Racist Mascots (Hour 1)

Transcript

Racist Mascots (Hour 1)

John & Gordy · Thu Jun 12, 2025

Kathryn Lake

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When the chips are down and democracy's back is up against the wall, two radio veterans step up to the microphone to right the wrongs, standing for truth, justice, and just because.

Hey, are they ready to go yet?

It's John and Gordy on 92.7

WMDX.

I know

I've never seen shoes

they they usually use them to keep the doors open here Yeah, yeah You know I get these I order them online kizzix Kizzix Kizzix shoes you might have seen a few ads from them.

They have the Uncrushable heel

on them.

You know how you kind of push your foot in sometimes?

My sons never bend down to tie their shoes.

They tie them once and they slide their feet in every time.

I don't know how they do that, but it would drive me crazy if the shoes were too, too loose.

But with Kizzix, you can tie your shoes as tight as you want and then slide your foot right in there.

Really?

Yeah.

And it never crushes.

the heel always bounces and springs back on your heel, and it's perfect.

You can always, in fact, I got the shoes, I was interested in them because it hurt my back, and I thought I had a permanent back problem, so I was trying to get something that works for me as far as shoes are concerned, and I was able to find the Kizzix, and by the way, Skechers also has the same kind of gizmo on the back of their heels.

They call them slip-ins.

Yeah, I want to try some

of them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See, those are really cool.

So you don't have to bend down if you have a back problem, right?

Certainly.

Yeah.

But now my back is much better.

Don't know how that happened, but now, but I love these things.

Yeah, that's good.

Well, good morning.

Did I go way too long on that?

I think so.

Okay.

All right.

Let me just hold me back.

Just warming up.

That's

okay.

Yeah.

It's eight

minutes

past

John.

There was just

another segment

of just

as

John.

I

don't think we asked you anything, but you know, thanks for sharing.

It's eight minutes past the hour.

It's cloudy this morning and it's a Thursday, June 12th.

Lots of stuff going on today.

The clouds look like they're going to hang in there at least for a while this morning.

And currently 61 degrees.

Do you have your Samsung WMD watch?

Well, I always do.

You know,

it's

WMDX.

What?

I said some other call letter.

That's okay.

Oh, you did.

I transferred half of my old call letters from the TV station to the radio station.

I said WMDU.

I used to work at WMDU.

Now I'm working at WMDX, but I combined, never mind.

What time is it?

Where

are we?

I always get it can be as a WMD as well.

Oh yeah, somebody

call letters so little time.

Well, that's what happens when you get fired all the time.

You have to get a job at a cross town radio station somewhere.

Okay, it's currently 62 degrees and a high of 78 today, a low tonight of 55 degrees, which may be a lot more comfortable than it was this

evening well

let's let's roll the bar dice and see what that says about the

afternoon

high

okay I

got those handy there move the beer aside producer extraordinary flipping the buttons hitting the switches seven and a six the unusual seven die shows up again 76 special

die yeah

right yeah what did you say for high well now you have to check

77

right 77 no 78 okay well good if I said 77 then I'd be thinking of 77 sunset

strip yeah

Yeah, that was a great TV show.

So talking about call letters, you know, there's a big reunion tonight.

There is.

The WIBA reunion.

All the people that ever worked there, which seems like everybody, weren't there at least for a few minutes.

Half of

Madison.

Right.

But they're celebrating 100 years, right?

You

said right.

Yes, of being on the air.

Big wing ding a little bit later on.

I think we're going to make a.

brief appearance.

I think we're

going to have to go there.

Yeah.

Do we know

what time it starts?

Well, I don't know that the Madison Night Market is happening.

That's the thing we have to balance it with the night market.

We got to be down there.

Yeah, we've got our new t-shirts to turn people on to.

Got our John and Gordy t-shirts.

What's the other thing we're going to do?

We're going to hold that up.

Yeah.

So hold it up to the camera.

If you're watching on Facebook or there

you

go.

YouTube or, you know, X

or

wherever.

Can you see it?

Yeah.

Okay, so we've got those t-shirts.

It does not glow in the dark.

It does.

Yeah,

it does

though.

Yeah, it could and we'll also be there talking about our best of Madison nomination.

Oh more important than anything really

you will help you vote if you want.

You know, we'll guide you through the voting process if you show up.

Well, you gotta put your camera, right at the QR code.

Is that what the whole thing is right there?

And

then you get a sticker saying that you voted for Johnny Gordon.

Oh yeah, I got the stickers.

They're over on my desk.

Oh, we got them finally.

Yeah,

yeah.

Pretty snazzy, okay, for a sticker.

What are we getting from Doug?

Doug is piping up already from St.

Francis this morning

on the text.

He

says, has Sage told you guys when he will be done training the AI that's going to take your place?

No, he hasn't.

He hasn't mentioned that yet.

We're kind of waiting word.

Somehow Doug knows these things before we do.

I don't know how that works.

OK, so here it is Thursday a little later on.

Tim Slacker will return.

We haven't talked to him for a couple of weeks.

That's right.

We'll be talking education.

with Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils, and attorney Jim Santel will join us to tell us what the heck's

going on.

There's so many legal things going

on.

I know, we'll be talking about the grand jury indictment of Abrego Carzia.

Okay.

Yeah, and then also he wants to talk about Pam Bondi's press conference.

I

think I have a

cut from that.

I'm not quite sure what we're gonna talk about in regards to that, but we're gonna play that later on.

Jim Santel's gonna talk about that.

Yeah, and then of course the Supreme Court giving access to Doge at the Social Security Administration.

Yes,

yes.

We'll be talking about that as well, and I want to ask him about cork baiting.

Now I mentioned this to you the other day, but yeah, Trump's plan is to court bait.

What you do is you bring a case to the court and it's an unpopular case and the court will have to make a decision and they'll make the decision that will probably anger the base of Trump.

So in other words, it'll anger the cultists out there and they will turn

the public against the courts.

This will influence the courts.

So it's court-baiting.

Well, that's a new term.

I've never heard it before either, but there are a lot of new things from this administration.

So, Dom, I want to ask you a question.

Oh, God.

What's going on over here in the studio?

What did you put a microphone in front of?

The tornado.

The fan.

Why

did you

do that?

Listen,

the reason was because it

was

It was blocking your view.

It was blocking your view, Gordy, on

YouTube.

Oh, OK.

So it was

blocking the camera?

It was

blocking the camera completely.

OK.

I thought you were going to put the mic over there because

you

wanted some wind sound or something.

Before?

Well, that's what I thought, too.

It's kind of a special effect here.

That's good.

OK.

So you're going to be with us at Night Market at least for a little while.

I will be for a while.

I'll be setting up.

So you get to meet our new producer, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm excited.

Did you fall out of bed again this morning?

I did

not.

My foot is fully healed now, and I didn't fall out of bed this time.

Good.

I just want to prepare you.

Sam used to man the table down at the night market.

Yeah, he was there from the beginning to the end, and he was there hosting the... The big wheel.

Well, yeah.

The prize wheel.

The prize wheel.

Sure.

And that...

I think is something you're going to have to big shoes to fill.

Well, we'll show you that.

Exactly what I was

going to say.

OK, so here it is the 12th day of June.

Anything on the history books or in the birthday file.

Dom, what do you have for

us?

Yeah, so we didn't do this yesterday, but first Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark was released today, 1981.

And we have that theme.

That's a great thing.

In

her music.

Oh, do we really?

We've got Raiders of the Lost Ark.

You might want to throw that in as we continue to talk about Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Boy, that was a great movie.

It sure was.

Yeah, it's still a great movie.

The Rolling Rock in there.

I know.

Outrun.

That was a tribute to a scene in Journey to the Center of the Earth with James Mason and Pat Boone.

They were, you know, going to the center of the earth and this giant rock came loose and it rolled.

It was one of those round rocks.

Perfectly round.

And it rolled right toward them.

They had to outrun it and jump over a cliff in order to get away from the rock.

It's just fantastic stuff.

There you go.

Right there.

See?

It's great.

Yeah.

Wow.

This is beautiful.

Have you seen the movie?

I have I actually have not seen

really well.

This is you gotta see it.

Yeah, you definitely have to watch all Well the first two at late three on the

Indiana Jones movie

the three and then I know there's a really bad one in there Yes, I actually I can't say the rest of them were any good.

Yeah, okay.

They're a little cliche to where I don't know why speedberg did that but

But not, you know, he makes such great movies, right?

And then he has these cliches that he overemphasizes.

Okay.

Yeah, but the first two

are really good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anything else in the history or in the... Yeah,

so Harry Houdini did his first performance today.

I don't know the exact date, but it was a straight jacket escapee and he was on a crane and he was...

Upside

down.

Upside down, yeah.

So that was his first Harry Houdini act.

Who played him in the

movie?

Was it Tony Curtis?

I think so.

I think so, I think you're right.

Yeah, they had a movie about Houdini.

Yeah, Harry Houdini, first really amazing performance magician, I guess you'd say.

Birthdays?

Yeah,

birthdays.

Blake Ross.

Blake Ross, he was the founder of Firefox, which is, in my opinion, not the best web browser, at least that's just my humble opinion.

Well, when was the last time you checked to see whether it has improved or not?

Today.

Still out there?

Really?

Yes, StreamYard uses Firefox every day.

Oh,

no kidding.

And it

always has problems.

I

kind of use Firefox a lot for the senses.

I had to look up properties and stuff like that.

But I liked it and I saw all the updates they put on it.

I thought maybe it improved dramatically.

But then again.

Once

I get out of StreamYard, I'm sure it'll be way better.

The whole thing is with Edge now, and they save all the passwords, I go with Edge because it's cross-platforms.

You have it on your phone, you have it on the home computer, and then you have it on your laptop.

pretty nice.

All right.

Just ask John.

Okay, thanks.

I'm

sorry.

Birthdays?

And then, yeah, we got

two more.

We got Brad Delp, who

I

didn't know that was, but he was an American rock, he was an American musician.

And then we have Anne Frank, 1929.

All right.

Those were the three.

Well, the sad news is, the very sad news is that Brian Wilson passed away.

Right.

Dementia.

You've been battling that for quite a while, and a lot of people have taken advantage of that with Brian Wilson.

Yeah.

He did some touring to get some of that money back, but just an incredible, incredible legacy of music left behind.

A musical

genius and a great songwriter and singer.

Yeah.

really the leader of the Beach Boys

compliments going back and forth from Beatles to the Beach Boys.

It was just incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we're going to play a little bit of Beach Boys from time to time this morning, including this one.

Great song in my room.

Coming up, we'll be talking with Tim Slecker shortly and also in our next hour, Jim Santel and of course, Viscani Summer Text and Wind Contest all coming up on John and Gordy in the morning.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

92.7

WMDX.

Little Beach Boys here.

God only knows this is Paul McCartney's favorite song of all time.

Yeah.

Which encouraged him to really broaden a lot of his songwriting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is one of the great ones.

Really is.

It's John and Gordy in the morning.

6.23 cloudy today.

highs in the mid-70s.

Maybe a couple of sprinkles or showers along the way.

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Okay.

Yeah, another thing about the Beach Boys and the early songs that they produced, car songs.

At the same time, they did the surf songs as well, but the car songs are super important at that time because, you know, the old saying was, my kingdom for a car.

You know, we really looked up to cars.

Wheels gave us freedom.

Yes.

We couldn't wait to get our driver's license and cruise around.

Yes.

And teens in those years and getting

their hot

rods every once in a while, you'd get an old car.

Just an old car.

They were always available at the Boneyard and you'd fix it up a little bit.

They were easy to work on because most of them were like straight, straight sixes, you know.

Right.

Yes.

But the whole thing here was, you know, world for a car.

I mean, you just needed those wheels and Diana Shore used to.

about seeing the USA in a Chevrolet, right?

Yes.

Yeah, and, you know, of course, the driving movies were kind of a new thing.

Take

the car out to that.

It was the center of everybody's universe at the time.

So it was really important.

I know that may be hard to believe for Gen Zers out there to understand how important the car was, because nowadays they don't even get a driver's license.

They

just get around on

their own little scooters and stuff.

All this about, you know, I was doing, when I was doing the census survey.

people would complain to me about their kids still being at home and not having a driver's license.

And I identified with them because my kids were the same way.

There's

quite a few friends of mine that still don't have their driver's

license, right?

That would never have happened in the 60s.

Unbelievable.

Yeah, but the Beach Boys had a lot of great car songs.

I remember 409.

Yeah, it

was one of the first records I ever bought was 409

because they started out with them.

You know, I mean, had the

had the engine sound in

there.

She's real fine.

Oh,

yeah.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

Yeah.

So sad for the passing of Brian Wilson yesterday.

82

years old.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Little leader of the Beach Boys.

Last of the Wilson brothers.

Carl Wilson died a number of years ago.

And of course, Dennis Wilson drowned.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, this guy was the surfer in the group and he drowned.

Yes.

So not good, not

good.

Right.

And yeah, Beach Boys.

I mean, just a big part of our growing up lives, years in line, and people our age.

And I had the chance to, when they were playing in South Bend, I got on stage with the Beach

Boys.

Yes, you did.

That's right.

I remember that.

Now,

Brian wasn't with the band at that time

because he had separated

from

the band for a long time.

But Mike Love was still there.

You know a couple of the other guys.

He was not

an

Al

Jardine.

Mike Love was not a nice

guy.

No, he wasn't.

He was very standoffish.

We met him, you know, before the show and explained, you know, they have a part in the show where they get a local celebrity to come up on stage during Barbaran because you can't screw up that song too badly.

You know, it's really

pretty easy song.

Give you a tambourine to go on on stage.

Yeah, pretty much, but I'm

standing right next to Mike Love.

Right.

And the same

microphone.

And

I'm like, my God,

you

know, what a, what a, what an awesome presence.

And he had

to keep pushing away from the mic.

You know, Gordy wanted to kind of take over.

Yeah, he wouldn't let me.

Oh, he was, they were nice enough, but yes, very standoffish.

Yeah.

Little odd.

But yeah, anyway, that's my Beach Boys story.

All right.

Well, you know, the big news is that a plane went down.

Yeah.

In India, I believe yes over 250 passengers.

I would assume our

All dead at this point.

They showed the takeoff or the attempted takeoff.

Yeah, and you could just see the plane descend.

Yeah, really.

And then the ball of flames.

So it's I mean, it's horrific.

Absolutely horrific.

And I always thought, why pack so many people on an airplane?

Because I don't trust airplanes in the first place.

And I don't think everybody should either.

But this was going to 767.

You pack so many people on these things.

I mean, so many people can die so suddenly.

Yes.

So.

I don't

know.

We don't know the cause, of course,

early on, but

they was headed toward London.

We're seeing clips right now of the protest in California.

Is it just me?

Or are there very few protesters out there for the entire length of this discussion?

have been very few protesters in the streets.

I don't get this.

This is, they're overdoing it.

This is a show.

This is a

show.

It's all for the video.

I'm telling you, yes, that's all it is.

It's

ridiculous.

My

God.

I mean, the crowds are actually people watching.

You know, what's happening with the police and the National Guard?

The military is still not out there yet.

Thank God.

But this whole thing is just a fiasco.

And then what they did was now they're arresting all these people because they were out after curfew.

And they were the violators.

Hey, to the full extent of our law, let's, let's prosecute them.

My

God, this is just out of hand.

Yes, it is.

It's 29 past the hour when we come back.

Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils talking education on John and Gordy in the morning.

Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up

jet without wings.

That was the land speed record I believe.

Spirit

of

America Beach Boys and Brian Wilson passed away.

John and Courtney celebrating his musical legacy here on John and Courtney in the morning.

635, it's cloudy, maybe a couple of sprinkles or showers here and there, but for the most part, just mostly cloudy today and highs in the mid-70s.

This portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.

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Okay.

All right.

Back again from the long vacation he took, moving and getting a new job.

and everything else.

Traveling around the country.

It's Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils joining us today.

And he's all dressed

up with a suit

and tie and everything.

It's what?

I

said, I felt so bad about, you know, all of the neglect I was.

Putting forward, so I had to show up today and express my sincere sorrow and ask your forgiveness.

So you dress like a view, but couldn't hold to grudge.

Why are you dressed this way, though?

Really?

Is

that your new job?

Well,

I mean, yeah, but today, too, is a...

the first lunch with the University Board of Trustees.

Oh, yes.

And

this will be the first time they get to meet me.

And I figured that my, you know, ACDC rock and roll t-shirt wouldn't be appropriate.

Well, I don't know.

Tim, you should just test it out.

See what happens.

Some of you are the rebel, man.

You're the guy.

I was listening to your current podcast that's dropped a few days ago.

And one of the topics that I think is really, really interesting at this point, history teachers, how do they cover current events in this country in the classroom because of all of the problems with DEI and

things you

can't say in class these days?

you know, because of the propaganda supposedly or the indoctrination, how does a teacher relate to the students when they want to know a little bit more about this stuff?

I you you stick to Fox News speaking.

Do

you have that in every classroom too?

Just keep the Fox News app on your phone, keep it running in the background and you know because

you

will be getting the other side's story of of their you know their their plight of oppression.

Um, being conservatives and you know, typically we don't hear their side of the story.

Oh, that's true.

Yes.

We never hear about it.

Yeah.

You

know,

um, and again, they have a hard time, you know, seeing anything because people always try to silence them, you know, and yes,

yes.

It's, it's, it's, uh, you know, one of those things.

No, it's, you know, we bring this up because it because of, yeah, this administration and the way things are going.

It's been really kind.

of pressing to think about, okay, how do I present current events in a kind of atmosphere where it feels like that things might be off limits because of getting in trouble and teachers don't want to do that.

And what Johnny and I were trying to bring back is saying, you know,

We have to really guard against making decisions like that because the responsibility, not just history teachers, all teachers, when things like this happen and kids come in and are asking questions, the reality here is that teachers, you are in that space to help the students make sense of what's going on.

that doesn't mean that you're taking a position that you're indoctrinating and in fact avoiding those conversations because of a fear that you might get in trouble really continues to then be a real detriment to learning and continues to kind of

push forward this idea that we don't talk about quote, controversial issues.

And the reality that we're believing that current events are controversial, that's what we need to be talking about.

There are questions, there's a clarity that a teacher can bring to those conversations.

I think what you're hearing though now is that there's a real fear that even being from a position of just providing clarity,

feels like they might be accused

of

some type of indoctrination and you know that's a real frightening point so we have been really pointing you know forward to say but that is your responsibility as a teacher is to again not quote take a position but to help students really try to say here are the facts here's what we know here's what's happening

You know and be ready for when well at home last night though my dad said this or I was watching this and you say

Okay, I understand where your dad's coming from.

Um, here are the issues and, and these are the people have, you even point out people have their own, um, you know, ability to make their own decisions and to hold their own positions.

But here in school, here are the facts that we know.

Let's talk about them and then kind of go, well, what do you guys think?

Because that's what it means to be a teacher is to engage in these conversations.

And I think in this app.

though, teachers are just really frightened by the possibility.

And, you know, and that comes back to going and saying, you know, and remember, that's really the

The goal anyway of putting forward all these regulations They won't stick they can't hold up in court or any of those things.

They don't have to just putting forward They have the effect of silencing teachers,

right?

Well, you know one of the things I think is more difficult to explain is reality from what is being talked about and said in the media

And I, how do you deal with something like that?

Like when I'm watching the coverage of the protests in LA, I'm not seeing a lot of protesters.

So they're acting like, you know, LA is in flames.

It's blown up.

And what we're seeing is completely different from that.

So how do you discuss the problem of making those two topics work together or be able to talk about it without sounding partisan?

Well, I think on this one too, though, you you you come out from the standpoint of saying, you know, media represents

places where they happen to be.

And so the reality of saying, you know, there's a car burning in this episode of the news that you're watching.

And

in this other channel, there's people, you know, peacefully putting flowers in the barrels of the guns.

And the reality is, is to point out and say, these things are potentially both happening.

But the interesting thing to talk about here is this is a media literacy moment to point out that guess what?

People who put our news on make choices and decisions about what it is they are going to show.

And therefore, that influences the message that we as consumers of media are there.

And so this is again.

What does it mean to be a really responsible, active citizen in a democracy?

It is being aware that media, all media, has an ability to try to influence us from what's really going on.

That's right.

And I know Johnny brought up in your discussions the fact that a lot of these politicians are using the students as cannon fodder.

in all of this they're putting them in between and it's making it more difficult because the students are now being used themselves as part of this propaganda.

Yeah I mean yeah so again what the and it's not just L.A.

now right

I mean the protests

spreading

right right

you know and and then there's this conversation of saying you know

what's actually driving this, and we're moving into, does this administration actually really know what they're doing by putting forward reasons to kind of...

take a certain part of the protesting population and really push them into positions to create acts of

violence.

Talking with Dr. Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils, a podcast that you can hear on the Civic Media radio network.

And I want to move on to this thing with Linda McMahon.

You set

that up.

What's this deal about her in mascots?

What's this all about?

Well, yes, she's out there.

You know, she's

of course, tearing apart the Department of Education at the same time.

Busy doing that.

But she is very busy defending racist mascots.

If you can believe this.

Racist mascots.

Racist mascots.

So let's listen to this cut.

This is Linda McMahon talking to the press about racist mascots.

Okay.

All right.

Now, at this point, you might be asking yourself, does anyone in this cabinet even know what their job is?

Well, based on what Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been up to.

Education

Secretary Linda McMahon weighed in on Long Island's continuing mascot battle.

She was in massive people yesterday.

It's one of 13 districts fighting to keep Native American school nicknames and mascots.

The state says if the mascots are not changed by June, funds will be withheld.

But McMahon says the ban violates civil rights because names and mascots of other racial and ethnic groups are still allowed.

We

reserve the right to turn over this investigation to the Department of Justice because that's how serious we are about

this.

Great use of your time, Education Secretary.

China's schools are producing a million engineers a minute, but it's okay because our students will know how to do the Tomahawk chop.

All

right.

Wow.

You know, taking up this mascot issue is just ridiculous.

It truly is.

And then, of course, you know, her philosophy is, or at least the administration's philosophy is, if you do one thing, then that means you can't do another thing.

And so it negates everything.

You can't do anything at this point, right?

I mean, it's just a

free-for-all in education.

I mean, there, you know, the fact is too, and I saw the other defense of this was to say, well, wait a minute.

These mascots honor these.

Indigenous groups of the past and how racist it is to want to take away these mascots that are standing there Proclaiming how amazing the indigenous populations are these are not racist mascots These are tributes to the greatness of the Native American populations that were wiped out again The the logic and things like you hear here.

It's just like yeah, first of all.

Yeah, what is Linda McMahon?

I like the

bit there too about China's producing a million engineers and we've got students that continue to hold on to their Tomahawk chop or their hoot and things like that.

Again, what is happening here?

I think this conversation though actually does take away from the fact of, okay,

Linda McMahon, you're dismantling the Department of Education.

We're now going to actually focus on this crazy thing when we should really be deeply digging into going, wait a minute, we're dismantling an entity that really provides resources for students across the country who don't have adequate resources and instead were blurred.

by, you know, her doing a suplex on, she's suplexing

DEI.

Well, we've got more of DEI coming up in just a few moments too from Linda McMahon.

Stay with us.

We'll continue our conversation with Dr. Tim Slecker in a moment on John and Gordy in the morning.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Stephanie Miller here.

Listen up, my pals John and Gordy are up for best radio team in Madison Magazine's best of Madison poll.

I know, I was surprised too.

Just kidding, please vote for them because they lead into my show and when they do well, it helps me out too.

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fantastic.

That's Stephanie Miller,

of course.

John and Gordy in the morning, WMDX.

We are up for best of manners.

If you want to find out how to vote, you can go to wmdxradio.com.

All the information is right there.

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We'll help you decide how to vote.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, that sounds fantastic.

Why don't we get to a great cut from Linda McMahon?

We love

talking about Linda McMahon.

Back with Dr. Tim Slecker.

Tim

Slecker and Busted Pencils.

So let's play this.

This is the reporter doing all the work in this one.

So let's hear it.

Linda McMahon.

Are you not telling the administration how to run their admissions process?

Do you not think that by the only admission of Harvard that only 3% of their faculty were conservatives?

Do you think that's a diversity of viewpoint on campus?

Because you can't possibly believe that.

And I do think that that's one of the things that Harvard and Columbia and other universities are taking a serious look at is what is that balance?

And I think that that's

trying to figure out where these intersect.

On one hand, you're saying that they should be focused on merit-based admissions and that they should not engage in diversity, equity, inclusion practices.

But then at the same time, you're saying that they need to admit more conservative students.

Well, the case of the students versus Harvard.

I mean, my goodness, the Supreme Court clearly said that we have to look at

Harvard's admission process because they are not doing it on merit.

And so that was very clear, and that is the standard that we have to look at.

And so this is where McMahon and the Department of Education and the White House are justifying cutting off these funds and the $2 billion in grants and cutting and ending foreign visa service opportunities for students to study at Harvard.

Part of their justification is the Title VI civil rights violations that they claim

through DEI programs and admissions hirings that Harvard, they say, is engaged in at the same time.

She is making the case that it is incumbent upon Harvard to also admit more conservative students.

And there you have her response in terms of seemingly contradictory statements.

Yes, seemingly.

No actual contradictions.

I

don't hear that.

Really?

You know, yes, being a very firm supporter of DEI, I hear her very much pointing out that the oppression over the years that conservatives have faced in academia.

It merits them to a special status that they're above DEI and need to be considered because no one's advocating for conservatives.

And the education department and the federal system of justice is here to level the playing field.

This is not DEI when you're restoring the rights of an oppressed group.

That's right.

You know, so.

And if

anybody, you know, it's funny, I would go into a like a rant like that on our show.

And

you got to watch Johnny's face because Johnny, he doesn't do he doesn't do sarcasm.

And he gets this he gets this look on his face like, where?

Oh, my God, what happened to Tim?

He doesn't react to sarcasm.

Well, he doesn't.

It's not on his radar.

He's not on his radar.

Yeah.

I

know.

That's what I love about hearing you two guys go.

But it you know, I mean that's the argument that she is trying to potentially put forth Which was one of the things that we did say about why DEI matters is is that there are long term oppressed groups oppressed viewpoints that have for the longest time been silenced by the majority and so we use DEI to say let's bring

those oppressed voices to a place where they should be also heard.

And they're attacking that.

But then wanting to come back and say, but our oppressed group needs DEI treatment.

And you're going, OK.

What's

going on here?

The heads explode.

It's a bizarro world.

By the way, I have one of your favorite listeners on the line right now.

Mark has a question.

Mark, we got to keep it

quick.

I only got a minute,

so.

Yeah, for Trump's parade, maybe somebody needs to be standing behind Donald Trump, like the old Roman triumphs, when the general was getting his triumph.

Whisper in his ear, remember the Lord and mortal.

Remember the Lord and mortal during the whole damn parade.

That and and that's I mean that's to remind the man that he is indeed more long He is not you know some god.

We're supposed to be worshiping.

I mean that shows, you know, I can read that frequently in the history books and But Trump is getting a little too big for his britches and maybe he needs to get that little reminder and it's historically significant

Well, Mark, thank you for that call.

I hope there's some kind of court case arguing the same point that McMahon could not wiggle her way out of in regards to a simple report or a product's question.

And that's the kind of reporting that we should be looking for at this point.

You know, and that goes back to saying, I mean, you know, this, that's media's job.

And we're talking to students and stuff.

You know, those are the hard questions they should be asking.

And so as students, we want to prepare them to be able to think deeply about going, you know, here when people are trying to pull your leg, because that's what's, you know, it's, it's the old, don't tell me something in the shower when I know what's really happening.

Exactly.

We'll leave it there.

Dr. Tim Slecker busted pencils.

new podcasts Monday, Wednesday and Friday and their show on the weekends on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

We also had an AI cut that we wanted to play for you that would just freak you out.

We'll get to that next time.

Thank you, Tim.

All

right, guys.

Coming up next, it's our Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Contest.

We'll reveal the key word in just a few minutes on John and Gordy in the morning.

Stay with us.

Kathryn Lake

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