Fact Checking The RPW Convention with Tom Kertscher (Hour 2)

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Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Alba, along with our outstanding producer and engineer, 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 at the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison, where Zommers...

Sun's trying to come out, but that hazy smoke coming down that Canadian smoke is still in the air.

Gonna be here at least through tomorrow, I think.

But it's not too bad.

I think it was worse Friday.

At least just it looks like it was worse Friday.

Yes, absolutely.

It's the it's the darn pollen.

It's my it's my allergies that are driving me crazy over the weekend and today as well.

So hope you all are taking care of yourselves against the water in the end and try to stay maybe inside for a couple of days.

They say rain moving across the parts of the state tomorrow.

Some places in Wisconsin may see some potentially.

keyword potentially severe weather tomorrow.

So keep it here on civic media and your local weather source and we'll keep you up to date on all that.

Many thanks to state Senator Keller Royce for being here at hour one.

Always does a great job.

Brings along a little Taylor Swift.

Thanks to Aaron Zombers as well.

That's a lot of fun.

Coming up later this hour, we will do a what's worse for you be asking you about driving.

And I have a little story.

about driving this weekend.

We'll talk a little bit more about that coming up later this hour and take your phone calls as well.

But right now, joining me live at the table.

How about that, Zomers?

Two in-studio guests in a row.

I'm feeling I won the lottery here in guest today.

Mr. Tom Kersher, he joined us last week via StreamYard.

He is here in the studio today from Wisconsin to watch.

Tom, thanks for being back.

You're welcome.

Good to be with you.

I always like a good in-person interview because the vibe is better.

I don't know.

I agree.

So thanks for making the trip over here.

How was your weekend?

Great.

I made my first visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Spent about seven hours there over two days.

That is great.

My dad and I went several years ago and did a dad son weekend.

And that is remarkable.

For those that don't know, it's built like a

pyramid.

It's so cool.

Is it right on Lake Erie?

Yeah, that's right.

I was drawn by a new exhibit, the 50 Years of Music

on

SNL.

It's a new exhibit.

Really?

And so I spent a lot of time with that.

And yeah, if I were to recommend it, I would say, aim for going to the Hall of Fame when there's a special exhibit like that.

that appeals to you or another event, you know, maybe a concert, something like that.

Yeah.

I bet that has to be remarkable because I think a lot of us think of all the actors from John Belushi to Dana Carvey to, you know, the cast from today.

But you look at the people that appear musically over the years, sometimes big first appearances, sometimes comebacks, sometimes controversy.

Yeah, what impressed me was, you know,

being reminded after going through the clips, and you could watch some films that kind of summarize things, but you could also search out people by artist, by year, by show.

And yeah, the range, right?

So they've got some, you know, super hot band in the moment, one hit wonders, but then, you know, the legends, and then the people sort of in between, like I don't know, a Leon Russell, for example, that maybe the average person doesn't know, but SNL appreciated.

how authentic artists like him were and how important they were.

Yeah, I totally agree.

And Lorde Michael is the longtime executive producer of that show, noted for bringing actors onto the scene.

But I think he deserves credit for pushing some of that musical stuff as well.

Yeah, you did hear about that at during the exhibit.

And I think he thought it was another way of SNL being relevant and sort of being a...

a time capsule,

right?

Yeah,

absolutely.

Well, I'm glad you had a good time.

And thanks for sharing a little bit about that with us.

A little bit closer to home here on the other side of Lake Erie, closer to Lake Michigan here in Wisconsin.

And these stories you can find at Wisconsin spelled out Wisconsin watch.org.

You had a great piece here just today actually on the online.

entitled Wisconsin once a leader in childhood vaccinations, now a leader in vaccine skepticism.

Tell us a little bit about

it.

Yeah, so we were, at Wisconsin Watch, we're struck by a story in The Economist recently that talked about how much the vaccination rate in Wisconsin, specifically for measles, had dropped in comparison to other states.

And it caused us to want to look deeper.

So we put out a call to readers.

made a post online, asked people to write in with suggestions or questions.

And what I did is took a look at why, one reason why the vaccination rates in Wisconsin are down and it's because of something called a personal conviction exemption.

personal conviction

exempted.

Please explain.

It sounds like an insurance policy or something.

My car breaks, I'm sorry, we don't cover it because of the personal exemption or

whatever.

Just to take a step back, first of all, Wisconsin has all states to have as vaccination requirements to enter school.

Public school, private school, even childcare centers.

So it's very common.

And the vast majority of Wisconsin kids do get the required vaccinations, over 89% in the last check.

So we don't want to give the wrong impression that it's dropping dramatically.

But for a disease like measles, for example, to reach what's called herd immunity where people in a given community are considered to be protected from a disease, you need a vaccination rate around 95%.

So the fact that

You know, overall, we're down to 89 and dropping in recent years.

You know, it's cause for, if not concerned, at least questions about why and what are the implications.

Is there any correlation that can be proven?

or is it speculative at this point that those reductions, particularly in measles, might have been from the Trump slash MAGA movement of anti-vaccine, which first started with COVID and now it's just been exacerbated.

Not only that, but made worse by the new Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr. Kennedy.

Some of the people I spoke to do point to that too, to COVID and in the years since then.

some vaccine fatigue, some questions about safety, some questions about, gee, is the government maybe a little too cozy with pharmaceutical companies?

Are we really rigorously testing these vaccines the way they should be?

So that does seem to have seeped into the consciousness.

So I mentioned the personal conviction waiver or exemption.

That's an example of what's happened as the skepticism has increased.

So there's always been people who have exempted their children from vaccinations through a medical reason to go to the doctor.

The

doctor says, hey, you're an exceptional case.

Don't get a vaccination.

It's too risky.

Or you could state a religious conviction against vaccination.

But what's changed in the last, really in the last generation,

is a big increase, relatively speaking, in the number of parents who are deciding for personal beliefs, personal convictions, to exempt their child.

And it's as simple as stating and writing, I have a personal opposition to vaccinations.

I don't want my child vaccinated.

And, you know, a generation ago, those personal waivers, personal conviction waivers represented about 1%.

of kids who are exempted.

And now it's up to more than 5%.

Wow.

I just struck by this.

We're talking with Tom Kirchner of Wisconsin Watch here at 14 minutes, almost 15 past the hour of three o'clock.

I was struck by, you know, my mom is a woman of a certain age in her mid-70s or so.

And she's told stories of when the vaccinations first came out for measles and polio and

And at that time in small town Richland center of 5,000 she said it was put out all over town and people would after church services would head up to the and stand in line at the hospital and were thankful for these vaccinate because they knew they had grown up with people that had polio and died of it and measles and rubella and were so thankful and it seems to be a time when you find this new reporting that

Now that that generation has gained older and that some of them are dying off, there are less stories being told about what happens when you don't get vaccinated.

Yeah, it used to be kind of second nature, right?

That's what you did.

Everyone got vaccinated.

The Wisconsin law actually goes back to, I think, 1882, the first one that required vaccination.

So it's part of the fabric of our society.

But you're right.

I think as the decades have passed, we don't hear about people dying from polio anymore.

And you sort of think, well, gee, that's been eradicated when, in fact, if we don't continue to vaccinate, there's the risk of a new outbreak.

That's my personal concern.

Putting politics aside for a minute, again, it's about the cruelty of it.

And I just think that fewer people pay attention.

And I honestly believe that there are some people that are MAGA followers who are like, oh, that's not a problem.

We're just doing it.

We don't need that.

And it's so sad that it's going to take death and tragedy to make people realize, no, this wasn't a political thing that was made up.

This was science.

You know, there's such strong feelings in this, right?

Just what you describe on one hand, on the other hand, shouldn't a parent have the right to decide what goes into the child's body, what sort of medicine is taken.

And so you can appreciate on that level and sort of individual level why a person might want to question or resist.

And if they look at the number of vaccinations over time, and boy, this is such a young child,

do we really need this?

I mean, a person could even point out now, I'm not saying this is a reliable indicator, but even though the vaccination rate in Wisconsin has dropped and is relatively low for measles, has there been any measles outbreak in Wisconsin yet?

And that's the thing, right?

And if people are, well, see, nothing bad happened yet.

And then you look at Texas,

where in particular, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it was the Amish or Mennonite community, which again, that's a small group of people relatively speaking across America that for religious reasons traditionally have said, no, we don't do vaccines.

But now that combined with a larger non-Amish and population, Mennonite population that's combining with that, that reduces the herd immunization rate.

Yeah, there's certainly that risk.

You know, I talked to Representative Lisa Subek from here in Madison and she introduced a bill back in 2023 to get rid of the personal conviction waiver in the state law and the hopes that it would keep vaccination rates higher.

You know, it didn't go anywhere at that time.

She said she's thought about it reintroducing it again this year, but

not with any idea that it would become law.

So another group that's involved in supporting organizations that do vaccinations says, you know, let's take a different tack.

Maybe it's not legislation getting rid of that exemption.

We want to put our efforts into education, telling people what you just described, why, what the risks are if vaccination rates get low.

and responding to what they call misinformation out there.

Yeah, that some, this vaccination organization talked about the fact that there's certainly some parents who have genuine convictions and others they think are acting out of misinformation.

And

so they want to try to counter that as a way to push up vaccination rates as opposed to changing the law.

to take away an exemption.

And that to me is what is so dangerous, Tom, is that people now are creating their own truths out there.

for lack of good journalism, like what happens at Wisconsin Watch, as the late great US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said to a woman in a committee hearing, my dear, you are entitled to your own opinions.

You are not entitled to your own facts.

Well, my favorite former US senators, welcome back with one of our favorite reporters, Tom Kircher of Wisconsin to Watch, talking about a little fact check on the GLP out in Washington.

Don't go anywhere.

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Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it welcome back the title ball show on the Civic Media already network for a Monday the second of June.

That's right We're into June already here for 2025 22 past three glad to have you along Tom Kertcher is here from Wisconsin watch a little bit later on this hour We'll do a driving edition of what's worse and talk about some more of the news headlines of the day But Tom take us through some of these fact

checks this is your your wheelhouse is what I love about some of your money much of your writing is you keep people honest and that's fantastic the Republican Party of Wisconsin had their recent convention and maybe it's a little fact-checking

yeah so just to explain a little bit what we do at Wisconsin what you have something called fact briefs brief as in 150 word stories so very quick the format is posed as a question and answer

Is it raining today?

Yes or no?

And then we answer the question in 150 words.

And that may sound sort of too simplistic, but there is quite a bit of research that we put in.

The articles are quick to read, but people will see the footnotes we had to show that we do quite a bit of research

on

these.

Yeah, thank you.

So we're always on the hunt and always looking for suggestions if readers want to contact Wisconsin Watch with a fact check suggestion.

So I'm constantly looking at

interviews, talk shows, podcasts, you name it, primarily at what politicians are saying on those things.

But I also attended the Wisconsin Republican Party State Convention last month and decided to fact check three statements that came out of that.

All right.

Number one statement, true or false?

Go ahead.

So representative Derek Van Horden, one of our congressmen.

I was speaking about the big, beautiful bill, the major federal

budget bill.

What Trump calls it, yeah.

Yeah, is being debated now in Congress.

He said that if that big bill did not pass, the vast majority of Americans would see a 65% tax increase.

The answer to that is no.

Incorrect,

incorrect.

So one of the things that would happen if that big bill does not become law is that some of what are known as Trump tax.

cuts will go away.

But most people will see, if that happens, if the big, beautiful bill does not become law, most people would see a tax increase in the range of 20%, not insignificant, right?

But far from 65%, which is what

he claims.

And most correctly, if I'm wrong, a lot of 20% might see increases are not people making $45,000, $50,000 a year.

Yeah, that's a you know the

average figure, right?

Right.

So yeah, absolutely.

All right Fact check number two Mr. Kircher does Mississippi rank higher than Wisconsin in fourth grade reading scores explain

so again This was at the convention another Wisconsin congressman Tom Tiffany used the phrase it that was Mississippi has passed up Wisconsin in reading

The answer is yes, although I would say with an asterisk in this case.

So every two years, there's a national reading proficiency assessment.

And fourth grade is the key level there.

And in 2024, Mississippi increased a little bit, Wisconsin decreased a little bit.

And in fact, Mississippi did pass Wisconsin for reading proficiency for fourth graders.

the the asterisk on that is that the agency that puts out the test said that's not a significant difference.

So technically there's a one percentage point different.

Within

the margin of error to use a polling term

perhaps.

Yeah and I guess what's important to know there is you know for people in Wisconsin if they're concerned it's true that the proficiency rate in Wisconsin has been dropping a little bit so that's something to focus on.

At the same time, Mississippi has been referred to as the Mississippi Miracle in recent years.

They put a lot of money into improving literacy and it seems to have paid off.

And good for Mississippi.

I also think we have family educators and I'm not trying to disparage this particular study, but I think some of these tests that they're doing right now, it depends on what kind of the day the kid is having, what the situation is.

I'm not a big believer that you can take one score and say, well, this is representative of everything that our kids know.

Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I guess this does have the advantage of having been around a long time and being standardized and done every two years.

But right, it's one measure.

Yeah, one measure.

All right.

And final fact check for the Wisconsin Republican Party Convention.

I can't believe this is real, but it is.

Is being transgender classified as a mental illness?

Explain.

So a congresswoman from South Carolina Nancy Mace was one of the guest speakers at

the

Wisconsin Convention her statement was to the fact that Girls women shouldn't be forced to share bathrooms With what she called mentally ill people.

So the suggestion was That she was referring to people who are transgender, you know years ago more than a decade ago there were designations like

that from, for example, the American Psychiatric Association, but that's changed.

It's been

changed for quite some time.

Being transgender in and of itself is not considered by authorities to be a mental illness.

Now there's some gender dysphoria where a person who is uncertain about their sexuality, how their gender fits, may experience distress because of that, but that's an entirely different thing than

saying-

your, you know, mentally ill because you're transgender.

Yeah.

I just find it particularly cruel, particularly now that we're in Pride Month.

And, you know, I've had, I was in small business for a while and the opportunity to, to meet some transgender folks that were clients of ours and to listen to their stories.

And we all have a story, right?

Doesn't matter who we are, we're all going on a journey.

And many of these folks have struggled and

and fought through things, discrimination, stigma, and stereotypes, are very strong individuals, actually.

And to label someone as a mental illness, I just find it naive and cruel and extraordinarily partisan from Congresswoman Mace's point.

Yeah, she was very strong on, I'm gonna protect you.

I'm with you.

Girls and women, I'm gonna be out there protecting you.

You shouldn't have to compete against men.

You shouldn't have to share locker rooms with them.

I'm on your side.

So that was sort of her message, but then obviously going beyond by making that.

Why is it that it is never, it's never transgender people attacking people in bathrooms.

It's usually somebody from the local church.

It happens to be straight.

Anyway, Tom Kirchner from Wisconsin Watch.

Thank you very much for being here.

I appreciate you.

We'll see you next week.

All right, Dad.

Stay tuned.

What's worse is next on The Civic Media.

Welcome back to the Tattle Ball Show.

on the Civic Media Ready Network.

It is 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock.

Many thanks.

Tom Kertcher from Wisconsin Watch being here for another Monday.

Always great to catch up on Wisconsin headlines with him.

Nice job, Tom.

We're just going to talk about driving in just a minute.

But Mark from Purr and Sack has been extraordinarily patient.

Mark, thanks for hanging on.

We wanted to get to those interviews done here.

But we in the show about an hour ago, we played a cut from US Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, or as my grandparents used to call it, Iowa.

I don't know why they call it Iowa.

Anyway, down in Iowa last weekend or over Friday, I think it happened.

Joni Ernst was in the town hall talking about the Medicaid Medicare cuts out there in DC.

with the big reconciliation bill and one of her constituents the iowain stood up and said this is going to kill people which of course it is if it goes through and passes and trump signs it in the law and jody urn said well everybody's gonna die sometime and then gave not even a half hearted apology i believe was on our instagram or twitter over the weekend which she filmed by the way in a cemetery

and made fun of the person in a half-baked apology in which she said, yes, it's true.

I'm sorry I told that person that we're all going to die.

And I'm really glad I didn't have to tell her that the Tooth Fairy wasn't real either.

Right.

It was the kind of thing where, you know, you're a little kid and your parents are like, now you need to apologize to your brother or sister.

And you're like, I'm sorry, you're so stupid.

Right.

It was that.

That's what it was.

That's a good way to put it.

So anyway, Mark prepared a sec wanted to comment on that mark.

Thanks for holding around to listen to the show What do you want to say about this?

Yeah, it's interesting.

She would say something like that.

You know it said aside the whole point It is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ not her personal, you know that Jesus doesn't belong to her I mean if if that is your religious bent, but I mean that the whole surplus population that I think that these Republicans are thinking about the whole time is that it reminds me of Scrooge, you know that the whole

The warning of the second spirit saying that, you know, be aware, you might not know who the surplus population is.

And as far as like the tooth fairy, believing in the tooth fairy, I don't know if I brought it up on this show before, but there's an interesting book by Terry Pratchett called Hogfather where death is actually commented to his adopted granddaughter about the importance of believing in the little myths like the tooth fairy and the boogie man and all that kind of thing, is that we need to believe in these little myths so we can believe in the big ones.

It makes the comment, take the universe and grind it to the finest powder, run it to the finest sieve, show them one molecule of mercy, one molecule of justice.

The only reason we believe in those things is we believe in those things and bring them into existence.

So, I mean, that Joni Ernst should actually be looking to the fact that we actually had to believe in our fellow man, believe in justice and mercy, and actually believe in what

Jesus actually said in the Gospels is that we are supposed to be taking care of one another as individuals and as nations.

And if you don't do that, you are doomed and you are damned.

Yeah, Mark, it's so interesting, and I appreciate you bringing this up, that when I heard the remarks on Friday, I think it was, from Joni Ernst, I thought of the exact same thing, because way long ago, I played Ebenezer Scrooge on stage on Christmas Carol.

And I'll get the exact quote wrong right now.

But again, it's this scene early on in the show in which the two towns guys are trying to raise money and they're kind of walking, kind of trolling literally, following scrooge around town, trying to get them to contribute.

And Scrooge finally says something along the lines of, are there no prison houses and poor houses?

My tax is, unfortunately, I have to keep going to them.

And they say something like, well, unfortunately, sir, they are.

And Scrooge says, good.

I thought that my tax money wasn't being used right.

And one of the guys says to Scrooge says, sir, many would rather die than go there.

And Scrooge responds, let them and decrease the surplus population.

Mark, I thought of the exact same thing.

Yeah, it is just tragic, I mean, and remember the two startling children underneath the second spirits robes, ignorance and want.

I mean, the want is bad, the girl was want and the boy was ignorant, but ignorance is actually on the ball of ignorance is written doom.

And Joanie Ironsick had better brush up on her teaching literature that we all should

should be well.

My mother used to read the Christmas carol to us every year at Christmas time when we were children, small children.

I mean, and that lesson has never left me.

Actually, Joni Ernst, by the way, Mark was reported yesterday that Joni Ernst told her staff she was afraid she was visited by one of the ghosts of Christmas past.

It turned out to be Chuck Grassley.

So right there.

Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate it, Mark.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What are your thoughts on this whole deal?

Again, I just think it's cruel.

It is absolutely cold-hearted, chilling.

Tony Ernst is frigid.

That's the problem.

And

I seriously, like I said before, it's toddler behavior.

It's, I'm sorry, you're so stupid.

And treating it like a joke when people are going to die if this bill passes because they won't be able to afford what they need to live.

Well, and we heard from a state senator, Kelder Royce, right here in the studio earlier in the show, that Wisconsinites are going to die.

if this bill passes as is.

And you say, well, Todd, how do you know?

You can't tell if anybody's going to die or not.

What we know for sure is there will be some nursing home, elder care facilities that will not be able to function because they won't have the money.

They won't have the staff if those places aren't there.

People ultimately die as someone who has helped get a grandparent into a nursing facility like that.

it depends on your income.

And if you're not able to pay your own way, and many of these places now, anywhere between $6,000 and $9,000 a month.

A month.

They're expensive.

They're very expensive.

So, if you're unable to pay your own way, and many people are not, then you have to go to a care facility.

that accepts Medicaid, Medicare dollars.

And there's only so many beds reserved within that institution, I shouldn't call it institution, but within that facility that are Medicaid, Medicare beds eligible.

And if they're full, they're full.

Some people will travel an hour plus to find a nursing care facility that has a bed available that takes that program.

I think a lot of people let you bend through it.

And I get it, if you haven't been there, but as somebody who has, who's helped family members get into these places as they age, you just think, well, when I get old, they gotta take me, I'm just gonna go there.

No, that is not how it works.

So I guess I would just ask everybody think, if it were your grandpa or grandma, if it were your mom or dad,

If it were you, would you want to have to travel an hour, two hours?

Do you have that ability?

And if not, people will die.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Let's go up to beautiful Eau Claire, listening on WCFW, the tap.

Gene, we are just up there last week.

Thanks for calling in, Gene.

How are you?

Well, I'm fine, but this is a great show, and you always have a great show, so I'm not disappointed.

I appreciate that.

Thank

you for covering this, particularly, because that was cruel, vile, and anti-American.

They are anti-American as anybody can get.

The cruelty, just the divisiveness, the chaos, they're not trying...

to work for America.

They're trying to, you know, to hurt it.

And when I saw her do that, I was sickened.

And then when I saw her response, I thought, lady, you need to be locked up for your own health because these people watch him sometime.

Everybody needs to watch these

people

when they speak.

There's something going on with their eyes.

Watch their eyes.

And it's like, you know, they hate it and, you know, the

repulsiveness they act like when they have to talk to the people in our in our states and in our communities it's disgusting and I hope people wake up because we really need to come together and get these people out of our country before they just you know out of this office

But thank you

so much.

Thank you, Gene.

Appreciate it.

Bye-bye.

Yep.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.

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

What are your thoughts on Joni Ernst's comments here over the weekend?

Where are we going as bombers here?

All right, let's go out to Los Angeles, California.

LA, Tom.

LA, thanks for listening.

We'll see you.

Hey, guys.

Yeah, I think it's time, actually, that we could say that the

Republican Party is the pro-death party and the Democratic Party is actually the pro-life party.

And for any people out there, just remember that it's Republicans that seem to just enjoy wars and they seem to enjoy putting people to death.

They enjoy starving kids.

They enjoy everything that's happened with USAID.

They seem to find pleasure in it.

And I just really think that they are the pro-death party.

I think

that this is a really interesting tank.

I'm not, you know, I'm not quite ready to look every single person with R behind their name into that specific take on it.

But LA, I think you bring up a really interesting point in that the Maga Republican Party is fixated on quote unquote pro life.

And yet here is a prominent member of their Senate Republican caucus saying, basically, we're all going to die and I don't care.

Tom, that doesn't seem like a real pro life take to me.

Absolutely.

And I would also say that Nancy Mace, she's weird, man.

She's like so obsessed with the bathrooms.

She didn't like you people that are so obsessed with your bathroom.

I just don't get it.

She

has a problem.

Yeah.

And they're cruising.

What?

I think they're the ones that are in there cruising the bathroom.

I said that.

I said that earlier.

I said it's not the transgender folks that are getting arrested in bathrooms.

It's the straight priests and not priests, but you know, youth workers and people from churches.

That's usually who it is.

All right.

Thanks.

Have a great day.

855-752-4842.

Let's go quickly to Carol on WMDX in Madison.

Carol, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

Hi Todd You know if I was Older and needed to go to a nursing home and didn't have the money and was facing homelessness I Would seriously consider suicide and I wouldn't call 988 I would because

It's not fair to make my family who, I mean, I don't have any children myself.

My parents have passed on my mom after more than six years in a nursing home.

And, you know, it's like even the mental health of this country is going to go to hell.

I'm just, it's a scary place right now.

Carol, I can't thank you enough for calling in.

First of all, just know you're not alone.

And I certainly want you here, we all want you here, but I get your point in that I think there is a sense that once people get to a certain age, it's like rather than going into a place where I don't feel like I'm going to be taken care of, I'm not sure that I would want to go there, right?

Yeah.

No, it's it's scary times indeed by really really really do appreciate that appreciate that call and that take 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 when we come back Tom is on the line from Madison and then we'll do a speed round of what's worse 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 is the all ball show for Monday on

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Welcome back to the title of our show on the Civic Media radio network.

It is now eight before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour.

It is ABC and CBS News 40, depending upon which of our great stations you're in tune to.

And then a news, whether in sports update or great sports reporter Mike Clemens is in, Brewer's got a big win.

Last night sweeping the Phillies Christian Yelich had a got struck by a pitch on one of his hands x-rays though today Thankfully our negative just gonna eat a couple of days off to rehab that and then the Maggie Dawn show every afternoon from four until six followed by Pete Schwabba and Nightlight along with Conrad his trusty sidekick and engineer always a great way to end your day at night light from six until eight Pete's here tonight actually Pete's here Pete's

here

Peeta's not here.

Peeta's here.

Pete Schwabba will be in the Madison studio.

Wow.

I did not know that.

I'm looking forward to that.

All right.

Let's go back to the phone lines 855-752-4842.

Tom in Madison holding on.

Did you want to comment on the Jody Ernst comments over the weekend?

Oh, definitely.

She's always been a bit of an eccentric, and I just saw the under-the-desk news story about, if you recall, about 11 years ago or so, she had the squeal campaign.

Squeal campaign, do you tell?

Squeal?

No, definitely look it up.

It was about her love of castrating hogs, and she ran... I'm not making this up.

She was running political ads.

And in fact, when she was elected, she got a plaque from Lindsey Graham that says, make them squeal, Joni, with a pig, with a castration tool attached to the plaque.

Can't confirm Thomas not making this up.

This is real.

Wow.

Wow.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, besides the disgusting thing she just said about, you know, life.

Yeah.

Yeah, she's always been a little bit weird.

And it's time to, you know, midterms are coming up.

It's time to get rid of this maga craziness in the next election.

This is not

appreciate the call, Tom.

Thanks so much.

Have a great day.

She has a Democratic opponent already.

This guy seems like a pretty cool dude and pretty pretty centrist type of guy.

And he's already running across Iowa.

And so maybe this is why Joni Ernest is trying to get.

Get some attention.

I'm laughing because Sean up in Richland Center listening on WRCE of the text says what's worse Jody Ernst All right, there it is.

Let's pack it in.

Yeah, we should just pack.

All right.

We'll do this quick.

Here we go.

Time once again for what's worse.

Let's go

I can't talk that fast.

All right.

Here we go.

Nothing to give away.

No prize money involved.

We gave away the brewers tickets in the first hour of the show.

Here's the category today.

Driving slow in the fast lane or tailgating.

Driving slow in the fast lane or tailgating.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842 or Texas on the Civic Media app.

Driving slow in the fast lane or tailgating?

Zombers?

I'm gonna have to say tailgating is worse.

Like yeah, driving slow in the fast lane sucks, but you can see it ahead of time and slow down accordingly.

Tailgating, you can't see anything, you're right behind them.

And so if someone has to hit the brakes, you're going to crash into them.

If you're right behind, you have no reaction time.

I would agree most of the time, although I think like when you're on interstate or whatever, and there's somebody like going 45 miles an hour

on the left.

That is also dangerous.

That's also very dangerous.

855-752-4842.

Tom on YouTube says both equally are worse.

All right, very good.

What else?

AJ in Madison says, people that drive slow in the fast lane drive me crazy.

That reminds me of a text we got earlier.

What was it?

It was that usually if something drives you crazy, yeah, Lenin Madison said, when something is quote unquote driving you crazy, it's usually a short drive.

That's true.

That's very true.

What's worse, slow driving or us driving slow in the fast lane or tailgating?

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

All right, I'll tell the quick version.

So on the show and in private.

I have stated that I thought it was in Wisconsin, right turn, no stop.

I don't remember you saying this because I

would have thought

back on that.

There was a big discussion of my niece's graduation last week over a campfire and some beverages.

And I was shot down by everyone, including a veteran, Sean Holly, who was adamant that I was absolutely wrong.

his lovely and talented wife, Lisa, my brother-law, who follows every rule by the book, God love me, he's a stand-up citizen.

And then I look at my sister, who oftentimes will have some empathy for me.

And she looks at me and she goes, no, you're wrong.

I said, no, I think it's right turn, no stop.

This must have been on a show where I wasn't producing because I know that's definitely not the law.

So anyway, I'm going to Monroe last night or this weekend on Saturday.

And I went through the beautiful town of Argyle and I came to partner a full stop and a stoplight or a stop sign.

And let's just say I had a very kind officer inform me that that is not the state law.

But what saved me was there was a sign underneath the stoplight, a stop sign that said, right, a traffic from the left does not stop.

And so, and so he said, oh, maybe you saw that.

And he kind of said, gave me some, I think it's because I'm, I'm technically a senior now, 55.

Oh gosh.

I got off with a verbal warning.

He gave me a verbal God love him.

He gave me a verbal warning.

But let me tell you, I freely, I will freely admit what I'm wrong.

In this case, I was wrong.

Everybody stop at a stop sign before you turn right.

fully stop behind the white line.

Yeah, make sure you stop behind the white line.

Todd's been

hit on that one

before.

Yes.

True story.

True story.

Yes, Heather.

True story.

Anyway, I think that I think both those things for us were equally as bad as well.

Chuck at East Troy says tailgating is worse.

Great show today.

Thanks to Senator Royce.

Thanks to Tom Kircher and Zomers on the board and all of you for listening.

Maggie Dawn is next.

Whatever you're fighting for.

Ever you believe in, do not give

up.

Keep banging your drum.

See you tomorrow.