Remembering Coach Jerry Petitgoue with Phil Nee (Hour 1)

From the Civic Media World headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd

Alba.

on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome in.

I'm Todd Albault.

Welcome to our host, our hello part, our producer, engineer, Aaron Zombers on the board.

It is Monday, June 9th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, even if you have allergies, like myself, it is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

Zombers, I thought, the allergies I thought were getting better, and then we went for a short walk for a little coffee before the show, and now I'm just like, I don't know.

Yeah, Todd was fine before we went outside.

And now he has as guest co-host several frogs from his throat.

You may

end up having to host the show if the voice doesn't stick with it, but I'll be fine.

I'll be fine.

I feel like I'm on the mend.

It was a great weekend.

I was back in the RC this weekend for the 78th Betty Hayes dance recital and also Holly Miller's dance recital.

We'll talk about that.

Then I went down to Milwaukee.

To the Brewers game yesterday Wow, what a pictures dual the Brewers came out the short end lost one nothing to the San Diego Padres We'll talk about both of our weekends a little bit later probably in hour two here big show on tap at the bottom of the hour State Senator Kelder Royce from the 26 district here in the city of Madison also a member of the joint finance committee will be here in studio Assuming that her schedule frees up.

All right, she will

Updated so what's happening in the joint finance just a block away from us at the state capital now that budget negotiations seemingly have broken down between the governor and her and the joint finance committee What is up next you will talk about that and also we're gonna

perhaps talk a little bit about in a Wisconsin context about what's the big story of the weekend out in Los Angeles of the protests, some of which turned violent, what all that means moving forward for the state of Wisconsin.

Potentially we'll kind of break that down and talk about that.

The Democrats nationally in a bit of a pickle.

Well, why is my least favorite Martin?

The chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Why is he sniveling inside of a hotel ballroom in suburban Washington, DC?

Kowtowing to David Hogg.

We've got some audio courtesy of Politico over the weekend.

Not gonna want to miss that.

And what's worse for you in hour two?

For getting a birthday or for getting an anniversary?

We'll talk about all that.

But in just a moment, we're going to have our friend and colleague, the general manager, our WRCO, in Richland Center, join us.

Some big news in terms of not just the sports world, but I think Wisconsin culture as a whole.

Long time basketball coach at Kiba City, Jerry Pettigew, the Winnie the Pooh's coach in Wisconsin High School, basketball history died over the weekend.

He was 84.

Fielding is going to be here in just a moment.

to share some of his remembrances.

As he interviewed Coach Pettigieu a number of times over the years, worked with him a lot.

So Phil's gonna join us via phone from Michelin Center just a moment.

But first of all, Summers, we are in week two here, time once again for the Scotty Summer Text to Win Contest.

Let's go!

to start us off on a Monday, June 9th.

Time was again for Scone Summer Text-to-In Contest.

I think Phil's on the phone.

Let's bring him in because this could only help our chances of getting people to call in live from Richland Center.

Our friend, Phil, Phil, how are you?

I am doing well.

Thanks for asking me to be on the show.

Well, it's always a pleasure.

And you did it on short notice.

We're going to talk about the passive coach, Pedigee, in a minute.

We got to do this text-to-in contest.

Now, you've been doing it on the music stations as well, correct?

Yes, I have it's been going very well.

Well, that's that's fantastic and up on this hour on here on this show We are giving away a pair of the walkie-brewer tickets at am fan field I was there yesterday feel like you and I took in a game last year We got to do that again this year.

They're beautiful seats, right?

I mean you can't beat these seats.

Oh, they are absolutely gorgeous You can see everything and they take good care of you where you're sitting as well

Phil particularly enjoyed it when they came out and gave him a foot massage in the seventh inning

I

don't remember that.

I must have fallen asleep.

Or had

a couple too many

beers.

Maybe

that didn't happen, but but no, they're they're absolutely great seats So we're giving away a pair of Milwaukee Brewer tickets right now in this hour You have to text in this hour other shows other days We give away a crisp $100 bill and everybody who texts in in this hour will be eligible to win one of two fantastic grand prizes either a Baraboo Dells area vacation or a beautiful door County getaway vacation each with a

gas card to get you there and back.

If you want to know specifically where we're not allowed to tell you, the attorneys have forbiddus, but you can go on to the civic media website and find out civicmedia.us is where you can find all the details of those grand prizes.

All right.

And you know the best part of the contest?

It's a statewide contest.

It sure is.

It's not.

It's the beauty of it, Phil.

It's not just here in Madison.

It's out the old home town where you're at in Richland Center.

Absolutely.

All over the state, which makes it even more prestigious when you win.

Exactly right.

It's from this big pool of people.

All right.

Download the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, go to your favorite device, Apple or Android to the app store type in Civic Media.

It pops up.

It's free.

It takes less than a minute.

Open it up.

The first 12 stations are where you will find us and you can play with Phil.

What do you do yours, Phil, in the morning?

Oh, yeah, absolutely same

time as everybody 9 11 9 o'clock and you guys do it 2 and 4 in the afternoon

All right, we can listen to Phil.

I think 7 11 2 and 4

what oh for

I say

well for Yeah, for some of the talk ones.

It's 7.

Do you guys do one at 7?

Yeah, we actually do.

I'm sorry.

I don't even know what day it is

Well, usually fills in bed, but he's up at 4 o'clock in the morning.

We're disrupting his sleep quite frankly I'm usually bed by I'm in bed by this time

Exactly right so you can die.

You can always listen to fill the civic media app and find them at WRCO So make sure you do that.

All right, so here we go go to the first 11 stations for this hour That's where you'll find this show open it up at the lower right end quarter.

It says text TEXT text click on that and we're gonna give you the word right now the word this hour is Fire F I R E the word is fire Don't get caught

Watching a fire If you play with matches, you're going to get burned because you started a fire F I F I R E the word is fire you have until three o'clock to Texas so text right now the word fire F I R E and You too will be eligible win a pair of walkie-brookie tickets and eligible for those great grand prizes Phil I really appreciate you coming on today on short notice because I I saw the news either early this morning

that the winningest coach in Wisconsin High School basketball history, Jerry Petticube, passed away over the weekend.

He was 84, and someone who's called a lot, a lot of games over the years and had the pleasure and honor to work with him.

What was your first thought when you heard the news?

Well, I was really sad.

Certainly, we lost a legend.

60 years of coaching.

Get this, his lifetime record, 1,027 and 249 losses is all.

just amazing one of the only about twenty coaches nationally known to have reached the one thousand win plateau but more over just such a wealth of knowledge and and he was always very helpful to to young coaches but very helpful to young broadcasters like like me and i'm not so young anymore but when i first started out for the one uh... cuba city one of the boys championship in nineteen ninety one and i went down to the press room afterwards it was in the old field house

and uh... i had covered him four times because two of the teams that we cover here for w r c o played his teams in league games uh... twice a year so he knew me and uh... afterwards they said okay we'll break it down if anybody wants an individual interviews with coach pentague uh... step forward with all the madison tv stations are there lots of radio stations and he looked out in the crowd he said i'll talk to fill first he covered it all year long so wow

You know, and as a young guy, it was like, wow.

And so I got past all these cameras with my little Panasonic cassette recorder to go up and interview Coach Pettigieu.

I think that's a great story.

I appreciate you sharing it because, you know, that that's the kind of person he was.

He remembered who was there for them and their team, a little tiny school in Southwest Wisconsin, which is closer to Dubuque than any major city in the state of Wisconsin.

That is correct.

I have a trivia question for you and Mr. Zomers.

Can anybody tell us

Why Coach Pettigrew's first high school basketball game as a coach was canceled?

Boy, why his first

high school game was canceled?

I have no idea.

I'm going to throw a wild guess out there.

His appendix burst.

No.

I'm

going to I'm going to say it because he's been around for such a long time.

I'm going to say it was like something national.

I'm trying to give a national news story that it would have been the death of JFK.

The assassination of president John F Kennedy Wow, yeah, his first game was November 22nd 1963 he was coaching for South Wayne I believe it was and It was called off until Tuesday because of the the national morning for the president

Wow That puts it in its perspective and was he still coaching a fill or had he had to retire a year ago?

He retired in 2023 on 23 okay from Cuba City, but he did help I believe it was Galena I think he was like an assistant or somebody that that came on as a kind of a consultant for their team So he was still around the game

Wow, absolutely incredible somers.

We have time to get the clip in now or Wait time for the break.

All right.

This is an interview Phil had with coach petting you back in 2018 You

know, I think the secret Phil is

the passion and uh... the desire and you need someone to uh... to organize it and then you'd be surprised the number of people that are willing to help wanna help and uh... you just get kids involved and uh... i think when that happens uh... you know one of the things we got going for us in the game of basketball and enjoyable game to play and uh...

nothing greater fell than to be in a regional final conference championship sectional final state game i mean that doesn't get any better net so when you look at those kind of things i think it's it's easy to get the kids involved in and then having kids uh... be willing to put in the time and uh... there's no you know it's nothing in the water of dickie bill or anything else it uh...

It's a case of being willing to put in the time.

Well, have kids changed since you started coaching in some ways or has it remained the same?

You know, Phil, that's one question that a lot of people have asked me.

I think kids are still basically the same.

They still have goals.

They still have desires.

They still want to succeed.

I find this and when people talk about the old days and comparing players, the players today are

bigger, faster, stronger, and they're better.

I would say about the only sport that I've seen, that I haven't seen marked improvement over the years, and that's baseball.

You know, baseball, but football, basketball, I would say the athletes, and obviously the way the girls have come by leaps and bounds, and you've got a tremendous program up there in Richland Center with Steve Bort, and he runs it, and I think that's

One of the secrets of success is finding a coach that's going to stay in a community because, you know, the shelf life of a coach in a community these days isn't all that long.

And finding a coach that will stay willing to build a program, getting some parental involvement, positive parental involvement, and I think that's the formula for success.

That was an interview with Jerry Pettigee, Phil.

Great job with that.

Can you come back here after the break?

We got about a two-minute break.

Can you stick around?

No problem.

All right, stay tuned.

Talk a little bit more with Phil Knee on his remembrances of now the late coach, Jerry Pettigee.

Stay with us.

You're listening to the Todd Allball Show here, and you're listening to Cross Wisconsin on the Civic Media

Radio

Network.

The final varmints of Southwest Wisconsin, who invade the WRCO studios every Saturday night, six until midnight.

Those were the days.

It's a great program.

If you don't live in Southwest Wisconsin and able to hear on WRCO FM 100.9 in Richland Center, you can listen to it on the Civic Media app.

at WRCO every Saturday night, six until midnight.

He is also the station manager of WRCO, the voice of Ithaca and Richland Center and Riverdale and River Valley.

And he also changed his light bulbs.

Our friend Phil Knee joins us on the phone live from Richland Center.

Phil, you do it all.

You know what?

I've never worked a day in my life, though.

People say, oh, yeah, I have to go to work.

And I say, no, I get to go to work, right?

Right.

You're 100% right, my friend.

Welcome back to the All Bull Show at Civic Media.

It is now 23 minutes past the hour of 2 o'clock.

Talking to Phil here, that great interview.

Thanks for letting us share that with our listeners, Phil.

It's in 2018 when you talked to the now late coach, Pettigieu of Cuba City, who passed away this weekend.

that's correct and at the time of people every year would say i wonder if coach patty is coming back next year or if he's coming back you know and again sixty years uh... i'm not sure that a coach starting out he alluded to that in that interview clip uh... the shelf life or a coach now is is not that long but not only a coach he was uh... history teacher too and uh... loved that teaching subtle history teacher or math teacher long-time coach uh... that just doesn't happen that much

it really doesn't.

And in fact, just like last week, week before, I was talking to friends of mine, one who grew up in the Cuba City area and said that, you know, his bat, it wasn't just the coaching of Coach Pettigieu.

his involvement in the community, his basketball camps, the revenue brought into the community, and he was, as you said, not just a coach, a teacher, and he was one of these people who just loved where he lived and gave back to his community.

He really did.

I had an opportunity to have lunch with him some years ago and pick his brain a little bit.

And while we were eating, he kept getting calls on his phone, and I forget which college it was in Wisconsin, but they had a coach job opening, and the college was calling him for advice.

Wow, that's that's fantastic.

There's a story in today's Milwaukee Journal sent out by Dave Kellerman.

If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Great quote here by Coach Greg Gard, the Wisconsin Badgers, of course, who grew up in Cobb, not too far away, Iowa County next door to Grant County.

And this is the quote from Coach Gard.

He says that, quote, I'll get text from him late at night or I'll see something that he tweeted about basketball, Gard said.

And I'm like, Coach, were you really

watching an instructional video at 1 a.m.

that you had to text me a question about?

But that seems to be the kind of guy that he was always, always thinking, always coaching.

It sounds about right.

The thing I will say though is it was all about discipline and I'm not sure a coach starting out today could do some of the same things in terms of he told me no loud music in the locker room before the game.

Really?

You know, that's another thing he said.

one of his best players ever and this is back many years ago but he said you need a haircut and the kid said you know I'm not gonna get one and he said he didn't play for me you know I'm not sure if you can get away with those kind of things now you know probably not but but when you have a program that's proven and winning and people want to be a part of it they will they will conform to just be a part of it right

exactly

right

no I think everybody

Everybody wants to be a winner if you're good when you win you learn life lessons along the way even when you don't but I think you're exactly right I'm not sure it was it was just I guess someone was old-fashioned discipline but to your point I think he was just a very respected individual because he achieved success

Right, exactly.

The number of times I called games in the old Cuba City gym in the Jerry Petty U Court, and again, it wasn't a station, we weren't the station, they're hometown station, but we were there several times a year.

But I really can count on one hand the number of times one of the teams I was covering won because...

When you did, it was like winning the state championship.

Yeah, exactly, right.

And part of the reason that I wanted to lead off with this, because I do think it's a state story, because I don't care if you're not from Southwest Wisconsin, if you played basketball, or if you had a kid in basketball, or if you ever went to a state tournament all around Wisconsin, you say the name Jerry Pettigew, and anybody involved in high school sports pretty much knows who this person was.

You're right.

Exactly.

His camps.

But plus he was on the WIA statewide television network for many years.

If his team wasn't playing, he was one of the color-commentating coaches.

Wow.

Just absolutely really, really incredible.

Anything I haven't asked you yet, Phil, or would you like to add about Coach Pedigee or his passing?

I don't think so.

Again, it's just it's a huge loss for basketball and he was the man who led the WBCA Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association for years and MC their ban quit and gave away a lot of things.

And he gave me a media person of the year award in 2018 or 19.

And, you know, I mean, you get a call from Coach Petty and saying you want an award.

I mean, that's like a career thing for me, really.

Right.

No, it really is well deserved on my ad.

But, well, Phil, I really appreciate you taking time out of.

your day after you put in a full day already to come and chat with us because someone who I know worked around him and with him, so to speak, for a number of years, you really knew the guy.

And thanks for sharing this.

It means a lot to me.

I know it means a lot to our audience as well.

No problem.

I'll be on anytime.

Next time we'll talk about music or whatever it was.

I like that Jimi Hendrix intro by the

way.

Zomberance is always on it.

And what's the profile this week on those days on Saturday

night?

This week?

Hold on a second.

We're doing groups named after city, states, and continents.

Really?

Boston, Berlin, Chicago, America, Kansas, Miami Sound Machine, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Nazareth, New York Dolls, Asia, Bay City Rollers, Black Oak, Arkansas, Europe, New York City, Ozark Mountain Daredevil, Ohio Players, LA Guns, Orleans, Toronto.

Very good.

That's great.

We'll be listening.

If we can't listen over the air, people can listen on the Civic Media app on WRC.

Thank you, Phil.

Really appreciate it, my friend.

You bet.

We'll talk to him.

Talk to you later.

Text the word fire, F-I-R-E, right now to the Civic Media app.

Fire, F-I-R-E.

On the Civic Media app, giving away those Brewer tickets, two of them this hour, as well as eligible for two fantastic Wisconsin vacation getaways.

Gonna give it away at the end of this week.

Stay tuned.

Coming up next, State Senator Kelder Royce was happening up the street of the capitol.

It's the title of most show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Welcome back to the Tunnelball show of the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock of this Monday, June 9th, 2025.

Glad to have you along here.

Don't forget our text to win contest is still going on here.

Up for grabs this hour.

A pair on the walkie brewer tickets to our beautiful club level seats at AM Fam Field was just there yesterday.

Sadly, I could not get the brewers a win, although I had nothing to do with it.

But it's always a great time.

You're sitting there right in the third baseline.

You can see right into the brewers dug out.

There are beautiful seats, so don't miss out.

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and everybody is eligible for that.

So text and fire, F-I-R-E, right now.

Right now, our guest as has been, we're honored to have her here.

Every Monday through the joint finance committee, i.e.

the budget process, the senator here from the 26th district in the city of Madison, or parts of the city of Madison, State Senator Kelder Royce joins us.

Senator Royce, how are

you?

I'm great, happy to be here again.

Always a pleasure to have you here on a Monday.

I feel like, do you ever see the movie Groundhog with

Bill Murray?

I feel very much like I've seen that movie and I'm living it.

She bought the teaser.

For those that don't, the movie is premised on Bill Murray's character wakes up in Punxsutawney.

Punxsutawney.

Yeah, for the Groundhog Day.

And he lives the same day over and over.

I feel like every Monday we come on and I say, Senator, they haven't done anything yet.

Well, you know, to be fair,

They haven't done anything yet for a long time, and they may well not do anything this week.

I mean, I think we're going to be in on a few small agencies, but...

The reality is the Republicans are not making any progress on getting our budget done.

And for those who might not follow this day-to-day like a nerd like I do, we're in the middle of our biennial, meaning every other year's state budget process.

Last check, we're at over a $4 billion surplus in this state.

Senator Roy says one of four Democrats that sits on the committee Republicans clearly control this.

What we heard last week was a lot of talk from

both the governor's office and the Republicans on the joint finance committee, as well as Speaker Voss, amongst others.

He was on WISN television up front over the weekend, talking a lot.

And they're kind of both blaming each other for this so-called breakdown between negotiations and talks between the two.

And now Speaker Voss is signaling the Republicans might just push forward, essentially, with their own bill.

Have you got that about right?

I think, I think that's about right.

You know, it's troubling to me when, you know, in previous years, we haven't had too many negotiations.

I think the first two budgets under the current governor, there really were no negotiations.

And now it seems like there had been some productive movement over the last couple of months.

The governor said, basically, I agreed to your tax cuts, your top priorities.

And the Republicans wouldn't agree to the democratic priorities, namely funding our schools, funding childcare and funding higher ed.

I'm right before one of the air, there's a story in the Milwaukee Journal sentinel today by Anna Kleiber.

By the way, congrats, I think she got her first front page story this weekend.

So that's pretty cool for a journalist, for a

reporter.

On the headline says, Wisconsin Bill would give state income tax deduction to educators for classroom expenses.

And to summarize this, because most of my family have either been or are still currently educators in the public school systems in Wisconsin.

And because,

funds are low in many districts across the state because the state doesn't really properly fund public education.

We have teachers who are spending their own money to buy classroom supplies.

So this Republican sponsored bill by a representative, David Armstrong of Rice Lake says, well, he wants to give a $300 tax credit, essentially, to educators who spend their own money in the classroom.

On the face of it, Senator Royce, you think, well, this is great.

You're helping out educators

But then I have to ask the question, with $4 billion plus surplus, why aren't we just funding public schools correctly?

And I think you hit it right on the head there, Todd, because the idea that teachers should have to buy school supplies for their students or supplement the classroom, because we're not actually funding them as a state, it's emblematic of the kind of failure of government that we've seen over the last 15 years from the Republican majority here.

Time and time again, no matter where you go in the state, and I travel all over the state, I knock on doors, I do radio shows like this, I do listening sessions.

The number one issue I hear about is we want our kids to have great schools.

We want better public education opportunities for our kids.

And Republicans hear that too, and yet they will not fund it.

Our kids have not gotten an inflationary increase in 15 years.

Why

is it, and I'm not, I mean, this is a rhetorical question.

I don't know.

I expect you to read other people's minds, but I guess I'll put it this way.

I'm just kind of, I'm literally at a loss for words when we just had our friend and colleague from Richland Center, Phil Neon, who covered Coach Jerry Pedigee for years at Cuba City.

The legendary Winnies coach in Wisconsin basketball history who just passed away over the weekend at 84, I believe.

There are a few places you can go around the state.

Anybody who has had a kid in basketball or ever and say coach pedicure and they not not know who it is They everybody in sports so high school sports knows who it is my point is So many of us around the state Love to go to the high school football or basketball or whatever game

or the

forensics meet or the band concert and Our own person.

It's like well.

Yeah, I want my school funded But yeah, why is it that Republicans are successful in their narrative?

to divide the state when it comes to other people's school districts.

But they're not even funding their own school districts.

It is rural districts in Republican areas that in many ways suffer the most under these policies.

And even the quote unquote wealthier suburban schools that people think of, these are the super high test scores.

They've got beautiful buildings because those communities keep passing referendums to fund their schools.

Even they are saying, we can't do this anymore.

This isn't working.

And what the underfunding of schools isn't working for any kid in any district.

And I think our kids are worth it.

I think they are worth investing in and spending money on.

And I don't understand the Republican politicians who ignore their own voters and say, nope, our kids are not worth it.

Instead, we need more tax breaks for the wealthiest that have already gotten their public education and they're doing fine.

So what is it in your opinion as someone who's in the building, as we say?

Do you think the biggest breakdown is over K-12 funding the governor wants and the Republicans on joint finance are just saying no?

Is that really the biggest thing?

I don't know if the issue is K-12 or if they just said childcare, forget it, we're not doing anything for early childhood or if it's UW.

But the reality is that our governor agreed to the Republican tax proposal.

and Republicans wouldn't agree to fund our kids.

And, you know, we didn't even have a discussion about healthcare, right, about what we're going to do if hundreds of millions of dollars are cut from Medicaid, which would be a huge blow to our workforce, about the $2 billion that we're going to lose if we don't expand BadgerCare to save it this year, right?

I think it's time to, if the Republicans are just going to walk away,

After months of negotiations, it's time to expand the playing field.

Let's get bold then.

Let's talk to constituents.

Let's take it directly to them and say, listen, here's what we heard from you, and here's what the Republicans want to do.

None of it.

We're talking to State Senator Kelner-Royce from the 26th District here in Dane County, mostly the city of Madison.

And she is a member of the Joint Committee on Finance, the Budget Writing Committee here in the state legislature.

Senator Royce, again, as we look at this process,

Because you know we had something called a national election in between the last budget.

So my

mind is a little foggy

you were there So

help me help me remember a little bit here as I recall

There were a few people in the Democratic Party or Democratic voters who were not necessarily happy with Governor Evers last time around because he signed a bill that included some things they didn't like.

In my view, he made some concessions to Republicans to get a bill passed and say, look, this isn't perfect, but I'll sign it.

Now, you know, he might have also gotten a little cute cute by half with his veto pen, which ticked off some Republican folks.

But I guess what my point is is I recall.

Last time around, Governor Evers wasn't zero sum on this and saying it's 100% my way or no way.

He was willing to negotiate.

Well, yeah.

And I think he's always been willing to negotiate.

The problem is the Republicans just keep calling his bluff, passing these horrible budgets that do not provide what our kids need and deserve.

And they just bank on the governor being willing to sign it because he'd rather have a budget.

even if it's a bad one, then no budget at all.

And you know, I think the question is like, can we really afford that?

Can our kids afford that?

And especially the childcare industry, which the funds are running out on June 30th.

We could see massive closures all across the state.

You know, childcare counts, that program stopped the closures of childcare that we had been experiencing over the last several decades.

And that program, those funds are gonna go run out and

there's nothing on the horizon here.

I think that's a really good point to bring up because again people I talked to around the state we take the show on the road other people it's like Todd we're just we're tuning this out we can't we can't dial in all the time we get depressed I get that believe me but I think you raising this again because I think people are like well you know it's just politicians my childcare is always going to be there.

It's not alarmist, is it, to say, no, it's not

actually.

It's absolutely not.

I mean, talk to your childcare providers.

And by the way, is your childcare affordable?

Do you feel like it's a reasonable amount of money?

You're paying more for your kid to go to childcare than to go to college.

You're paying more for childcare than you do for your mortgage or your rent.

I think anybody with a kid in childcare knows that it's a massive amount of money, and it's absolutely necessary for your family's economic stability.

And if we lose that,

Parents are going to drop out of the workforce and we are going to feel it economically everywhere in our state and every community.

And again, just remind folks and keep me honest here.

part of the urgency of what you just said is because these federal dollars that were implemented during COVID, the pandemic have run out.

They're

not going to

be, not going to be, can't rely on that anymore.

And so the choice is either A, the state has to step up and fill that gap or B, nothing's going to happen, as you said.

And we are literally going to, I know the terms overuse these days, but we really are, in my view, going to have childcare facilities close.

Right.

That's right.

And that's because it is.

too expensive to provide the kind of intensive care that you need.

You can't have one adult and 30 toddlers in a classroom.

And you really, it is high skill work.

You know, a lot of people in early childhood, they have an associate's degree, they have extensive training, they have a bachelor's degree, many have master's degrees.

And yet they are making poverty wages, right?

The average wage is about $13 an hour.

And why?

Because

that's all the childcare centers can afford to pay.

It's all the parents can afford to pay, and already it's out of reach for many families, or they're struggling and scraping and not doing other things so that they can afford for their kids to be in childcare.

And again, for people not like you, where I follow this stuff all the time, who say, well, I guess it's the government going to shut down, no, but in the state of Wisconsin, if there is no budget, if the Republicans pass something out of joint finance and the governor either vetoes it or whatever, we just

keep government, state government keeps working, but at the previous budget.

Right.

Exactly.

We go back to 2023 levels.

And obviously we all know the cost of living has gone way up since 2023.

We had an election about it.

And in fact, instead of actually addressing inflation, we've got a Republican regime in Washington that's actually making that problem worse.

Right.

So the costs are going to continue to go up.

And yet our state government is not going to be able to meet those costs

and those monies with the last budget.

do not cover again the childcare.

So just

doing

nothing also doesn't help.

Those

childcare facilities

shut down.

So I don't have a crystal ball, but about a minute here before the first break, do you have a sense there's any hope of any way to get the two sides together or is this just going to be the Republican budget and the governor has to decide whether to line item veto or veto the whole thing?

Well,

You know, my hope is the apparent dysfunction in the Senate Republican caucus.

I sort of think that they don't have a path to 17 in that caucus.

That's how much they need to pass a budget.

And in that case, maybe they will come to the Democrats and we're here.

We're ready.

Open arms.

Speaking of the Democrats, they have something called a state convention this weekend.

Maybe we'll talk a little politics on the other side

with

Senator Royce as well.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the title most shown civic media.

I know I'd go from rags to

riches.

here joining us at the table right now, though, State Senator Keller Royce, a Democrat from the 26th District here in Dane County, who sits on the Joint Finance Committee.

Senator, any thoughts on that?

What's worth?

Birthday or anniversary?

Boy, you know...

I think probably anniversary, but honestly, there's really not an excuse for missing it these days, right?

We all carry around these little tracking devices in our pockets.

I'm gonna, usually I don't say it too late.

We were discussing this in the morning meeting, and I said, I don't know, it's not even close for me.

It's birthday.

And Luke Mather says, so says the single man.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say happy anniversary to my spouse.

This year or this week is our.

our wedding anniversary.

Really,

this week?

Yeah.

Well, timely indeed.

Indeed, yeah.

Well,

happy anniversary.

Thank you.

Fantastic.

All right.

Let's get into something because then we'll see what happens this week with the joint finance committee.

Hopefully they get off their keyster and actually try to do something and you're coming back next Monday and talk more about

that.

I'm here, man.

I'm ready to work.

I know you

are.

I love that about you.

You were talking.

We weren't going to talk about this initially, but we were talking over the break and you said, sure, let's do it because you have something in the works to address.

My sister is driving down from Eau Claire this week.

We met in Richland Center.

And she says, I'm at the Quick Trip in Sparta.

And there is a 12 deep line at the ATM and this Bitcoin machine.

And I said, this is great.

I've seen this a little bit.

Explain what this is and what you're doing to address it.

So functionally, this is.

a way to get ordinary people to put their money into crypto so that it can be stolen by fraudsters and scammers.

And it is kind of the Wild West, right?

There has been minimal regulation in Wisconsin.

States are starting to take action, but it's, you know, it's kind of like whack-a-mole.

I'm hearing from law enforcement about people who are losing their savings.

And before they even realize they've been scammed, the money has been transferred to a third party, you know, anonymous crypto wallet somewhere in another country.

It's just tremendously sad to me because And again, nobody's breaking law.

I don't believe To have these machines there but to have them right next to an ATM So someone takes out their their hard-earned cash or retired folks on a fixed income and then they feed it into a Crypto buying Bitcoin machine, whatever

it is

and they've heard on some

program, this is how you're going to get rich, and then it's gone.

Right.

Well, and the purpose of crypto is that it's totally anonymous.

It's untraceable.

And so if you're a criminal and you previously had to scan people out of their money by getting access to their bank account or their credit card, there are mechanisms in place because these are regulated money transfers, right?

They're regulated at the federal and the state level because we don't want people laundering money.

We don't want criminals to crime.

And crypto, these ATMs really facilitate

these kind of financial scams.

And, you know, fortunately, the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institution has just put out some very good recommendations and regulations, actually, to try to get these under control, requiring registration, posting a warning that says, hey, man, this could be a scam.

If somebody you don't know is trying to get your money, it is almost certainly a scam.

But we need state laws on the books.

And I've got a bill in drafting that I'm working on to limit the amount of money.

and put in a holding period so that, you know, you can transfer money, but not more than $1,000 a day.

So you're not going to lose your whole retirement savings.

I don't have $1,000 a day.

Right.

I mean, you know, for some people that could, there could be their whole savings, right?

But, and then to say there's, there's got to be a holding period.

So like a, you know, if you have a big check,

that you're depositing, the bank will put a hold on it to make sure that the funds are actually there, right, that the check is real.

And we should be able to do the same thing with crypto.

So you get home, you have a conversation with your, you know, adult daughter and your daughter says, oh, God, dad, I think that was a scam.

And you say, oh, gosh, and then you can call law enforcement, they've got time to get that money back before it's spirited away.

to some criminal's crypto

wallet.

I don't know for sure, but I used to manage a business at an ATM machine, and usually the business gets a percentage of the transaction.

That's how they make

money,

these things.

I got to believe it's somewhat similar with these crypto Bitcoin machines.

Absolutely.

It's like a race to get these things in here, because it's essentially a painless way to get a little bit of...

money in the door.

It's just it's tremendously sad to me.

And I

feel the same way about it that I do with any gambling or Vegas or or sloppies, whatever it is, don't ever put money in there that you can't afford to lose.

Whatever your play money is for the week, 20 bucks or 200 or I guess maybe some people have a thousand.

But don't don't if you can't afford to lose it, don't put it in there.

That's me.

I mean, I think that's a really good practice.

But, you know, at least with gambling, you're getting the, you know, the excitement or the thrill of the actual game.

And with with crypto,

what you're getting in many cases is you're just facilitating crime, right?

It's money laundering, it's buying things that it's not legal to buy.

And in most cases, it's essentially civilians getting scammed.

And you know, I know there's a lot of conservative or right-leading media who pushes this stuff, but honestly, it's on the left too.

And I mean, I've heard it advertised, correct me the wrong summer, but Hartman has an advertisement, right, for crypto or something like that.

Oh, crypto, I mean, they'll advertise anyway, right?

It's like cigarettes, right?

They don't care who takes

their products.

I think the people, I think you're not a direct analogy, but I think people, everybody like wants to think they can make money easier than work it harder.

And so you hear these advertisements or whatever, you know, oh, you know, I did.

And there's always going to be one or two gals or guys that make it big, right?

And then they think, oh, if I put my money in there, I'm going to make all this money.

And it ain't

happening.

It is functionally in many ways a pyramid scheme, right?

I mean, that relies on people.

Getting getting naive new people in to pump up the price so that you can sell and You know and that's kind of the best case scenario right the worst case scenario is you've you've just basically a fallen victim to a scam and sent your money to

somebody in another country.

I'm so thankful to hear that you're on top of this.

I didn't know that till our conversation today.

I appreciate that because I think this is based on what my own family members seeing this happen.

I mean, people are putting a lot of money into this right now across Wisconsin and it needs to be regulated and people need to be warned.

Absolutely.

I mean, we have so many ways to transfer money in this modern era.

Thank goodness.

But they're all regulated and crypto should not be exempt.

Agreed, one person you can always take to the bank.

That is State Senator Kelton Royce.

She is here on Mondays, Joint Finance Committee.

Thank you, Senator.

We appreciate it.

Thanks, Todd.

We'll see you next Monday.

Stay tuned next what's worse and some political headlines.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the all-ball show for a Monday across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Text the word fire, F-I-R-E, right now.

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

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd

Alba.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault, along with Mr. Aaron Zombers, our producer and engineer.

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

Welcome to hour number two of the big program on this Monday, June 9th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite from our world headquarters here in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, of Civic Media.

Some clouds in the sky, Zombers.

A little cool.

As Elmer Childress used to say, cool.

A little cool right now.

Which I appreciate.

I know you're very happy about that.

Although they say maybe midweek a warm up with some rain towards the end of the week.

So I guess just kind of typical early summertime weather.

That's that's the way it goes.

Had a nice weekend this week.

As I said in the first hour, by the way, thank you to Senator Kelly Royce for being here.

She'll be back next Monday for a joint finance committee update.

Otherwise, it wasn't that fantastic about her bill on addressing crypto in this state.

Yes, it's good that somebody is doing something about it because It's you know technology moves so quickly and our government is designed to move so slowly So I'm glad to see that there are people who are taking initiative to try and catch up.

Yeah, absolutely

Great week and I said our friend Betty Hayes Baxter She's not shy about it.

She turned 95 this last year and she had her 78th dance recital to extend her world record

holding streak as the longest professional dance teacher in the world to finish line

moves forward

another year.

It certainly does.

So that was fantastic.

And Holly Miller, who bought kind of part of betting studio has her own recital.

It was fantastic.

And again, as I sat there and watched it, and my sister did not dance this year, although now we're.

It sounds like there's going to be another alumni class next year, so we may get roped into that.

But anyway, I was sitting there watching this and the professionalism and the lighting folks, the sound people, the quality of this program and all the kids, well over 100 young people, not just little kids all the way through high school.

And I thought, isn't this fantastic here in a rural community in Southwest Wisconsin, bringing the arts and a wonderful true dance and inspiring people.

And just like Brady Ewing, our friend from Mitchell Center who ended up playing at Wisconsin and then at the NFL, there have been a number of people from all over Wisconsin, rural parts of Wisconsin that go on to have professional careers in the arts and music and entertainment.

And it all begins with programs in our own local community.

So many thanks to Betty Hayes and her daughter Cheryl and also Holly Miller for the great work.

And then I went down to Milwaukee on Sunday and

Watch the Brewers cough one up.

Freddy Peralta pitched really well, then they brought in this other guy I never heard of for inning, and he gave up the only home run.

Not great.

Similar

thing

happened at a game I was at recently, like I said recently, like a month ago, and the pitching on both teams was pretty iffy.

And we were joking.

Oh, they got an ERA of 12.

And then they bring out one of our relief pitchers actually did have an ERA of 12 point something.

But it's always a great time when you go to these brewer games and it can be listening every day through the rest of this week.

We'll continue to give you chances in our summertime text to win contest.

all the all all day long between seven and then into six o'clock hour.

So Maggie Dawn will have the next word of the hour coming up on her show immediately following hours.

And then at the end of the week, we'll find out whether we beat Tom Hartman or not.

We're seeing what happens there.

Coming up here in just a little while, I want to delve into some of the national headlines a little bit and and how I feel that it relates to the state of Wisconsin.

Zomers you're much too young, but there's a great movie called wag the dog Starting Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro.

I have it guess what on DVD right here in my hot little hands gonna talk a little bit later Why the events in Los Angeles, California this week?

Eerly similar in some ways to the movie wag the dog I do actually know about that movie really all right because

he's talked about it

before

So we'll talk about talk about that can be up in our this hour and also some other headlines as well.

But right now it is 11 minutes past the hour of three o'clock time once again for what's worse.

Let's

go.

once again for what's worse no prize money involved nothing to give away but is your chance to have your voice and opinion heard all across the state of Wisconsin no better place to have your business advertised than right here on the civic media radio network all 11 stations the largest independent privately owned radio network in Wisconsin behind only the great Wisconsin public radio network but that's publicly owned

So, anyway, find out how you can advertise by going to civicmedia.us, civicmedia.us.

All right, we're in that time of year where a lot of graduations are happening.

But June, of course, a lot of people get married in June.

My parents got married in June.

That didn't work out so hot.

Mine

got married in

June.

So far, it has worked out.

And it did, and it did work out, all right.

But you have a lot of weddings in June.

And so today's, today's a category.

Here we go.

What's worse, forgetting birthdays or forgetting an anniversary, forgetting a birthday or forgetting an anniversary, 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.

As we said before, download it on your favorite Apple or Android device.

Go to the search bar in your app store type in civic CIVIC media takes less than a minute.

It's free.

It's what Gail King at CBS calls a deal speaking to Gail King I watched last night the Tony Awards you watch I bet you did not watch the Tony

I did

not it's actually you when you receive when you come out and you receive your gay card in the mail part of the requirement of Maintaining the gay card is you have to watch the Tonys

Gotcha.

Okay.

I thought so.

I thought so.

I'm under contractual obligation.

So, uh, I watched the Tonys last night and it was a pretty good, uh, Cynthia Alivo was the host and she's enormously, enormously talented and she did a great job for my money.

You just can't, you can't beat Neil Patrick Harris.

But it was, it was a Gail King was there in the front row with her best buddy Oprah Winfrey, who presented the, uh, musical of the year award.

So it was it was a good show anyway, so Gail was there last night and Oliver glory hard to hard to beat that 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 What's worse?

Forgetting a birthday or forgetting an anniversary 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Tony watching on YouTube says depends on who

But if it's your anniversary, that is far worse because you're half of it.

So you have no excuse to forget.

Well said.

Well said, Tony Zimmerman.

Jack and Merrimack, listening via WAUK says, definitely missing an anniversary is worse.

It celebrates the date that you made a commitment to another person, though missing either really isn't that good.

Listening on Madison's WMDX says birthdays are singular.

Weddings are not.

So birthday.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Greg in beautiful Genesee Depot says, missing an anniversary would be marriage suicide.

Really?

Wow.

For some people take that real serious.

Robert McFarlane says, if you're married, this one is a draw.

Megan in some prairie says, I'd be more concerned than angry if my husband forgot our anniversary.

After a few COVID reschedulings, we got married on his birthday.

Really?

That would be very concerning.

Yeah.

Well, Megan, that was actually very, very smart.

because hard for him to forget.

Now, the question is, and I'm completely, I know I'm taking your husband's side on this, but does he get from you both an anniversary and a birthday gift, or is it like people that are born like on the 24th or 25th of December and everything gets lumped together, right?

I'd be curious to know.

I feel like if I were in that situation, if I am on the giving end, you know, I got married to somebody and our anniversary is on that person's birthday.

I feel like I would get them a birthday gift and then I would do something with them for the anniversary.

That would be my plan of action.

You'd have a gift and then you'd have a date.

I could have two gifts.

What's worse for getting a birthday or forgetting an anniversary eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two you could text us on the civic media app Len in Madison says what's worse is forgetting That that those are the choices again.

Well, that would be very concerning Tony on YouTube says

It's half the day about him and the other half is about the anniversary party.

Well, that's a great question as well Tony speaking of Megan's situation That has anniversary on her spouse's birthday.

Yeah Melissa listening in a beautiful willing street in Madison great neighborhood iconic neighborhood in Madison Melissa says both of us forgot our 25th week.

They forgot their 25th anniversary.

Oh, oh both of y'all I got it

Forgot their 25th anniversary this week.

No one noticed until friends wished us a happy anniversary.

Well, all right, so I

Melissa, that's very, very interesting.

I would say either A, you're so blissful and happy that you just every day is like your anniversary is happy or, or, and we probably shouldn't go there.

It's very disgruntled.

Or you're just both forgetful.

I

mean, it seems like this was not a bad thing.

I feel like if one person forgets, that can be bad.

If both people forget, it's like, uh, we did noopsy.

Right.

I feel like it's probably the former where they're just so happy.

It's like, well, you know, we're happy with each other every day.

Cam and Appleton says, my partner and I do more on our dog's birthdays than we do in our anniversary.

So probably forgetting the dog's birthday.

That's really good.

People, some people make big deals on their pet's birthdays.

Scott Madison on WMDX, our anniversary is the day before my birthday.

We both consistently forget our anniversary because of this.

I also only get a happy anniversary dinner meal.

Oh, all right.

Not a two.

It's a two for one, basically.

For a one

for

two.

Oh, Melissa, back in Willy Street, letting us know that I like the bliss idea.

Now, see how she worded that?

I like the bliss idea, not nowhere completely blissful.

So that was the reason, no, I'm just kidding Melissa.

See, you're happy you're living the good life down there at Willy Street.

You're chilling out, you're going to the Willy Street co-op, you probably walk, get your groceries, walk down to the lake, chill out down there, go to the crystal corner for a drink, I don't know.

I

love the crystal corner.

I mean, you're living, you're living large down there at Willy Street.

Let's see here.

I guess that's where

Cam and Appleton talking about the dog birthday parties says dude We put crowns on them and let them eat steak at a table.

You have no idea We even wrap them presents and let them open them.

What's worse for getting your birthday or for getting your anniversary 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2

Megan back in some prairie says, we don't do gifts for birthdays, but I make sure to cook dinner and plan, and or plan something fun to celebrate both occasions.

We were going to originally get married close to my birthday, ironically.

Heather checking in in beautiful Claire, home of WCFW on Facebook.

I feel worse when I forget a friend's birthday than a couple's anniversary.

I'm 100% in agreement with that.

And I forgot to, I forgot two birthdays.

My friend Carrie Anderson-Pink's birthday and Paco Baie's birthday, both on May 25th.

And it was, I was doing too much for the show.

And now I've, I've, I've made it up with Carrie.

I gotta tell Paco happy anniversary.

Happy birthday.

Anniversary of his birth.

Right.

Tony says, my wife and I have a hard time remembering how many years.

I think we're coming up on nine.

Whoops, Tony.

Better get that straight.

Stay tuned more after this on Civic Media.

End of the spring and here she comes.

Well done, Mr. Zomers there.

One of the big hits, some sad news though, across the CBS Wires.

Sly Stone, the funk music pioneer and front man of Sly and the Family Stone, has died at the age of 82, according to his manager.

Despite keeping his personal life mostly out of the public eye, Stone became one of the most influential musicians of late 1960s and 70s with hits like The One You Just Heard, Hot Fun in the Summertime, Everyday People, and Dance to the Music.

Let's go out with that one at the end of this segment, Dance to the Music.

That's a big Betty Hayes number.

Dance to the Music.

Fantastic.

Back in 2023, the musical legend let fans get a rare look into his world by releasing a memoir titled Thank You.

Also the title where the great hits the book co-written by musical journalist Ben Greenman details revolutionary music style and also the Addictions which took him out of the spotlight born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas Stone's family moved to Viejo, California when he was young and music was always a big part of his life again a sly stone of sly and the family stone dead at the age of 82

Well, whatever you always hear you always feel badly when when you get these notifications across but Musicians authors actors They leave a part of themselves for us and that's always something that I really appreciate and and enjoy

absolutely

Finishing up here on what's worse for getting a birthday or forgetting an anniversary 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2

for getting a birthday or for getting an anniversary.

You can also text us just like DJ up in beautiful Warsaw, better known as the saw, not the saw, but the saw.

He says on WXCO, DJ says, today's what's worse sounds like a trap set by Shirley in the saw.

DJ not taking the bait.

So, see, he's gonna remember his anniversary sounds like to me.

What's worse for getting a birthday or for getting an anniversary, Zomers?

I think I'm gonna have to go with anniversary just because I feel like, well, if it is your anniversary, I think anniversary is worse to forget because it is, as somebody else said earlier, as a few people have said, it's a day that you made a commitment.

It's something you chose.

And birthdays?

Also, they happen every year, no matter what, everyone's got birthdays, and I don't know.

I just feel like, to me, it's less big of a deal, especially because as people get older, they are less likely to want to celebrate their birthdays.

Some

people are like, I don't want to talk about it, you know?

I

guess I get it somewhat, but...

People who get like angry about their birth.

Oh, that's that's like it's like Judas Priest.

Come on.

Just chill out somebody thought at least you're gay.

You're you're you're you're alive, right?

I don't I would say that for getting a birthday is maybe like a family member or a close friend I can't I keep track my friend Ryan Rebecca's anniversary because I was the best man.

So I feel an obligation

to remember their anniversary.

I haven't written down eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, a couple more calls, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, Troy out in beautiful Mount Horrib listening on the MDX Troy for getting a birthday or forgetting an anniversary.

What's worse?

Where

does forgetting my own birthday fit in there?

Have you actually done that before?

It was.

I had to write down the date.

Oh, July 2nd.

That's my birthday there.

So yeah, I did.

That's funny.

That's really funny.

I guess I've kind of like thought about it earlier.

The closer it got, it's like, oh geez, I guess my birthday is tomorrow, whatever.

So that's funny, Troy.

I mean, I thought of it like a week before, but then it's...

life happened and I didn't think of it.

Like I said, that day is like, I had to write down the date and I'm like, oh, look at that.

That's familiar for some reason.

Right?

Yeah, exactly.

Thanks, Troy.

Appreciate it.

Have a great day.

Have a beautiful month.

What's worse, forgetting a birthday or forgetting an anniversary?

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

I mean, I, I'm not, I mean, some people also are very salty if someone forgets their birthday.

I'm not like that.

If someone forgets my birthday, it's like, okay, whatever.

I mean, I don't hold it against anyone.

Oh, yeah.

The way I look at it is if somebody reaches out on my birthday, cool.

I appreciate it, but I'm not going to be mad if they forgot.

No, absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

All right.

Well, another great edition.

We appreciate you playing along.

We'll play more on tomorrow's edition of what's worse.

Going to take a break here for news, weather, and sports.

By the way, sports, big news today.

Jair Alexander of the Packers.

Formally released today haven't had time to talk about that, but I know Jimmy Cusca and Mike Clemens are all over that gonna be talking about it It sounds like the die was cast what I've read and seen so far.

It's only sounds like the die was cast Over the offseason when essentially Jair said I want to come back But I'm not taking a cut and the packer said we want you to come back But we're not paying the 17 million dollars because you know you missed a bunch of games last two years And they never really got past that

So now the Packers officially released Jair Alexander today.

I wish it.

Well, I everything Mike Clemens tells us he's a great player a great guy I think he's got bit by the injury bug unfortunately at Green Bay and I get good acquaintance to general manager for the Packers I get his position He can't put the organization in a position to have that much money when when the guy is just not healthily reliable So that was the sporting news.

I'm sure Jimmy Cusca and Mike Clemens will continue to follow that gonna come back then

I want to dive in a little bit to these national headlines happening in Los Angeles, give you my perspective, take your phone calls and how it may relate to the state of Wisconsin moving forward.

Don't go anywhere.

It's a muddy addition of the title of all shown a beautiful June 9th, 2025.

We're 35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock Monday back to school back to work.

Well, maybe some schools almost completely done now.

Might be a couple of districts and still have a couple of days this week, but can't be too many.

No, lots of graduations happening around the state.

Good luck to all those graduating seniors.

We appreciate all of you.

It is Monday, June 9th, 2025, big week ahead and big weekend behind us.

And there were a lot of other things going on, so I didn't start with this at the beginning of the show.

But I did want to acknowledge it and try to contextualize this as best I can in a Wisconsin way.

Most of us, I think by this time, have heard about what happened in Los Angeles over the weekend, where there were protests, particularly against ICE and the actions there.

And some of those protests became violent.

People got hurt.

Some people got arrested.

And it's really just gone in terms of media and narrative, in my opinion, is already out of control.

And it reminded me of a movie came out years and years ago.

He has to have it on DVD.

It's called Wag the Dog.

If you've never seen it before, I'm not sure.

I'm assuming some place it streams.

I don't know.

It stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman plays kind of the Republican or the I guess was insinuated as Republican a White House presidential operative and the president is caught in a sex scandal in this fictitious narrative two weeks before election and they need to change the narrative and So Dustin Hoffman's character hires his friend

a Hollywood producer director played by Robert De Niro.

And they essentially create a fictitious war via the media.

And the funny part is Robert De Niro's they get face all these seemingly insurmountable things and and De Niro's character, the producer says, this is nothing.

This is nothing.

I can fix this.

We'll just we'll shoot this this way and we'll create this story Oh, and they hire they need a song they create a war hero from this fictitious war which was played by Woody Harrelson, by the way And we need a song so they hire Willie Nelson to come in to write a song about it It's really funny, but there's also a point to it that and remember this like 20 years ago So think what now, you know with AI and everything what you can create deep fakes and everything

But over the week and it reminded me of this so here's I don't want to just I don't want to go through every point and just I know people are kind of tired, but There's a point to my commentary here and that is based in Wisconsin.

I'm gonna get to that but let's back up for a minute and Find out what really precipitated this so Stephen Miller the schlep in the White House Trump's lap dog

is angry because the INS, who are now known as ICE, the immigration folks, Homeland Security, have not deported enough people of color, i.e.

Latinos, out of the country.

He's upset because the numbers are too low.

So he literally went over and yelled at him.

And so now what they've done, they had a big initiative last week in Los Angeles where they went to Home Depot's.

because particularly in LA, what'll happen is some people who are documented, some people who aren't, they'll hang out in the Home Depot parking lot because a lot of contractors buy stuff and they're looking for a couple of guys for day help and they say, hey, I'll pay X number of dollars an hour, I need a roof done or I need a fence done or whatever.

And some people were checkout people, like hired by Home Depot.

So ICE targets Home Depot in some cases,

to round up people.

And in other cases in Los Angeles, they were arresting mothers of kids that had kids in grade schools.

And in some cases, people were appearing, and this is what, well, it's all bad in my opinion, but people who are trying to do it, quote unquote, the right way and might have a temporary status here that is legal or they're going in,

to meet with a immigration judge or whomever, the agency, a check-in.

Hey, you're here legally for six months, but you have to check in with us every other month.

Great, I'll go in, I'll do it the right way.

And folks are doing this and they're being arrested even though they have legal status and doing it the right way and deported, thrown out of the country, simply to make Stephen Miller and Trump happy so they get their numbers high enough.

Well, as you can imagine, and I think it was pointed out,

by somebody in Los Angeles.

I can't remember whether it was Governor Newsom of California.

Somebody pointed out that in the city of Los Angeles, it's comprised of about 34% of Angelenos were not born here.

They were originally born in the countries and they immigrated here.

I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles over the years.

It's a beautiful city in many ways, like every major city has its problems, but it's a beautiful and very proud people.

And so,

You might imagine that in a city with 34% of the folks not originally born here, that when you start just, and this is not the quote, unquote, rapists and murderers, unquote, that Trump makes them out to be, these are moms.

These are folks who are building fences for people in Los Angeles.

These are just good, hardworking folks, many of whom have legal status who are being thrown out, rounded up, no due process.

And so as you could imagine,

That did not sit well with many Angelinos and so they had a peaceful protest and demonstration and that that got bigger Trump sends in the National Guard Which had not been done like this since the 60s the civil civil rights days now during the Rodney King Riots in 1992 which by the way I visited Los Angeles

During the Rodney King ride, I remember flying in at night over LA, going to land LAX.

I looked down and I'm only exaggerating somewhat when I said it looked like the city was on fire because there were little fires.

You can see from the skies, you're coming in all over the greater Los Angeles area.

It was eerie.

The whole, you know, as you descended into the lower altitudes, the whole atmosphere was filled with smoke.

It was crazy.

That's very different from what we're facing Los Angeles today.

This is a relatively small area of downtown Los Angeles They're not mass riots happening right now in in LA But the news media and particularly the Trump folks in Fox News are hyping this up.

You'd think the whole city was on fire And it's kind of gotten out of control so this narrative has been created so Trump says Stephen Miller used the word insurrection over the weekend, which is ironic because of course the Trump people

Actually, we're part of an attempted insurrection back on January 6th, of course, which the bipartisan congressional committee on January 6th found to be true.

So Stephen Miller throws up the word insurrection.

And Trump is quoted over the weekend repeatedly saying law and order, law and order.

Which.

Even if you're not a history person, because people say, look back in history, there might be people out there that are like Star Trek fans.

or Star Wars fans.

Go back and watch some of your favorite movies and just listen to how many times the bad characters say things like law and order.

Well, this is all about law and order.

It's oftentimes a trope, an adage, a phrase is thrown out there to justify doing illegal things or fascist types of activities.

So Trump sent in

His administration sent in folks to arrest people, not give them due process, surprise, surprise.

Folks in the community are upset.

They peacefully protest.

Trump then orders in the National Guard, which only heightens the anxiety.

And guess what?

When you have a bunch of people start mingling together, there's always going to be some schmucks in the crowd.

And this is where I want to be really, really clear about my own opinions here.

I don't care who it is, if it's January 6th protesters or insurrectionists or rioters, or whether it's people in Los Angeles or people in downtown Madison.

If you attack police officers, law enforcement, military, unprovoked, you should be arrested, given due process, and if found guilty, sentenced to jail.

Period.

That's inexcusable.

In my opinion And what happened was Los Angeles apparently over the weekend is that you had some key word some people That were protesters that some of the were masks We don't know whether they were actually part of Los Angeles community or whether there are people that said hey there's something going on Let's get in on the deal But somebody started throwing things and attacking police officers in some cases and so guess what then law enforcement

In some cases overreacts and starts firing rubber bullets in and tear gas and pretty soon you got yourself a mess.

And again, the national media has blown this up and this is only fueling, in my opinion, the Trump narrative.

And so now over the last half an hour breaking news, according to CNN, Trump is now mobilizing 700 Marines.

to go in.

And in their words, quell the violence.

By the way, Governor Gavin Newsom, Democrat of California, doesn't want, he's like, look, we can make this work with our police officers.

We don't need National Guard coming in here.

They're filing lawsuits to try to stop this.

Well, good luck with that.

I mean, I love this, all this talk.

Well, lawsuits are being filed.