Dan Shafer’s WisDems Convention Takeaways (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.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Alba, one of the outstanding producer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on Thursday, June 19th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Welcome, everybody, here in downtown Madison at the World Headquarters on State Street to big, puffy, cumulus clouds, not

cumulus broadcasting, but cumulus clouds on the horizon here, sun trying to peek out here and there.

Gonna be a hot one somers today, so keep your socks on.

My socks will be on.

Yes.

Look at that.

Outside on State Street, people mulling around, naked people walking up and down State Street.

They're not naked at all.

They're just in shorts and t-shirts and summer wear.

Summer wear, you understand.

It's summertime here in downtown Madison.

One of those great big huge buses just went by.

People, a bird just flew by.

Did you see that?

A bird

nearly

ran into the same Davidson Street camp.

Just about.

Bert Nerf.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day here in Madison.

Hopefully it is where you are too.

Summer has arrived.

Big Pro, by the way, happy Juneteenth, everyone.

Appreciate again, Earl Ingram Jr.

being on the show yesterday.

He is in Milwaukee today.

And as he reported to us yesterday, I did not know this.

It is the nation's largest Juneteenth celebration.

in Milwaukee today, so many things.

Which is pretty cool.

It is very cool.

Again, Earl reminds us that Juneteenth marks the day, the anniversary, that word got to the last of the slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas to let them know that they were free some two years after Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

So it marks the day in American history when all people

All citizens of the United States of America were actually free people.

Now, of course, it's a better rocky road to really get to true equality since then, but it does mark that day.

So happy Juneteenth, everyone.

If there was a celebration near you, I would encourage you to participate in it.

Big show today, looking forward at the bottom of this hour to do a little recombobulation.

with our friend and colleague, the founder of the Reconbibulation area and Civic Media's political editor, Mr. Dan Schaefer, will be here live and in person.

Well, via StreamYard anyway.

And I hear now that Schaefer is also the moderator, the emissary for Milwaukee Bucks fans, and is helping to negotiate a new extension for Yanis Antitokubo.

Is that so?

Well, it might not be true, but what

you

heard, but I've heard a lot of

people are saying a

lot of people are saying that Dan Schaefer is involved in this.

So we'll check in.

But on the serious side, Dan always on top of what's happening politically.

We'll check in with him, talk a little politics with him and a little Milwaukee life.

Summerfest, I think kicks off this weekend.

I believe so.

We'll talk to Dan and see if he's a summerfest guy.

Talk today a little bit about that at the bottom of the hour as well hour number two What's worse today?

Creepy crawly things Snakes or spiders That's the what's worse today.

Well, we'll discuss that and take your phone calls in in hour number two Len listening on WM DX in Madison says the Sun is real burner today And it's only on medium.

Yeah, right now.

It's an all seriousness

It's going to get really high, the actual temperatures into the 90s with heat indexes.

In other words, the it feels like well over 100 degrees.

So if you're going to be out and about, uh, a, as am I, my former coworker at LL bean, by the way, I'm wearing the LL bean, uh, pride shirt.

It's the logos.

They have a cool logo anyway, but it's the multi.

This is an example of a very tastefully done pride shirt, in my opinion.

So, uh,

My former colleague Kyle used to say hydrate or di-drake.

So true, so true.

So remember to hydrate this weekend, you don't wanna di-drake.

So hydrate, stay in the shade, don't overdo, and if you know elderly people or people with health conditions that do not have air condition, check on them.

Just to make sure everybody stays healthy this weekend, but summer's here.

Now usually,

June 21st marks the official start of summer and it's the longest day of the year.

I have been informed that June 20th tomorrow is actually the longest day of the year.

I don't know why.

Things got thrown off.

If Trump sent out an executive order, maybe it's a taco too.

Maybe he was just kidding.

Maybe 21st really is the uh, I don't know.

I've been told that because Saturday is mom's birthday and so we're going to celebrate that.

She was born on June 21st, so.

But right now, I want to take that.

Oh, that's coming up a little bit later in the show.

Also, we have a quiz, I think, for you today.

We're going to talk a little bit about that.

Joe Trippie, longtime Democratic strategist, and now with Lincoln Square, wrote a great piece on, are we American spectators or American patriots?

I'm going to take a little look at that.

Politico is out with a story on my least favorite Martin.

The

chair

of the Democratic National Committee, even Mark Pocan, Democratic representative from Madison, is grousy about the lack of leadership from Mr. Martin at the DNC.

We'll take a look at that and much, much more in this show.

What a start on this University of Wisconsin system or the University of Wisconsin story that we've been following here for you this week.

Appreciate.

The follow-up and reporting as well of our colleagues, Shali Pittman, our great news director here at Civic Media and Savannah Tobey Olson, who has been watching things at the state capitol.

So to set the stage to bring you up to date, we were the first to report on Monday night that the Republicans that control the Joint Finance Committee, the Budget Committee, they were intending to bring up a motion at the Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday to cut $87 million

out of the current funding of UW system, which would gut the University of Wisconsin system most likely mean the closure of the six remaining two year schools across the state and very could likely mean at least one for your institution would be closed.

Well, word leaked out.

Lots of people called their legislators and the Republicans got spooked.

They confirmed our reporting.

to other legacy media like the State Journal and the Journal Sentinel and the Associated Press and Robin Voss said yes.

Yes, as a matter of fact, we're proud to say that we are in favor of $87 million worth of cuts.

And so they, according to them themselves, they have to take this up and pass a budget by next Tuesday in joint finance in order to make their mark of having a budget in place by July 1st.

And so the legislators met on the floor in general session here, but they were also to meet in the joint finance committee was supposed to meet today.

Now, UW System was not on the agenda for today that I know of, but other things were.

Now, late breaking word from news director, Shaly Pittman, they've pulled, they're shutting it down up there.

The boys are shutting it down under the dome, a block away.

you know, profile and leadership here from Howie Markline, State Senator Howard Markline, who co-chairs the Joint Finance Committee, even Steve Nos, longtime member Republican of the legislature.

Now, State Senator Steve Nos says this is the worst, the worst, he called it, budget process he's ever seen in all of his time in the state Capitol.

And that's what Howard Markline's friends are saying about it.

That's impressive.

That's impressive.

So there seems to be chaos, or as my former high school colleague, Kurt Brockway, used to call it, chaos in Ann Dodgeworth's class.

There's chaos and chaos in the state capital right now amongst Republicans, because they know that their base, at least some of them, want these cuts.

They have made UW System the villain, but they're getting a lot of blowback.

Now,

I've been pardon me.

I've been rather hard at times over the president of the US.

I don't think hard, just honest about the president of the University of Wisconsin system, Jay Rothman, former CEO of Foley and Lardner.

Now, look, if if you're a person of a certain means that can pay the hourly rate, no better place to go.

I don't think that Foley and Lardner, they're a huge national international law firm.

But there's not a lot of I don't think.

People in Amory and Richland Center and Rice Lake Wausau Some of these places are your two-year school places not a lot of people there.

They're hiring Foley and Lardner as their attorney But they they they plucked Jay Rothman out of Foley Lardner to CEO and they put him as the president of UW System here and in my opinion to cut and make to get to a bottom line I've already stated on this show

Reasons that I think that Rothman has done a bad job, but let me give me let me also be honest in my opinion and give him some accolades Yesterday on the universities of Wisconsin Facebook page.

They posted a message from president Rothman I'm not going to all verbatim, but he lists here 112 CEOs

COO's and CFO's.

That stands for Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, 55 presidents, 45 owners and founders, 38 principals and partners, 20 regional businesses, partnerships alike that have all come out in support of the universities of Wisconsin or UW System.

And I give them credit.

I think that

Rothman and the folks at system have done a good job at motivating businesses across the state to stand up for higher education.

Where they made their mistake, in my opinion, because these are people that Rothman is comfortable with, right?

Powerful CEOs, mostly men, let's be honest, mostly white men, let's be honest.

But he knows that he knows that landscape well Where he's not as comfortable Rothman is with I'll call him everyday common Wisconsinite folk and This is where the system and and Rothman slipped up They applaud him for going after business leaders But they should have also had a two prong approach by going out holding actual public hearings

on the universities of Wisconsin system and motivated parents who are paying the tuition and students and talking about how vital it is for the Wisconsin idea, meaning the borders of the university and the borders of our state and why a two-year college in Rice Lake is as important as UW Madison or UW Milwaukee or UWGB.

Why is it that that shorter commute being able to stay at home?

That makes it affordable and accessible to people in our state But he's not comfortable Rothman on that platform And he thought by in my opinion getting all of these business folks to sign on that that would connect with the pro-business Republicans at the Capitol Again as I said yesterday in my opinion the mistake he made

was thinking that Robin Voss and and these Republican leaders of the Capitol would respect his work and say, okay, that's great.

You you've talked to the business leaders That might have been the case 15 years ago president Rothman, but what you got here is a different breed of cat The these remaga Republicans like I mean and the sad thing is boss didn't grow up being a market type Republican.

I can tell you that But he has joined

the party of Maga and these and some of these of Maga s guys that came up through the assembly and now centers they ain't your they ain't your Republican their father's Republican party it's a different breed of cat and Rothman got burned and it's gonna hurt the people of Wisconsin we'll come back take your phone calls and discuss it eight five five seven five two four eight four two don't go anywhere it's the all balls show on the civic media ready network

you

22 now past the hour of two o'clock on Juneteenth Thursday, June 19.

Zomers pulled that one out.

Do I have one?

We're going to talk to Dan Schaefer at the bottom of the hour.

We're going to recapobulate on politics.

We're also going to talk about summer fest kicking off this weekend.

Are you telling me that the Wang Chung is going to be here?

I'm telling you Wang Chung is going to be on the summer fest stage in Milwaukee tomorrow at 3 30 p.m.

at 3 30.

Yeah.

So everybody have fun

tonight.

Everybody Wang Chon tonight That's fantastic that put me in a good mood.

All right, well, it's fine again I keep bringing this up about the University of Wisconsin system not to harp on it But rather to inform I'm incurring maybe I'll be proven absolutely Wrong and mortified next week, but what I get great joy and pleasure out of is the fact that you all

The listeners of this show of civic media have taken it upon yourselves to call your local legislators, Republicans and Democrats alike and say, look here now, you're not going to get rid of the UW system.

You're not going to devastate it.

You're not going to put these 87 million dollars at cost because look, politics aside, people generally like their agricultural agents.

They're UW Extension agents.

People generally like the Master Cheese Maker program at UW Madison.

People generally like the great healthcare programs at UW Milwaukee, which are giving us more nurses and healthcare workers, because guess, guess what?

A lot of us are getting old.

Ain't gonna need that.

Generally speaking, a lot of people love the UW Medical School, particularly the rural medical school.

Big shout out to them.

Program to encourage people to go to school for medicine and then practice in rural areas.

Turns out that's very popular with people.

But yet Robin Voss and the Republicans want to cut these things by 87 million dollars.

So get on the horn, as Colonel Potter used to say in MASH,

and call your local legislator.

Keep the pressure.

Oh, this is not the time to say, oh, we, I mean, good, we, we stopped them.

We, we've baffled them.

We've, we've, we've taken, we've never gone on a hike and, and your boot kind of, uh, hits a log and all the centipedes and all the, all the little beetles, they scurry because they, they see the light.

That's what's happened here.

We kicked the log.

And all the little Beatles and Republicans, senators and jams, they're scrambling because they don't like it when they have the light shown on them.

But, you know, that's what I'm here to do.

Just, I'm here, you understand, I'm here to kick a log.

That's my job, just kick logs.

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

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

Mike in beautiful Cedarburg.

Mike, thanks for calling.

Let's see.

Well, first of all, I like your show.

Well, thank

you.

Now, second of all, my very late 70s, and I've been a Democrat all my life, which I'll continue to be.

Third of all, Robin Voss, I wouldn't even hire the guy for my company.

That's how dumb he is.

But let me explain something to you.

Yes, quickly if you can.

Listen to the WAUK.

Now listen to the WISN.

And 60% of what you people say many times is a lot of baloney because I don't swear.

My daughter is a top graduate out of the UW system.

She was asked one day to give orientation to the freshman class.

And she told him this, I was in the trades.

The teachers union do not want the trades in the high school.

And when you talk about white privilege,

Believe me, right now, 40% of what Linda Construction is hiring are kids out of Milwaukee of color that are looking for a break.

And I'll tell you something else.

My daughter will tell you this.

They set up the UW system as a Ponzi scheme.

They get these kids in the school.

They can't graduate unless five, six years of sucking your money.

And she told them that.

Well, just hang on.

I just want

to make sure I'm clear.

I'm interested.

I'm interested.

You can get a job on.

Right.

I appreciate it.

Mike, just hang on a second.

I'm trying to ask a question.

I appreciate the call.

I'm just curious, who said this that they don't want the trades in schools?

Because.

No, who?

Who said it?

Super excavator.

London construction no, no, but who was who's who's saying this that that the public education doesn't want the trades in schools because my my My brother-in-law teaches the trades.

It'll clear public high school as classes tremendous And they just invested a bunch of new money that the local Peep taxpayers there just voted and they're completely redoing his area in the in the middle school where he teaches the trades

First of all, I'm just telling you what guys I know in the business are saying to me and the other thing is I think that's great and that's a breakthrough But this is what's got to get out because you take a very naive person 18 years old doesn't know what to do.

They put him into a Education system in whether they're going for the first two years in a smaller school or the bigger schools I think we should spending more money on our schools.

Don't get me wrong, right?

But they gotta have, you can't give these kids a delusional dream that they're gonna get a degree in this.

And they're not gonna make any money or be able to pay those loans back.

I appreciate your call, Mike.

I don't necessarily, I think that there are people that go into four year colleges just because I think you have to have a plan.

Both of my god sons have degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in biochemistry and engineering aerospace, and they're doing very, very well.

I'll let you know that.

Making more than Godfather Todd, I'll let you know that.

And so I think you have a plan, A, of all four of the trades, and B, I think that universities do have a place.

But it has to be well thought out.

Joe, let's bring on Joe very quickly.

Joe and Madison, are you there, Joe?

Yeah, I am I'll make it quick I think you could do a whole show on the trades and it's a very very interesting question in terms of who's doing what and I really encourage you to do that Yeah, I'm the point I would want to make is it boss as said

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Boss is quoted as saying his caucus supports this $87 million cut as a way to encourage more diversity.

All

right, Joe, hang on to the break, Joe.

We'll bring you back after this.

Also, Dan Schaffer going to recompobulate, going to reset up.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the All Balls Show on Civic Media.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

Milwaukee's best.

It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

Hey man, what about Milwaukee, man?

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

I think God would want us to go to Milwaukee.

And it lies between the pit of a man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

What do you think about Milwaukee?

This is the dimension of imagination.

You are now entering the Recombobulation Area.

Welcome back everyone and welcome to the Recombobulation Area.

35 minutes past the hour of 2 o'clock on June 19th.

Happy Juneteenth!

I always feel a little better when I enter the Recombobulation Area because that means the political editor

of civic media and the founder of the Reconpopulation Area, Mr. Dan Schaefer is in the house.

He joins us live via stream yard from Milwaukee, Danhar.

I'm doing well, Todd.

Always wonderful to join you folks, find folks here on the Todd Alba show.

It's always a hoopy, a joint.

We learned something.

We have a couple of laughs.

We're going to get into it in a minute.

We normally don't take a lot of calls, but here now one of our regular listeners, Joe here in Madison on WMDX, always has great points.

We had to cut her off because we were up against the evil time clock that I have no control over.

Joe, we were talking about last, last, uh,

there about University of Wisconsin system or universities of Wisconsin as they go by now and the legislature looking at cutting 87 million dollars of that and Robin Voss leading the charge on that.

I just want to make sure we gave you time to make and or finish your point.

Thank you so much, and I'll make it real quick.

Actually, three points I wanted to make.

First off, you deserve incredible kudos for bringing this issue forward.

Superlative journalism.

This is a very, very important topic.

You're too kind.

Thank you.

You've

led the way.

You deserve great kudos for that.

And statewide, and you kept at it, and you've been keeping at this question of the two-year campuses, and what does the system mean?

throughout the time that you've been on radio and we really appreciate it.

The second thing is I wanted to respond again to the men who called about the issue of the trades and that they aren't teaching the trades as much as they could.

I would argue that there's stuff going on in terms of Mike Johnson and the Big Brothers Association putting together their trade school outside of Madison and cities all across the country are looking to that as a model.

And I just, it drives me nuts when we separate out education in the trades versus four year or graduate programs.

They're all important.

They all matter to make us better and to make our state better.

We need that across

broadly from two-year campuses to four-year campuses, all of that matters.

And then the last thing I wanted to say is Robin Boss needs to go back to school.

You can look at this article in the Milwaukee Journal where he's talking about an $87 million cut that is going to wipe out the two-year colleges and perhaps a four-year college in the state of Wisconsin.

And he says about it, this is just nonsensical.

He says, our caucus supports the cut as a way to encourage more viewpoint diversity.

That makes no sense.

wouldn't diversity be that you have a two-year college in Rice Lake and the other places around the state and the people who attend those two-year colleges, because they need them, whether they have to stay home and take care of parents, whether they have kids, and they can't make the commitment to move to a four-year school at this point in their lives, veterans who are coming back, and this is a way for them to get back in into the world of academia or to get into the trades, you know, to get the background on something and then go into the trades.

I, the guy needs to go to school.

There is nothing more important for our escape than having a broad, broad and powerful education system across the board.

Cutting 87 million when we have a surplus is sinful.

It's sinful.

That's

my

comment.

Thanks a lot,

you guys.

Thank you so much, Joe, Dan Schaefer.

I think we're done here.

All the points that we were going to talk about for the next half hour, Joe just made them off.

She's always

fantastic.

I will echo those comments that I don't think there's been anyone in Wisconsin media who has had more to say about two-year universities and these cuts to two-year universities than you right here, Todd Alba.

So kudos to you for continuing to push on this issue.

It's such an important one.

And there's a lot we can talk about with it.

But I think with your reporting this week, delaying a session on Tuesday, canceling a session today, clearly

there is some issues going on in the background here and you've been all over it.

So kudos to you, my friend.

Well, thank you to kind and appreciate that from Joe.

Really, the credit goes to my late grandmother, Marge Wallace, who was the first woman to serve as a dean of the UW campus at UW Richland.

So I literally grew up with this education, my whole family are educators.

And a shout out to my little sister, Heather, who is an educator herself.

And now that school is out, she's kind of a quasi-show producer and helped me put some of that

porting together, actually.

So it's something that we're passionate about in our family.

And it's something as I travel around the state, it's a connection that I find no matter where I go.

Because I understand the partisanship of it sometimes.

And to the earlier caller who had the perception that there are people that are public schools who are anti-trade, I just think that's a fortunate miss.

conception that's being perpetuated, that's being put out there by conservative media.

I said, my brother-in-law teaches the trades in Eau Claire school district, those voters just voted themselves a tax increase, approved a referendum to redo the entire part of the school that teaches the trades.

So voters in the state are investing Dan in the trades as a part of our public instruction.

And just with the two year campuses too, it's just that's another pathway to a career.

That's another pathway to, you know, joining a four year school or finding a job in some sort of trade or something specific like that.

And I think, you know, it's.

And again, the caller made the point too, we have a $4 billion surplus.

We're not proposing an $87 million cut at a time when we have some sort of budget crunch going on in the state.

We have a massive surplus.

And I think we can get into it here, but there have been, since this joint finance committee,

hearing session was canceled today by the Republicans in charge.

There's been some competing statements put out from Republican leaders.

And I think there's a key question kind of emerging here.

Can the Senate get to 17 votes

to

pass a Republican budget with Republican votes?

That seems to be what both Robin Voss and statements from Governor Eber's office

are alluding to.

And so there's a lot going on right now in real time at the Capitol in Madison.

Dan Schaefer, we've got a joint finance committee that can't get their act together, keeps canceling sessions.

We've got chaos on the floor of the legislature.

Now we got competing statements.

You know how I feel?

I feel very discombobulated.

We might get ready for the show here.

Tell us the latest.

I might have missed something there.

What does the governor and Voss say now since they canceled this JFC session today?

Well, so assembly speaker Robin Voss and

Mark Bourne, the co-chair, a Republican co-chair of the finance committee from the legislature, released a statement talking about the meetings that they've been having and certain priorities that they have.

They said that assembly Republicans will not pass a budget that does not have a guarantee from governing evers of tax relief in it.

And then it also says, we hope Senate Republicans will come back to the table to finish fighting for these reforms and complete the budget on time.

Voss and Mark Bourne on the assembly side seem to have certain priorities that they are looking to pass.

On the Senate side, I think it's interesting that it seems to be a different conversation because you've had a couple Republican senators say that they don't want to pass the budget that Republicans are advancing.

So Chris Kappenga and Steve Nass, probably among the more...

hardline right-wingers in the caucus there.

You lose those two votes, you don't get to the 17 you would need to pass this budget with only Republican votes.

So will they get a vote from a member of the Democratic caucus on the Senate side?

Can they count to 17 to figure out how many Republicans that they might need to get here?

I think that is the ball seems to be in Senate Republicans court in many ways to see what is going on with the budget and here we are June 19th or what 11 days away from the deadline to pass a budget.

It's kind of a discombobulating moment right now for

for the state budget process.

We're talking to Dan Schaeffer, founder of the Recombobulation Area.

You can find all of his work and so much more at www.and you got to use the three W's.

www.therecombobulationarea.news.

A great award-winning site.

Please subscribe.

Do great work over there.

He's also the political editor for Civic Media here.

Dan.

I think you brought up something really important, and I think maybe this is other places are missing this but you're not that and I don't know is it capping or a coping I don't think I was a coping of whatever but but senator copinga and Nos they've been leaking this out copinga especially say well There's three ways we can handle it and the last one is basically don't pass a budget.

I think that Senate Republicans

Uh, know that this is a crap sandwich and they don't want to take a bite.

And so they were setting this up to, uh, to put it on evers to say, well, you know, he's not going to, he's going to line either veto this thing.

So we're just not going to pass a budget.

I think the Democrats, when they got wind of this 87 million and cuts at UW, I think they called the bluff because we, in our reporting, we heard from democratic staffers of state senators saying if that 87 million.

dollar cut is in this budget we'll call on Governor Evers to veto the entire thing because that would in effect be an 87 million dollar increase over what Republicans are because tell folks in Wisconsin Dan it's a little bit different than than out east in in DC if there is no budget.

Right, it would just go back to go back to what the base budget was from the last two-year cycle And so what you know, we're what you have emphasized here is that Republicans are not just cutting 87 million from Governor Evers proposal to increase funding They're cutting 87 million dollars from the system entirely.

So I think that puts governor Evers in this situation where

You know, he has signed and line item vetoed every Republican budget that has been passed during his time as governor.

I think this is introducing a different dynamic here because they are trying to cut the system at a time when we have a surplus and at a time where if you were to veto the budget, the.

the funding would just stay where it was for the last budget.

So, lots of interesting dynamics unfolding right now, for sure.

A really good question here on the text line, the Civic Media app, feel free to text at us.

From WMDX, Lisser and Deerfield, Larry from Deerfield says, question, would the $87 million cut mean Madison College, a two-year school, would also close?

That's what Tom seems to be saying.

Larry.

Thanks for asking.

That's really, really important.

No, is the short answer, because Madison College, or MATC, as it was a long time known, is part of the technical college system in Wisconsin, which is a different bucket than UW.

Right Dan, that's the story answer.

Yep, you got it.

So no, these cuts would affect, well I say two year schools, they used to be called the center school system.

There were 13 of those around the state and then they became the colleges.

So these are the ones that are left off the top of my head are Rice Lake for sure, Marathon County for sure, Rock UW Rock County for sure.

There are six of them left and the advantage to that for people that don't know,

is that you could go to one of those two-year schools in UW System and get a two-year degree, an associate's degree, and that is recognized as meeting all of the general ed requirements for you then to transfer to a four-year school in the system and immediately start to work on your major.

So you can stay at home.

It saves on a rent, on food, transportation.

and you get a quality education closer to home.

And this is not a democratic idea, Dan Schaefer, a large D. It is a Wisconsin idea.

Absolutely.

And I think, you know, it's really important to fight for these campuses and fight for, you know, this type of pathways to different types of careers.

We'll come back, talk more

politics and summer festival.

Dan Schaefer, don't go to where on the Civic Media Network.

and now they know my name in Paris but I'll be buried in Detroit next to my father and my father's father too I used to live in New York City but baby that ain't no substitute

Welcome back to the title show of the Civic Media already at work eight before the hour of three o'clock.

Hometown is not Detroit, but Milwaukee.

Dan Schaefer joins us now for the Reconpopulation Area and our political editor.

But that is from one of my favorite, my favorite all time album.

It's called At Night Alone by Mike Posner.

That is going to spend a lot of time and bring it up because he's at Summerfest tomorrow night, Dan Schaefer, 10 p.m.

Are you going to Summerfest?

I don't think I'm going, I might be going during the day with the kids this weekend or something like that.

There are not a lot of the headliners this weekend, but the following weekend is stacked for artists that I want to see.

So I'm looking forward to definitely spending, and it's just, you know, going to summer fest, getting a Saz's sampler platter, sitting out on the goth rocks, looking out on Lake Michigan, always such a wonderful time.

Nobody more Milwaukee.

M.K.E.

that our own Dan Schaefer.

I love every part of it.

I'm a big, I really messed up because I thought wouldn't it be cool if I like put a request in to interview Mike Posner at Summerfest and now it's tomorrow.

I'm always a day late in a dollar short, but you know who's not Dan Schaefer what he has great reporting He was at the Republic of Republican Democratic State Convention in Wisconsin Dell last weekend Dan we talked last time you're here.

It stirred the pot a little I love every part of it wrote a spicy article op-ed article saying you know Democrats should take a look at Tony Evers Maybe it's time for him to pass the torch.

I'm glad to see that you've returned from the from the

the Democratic Convention unscathed physically.

Just had to pull a couple of arrows out of my back on the way out the door there.

Now it was a good weekend and I think it was certainly a topic, a conversation, at least among people who were coming up and saying hi to me at the Civic Media booth or around the convention as well.

But it was a weekend that did involve...

some passing of the torch with Ben Wickler, you know, his final convention as Wisdom's chair and the election of Devin Ramecker as the next chair of the party.

So, hey, you know, you can't you can successfully pass the torch to new leadership after all without some controversy.

Interesting how that works

out.

I think I heard you on the J Matt Nair show, the great show nine to 11 every day.

I think you're on her show talking about that that people came up.

off the record.

It had some nice things.

A lot of people had some nice things to say off the record.

And it was people saying, hey, I enjoyed your column or interesting piece this week or whatever it might be.

But I think there were more pressing matters at hand with electing new leadership for the party and listening to what all the people had to say and listening to keynote speaker Raphael Warnock, who

I

had the opportunity to interview.

at the convention too, so you can check that out at the Recombobulation area as well.

And then I wrote this longer piece with 10 takeaways from the convention, which I did last year, and I'm doing this year as well.

So lots of detail if you really want to get into the nitty gritty from the convention.

You can find it all at

www.vrecombobulationarea.news.

Dan, little breaking news.

I think not so much breaking, but it came out today that Bernie Sanders, Senator Bernie Sanders in Vermont has now endorsed Democratic candidate for US Congress in the third district of the Western part of Wisconsin, Rebecca Cook.

What do you make of that?

Yeah, I think it is it is fascinating to see the different types of support that she's been getting in launching this campaign She now has been endorsed by the blue dog pack She spoke at this kind of centrist festival thing that was happening in New York called welcome fest And is now endorsed by Bernie Sanders and so if Democrats are gonna be you know the big tent party

I think this is a pretty interesting, she's such a fascinating candidate.

I'm really compelled by the coalition that she's building in this race.

And I think you look ahead to 2026 and what the key races are going to be in the house.

I think everybody should have her campaign and the race in the third congressional district.

in Wisconsin circled because Rebecca Cook against Derek Van Dorden, she overperformed the top of the ticket last time.

I think she's going to give him a real run for her money.

And I think as the Democratic Party looks for different ways forward to broaden that tent, this is a pretty interesting example of a candidate who seems to really be looking to do that.

I have not

said this.

On this program, I was waiting for you, Dan Shafer, to be here to help me recompobulate.

I cannot give you detail.

I'm not being goofy.

This is real.

I can't give you details now, but I will tell you now on this show, I have trusted word that there is a major candidate that is considering to get into the race that will shake up the third like people are not going to expect.

Oh, that's very interesting.

That's real.

I'm subscribing to your newsletter.

But no, there's there's somebody with major name ID who is considering getting into the race and will be making the announcement probably within the next two to three weeks.

Very interesting.

Well, no, no, Tony, Tony Zimmerman on YouTube.

It is not packed quite low.

Sadly, I wish it were.

I wish

it were.

All right, about a minute left here, Dan Schaefer, a minute and a half.

Pat says, no.

Anything we haven't talked about, you want to make sure that we get in a recompobulation.

No, we covered a lot today, and I appreciate you having me on.

And I'm looking forward to summer fest.

I'll give one quick summer

fest

take.

I don't like that it's three weekends now.

I liked it when it was just the 10 straight days of the festival.

It's splitting it up into three different weekends, causes problems in Milwaukee, because then everything has to reorganize its schedule so that they're not conflicting with SummerFest.

Go back to the 10 days.

That's my SummerFest.

Dan can only take so much of us from Western Wisconsin infiltrating Milwaukee for so long.

That's enough.

Get out of here.

You can stay the whole 10 days.

I

just

don't like doing it every weekend.

That's

my take.

I

understand.

The

kids are out

of school.

Get to hang out with them a little bit more.

Yeah, absolutely.

You're a great dad.

You know, I mean, you took your kids some people say take your kids to work day.

You took them to work to the Democratic Convention.

That's right.

Right.

That's right.

They probably would have asked better questions than

I would have.

I think I can't copy the laptop though.

That was a little much.

Can't eat.

All

right.

Thank you very much, Dan Schaefer.

Thanks for helping us recombobulate.

Stay tuned.

What's worse is coming up next.

Don't go anywhere.

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 Servedia app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

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

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock on Thursday, June 19th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Welcome in to hour number two of the program, six minutes past the hour of three o'clock here at the World Headquarters in downtown Madison, looking out on State Street right now.

Big white...

Puffy clouds, puff daddy clouds.

No, I don't know.

Uh, they're looking at the Sam Davidson street cam for those watching on the, uh, on the, uh, the stream bus going down the state street.

Well, there's a skateboarder.

They like to go down, like to go down some bikers.

And, uh, all right.

So the question there was, was the biker run of the red light or the car?

Cause one of them clearly was running the red light.

Think it was the biker because the cars we can see their light and it is green.

I'm convinced we're going to I hope we don't but I'm convinced at some point We're going to see a tragedy outside of our window and then our tape is going to be confiscated for the trial

Yeah,

that's a dark thought to start the second hour Welcome everybody many thanks to Dan Schaefer our political editor at civic media

founder of the recombination area.

Always a great time when Dan Schaefer stops by, because here's a guy who knows his stuff backwards and forwards, who works his rear end off, bringing people the facts in a great way.

And it's always insightful.

And he's just a lot of fun.

He's a real guy.

You understand?

Absolutely.

So I

think I agree with him about Summerfest.

He thinks that instead of being three weekends, it should go back to being 10 days in a row.

Yeah, I like that too.

I think that's

good.

You can find all of Dan's work at WWW.

And Zombers reminds me that W's are important.

WWW.

The RecombobulationArea.News.

The RecombobulationArea.News with the three W's in front of it.

All right, coming up this hour.

A little talk.

Got my LL Bean pride shirt on.

It is Pride Month, as it turns out, and so happens to have a gay person.

It's just funny how that works.

So we're going to talk a little bit later this hour about the Trump administration.

I mean, maybe we'll put a little Taylor Swift when we talk about this.

Just be in mean.

Just be in mean.

You know, Tammy Baldwin, our US Senator here at Wisconsin, Democratic US Senator herself.

Happens to be gay, but it has nothing to do with what she did really I guess maybe a little bit But she helped author this great legislation that set up the 988 mental health crisis line that serves everybody everybody as they say if you're if you're Having major anxiety or depression and thinking about harming yourself

You could call now, thanks to this legislation, you could just pick up your phone and dial 988 or text 988 and 247-365 and there's somebody on the other end that can help you through this and get some help.

Well, there was, it's one of these deals where you don't push one, you know, for whatever.

If you push three, it connected you to someone who...

has had is lgbtq and has gone through that experience always better to talk to somebody that's gone through an experience well now Trump has said he's getting rid of option three they'll still have the 988 line but get rid of option three now is this real or is this another taco you know trump always chickens out i think he's just kind of stirring the pot a little bit to get all people like me to start talking about you know of this ad nauseam and then

Then he got people like Derek Van Orton and Trump, and they said, oh, look at all these people, all they do is talk about gay and trans issues.

Well, maybe we wouldn't be talking about them if the MAGA people wouldn't just, not the voters, but the leadership wouldn't do such boneheaded things like this.

As we've had callers point out, I believe it was LA Tom yesterday, the day before, who called in and said that they're just obsessed with bathrooms and sexuality.

Are they sure make it seem that way?

Yeah.

So I'll give you my take on that and it will take some calls as well a little bit later and to go along with that.

And if you don't, if you think, well, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm straight as an arrow, which is fine.

Do your own thing.

But even, even if you're straight, it turns out that Trump is coming after you too, because he's cutting at the FDA a top gene therapy regulator who are looking at things like, you know, Alzheimer's and dementia.

They're close to some of the breakthroughs in some of these things.

And he says, we're going after everybody.

We're going after a health of everybody, not just gay people, but straight people as well.

And they're shutting down some of the clinics on HIV research, not just abroad, but also here at home.

That makes sense, right?

Yeah.

No, no, no, of course, obviously, uh, sarcastic there, but, uh, Lincoln Square, our friends over at Lincoln Square, Joe Trippie, longtime Democratic strategist, wrote a great piece called, Are We American Spectators, or American Patriots?

We'll take a look at that.

And my least favorite Martin, Ken Martin, at the Democratic National Committee, in an article in Politico, this is the headline, weak, whiny, and invisible.

Critics of DNC Chair Ken Martin savage his tenure.

Weak, whiny, and invisible.

And that's what his friends are saying about him.

Yikes.

So we'll take a look at that.

It's 12 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for What's Worst.

Let's go.

Once again, for what's worse, nothing to give away, no prize, money involved, but there is a opportunity for you to have your voice heard across the state of Wisconsin.

Not just me, your friendly radio host, but you, our friendly radio listener, can have your voice heard all across Wisconsin.

Won't cost you a dime.

You just dial in 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842, Zomers will say hello, he'll put you on hold, and we'll bring you on.

All right, the category today, and Zomers informs me we've had a version of this before.

It has been snakes versus what?

Before we had snakes

versus skunks.

Snakes versus skunks.

And apparently the snake won that round, and so he moves on, he or she moves on to the second round.

So today, what's worse?

Snakes or spiders?

Snakes or spiders?

And we're not talking about the people up the street at the Capitol.

We're talking about creatures that may live under your front porch What's worse snakes or spiders 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 You could also text us on the old civic media app.

Don't have it.

Well You ever I think I brought this up before have you ever read the great book called the good earth by pearl s buck?

I have not.

Oh, oh.

It honestly, I'm not joking around.

It's one of my favorite all time books, the good earth.

And there's a there's a character in the book called Wang Lung.

And he says, and he likes to say, well, and so well.

And so spy snakes are spiders.

That is the that.

But if you don't have the if you don't have the civic media app, well, and you need to download it.

Not just because we want you to participate in our little dog and pony show here, snakes versus spiders, but help yourself out, how you say?

Because tomorrow, tomorrow, call up your friends, your neighbors, get them to listen, because tomorrow it is the return of Free Ticket Friday.

Every Friday for the rest of the season, we're gonna give you a chance to win a pair of deuce, that's two.

tickets to the Milwaukee Brewers game down at Ampham Field in Milwaukee in our beautiful club level seats.

Luke Mathers keeps these tickets in his well silicone oil mink leather satchel and he pulls them out and he distributes them when we do these contests.

So call in tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're going to do a free ticket Friday giveaway.

It'll look forward in nervous anticipation to that.

So download the Civic Media app, go to your app store, your Apple Android device, type in Civic CIVIC Media, it'll pop up, and then you just take less than a minute, it's free, it's what Gale King at CBS calls a deal, the Civic Media app.

What's worse, snakes or spiders?

855-752-4842, to the phone lines we go, mark in the sack, mark, what's worse, snakes or spiders?

Well, first of all, I'm surprised you're just not playing the old Jim Stafford song.

I don't like spiders or snakes.

Well said.

From back in the day.

And neither one of them, I'm not particularly fond of spiders.

And snakes don't particularly worry me unless you have the venomous variety.

I used to be fascinated by them growing up up north.

You don't have to worry about any kind of snake at all.

I mean, the red racers and the garter snakes.

The occasional hognose snakes.

So I'd vote for spiders.

You just start kind of a creep, maybe got freaked out by the old giant tarantula movie back when I was

a kid.

Yeah, that's right.

Those old tarantula movies.

All right, very good, Mark.

Appreciate it.

Thank you so very much.

Snakes or spiders?

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What's worse, snakes or spiders?

You can also text us on the old Civic Media app like Christie in beautiful Eau Claire, listening on WCFW.

The tap says spiders.

100% are worse, creepy, scary.

And there's so many more spiders than there are snakes.

Well, that's a great point right there.

Well, I think we see more spiders than snakes.

A cam listening in Appleton says spiders easily are worse.

Pardon me.

They move in ways that our brains process as unnatural.

And that's why it spooks us.

Oh, because they kind of go up, down, sideways, I guess.

I don't know.

Let's see here.

What else do we have?

Both.

Steven Lodahy on WMDX says both are worse.

All right.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to Jean in beautiful Eau Claire on WCFW.

Jean, snakes or spiders?

What's worse?

Well, if you live in a woods.

and you may have some cracks in your house, you know, if you have an older home, definitely snakes, especially if they come through a crack in the foundation and they're starting to crawl into the snake, snake, snake, snake, snake.

You sound like someone who's had experience, Gene.

Yes, I did.

The snake got in the house?

Yeah, it was starting to creep its way in.

And then when we first bought the house, there were some snakes in the house I learned later.

My word that that's freaky.

Yeah, but now your house is snake proof.

Is that it?

Yep.

Yep, definitely, but they're hard to keep out cuz you know, they got little things like spiders you can spray I think but with snakes you have to maybe get some paper that they

stick

to or

Anyway,

thanks for watching.

Thanks, Gene.

Appreciate it.

Listen, bye-bye.

What's worse, snakes or spiders?

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

Kurt in Madison on WMDXS years ago.

I had a job selling sites.

On cell phone

sites.

Cell phone sites.

Thank you, in Florida.

Between the building and the antenna tower, there were always these huge banana spiders.

The webs could be as large as five feet in diameter.

I am happy with snakes.

They just

sent a picture of those

enormous spiders.

It is, like, hand-sized.

It's the size of a palm.

Yeah, if I had one of those on me, I would freak the freaking vanilla out.

Absolutely.

A day in a White House on AUK says spiders are worse.

Had never had a snake drop on my face in the living room.

That's a good thing.

Doesn't seem like that would be a very fun experience.

Yeah, that's never, well, yeah, probably not a fun experience.

Okay, we'll come on back.

Zombers and I will say it once more, and then we'll get into some serious news of the day.

You're listening to an afternoon edition of the Todd Hallball Show on Juneteenth across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Snakes.

Why do they have to be snakes?

She said I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me.

I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me.

I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me.

I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me.

I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me.

I don't like spiders

and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me.

Thanks, Mark, from Prairie to Sack for recommending Spiders and Snakes by Jim Stafford.

Very, very good.

Great, funny Jim Stafford.

What we're right in the middle of what's worse, or wrapping it up, actually, what's worse, snakes or spiders?

Snakes or spiders?

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

Or you can text us on the Civic Media app, make sure you download the old app, because you can listen to us anywhere that you get cell service or Wi-Fi.

That's how they say it in Spanish, not Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi.

But the good thing is tomorrow we're giving away brewer's tickets all throughout the day on different programs.

And so tuning in tomorrow, we're gonna give away some Milwaukee Brewer tickets.

All right, we have Cam and Appleton saying a King Cobra chasing you or a Japanese spider crab.

galloping towards you in a hallway at 3 AM.

My first question is, is Cam on meds?

And the second question is, is it a spider crab or is it a spider crab, galloping like a spider walk?

No, you pulled it up somers.

This is a spider that's like three feet across.

Yeah, it's a crab that looks like a spider.

Oh, a spider.

Because it's lights

are so long.

And yeah, they're very large.

I don't want that.

I don't want either one of those chasing me at 3 AM.

Not good at all.

All right, very good Kim So as I was what's worse snakes

or spiders this one's difficult for me because I don't really have a problem with either Do you really and like spiders eat a lot of bugs that are far nastier for example mosquitoes and stuff Yeah, but I'm gonna go ahead and say spiders are worse because snakes make better pets and Holding snakes is cool.

I think

And also because if there are venomous animals of either kind, it is far easier to avoid a venomous snake.

Just don't go in the desert or whatever.

But venomous spiders could be more common.

And just find this fascinating.

Because there are so many things that you either can't eat or don't like.

But spiders and snakes, you're fine.

A snake, no problem.

Yeah, my grandma made me kill a snake that was in her garden once and I was very upset about that.

I'm sorry to hear that very traumatic for summers I think that's I think that's great.

I'm gonna disagree.

I think I Don't know why I think even though we did a show next to a nest of snakes here three weeks ago I still think that snakes are worse.

I don't know why spiders It seems like I could take a broom and and get rid of them or whatever But I don't know I don't know snakes kind of creep me out more

AJ and Madison on WMDX says, spiders, big time are worse.

For some reason, they get to me.

All right, well, that's good.

All right, well, thanks everybody.

We appreciate you playing along.

We'll have another edition of What's Worse Manana.

Speaking of tomorrow's show, our old friend Brady Ewing, three-time Big Ten football champion.

And spent three years in the NFL is going to be here tomorrow.

I'm going to talk a little bit about, yes, four boys.

He has a lovely wife, Rachel.

I'm going to talk about what you do with the kids in the summer.

Brady also has a summer camp coming up a little bit later.

Give you a little tease on that.

And also talking about the name, image and likeness in terms of, is it making players soft?

In other words, they're just Molly coddled too much, in my opinion.

We'll see what Brady thinks tomorrow.

So join us for that.

Should be good show.

I believe our old friend, Peter Rapine.

is on tomorrow as well with another edition of the Wild the Wacky the Week in Review.

All right, I want to take a couple of minutes on this.

Maybe we'll pick it up after the break here.

We'll see.

Politico has lots and lots of places have stories on this, but here's Politico's edition.

The Trump administration is cutting a program for LGBTQ plus youth from the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline.

It will end service known as the press three option on July the 17th.

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced this week.

The Trevor Project, a leading LGBTQ plus advocacy group that works with the government to help administer the press three option for the 988 suicide crisis lifeline, warned the decision could have grave consequences.

Quote, this is devastating to say the least, unquote.

Trevor Project's CEO James Black said in a statement yesterday, quote, suicide prevention is about people, not politics.

The administration's decision to remove a bipartisan evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible.

Unquote.

In 2024, a survey from the Trevor Project found that nearly 40, 40%,

of LGBTQ plus youth peoples had quote seriously considered unquote suicide in the past year and half of the surveys respondents reported wanting mental health care in the previous year had not been able to access it.

The LGBTQ plus hotline has had received roughly get this 1.3 million calls since his pilot project in 20

22 at least one Republican Representative Mike Lawler of New York has come out against this decision So good for him at least one.

There's one sane Republican in the group

Look, uh, I've been very open about it in the show.

I happen, you know, I'm like, uh, Neil, Neil Patrick Harris is kind of my role model for, for what a gay dude should be like.

I guess he likes to say, look, being gay is a part of who I am.

It's not who I am.

I'm not ashamed being gay.

I was very lucky as I've shared this on this program before.

I was very fortunate.

I get that.

I didn't come on till I was 38.

And by that time when I came out.

I'm fortunate that I didn't lose one real friend or family member that ostracized me.

I understand that I'm in the minority.

And the fact is that there are all kinds of people in this country, particularly young people who don't have the support network that I had and who do consider and unfortunately do die by suicide.

And the idea that this

One little thing that helps so many could be taken away for trite reasons is beyond ridiculous.

Well, LA is on the phone.

We'll go to LA, Tom next.

Don't go anywhere.

News, sports or weather update is next.

It's the time of all show for Thursday on the Civic Media Ready Network.

you gotta be so

me.

Welcome back to the Tell All Well Show on the Civic Media Radio Network 35 now past the hour three o'clock on Thursday June 19th.

Well done, Zombers.

A little Taylor Swift.

We're Swifties around here.

Great song.

Apropos for the story we started talking about just before the break.

Want to finish it up here or at least kind of continue the discussion.

Maybe that's a better way to put it.

Article of political, you can find it all over.

The Trump administration announced yesterday that they are ending part.

I want to emphasize this.

All right This is ending a part.

I think it's an important part but part of the 988 system US senator Tammy Baldwin Democrat of Madison is one of the main authors of this bill It has been remarkable.

It set it up so that now anybody want to emphasize this anybody who is feeling

A mental health crisis, having thoughts of harming yourself, could call this text or call 988 at any time, day or night, 24-7, 365, and be in contact with someone to help you talk and work through this through a mental health crisis.

It's been tremendously successful, saved a number of lives.

There's one portion of this, when you call this number,

They'll give you an option to press three if you want to be connected to someone in the LGBTQ plus community and Now the Trump administration for reasons unknown other than just to be mean as Said we're getting rid of that Trevor project a great organization Saying that the LGBTQ

LGBTQ plus hotline specifically that number three option has received roughly 1.3 million calls since his pilot program in 2022.

Article says at least one Republican representative, Michael Lawler of New York has come out against the decision saying on X quote, this is wrong on quote.

I think it goes on say according to studies, this is from Lawler.

Representative Lawler, Congressman Lawler, a Republican.

According to studies, LGBTQ plus youth, people have an elevated risk of suicide and are more likely than their peers to attempt it.

We should ensure that they have resources necessary to get help.

The 988 hotline has been a lifesaver.

This decision should be reversed, unquote.

And props and kudos to at least one person, the Republican caucus, having the guts, the huspa.

to stand up and say no.

I said earlier, I actually think that this is just another one of these taco things.

Now it stands for Trump always chickens out.

I think they just put this out here to stir people up to some degree.

And again, get our attention away from the cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and the budget.

But I'm not saying that this isn't important.

It clearly is.

As someone who's part of the quote unquote community.

As I said, I didn't come out until I was 38.

I was very fortunate and I think in the minority that I had a fairly good experience when I came out.

There's a lot of people, the majority I would say, don't.

And this one little thing, I mean, I would say it's pizza money in the US budget, but it's not even that.

It's like buying a stick of gum money to the US budget.

The amount of money that they put into this hotline specifically

for LGBTQ plus kids.

And they're, and they're getting rid of it, or so they say, for seemingly no other reason to be mean.

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

Out to Los Angeles, we go.

LA Tom, always a pleasure.

What do you got, LA?

Yeah, Todd.

I never had any negative experiences when I came out either from my peers or people like that.

But really, truly, it's a self-hatred that you go through just from growing up.

I have to stay in a state like Wisconsin.

I was playing college football at Greaking Green Bay and St.

Albert.

And I ended up calling one of those help lines.

And I was at the end of my rope.

And I had talked to them for eight hours when I'm on the phone and talked me off the ledge where I wasn't going to kill myself.

just because of the fact that I didn't feel like I didn't fit in anywhere, I felt as if I wasn't really homophobic, I was more famophobic, which goes along with the stereotypes of being gay, and I really didn't know where I fit in, because I was just a regular, ordinary guy from Wisconsin, and I wasn't, I didn't dictate some of the stereotypes that are out there.

So, you know, that's the power

that these helplines do have.

And actually, it actually drove me to own my own directory, which is glpages.com now, gmlesbypages.com that I've owned for 20 years, to actually help people the way that I was helped, to help through that.

And yeah, so it's one of those things where it may have nothing to do with how it is that people respond to you, but it just may be

how

it is

that you feel about yourself.

When it truly is a very small portion and you learn that as you become older, you know, there's really no difference than a person being left-handed or right-handed in terms of just being an orientation that's there.

And years ago, they used to, you know, force kids to use their right hand in the dust.

They would not allow kids to be left-handed.

As time went on, they became left-handed anyway.

So, you know, it's one of those things where we don't need more negativity or our peers or people that we look up to, um, you know, to put, make us feel worse about ourselves than we already do.

We don't have the abilities to fight back on that when we're younger.

And also, I don't know who J.D.

Vance is going to be able to call now when he has to call Peter Thiel.

I think

the vice president spends a lot of time at Ashley furniture, if you know what I mean.

So I mean, there's that.

Ellie, number one, I thank you for being.

open and transparent and sharing your story.

I'm very sorry you went through that, but very thankful that that helpline was there.

And thank you for sharing that first hand account story, because I think that at the end of the day, LA, I think that's more of what we need.

You could agree or disagree with me, but I think we just, regardless of our orientation or anything else, just ask each other thoughtfully every now and again, not all the time, but just how are you?

And people say, well, I'm fine.

No, no, no.

How are you right now?

I know there's a lot of crap going on, but how are you?

I think the more we care about each other and just show kindness, that goes so far into breaking down barriers in my opinion.

I think another thing that people don't realize is that for the gay person that holds the secret like you did for 38 years, you know, it's not about, it's really about being honest with the people that you love.

Yes.

Because once you actually

come out to them then you know what you really don't even it's not as much of a burden

right i

don't like the fact that i've went my whole life where i was blind to people when i was very very open about everything in my life but this one little tiny thing again like i said it kind of brought about negative stereotypes of being a

plant

buoyant

As

Jerry Seinfeld said, not that there's anything wrong with that.

I just love this discussion, but I'm just curious what your journey was like.

For me, it wasn't so much about like, I was embarrassed to be gay.

I think for me it was, I didn't want anything to change.

I didn't want people to treat me any different.

I didn't want, you know, I wanted people to be goofy.

I mean, I'm the kind of guy that makes jokes about everything.

So, you know, I wanted to be able to make jokes about it, whatever.

I just didn't want anything to change in my situation.

That's what scared me the most, that when I would come out, the people would somehow want to like walk on eggs, gels around me or whatever.

And that's what held me back for a number of years.

How about you?

No, for me it was more my dad was a head football coach for years My brother was a big hunter and fisherman and I just thought I was you know I'm gonna use the word for my own personal self I just thought I was a big ass

because

of the fact that you know, I didn't like hunting and fishing but then I sell them more tonight you know was As people know I'm Wisconsin.

It's all state.

I'm a shrine game.

I

you know expelled in college football um i did all of that so i hit the pinnacles of the different things i just did not want to be looked at as when i walked into a room that everyone said oh here's the gay guy

right

you know

i

i didn't want and i and i heard you know being someone that is not as stereotypically driven i heard a lot of my you know friends talk about other gay people around me

And it was like, wow, I don't want to come out if they're going to be saying that about them.

I mean, you know, there's no saying that that says that for people that are really against gay people, just remember, you're potentially putting a nail in your own child's coffin by speaking the way that you speak or doing the things that you do on an everyday basis.

And again, I would speak to those people, unfortunately, that are closeted in the Republican Party.

I'm going to use that because

Honestly, they must have heard something or along the lines that there was something wrong with people that were like that.

And because of that, they're now legislating against the very people that they actually have this orientation and comment and comment with.

So I just want people to just realize that you love everybody.

We're all human beings.

We all believe that they wrestle on.

There's no reason to be, you know, three people different.

And I just think that that's part of what

You know, all of this is about the schools and stuff, which is really a Christian way of looking at things,

which

is be good to everyone.

What

the

hell?

Just be nice to everybody.

Thanks, LA.

I always appreciate your call, but always appreciate your willingness to be transparent and have these discussions on this topic with you.

I really appreciate that.

I'm a big believer.

I mean, I've had people tell me that I've listened to this program over the last look, it's going to be three years this fall.

I can't believe it, but very thankful for that opportunity.

And people have told me directly.

People have told members of my family that they listened to my story, your story, these honest discussions on this program about.

sexuality and being gay and it's helped them or help their kid or our different perspective and that to me is why we're here every day is just to have really good honest discussions and to bring an understanding to one another because like LA said at the end of the day we all bleed the same red blood we all cry the same tears and I think that too often it's exactly like like LA said

that people have stereotypes, stigmas in their head of what a gay person or a trans person or whatever it might be.

And it turns out that their CEOs and their football players and their basketball players and their bakers and their cooks and their radio hosts, it's like anything else in life.

And a lot of times, even some of the most, I'll use the word misguided people.

that brings stigma and stereotype, will they find out that a friend or a family member happens to be LGBTQ plus?

Like, oh my gosh, I hope I didn't say anything that offended you.

Well, I didn't mean you.

And I think that too often people rush to judge those folks.

It's just that they have an understanding and a personal relationship with you.

And the key is helping folks understand that

Everybody out there who happens to be gay has those same relationships.

Just look at each other, love each other, and don't be so mean.

Back after this.

Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media radio network and it's eight minutes now before the hour of four o'clock at the top.

Oh, the hour CBS or ABC News, depending upon which part great stations you're listening to or or as it turns out, James Kelly.

I, I think that WCFW, the tap is a CBS affiliate, but right now it's just James Kelly, which there's nothing wrong with James Kelly.

We love James Kelly.

So you get ABC, CBS, or if you're in the Eau Claire market, James Kelly at the top of the hour.

And then a weather update with the lovely and talented, uh, Brittany Merleau and then our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, who's also lovely and talented, uh, with a sports update, Brewers try to get a win against the Cubbies.

They got rained out last night.

And so now my friends, Curt and Florsie, are down there at this game.

I have not received an update yet from Curt and Florsie, but we'll see.

They invited me.

By the way, here's my dedication to you and the listening audience.

I could have had.

I could have been gone today.

They offer me rooftop tickets.

So those

were

those were those roof things at Wrigley Field.

They offer me rooftop tickets to go with them today.

But I said, no.

No, I'm, I, I have to be here to, to engage my listening audience.

And also it's the sweep period.

So I can't go, but here now I'm looking at my, I'm looking at my, what's app from wrinkly field and they are gorgeous seats.

There's curtain floor seat, having a hot dog with only mustard.

So they're, well they're, they're following the Chicago rules down there.

Or at

least one of the Chicago rules that you don't put cash in.

And up here.

So I hope the Brewers get a win down there against the Cubbies.

Listen on all the Brewers radio network stations on Civic Media.

So after we have a sports report from Clemens, that it's the Maggie Dawn show across Wisconsin from four until six.

And then Pete Schwabba brings him the six pack.

and gets loaded on the air.

It's nightlight with Pete Schwabba every evening.

It's like listening to Schwabba is like having a six pack every night.