PODCAST: Joe Biden's complicated legacy and Trump's awful first week back in office
Dan Shafer joined Mark Becker to recombobulate on Civic Media's "Rational Revolution." Plus: Discussing the Sam Kuffel Kerfuffle and more on "Matenaer On Air." Also: "The Recombobulation Minute"!
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
Not gonna lie, folks: It’s been a discombobulating week.
There’s been a whole lot of awfulness coming from Washington D.C. as Donald Trump has made his return to office.
Among the most absurd of his actions is one aiming to bulldoze the constitution and birthright citizenship in America. I talked a bit about this in my new Civic Media segment — which you can hear on the airwaves and see on social media — here.
Stay tuned for more in this space on the topic of immigration soon.
Also this week, I joined the great Civic Media weekly podcast “Rational Revolution” with host Mark Becker to talk about Joe Biden’s complicated legacy, and this awful first week of Trump 2.0.
While Biden did many good things as president, I do believe that his decision to seek a second term and his disastrous debate performance were among the biggest reasons that Trump won in November. And I am not sure that many Democrats have internalized just how much damage he did to the credibility of the party, especially with regards to his age.
Put simply: You can’t run a campaign based around honesty and integrity while asking people to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears.
Listen to the full podcast on Civic Media here, or stream it via your favorite podcast app below.
And as I always do on Fridays at 11 a.m., I joined Jane Matenaer and Greg Bach on “Matenaer On Air” (10 a.m. to noon every weekday on Civic Media!) to recombobulate on the week that was.
This week, we talked about Gov. Evers’ seventh “State of the State” address, Elon Musk weighing in on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race (and making false claims of voter fraud), the swirl of controversy around CBS 58’s controversial firing of meteorologist Sam Kuffel (aka, the Kuffel Kerfuffule), and comments from self-proclaimed manly man, Jesse Watters of Fox News (who said men don’t go grocery shopping with their wives).
Listen to the full appearance as a podcast here.
Or watch it on YouTube here (1:02:00 mark).
Also on the Kuffel Kerfuffle…
As I mentioned on the show: A source from the CBS 58 newsroom told me “The entire newsroom was disgusted” this week when they learned the news about Sam Kuffel. We’re going to be continuing to monitor this one.
One more thing: I don’t think it makes much sense to direct your ire at anyone in the CBS 58 newsroom. Calling there is only going to impact people who have already been put in an impossible situation.
The people at fault here are management and Weigel Broadcasting.
And if you know more about this, my DM’s are always open…
Also this week: I wrote about Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s vote on the controversial immigration bill, the Laken Riley Act, which passed with the votes of several swing state Democrats, but not Baldwin’s.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.