Transcript
BREAKING: Iran Launches Missiles At US Air Base (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Mon Jun 23, 2025
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Hey everybody, I'm Todd Albaul here at the world headquarters of Cinec Media in downtown Madison, Wisconsin along with our producer and engineer Aaron Zommers and Parker Olson.
Glad to have you along here on a very busy Monday, June 23rd, 2025.
I have breaking news to start the show.
Later on, we'll have a state senator, Keldor Royce, talking about the Joint Finance Committee and breaking news from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in regards to cuts there and also in hour number two, Matt DeFour, the State Bureau Chief of Wisconsin Watch, will be in talking about a
and news making.
But first we begin with the breaking news of the day here in downtown Madison but around the world according to CBS News and others.
A couple of hours ago Iran said today that has launched attacks on the U.S.
Al-Udeid air base in Qatar two days after the U.S.
struck three nuclear sites in Iran.
Explosions were heard in Qatar as witnesses said they saw what appeared to be missiles over the country according to multiple news agencies.
Iran's Islam
Revolutionary Guard Corps had it targeted the U.S.
air base at LUD in Qatar with a quote devastating and powerful missile unquote.
Iranian state media earlier today announced an Operation Launching Missiles attacks against U.S.
bases named quote, Annunciation of Victory.
The US defense official confirmed that the base was attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran today.
At this time, US officials say there are no reports of US casualties.
They said officials are monitoring the situation closely and will provide more information as it becomes available.
Joining us to discuss these latest
development today and also over the weekend.
We appreciate him being with us.
He was with us on this breaking news over the weekend on Saturday.
We so appreciate it.
Stephen Zunez, professor of politics and director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco joins us now live via StreamYard.
Professor, once again, thank you so much for taking your time.
Good to be with you
again.
It's a busy day to say the least.
So you joined us over the weekend at these initial US strikes against Iran.
What do you make today?
Because I think last time we talked and many people, as you watch the morning news shows yesterday and other things, the apprehension seemed to stem around what was, and I think most people agree, there was going to be some sort of Iranian response here.
What do you make of this response in Qatar today?
We are reporting is that the Iranian
and government gave the Qatari government a heads up to let them know, hey, we're just targeting U.S.
bases.
What do you make of this response today?
In
certain ways, it's a relief because it does seem to be a limited attack.
And certainly, Trump's position was basically, you know, we just bombed you.
Now we want peace.
You know, I mean, you can only imagine, you know, somebody
going to a bar and punching somebody else and say,
oh, I
want peace now.
It's all over now.
It's
your
fault.
And Trump indeed said there'd be a massive retaliation.
We'd bomb them like you never seen before, far worse than they've gotten from Israel, da, da, da.
And one couldn't imagine, again, that Iran would not respond in some way.
Here is the question, how are they going to respond?
Is it going to be in a manner that Trump would go ahead and do the massive bombing and things escalate, things go out of control, the Strait of Hormuz would be closed, interrupting the oil supply, and the ripple effects in the global economy, and all sorts of people killed.
And there are all sorts of terrible scenarios that we're considering.
But it seems like the Iranian government is basically taking a middle ground.
Again, they couldn't just roll over and not respond.
But by doing it in such a way that they warn people ahead of time and that the amount of missiles that came over were actually fairly small.
Now, Israelis have done a lot of damage to
Iran's military capability, but they still have a lot of missiles that they could have done a swarm attack They could have killed a fair number of Americans not just in Qatar But in Bahrain United Arab Emirates Q8 Iraq we have like 40,000 troops Within just a couple hundred miles of the Iranian border not to mention our ships and the Gulf and you know So if they really out to kill a bunch of Americans that they could have done it and so this is so it's a It's real relief.
You know that they did not
go to the more maximalist response that they could have done, both in terms of the fact that there aren't large-scale American casualties, but also it will reduce the likelihood that the United States will respond in turn and have things spiral out of control.
to help us to understand, and I wish we had an entire afternoon to do one of your classes.
I took Middle Eastern history back in high school years and years ago.
I find it a fascinating region of the world.
Certainly a lot of, I think most Americans would look at it as a lot of chaos, it's very complicated, hard to understand.
Help break this down for those of us here in Wisconsin that might not understand this part of the world as well as you do, Professor.
In terms of,
The Iranians have had a problem with Americans for a long, long time.
Those of us old enough for us to remember the hostage situation during the 1980 presidential election between Carter and Reagan and ever since then.
And take us if you can, Ken, a little bit from that.
They give me a couple of minute background.
I know it's way too short of time, but a quick couple of minute background and then up to how that ties into what the Obama administration maybe started.
W. Bush, I'm not sure, but the Obama administration, Trump one, Biden, now Trump two, about trying to have inspectors in Iran.
There were negotiations going on.
And the difference between that and the enrichment for Iranians to make a bomb and why that's important, we could come back and spend more time on it.
But that's kind of the context I'd like you to help us understand if you'd be so very kind.
I'd like to start a little further back, actually.
Sure, please.
That's way back.
I mean, Iran, formerly known as Persia.
has been a major regional power for like 2,500 years.
So they don't like being treated like some Caribbean island or Central American country where the US can basically send in the Marines or whatever and make them do what they want to do.
There's a lot of national pride.
Now, most Iranians do not like their government.
But, you know, they are very proud of their culture.
And if you're listeners who know anyone a Persian background knows the pride in their heritage and their history, and they don't like being jerked around, they don't like being told that, oh, Israel can have nuclear weapons, Pakistan have nuclear weapons, India have nuclear weapons, we can have nuclear weapons.
But Iran, you can't even have a civilian program that has the potential.
Down the road of becoming weaponized and so that stirs up a lot of nationalist sentiments You don't have to be a supporter of the Ayatollah or anything like that anything like that.
So hey, wait a minute, you know, this isn't really fair and It's concerned about the history of the US.
I mean they they're back in the 1953 they had a nationalist Prime Minister who sees the British oil companies that that were exploiting the wealth of the nation without
giving hardly anything in return, their big international sanctions, and the U.S.
K-men, the CIA, came in and overthrew the elected prime minister.
And they brought back from exile the Shah, that's basically the Persian word for emperor, who ruled as an absolute monarch, quite brutal, his suboc, a dreaded secret police that were trained by the United States, tortured and murdered many tens of thousands of people.
And it was the United States that said, hey, this is a great ally here.
Why don't we help them develop nuclear power?
So this is an important piece to note that it was the United States that started Iran's nuclear program.
when the Shah's regime was so effective at wiping out the leftist and nationalist and liberal and secular opposition, but they couldn't completely get into the mosques.
And so when they had the revolution, they took on a strong Islamist characterization, practically a pretty reactionary Islamist characterization, which is a little unusual because the Iranians compared to a lot of
of predominantly Muslim countries have not been super religious, ultra conservative, you know, whatever.
So it was a real shock to go from a more secular authoritarian regime to a religious authoritarian regime.
And they didn't have, one of the first things the new regime did was they abolished the nuclear program.
However, when Iraq invaded and the 1980s used chemical weapons on a massive scale and the world didn't respond,
There are some Iranians said maybe we need to develop nuclear power and at least have an option of developing a nuclear weapon to protect ourselves as a deterrent.
So again, this is important to emphasize to those Iranians who didn't think about wanting to maybe get a nuclear bomb, maybe that being an option in the future.
It was not to destroy Israel United States.
It was my most countries have had a nuclear deterrent.
And so especially when the US invaded the countries to their immediate east and west, Afghanistan and Iraq, when you saw them listed as the axis of evil along with Iraq and North Korea, and when Iraq got rid of their nuclear program and got invaded
anyway
and North Korea developed nuclear weapons, they're still in power.
Maybe there's a lesson there.
Maybe you do need some kind of deterrent.
But again, there's no evidence you're actually going to develop a bomb.
But even having that potential got a lot of people concerned, given the nasty nature of the regime, despite their anti-imperialist rhetoric, they've engaged quite a few imperialist machinations themselves in the region.
And again, I think most listeners know it is a pretty nasty regime.
But they did agree under Obama to eliminate
a huge portion.
of their nuclear program.
It reduced its number of centrifuges to enrich uranium to a little more than 5,000, which is far below the number needed to achieving, to process uranium to the 90% level needed for nuclear weapons.
In fact, they agreed to, they eliminated 98% of their nuclear stockpile.
They restricted the level of enrichment to 3.67%.
They decommissioned the Iraq reactor, which could produce plutonium.
They allowed inspectors to look at everything from mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, fuel manufacture, nuclear reactors, spent fuel, everything, one of the most comprehensive inspections regimes ever, and they were abiding by it, 100%.
Despite that
not to interrupt, but they had the deal was correct.
We have a wrong you had to have UN or or inspectors were from neither country go in
Exactly party to verify that no no and everybody thought oh this nuclear crisis everybody's been freaking out for years is over, you know took a decade of posturing two years of Intense negotiations, you know, I met with the Iranian foreign minister actually in 2019 when I was in Tehran and he talked about how he had less than 50
One-on-one meetings with John Kerry the then US Secretary of State going over the agreement line by line by line And then Trump comes in and even though Iran was totally abiding by it You say he he threw it out and so I think I can I negotiate a better deal
Of
course he didn't and this is not some real estate thing, you know And so Iran said okay if you're not gonna go by the deal We don't have to either because by pulling out of the deal United States imposed these really draconian sanctions on Iran
And part of it was that they would punish any government or a company that didn't go with the sanctions as well.
So that meant a lot of other countries and everything.
And so it ended up really hurting the economy.
And the Iranians destroyed billions of dollars worth of equipment to return for lifting the sanctions.
And the US said, too bad.
It's over.
And here's the thing, I can't emphasize this enough.
You know what, I'm going to stop.
This is called a tease, Professor, because we're up against the clock.
So if you want to know the key thing that Professor Zunez is going to tell us, stick around for two minutes.
You'll find it out on the other side.
Professor Stephen Zunez of the University of San Francisco, help us break down this breaking news as Iran has attacked or attempted to attack U.S.
military bases in Qatar.
It's the title of the show for a Monday.
Don't go anywhere.
You're listening across Wisconsin.
on the Civic Media.
Ready
to...
Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media ready network across the state of Wisconsin glad to have you along on a Monday June 23rd 22 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock as we continue to follow breaking news at this hour Iran said that has launched an attack on the U. S. Air Force of the U. S. Base rather Al Udead air base and Qatar just two days after the U. S. Struct 3 nuclear sites there so far no word of any U. S. casualties it seems that so far reports are the interceptor type of
missiles have stopped those those ballistic short and mid-range reported missiles from actually landing on the U.S.
air base here here to help us sort through all of this we appreciate it so very much joining us live via stream yard from San Francisco Stephen Zunez the professor of politics and director of Middle Eastern studies
at the University of San Francisco.
Professor, again, thank you so very much.
We're up against the clock.
The computer cuts me off, whether I want to or not.
So that's why I had to stop you.
And you're just about, you're giving us the history here.
And this is a fantastic history of why things are the way they are to a degree.
And you got to the point of saying that in recent times now under Obama, then into a Trump one term, that there was this deal of, have the Iranians,
basically supervised or inspected is probably a better word to make sure they weren't enriching their uranium and cradium nuclear bomb and worked pretty well and then Trump cancelled the deal and he said here's the important thing to remember please go ahead.
Yeah the important thing to remember is that when you hear Trump and other Republicans
As well for that matter as leading democrats Schumer and jeffreys and
and
schiff and rosin and federmann and others who've been supporting israel's war on on on iran They're saying we must prevent around from having a nuclear weapon Okay, fine.
I don't I don't want that nuclear weapon either But they don't say then let's return to the iran nuclear deal They're saying let's go to war
So it's not an issue of whether or not someone believes around to develop nuclear weapons.
It's that you want to do it through diplomacy Which had already been successful or do you want to go to war?
with you know, not only the horrific casualties that have been going on in both Iran and Israel and and
And now with the U.S.
involved and the risk of something much larger.
I mean, again, so this is the real issue that a lot of people, both the Republicans and the Democratic Hawks seem to be ignoring.
That if you really don't want to get a nuclear weapon, go back to the treaty that made it, that their agreement, that made it impossible, especially since it's unclear, despite Trump's claims, whether they actually did destroy everything, they could actually rebuild.
And even if they've killed some top scientists, they've got plenty of more scientists.
And if
anything is going to make Iran motivated, maybe we do need a nuclear deterrent, so this won't happen again.
So help me explain, or help me understand this, Professor Zunez, and we got about a little over about five minutes here, a left.
Just from a cultural, we hear this, you know,
quote unquote, death to America.
As explained by some religious reasons, the Iranians are never gonna give up because they believe in this almost religious thing where Israel and the US has to be wiped off the face of the map to accomplish religious goals, I guess I'll put it in
those comments.
Is that just complete bunk or what is that?
That's a myth, that's a myth.
And there's some deliverance translations.
For example, the claim that a foreign president Ahmadinejad who's
hasn't been in power for more than 20 years, who is quoting Ayatollah Khomeini, who died way back in 1989, you know, said that we want Israel to be wiped off the map, therefore that's Iranian policy.
No, that's not Iranian policy.
In fact, the phrase wiped off the map.
It doesn't even exist in the Persian language.
A more accurate translation would be vanished from the pages of time.
And when Ahmadinejad is like that, he said, look at the map of the Soviet Union.
Do you see it anymore?
No, you see Russia and the other countries.
In other words, you don't want Israel to exist as Israel.
They want to be Palestine.
That doesn't mean.
physically destroying Israel or killing the Jews.
Remember our big mistake in Vietnam was that we saw communism and that's a totalitarian movement trying to take over the
world
so we've got to respond militarily.
not realizing that first and foremost it was a nationalist movement you know by it was communist led but it was a nationalist movement by people who were sticking up for their own country from foreign invaders and a puppet regime in Saigon.
Similarly with Iran we miss out on the fact that yes it's an Islamist republic but first and foremost it's nationalist and it's asserting that and when we have these double standards when
we
have these threats when we have these things it creates this kind of reaction.
And so the more we bomb in Vietnam, the more troops we sent, the more the resistance.
And similarly, the more we attack Iran, the more the resistance we're going to get from them as well.
And I apologize.
Well, you have two and a half minutes left, but give us your brief answer if you can.
With Hamas and Hezbollah weakened at least a large degree allies, gently, at least, of Iran.
With Iran now hit at least to some degree, having less technology.
And with the lack of Arab allies in the Middle East really
calling this latest strike by the U.S.
out over the weekend, is there a chance, at least a chance, that what Trump administration did over the weekend and could this actually lead towards a larger regional acceptance of Israel and U.S.
policy and could this actually bring some sort of peace or is that just unknown yet?
I mean, it's doing just the opposite, just getting more and more resentment at the United States and Israel.
Even critics of the Iranian regime, again, point out this double standard in terms of Israel itself as a nuclear power, as over 90 nuclear weapons.
Israel won't be accepted until they grant their Palestinian freedom, either in a viable two-state solution or in a binational state with equal rights for both people.
I mean, and and the failure to for that to happen is what's led to the rise of extremist groups like Hamas, which came only after Israel and occupying the West Bank in Gaza and Hezbollah, which which emerged only after the Israeli occupation in 1982, that parts of southern Lebanon.
And similarly, I mean, ISIS emerged after the US invasion of Iraq, that, you know, when when when you try to when you when you when you invade
and occupy, kill a lot of civilians.
That's the extremism that comes up.
You don't make people moderate by bombing them and killing them, especially when you have such high civilian
casualties.
Stephen Zunez, Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.
Amazing background, amazing knowledge.
Appreciate you so very much.
We'd love to have you back on again.
Thank you for your time today.
My pleasure.
Stay with us.
We're going to have a State Senator Kelder Royce next talking about things closer to home, the Joint Finance Committee, the University of Wisconsin system.
Don't go anywhere.
It's the Toddleball Show for a Monday on the Civic Media.
Ready to welcome back to the Toddleball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock of this Monday, June 23rd, 2025.
Zomers dialing up little bluegrass there.
by request off of our next guest playlist here.
She has been joining us so kindly to join us every Monday here through the budget process.
State Senator Keller-Royce representing the 26th District, which includes much of the city of Madison here in Dane County.
She is a member of the Joint Finance Committee during this busy budget process.
Well, not as busy perhaps as we'd like, but
but... I hear that.
First of all, Bluegrass.
What's that band
it off.
It's one of the many things I enjoy about you.
You like music and different types of music.
So that's fantastic.
Sad songs right now out of the state capital if I could be so
bold
Lisa the joint finance committee you were here last Monday afternoon
And on Monday night, I was able to kind of break a little bit of news about these $87 million worth of cuts that were aimed at the University of Wisconsin.
Well, I still call it system.
They call it University of Wisconsin now by the Republicans on your committee.
That leaked apparently some, some people on JFC Republicans got
of calls
they decided, boys, we better not do this.
And they pulled it back and we haven't seen Hydra Hairroom since.
I mean, and you know, like their cars aren't even at the Capitol.
But, you know, I think it's good because it shows that making cuts to our essential public services is something that Republicans know they will pay a huge political price for.
And so a lot of them just don't want to walk the plank, but the problem is the extremists are still driving the bus, right?
And so they're in this kind of dilemma of do they follow the extremists and try to get the votes on the Republican side?
Or do they realize that that's a losing battle and actually try to save their seats, win elections, and be responsible governments?
Help me understand this a little bit, if you can.
Maybe you can, because I've been asking you about the quote unquote other side.
Our friend, Trigby Olson, who used to work for guys like Tommy Thompson, Scott McCallum, before he went off to DC and worked for John McCain and others.
He knows Robin Voss pretty well.
They kind of came up through college at the same time.
And Trigview on Wednesday pointed out that there might not be another legislator at the building that knows or has been involved with the UW system longer.
Robert Voss was actually the first student regent on the UW Board of Regents.
And he is a proud graduate of UW Whitewater.
Senator Steve Noss, a Republican, is a graduate of UW System.
proud.
But the fact is, I guess what I want to ask your comments on, your thoughts on, is as a former Republican,
I just look at it as hypocrisy.
I mean, even former Governor Scott Walker, who likes to call UW System a quote unquote, woke den of indoctrination.
And then he sends Trigby Olson, our friend, Christmas cards, very proud of his son graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
So my point is these folks know the value of UW education.
They put their money into it.
So is it just appeasing their base?
Why are these guys
mostly guys, but I guess Dallas, mostly guys just so adamant of making UW the villain.
I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with the way they have boxed themselves in, you know, 15 years of gerrymandering has insulated them from the concerns of most Wisconsinites.
It's allowed them to kind of ignore all the every single one of us in Wisconsin who would be proud for our kids to go to UW, any campus, and especially Madison.
And when they
don't have that electoral accountability, they will only respond to their base in the most extreme voices in the party.
And of course, if they can do, try to make a wedge issue, try to divide us rather than bringing people together, it's easier for them because that's the kind of political calculus that they've set
up.
There's a story just broke about a half an hour.
It was published about a half an hour ago at Channel3000.com.
The CBS affiliate headlight here in Madison says Udemy Madison tells schools and colleges to trim budgets amid federal
and state funding uncertainty.
We did first couple of lines.
Dean and vice chancellors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which Senator you represent, will have to make tough choices in the coming weeks.
University leadership said today the budget cuts about the next fiscal year rather.
Schools and colleges will be required to cut their base budget.
by 5% of their fiscal year 2026 fund 101 allocations.
You can explain what all that means.
All other parts of the universities that receive fund 101 monies, including administrative, will have their base budget cuts by 7% in fiscal year 26 allocation.
To the late person, Senator, explain what all that means and is this predicated
on not having the new budget, or what is Chancellor Mnuchin really looking at
Well, I would say this is basically the university being responsible and trying to figure out what are some worst-case scenarios here.
They're not just facing the prospect of not having a state budget, but they're also facing potential significant cuts in the federal government, cuts to student aid that really affect the most vulnerable students, the kids who probably have the most to gain from college, changes in
international students, you know, for the University of Wisconsin, Madison in particular, we're a destination for the best and brightest all over the world.
That is maybe not going to continue to be the case under the Republican administration in Washington.
So they're looking at all these things and saying, well, we're going to have to make some very, very difficult choices.
It means that student services are going to be cut, classes are going to be cut, majors are going to be cut, and potentially campus-wide, if you want to look at systems as a whole.
we're talking about additional closures of campuses, right?
So if you're just extrapolating.
So I think, you know, the state budget is one component of it, but just more broadly, I think there's a lot of challenges in higher ed right now.
And to me, it's infuriating because I and people in my generation and older than me have benefited tremendously from access to higher education and great public education.
And, you know, it is
Outrageous that we are pulling the ladder up behind us and taking those opportunities away from young people and kids today.
We're speaking with State Senator Kelderoyce of the 26th District of Wisconsin here in Dane County.
She is also a member of the Joint Committee on Finance but are known as JFC.
Senator, before we move off of the of the university's part, I would be remiss.
We haven't talked about it on this show in a long, long time, but I want to get your take on this.
I'm, you know, I'm a little long in the tooth, a little gray in the beard.
I've been around long enough to have you work for my former boss, Dale Schultz, Senate Majority Leader of the Republican side.
I was in the building, as they say, when the University of Wisconsin system
had a huge surplus
in the
rainy day fund.
And Republicans who like to say we have to be conservative with taxpayer dollars, we can't overspend, they actually voted on something called Joker.
And they demanded, they made the university get rid of all of their resources.
Explain this a little bit and why that is so important today.
done this a couple of times where the university knows that the state is not a reliable funding partner and has not been for a long time.
I mean, certainly under Walker, but even before that.
State support has really shrunk dramatically.
It's maybe a third of what it was as a percentage of UW's budget compared to when I was born.
So trying to manage that and be responsible, they were
want to have a buffer.
They don't want to be completely dependent and have to immediately fire professors and turn students away if the state decides to reduce money.
But then Republicans say, oh, they've got a surplus.
They don't need money, so we're going to slash it, or we're going to take that money and force them to spend it down just to keep the doors open.
Well, you can't have it both ways, right?
I mean, either you want public
agencies to be responsible with their money, and that means saving and having some money for a rainy day, just like the state has money in a rainy day under the current governor, several budgets in a row.
But you can't use that then as a cudgel and say, well, then we're not going to fund you.
Yeah.
I just think the hypocrisy, again, in my former party, to want, quote unquote, fiscal conservatism, which I'm fine with, but then to
penalize the UW for being fiscally conservative.
Because it just shows that they're not.
I mean, you know, here's this so-called accountant, because we've had an accountant as head of our finance committee for the last several budgets.
And what has he done?
But, you know, bring his school districts, the municipalities that he represents, to the brink of bankruptcy.
No, senators talk about Howard Markle and the co-chair of the joint finance committee.
He used to live in his district.
He likes being called Howie.
I guess.
I actually don't.
I know somebody went to school with him.
He doesn't like that at all.
That's why I keep saying it very quickly.
Quickly, really.
But we have before the first break, I want to come back to talk about other things in the capital.
Let's talk a little bit in terms of joint finance committee.
Are we really headed here, Senator Royce, towards no budget at all?
and just keeping the same spending, and if so, what does that mean for some of the key issues that you're concerned about?
I mean, it's by statute, it has to be done June 30th, and there are a bunch of kind of time-sensitive things that we need to get done by then.
in order to get federal money, right?
So this could be catastrophic for all kinds of departments and state agencies if we don't get the budget done on time.
More broadly, it means that our school districts and our local governments are not gonna know how much money they're gonna have to spend.
And if we go back to what they were getting in 2023, obviously we've had big inflation since then, right?
And it's not gonna cover their current costs.
So this could be really disastrous for all the public services that we rely on.
We've talked about it on this program.
I know our friends, Jane McNair, Greg Bakker, Matt Nair on air from 9 until 11 have talked about it as well, other programs.
But what I'm really, I don't see one side, namely Republicans talking about this, if there is no budget for whatever reason, if the spending holds where it is, that is still a huge loss for our childcare providers in this state.
That's right.
And explain why that is in terms of the lack of federal funding.
So for the last 20 years, we've lost over half of the providers in the state, right?
We've got a situation where in the majority of the state, there are three kids who need care for every one child care slot.
And the main reason is because it's very expensive to provide care for young kids.
You can't outsource it.
You can't have AI do it.
There's no chatbot that will change a toddler's diaper and take them out to play in the snow.
And the amount that it costs is outpacing what families can afford.
For so many people, it's more than the cost of their mortgage or their rent.
It actually is more than the cost of college to send a baby to childcare, to a good, high quality, early childcare center.
And so families can afford it.
And yet the workers are making poverty wages just because the economics don't match.
This is a situation where there's a market failure and there needs to be public investment.
So in the pandemic, when you saw...
just the bottom fallout of the childcare industry.
And everybody also realized, hey, this is essential.
We literally cannot work without childcare.
Anybody who was on Zoom at that time knows why you can't work without childcare.
And so the governor took money that was from the federal government and most states did this part of the ARPA, you know, plan and.
put money into a program called Child Care Counts, which gave money directly to providers to bridge that gap between the cost of providing that care and paying a living wage to their provider so they were able to stay in the classroom and stay in the industry and what parents can afford to pay.
And that's what we should be doing.
So just make sure that I understand this in layman's terms.
that we use federal funds during the Biden administration and Governor Evers put that in place to kind of put a bandaid over what was already a problem
Now the Trump administration is seemingly ready to cut those funds off
cavalry coming to save us.
So even if your Republican colleagues are going home to their districts and say, well, we'll be fine, because even if we'll just keep operating like we were, even if there's no state budget, that is a major cut to childcare providers, correct?
It sure is.
And they better talk to some parents and providers in their districts.
Yeah, absolutely.
We're going to come back, talk more with State Senator Keldor Royce here on a Monday edition of the Todd Allball Show.
Don't go anywhere.
Senate Republicans are OK with them holding or having guns on the session floor, but not.
Other people will discuss after this.
Don't go
anywhere on Civic Media.
Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media ready to work eight minutes now before the hour of three o'clock coming up at the top of the hour news from ABC and CBS, of course, updating us on the latest attacks on US bases in Qatar.
The last couple of hours or so will maintain our vigilance on bringing you the latest on that.
Also weather and looks like maybe a few storms and parts of Wisconsin later this afternoon and into tonight.
Some may be severe, so be aware of that.
And then a great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, followed by what's worse.
and hour two will give Senator Royce a little heads up.
We'll let her answer first.
Our guest this half hour is State Senator Kelder Royce, Democrat of the 26th District, also a member of the Joint Finance Committee.
Senator, quickly, what's worse, Heat Wave or Cold Snap?
Really?
is that?
Why is that?
outside.
Maybe I've just become soft.
But it seems like we haven't had one in a while.
Arctic, whatever they call
where they last for two weeks and go in and out of, I don't know.
All
All right.
Fair.
On to more serious issues.
over the weekend, another great program up front from WISN in Milwaukee.
They interviewed Senator, one of your colleagues, the Republican side of the aisles, Chris Kappenga.
And I heard Jane McNair talk about this before.
I've been mispronouncing his name.
Dan Schaefer had it right of our, of course he is our
Yeah, so Senator Capaga was on up front over the weekend and they asked him about security.
You and I, Senator,
about
this last week in light of the tragedy, the assassination in the Minnesota legislature a couple of weeks ago, and they asked him in terms of security and, well, here's the cut from up front
over the weekend.
Do you want metal detectors at the front entrances?
Yeah,
I have not been through another capital that has not had a metal detectors and it's going beyond that at this point.
There are systems out there and we learned this when we researched them that will actually detect any type of weapon or dangerous object.
So it's far beyond metal detectors but it's gone now because we need to have a higher level of security just because of unfortunately ingenuity out there with how you can hurt people.
Do you also want guns prohibited from inside the capital?
or on the floor?
Yes.
What Indiana, for instance, it's a great example that I bring up a lot is that Indiana is extremely conservative and pro personal protection.
So what they allow is they allow legislators to carry into the building for protection, which I always do.
I always have been...
armed to protect myself, especially when I'm up on the front in the president's spot.
That was, I just felt it was very important.
But the general public, they don't need to have their weapons in the people's house.
In the people's house, it's their representatives who are elected.
That's the voice of the people.
I need to be protected as a public servant, and so does everybody else who's been elected into that spot.
We should not be worrying about our lives walking into that building.
So you still want lawmakers to be able to
carry you inside and on the
floor?
Absolutely.
State Senator, Republican Chris Kappenga on the program Upfront WISN over the weekend, Senator Royce's reaction.
Well, I agree that we shouldn't have to risk our lives, but I believe everyone deserves to be safe in the Capitol, and the presence of guns
buy anyone makes us less safe and that's you know that's not just true in the capital it's true at the grocery grocery store church schools right concerts the idea that everybody just armed to the teeth just means that you could end up with a tragedy or an accident that turns deadly and you know in wisconsin legislature actually i believe that there was you know years ago one legislator shot another
Of course, that was the assembly, not the Senate.
But, you know, it doesn't make me feel great to think about my colleagues carrying a gun, and maybe they just decide one day they've had enough of what I have to say.
And, you know, nobody should feel silenced or threatened or intimidated by a gun.
And, you know, we had a member of the assembly who was the Speaker Pro Tem, Bill Kramer, who always kind of...
Gave me a little bit of a weird feeling and he made it known when that he was packing heat and he was standing up at the front of that room and He ended up later being unfortunately convicted of sexual assault.
I mean fortunately convicted but unfortunately he committed a sexual assault and You know, I just think nobody should get a special exemption there.
Well, and my feeling is
nobody should be packing heat at the
Right.
to me, again, it's the hypocrisy.
protect us.
And he can sit on the floor and have a handgun.
But other people like the general public can't.
I mean, it's either got to be one way or the other.
And again, for my former party that likes to say back the blue, to me, it says they don't have any confidence in the Capitol Police.
And who opposed the expansion of concealed carry?
It was obviously law enforcement.
You know, my dad was a police officer.
He was a state trooper briefly and spent his career in law enforcement.
And he always said, you know, it's so much more dangerous for law enforcement.
The more people have guns and the more places they take
them.
I
I don't want to see fourth graders lining up for two hours, going through
Minute left.
My former party, the Republicans, seemed to be in a little bit of chaos or chaos.
I mean, they've got, obviously, what's happening federally with this right-wing revolt against the right-wing presidency and calls for the state party chair to step down even after it was just reinstalled.
And then, of course, here at the state level, we've got a legislature where one house can't count to get a majority of votes to pass a budget, and the other ones...
trying to negotiate directly with the governor, so who knows?
Yeah, if you want to get a hold of Brian Chimmy, Edgewater Pier, he'll be having a Diet Coke.
little hitherto unknown fact.
what he used to do 15 years ago.
I'm not sure if he's still there or
You can always find State Senator Kelder Royce on the job at the Capitol.
You can find her here on Mondays for the budget process.
Senator, thank you so much.
Thank you.
We appreciate you.
Stay tuned.
What's the worst is next?
Do you agree with Senator Royce that the heat wave is worse or isn't a cold snap?
And we'll talk with Matt DeFour on AI and media.
Is Todd going to be replaced?
We'll find out next hour on the Civic Media radio network.
The answer is yes.
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