Transcript
Recapping The WI GOP Convention with Tom Kertscher (Hour 2)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Mon May 19, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Chad Albault, along with our producer and engineer, the fantastic Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.
It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.
Welcome into hour number two on the big program here.
It is Monday, May 19th, 2025.
It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.
Well, I would say mostly cloudy skies here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media, looking out the windows over State Street, Zomers.
A little cool, probably, Zomers, this is exactly your kind of weather, right?
Cool?
this
You know, I
And I'm happy for you.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm happy for you that it matches your body temperature.
I like it a little warmer.
I also know I am
Well, in that regard, in that regard, yes.
But in the warm of, I think, by the weekend, maybe back up into the 60s, but going to be a cool week, a little rain coming in, but many of the parts of Wisconsin could still use some rain, particularly in Southwest Wisconsin.
So it's all good for them.
Anyway, coming up a little bit later this hour, we're going to do our what's worse edition today, an egg, EGG, an egg edition.
Study sign up.
or over easy.
We'll discuss that a little while and some other news along the way, but right now we are joined on a Monday by folks from Wisconsin to watch.
Here's the deal.
We had Jack Kelly and he was fantastic, but after only a couple three weeks.
He said I can't stand all ball.
I'm out of here I'm leaving Wisconsin watch.
I'm going somewhere else and This is
That's not what
He got another opportunity as they say at the University of Wisconsin.
We're very happy for him But now now we're equally as happy and thrilled for it to be joined by a brand-new guest here on the show another great Wisconsin watch reporter He is Tom Kircher and he joins us live via stream
Tom, welcome.
How are you?
Hey, Todd, very good.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate
it.
Well, we appreciate you and thank you after I was jilted by Kelly.
It's nice that you've come on to fill the role here.
Before we get into it,
I know you're
at the Wisconsin Republican Party Convention this weekend.
I'm sorry for that.
But before we get into that, let's get into a little bit of who you are, where you grew up, and how you got into journalism.
Yeah, thanks for asking.
So I grew up in Cedarburg, town of about 10,000, a little bit north of Milwaukee, took a journalism class kind of by accident in high school, decided I wanted to be a newspaper reporter.
So I pursued that at UW Madison, worked at the Badger Herald.
after graduation, worked for newspapers in Oklahoma, Illinois, California.
Got a master's degree along the way at Ohio State.
Excuse me.
And then made a homecoming in 1998, came to work for the Milwaukee Journal Sutnell.
Was a news reporter there for 20 years.
Took a buyout, like many of us, in 2019.
Worked for myself for almost six years, freelancing for
Politifact, Associated Press, Milwaukee Magazine, a variety of publications, including eventually Wisconsin Watch, a freelance for them for about a year and a half doing fact check stories.
And then in October came on full time at Wisconsin Watch, and I continued to do fact briefs as we call them, fact checking mostly politicians, and doing some other reporting, including things like
covering the COP convention over the weekend.
Wow, this is fantastic because I know this is a dated term.
I have to update it.
But you are a quintessential, I would call, newspaper man.
You've been around, you've been to a lot of publications, and no offense against anybody else in any forms of media.
But in my many years at the State Capitol working with the press,
Usually newspaper men women people but people work in newspapers tend to be in my opinion more detailed oriented they ask more specific questions and Well, what I first started the building in 1992 I think there was the luxury then of having time to suss out stories talk a minute about the change in that industry because when I left the building in 2015 you had fewer newspaper people under
much tighter deadlines, having to file multiple stories in a day, which I think is to the detriment of sussing out the truth.
Yeah, well, thanks for the kind words.
I think, you know, and newspaper reporters generally do seek to be their own detail oriented.
And, you know, for most of my career,
Newspapers have a lot of primacy.
Everybody read the paper.
It seemed like people knew your name.
People read your stories.
And that's changed not only with newspapers, but other legacy media over the years.
There's still really outstanding newspaper reporters in Wisconsin that we're very fortunate to have that.
In the meantime, we have the development of some other media, including Wisconsin Watch, which is a nonprofit.
news women news website.
And so we don't print publications like newspapers, but we do stories like newspapers in a sense, we're not out there on a daily basis, producing many different stories like the Wisconsin State Journal or the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
We try to take a step back and do some deeper dives into stories, primarily from a watchdog investigative point of
view.
Well, I, like you said, I mean, one of the guys, I mean, Steve Walters, who was at the journal sent over years and years and years, and now he's at Wisconsin.
I mean, those are the type of people that I've really admired over the years and, and glad to have you aboard and great to have you here, Tom.
All right.
Thank you.
Let's, my pleasure.
Let's get into a little bit.
You were up in Rothschild, right?
And I've, uh, as a former Republican for almost 30 years left the party in 2011, I've been to my share of Republican party conventions.
And as I said, you have my sympathies for that.
Uh, they, they tend to, they're, they're unusual events.
I haven't been to one of the years and years, any big takeaways, newsy items from the Republican party of Wisconsin convention.
Uh, you know, let me maybe paint a picture for you first.
So your, as you mentioned, the, the.
convention was in Rothschild, a small village near Warsaw.
Rothschild actually has a convention center, expo center.
So you could picture sort of a standard ballroom where the convention itself was sold on Saturday.
And then just outside that ballroom was a kind of a narrow hallway where people could hang out a little bit.
And there were quite a few tables for groups that were handing out literature and information like that.
So, you know, pretty standard about 500 delegates.
These are mostly, I would call them grassroots or activist type people from around the state.
Some of them are involved in their county Republican Party.
Others are not.
Others just showed up as interested Republicans.
You know, in terms of news, there weren't big announcements.
There wasn't, let's say, a surprise announcement for candidate for governor, for example.
None of that.
What I tried to do, and again, Wisconsin Watch, taking a little bit of a different approach to covering the news, is tried to toggle myself, if you will, between keeping an ear on the convention floor, seeing what was happening there, who was saying what.
Sure.
But also stepping outside the ballroom and interviewing ranked file Republicans.
I tried to focus a little bit more on that, and I was able to speak to nine different delegates from around the state.
What was your what was your takeaway from those delegates those I'll call them party activists What was your your biggest takeaway as a reporter just listening to them?
What did they want to talk with you about?
Mm-hmm Well, you know I decided directed the conversation but first of all just ask them simply why they were there and and then get into some questions I tried to focus on two things.
I wanted to hear what they thought of President Trump's
first four months in office.
And then secondly, looking ahead a little bit, what were they seeking from members of their own party with an eye toward 2026 and who might be running for governor?
And did you, when you brought up President Trump, were they all still very, very enthused?
Or were there anybody that said expressed to you, well, you know, I voted for the guy, but I've been a little disappointed in X.
You know, the nine people who I button hold, they're all very enthusiastic, particularly with regard to the speed of things.
You know, there's other people out there who maybe are not fans of the president who might be bewildered, overwhelmed by just a sheer number and breadth of the actions he's taken in office.
You know, these people, as you might imagine, were excited about it.
They felt like, here's a guy who promised he would do A, B, C, D, and E. And boy, he's jumped in full speed on those things and more.
I don't think any of them volunteered any reservations or disappointments.
And I did ask each one after they described what they liked or how they assessed his term so far, if they had any disappointments or things they opposed.
There's a little bit of that.
little bit of accurate.
This has been very mild for the most part.
People very enthused about the first four months.
I think this is really, really important reporting because on this program and others, not just our network, other places, I think what we hear a lot or talk about a lot is, oh, my gosh, I mean, look at what Trump is doing.
This is abhorrent.
He's he's attacking the Constitution.
He's getting rid of due process.
You know, the list goes on and on.
I think it's important to remember to contextualize it.
There are still a lot of people, and probably I would say the majority of the 500 delegates this weekend, a lot of people are like, yeah, that's what I voted for.
That's my president.
I'm all in on this.
Yeah, I mean, there was no hesitation on the part of the people I spoke to.
Very happy that he's cracking down.
immigration there.
That was a common one.
Very happy that he's trying to go after some tax pets.
Even tariffs, you know, tariffs have been received with a more mixed response from Republicans, largely opposed by Americans on the whole.
But even with tariffs, people were like, you know, let's, yeah, I worried about my 401k retirement account.
One of the delegates told me after the tariffs were first emerging.
But she's sort of repeating the line, if you will, of patience, that there might be some pain short term.
But this is going to be worthwhile because they believe that there will eventually be more manufacturing jobs, for example, in the United States compared to what there are now.
So yeah, even with things that are more controversial, they were still on this side for sure.
A little over a minute before we have to take a break here, we're talking with Tom Kircher from the Wisconsin Watch publication.
You can find all of his work and many other great stories at Wisconsin spelled out the entire word, WisconsinWatch.org.
That's WisconsinWatch.org.
I want to come back and talk about kind of this.
You kind of alluded to it, what people's thoughts were for both the Wisconsin governor race coming up next year and even looking at it to 2028 for the presidential race.
But before that, in the minute or so we have left here, Brian Arthur Schimming.
the chairman of the state republican party going in there was some talk about they wanted to take him out he has survived uh shimmy has survived again we can report that correct
correct you know he was just unanimously reappointed by the state gop executive committee in december so might be a little surprising that this soon after that there was uh some talk about possibly getting rid of him among some republicans but that really did not
emerged during the convention.
He seems to be safe for the moment, for sure.
He has hunkered down and he has survived.
Also, there's a big kerfuffle on seating the state party treasurer who lost a race for delegate in our county.
And how long did they debate that?
Oh, you know, that was part of the time where I was sort of dashing in and out.
I was doing that at a sort of inside baseball.
But
they finally sat her.
She survived as well.
Come on back, more with Tom on the other side.
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having fun doing it.
Welcome back to Top of All Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
Twenty-two minutes down past the hour of three o'clock.
We are in the middle of our Monday Wisconsin Watch check-in.
WisconsinWatch.org.
You can find all these stories at WisconsinWatch.org.
We are talking with Tom Kircher via StreamYard, one of the great reporters there.
At Wisconsin launch he was at the Republican Party of Wisconsin Convention over the weekend and Rothschild where Brian Arthur shimming I like saying his whole name Brian Arthur shimming the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party survived Going into it.
They made it seem to be more of a kerfuffle than maybe it actually was but he has survived his party chairman and Tom
To
me, one of
the interesting things was I know you've done some reporting and talking to people.
I know the folks that was politics did an actual poll on who they would vote for.
If the election were held today for Wisconsin governor, what did you hear in some of your reporting?
So I think the consensus among the people I spoke to about that was that it's so early and they really want to the delegates would like to hear more from more people.
A couple of the delegates were familiar with that showman, the Washington County executive, who was the only announced candidate for governor on the Republican side.
One woman in particular came at county, met with him and some other of her fellow Republicans in that area.
And she came away very impressed as a young military background guy that she thought had good potential.
A couple of others mentioned Tom Tiffany, the congressman from Northern Wisconsin.
He has not announced, but there's been quite a bit of talk about him.
His speech notably spent a lot of time criticizing Governor Evers.
Surprise, surprise.
Those were the only two names really that emerged among the people I talked
to.
I know it's with politics, but I bring it up for the for the fun of it because I like this kind of stuff.
They do this straw poll.
They do it every every year that both Republican and Democratic conventions, they ask these type of poll straw poll questions.
And for those listening that might.
No, there's there's you don't have to show an ID.
Well, I think I think it's some of you have to show you're a delegate.
But other than that, you know, it's just it's just basically for fun.
But showman Josh showman, the business guy who's announced or the walkway to Washington County executive, right?
Got 110 votes in the West politics straw poll.
Tom Tiffany, 103.
Then it went down to Eric of D 30 34 Pat Teston, State Senator 12.
And then just a scattering after
that from people I hear that I still talk to me in the Republican party, I think Tom Tiffany is indeed serious.
Like he's going to make a real run for this.
Do you think there's any internal momentum based on what you heard at the state convention?
Or as you said, is it just people aren't paying attention yet?
Yeah, it does seem to be really early.
And I think the people I spoke to certainly are open to him as a candidate along with showman.
I think they're interested to hear more.
from both of those men and expecting that they're very likely to be other candidates as well.
You know, a big variable, I guess, in all of this is whether Governor Evers decides to run for a third term or not.
If he runs, that's one set of dynamics.
You've got an incumbent who's been relatively popular.
If he doesn't run, it's an open seat.
Perhaps that attracts more Republicans to jump
in.
We banter around here in the office today, the wording of this.
The wording, the question was, quote, the US Constitution limits presidents to serving two terms, barring a change to that law.
Whom would you support if the 2028 GOP primary for president were held today?
Unquote.
I said, it makes perfect sense for me because I think if you just ask people in my former party, who would you support for president in 2028?
They just say Trump, right?
I think they had to qualify the question.
I suppose so.
There's certainly been a lot of talk, including from Trump himself, sort of dangling this possibility of seeking a third term despite the Constitution.
Yeah, it seemed like Matt is surprised at all that rank and file Republicans would line up behind JD Vance as sort of there.
Vance
got 191 votes in the straw poll Ron DeSantis came in a distant second at 22 then as Trump calls him little Marco Rubio at 15 and Donald Trump Jr at 13.
So anyway, these are parlor games We play in these these party events, but I find it interesting any other quick takeaways from the state Republican convention before we move on Tom
Oh, you know, I think you've hit the highlights, you know, it really was for the most part
a calm affair, I would say.
I mean, there's certainly the enthusiasm there.
Ron Johnson rubbing up the crowd about growing deficits and growing debt and Tiffany rubbing up the crowd with criticism of evers.
But, you know, a little bit of tension here and there and on some, what do you might describe as inside baseball issues, but for the most part, certainly seem like an orderly and pretty enthusiastic together.
Speaking of Senator Ron Johnson, he's one of these.
He calls himself a ultra Uber fiscal conservative.
But he's one of these people saying, hey, not so fast.
I'm not ready to pass Trump's quote unquote big, beautiful bill until I get more spending cuts.
Meanwhile, guys like Derek Van Orton, the congressman of the third district is all in on Trump.
You know, there may be a little dissension within the Republican Party ranks in Wisconsin there at the federal level.
Yeah, there is.
You know, Johnson has been pretty consistent about.
his view of the need to cut spending.
He gives speech after speech or interview after interview talking about how much deficits have grown and particularly since COVID shutdown time and arguing for the need to cut spending.
So then you've got that in contrast with folks who are lining up behind the president and what's called the big beautiful bill and that'll be interesting to see.
Oh, that plays out.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Right up against the clock, Tom, but I'd love to have you come back.
You wrote this great story.
People should check it out at WisconsinWatch.org called bipartisan support builds for studying nuclear power in Wisconsin.
I find it fascinating and maybe a little spring of hope that they can talk about something in terms of unity.
So check that out at WisconsinWatch.org.
Tom Kircher, thank you so much for being here.
We appreciate it.
And I look forward hopefully to future visits with you.
I'm great.
Thanks for the
time.
My pleasure.
Tom Kirch everybody from Wisconsin.
Watch that over
How do you like your eggs in the morning I like mine with the kids
I'm satisfied as long as I get my kiss.
How do you like your toast in the morning?
I like mine with a hug.
Darker lights.
The world's all right as long as I get my
hug.
Uh, close enough.
Okay.
35 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.
Welcome back to the Town Hall Ball Show on the Civic Media & Media Network.
Who sings that song?
I was gonna say, I thought it sounded awful lot like the late great Dean Martin there.
That's great.
We're talking about eggs, by the way.
And many thanks to Tom Kircher from Wisconsin Watch.
Great to have him along this week.
You will check in with someone else, hopefully, from Wisconsin Watch next Monday as well.
But the song plays well into what's worse, it's 36 past the hour of three o'clock.
Here we go.
Let's do
it.
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 the entire state of Wisconsin on all 11 news talk and sports stations in the Civic Media Ready Network.
Glad to have you along.
All right, here it is, timely, timely indeed.
That's a great I can't do better than a D. Martin song for you to say who can write who can so let's just get let's just get right into it and this is a breakfast or a brunch question or actually I've had eggs for dinner.
Have you within the last week?
Yes.
See What's about me scrambled eggs even a fried egg enough
melt from the heat of
feeling now we have this big new table here in the studio.
I have a mobile like gas.
Little hot top or hot hot.
What do you call cook top thing?
And I'm thinking I should bring that in.
We should do an actual cooking segment here now on the show.
That could be a lot of fun.
That can be a lot of fun.
All right.
Here's the question.
What's worse?
Sunny side up or over easy?
Sunny side up
worse?
What's worse sunny side up or over easy 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or you can text us on the civic media app if you don't have it download it to your Apple or Android device It is free takes less than a minute.
It's what CBS is gale king at least for now
Calls a deal.
I'm not sure what she's gonna be able to say anymore under this new deal with with sherry redstone.
It's a shame.
It's a shame.
It's a damn shame That's exactly what it is eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two Let's go to the phone lines Brian on WAUK in Milwaukee Brian.
Thanks for calling in sunny side up or over easy.
What's worse?
Well, if it's any form of a runny yolk, I hate it.
I cannot stand runny yolks in any way, shape, or form.
It's just it's a texture thing.
So I always have to have, I always have to have what's called over hard, or you know, that can be a fried egg, but it has to be like fried, fried.
And the one thing that I love, my grandfather would make what's called an egg and bread.
And you crack the egg in a small pan and then you kind of break in the yolk.
and you put a piece of bread over that.
And you let the bread cook into the yolk, and then you take the bread and you flip it over so that it cooks fully through the bread so that there is no runny yolk.
Wow.
All right.
And
that's what we call an egg and bread.
An
egg and bread?
I've been having eggs my whole life.
Mm-hmm.
Look at this.
A cooking segment over the radio.
I love it.
Well done, Brian.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for listening.
I really appreciate it.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
What's worse?
Sunny side up or over easy 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or you can text us on the civic media app like AJ Here in Madison did on WM DX.
He says over easy is worse I like dunking my toast into the middle and that's what my dad has Or always has what my dad always has
Yeah, I do, I do both.
See, I, I respect Brian and eggs are something that a lot of people are particular on.
I'll talk about mine a minute.
First of all, a brand new caller, Texter on WMDX.
We appreciate your listenership says over easy is worse.
Too many broken yolks when you flip them.
That's Henry from Madison.
Henry, appreciate you listening and texting in.
Now, see, that's a big thing too.
If you decide to do over easy, and then you break the yolk, and you're going for a soft yolk, and then it just... That's
Also happens with too many Viagra, but that's a whole other show.
Anyway, Brian in Milwaukee says runny yolks are like eating snot.
Not only would I know, not that I know what eating snot is like, all right?
Oh Cam in Appleton says both are worse.
I cooked them with an ice cube with an ice cube Cam what the heck are you talking about?
I do not
and Madison said no I said that wrong I like over
I've never
egg with an ice cube What does he even mean?
I don't know what that means.
I don't either Jim in Brookfield
Texted in says over easy is worse.
It's too easy to overcook.
Sunny side up is certain to be a little runny, which is just how I like them.
Jim from beautiful
Wait, have we gone to AI now and cooking eggs?
Yes, this is the answer.
Fine, I'll go to a different.
No, no, no, use it.
What?
Using an ice cube to cook an egg sometimes referred to as ice cube steaming involves you crack Art well Cam also just sent a text now.
I'll just read that they'll finish that It's super easy an old bar style way of doing it Put the egg in the hot pan pop an ice cube in the pan and put the lid over it Then you get the steam from the ice cube and the steam helps cook the egg Okay,
I'm sorry.
I I do that all the time, but I don't use an ice cube I just I take a little water from my tea kettle or
I just throw a little water in and put a little for it.
You don't have to use an ice cube there.
But it also works.
Oh, I'm sure it does.
Yeah, you steam it.
You steam it, basically.
My little sister checking in, Heather Allbaugh-Galloy in beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where it will be.
The show will originate from the Greater Chippewa Valley on Thursday and Friday of this week.
She says, oh, here we go.
Here we go.
Slimy sunny side up is disgusting.
unless it's done like our Grandma Wallace when she splashed bacon grease up and over.
Then it looks like over easy, yum, but then you might need to holler when the grease gets you.
My grandma, have you ever, so my grandma always fixed bacon, not almost the time, bacon, and then she would fry the eggs in bacon grease.
So our grandmother would just leave the egg sunny side up, but then she'd use a spoon and she'd, she'd throw the bacon grease up over the yolk to create like a little skin.
Now that I've never done, but it sounds good.
And sometimes she would, it would pop up in her hand.
If grandma was yelling in the kitchen in the morning, it's probably because she splashed bacon grease on herself.
But yeah, I've done that quite a bit.
I've done that.
I've I tend to do more over easy.
You zombers.
I understand some people don't from the texture, but especially with bread or something bread or hash browns, like when you have something for the yolk to soak into, I think that's delicious.
Absolutely.
I'm not as big a fan of the runny white, like I'll still sunny side up egg.
but I just prefer over easy.
Yeah, I agree.
I like the white to be set a little
Megan in some prairie listening to WMDX says, sunny side up is just weird to me.
I need the yolk to be a bit more set or a different cooking style altogether.
One note, a couple of people texted in saying that over easy is harder to cook because you might pop the yolk to which I say, OK, so what?
Like if the if the.
I don't dislike a cooked yolk.
I prefer one a little runny.
But if I pop it on accident, oh, well, I still am eating an egg that I enjoy.
No,
but see, well, yeah.
But see, when I do that, I've always ticked off at myself because now the whole point, because I, too, like a runny yolk, I like something to dip my toast in or maybe a pancake or whatever.
And so if I broke the yolk in the pan, then I'm like, what's the point?
I'll still eat it.
my egg
You're like eggs or eggs.
Yeah.
Now here's a question scrambled.
Do you use water or milk in
I
milk.
I learned this years ago from the cooking or from the food channel.
I believe it was Alton Brown that if you use water, it makes it a lighter or whatever more fluffy more the French style.
I believe it.
But just a little bit.
You can't have too much water.
They get runny.
And then Bobby Flay on Breakfast of Bobby Flay.
Yes, I do watch a lot of Food Network.
You take these scrambled eggs for low and slow.
First of all, says Bobby Flay unscramble.
Low and slow on the heat.
Agreed.
And then you kind of make a figure eight with your spatula or whatever.
And then let them set.
And then don't over mix them.
And then remove the scrambled eggs when they still look wet.
Don't remove them when they're dry because they overcook.
So you remove the pan when the scrambled eggs are a little bit wet.
That's the, that's the key of scrambled eggs.
so I'll
Like I've had, I've made eggs for her a few times and I'll cook the scrambled eggs and I'll be like, these are probably done.
Let's wait five more minutes.
All right.
These are probably done.
Let's let's wait even longer and I'll bring her in and be like these look all right, and she's like not keep going Oh for goodness sakes
What else do we have?
KMO see what else we have?
Brian in Milwaukee says now.
I'm hungry.
I think we're gonna have to make eggs for dinner Thank you for the idea.
Well, you're so very welcome Steve in Milwaukee on the text line says over hard no sunny side up you and Joshua up at the BXEL a beautiful was all Wisconsin Bull Falls radio says heavy cream
scrambled eggs.
And so
All right.
Well, I would say I would say that sunny side up is slightly worse because like Zabers, I like my whites in my fried eggs set a little bit more.
So that's my vote.
Did you vote?
All right.
There you go.
Another edition of What's Worst.
Be tuned in tomorrow.
We'll have a brand new edition for you at hour number two.
Always fun, always fascinating.
What's worse?
So Dan, late, late entry by Dan and Wausau mixed cottage cheese in your scrambled eggs.
Really?
I could see that being good.
Maybe.
Best cottage cheese bombers, do you have
Southwest Wisconsin, Westby, Westby cottage cheese, absolutely fantastic.
All right, that does it for our eggs.
We'll come back, come back, wrap things up with a little broadcast news.
It's the all ball show on the Civic Media.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
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Pardon me.
ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations that you're listening to across the Civic Media Ready Network, a little weather update for you.
Cooler, cooler indeed.
Parts of north, northern Wisconsin, northeastern Wisconsin had to cover up the flowers last night.
Little nip in the air as they say.
So be aware of that.
Uh, but it's going to stay cool or as Albert Childress, a channel 15 said for years, could be cool tonight.
So, uh, it'd be cool rest of the week.
Temperatures in the fifties, maybe getting up into the sixties by the weekend.
Hey, you know, spring in Wisconsin, you know, sometimes it's better to have these.
This is really a true spring.
Oftentimes you kind of go from winter.
Right into summer right winter and then all of a sudden two weeks later It's 85 degrees and we're off to the races and never stops.
This is just a typical Wisconsin spring So nothing to be upset about Although I think people for Memorial Day weekend would like the warmer temperatures to go camping than the like by the way, I Have not done this yet
It is time once again for Todd's annual reminder about Memorial Day weekend and Memorial Day sales, quote unquote.
Something that is a pet peeve of mine that sticks in my crop.
And this is from my work for many years for our former Congressman Scott Kluge, where I had the honor and privilege to handle military affairs.
and worked with a variety of active duty military and also at the honor of working with our veterans as well.
Remember folks, Memorial Day is a solemn, serious holiday.
It's always good to remember our veterans, those who are actively in our armed forces as well as the veterans who have served before, but Memorial Day is about those who died in service.
It is about
one day set aside out of 365 to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for those that died, all right?
Veterans Day November is to remember all veterans, those alive, those past, all right?
So a pet peeve of mine is when people say have a happy Memorial Day because I have worked with people who lost loved ones in active service
And when you're in Arlington or any other cemetery across this country, there is nothing happy about Memorial Day.
It's the solemnness of solemn holidays.
It's a day of reverence.
And what really to use the old phrase grinds my gears is when people in retail and business have Memorial Day sales.
Let's take a day.
Where someone's dad or partner or grandparent got killed in the line of service and let's use that to sell a mattress It's always mattresses or furniture.
or bedding And I know that it's kind of the holiday is kind of well, you know so start a summer and and and if you talk to I did not serve as I've said But if you talk to those who did
Nobody begrudges people to go out and have a good time on Memorial Day weekend and enjoy a picnic and but Because that's what people fought and died for was our our freedom for this country But for businesses there are 364 other days out of the year to have a sale around And the idea to me of having a Memorial Day sale and advertising that and making money off of someone's death is sick
And I'm just very opposed to it, and I think it's very disrespectful for people at Memorial Day sales.
When I used to own a business, a coffee business, the first year we closed for half a day, and after that we closed for the entire day.
And just says, look, it's a day of memory.
And again, I have no problem with people going out and having fun on Memorial Day weekend, but I would hope that at some point during the weekend, you take time out of your weekend to at least think about.
If you're not a person of faith, fine, I try to say a quick prayer.
But think about those who have lost loved ones.
And if you have time, tune into PBS on Sunday night, Sunday, May 25th, seven o'clock central on PBS is the National Memorial Day Concert.
Once again, the great Joe Montagna is one of the co-hosts, a Tony Award winning actor, veteran's advocate.
And it's a great, great show on PBS Sunday night at seven o'clock where they profile veterans who gave everything and tell their story.
And they have the national military bands and they have singers.
It's a movie.
I've never watched it.
And at some point not gotten emotional.
That is what Memorial Day is about.
And I hope that we could all agree, regardless of whatever our political affiliation is, regardless of how we might feel about military actions, which is a fair debate to have, but we should never debate the sacrifice that our men and women have made so that we have the freedoms to enjoy those picnics.
So that's my thoughts about that.
My annual Memorial Day.
to take time out to remember those who gave all.
And to businesses, you don't have to use Memorial Day to have a sale and advertise.
You can do that 364 other days a year.
We don't have a lot of time now, but the men and women who died, they died for all of our freedoms, including the freedom of the press.
And this story I talked about earlier, CBS News boss, Wendy McMahon,
exiting CBS today.
Also a story we will get to tomorrow.
Donald Trump now threatening ABC News over the coverage of the Qatari jet that he intends to accept for $400 million.
Or
That's the show for today.
We'll talk about these issues more tomorrow.
Take time out to say thank you to those who served
and to remember those families whose loved ones gave everything.
Many thanks to Tom Kircher from Wisconsin Watch, to Zomers as well.
All of you for listening.
Maggie Dawn is next.
We'll see you tomorrow, whatever you're fighting for, whatever you believe in.
Do not give up.
Keep banging your drum.
See you tomorrow.
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