SCRAMBLE: St Paul Democrat wants to QUADRUPLE license tab fees in the state of Minnesota!!!

Summary

Garage Logic: Weekly Scramble
Episode Date: March 10, 2026
Host: Chris Reivers | Co-host: Mike Fratelloni
[Produced by Gamut Podcast Network]
Main Theme: Outrage over Proposal to Drastically Increase Minnesota License Tab Fees, Public Spending, and Political Accountability

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Episode Overview

This edition of Garage Logic’s “Weekly Scramble” tackles government overreach and inefficiency, with hosts Chris Reivers and Mike Fratelloni zeroing in on a viral Minnesota political controversy: a St. Paul Democrat’s proposal to quintuple (5x) vehicle license tab fees statewide. The hosts, through candid commentary and humor, connect this Minnesota debate to larger themes about government spending, tax burdens, business climate, and corruption — both locally and nationally.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. St. Paul Democrat Proposes 5x Vehicle Tab Fee Increase

[04:09–12:46]

• Chris introduces a recent Department of Fraud Prevention Oversight Committee hearing, highlighting Rep. Meg Luger Nikolai’s on-record suggestion to “quintuple the rates of these registration fees” (vehicle tabs) to fund state projects.
  • Quote: "[04:54] 'Enable us all to agree on the importance of raising revenue and so at some point may offer an amendment to quintuple the rates of these registration fees so that we may fund other projects in the state.'" – Rep. Meg Luger Nikolai (audio clip)
• The proposal would result in astronomical fees: for a two-year-old $50,000 vehicle, annual tabs would jump from ~$500 to $3,650 in Hennepin County.
  • Quote: "[05:50] ...your tabs payment, according to Representative Meg Luger Dash Nikolai, that would be $3,650 every single year in Hennepin County." – Reivers
• Fratelloni expresses outrage, arguing this disproportionately hurts law-abiding residents:
  • Quote: "[06:20] ...stealing it is already stealing. It's already stealing that some cars have to pay $1,200 for a sticker that they put on their car." – Mike Fratelloni
• The change would likely push more people to simply stop paying for tabs, as enforcement has been deprioritized.
  • Quote: "[08:12] They're not going to pay it. People are just going to drive around with expired tabs. They're already doing." – Reivers

Comparison to Neighboring States

• Reivers contrasts Minnesota’s tab fees with Wisconsin, where annual costs are $85 for cars and up to $100 for light-duty trucks.
  • Quote: "[09:45] ...In the state of Wisconsin, Michael, license plate tabs for standard Passenger automobiles cost $85 annually." – Reivers

Business & Resident Flight

• Personal anecdotes note business owners choosing to leave Minnesota for states with lower fees/taxes.
• Fratelloni delivers an impassioned plea to state lawmakers:
  • Quote: "[11:09] ...Don't make me leave. Don't do it to me. Don't make it so punitive for someone like me to live here that I say, I'm not doing this anymore. Don't make it so. I have to leave where my children grew up... Like you're stealing from me. Like it's like I'm being abused to make me leave... Democrats and Republicans, let's talk about [this]." – Mike Fratelloni

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2. California’s LAX “People Mover” & Tales of Government Waste

[15:23–22:50]

• Fratelloni steers conversation to Los Angeles’ new LAX "People Mover" tram — a 2-mile, 2-mph elevated train that cost between $3.3 billion and $4.9 billion.
  • Quote: "[16:42] ...LAX spent $4.9 billion to build a tram that goes 2 mph and goes 2 miles..." – Mike Fratelloni
• They compare it to international projects and sports venues:
  • Beijing’s 75-mile, 200 mph bullet train cost $2 billion — less than half LAX’s tram.
  • SOFI Stadium, a world-class $5 billion venue, was financed privately, unlike the public People Mover boondoggle.
  • Quote: "[21:04] ...That beautiful, state-of-the-art, wonderful facility... was the same amount of money as this particular light [rail]..." – Reivers
• Fratelloni calls for stricter accountability, suggesting that those who profited unduly from such projects should be investigated and prosecuted.
  • Quote: "[19:13] ...We need to make sure people understand the massive amount of what billions are... Find out who got this money and put them in jail..." – Mike Fratelloni

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3. California Political Corruption & Public School Standards

[22:52–26:27]

• The hosts discuss a Fox News report on Gavin Newsom’s wife, her nonprofit, and the promotion of controversial educational content, juxtaposed with poor academic achievement in California schools.
  • Only 44% of 11th graders meet basic reading; 70% fall below math standards.
• Fratelloni laments that social topics are prioritized over basic skills:
  • Quote: "[24:07] We'll teach you how to tuck in your twig and berries, but we won't teach you how to do math. That's kind of sad." – Mike Fratelloni

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4. Rethinking K–12 Education: “Packet Math” System

[25:07–27:39]

• Fratelloni proposes self-paced, proficiency-based graduation (the "packet" system): students progress when work is completed, regardless of age or grade.
  • Quote: "[25:44] ...Here's 50 packets you need to do to graduate. If you can't get through these 50 packets, you're not graduating." – Mike Fratelloni
• Both hosts note during distance learning, kids were able to finish full school days in an hour or so, suggesting inefficiency in current educational models.

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5. Sports & Pop Culture: World Baseball Classic, Wrexham’s Meteoric Rise

[29:43–39:36]

• Recap of World Baseball Classic & MLB prospects (Paul Skenes, Livvy Dunn). Light banter about relationships and viral memes.
• Story of Wrexham AFC soccer team: Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchase, elevate team from local obscurity to international phenomenon, possibly turning a $2M investment into a $350M+ asset.
  • Quote: "[36:58] ...They can sell this team today for 350 million bucks. Not a bad return on your money." – Mike Fratelloni

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Don’t make me leave.”

• Fratelloni’s impassioned rant about punitive taxes causing ‘regular’ people to consider leaving Minnesota is arguably the episode’s emotional high point [11:09].

“$4.9 billion to go 2 miles at 2 mph.”

• The LAX tram scandal is used as a symbol of American government waste and lack of oversight [16:42–21:45].

“We’ll teach you how to tuck in your twig and berries, but we won’t teach you how to do math.”

• Fratelloni, with biting sarcasm, on misplaced public school priorities in California [24:07].

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• St. Paul Democrat tab fee proposal & local tax outrage: 04:09–12:46
• Comparison to Wisconsin, business/rich flight: 09:12–12:27
• LAX People Mover/government waste: 15:23–22:50
• California schools, corruption, and academic decline: 22:52–26:27
• Education reform (“packet math”) proposal: 25:07–27:39
• World Baseball Classic & sports banter: 29:43–39:36
• Wrexham soccer team investment story: 34:04–39:15

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Overall Tone & Style

The hosts use humor, sarcasm, and local color (“Gumption County,” “the Mayor,” etc.) to drive home a populist, common-sense critique of state and national politics. They blend outrage with levity—a signature of “Garage Logic”—while expressing genuine concern for Minnesota’s business climate and public institutions.

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This summary outlines the controversies, frustrations, and lighter diversions that shaped this episode. Whether you’re focused on the Minnesota legislature, public sector accountability, or just want some “watchdog” takes with your garage beers, this “Weekly Scramble” delivers.

Transcript

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[Mike Fratelloni]

this is the Weekly Scramble, a place where we chat about life over a cold one or two. It's time to belly up to the Pod with Mike Fratelloni and your host, Chris Reivers.

[Chris Reivers]

That's right, it's time for the Weekly Scramble podcast. My name is Chris Reivers. With me as always. He's my brother from another mother. His name is Mike Fratelloni. Hello, Michael.

[Mike Fratelloni]

How you doing, Reivers?

[Chris Reivers]

I'm doing good. You know, the beauty of this show is we really don't have a limit on any type of topics that we can get into on this show we

[Mike Fratelloni]

can talk about anything.

[Chris Reivers]

We really can.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No one says anything to us.

[Chris Reivers]

And so I think this is gonna be one of those shows where we say let's spin the wheel and see what we wanna talk about today. Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I think people are tired of fraud, but we're still gonna talk a little bit. Fraud, right. I bet you anything we spin the wheel on a fraud.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, here's why I wanna play this, because I mention. Yeah.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Do we have a fraud story?

[Chris Reivers]

Well, here's why I want to play. Because a lot of this has just developed within the last couple of hours, including from your governor, Tim Walsh. I love him, but there's a reason why I want to play and I want to play this for you. And there's a specific reason why you are a business owner.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

Your family has been running successful businesses for generations. Decades. Sure.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Decades. 75.

[Chris Reivers]

And when you apply that same line of thinking to the world of politics, something kind of gets lost there.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They're incredibly business minded people in St. Paul. Is that what you're telling me? That they're ready for business? That they know how to do it? They're good at math too, right? Really good at math.

[Chris Reivers]

So yesterday they had the. I'm gonna try to get this right. They had the Department of Fraud Prevention Oversight Committee hearing.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Ooh, that's an important one. That's a Walz department.

[Chris Reivers]

I really hope I got that right because of course Governor Walz had come out and said, hey, I am going to be at the forefront of combating this issue because by God, we are going to put a stop to this.

[Mike Fratelloni]

He's disgusted by fraud.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, there's one woman and I don't know if you know who she is, but she's a Democrat from St. Paul, Michael. Her name is Representative Meg Luger Nikolai.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Hyphen.

[Chris Reivers]

Yes, Luger Nikolai.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

She is a Democrat from St. Paul. Love her. And she has an idea of how we can help take care of some of these projects. We like to call them projects, not fraud riddled scandals that have been introduced by the government. These are now called projects. So basically she's got an idea of how we can continue to raise revenue because we are facing massive deficits. It's only 12 seconds, but I want you to listen to what she's actually saying. Are you ready, Michael?

[Mark Ellis]

Enable us all to agree on the importance of raising revenue and so at some point may offer an amendment to quintuple the rates of these registration fees so that we may fund other projects in the state. That everybody deems worthy.

[Chris Reivers]

All right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

She just wanted to quintuple all these fees.

[Chris Reivers]

So, Michael, what she was referencing was registration fees on vehicles. In other words, car tabs.

[Mike Fratelloni]

How much more can they steal from us?

[Chris Reivers]

Well, I'm glad you said that because I have the figure in front of me.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

That would equal, Michael, if you owned a two year. And I can say this because, you know, on account of you want to know why you have this car. I just paid my tabs on my 2020 Chevy Traverse. Or, sorry, my 2021 Chevy Traverse. That's about to hit 200,000 miles. By the way, it is my fault because I drive too much and I paid almost $500.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What a deal.

[Chris Reivers]

Michael, that would equal. If you own a two year old vehicle at a state assessed value of $50,000, your tabs payment. According to Representative Meg Luger Dash Nicolai, that would be $3,650 every single year in Hennepin County.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Wow, Meg, good for you.

[Chris Reivers]

You're doing the Lord for you. Good for you.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You have it all planned out. Congratulations.

[Chris Reivers]

As Beavis and Butthead would say, take a bow.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What a great thinker she is. What a great thing. You know that stealing it is already stealing. It's already stealing that some cars have to pay $1,200 for a sticker that they put on their car. And the worst part is reverse is they can't pull you over for that anymore. Right? They can't pull you over for having no tabs. So half the people don't even buy tabs anymore. Just the people who want to pay their taxes. Do the right thing. They do it. But most people don't even do it

[Chris Reivers]

anymore, ladies and gentlemen. Here's why. When you are. Let's say you're on a Reavers road trip excursion. And let's just say maybe you're from here to Chicago. When you are about to cross into the state of Illinois from Wisconsin, you see that gigantic trucking company that's at the border on the Wisconsin side and not in Illinois. Because that guy's not paying for every one of those fleet of trucks. 16,000 times more in registration fees and license tabs and fuel in some cases. How do these people not realize the ramifications of their decision making?

[Mike Fratelloni]

When will it stop?

[Chris Reivers]

I don't think it's going to.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So they're gonna nickel and dime. Actually, dollar and $100, not nickel and dime, right? It's gonna be dollar and $500,000 people right out of the state People get pissed at those. Your state income tax is somewhat nebulous.

[Chris Reivers]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It comes off your paycheck. You don't really pay attention to it. When you have to write a check for potentially $3,000 for your sticker that goes on the back of your car which some states don't even have. You don't even need it in some states. When you have to do that, people are going to lose their ever loving minds.

[Chris Reivers]

Here's what's going to happen if the likes of Meg. Representative Meg Whatever dash your name is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Luger, Nikolai.

[Chris Reivers]

They're not going to pay it. People are just going to drive around with expired tabs. They're already doing.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They already do that because you can't get pulled over by it for it anymore.

[Chris Reivers]

Because we did. We decided the likes of Mary Moriarty are not going to enforce those. That kind of laws.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Why would she enforce laws. That's racist laws that you have to. You know, it gets to a point where you kind of want to stand up against the aggressor. I'm not going to say bear arms against the aggressor. Stand up against the aggressor and say I'm not paying it. I'm not doing it anymore.

[Chris Reivers]

You just reminded me of something. Talk amongst yourself. Because I knew you'd be outraged by this and I'm so glad you did.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I just don't get like this gal. I'm sure she's a nice gal, but she is destroying Minnesota with thoughts like that. Democrat party has to do better. We have to do better. We have to come up with better ideas that don't just suck every dollar away from anybody who has something you read. I am.

[Chris Reivers]

I wanted to verify because. Should I out him or not? No, I'm not gonna out. I'm not. Maybe it's not even a him.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

I don't know.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

I know someone.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Is there a hyphen in the last name?

[Chris Reivers]

No, but I know someone very near and dear. And. And this person decided to move his family to Wisconsin because he is a. I would even say a small business owner. He is a business owner and he decided. I just. I can't afford. Based upon his type of business. Specifically. I cannot afford to maintain a business in Minnesota anymore. And he ain't far from here.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

In fact he might live closer to this building than I do. Okay.

[Mike Fratelloni]

In Hudson.

[Chris Reivers]

Whatever it is. Yeah. So I looked this up. Let's head to Wisconsin, shall we? After I just told you that for your six year old or your two year old vehicle is going to cost you three grand. 3,500 bucks. In the state of Wisconsin, Michael, license plate tabs for standard Passenger automobiles cost $85 annually.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Wow.

[Chris Reivers]

Additional fees may apply, including a $75 surcharge for hybrid vehicles, because they know they don't. The gas tax doesn't apply to them,

[Mike Fratelloni]

so they tax them. That's pretty charming.

[Chris Reivers]

But $170 electric vehicles and local municipal wheel taxes. In Madison, it might be as high as $40. In Dane county, as high as $28. And there are specialized blackout plates that require an extra $25 annual donation. Think about that $85 difference is the difference between our great neighbors to the east in Wisconsin than they are here.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Even if you just take it where it is today, $500 to $85. But $3,000. $3,500 to 85 is just simply moronic. Here's what I'm going to ask.

[Chris Reivers]

Let me add this one thing. The maximum for a light duty truck at 8,000 pounds will not exceed $100. It varies by weight.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Reivers]

So guys that are doing operating businesses,

[Mike Fratelloni]

you get yourself a nice Escalade and it doesn't cost you 1400 bucks for tabs.

[Chris Reivers]

It's criminal. What's happening here? Go ahead. Sorry I interrupted you.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay. Minnesota, I want to tell you something. Minnesota, Listen to uncle Bunk. I'm speaking directly to Minnesota. I love it here. This is where I want to live. I don't really like the warmth. I like enough warmth in the summertime, but. And I can live with the cold. I love it here. Don't make me leave. Don't do it to me. Don't make it so punitive for someone like me to live here that I say, I'm not doing this anymore. Don't make it so. I have to leave where my children grew up. I have to leave where my parents, where I grew up. I was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown St. Paul. I've never lived more than 10 miles away from that hospital. Don't make guys like me find it so punitive. Like you're stealing from me. Like it's like I'm being abused to make me leave. And it's happening every second of every day. People with a little bit of stuff say, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm sure the f not gonna die in this state. Right. Because you don't know this, but when you die in this state, you pay incredible death tax, which is fricking criminal to do to somebody, which is criminal and just don't make me leave my home. And you're trying to do it every single second of the day. Democrats and Republicans, let's talk about.

[Chris Reivers]

We are nuts and we are nuts. Mn.com. it is a locally operated company. For now, anyway. No, I'm kidding. They would make it moving because they do love it here. And you know what? Let's say you decide to do what Reivers and Frannaloni are gonna do and get your ass out of this state at some point.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm not leaving.

[Chris Reivers]

I know I'm not. I'm just.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm not leaving. I just don't want them to make me leave.

[Chris Reivers]

Don't make me leave.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Don't make me do it.

[Chris Reivers]

Don't make me snack up. By the way, here's. I tried to take your advice.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

I stopped at.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And you used the cup.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, that's where I'm going.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

I stopped at the Grand Avenue location. I had some errands to run. And I thought, I'm gonna get some maple bourbon toffee almonds, because that's one of my favorites. Brought them home, was gonna use the Michael Fratelloni method. Dump them in the cup. Decided. Ah, come on. What's.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I mean, I can have more than one cup. I mean, you're tall.

[Chris Reivers]

And as I'm watching, I think I was watching the World Baseball Classic. Because, you know, nothing screams Reavers more than watching baseball in late February and March. And I went, well, what happened here? The jar. Oh, no, no, I did it. See, I didn't adopt your method. I didn't listen to you. And I ate the entire jar in one sitting.

[Mike Fratelloni]

See, that's pretty impressive. I do know one thing. Jeff, my salesman from We Are Nuts, right? He and I correspond quite often. In fact, he just called me here right before the show started. So he said, moved into this new facility, right. And their production is way, way, way up.

[Chris Reivers]

Nice.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Because there was times during December because you brought on Kwik Trip and Coburns and Coburns and Fradalonis and Mac's and who else?

[Chris Reivers]

Londs and Barley's and Kowalski's Markets.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, you had all these huge companies, were taking a ton of the distribution, right. Because they just couldn't make enough. They're in this new. And now they have capacity. So I was like, oh, good. So Reavers, even you can have more than that little tiny cup now.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, thank goodness.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Because you're like, you don't have to worry about them running out now.

[Chris Reivers]

You don't have to Worry about rations?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, they were running out a little bit because I was like, man, in December. Because everyone buys them in December, right?

[Chris Reivers]

To get for sure for the holiday

[Mike Fratelloni]

season, then for the parties. And I was like, holy buckets, they're going to run out. And now they said, don't worry about it. You are going to find full shelves everywhere you go.

[Chris Reivers]

So treat yourself to that, to some jumbo cashews. And you can also place your order online. Let's say you are out of state and you want to place your order, do it [e-mail] you won't even pay

[Mike Fratelloni]

income taxes if you're in Florida.

[Chris Reivers]

That's right. And you know what you can do? Place your order and let them know that you heard about them here. Oh, by the way, take advantage of the 25% off sale going on right now at wearenutsmn.com and please let them know that you heard about them here on the weekly scramble podcast. And we will be right back.

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[Chris Reivers]

Should we head to California? Yeah, I think we should, because that's one of the other areas that I wanted to head to. But I'm going to let you lead this conversation. Reavers.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't know if you heard about this, if you talked about it on our sister podcast, our Father Podcast. Right. Garage Logic with Joseph, our ugly stepdad podcast. Our stepdad that we're kind of pissed at, who doesn't like us. Yeah, we know he doesn't like us. He lets us talk to him, but he doesn't really like listening to us. Okay. Have you heard of the LAX People Mover? It's the new tram at LAX at the airport in Los Angeles. Have you heard about this new thing?

[Chris Reivers]

I think I saw a headline somewhere, but you're gonna have to refresh that.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So it's a tram like they'd have at the zoo or MSP or Orlando. It's a tram that goes.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, sure, y2 miles. Right?

[Mike Fratelloni]

So it's an elevated tram. It goes 2 miles at roughly 2 miles per hour.

[Mark Ellis]

Sure.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So it's just this little kind of decorative train that takes people to the parking lot and back. And it's just this huge.

[Chris Reivers]

LAX is massive.

[Mike Fratelloni]

LAX is massive. Guess how much it costs to build that two mile of train.

[Chris Reivers]

Let's see. Well, we had the light rail fiasco here.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What was the biggest light rail fiasco? Dollar amount you heard here.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, here is the southwest line. That's still. Is not even.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And how much have they put into that?

[Chris Reivers]

Well, wasn't it. It was projected to only be only 500 mil. And it's over a bill, I think. I don't remember.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Reivers people are saying, and there's some disputes on this value. They're saying LA, CA LAX spent $4.9 billion to build a tram that goes 2 mph and goes 2 miles. It is. Okay, let me tell you some things that cost less than that. Okay? Just to give you an idea, there's a train in Beijing that goes for 75 miles. It goes 200 miles per hour. And it's a great, beautiful bullet train. They spent $2 billion on that. To oust Maduro, to oust a leader of Venezuela, that cost 375 million. You could give every single homeless person in the state, in the city of Los Angeles, not the state of Los Angeles, in the city of Los Angeles, $100,000.

[Chris Reivers]

Wow.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Here's the thing that I find that is pretty interesting. The third tallest building in the world, reverse didn't cost $4.9 million. In fact, not just the third tallest building. You can add the second tallest building in the world. And in fact, you can add the first tallest building in the world. The tallest building in the world, first, second, and third. And those collectively didn't cost $4.9 billion.

[Chris Reivers]

Think of how many vacant skyscrapers you could buy.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You could buy every single piece of property in St. Paul and Minneapolis. You could buy 40,000 homes for $4.9 billion. Reivers it is. Here's what I think we need to do is we need to have people understand what a billion dollars is. Everyone who listens to this show intellectually gets what a billion dollars is. And we maybe we all think we really understand it. You have to get some visual representations of what a billion dollars looks like. Right? We need to make sure people understand the massive amount of what billions are. And I think whoever o LAX people Mover and whatever group built it and whatever overruns it had, I think people should go to jail. They are stealing money and there's no way it's not filled with corruption it's impossible. And I know they said there's a whole bunch of reasons why it was so expensive. They said, heavy consultant use, right? So when someone says, oh, you had heavy consultant use to build a GD tram for two miles, how many consultants do you need? And how much was that? How much did you pay of that? $4.9 billion to consultants to build a tram that we have at the zoo that probably cost a million bucks when we built that tram at the zoo for $4.8 billion. $4.9 billion. Multiple oversight layers, slow approval cycles, costly change orders. Those are all things. And they're saying they might not be illegal. And my answer to that is bullshit. Find out. Dig into the money. Find out who got this money and put them in jail for the rest of. So people. Remember Napster?

[Chris Reivers]

Remember?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Remember when Napster said they went after everybody? They didn't go after everybody. They went after the people that just stole a couple of songs. They said they didn't go after the guy who downloaded 2,000 songs. They went after the Mike Fradalonis of the world who downloaded a Green Day song. And they said, hey, Mike, that's a violation. You owe us 12,000 bucks for that. Right? They didn't actually do that to me, but that's who they went after. What we need to do is find every single person who profited from this and said, oh, as a consultant, you made $9 million consulting on this. We're gonna put you in jail for that. And if we don't do that, you get states like Minnesota, where we lose $19 billion.

[Chris Reivers]

Give me that figure one more time, please.

[Mike Fratelloni]

$4.9 billion. They're saying anywhere from 3.3 to 4.9. I picked the high side of the number. But even if it's 3.3, it's disgusting.

[Chris Reivers]

Are you familiar with the SOFI Stadium in Englewood, California? How many could you build? Los Angeles Rams?

[Mike Fratelloni]

How many could you build?

[Chris Reivers]

Here's why I'm bringing this up. Because in 2020, and this is also in California, it is the most expensive sports stadium ever built, with construction costs estimated right around $5 billion. Meaning that beautiful, state of the art, wonderful facility that hosts tons of events that bring in a ton of commerce every year, including a Super bowl, including, what was it, 17 straight Taylor Swift concerts. Whatever it was, was the same amount of money as this particular light bulb.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Pretty much the exact same amount of money. It did not go 2 miles per hour. It did not only travel 2 miles. It is shockingly disgusting. The amount of theft is happening out there.

[Chris Reivers]

But here's the key difference. Yes, you want to know the difference between that sham of a project and this one is what's that? Opening in 2020. The project of SoFi Stadium in Englewood, California was primarily financed privately by Rams owner Stan Kroenke. That serves as home to both the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and also the Chargers, who, by the way, editorial comment. The Chargers pay rent to the Rams ownership group to play their games there as well.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's kind of cool.

[Chris Reivers]

But he paid for it.

[Mike Fratelloni]

He paid for it.

[Chris Reivers]

The state of California didn't pay for it.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Every single person who lives in California should look at everybody and say, who stole this money from me? Why are you stealing this money from me? The same thing we have to say in Minnesota. And this is not a Democrat, Republican thing. No, this is anybody that's in the legislature that is approving a $4.9 billion, two mile long tram should be sent out. They should be kicked out of the. What I really feel reverse is people don't. When that gal, what was her name? Mag Luger?

[Chris Reivers]

Nikolai out of St. Paul.

[Mike Fratelloni]

When she says, and maybe she's super bright when she says, I want to quadruple fees when she says that. Do you think she understands what quadruple means? Do you think she understands that that's forex.

[Chris Reivers]

Like, I don't know, people need Michael.

[Mike Fratelloni]

But maybe, just maybe, she was a. I'm not ripping on a woman's studies major, right? Maybe she's an attorney. I have no idea. She probably wasn't a math whiz. Cause if she was a math whiz, she probably wouldn't say it's fair for someone to pay 3500 bucks for a sticker on the back of their license plate.

[Chris Reivers]

Let's stay in California, shall we?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yes.

[Chris Reivers]

This is from our friends at Fox News. In fact, the woman that did this piece is former KSTP employee Harris Faulkner. You ready?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I am.

[Chris Reivers]

California Governor Gavin Newsom. Just talk about corruption and everything. And basically every aspect of politics in California is based solely on corruption. California Governor Gavin Newsom's wife has been caught paying herself a huge sum of money while pushing woke transgender and sexually films on children, raking it up to 300,000 annually. Newsom's board of Education recommended Siebel Newsom's films in controversial health education guidance in 2019. Newsom leaned on her powerful husband and his educational board to push preachy films about toxic masculinity into classrooms. That guidance was later adopted by the State education department and it pushed transgender and odd sexuality teachings on kids. Meanwhile, 44% of California 11th grader meet basic reading standards and 70% are below par in math.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We'll teach you how to tuck in your twig and berries, but we won't teach you how to do math. That's kind of sad. We'll teach you how to apply eyeliner and strap your breasts down, but we won't teach you how to read.

[Chris Reivers]

And keep this in mind when they use the term basic math standards. You have girls that are in school. I didn't realize this until a short while ago. How much lower basic standards are these days? God.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Should we try to pass some basic math standard tests?

[Chris Reivers]

Well, I help my kids with homework on occasion, right? So I say, wow, my eighth grader, he's a smart kid. So it's like, oh buddy, I can get you, I can get you here. But then once the mouse is out of the but whatever, right? But what we're seeing now is some of these kids that, that aren't even. They're kind of close to the lowered standard. We're just pushing kids through because we gotta keep the machine rolling. Right?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I have a new concept for education. I can fix it right now if you'd like.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, please.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Are you ready for it? When you were in school, did you have something called packet math? Does that ring a bell?

[Chris Reivers]

It's not ringing a bell.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So when I was in school, they would actually take you and give you a packet and you'd do the packet, like packet of 10 papers.

[Chris Reivers]

Sure.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And you'd do the packet and say there was 30 weeks in the school year and you had 30 packets. So you had to do about a packet a week. But if you were really good at it, you could just crank through that packet. And what I think they should work ahead. What they should say is, hey, here's 50 packets you need to do to graduate. If you can't get through these 50 packets, you're not graduating.

[Chris Reivers]

You ain't leaving til you're graduating.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You're not leaving. You just don't get a diploma. You just don't get a diploma. And I don't believe that. I mean, there are bright people and there are stupid people. I get that. You could just have it set at a stupid person's level. Right? Everybody can pass this if you just diligently focus. But they should not let anybody pass. They won't even have to let people move grades. You won't have to be a 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grader. You'd be at. You're on packet 40. You're not. You know, you still have 10 packets to go. I don't care if you've been here for one year or four years. Just get through the work, prove efficiency and understanding proficiency and move on. Right? Why are we spending such a fortune on would not be that hard packet math. I Genius.

[Chris Reivers]

That's not a bad idea.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It's really not.

[Chris Reivers]

Because then it allows the kid to work at their own pace and work ahead. Because some kids feel that, okay, well, I want to get going here because even when it comes to AP style courses in high schools, because a lot of kids say, well, I can do these AP classes and then not have to pay for them in college.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Wonderful.

[Chris Reivers]

And I know many kids that have done that. I'm related to one of them.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Look at this. Let's say you had to do 10 packets a year to get through high school, right? You had to do 40 packets. Well, some kids might do 193 packets a math. And then at college would say, oh, that kid probably has a better understanding of math because instead of just doing the minimum 40, they did 4x of that. Right? And that kid, we're going to take that kid in because they went all the way through Calc 3 or whatever the hell. Well above my understanding. Right? And how cool would that be? Just to measure the amount of work they do and the proficiency of that work and say, that's it.

[Chris Reivers]

That's not bad.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We don't have. I don't care if you graduate in 10th grade. It doesn't matter. You can move up, up. We're not going to waste the time to educate you for four years. I mean, Reavers, my kids go to this nice private school, right? It's a nice school. Much of the time they say is spent kind of in downtime. And I know that's true because during COVID they could finish their whole school day in about an hour and 15 minutes.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, as I've also learned from distance learning, because I had a young man that had to do some distance learning for an extended period of time not that long ago. And he'd say, well, I'm done.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's impossible.

[Chris Reivers]

You're not.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Get back on your school for eight hours.

[Chris Reivers]

You're not done. He's like, no, dad, look it, I'm done. I'm already done.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So, yeah, but if that was packets, he could do tomorrow's packet. And you say, get your ass on that next packet. He gets.

[Chris Reivers]

Guess what? It's already may I'm done going to

[Mike Fratelloni]

Florida for the month of January. Doesn't even matter. Get ahead on your packets.

[Chris Reivers]

Let's talk about Quicklinksgolf.com Speaking of working ahead, Mike, you gotta get yourself a free consultation. See what they can build for you. That way I can come up.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm rethinking my whole house. And I'm rethinking, like, how I'm gonna build this into my house. I have it all planned out.

[Chris Reivers]

So go to quicklinksgolf.com and you can see, by the way, you can also see all of their previous projects that they've worked on. It's really cool. And one of the things that's really neat is they have these projection systems too, where, like, you don't need to knock out a whole wall, you can just put up a screen and then you can do it that way and you can enjoy indoor golf all year round. It's pretty cool. It's very cool. They are a local golf simulator company. They offer complete installation services. They also sell DIY packages.

[Mike Fratelloni]

By the way, do it Yourself. That stands for.

[Chris Reivers]

That's what that stands for. And their local showroom is based out of Chaska, Minnesota. Multiple technology options that meet all different price points. And you can meet with them while designing a renovation, a new home or new office space to ensure the dimensions are right for a great simulator row. But your first step is to go online [e-mail] and like I said, schedule that free project consultation. And you can also see those recent projects. It's all [e-mail] and do that and make sure you mention you heard about them on the weekly scramble podcast. And we will be right back. All right. Did you watch? I know the answer to this question, but there's a reason I'm mentioning it. I'm going to guess that you did not watch any of the World Baseball Classic last night.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No, no, I didn't. I did know that was on.

[Chris Reivers]

So do you know the premise of the whole bit?

[Mike Fratelloni]

So guys play baseball against each other

[Chris Reivers]

across the world every three years. It's almost like an Olympic style setting.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

So last night it was USA versus Mexico.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, it's exciting.

[Chris Reivers]

It's pretty cool. So they're down in Houston. Huge, huge contingent of Mexican baseball fans. The atmosphere was incredible. The place was sold out. It was really, really cool. The USA has a really good team this year. Actually, Mexico has a really good team this year. But there's a reason I'm mentioning it. So you're Are you familiar with probably the best pitcher in baseball right now? He's a starting pitcher for the Amigua Montoya. Nope. He is a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates by the name of Paul Skeens.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Paul Skeens. Oh, it's a white guy.

[Chris Reivers]

Yes.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No kidding.

[Chris Reivers]

No kidding.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We got a good pitcher who's a white guy. Yes. Cool. Good for him. He's not Japanese.

[Chris Reivers]

He's from Air Force. Or went to Air Force, but then transferred to LSU for his senior year, where he became the number one overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Quick question, quick side note. Does the Air Force pay nil money to their players?

[Chris Reivers]

No. Are you sure? I don't. Maybe they do now. I.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Would that be a blow your mind?

[Chris Reivers]

There's two reasons I'm bringing this up. So he, along with former Minnesota Twins pitcher Griffin Jacks, who now plays for the Tampa Bay Rays, also went to Air Force, and those two guys bought the entire Air Force Base tickets to this game.

[Mike Fratelloni]

How cool.

[Chris Reivers]

Which was very cool.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That is so cool.

[Chris Reivers]

But here's the reason why I'm bringing it up. So this part of the story you will know because you have daughters. He is currently dating. I don't know if they're engaged. He is dating Livy Dunn, who was a gymnast for lsu, where they met while he was playing baseball. And she was a gymnast.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's where I stalked her.

[Chris Reivers]

And she obviously has gone on to international stardom. Bigger and better things via social media. And in fact, she and I watched the Twins game together.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, she was at.

[Chris Reivers]

When he pitched here because there was

[Mike Fratelloni]

a concert there that day.

[Chris Reivers]

That's right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

So anyway, last night's game, and this is why social media is the best. So in last night's game, Bobby Witt Jr. I know. Just hang with me here.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm deep on these.

[Chris Reivers]

Bobby Witt Jr. Who is the starting shortstop for USA, is also the superstar shortstop for the Kansas City Royals. And he made, in my opinion, one of the best plays I've ever seen personally. It was a great diving stop in the hole at shortstop and then threw the guy out from one knee and deep, almost basically left field. It was incredible. And Skeets, after the game, even said it's one of the best plays I've ever seen made in person. It was incredible. And so when you see the look on his face, because a pitcher is always extremely thankful when a defensive player saves his bacon. Right? Oh, man, my guy's got me right there. And so when you see him, look at Bobby Witt Jr. As he's walking off the field, he's kind of giving me the that, yeah, that's my guy look. And the caption read, paul Skeens looks at Bobby Witt Jr. In a way he's never looked at Livy Dunn. Meaning he goes home to one of the biggest smoke shows in the entire country. But he was happier and more and more enthused by the play. That Bobby Wood Jr. 10 bucks says he's not well, but you get the point. The point was just like he's just a baseball guy. Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You know what I love about Livy Dunn? Somewhere some guy is sick of that, right? The girl's a smoke show. A total beauty physically, mentally. Right. She's just 100% great. And some guy's like, yeah, no thanks. Been there, done that. She's lactose intolerant. Not into it. Right. Whatever problem she has. Because just about every girl you see, if you're a young guy listening to this show and you're feeling a little down because some pretty girl doesn't like you, just remember some pretty girls not liked by a whole bunch of guys.

[Chris Reivers]

What's the line? It was on a T shirt or I can't remember what movie it was from somewhere. And it's just this stunning woman. And the caption just reads, somewhere some guy is sick of that S. Yes, right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They just can't handle or sick of

[Chris Reivers]

her S. That's what I'm saying.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. And the same thing invertedly can happen to men, right? Gray looking guys.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I mean, never would happen to me for an exact guy.

[Chris Reivers]

Deal with it all the time. What are you talking about?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Here's a sports story. I know we're going to jump from baseball just a little bit. Have you followed any of this? Wrexham versus Chelsea. Do you know anything about this soccer game?

[Chris Reivers]

There are two soccer teams.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay, let me tell you briefly about Wrexham. Right. So you know who Rob McEnany is? Oh, yeah, it's the Netflix And Ryan Reynolds. Yes, they have Wrexham the show. So they went ahead and bought this soccer league in. In England. Not a soccer league, a soccer team called Wrexham. That was a beat up team. These two megastars. And Reynolds is worth a billion dollars, they think. And Rob McEnany wrote Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He's been a really successful guy. I didn't know that. Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of the most successful sitcoms in the history of cable television. So he's making a fortune. So they went ahead and paid $2 million for Rex and it wasn't the downstroke that was that big a deal. There's a lot of costs associated with having a team, right? So there's probably a burn rate of multiple millions of dollars a year. So in soccer in Europe, you have leagues, right? And there's like six different levels of soccer. So for example, what's your baseball team called?

[Chris Reivers]

The Faribault Lakers.

[Mike Fratelloni]

The Faribault Lakers. You'd be on the lowest league, right? I'm not saying you're lowest, but you'd be like the lowest league. But then if you beat, if you won your tournament, you would be relegated, you'd move up. I don't know if relegated is only going down and then the person above you, the person who lost that league, would be relegated down to your league.

[Chris Reivers]

There's constant systematic movement within the leagues.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Exactly. So some teams that were at Wrexham's level, every Blue Moon, every year, someone would move up and somebody would move down, right? So because whoever wins the tournament for that year, wins that league, moves up and whoever loses again moves down very, very seldom. In the history of 138 year history of soccer, anybody moved up one year and then the next year moved up again. So you'd move up one level and then win that league and then move up. Right. It's absolutely unheard of. Well, what happened is Wrexham went from the lowest league, moved up the first year, won that, moved up the second year, won that, and moved up three times in a row.

[Chris Reivers]

Right?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Three times in a row is never been done in the history of the sport. Right? Then they were in this tournament where they got to play Chelsea, and Chelsea's in the Premier League and they're the highest. So now Wrexham's two down from them, right? They're playing Chelsea, which is unbelievable. Pac Stadium, I think it was at home. Pac solid. They made a fortune during that game. And they didn't beat them. They lost four to two, right? But they held their own. It was way closer than four to two recently.

[Chris Reivers]

It was.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It was just on March 7th. So they think that this team is now, again, they paid $2 million for it.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, my God, what is it worth?

[Mike Fratelloni]

They can sell this team today for 350 million bucks. Not a bad return on your money. Not a bad return on your money.

[Chris Reivers]

And remind me, I have not seen the Netflix and I'm a huge Ryan Reynolds guy. I think he's funny, I think he's brilliant and I think he's massively underrated. But here's my point. Did they build up a lot of the infrastructure around them. Did they have to build a new stadium? Did they do a lot of that?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't think they built a new stadium. They went out and got awesome players and they said, we're going to spend a little bit, we're going to get guys. And it's really funny because soccer, you don't think getting one stud would do it. Well, they would go get. They'd get a guy from a couple levels up who didn't want to come play down two levels. Because that's. So when you play down two levels, where they started, you could only get guys from England or from England, right? Yeah. You couldn't have any foreign players. But when you moved up, all of a sudden the world was their oyster and they could getting players from around the world. And people would say, I don't want to play in that level of the league. I'm a Premier League player, but I want to go play for Rob and Reynolds. Right. Because these are two Hollywood stars and I want to meet these guys. So they did something that no one else has ever done. If they could move up to the Premier League, which they have a chance to move up one more level, it would not be Premier League, it would be one under. It's still the highest of the high leagues. Right. It's kind of like what the Vikings are in the NFL. Right. We're not good enough to be a real NFL team. We're a secondary team, NFL team. If they could do that, that team might be worth two, three, four billion dollars.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, that's I guess where I was going to go. Because once you attain that level, I mean, there's a reason why guys that own successful NFL teams all buy teams that are in that Premier League because they're money printing machines.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Well, you know, we think it's a big deal. When you, when you look at the super bowl and how many people watch the Super Bowl, 700 million or something?

[Chris Reivers]

Whatever it is. Yeah, right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

The amount of people that will watch the World cup will be in the billions. The multiple billions worldwide for sure. It's a totally different thing. It's night and day, different in size of sports. The NFL is by far the biggest sport here, but across the world it's soccer. And I'm not, you know, I'm not a big soccer lover. But what a business story. If these guys can make this brand and carry this all the way to one less than the Premier League. I don't even know what it's called, but if they can get it to the Premier League, they just took $2 million and moved it into $4 billion.

[Chris Reivers]

That's crazy.

[Mike Fratelloni]

God bless them. And they seem. If you haven't watched the show, Wrexham, and you haven't, like, saw their trials and tribulations where you think they're gonna just kill it, and they don't sometimes, right? And then they, you know, spoiler alert. Three years in a row, they go up. And other teams are relegated down and they go up. Unheard of. What a great story. Good for them. If you spend a moment paying attention to that sport, it's a cool story.

[Chris Reivers]

That's very cool. I wanna talk about our friend Linda Keller and kellertaxservice.com Ladies and gentlemen. You're running out of time. Yeah. I don't want to put the pressure on you, but you're getting close to being a month away from tax filing deadline. And you know what? She's here to help you get on the schedule right now and go to kellertaxservice.com to book your appointment. The other thing you need to do is look at her website. And by the way, she does an amazing job of keeping up to date on all sorts of different tax information. And you know what? Don't let that appointment book of hers fill up right now. Get your stuff in. And the neat thing about. I've been doing my taxes with Melinda for a couple of years now.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You've never even gone to jail.

[Chris Reivers]

No, no. Absolutely not. And here's why. Here's why. It's awesome. She sends me the packet every year. All right, dummy, here's what you got to do. Sign this here, sign that there. And don't forget you need to do this with your withholding or whatever. She's on top of my stuff more than I am.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They just know.

[Chris Reivers]

That's why she's awesome. But she handles it all, and she does it very, very quickly. And she's the absolute best in the business. So book your appointment [e-mail] and let her know you heard about her on the weekly scramble podcast.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Michael Rivers. I don't know. But after an unsuccessful harvest, why did the farmer decide to try a career in music?

[Chris Reivers]

I don't know.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Because he had a ton of sick beets. Reavers. You are the best.

[Chris Reivers]

I was trying to think, okay, what vegetable is he gonna do? Is he gonna do an animal? I wasn't quite sure what he was gonna do. Please do us a favor. Rate and review the show wherever you happen to be listening to the weekly scramble podcast. It helps other people find the show. It helps us out as well. And we appreciate each each and every single one of you. His name is Mike Fratelloni. My name is Chris Reivers. Thank you so very much for listening to the weekly Scramble Podcast. We will talk to you again next time. Until then, cheers.

[Mark Ellis]

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