super easily But for most people it's easier to prevent sunburn

usually yeah, so I'm gonna say that Allergies are worse if you still want to dial in we'll take a couple more calls eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two Bob in sock city says sunburn is worse

can't get cancer from allergies.

Well said, Bob.

Well said.

We'll come back and talk a little Ron Johnson.

He's threatening to tank the big, beautiful bill.

Stay with us as the all ball show in Civic Media.

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show in the Civic Media Ready Network.

Twenty two minutes now past the hour three o'clock.

Glad to have you along on this hump day.

Beautiful skies right now here in Madison downtown Madison on State Street.

Some big white fluffy clouds.

They turn into storm clouds later on.

So in all seriousness, so weather could get rough later on tonight and tomorrow.

So be aware of that particularly.

And I'm talking a really rough.

why I say central Wisconsin, basically take far western Wisconsin and far eastern off the board and it's everything else.

So it's kind of a wide swath, some unstable weather coming in, but keep an eye to the sky here.

But right now it's absolutely beautiful.

Here's the thing pursuing truth was what we say.

Sometimes time makes a mistake.

I fast up to it, I own up to it.

So here's what's happened.

The attorneys we always talk about are listening to the show and the sensors, the civic media attorney sensors have called in and called me.

I did not give accurate information on the big free ticket Friday brewery giveaway earlier this hour and I need to correct myself.

Yes,

we must issue a correction.

First of all, first.

and most importantly, this is a statewide contest.

It is a statewide contest.

Yes, that's the most important thing.

Now, here's the deal.

We're running this on Fridays for the rest of the Brewer's season.

And you could have a chance to win on the Pat Critello show.

Mornings at Pat Critello, which airs across most of the network.

Also on Mino and the Mayor, which airs in Green Bay and Oshkosh.

on John and Gordy, which airs here in Madison, on Matt Naran Air with Jane and Greg from nine until 11 across the network.

The Tom Hartman show has an opportunity to win.

We do.

And then the Maggie Dawn show from four until six.

So those are the correct time slots.

And the other thing is that we'll have one four pack winner each Friday, not for each show.

I misspoke on that.

Right, and so what you get is not five chances to win a set of tickets.

You get five, or sorry, this is difficult to phrase.

You don't get five chances to win four tickets each show.

You get up to five chances per day for one set of tickets.

You made it much more difficult

than it

needed to be.

You get five chances to win a set of tickets.

That's the bottom line.

I really, I really need to start going to the meetings.

So no, this is, but this is great.

This is great.

It's still, you get, there are four tickets of the beautiful club level seats up for grabs each Friday and you can enter so that the bottom line is the more you listen to civic media on Fridays, the greater the chance is that you can enter, which increases your chances to win that one set of four tickets.

Yes.

Friday.

Yes.

Did I get it right now?

That's correct.

Very good.

All right, that's good.

We got the paperwork out of the way.

855-752-4842.

We got Jack and Merrimack.

Thank goodness, Jack.

Get us back on track here.

You wanted to weigh in on what's worse, allergies or sunburn.

Jack, what's worse?

Well,

I was a professional lifeguard for six years.

and

know

all how it's under and that you could possibly imagine.

I also had allergies.

I was 11 or 12 years old, but 10 years ago, I connected with a doctor who was an allergy specialist and then he started me on the series of shots.

Today I'm about 95% allergy free.

So, you know, you can

cure allergies to a certain extent.

Um, I still have a, I was a swimmer for a long time too,

and I

still have an allergy to chlorine water and they don't have a cure for that one.

Really?

Now, Jack is a former lifeguard.

Uh, what do you feel is the best sunscreen to use to protect, uh, protect people outside?

Well, you know, um,

almost anything that's got an SPF of like 30 or so I would say.

My preference was back in the day for a thing called Bullfrog, which doesn't exist anymore.

I guess you can find some old bottles still full on eBay I've run across once or twice.

But regarding sunburn, I have a regular six month appointment with a dermatologist and

About every other appointment, he burns some stuff off of my face or other body parts that were exposed, shall we say, that are probably the direct result of all those sunburns.

So I would definitely say sunburn is more dangerous, although people can have very dangerous allergies too.

I wouldn't

doubt

that.

That's a great

point, Jack.

The consequences of long-term exposure and sunburn like that, those could be life-threatening.

the face cancers and that sort of thing.

I mean, if you don't catch those early enough.

And so prevention is the key, right, Jack?

Slather on the SPF 35 or 40 or even 50 and, you know, or wear a brimmed hat, something like that if you can be outside.

All of the above, actually.

And if you already have a lot of exposure, preventive maintenance is a real critical thing,

especially

at

my age.

Well, you're still pretty spry, Jack, I think.

I mean, your voice sounds spry.

So we always appreciate you calling in.

Thanks, Jack and Mary back.

All right, so here's a good question, by the way.

Teresa, listening in Madison on WMDX on the Brewer's Friday ticket giveaway, she asks if the tickets were given away on Friday are for the game.

No, they aren't.

That's a great question.

Each giveaway day is going to have a specific game.

And so, at least in our show, I tell you what that game is.

So you have to be able to go to that game and you cannot exchange it for a different game.

So

and it'll always be at least a few days ahead of time, right?

You're never gonna have to figure out.

Oh, do I need to change my plans today?

No, it'll always be at least in the next week

One of our listeners Kurt Texan what's worse is trying to figure out your giveaways.

What the heck are you guys talking about?

That's pretty good.

I like that one.

By the way, the Brewers won nine to five over the Guardians.

How about that?

As Mel Kuiper once said, come on back.

We'll get around.

We'll finally get to the story of Ron Johnson, threatening to take the big, beautiful bill in Washington, D.C.

News, weather and sports is next at the All Balls show on the Pacific media.

Ready to know.

on the Civic Media Ready Network.

35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock on this beautiful Wednesday.

As the meteorology team said, some parts of the state may get some rough weather later on tonight into tomorrow, so be aware of that.

But enjoying the day here so far on a sunny afternoon in downtown Madison.

Gonna get to the story in political on Ron Johnson a minute, but one more phone call on our subject, our category from what's worse today.

What's worse?

Allergies or sunburn we go out to beautiful spring green listening to the RCE and Richland Center Mike and spring green Mike.

Thanks for calling allergies or sunburn.

What's worse?

Well, well, I think sunburn is worse because it's dangerous, but the last guy you had was, you know, you were talking about a preventative and something I have is a couple of shirts with that actually have SPF ratings.

Yes,

and one has a hood and we're looking for that cloth because we want to make skirts for our kayaks So our legs are covered as well, but I wear those things when I swim and they're kind of like light nylon and they work great

so

I appreciate you mentioned that I actually have on right now one of my LL bean shirts that is has that in it I have a I have a couple of shirts and a pair of pants that Have that ufb protection in it and they they say it's good for Anywhere between 50 and 75 washes before it really starts to kind of deteriorate so hey anything

In most cases I swim in freshwater lakes with it

I don't wash them maybe every three times or so that I use them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Great tip.

Appreciate it, Mike.

Thanks.

Have a great day out there.

A beautiful spring green in Southwest Wisconsin.

All right, let's get to this story of Politico today.

Our very own Wisconsin U.S.

Senator Republican Ron Johnson threatened to tank the Republican mega bill.

And the headline says he's been there before.

Ron Johnson is no stranger to being a squeaky wheel inside the Senate GOP.

Now he's asking for trillions of dollars worth of grease.

The frequently contankerous Wisconsin senators pushing his fellow Republicans to deliver huge spending cuts as part of their party line domestic policy bill.

and vowing to block President Donald Trump's top legislative priorities if his demands, which are shared by a small cadre of fiscal hawks, aren't met.

As the mega bill moves through the house, Johnson increasingly is vocal in his warnings and there are early indicator for the U.S.

Senate GOP leadership and the White House that they've got major headaches awaiting them across the Capitol.

Senate Republicans can only afford to lose three people, have three defections on the expected party line vote.

Johnson said in an interview where he described his insistence on returning to the federal government to quote, unquote, pre-pendelt

levels of spending, he said, quote, I think there is enough of us that would say no, that's not adequate, unquote.

Now, the math according to Politico issue, the math issue that is created for Republicans is stark.

If the House GOP is struggling to hit the 1.5 trillion with a T in spending cuts, while Johnson and his allies want to go much, much further.

returning to the level of federal expenditures that predates multiple rounds of pandemic stimulus.

A major infrastructure bill and the Democrats own domestic policy mega bill would, by Johnson's own estimation, require more than six trillion cuts.

So again, the House right now trying to hit 1.5, struggling to do that, Johnson insisting on

Six now again I'm somebody who is I don't have a problem with with spending cuts when you look at an agency or something a program and Do an evaluation in Wisconsin?

We have an audit bureau for years and years led by a great person Jan Mueller Who was kind of the equivalent to Bob Lang who runs the Legislative Fiscal Bureau?

Nobody questioned Jan Mueller

when she was the director of the audit bureau here in Wisconsin, because she did it right down the middle, as they say.

She didn't take sides.

She looked at the numbers.

She reported it as it was.

You could trust what she said.

I think we need the same thing at the federal level.

Of course, much harder to do, much bigger budget, much different agencies.

But you can look at certain agencies, certain programs and say, is this working?

What is being funded?

Is that what taxpayers are getting back?

And if not Then there are some cuts to be had On the flip side It's Indisputable that to get the cuts that the Republicans are talking about in Congress right now whether it's 1.5 trillion in the house or this ridiculous goal of Johnson's at 6 trillion in the Senate There ain't no way you're gonna get there

unless A, you gut Medicaid, Medicare programs and start going after social security and or you tax the ultra rich.

And I want to be clear about this because some people confuse this a little bit.

Well, you know, millionaires should be paying their fair share.

Look, there are farmers in Wisconsin.

There are small, truly small business people in Wisconsin who make a million dollars plus a year.

You know,

Gross.

But they also pay a lot out.

I'm talking about the Elon Musk's of the world, the billionaires, the people like Trump who pay a lot of money for attorneys and lawyers and accountants and find loopholes so that the richest, the one percenters in this country pay the least amount of taxes.

Meanwhile, folks like you and me are, you know, shelling out a lot of our income.

And look, I don't mind, well, nobody likes paying taxes.

But as long as I know it's going to services that I enjoy, or my friends and neighbors enjoy, I get it.

It's how you gotta run the country.

But, and there's part of me that really thinks that all this stuff about the plane and guitar and all the, I actually think Trump wants the plane.

But we spend so much time, and I'll put myself in this box,

I spend so much time talking about the firehose of information every day, the headline, that I don't think we've talked enough about, at least on this program, about what's going on with this budget in Washington, DC, because this stuff, these cuts that Republicans want to make all the name of quote unquote fiscal conservatism, is going to have the biggest impact on us as Wisconsinites.

And as a former Republican, let me tell you what the Republicans right now, the MAGA folks are doing.

There's nothing fiscally conservative about it.

They want to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars, mortgaging our kids and grandkids future.

When I worked for a Republican member of Congress in the 90s, they worked in a bipartisan fashion with Democratic President Bill Clinton, and they got rid of the deficit.

Then along came 9-11 and spending on that war then you had the pandemic of course so Ron Johnson is this is just pie in the sky.

This is just There's no way you can hit this mark Unless you just gut programs And that's gonna be really interesting to see how this moves forward because if Johnson is truly serious and he's done this before he's dug in

Then Republicans are going to need at least a handful of Democrats to cross over to pass this 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 LA Tom watching on YouTube YouTube says we should only be speaking about Medicare Medicaid and Social Security We should hear from your callers about how important these programs are to them

It's a great thought, LA.

Anybody, and here's, we've talked a little bit about on this show before, there's a stereotype that is held up by my former party, that somehow people that receive assistance are lazy, don't want to work, you know, just lying around.

But again, these programs are helping our parents and our grandparents

who are in nursing homes.

These programs are helping people all over the state, not just in blue voting counties, but red voting counties.

If you look at who receives these benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, these are safety net programs.

And in many cases, people who have retired, they might get some retirement, but that Social Security check, whatever it is, is very important.

And I want to be really clear and really careful.

So far, keywords so far, what is being talked about amongst these cuts.

As best I know, no one's talking about taking away payments from people who are currently on social security.

And that's, there are people out there that want to use this to score political points.

And it scares the bejesus out of senior citizens who rely on this.

And I think those are cheap shots and I distance myself from those.

No one that I've heard this reputable so far has said, we're going to change what people are currently getting on Social Security.

But hey, I'm 55.

I'm in that category where I'm hoping I might get some of it back, but I don't know if I'm going to get all of it back.

But certainly people 40 and younger.

That's what we're talking about here.

that Social Security might not be a thing for that generation and people paying into it.

And instead of drawing lines in the sand, like Ron Johnson is here, what we really need is what Tip O'Neill, very liberal, big-time Democrat from Massachusetts, Speaker of the House in the 1980s, and an adversary of

Republican Ronald Reagan, the president.

But they found a way in the 80s to sit down and at least for, you know, 35, 40 years, save social security.

We need more people like that who are very ardent and say, look, I'm a Republican, I'm a Democrat.

We're not changing each other on that.

But we have to find these basic things that keep our community, that keep our country going.

To come to some bipartisan agreement on.

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

Cameron Appleton says, I put 10 years worth of money so far into it, I'll eat.

I'll eat someone if I don't get it back.

Just a joke like saying, you know, and I really hope this sticks around.

Yeah, absolutely.

They're very important programs to a number of our folks.

And again, Ron Johnson just, you know, posturing.

Not my cup of tea.

Anyway, I want to bring that up.

We'll talk more about this as the budget moves forward.

Gonna change gears from the focus being on older folks to younger folks, new, uh, not totally polling, I guess new data from futurefreespeech.org, futurefreespeech.org.

Headline, young American support for free speech declines.

In both 2021 and 2024, nationally representative groups of 18 to 34 year olds in the United States were asked whether they believe people should be able to express various potentially controversial statements and a smaller percentage agreed in 2024 than in 2021.

This is fascinating to me and a little.

quite frankly disturbing.

Will Zomers is in that category.

We'll ask him on the other side, take your phone calls as well.

It is a Wednesday edition of the Todd Albao Show across the state of Wisconsin, and you're listening to the Civic Media, radio network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Welcome back to the time I'll show on the civic media media network where it is now eight before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour.

ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to across the state of Wisconsin, a weather update again, whether it could get rough over parts of Wisconsin later on tonight and into tomorrow.

So keep aware of that.

Sports update from our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens Brewers.

Can I win finally in Cleveland this afternoon over the?

The Guardians of Cincinnati, nine to five brew crew wins and they'll return home to Milwaukee for a series against the Minnesota Twins starting on Friday.

Broadcast time set for 1135 on Friday across select stations in the Civic Media Ready Network.

I hope one of your stations has been selected.

And then after that, after the weather and sports update, Maggie Dawn from Four Until Six and Pete Schwabba.

every evening from six until eight for night light with Pete Schwab.

Always a great program.

A couple of phone calls to clean up eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Let's go quickly to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, listening on WMDX.

Steve and Beaver Dam, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

Yeah.

Well, I'm a call, I'm a retired postal worker.

And when I joined back in the early nineties,

We were part of what they call the fur system the federal employee retirement system now you're that that's a three-part system One of which is social security.

So it's really it's literally part of your retirement package So now they're talking about getting you know Trying to cut so security you're cutting the retirement for postal workers.

Yeah another federal workers

No, that that's I totally you're absolutely right Steven and thank you first of all for being a postal carrier all those years You guys and gals don't get enough credit for everything you have to do for the rest of us But you earn that that's the point right is that is that yeah federal work?

I mean whoever pays in you've earned that it's not like people are getting a handout here

No, they used to have a bed what I always thought was a better retirement system, but they got rid of that in the 80s.

I think it was

And, you know, that was, you got like 75, 80% of your final three or whatever salary.

And then they went to this system where you pay into your 401k, you pay into your pension, small pension, and then you pay into Social Security.

It's a three-pronged system.

It's supposed to make up for the stuff that they took away.

Now they're talking about cutting Social Security, it takes away from what you thought you were getting.

Yeah, I really appreciate the call, Steve.

Thank you so much.

855-752-4842.

Let's go quickly out to LA Tom Los Angles, California.

LA, if you can make a brief, I'm up against the clock here.

I gotta get this last story, but go ahead.

Yep, Todd, I gotta push back at you.

Don't you dare say, I'm 55 and I hope it's there.

That is total BS.

You have paid into that system your whole life.

This is an earned benefit.

This is not a...

a welfare type program.

And on top of that, all they have to do is scrap the cap of people that make more than $160,000 a year and social security would be solvent for the next 50 hundred longer years.

So don't fall into that where I hope it's there and things like that.

You need to stand strong and say it will be there.

And if not, then the people that I

that represent me will be gone.

Their assets will be out.

Well, I mean, I agree with your attitude, but I'm also practical enough to understand that I alone, I mean, I think it's just, I think it's good financial planning to say, look, you have to be prepared for anything that could happen.

You can't, you know, none of us can control the future.

You have your radio show, you have your radio show, and you need to make sure everyone out there is not saying, I hope it's there.

You need to make sure everyone, we are a democracy still.

So therefore, before we become a complete authoritarian dictatorship, I don't want to hear the hope and things like that.

No, we paid into it.

I'm

not saying that it shouldn't be here.

I think you're taking my comment a little too literally, quite frankly.

I mean, yes, I want it to be there.

I plan on it being there.

Again, you know, it's it's in these days, we can't necessarily always say everything is 100%.

But I hope you'll keep listening.

Always great to hear from Tom and LA.

All right, I want to get to this.

This is from the future free speech dot or G in both twenty twenty one and twenty twenty four nationally representative groups of 18 to 34 year olds.

in which Zomers is in that category in the US, we're asked whether they believe people should be able to express various potentially controversial statements.

And it turns out that fewer people in the 18 to 34 year old category are saying this.

The first question, people should be able to express statements that, one, are offensive to minority groups.

Now, that has not changed.

59% in 2021, 59% in 2024 say that, yes, people should be able to

say things that are offensive.

Like, for instance, when you get, you know, 20 yahoos that call themselves Nazis with small genitalia and they put on hoods up at the Capitol and they march around.

Now they're complete idiots, but under the Constitution, do they have the right to do that?

Yes.

That's the kind of thing we're talking about.

Uh, next one.

Should people be able to express themselves that are offensive to your religion and beliefs?

In 2021, 71% said yes.

In 2024, only 57%.

said yes.

That is a

concerning decline.

Uh, yeah.

Uh, next one, people should be able to express statements that support homosexual relationships.

79% said yes, that should be allowed in 2021, now only 59% in 2024.

What's up with your generation, Zauberts?

I, I don't know.

Uh, Joe Rogan, um, more so Andrew Tate.

People I can really entertain.

Oh, yeah, he's he is the

last one should be should you be able to insult the national flag?

71% of 18 to 34 year old said yes, you should be able to in 2021 now only 43% Wow say yes Folks freedom of expression is a constitutional right and that is something I can guarantee

Stay tuned, Maggie taught us next.

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

Keep banging your drum.

We'll see you tomorrow.

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