Why Juneteenth Matters with Earl Ingram (Hour 2)

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.

Of course,

Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide with the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Allbaugh, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Wednesday, June 18th, 2025.

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

Pump Day!

Yes, indeed.

Made it halfway through the week.

Glad to have you along.

Little rain outside hit the windows here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison.

People have their umbrellas up, or as they say in Bohemian, bumper shoots.

Do you know that, Somers?

That is the word.

Hold on, what?

Can you run that by me again?

That is Bohemian word for umbrella, bumper shoot.

Bumper shoe.

I don't know why my grandmother was Bohemian and so she knew a few words That's where the ones that that stuck with me.

Anyway, they will the show will be in English today Because we're under ice control now.

No, no be no be no Bohemian spoken here on the furthermore on the show But we are gonna be joined in hour number two at 335 by our friend and colleague Earl Ingram, Jr.

Tomorrow is Juneteenth.

There's one year

ago, the Earl and I were up in Baraboo, Wisconsin on a similar day, actually, a rainy day, celebrating the first annual Juneteenth celebration of Baraboo.

It was a really good time.

Earl and I also afterwards hiked around Devil's Lake a little bit.

So we'll check in with Earl Ingram and his remembrances of Juneteenth.

It also was happening in Milwaukee, one of the largest Juneteenth celebrations happening tomorrow, which Earl is going to be a part of.

So we'll check in with him also in hour two.

What's worse,

people who are critical of others or people who are not critical of others.

God bless you, Trigby.

Because it's inside.

Thank you.

That's our two, but right now we're joined.

You heard him sneeze in by our guests as they are every Wednesday afternoon from our nation's capital outside the Tony suburbs of Arlington, the former Republican like myself, and now a senior advisor at the Lincoln Project, Trigby Olsen, and from beautiful Lake Wissota.

The captain's stewing of the Northwoods and the host of of mornings of Pat Crite low every morning from six until eight.

Pat Crite low for those watch on the stream.

He has the hat.

He has his captain's hat right there.

I love it.

Which

does not fit over my headset.

Unfortunately, bumbershoot is a slightly whimsical American term for an umbrella thought to be a playful combination of umbrella and parachute.

Yeah.

So there you go.

It came from I guess it came from a bohemian.

I searched bohemia and there was no bohemian anywhere.

It's it's like grandma lied to me.

Well, no, because I think bohemian has also become kind of a catch all for American mutts.

We are all in the junk drawer of.

of cultures

as

it were.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

So you get away with

that.

Good to see you both here after a week.

Lots going on nationally.

Lots going on in the state.

I like to start, if we could, and we've been talking about this for the last couple of days, what's going on a block away in the Wisconsin State Capitol as the joint committee on finance, better known as GFC, the joint finance committee, the largest, it's the budget writing committee, the most powerful committee in the state capital.

They put together the budget every other year and then they.

Send it to the full legislature if it passes it goes to the governor for up or down vote important to remember for our discussion that unlike in DC if there is no budget the government shuts down in Wisconsin if there is no budget passed or agreed upon by the legislature the governor the current budget takes effect in other words the current spending levels just carry on for another two years so I want to go to this new news

being reported right now by the Wisconsin State Journal, great reporter Kimberly Wethall in their online edition at Madison.com this afternoon, just posted here about an hour ago.

It's an update on the story that they ran this morning on the front page.

It starts out in Republicans and the Legislature's Budget Committee may deal the universities of Wisconsin better known as the UW System, its biggest budget cut nearly a decade to the tune of $87 million.

And many thanks to Kimberly for the next line there on the front page of today's state journal.

It says the cut was first reported by Civic Media on Monday night.

By contrast, the UW System had requested an increase in state aid of 820.

of $56 million.

The committee had been slated to take up the UW System's budget yesterday, but punted it for unspecified reasons.

Gonna step away from the story right now.

Maybe some of those unspecified reasons was the post that we did on Monday night.

They got a lot of people calling their legislators, and they kind of said, well, boys, the jig's up.

And so they took it off the agenda for yesterday.

State Senator Kelter Royce, who was on the program on Monday, talked about this a little bit.

She confirmed to both the state journal and the Associated Press that she had heard rumors of that $87 million number herself.

Yet last night this morning, uh, state or, uh, state assembly speaker Robin Voss was couching it a little bit in terms of, well, my caucus is in favor of that number, but they wouldn't say what, what a lot more.

Now, uh, the state journal and Kimberly with all a reporting the following quote, assembly speaker, Robin Voss, Republican, a Rochester confirmed today that Republicans were looking at at least a cut of that size because he said the UW system had not done enough.

to ensure conservative students feel like they belong on campus.

Voss also said he believed too much, quote, political correctness, unquote, remained on campus and alluded to the pro-Palestinian protests that had taken place in the last two years.

Going to step away from the story.

Pat Krightlow, former Democratic State Senator.

Thoughts?

Thoughts begin with the word Taliban-esque.

Because that's exactly where Robin Voss is and he's comfortable in that role of being the thought police for the University of Wisconsin and for students who attend there and His his idea is not about stifling anybody's speech But he can stifle their money and if he cuts enough of their money with demands that they adhere to his way of thinking

Taliban-esque is the word that fits there and he goes on to say in this article, you know, it's not about cutting money.

It's about getting some kind of reforms to the broken process we currently have.

Part of the system that's broken begins and ends with Robin Voss and all of his ilk in the Wisconsin legislature who don't believe in the Wisconsin idea the way that you were describing it yesterday.

and who would just as soon micromanage the universities the way that they're trying to micromanage local units of government, women's bodies and so on.

Tribby Olson, you and I have traveled around the state here, stopping a lot of our great public universities at UW System.

Pat knows this as well.

We're all three products of UW System schools and colleges.

What about this, what Pat said here?

The quote from Voss in this story today in the state journal says, this morning says, it's not about cutting money.

What it's about is getting some kind of reforms to broken processes that we currently have.

We don't have enough respect for political diversity.

And it goes on from there.

Trigvie, are we seeing Voss trying to mimic what Trump is doing in DC, which is we're going to make these kind of egregious over-the-top demands, in this case cutting $87 million from the DW system, current levels, which would gut almost assuredly close the remaining six two-year colleges and probably shut down at least one four-year school, if Todd could get it out.

Is he doing this?

He's saying it's not about money.

Is this a mimic of what Trump's doing in DC?

Could I go a step further and ask Trig Vita also say, does it go as far as what Victor Orban is doing and has done in Hungary?

You guys are loading up on me, man.

You're the expert, man.

You've actually thought authoritarianism.

He thought authoritarianism and he won.

All right.

Let me unpack this in a few different ways.

First of all,

I'm a little perplexed by Robin's quotes.

If you guys know, listeners may not.

I've known Robin since high school, in college.

Robin was the first student regent.

There were three candidates.

me, Robin, and one other guy.

I didn't really care because if I became the student region, it was going to be less time on Water Street, drinking beer and chasing girls.

So we ultimately came to a conclusion, though it was going to be the UW Madison kid if if if Robin and I as the state school kids didn't have one candidate.

Robin boss

Robin boss has

been more engaged.

in the UW system over a longer period of time than perhaps anyone in the state other than Tommy Thompson.

Going back to college when he was the student regent, he represents, I believe, white water.

Yes.

And he's

putting out

this balder.

My question is, if it's this bad, Robin, what in the H double hockey sticks have you been doing since we were in college?

What have you been doing?

And yes, it is sort of Orban-esque.

Quite frankly, it's just abject stupidity in many ways.

And as I said before, the University of Wisconsin River Falls is not a woke den of indoctrination.

I doubt that Robin Voss thinks that whitewater is a woke den of intolerance towards conservatism.

In fact, when we were on the Stevens Point campus, Students for Liberty and about four other conservative groups all had tables up for God's sakes.

Like, man, what are you talking about, Robin?

And where have two people like you and I gone so off in opposite directions about what the school, what the Wisconsin idea and what Wisconsin is about?

Or...

Are you just paying lip service because you want to be and are afraid of what it means if you don't go along with the lie?

What is up?

Pat, sorry you

cranked me up.

I just want to know what I mean

Honestly, I wish we were on a podcast because I would unleash Expletives as you know, I can

I know No, I mean Pat you you represented UW institutions when you're in the state Senate You're you're you're a graduate as Trigby is of UW Eau Claire We all know the value when Trigby and I did the show on Eau Claire and you were there I mean

Again, it's not some awokeness on UW Eau Claire's campus.

No, it's most certainly not.

It is.

But no different than what Trump is trying to do to Harvard and Columbia.

This is all politics.

It's just pure politics of grievance that their only path to staying in power where they can do things for their wealthy benefactors is to convince enough of the population that didn't go to college that.

Colleges are these ivory towers, these elite institutions of people who don't think like them.

When the folks out there who didn't go to college oftentimes scrimp and save and work hard, you know why?

so that their kid can go to college and get an education or a tech school or a trade school or something that maybe they didn't get the chance to do.

But if you can get enough other people feeling aggrieved by people with different levels of education, you can win elections.

We've seen that happen now.

You cannot campaign as overtly on, say,

People's race, but you can say urban but you can go against people who are have an education Scott Walker's war on teachers This is in some ways a continuation of that if you go after the educated has happened in Hungary and other countries as well You have this so-called populist path to power and then people learn the hard way that these populists They didn't really want to do anything for them Anyway, just witness the big beautiful boondoggle of a bloated budget bill that Donald Trump has right now.

I said this before this show will go to it

in detail when I was still in the legislature working for Dale Schultz in the state Senate behind closed doors and caucus meetings, even, this is 12, 10, 12 years ago.

Even then, there were select members in that caucus that had no time.

for anybody from UW.

Oh, that's just a bunch of liberals that I don't want to hear about.

So that's, that's right.

This has been festering for some time.

When we come back, our further discussion on the W system, where are the Democrats in this?

Where is the leadership?

And is J. Rothman the frog or the scorpion?

We'll explain on the other side.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the Todd Allball Show for a Wednesday.

Trigby, Todd, Allball, Zomers, and all of you as well, the Civic Media already network.

We don't need no education.

We don't need no thoughts control.

Just flew up in the windows.

Even though the rain's coming in, we could hear this song out of Speaker Robin Boss's window blaring down State Street right now.

They're having the Republican assembly caucus to find out how they're going to deal with this.

Always glad when we can break a little news, which we did a Monday night after our sources confirmed that Republicans were looking to cutting $87 million from the University of Wisconsin system budget, not from the 300 million plus requests from the governor, not from current, but from current spending levels, $87 million cut.

broke that news appreciate the state journal putting it in their story today and now their great reporter Kimberly Wethel further reporting Robin speaker Robin Voss's comments today this afternoon saying that confirmed our reporting that yeah they're looking at that number 87 million says quote it's not about cutting money it's about

getting some kind of reforms, the broken promises that we currently have, we don't have enough respect for political diversity.

Heaven forbid if you're a student who's Jewish or has a different viewpoint on campus where you feel like you're either targeted or the victim of potential hate.

So we want to ensure that whatever happens on campus, it's a free exchange of ideas that people understand the basis for what the university should be, unquote.

Robin Voss it goes on to further attacks on so-called DEI stuff with the unit which at the University has already addressed packed right little host of Updoor a host of pardon me mornings impact right low six until eight Trigby Olson senior advisor at Lincoln project I want to get to this yes Republicans in my opinion have not properly funded education.

Yes Robin Voss's comments on this are ridiculously bad But where are Democrats?

Tony Evers now has the majority of appointees on the Board of Regents.

They're the ones that put Jay Rothman in this position, the president of the system.

They have people who have paid $200,000, who are supposed to be the lobbyists for the system, to the capital, to the legislature.

And they thought by being the parable of the frog and the scorpion, where the frog gives the scorpion a ride across the river, and the scorpion stings him in the middle, and the frog says, why?

And the scorpion says, because it's my nature.

Did J. Rothman, is he the frog here?

And he said, well, by being a more amiable frog to cut some of the DEI stuff, that somehow Robin Voss will be nice to me.

Pat Critewell, you've worked in the building.

These current iteration of modern Republican leadership, like Robin Voss, they're political scorpions.

They're never gonna change.

No, they're never gonna change.

Again, this is power.

This was their path to power.

And they already know.

Here's something they already know, even though they don't want to admit it.

If there is a fair debate, a clash of ideas, if you will, on campuses, most progressives, liberals, whatever you want to call them,

feel pretty confident about their chances.

You don't have to rig the game, and that includes anybody who has just literally arrived on campus, you know, fallen off the turnip truck from, you know, Reedsville in Manitowoc County, where my wife attended UW O'Clair.

They come off the farm, they come out of our small towns, they come from wherever, they come to get an education, they come to make them, you know, improve their lives, and they come to debate ideas, and...

the number that come out of there saying, gosh, you know what we ought to do?

We ought to shrink government to the size where we can drown at the bathtub and hope that benevolent billionaires will fund our education and our health care.

That number ain't zero, but it's awfully close.

So Speaker Voss, let's just have that exchange of ideas rather than you putting your thumb on the scales.

OK, I'm fine

with that.

I don't disagree with you.

I want you and your quicker comment and then Trigby.

But what about?

What about Tony Evers, who I think is doing a fine job, but I just don't understand Pat.

Why what do you want?

What do you want?

What can you do at this point?

Is he going to stand on the floor?

Why wasn't he going around J Rothman and select regions around this state, going to cities where these these institutions are and say, this is what this means to us.

Help us lobby.

Why weren't they out there promoting this?

Well, because they know that the lobbying, frankly, they know who Rob and Boston, the Republicans are.

So

I don't think they sound

pinnacle.

I don't mean to sound cynical about this, but I think they're not the least bit surprised.

and instead of working on how do we stop this thing that we can't stop?

I think what they're working on now is how do we convey to people next year to see what these guys did?

You shouldn't have trusted them.

Trigley?

First of all, what I would do if I were on the Democratic side, I would get a bunch of these trucks.

Lean up a little closer to Mike.

I would get a bunch of trucks with speakers that can show ads, and I would literally follow people like Robin Voss around.

I would have them all over the state literally playing, we don't need no education.

Literally, that would be step one.

Step two would be, they gotta take this fight straight to people.

like I would be holding town halls in every single university community across the state, making the point and asking people from the university to come and talk about what they're doing as it relates to the so-called free speech on campus, but also reminding people exactly who comes from those institutions like UW River Falls, UW Stevens Point, UW Superior and the rest of them.

The third thing that I'm thinking is like people in Wisconsin need to wake up.

Right the alternative to Jay Rothman was Jim Schmidt who's the chancellor at Eau Claire

was actually found me the kid that I just

hired yeah your loss Virginia's gain in fact I was I was Todd knows this and Pat might too because they read my substack and if you read my substack you'd know this I've been out college hunting lately not for myself because I wasn't very good when I was in college Because I was following in the footsteps at you know and so but

My daughter's going to go look at James Madison.

Who's the new president of that university?

And they are giddies that they took them.

Why?

Because I can't speak for Jim, but I would suspect the fact that there seems to be a lack of commitment versus the commitment that you see in the university from Virginia to public education.

Wisconsin's going to be getting its lunch packed.

Yes,

they are.

And it ain't gonna it is it's gonna be bologna.

It's bologna.

That's being put in there.

You can always know there's no bologna and from six until eight It is good solid meat newsy meat along with some fun packed quite low mornings every morning from six until nine We appreciate you my friend.

Have a great day or so to you.

Triggy and I back with your phone calls on the other side eight five five seven five two four eight four two is all ball It's Trigby and sombers of the civic media radio network

Welcome

back to the Taliban show on the Civic Media Rating Network.

It is now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on Wednesday, June 18th, 2025.

School may be out for the summer, and it is up to speaker Robin Voss.

For some UW campuses across the state, it may be out forever.

As Joe Biden said, I'm not joking around here.

Being completely serious for a second, these cuts that the Republicans and legislature are proposing, 87 million to the University of Wisconsin system, which we first reported on Monday night.

Many thanks to the pardon me, the Wisconsin State Journal for giving us credit for that in their front page story today in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Great article there by Kimberly Wethel.

And she picks up on our reporting and now saying today that Speaker Robin Voss confirms that number that we first reported on Monday, 87 million.

wants to cut, says he claims it's not about cutting money, but rather the fact that he's salty, my words, that UW System still hasn't done enough to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is not making conservative students feel comfortable.

which Trig V. Olsen, Senior Advisor at Lincoln Project, a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and myself are talking about now, Trig V. Another story this time in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to give you one more piece of flavor here for the day.

Scrolling down to Republican State Senator Steve Nass of Whitewater, who has said he is likely to vote against the budget plan, get this.

wants more than $87 million cut from the system's funding.

Quote, frankly, Senator Nass believes the cut to the UW system should be much higher than $87 million.

But the UW system piece is not a sole budget benchmark.

Unquote that according to Nass spokesperson, Mike Mickelson.

A real piece of work that guy is he fancies himself.

He's one of those staffers.

Trigley, you know the type I'm talking about.

They like to think that they're the senator.

They're the kind of staffer that the late great Mike Ellis detested.

But Mickelson sticks around because he does most of the work.

Well, thoughts, Trigley.

I have no thoughts.

I'm putting I'm putting I'm putting.

Because I went to a woke den of indoctrination called the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire.

So I can't think

and and we had states in our town.

All right.

All right.

We had states in our color Royce here on Monday.

We had state representative Jody Emerson, the ranking Democratic member on the college's University Committee of the Assembly here yesterday, and they confirmed.

that should this 87 million get taken up and passed by joint finance and then can be approved by the entire legislature, that it would be devastating, most likely meaning that the six remaining two-year colleges in the UW system gone, at least one four-year campus gone, and many other major things gutted within the UW system.

And some Democrats are telling me privately that they would encourage Governor Tony Evers to veto the entire budget

because that would essentially be an $87 million increase over what Republicans are doing for UW System.

Let's go over the phone lines, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Let's go to Jim, listening in Brookfield at WAUK.

Jim, thanks for calling.

What have you got?

I think it's a very sad thing when there's our elected officials target and really go against higher education.

I mean you can't say enough for what the UW system does not only for the state but for the country, for the world, you know, for research and education.

But the main point I would like to say is I'd like to remind everybody how important next year's elections are statewide assembly elections because it would be the most

A wonderful thing for this state of Wisconsin, if the Democrats are able to take control of the assembly after over 15 years of jury-mandered districts, and Robin Voss is delegated to a minority individual and not have these controls, because I'll tell you gentlemen, the system is not set up for one petty, salty, vindictive individual to have control this long.

He's even, you know,

uh, veto things regarding it, things that some of his own caucus would have, um, supported, um, such as, you know, giving healthcare to the pregnant moms after two months, some of his own caucus would have supported that.

And hence it'd be a minority because the Democrats would, but one man's vindictiveness and penniness rules, you know, knocks that out.

The system's not set up for that.

So I'm just encouraging and reminding everybody next year, 2026, huge year for the state of Wisconsin, get out, vote in your assembly race.

And hopefully, hopefully we can flip that.

So Mr. Voss is no longer this majority leader holding the strings like in the Godfather movies, you know, for the, for the detriment and the worst of the state of Wisconsin.

So keep it in mind.

Remember next year, get out and vote.

Thanks, Jim.

Really appreciate the call.

855-752-4842.

Talking about this news that we helped break on Monday night, and it's been confirmed now by Speaker Robert Voss today that Republicans want to cut at least 87, at least 87 million for the University of Wisconsin system budget.

And that Democrats say if that gets passed, some of them at least are saying that they would encourage Tony Ivers to veto the entire budget.

Let's go to Jack, listening in Merrimack.

Jack, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

Thanks for taking my call.

I have a bit of experience in education.

I taught for 40 plus years, public, private, and parochial schools at all levels from sixth grade to university.

So I have a little background in watching this happen.

First thing I'm going to say is, yeah, I'm an old guy.

When I went to college, I recall

that my tuition was $312.

My son's tuition annually was $10,000 and I'm going to say that even with inflation over that long a period of time, that's an essentially caused by the defunding of the UW system.

And I'm going to tell you, it's not

Democrats that have been doing that.

It's been Republicans and it's been over, you know, for years.

They're just trying to put as the old song goes, one more brick on the wall between people and getting a decent education.

Second thing I'm going to say is that while it's not a sure thing, if you have an advanced education, one of the things that your instructors, the good ones,

try to instill in you is critical thinking.

And that allows you to look at the lies and the misinformation and also the misdirection that's going on in this country and say, hey, that's not what the real point is.

The real point is they're trying to turn this thing into a dictatorship and a fascist one that simply gives our money away.

to the rich corporations and the billionaires.

People need to have a bit of an education to understand what this is, that this is what's happening.

Jack, really appreciate the call.

Thank you so very much.

Trigby, to Jack's point there, I know your daughter's getting ready to go off to college here.

When you and I went to school, you can speak for yourself.

But having the Central American Scholarship Program at the two-year college at Richland Center and bringing in some people that didn't look like me, didn't talk like me, had different experiences, and then going to Plattville, it may be a better person to look at myself, to challenge myself.

I would have to think now as a dad sending your daughter off to college for the first time.

As a parent, you would want that.

Any parent, I don't think any, I don't know any, at least any parents like, yeah, let's send my kid off to just a monolith and a place where everybody thinks the same.

No, I mean, the whole point of an education is to have your ideas challenged and to defend your ideas and to.

to become a broader person, but it kind of gets back to, I mean, do you remember when Scott Walker had this whole thing that we should get rid of liberal arts education?

I

mean, just ridiculous.

But here's the other thing I would point out to these clowns.

You know, the biggest employer, I think they're the biggest employer in the state of Wisconsin is Epic, aren't they?

I

believe.

Why is Epic in Madison, Wisconsin, Todd?

For the workforce that they get largely from UW-Madison.

Right, talk about a bunch of people who are cutting off their own, you know.

Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous.

It's so...

And let me just interject

quickly.

Outrageous.

A mutual friend of ours pointed out that the business community in this state, some of whom belong to WMC, a more conservative organization, they have been outspoken.

And the business community in this state has said, we want investment in the UW system.

So good on those people.

I just think it needs

to pass point or to your point.

Well, you know, who else has been outspoken is Dave Mahoney and your old boss, Dale Schultz, United Wisconsin.

It's one of their core foundational platforms because they see what's going on, right?

Like the center of the state understands what's happening.

Eight, five, five, seven, five, two.

And I

go

ahead.

A. Evers should should fight on this and and Democrats need to start taking it to the people.

Honestly, like you don't have a lot of seats north of highway eight They need they need to be out of Madison and Milwaukee and in Green Bay and in wasa

Superior

and Stevens Point Superior River Falls.

That's where they need I'm

telling you right now all those communities Talk into the chamber having having had a boss that sat and chaired this committee the colleges University College's committee I'll tell you right now that at these Republicans current Republican cuts of 87 million plus go through

If it were to take effect, superior end or parkside, most likely, gone.

Gone.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, marked in prayer to sack.

Mark, thanks for calling.

Let's see.

Well, this might be a stretch, but I'd posit that DEI is actually a conservative value because it goes right in line with our Declaration of Independence.

All men are in created equal and entitled to equality under the law.

i mean uh... that robin boss and i do this time i'd like to crown him like for serious was crowded game of thrones and uh... it is just beyond me that they're saying this kind of nonsense and the united states there's there's some liberalism this actually should be a conservative value i mean that that uh... at the founding of our country there's debates among some that women should have actually had the book because abigail adams advocating for that with her husband john who did not want to give that to women

James Madison, Federalist 42, was calling slavery a barbarous path to a practice that he envisioned actually would have been gone in 20 years.

Well, that's a liberal value there.

Actually, there's liberal values that are innately conservative values in this country.

Maybe I'm misstating it.

I'm trying to make it correct if I'm wrong, but I mean, actual equality under the law, I mean, diversity, equity, and inclusion includes those little conservatives that can't understand, that can't take the

the diversity on the campus.

And let's remember the anti-Semitism that they're complaining about.

In my own lifetime, I remember people talking about the Jews not being welcome, and apparently now because Israel is, they seem to separate Israel as being actually a Jewish state.

They call that anti-Semitism to criticize Israeli policy.

There's half the population of Israel that criticizes

their foreign policy toward the Palestinians.

Thank you very much, Mark.

I appreciate it.

Just a minute left here before the break, but any comment?

Well, I mean, at the end of the day, right, the single best ground politically to fight this on.

is they want the fight to be about culture, but the fight really needs to be about economics and chaos and

and

and pivot that into the culture and what complete Balderdash ultimately this is.

And I think, you know, Democrats need to get out and fight on this.

This is a fight that they want to have, but they have to frame it not from their political extreme, but from the center.

agreed.

Thank you, Trigby.

Stay tuned for Trigby after this.

Going to talk about some federal issues as well.

Also, what's going on in Minnesota.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the All Balls Show in Pacific Media.

Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media already network eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock at the top of the hour Well, news whether in sports and then what's worse people who are critical of others or people who are not critical We'll discuss at the bottom of the next hour Earl Ingram, Jr.

Will be along and we will discuss

one year since he and I were up at Baraboo together to celebrate the first annual Juneteenth celebration, a huge celebration happening tomorrow for Juneteenth in Milwaukee and Earl will help us preview that.

Right now joined as we always are on Wednesday by the senior advisor of the Lincoln Project, Trig V. Olsen via StreamYard.

Trig, we just want to finish up what we're talking about the Republicans and the legislature looking at cutting the UW system budget by $87 million.

By the way, a big shout out to, you know her, my younger sister, Heather, lover to death.

And she's also our unofficial production assistant here at the show.

She does great work.

We don't pay her a dime.

And she actually legitimately helped me break this story on Monday night, using some of her sources and mine.

We put this together.

And so a big shout out to her.

But she says, I'll watch it on Facebook along with Trigby's comment about learning to think.

She says, one of my favorite college professors, Murray Har.

His parents were Holocaust.

survivors, he challenged our thinking daily.

We'd give an answer and he'd ask us why.

He forced us to dig deeper and think deeper.

And he was a religion professor at a private Lutheran college out there at Augustana in South Dakota.

I think that's just a great example of the best of what higher education should be, Trevi.

Yeah, 100% I had a I had a professor Mort Cypress.

He was chair of the Democrat Party in the third district, right?

Like I was working for Gunderson at the time

And he was fantastic.

He challenged me.

He he really cared about me learning to think.

And I saw more years later when I was asked to come and speak at the at the University of Wisconsin campus River Fault Eau Claire.

And he actually came and he was so excited about what I had done with my life.

And he he had played a role because he challenged me and forced me to think.

That's what education is supposed to be about.

But the truth of the matter is, people on the extremes, and I'm finding this out now that I'm on Substack Todd, people on both extremes, they don't want to be challenged in the least.

And I knew that intuitively from studying extremism.

But because to get outside of the simplistic answer,

forces them to reevaluate what's causing the distress that's underneath.

Only about four minutes left.

I want to get your thoughts, Trigvie.

We covered this on Monday a little bit on the show, the horrific assassination in Minnesota over the weekend of the former assembly, what I call it, the house speaker over there in Minnesota and her husband and the shooting of another state senator and his wife there in Minnesota.

Yeah, just awful.

You know, and, and honestly, one of the things, you know, Mike Lee had his tweet, which to his credit, he has taken down not to his credit.

He he headed up in the first place and quite frankly, didn't seem to want to take it down until he was called out on it.

That's a Republican.

You know, there may have been.

There may have been a few extremists on the left when Donald Trump was shot, who said things that they shouldn't have said.

I know that that's the case, but that was not United States senators on the left.

In fact, they all, to the best of my knowledge, came out and condemned it.

And for some of these people who are in the Senate, like Mike Lee, to be making fun of,

of something like this is it's wrong.

If it's Donald Trump, it's wrong.

If it's if it's somebody on the left, we don't solve our differences that way.

We just

don't

100 percent agree.

And I look, I called out our friend Bill McCosh and a Monday as well in this program because he he retweeted information on this that I know he knows to be untrue that somehow that this assassin alleged to use the word alleged assassin in Minnesota was a Democrat.

And we play the audio.

from the Minnesota Tribune, a leader tribune, I believe it is, and WCCO, which interviewed the guy's roommate and closest friend and said, no, we're both Trump people, we're both Republican people.

And I said, I said, look, I'm not saying that all MAGA Republican people are bad people or anything like that, but from the other side, from conservatives, from MAGA people to somehow perpetuate these lies that this guy was a Democrat for political gain is just sick.

Yeah.

And I mean, the other side of this is, and this is true for both sides.

If you think extremism is only a problem on the other side, you need to look in the mirror because you're going to find the extremist.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And both sides need to.

to take a long, hard look at it.

I literally, I mean, you saw the piece.

I literally, sub-stack has been an awakening to me because I hate, sounds strange for somebody who's on your radio show once a week, but I don't count this.

I really have tried to stay out of the public eye, but I had to get the sub-stack thing, right?

So I got attacked by the AOC left for making the point that John Kennedy's, I Have a Dream Speech and Ronald Reagan, Shining City on a Hill, were both part of what used to make America great.

and I just got eviscerated from the left that I would say anything about Ronald Reagan and a shining city on a hill, which of course then people, the person that used to be on the right with me was thinking to myself, yep, this is why it was so easy for Mitch McConnell world to beat these guys because we'd come out and say, see, they don't like America, they hate America, they don't think it's a shining city on a hill.

And they don't even believe in Kennedy's, I have a dream, Kennedy's, I ask not what you can do for your country.

No, it's we don't have time to get into it, but Democrats

you know what I had the chat GPT machine doing some research here on how many current UW alumni are in the state legislature

how many

30% are graduates of UW schools Yeah, and by party affiliation 22% of Republicans and at least 30% of Democrats

Very

interesting.

Look at that.

Trigby using the old AI to get things done.

And that's the real Trigby.

How about that?

Yeah, and I'm staying.

I'm staying for this or that.

Oh,

OK.

All

right.

Stay tuned.

We'll finish up this topic and do a little What's Worst, not this or that.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the Todd Albaugh Show on the Symphony to your radio network.

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

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

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app,

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Allbaugh along with Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

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

Welcome in hour number two of the big program here on Wednesday, June 18th, 2025.

It's a great day to be a Wisconsinite, and it is... Pump Day!

That's right.

There's the old camel reminding us we're halfway through the week here in downtown Madison, the world headquarters overcast skies.

A little few raindrops there.

Mr. Zommer's raindrops keep falling.

Can we look out at the old Sam Davidson street cam?

Is that angled correctly or not?

I believe so.

All right.

Very good.

We'll take a look here.

People are

with their umbrellas there as they're going down through State Street, beautiful State Street here and down.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, the rain in the window.

So it's a little blurry.

But yeah, cars speeding along.

Trees are very green, right?

I went for a walk last night at a picnic point on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus.

Beautiful night.

Things are very green.

Looks like it's an indoor planet of Ewoks

and Star Wars.

Looks a little bit like that.

All right, very good.

We'll check in the rainy skies, but then heat up going to be darn near 90 degrees by the end of the week and humid.

It's going to be sultry here in the state of Wisconsin.

Coming up at the bottom of the hour, our friend, our colleague, Earl Ingram Jr.

is going to be joining us via StreamYard from Milwaukee, where tomorrow...

for Juneteenth, one of the largest Juneteenth celebrations in I believe the Midwest or the country is going to happen in Milwaukee tomorrow.

One year ago, Earl and I were out at Baraboo celebrating Juneteenth out there, so Earl will be in to give us the details on that.

And in just a bit, what's worse, but sticking around for just a bit of our number two here, our friend and ongoing contributor.

He's our guest every Wednesday for a Republican like myself, now a senior advisor with the Lincoln Project joining us from his home.

in a suburb in Washington DC via StreamYard, Trigby Olson.

Trigby, appreciate you sticking around.

Todd, I have a list.

Of what?

Now I have names.

Oh,

hang on, before you do this, let's set it up.

In hour number one, we talked about two things.

A, Republicans in the legislature looking at cutting at least $87 million from the UW system budget.

We were the first to report on this on Monday night.

And also talked about political extremism and political violence about the tragedy the assassination that happened in Minnesota.

So what do you got?

All right, so we've got some guy who's Hans H. That's in the state Senate.

You know, so he named Hans H. I don't know either.

Rob Coles, Howard Marklein, Patrick Teston, he graduated from Stevens Point, Andre Jack.

Jacques he went to UW Madison he graduated in 2003 now I'm wondering has the has the place changed since then or is it is it still was it a woke den of indoctrination then some guy Rob Hutton whitewater Nate Gustafson Madison Robin boss whitewater Janelle brand

branching

Jen

branching.

Yeah, Rob swearing gin Shane Barnett

Alex Dahlman, and there may be more according to it.

And then you also have Brian Stile, who graduated from the UW Madison Law School.

That is just a partial list that the chat GPT machine came up with.

It also says that a John Jagler did not complete his degree from UW Parkside, but did attend.

So it's your point of all these Republicans that.

We're we're happy, apparently, to pay their tuition and be graduates of these fine University of Wisconsin system public universities.

But now they want to cut eighty seven million because they say it's not good enough for other people.

Who's the president of the state Senate?

Is it a Mary Flez

for Koski?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin River Falls with a degree in bachelor bachelor's in economics and finance.

There's also a state senator, Rob.

staffs, staffs, Holt?

I don't know.

R10?

He graduated from, he attended both River Falls and Eau Claire.

All right.

So the point is that they

should be.

There's a bunch of them.

I mean, this is just ridiculous.

Just ridiculous.

Trigby is fired up today over this report that we were happy to and proud to a first break on Monday night that Republicans are looking to gut.

the UW system.

I'm very concerned, Todd.

There are a lot of Republicans who have been indoctrinated in communism.

Thank you.

This could be a communist plot to undermine

us.

I'm very concerned.

I strongly worded email.

All

right, let's go

to the phone line.

At least most of them graduated, which is more than Scott Walker did.

Let's go to the phone lines eight five five seven five two four eight four two out to Los Angeles, California and LA Tom LA always a pleasure would save

Yeah guys, I have a question for you.

Um Are Republicans?

In the in power are they just pinky or they just You know everything comes back to them either they're obsessed with bathrooms

They're obsessed with gay people.

They're obsessed with lesbians.

I mean, they're obsessed with anything that has to do with sexuality.

Is that because they've been so repressed over the years and they, you know, when they went to college, they didn't really meet anybody outside of their own little circle or what?

Because honestly,

I mean I'm to the point where I think they chef Donald Trump a simple question Donald Trump are you closet a gay man?

You definitely love get you definitely love man.

There seems to be a possession strong man.

There seems to be a possession Trigby

I Will say my buddy Stuart Stevens and fellow Lincoln project colleague

He often gets going about and there is a lot of truth to this I had never met so many gay men in my life Until I got you know went out and worked on Capitol Hill Republican offices were full of of closeted gay men and they're it's kind of a strange It was a strange phenomenon back then Todd and you and I've talked about yeah, absolutely I mean I you know

To your point.

Yeah, I

think is whatever floats your boat, right?

Like I'm very libertarian as you know Yeah,

they just come out of the closet already instead of being self-hating gay closeted men.

No, you're right.

I mean to your trinkets point When when when I worked in the in the capital and also in DC trinkets, right?

There were all kinds, particularly of gay, closeted men.

I was one of them for a while.

And here's a sad fact for Todd.

In all my years, I can honestly tell you, I never hooked up with a closeted Republican.

Think of the opportunities missed in all those years.

But I mean, you're right.

Stuart Stevens writes in one of his books that, you know, it's one of the dirty, it was all a lie that L.A.

Tom's point that.

that they're so obsessed with anti-gay stuff and either so many of the legislators or their staff are themselves gay and living in the closet.

It's sick.

I mean, I can honestly say I was never hypocritical about it.

I was never anti-gay living in the closet back in the day.

But it's, I think he has a good point, Trigby, that-

Well, you know who else makes that point all the time is my buddy Tim Miller, right?

So Tim, you know, Tim is gay and-

And he makes that point in his book, right?

Like from that perspective of how many, you know, like, and I think in your case, and I think in Tim's case, I don't want to put words in his mouth.

Like the truth of the matter is, and regardless of what your truth is, one of the things I've learned in life is a lot of bad things happen when people don't feel comfortable living their truths and a lot of people get hurt.

And yeah.

Yep,

totally.

Who's

John Jett?

Is that Cam?

Cam says, well, Grindr didn't crash at the RNC for no reason.

That's true.

That's actually true.

Our friend Kristen did a whole segment on the fact that Grindr was going nuts at the RNC in Milwaukee.

All right, it's 15.

Oh, and we want it quickly.

Let's get to that question, Zabers.

That was on Matt and Milton, and Trigvie can answer it quickly here.

Matt and Milton was talking about political extremism.

Trigvie, what can we do about this religious extremism in America?

I think it's a big problem, as is money in politics.

Yeah, so well first thing that you can do is you can subscribe to my sub-stack because just about every day although today I didn't write I have been putting out three things that people can do to stand up and fight for democracy and fight extremism and I've also broken down what I've learned about extremism from around the world Which ironically in some cases got attacked viciously by extremists But that I just kind of found that funny sort of like me having an opinion on how Jordan Love Place quarterback

if I knew what I was talking

about,

I'd

probably

be playing quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.

But what do we have to do?

The first thing that we have to do is everybody needs to think about what can they personally contribute to the cause.

And the cause has to be, it's not about you, it's about the people who've been succumbing to the extremism.

And I say this in many ways, Donald Trump is sort of, whether they've realized it or not, and I'd probably take a lot of flack for this,

There's a lot of Americans who are in an abusive relationship with Donald Trump because he isn't ultimately serving their interests, but they're sticking with him.

It's not about you.

Like if you've ever dealt with somebody who's in an abusive relationship, attacking the abuser isn't what helps.

You got to ask them questions and lead them to find in themselves that they're being abused.

And so a lot of it is about how do we engage with people?

Not by preaching at them, but by getting them to think with their with their conscious part of their brain about the cognitive dissidents that Exists and I mean one example is the tariffs 73% of the 10% of jobs in Wisconsin under threat from tariffs The 74% of those people voted for Donald Trump you have to be asking him about that same thing with this thing about Attacking the UW system, you know

Yeah, well said.

If you have somebody in your community who's a nurse or like these legislators who went to the UW system, ask them questions.

Were you indoctrinated, Robin?

And if so, here's my question, Robin.

If so, why didn't you do something about it?

Because quite frankly, the path you chose to go down has had more ability to impact from college forward the UW system than anybody with the exception of probably Tommy Thompson.

True.

So why did you allow this to happen, Robin?

Robin Voss, Trigby Olsen.

Come on the show, Robin.

It's been a long time.

And honestly, I will be nice.

It's going to be a

big, being a butter popcorn in the throwdown.

All right.

It's 18 past the hour of three.

Time once again for what's

worse.

Let's

go.

Time once again for what's worse, no prize money involved, nothing to give away, just your opportunity to have your voice heard across all 11 stations on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Gonna give you the question, take your answers on the other side of the break.

What's worse, the category today tricky, what's worse, people who are critical of others or people who are not critical of others.

People who are critical of others people who are not critical of others 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or you could text us on the civic media app 45 seconds trivia was worse

People who are not critical of themselves Well, that's not part of the category Well, it's this or that but I'm going this or that or that Which is worse?

What's worse or the other thing?

Yeah,

well

Honestly, it's the correct team.

People, well, can I think about it through the break?

You can

absolutely think about it through the break.

You're going to think

about

it.

Zommer's going to think about it.

We're going to pop up some Robin Voss popcorn here.

Put some extra butter on since he's a little, little slick right now up there at the state Capitol.

Come back.

Answer the question.

Call in Tex people who are critical of others or people who are not critical of others.

What's worse?

855-752-4842.

Your calls, your texts.

on the other side is the all-ball show for a Wednesday across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

No, it's

Kendrick

Lamar not like us because it's a diss track So if you're talking about being critical of people a diss track is

It's telling a lot

like snoop to me.

I Can see where you're coming from with that.

I just I don't listen to it I listen to virtually no rap so you know that shows how what an idiot I am 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 the once words category today People who are critical of others or people who are not critical of others 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8

for two.

As Trigley said, this is a category today that might make people think a little bit.

A little bit self-reflective, perhaps.

I don't know.

855-752-4842, 855-742-4842.

John, listening on WMDX, our old friend John, says gotta be critical of others when necessary to start conversation and hold them accountable for their words and actions, all like, while all, while creating a buzz to inform others.

Wish the media would do more of this 24-7.

Thank you, John.

Appreciate that.

Jim Listing in Brookfield, the WAUK says, for the sake of my marriage, I have to say people who are not critical of others are worse.

Otherwise, my wonderful wife will be critical of my answer.

Jim for Brookfield.

Appreciate that, Jim.

855-7524842.

Let's go to the phone lines.

Jimmy Listing on WMDX in Madison.

People who are critical of others or people who are not critical of others Jimmy was worse.

Oh Definitely people who are critical of others, but I also like them to be Qualified, you know like for instance there was a time I remember when everybody that ran for the tea party They really had a college education, but they all ran and criticized and wanted to tear stuff down But if you're qualified

I can take the criticism.

If you have experience, I can take the criticism.

But watching people who have no interest in governing, watching people who have no interest in making things good for the American people, it's just destructive and it's crazy.

I can remember when Republicans were talking about being the party of family, but it seems like

And this was a few years back, but it seemed like every other month a Republican was either getting caught in the bathroom.

They were getting caught with pages.

They were just the hypocrisy of it all.

So, you know, and this is like listening to Donald Trump, you know, he doesn't know.

But yet all of the media seems news outlets talking heads.

They are wasting hundreds of thousands of hours talking about this.

And he

absolutely means nothing to us because just grifting and all of his friends see that that's a powerful thing to do and you can get away with it.

Right.

And they're doing it.

Thanks,

Jimmy.

Appreciate the call.

855-752.

I think

Jimmy has the best radio voice I've ever heard.

It was.

It was a great radio voice.

Is Jimmy

still there?

Jimmy, have you done radio before?

Jimmy is not there.

All right.

Well, Jimmy, if you're listening, uh, Trigby and I vote you as they had the best radio voice of the day, including me, who's paid to do this on radio.

Uh, well said, Jimmy.

855-752-4842.

Brian listening on WGBW in beautiful Green Bay.

We're just up there last week.

Great crew up there at GBW says, I refuse to be critical of this question.

All right.

Cam listening to Appleton.

My wife's boyfriend is pretty critical, not a fan.

A land listing in Madison and WMDX, people who are not critical of others, may be worse for society as a

whole.

I'm jumping in now for my answer because Len worded it better than I was going to Yeah, people who are not critical of others may be worse for society as a whole because that's how we end up with people like Robin boss in charge Where if you don't look at what he's saying and say, huh, that doesn't add up then you just let terrible things happen

Heather listening in Eau Claire on Facebook says in this day and age.

I need a caveat

that these critical thoughts are based on facts.

But honestly, the combo of being Gen X and a woman of a certain age, i.e.

menopause, I don't have time for milk toasty people.

So those who are not critical are worse.

Don't ask me if you don't want to know.

I agree.

Trigmeap,

people who are critical of others or people who are not

critical of others was worse.

I guess not critical.

People are not critical of others.

All right.

Yeah, I still think people who aren't critical of themselves are the worst.

But well, yeah, that's probably true.

Yeah, I'm just looking here.

David New Berlin says people who are critical of others are worse.

I'm certainly I'm not entirely confident that people that are critical of others are able to acknowledge their own shortcomings.

There

you go.

See.

Yeah, that's a good point.

See that's kind of what would trick me to say in there a Scott listing in Madison on WMDX as people who are not critical of others end up voting for people like Trump So yeah lack of critical thinking is worse Greg and beautiful Genesee depot on WAU case as people who are not critical of other people are worse Kurt in Madison thing just skipped it for Kurt Madison says what's worse when?

When we say others, which I think includes politicians, then it would clearly be those who do not criticize.

All right.

Cam in Appleton also says, critical is fine if critical people can admit when they are wrong.

Also, Todd, your camera is slanted and you're slouching and you have cookie dust in your beard.

I don't have cookie dust in my beard.

I know, he's

just joking around about

criticizing you.

Well, the camera is, we bought the camera at Walmart and it sits on top of a thing and it's kind of cockeyed.

It's like the seamstress that couldn't menstruate.

She was cockeyed.

Anyway, uh, Trigby, uh, so there we go.

There's another edition of what's worse.

We appreciate everybody for, uh, for playing, playing along.

That was a lot of fun.

Trigby, thanks for hanging around and for bringing us your insight as always.

You'll be watching the, uh, the Packers on next, our friend, Earl Ingram, Jr.

Who's a big Detroit Lions fan?

So I'm, I'm worried.

I think the, I think the Lions could, uh, could give us the Packers some trouble this year.

They're good.

Whatever Todd Wow Wow No respect for the Lions will find out where Earl Ingram thinks about that and more importantly what's happening in Milwaukee for Juneteenth Don't go anywhere.

It's the all balls show across Wisconsin on the civic media ready network

Welcome back to the novel show on the Civic Media Running Network.

It is now 35 minutes past the hour of three o'clock here and whenever you hear that music, you know that our friend, our colleague, Civic Media's own Earl Ingram Jr.

cannot be far behind.

And I'm pleased to announce, such as the case today, we welcome via StreamYard from the Milwaukee area, Mr. Earl Ingram, joining us live.

Earl, thanks so much for coming on.

I'm honored and privileged to have the opportunity to share time with you once again.

The

privilege and honor is ours, Earl.

We were talking before we came on the air about a year ago, tomorrow is Juneteenth.

A year ago on Juneteenth, you and I were up in Baraboo, Wisconsin in Southwest Wisconsin for their first

annual celebration, as it turns out, on a day similar, at least in Madison, like a little drizzly out here.

But boy, what a great day that was, Earl, to see that community of Southwest Wisconsin come together to celebrate Juneteenth.

And then I would say at least personally, for me, equally as fun, was just spending some time hanging out with you.

We went around Devils Lake State Park, had a meal together, and it was just a great day of sharing and hanging out.

You know man, what it what it really was was You know, we live in the same state and people can be so far away and and and and not really get to know one another and That opportunity we we got to share with one another was precious and it just just goes to show that you know, it's

as big as the earth is, you know, we don't have to stay so separated.

And you get a chance to meet each other in different environments.

And that's always good.

That's always positive.

And if we can do that more on a global scale, we wouldn't be no facing the kind of things that we face as human beings.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

I mean, I want to offer you an apology on the air, Earl.

because we had this great meal we hung out last year and we said we need to do this more often and and I have been remiss in making this happen more often and and I want to apologize to you and and tell you I want we're gonna have these conversations on the air and off but particularly on the air more often that's gonna be my goal moving forward if you're willing to do it because of what you just said the more that we talk to one another even though we may have

come from different places or have differences.

I think that's the best medicine, or at least a large part of the medicine, to heal what's going on in this country and the state right now.

You know, if we don't communicate one with the other, then we stay estranged.

And, you know, we're facing, we're looking at the things that are going on in the world right now, and at the root of most of those is misunderstanding of other human beings.

And the answer certainly can't be because we don't communicate one with the other that then we rely on destroying one another.

I mean, that's barbaric at his core.

But I would be on it.

You know, thank you very much for the invitation.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, uh, Zomers, let's make sure that you hold me accountable.

Let's, uh, let's do that.

Uh, on the lighter side, quickly, we had our friend, Trigby Olsenon, who likes to brag about being one of the millions of Green Bay Packer owners.

And I brought up the fact, of course, that you're a Detroit fan and, uh, he dissed a little bit.

I wouldn't say he's, I'm worried about the Lions, uh, Earl this year.

Well, you know, it's, it's strange you say that I had, um,

pretty long conversation with the grave digger this morning.

Gilbert Brown, who he

knows

very

well.

Absolutely.

You know, we are preparing to resurrect the Gilbert Brown football camp in the city of Milwaukee, which we did for 16 years prior to COVID.

And so COVID shut that down.

Well, on July 7th, we'll kick off our 16th year of that free football camp.

Gilbert Brown, the grave dig himself, makes that happen, makes that possible when thousands of young boys and girls will get an opportunity.

You don't know anything about Gilbert Brown, but get a chance to be engaged in a three day camp that will be, you know.

And

that's just one of the many things I love about you and about what you've done in the Milwaukee area because you're just one of those guys, Earl, that says, here's something that needs to be done.

Let's just do it.

You know, you get things done in the Milwaukee area, in your community.

And I just thank you for that.

Well, you know, man, at the root of it is what I want.

I grew up...

In the 1960s, you know, as a young boy, as a young boy, and I was experiencing community at its best.

And I am who I am because of that community.

It's safe.

It certainly was together.

And it kind of made me who I am.

And so children today don't have that opportunity.

Technology and all sorts of other things take them away from those kinds of things.

And in the years that I have left, my goal has been, along with others, to do everything possible for us to make sure that they have a better opportunity in life.

And I think that's kind of like passing a baton is the verbiage that's used a lot.

But it clearly is.

And I always tell people in my community that unless we pull together as a community and make sure that those who come after us

have a better opportunity in life than the future is not very bright.

I couldn't agree with you more, Earl.

B, he's much too modest.

You know, these phrases like, oh, whatever time I have left, like he's some kind of an old guy.

I'm telling you, we were up at the Baraboo Bluffs last year and anybody's gone to Devil's Lake State Park.

You have these granite steps that are built in and we're hiking up and, and Earl's about.

what 15 well almost 20 years older than me and Todd to go to and Earl's just like come on man come on what are you what are you I mean you're in fantastic shape or you're in fighter shape

well for a guy that will soon be 71 wow um people people can't believe that I'm that age I'll tell you I don't feel it I don't feel a day older than 70

Well, you're, you're beating the butt of a 55 year old.

Let's say that

much.

Uh, first of all, before we get to, uh, Juneteenth Earl, uh, first Jim in Brookfield, listening in at the UK says, hi, Earl.

Where can I get a woke hat like the one you're wearing for those not, not watching on the stream, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Earl's wearing this great hat.

This is a woke.

Is that a custom made piece, Earl?

Is that, are you launching a new line of hats of clothing to Earl Ingram, junior line?

Well, well, you know this.

It is kind of custom made and I had it made at the height of the discussion on woke because I know the true definition of woke before somebody changed it.

And so the definition of woke, I don't care whether it's Rosé's thesaurus or, you know, Webster or whichever dictionary you look in, there's already been a definition for woke.

It's perceptive.

and somebody who basically is aware.

And even though people have changed the definition of it, I'm very comfortable in making sure that people see me with my walk hat.

And it's always good to hear from Jim from Brookfield.

So, Jim, it's always good to hear from you, my friend.

Absolutely.

Earl, I think it's always good.

We have these celebrations for a reason and that is to commemorate things I think it's always good just to take a step back as our friend Matt Flynn likes to say he likes to say Matt Flynn You're not woke if you don't know history.

You're not woke unless and until you know history I think he's right about that So give us a little bit of history Earl Ingram on on Juneteenth and the origins and what this really

means Well, I can tell you that I never knew I wasn't taught anything about Juneteenth day when I was in school

really

and absolutely now.

And you know, there's what's so ironic about it is that we're facing a time right now where the history is being erased.

We've got a president of the United States who thinks that all of that history should be wiped away and people should never know.

But June 19th, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas,

to announce the end of slavery and, you know, the day that blacks were freed.

Now, you know, most people would say, well, why, why, why do you guys need to have, and I've heard this said, a separate day, 1776, the birth of American Independence Day, it's our celebration, and that's the day that all of us,

You know should celebrate.

Why do you have to have a separate day?

Well That day 1776 the birth of you know, America's independence was didn't include black people and And so black people weren't set free at that point in time So it was again 1865 when the Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by

then President Abraham Lincoln on July 1st, 1863, I believe it was.

And so it said that all enslaved people in Confederate territory were then free.

But two years later, that information still hadn't reached Texas, Galveston, Texas, and people were still being enslaved.

So it was at that point in time that finally the Union soldiers were able to make it down to Texas and make sure that people were made aware that they were no longer slaves two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and celebrations began at that point in time.

And you know, there's 250,000 or so.

black people in America who were enslaved at that point in time.

And so they were, for the first time in their lives, declared free.

Well, I find, thank you for that history lesson.

Number one, number two, maybe the most fascinating thing you said so far, at least on that part there, was at the beginning of it.

I mean, I'm, as you know, I grew up in Southwest Wisconsin, a town of 5,000 people.

We literally had one black family in our school district.

And I went to grade school, high school in the 70s and 80s.

So I never was taught about Juneteenth, but to hear you as a black person growing up and saying that you are not, you never heard about it, grow up in school either, that's a fascinating and be just so sad that we're not, there's so much opportunity to do better.

to teach kids where they came from and why so that everybody knows the history so we can appreciate, because we all got a journey, Earl.

Doesn't matter where we came from.

We all got a journey, and I think we need to do more to respect each other's journey.

Well, I think more than anything else, this history needs to be taught to all children, and not just to black children, because... 100%.

You know, as long as people aren't made aware, can you imagine?

I think sometimes about my ancestors, excuse me, what they went through and to finally, you know, hear Abraham Lincoln and, you know, the Emancipation Proclamation and all of those things and finally be freed of one of the worst chapters in the history of mankind and yet still not be free is a Calamity.

And I'll just say this, you know, the past is the past and people will say, why don't, that is better left in the past.

But my response to that always is, you know, if you listen to Jewish people, they'll say, never forget the Holocaust.

And yet people are telling people of color that that happened such a long time ago, we need to get beyond that.

Why are you bringing that up?

Well,

Again, it was a part of the history of our nation, and it should never be forgotten.

Stay tuned more with Earl Ingram Jr.

on the other side, talking a little Juneteenth and other things here as well.

Don't go anywhere, it's Earl, it's Todd, it's the Civic Media already network all across the state of Wisconsin, back after this.

Welcome back to the tunnel ball show on the civic media, ready to work where it is now eight minutes before the hour of the top of the hour of the top of the hour at four o'clock.

It's going to be ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to, a little weather update, pretty low drizzly today.

And then it's going to heat up by the end of the week, 90 degrees or close to that, maybe heated indexes near 100.

by the end of the weekend.

And then our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, will be in with a sports update.

And then the Maggie Dawn show across the state of Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready Network from four until six, followed by Pete Schwabba and Nightlight from six until eight.

And then after that, it's our friend, Robert Pilat.

with Native Roots Radio right now being joined by Earl Ingram Jr.

here of Civic Media talking the little Juneteenth.

But Earl, I want to pick up on something before we move to tomorrow's Milwaukee celebration.

You were speaking so well eloquently about the need for education of our young people, just talking about the lack of teaching about Juneteenth in our schools.

But Robert Pilot has brought up as well that we don't do enough in our school systems and teaching our youth about the true, a lot of revisionism these days on the history of Native Americans in this country.

And I just think that we all function better.

We were talking off the air, the importance of getting to kids.

I don't care whether it's behavioral or education or whatever.

When they're young, through programs like yours, because we become better adults, and it's a lot better to invest in kids when they're young than trying to turn around bad behaviors.

They

get old.

And a lot cheaper.

All right.

And I would agree with the gentleman, the Native American.

Robert Pilot, yeah.

if you know their history, you know the history, the fact that our nation has erased what transpired in this country is really shameful and what's to be gained in the long run by not telling that history.

The Native Americans had some ways and some things

that they did and that they understood about the beauty of this land to always leave it better.

After they left, when they would come to a place, they were very much concerned about making sure that once I left this place, this place is in a better position than it was before I got here.

And I think our nation could learn a lot from that.

And so that history needs to be, again, resurrected.

100%.

Talk to us a little bit, Earl.

Juneteenth proper is tomorrow.

I know you could come on tomorrow because you're going to be busy.

Tell us a little bit about the activities down in the great city of Milwaukee tomorrow, please.

So I'll be at June.

I'll start probably at about seven o'clock and I'll be there until at least four p.m., five p.m.

Juneteenth day.

there'll be 30 to 40,000 people.

Wow.

Inside of an eight to 10 block radius.

If you can wrap your arms around the majesty of having 30 to 40,000 people gathered inside of that 10 block radius for the majority of the day.

Milwaukee is the largest Juneteenth festival.

In the country Milwaukee is one of the oldest Juneteenth festivals in the country.

I remember At at 16 years old we're going to my first Juneteenth day celebration.

I think I might have missed one But over 51 years I've been there And it is a wonderful wonderful time where you know people who sometimes have a difficult time, you know

getting together and doing things collectively.

It is a day that all of that is set aside and our children and the elders get to interact which we don't do enough of and on that particular day all the rest of the garbage and junk is swept under the rug and people understand the importance of what this is all about.

Yeah, two minutes left.

Earl Ingram.

What have I not asked you yet?

Do you want to make sure that people across the state know about Juneteenth or or about the activities tomorrow?

Well, that people should understand that this for those who say, you know, why do you need a special holiday?

Well, because of the things that transpired in this country.

And so when you talk about the Fourth of July and.

And why can't we all just celebrate the 4th of July because we weren't all equal on that day?

And to some extent, we're still not that today.

But Juneteenth Day is an opportunity again for my community to accept one another, to know about our riches as part of what Juneteenth Day is about, is teaching the history to our children, and bringing the ancestors.

back to life and having the elders interact with the children.

And so we could do that every day.

It would certainly transform and change our communities by having the elders and the young people, even though we've become further apart, you know, together, even if for only this one day.