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.
Broadcasting from the top of the pile of books that my microphone is sitting on.
This is Johnny Gordy in the morning on WMDX.
Good morning.
Now, if we had just a few more books, we could look a little bit more professional, I think.
You think
so?
Yeah.
I'll bring some of my Diary of What Would Be Kid Books.
All right, how
about that?
All right.
All right, maybe I could also bring in some of my Berenstain Bear books that I used to read to the kids.
I used to have the World Book Encyclopedias, you know, they had 20
volumes
or so, and they had different, they were different thicknesses, you know, depending on what part of the alphabet it was.
Well, so that way, you know, you have a choice
and it looks like we're eligible like we're going through those books.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is really nice.
It's very important.
We should have a book review club.
John Agoury's book review.
What books are you using today?
So you can see the.
I could see Bill you can see the titles I can't yeah the president is missing is one of the
titles
that's a that's a Bill Clinton James Patterson book
yeah they've
got a franchise
now
yeah they've got I think three books out
One of them is called the unanswered questions with Ray McGinnis.
I don't know anything about that.
And the one that I brought in, you're using today encyclopedia of word and phrase origins.
That's a good one.
That's a big one.
Yeah.
That really helps out a
lot of pages.
Stimulating read.
I'm going with the classics here.
Oh, you are.
Yeah.
The Milton Berle private joke file, volume one and volume two.
Really old jokes from like the 30s and
40s.
They would go very well.
Oh my God,
they're so
awful.
So awful.
But Tom, you know, he's got a boom stand.
He actually
has a very nice boom stand.
I feel, yeah, I feel very bougie.
I feel bad for you guys.
I have a full set up here.
And you guys have
half a
set up.
But I
understand they're on the way, you know, so.
Wait a minute, you've been saying that for the last two
months.
Well, that's what I understand.
I don't know.
It could be wrong.
We got the fancy new table and all the drill holes in the table.
Everything looks like it's all ready to go.
You know, it's
all it's all good.
You know,
it's all good.
Yeah, maybe somewhere in a harbor someplace off the coast of California.
They have a huge, huge container filled with boom stands.
It's
the supply chain issue.
We've had it before.
That's it.
That's it right there.
I'm
sure they're sitting in a crate somewhere, but not anywhere near here, apparently.
Nine minutes past the hour.
It's a cloudy start this morning and still feeling kind of muggy out there.
Don't you think?
Well, I
think
so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
Let's see, currently the WMDX thermometer right outside our window here on State Street says 64 degrees.
That's with the mercury.
That's really
nice.
What is your WMDX
Samsung watch?
Window is pretty accurate, usually.
It is.
My watch is 63 degrees today, currently, but a high of 84.
84 degrees.
84.
Well, let's see, what should we use today?
How about the bar dice?
I like it.
OK, let's throw the bar dice there, Dom, and see what we can come up with.
OK, slam it down.
OK.
Well, one of them is an eight, one of them is a zero.
How do you get a zero on a piece of die?
Well, we got the special dice.
So 80.
But yours is saying 84.
Yeah, that's
quite a difference right there.
But I'm usually right.
So I hate to say it.
but Samsung
is right on the money.
So it's cloudy this morning, but I do expect we're going to see a lot of sunshine
through
the day.
It's going to be warm and getting even warmer the next few days.
Yeah.
Really.
The heat is really going to hit us Friday, Saturday, Sunday in the nineties and feeling like it's a hundred.
So we'll check in with Brittany Merleau a little bit later on.
And of course, in about 25 minutes, we'll talk to Tim Slecker from Busted Pensies.
We got
a
whole bunch of questions.
We do.
Yeah, we got a lot of questions.
Yeah, a great podcast on Wednesday dropped.
And there's a lot of good topics in that.
I want to get a little bit deeper into the weeds with Tim about some of the issues that they're talking about.
So we'll certainly get into that.
And also, I hope if we have time to talk about calm.
Corners
in your
in your classrooms.
Yes, okay
All
right, so I'll give you a little tip there.
They're trying to put in special lighting sound a quiet place where a person can go to chill out in the classroom if they're having difficulty in some way shape or form I don't know what that
would be but anyway,
they're
And the problem I have with it, it doesn't say anything about walls.
It doesn't say anything about a different room.
So how do you have special lighting in a corner of the classroom?
I don't know.
See,
anyway, that's I don't
know how that
works.
We'll see how that
works.
We're also going to welcome in Jim Santel in our seven o'clock hour.
Yeah, attorney at law will straighten us out on whatever is going on legally.
Well, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on legally.
And you know, some of those decisions really are really questionable.
I mean, the banning or allowing a ban.
on transgender care for children is just absolutely outrageous.
Big decision that came down.
And it was a partisan vote on the Supreme Court, which it shouldn't be.
It shouldn't be like that.
And now they're making medical decisions.
These are the Republicans that don't want... I have bureaucrats getting in the way of what people, the freedom that people have to make their own decisions.
So they're right in the middle of this thing.
And all the way through the transgender issue is mentioned the word sex all the way through.
And then their decision says this has nothing to do with sex.
Wow, transgender, nothing to do with sex.
All right, anyways, six of the conservative Supreme Court justices thought that was true.
I
don't know.
Well, we'll talk to Jim Santel and find out his take on all of that in our seven o'clock hour.
So it's 13 minutes past the hour.
Let's check out the national day.
Well, we don't do the national
day anymore.
It's so boring.
Every year, the same day comes up and the same things in the calendar come up.
So we've decided to kind of skip this feature completely, except, you know, we have a curiosity.
Well, except when there's something really important on it, right?
Yeah.
Like
Juneteenth, that's that is a big one.
The story of Juneteenth.
Yeah.
Juneteenth, you know, the background on that is it began in Texas when that Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 19th in 1865 with the announcement.
They didn't know this for a long time, but slavery had ended.
I mean,
the word took a long time to get to Galveston, Texas.
So so they picked this day to, you know,
Talk about Juneteenth and commemorating the end of slavery in
the US.
We kind of touched on that.
I think yesterday or the day before where, you know, the funding for Juneteenth is depleting.
They're cutting it because DEI is a very bad thing.
In fact, it's illegal, according to Trump.
I don't know.
He can make up laws now.
Well, if we were going to check out the National Day calendar, this would be one that you'd really like.
It's National Watch Day, because I know
you're in love with your Samsung Watch.
Smart watches, that's what they're called.
Yeah.
Not regular watch.
Do you like the regular watches?
I like regular watches.
I don't know why it doesn't do much.
It just sits around your wrist with the time.
But it's not big and
clunky like
the thing
that your computer that you're wearing on your forearm.
Well, you have to have a computer on your wrist nowadays, don't you?
No.
Pretty soon they're going to be in
your
glasses.
You don't need that.
It gives a dew point and everything, too.
So it's like, what is the dew point?
Yeah, we didn't ask about the dew point.
What is that?
I don't know.
We got it right on your forearm.
Come on.
It
takes a while to go a
little deeper.
I got to get into
the app.
All right, in the meantime, it's World Sauntering Day.
Who doesn't love
a good saunter?
We love sauntering.
Did we ever cover that before?
I don't
remember having World Sauntering Day
before.
I don't know what
the difference is between a slow walk, you know, and a stroll and a saunter.
I'm not sure which is the slowest or which is the quickest.
Yeah, you'd wonder maybe it's a horse thing, you
know, a horse bit of sauntering.
It's also National Garfield the Cat Day.
I know you're a big fan of Garfield the Cat, the cartoon.
No, I'm not.
Yeah.
I thought you were.
The
dew point is 62
degrees.
Well, anytime it's above 60, it starts to get a little dicey.
And when you have the humidity at 100%, and that's what it's at's unbearable right now.
Yeah, it is.
That's where it's at.
Man,
okay.
The definition of saunter, walk in a slow, relaxed manner without hurry or effort.
There we go.
OK, thank you.
The
more you know.
The more you know, that's right.
Yes, that's right.
OK, what do we have in the history book there, Tom?
The history
books,
the history books.
Let's
check it out.
Well, I mean, you know, birthdays,
anything else
you
got for history, birthdays.
All right, so in 1960, the first NASCAR race is actually held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
1960.
I don't watch a whole lot of NASCAR, so it's not.
Super important to me, but I know a bunch of other people really love NASCAR.
And then in 1951, the invention of Velcro.
So there... 1951?
1951.
They held off using that for
quite a long
time.
They didn't know what to
do with it.
They were
like,
what is this good for?
We struggled with buttons for years.
Yes, we did.
All right.
Okay, anything else?
Yes.
And then on this day, James Gandolfini.
dies at age 51 What year was it was just two or three years ago?
Yeah, I was I think that was almost I was a long time ago.
It was definitely more than five years ago.
I
would have to
really.
Yeah.
Oh,
I was gonna look
Don't you have what hey Google on your
We
used to get answers that
way
He died in 2013.
Wow, you're right.
He died.
I didn't realize
it was that long, 12 years ago.
Time flies,
time
flies.
What's, what's your dude?
Well, it
hurts when you say hey Google.
So it's
asking me what I want.
12 years ago.
I'm, you know, I'm probably a bigger Sopranos fan.
I
never watched
Sopranos.
I was even
then.
I see a lot of clips on the phone now that pop up.
Yeah.
Anyway, all right.
Anything else there, Dom?
We've
got two birthdays as well.
Two birthdays as well, yes.
1978, former NBA star, Dirk Nowiskey, was born on this day.
Who?
Dirk Nowiskey.
Oh yeah, Dirk Nowiskey.
From the Mavericks.
And then Ann Wilson, rock singer from the 1950s.
Born in 1950.
She was born in 1950.
She was in the band Hart.
She's
still in the band Hart.
They're still playing around.
Yeah, they finally got, you know, they had some differences.
They did.
And Nancy
and they didn't talk to each other for a few years and now they're back on tour again.
Well, that's great.
And I believe Anne is in a wheelchair.
I'm not certain about that.
Yeah.
I could have that wrong.
OK.
But they had some great songs.
You know, a lot of those older groups played acoustic sets.
Yeah.
And in rock sets.
And that's what I liked about the old, old groups.
They could do both.
Nowadays, it's just kind of, you know, either hard rock or, you know, you're a folk singer.
Right.
But they don't combine the two.
Remember the like 10, 10 years after did Acoustic Things?
Yeah.
Deep Purple did a few.
Yeah.
Those were the days.
Slade.
Slade.
Slade
Remember slayed I
remembered I just remember the name slayed.
I don't remember anything about the band.
It's a big group in England.
Okay had a few songs here in the US, but
19 minutes past the hour We're just getting started on a Thursday morning.
We'll be back with more of John and Gordy in just a few moments
It's a bit cloudy out there.
Yeah.
What are we listening to?
This is the Illinois Free Press.
No, Illinois Speed
Press.
Speed
Press, is it?
Speed, isn't it?
Yeah,
Speed
Press.
Illinois Speed Press, correct.
That's right, okay.
Paul Cotton on the guitar.
Yeah, you
see, you were a big, you're kind of a fan of
this.
I saw them one time.
I can't remember where, somewhere around Chicago area, but yeah, they were great.
They were great.
And that song is called Free Ride.
Yeah, I was trying to find a heart song, but I got signed out of YouTube, so I got to sign it.
Don't know how.
What?
Yeah, it's weird.
Yeah, Illinois Speed Pro, they were really, really good.
And then Paul Catton left the band to join Poco.
after that one of their guys that's probably the reason why we never heard back from them because that
song was so good
and yeah this portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by Verlo mattress you can wake up and sleep better on a Verlo mattress a lot has changed since 1958 some things have remained constant though through Verlo's history they're still direct to consumer
They still provide superior products at unbeatable prices and they still have two Madison locations, east side and west side.
Go to burlo.com for more information and check out their lifetime comfort guarantee,
okay?
I saw this headline, I thought it was really interesting.
Nine food brands that won't survive RFK Junior's ban on colorants.
really yes
now I saw I heard about this coloring black band as much as we think he's a complete
idiot and he is he's right about the food coloring situation the FDA for some reason has not banned all these food colorings that are banned in Europe
and
they know best and and
The line in this story goes, we never realized that we're eating petroleum-based chemicals banned in much of Europe.
So that's where the food coloring comes from.
Petroleum-based.
Yes.
And some of the products that might have a problem with this is Hostess Cupcakes.
Oh,
no.
That uses dark chocolate and, of course, strawberry colorings.
That is red 40, red 40.
There's two red forties, Blue Lake, two and Blue One Lake.
and yellow five.
Boy, I'm
glad we're getting rid of him because those are really
bad food colorings.
And then, you know, Mars has a problem also with all of these colorings.
So
they're going to have a problem with some of their candies.
They
have a slogan, taste the rainbow.
Well, I ain't going to happen anymore.
And what about M&M's?
Yeah,
big thing.
Big thing, yeah, the M&M's are going to be changed.
They're going to have to change the skittles, M&M's,
the
coloring in that.
They're going to use fruits and vegetable extracts, which is just a little bit more expensive, and those are the extracts for coloring.
in Europe and in other countries
that
have banned all these petroleum based colorings.
Will we notice a difference in the colors?
Do you think?
I mean,
they're, that's why they don't use it.
Well, it's a little more expensive to use, but also they're not sure how the colorings stand up in their baking and cooking and processing.
Sitting on the shelves of convenience stores for two or three years.
Hosts is going
to
have a problem with that.
I raised my kids on Twinkies because I knew what it did.
me.
I became tall, strong, manly.
Sure.
Wow, that's big news.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's really wild.
They have special colorings are worried about some of these products like runts.
I don't even know what a runt is.
Do you know that, Dom?
Do you know what a runt?
I have no clue
what a runt is.
It's candy, right?
It is a candy.
Yeah, some sort.
They're worried about Reese's Puffs.
These are
cereals now,
cinnamon, toasted crunch, honey nut Cheerios, cookie crisps, and of course, tricks.
Oh.
Tricks are for kids.
I know.
And so are those food colorings.
Wow.
You know, my kids stopped eating.
We used to buy tricks.
We
used to buy the off brands, which sometimes tasted even better.
But they stopped eating it.
And the containers stayed in the cabinet.
And I said, this is it.
We're not eating food colorings anymore.
And they had already made up that decision.
They never told me.
So.
So we had to throw them out.
But yeah, you know, it's sad because, you know, I have all those brilliant colors that the deceiving part about, you know, tricks and all those other fruit loops is that they had the same flavor.
All the colors tasted the same.
There weren't different.
The
flavors mixed
in the cereal.
So red, like cherry, wasn't cherry at all.
It was just the same
flavoring
of the lemon.
No difference
at all.
And
orange.
Yeah, it was just ridiculous, right?
And I always thought there was a difference.
I thought, you know.
Wow, the combination of flavors.
What a great cereal.
What do you got, Tom?
Yeah, I saw Runce.
Runce is like the fruit candy.
It's in that little box.
They look exactly like fruit, but just in candy form.
Of course, that's what we want.
Strawberry, apple, banana, grape.
That's what they
got.
OK.
Well, any of this food coloring going to affect the fruit rolls, the roll-ups, or whatever they're called?
I think.
I
think.
that
will have an effect.
Those have food coloring, I
imagine.
So do sodas.
Sodas?
Yeah.
OK.
Well, of course, you know, different
sodas have
different colorings and stuff
like that.
And
some of the cheaper brands,
boy,
they are really
bright.
You can
see them across.
They're like
neon.
Across
the store.
Glowing.
So
we're going to go away.
So
those might be a problem.
OK.
Well,
I'll have to watch
our store shelves and see.
How the colors change.
Well, you know, Marie Callender has these frozen pies and they're really good.
A lot of those pies
are
exceptional.
Yes.
But now they're having a problem because
their
bottom line is very tight already because they do have to have a competitive price out there.
But these food colorings are if they go with actual natural fruits and vegetable colorings, then it's going to raise the price up by two or three cents and they don't want to do that.
Prices are already going up.
OK.
Well,
thanks for bringing us all down.
It's 29 minutes past the hour.
Pam Yankee, the fabulous farm babe, has the Midwest Agricultural Farm Report.
And then we'll be back with Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils talking education.
Next.
All right.
WMDX
92.7 at the morning and it's a kind of a muggy high humidity height dew point morning for us it is and we're overlooking State Street
The leaf blower guys are not out this morning.
We haven't seen them
for days.
I know what happened.
They
were not
sure.
They went out and they blew leaves during the rainstorm that we had.
Yes.
It was fun to watch.
I don't know why,
but you
know.
Well, they want to keep their jobs.
I guess.
But now they're not out there when they should be out there.
I don't know.
635.
It is cloudy.
We'll see a lot of sunshine though and highs in the low 80s right now.
It's 64 degrees.
Maybe maybe the city hires as supervisors.
Make sure those guys are doing their job.
Sure.
This portion of the show brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
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All right, let's go to our Thursday morning guest, Tim Slacker, Dr. Tim Slacker from Busted Pencils.
And they have podcasts that you can listen to.
And I'm going to refer to the latest podcast from Wednesday, which I thought was very interesting about ditching college.
for tech classes in
your
schools nowadays.
You found this article in USA Today.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Well, yeah, I mean, well, first of all, good morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, you know.
Yeah.
Thanks for the weather update.
What's it like in Pennsylvania?
Here in Pennsylvania right now, modes of transportation are canoes.
Wow, rainy.
Lots of rain, lots of rain.
Yeah, think about, I saw this article because it's interesting to think that more and more
Students are literally saying you know what college?
No, not for me There are opportunities in particularly around you know getting trade Training and going out and going to work the other part of the article though was is that the survey of the parents going?
No, I'm not I don't want wait wait wait a minute.
You're supposed to go to college, right and
I think that what's really happening there though too is that students might actually have a little bit more of a take on this of saying
But why would I go to college when it doesn't seem like, you know, graduating from college gives me anything other than debt and no job opportunities.
And right now, you know, even without a trade school, just coming out of high school, taking a job that has an apprentice type of a program like that, that this they can start earning money and going forward.
in that direction and so the reason I brought this to the busted pencils was to say well what would that mean currently in a higher education landscape where we already know that enrollments are declining and there is a kind of a cultural
anti kind of like, well, you know, don't go there because, you know, all they do is, is teach you to, you know, overthrow the government and it is.
Well, that's, you
know, that's true.
That's what they're thinking.
And
the more
educated, of course, the more democratic you are, right?
Well, yeah, you know, well, yeah, and install some form of a Marxist authoritarian.
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, and no, and, and
I wonder though too when I look at this and say, I don't know that the kids, let's say the kids, I think that they might be onto something and the parents though are still kind of trapped in this sense of going.
But we always imagine that you, and if we're really talking about first generation college students here, we really imagine that you were going to go to college.
And so the parents are up against this vision of what they saw college as, meaning this pathway to some form of a middle class job type of security, when the reality is that maybe that is more of a myth.
than it is an actual truth and maybe the students in high school have more of a grasp on thinking you know what I think a future is for me right now is just to get a good job to get some training and one of the things that I kind of highlighted in this article was one of the the students really pointed out and say that doesn't mean that I've ruled out college it just means that I've
I'm thinking about it for now as something that, you know, I can go out, I can make some money, I can get a trade, and then I can go back to college.
And that is a unique potentially cultural shift to think about going, okay, what if college isn't immediately right after you graduate high school?
And, you know, Johnny in that episode was talking about saying that
you know he always did think that you know taking a year off before you go to college really does kind of give a sense of you know
when you actually sign up to go into college then after a year break or going out and doing something you have more of a sense of going you know why you came to college so yeah yeah that's a
really good point yeah but you know I grew up in a time when we thought that if you took a year off or two you're not going to go back right
that was the that
was the thinking back then yeah
right
And that's what your parents thought too.
Yeah.
Well, if you take a year off, you're not,
you're not going
back.
You're
not going
to go back.
But you brought this up.
You brought this up in your podcast and I looked on, I looked up the, uh, uh, who goes back.
And according to the statistics from last year, I believe, uh, 39 million went back to college.
24% of those who were at college undergrads, uh, were adults.
Okay, and and the in the pathway of course is Doing that going back to college now I'm wondering how many of these had gone to college for a year Dropped out didn't think it was useful then went on to the workplace, but then decided to go back to college So they met they had a year or two of college already and they just you know went back to
know that in
fact
that
Yeah, that population, we refer to them as some college.
No, and it's a huge population of people that have gone and done a year, did a year and a half.
didn't work out.
They didn't like it.
And now they're out in a job.
And, you know, some of them are saying, Oh, Jesus, I should go back.
But actually, there's a huge population of some college that legitimately had significant problems.
And right now, institutions are saying, How do we get them to come back?
What is it?
And
This is where I think there's a real opportunity for higher education in colleges to point out and say, you know what, we have, and in fact, let's design pathways for this population that is a little bit different than a traditional four-year going, you know, living in the dorms, waking up on Monday morning and going, I'm not going to class and realize that this population, maybe if we
change the way we do college, we could get them to come back and create pathways.
So there's a whole lot of opportunities here for higher education, particularly to kind of say, okay, we have a traditional track, we know we want those students, but what about all of these other people?
Because if higher education is truly beneficial, then how we allow people to access it and how we allow them to progress through it, we might
need to change those types of modalities to fit somebody who maybe is working quote full-time and still wants to go to college and so how do we you know allow or encourage them to have the ability to come back to college.
Talking to Dr. Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils.
Tim we've got a
Got a text here from Matt in Middleton.
He says it's a little different take on this.
Yeah,
talking about his
body here.
Yeah.
The thing about college is that it can lead to a career that doesn't.
destroy your body.
The trades are hard on your body and it's unlikely you can do it for 30 years as opposed to a thinking career.
He says, that's my two cents.
You know, because he's talking about jobs like welders or plumbers, that does take a toll.
I guess that comes into consideration when thinking about what you're gonna do with your life.
It actually does.
In fact, I was down at the Carpenters training facility in Pittsburgh yesterday, actually talking to that group who is trying to, you know, imagine college as a pathway.
And one of the issues is, is that, you know what, this is hard work.
It's hard on the body.
And, you know, if I had, in addition to my, you know, Carpenters, let's call it a license, if I had maybe a bachelor's
degree in construction management that maybe in 15 years, I can then kind of move into a direction where I'm not on my hands and knees
or
lifting heavy things.
And it's a real issue.
It was interesting because they were particularly flooring installers who are truly on their hands and knees all day long.
After 20 years,
Um, it might feel good to stand up.
Oh,
yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah.
I have a
nephew who's a master plumber, you know, and has gone all the way up in the union and, uh, and as a crew manager and goes all over the state doing plumbing, but he's, he's, I think he's about 45 years or so old and, uh, he can't wait to get it.
get retired.
He's like, I'm looking forward to the day that I don't have to do this kind of work.
And he's in charge of it.
And so he does do some hands-on, of course, but
he
says, my body is worn out.
It gets into the side issue of when is the best time for retirement?
You know, the Republicans want to extend it.
They don't
want
you to retire too early.
And they want to make it even later in life that you can retire.
And that's kind of foolish because of all these
that are destroying your body, right?
Well, yeah, but you know, understand that where they're coming from is that they need people in their 80s to come in and fix their toilet.
Well, I was
waiting for something profound and we
got it from
you on that.
Okay, I want to bring this up too because we have a Gen Z as our producer, Dom.
And I wonder, what do you think on this, Dom?
Do you guys debate whether there's a feel that you can get into, but it may not be there for long because AI might replace it or robotics might replace it?
What's your feeling
on
that?
I actually just talked about this with my roommate, who's about the same age as me.
22?
22, correct.
And he is very afraid of where AI might go with this whole issue about...
Yeah, you know gaining jobs gaining going into the real world I just started going into the real world a couple months ago and Yeah, my roommate was was really nervous.
He does sort of lab testing and already, you know robots are kind of
Going into the forefront there and yeah, and and kind of taking over his job essentially And I know it's gonna be much much more in in about you know five to ten years or that's what that's what we think That's what we think so
that may be a discouragement to go into anything correct And that's why they may be holding themselves up and not going on to college at that point right Tim
Yeah, it's a real fear.
I think the idea of potentially being replaced by robots isn't necessarily... I mean, if we're talking about the manufacturing process, that's going to continue to be an issue.
But I see Dom... Yeah, I have some thoughts about that that I think might give Dom a little bit more of...
a sense of ease.
All right.
Okay.
We'll come back.
All right.
We'll be back with Dr. Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils on Johnny Gordy in the morning in just a moment.
WMDX
92.7 Johnny Gordy in the morning on a somewhat sunny, sunny morning and humid.
I think the haze out there is actually humidity and dew points.
I think you could be right.
Yes, we'll check in with Brittany Merlot in about a half hour.
Got her take on things.
It is 6.52.
We're back with Dr. Tim Slecker from...
busted
pencils.
And we're talking about what Gen Z is thinking about doing because of AI and robotics.
And you had something you wanted to add about robotics and AI.
Well, I think the concern that robotics are going to take your jobs is that in one way, I mean, they already are and they already have been, particularly if you're talking about in the manufacturing areas, right?
And so I'm not sure if that is this idea of, you know,
truly like humanoid robots that are going to take over their jobs.
I don't think we're at that point yet.
What I would say to Gen Z, which is my daughter and my son, is that my best assumption and guess is looking at the AI world, is that the way you
Guard against being quote replaced by AI is to you yourself get involved and understand AI because Again, I'm taking somebody else's quote, but AI isn't going to replace you but Dom if you understand and know how to use AI You're going to replace people who don't know how to use it.
Oh Like that, you know, and so so it really is on
all of us to really understand how to do it.
But it is, you know, as the AI world comes forward, we don't really know what is going to be, quote, replaced and how it's going to affect.
And so I really look at this and say, this is an opportunity for people to dig into AI.
And particularly, I'm really following and I really see this as a unique thing is that
more artistically inclined liberal arts types of people are actually really, really great users of generative AI because they can think creatively with it where when you're more people are like, I don't want to get into tech.
I don't want to get actually users of this are actually better at it and can come up with much more creatives.
So I think about this, you know,
David Bowie was quoted back in the 60s and 70s when the synthesizer came out.
It could absolutely replicate every instrument there was out there.
And they were like, are you worried, David, about this replacing your musicians?
And his thing was actually,
I don't find the synthesizer interesting because it can replicate.
It's when they as artists started mixing it to make unique new sounds that he found this and so there was an artistry into the tool that puts this way.
And so I see the same thing with generative AI.
What I'm training myself to be though is that I'm going to be an AI counselor because I see that when AIs are
counseling, you know, lots of other people that they, the AIs are going to have to get really tired and they're going to need a human to actually coach them back from the brink because of, you know, you know, you got to think, you know, because the AI is going to be, you know, can you imagine all of the crazy people the AI is going to have to experience and they're going to be like, what is going on?
I'll be like, okay, check it out, AI.
Here's the deal.
He isn't going to be able to understand a lot of humans.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, so we're going to have to be there to say, like, look, I know, you know, like you've been working with my, with my aunt and I got to tell you, you know, she's
crazy.
You know, that is, that's great.
It's really, that's a good way to look at it.
Yeah.
That could be a lot of business there.
I thought maybe a suggestion that.
Johnny came up with and I hate to say that we're trying to reinvent the wheel here because the EU has been doing this for many, many decades.
They've been channeling people and creating pathways for them to get into an occupation right from high
school.
But the thing here is that maybe if we just had K through college,
where people could go into college and test it out and see if they like it and stay there.
And maybe if they don't like it, they could leave, but go back in because it's free.
It's paid for by the general public.
Wouldn't that be just better that way?
That
sounds like some form of communism.
That's a revolutionary idea.
That's what I thought too.
Giving humans the access to flourishing on somebody else's dime?
What are you talking about?
I know.
No, I mean, yeah, I think that though too is this is to imagine that I think we do imagine education as these kind of segmented
times that are really broken apart when really we need to be thinking about that, you know, and this is somewhat of a generic term, but lifelong learning and realizing, you know, and so therefore access, access to education at any point in your life is something that we as a society should be trying to figure out.
And that's something
you're doing right now, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, so again, you know, visit to the Carpenters facility in Union yesterday.
In fact, they were talking about this in a way that, you know, they're interested in bachelor's degrees, they're interested in master's degrees, but they're trying to say this and I totally get what they're saying is that
But couldn't it be that on the way to those degrees that they're getting certifications along the way that count towards the degree?
And so that their members could say, you know what, after 15 credits of a certification, I'm good.
This now gives me something.
But if I want to come back.
I can jump in and I don't lose anything.
In fact, I'm always accumulating towards something else.
Tim,
we have to leave it there.
Thanks for joining us, Dr. Tim Slecker.
You can check out their podcasts that drop on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the show on the Civic Media Radio Network on Saturday.
One hour show.
It's great stuff.
Tim, good to talk to you.
Talk to you next time.
All right, guys.
See you next time.
Yep, take care.
Back with more of John and Gordy.
We've got Jim Santel in our next hour and a whole lot more.
It's a beautiful morning.
We got a new act.
It's phenomenal.
It's sensational.
It's terrific.
It's either mediocre.
No, it's disgusting.
It's a ploy.
What a fucking
ass.
You have a pretty fun show.
I listen to it most of the time, you know.
Keep up the good work.
God, I love you.
Get the hell off the stage.
Nice work, everyone.
Sharp broadcast.
Really good.
Good morning, John and Gordy.
Good morning, John and Gordy.
Good morning, John and Gordy.
Thank you, AI.
Good morning to you, too.
Six minutes
past the
hour.
Sunshine this morning in the Mad City, and
we were wondering where the Leaf Blower guys are out there.
Yeah, where have they been?
On State Street this morning.
We
overlooked the great legendary State Street, and they're not there.
No.
And Robert McFarland says, hey guys, it's a federal holiday.
The leaf blower dudes won't be out there today.
Okay.
Well,
that could be.
I guess it's Juneteenth
day.
That's right.
It is beautiful out there.
Highs today in the low 80s, but it's gonna feel muggy once again.
This portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress.
You can wake up and sleep better on a Virlo Mattress.
A lot has changed since 1958.
Some things remain constant though.
Throughout Virlo's history, they're still direct to consumer, providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
Virlo Mattress, two Madison locations, east side and west side, go to Virlo.com.
You know, these abductions, immigration abductions and deportations, scaring the daylights out of Americans out there.
I mean, this is going on all over in the blue cities, but it'll be in a neighborhood near you soon, I'm sure, but we can't identify these people.
They all wear different clothing.
In fact, it's almost like dress-up time.
I understand that a few of these raids actually hit people dressed up as military, but they're actually just ice agents, which is also scary.
And they don't need or they aren't showing you any kind of reason why they're picking you up.
Is there a warrant signed by somebody at ICE?
Is there anything at all in an identifying way of knowing who they are?
Right.
And these are unmarked trucks that they just throw people into now.
It's scary about it.
They don't know who, you know, they can't identify them at all.
That's
right.
I mean, it could be, you could feel like you're just being kidnapped, you know?
And in a sense, you are.
Exactly, and what's happened, like the Comptroller in New York City, you know, he was just in the group and the ICE agents were trying to get the immigrant who just appeared in immigration court, but they tried to grab him and of course this Comptroller was...
part of the mix.
And
suddenly they just arrested him too.
And this is what's happening out in the streets.
I have an example of that.
This is 20-year-old Adrian Andrew Martinez.
His family now is trying to understand what happened to him because he was kind of harassing the ice ages.
Yeah, you can eat freedom of speech.
You can go out there and you can tell them what you think.
You don't touch them.
You're not pushing them.
You're
just
yelling at them basically.
And that shouldn't affect them.
But it has affected them.
And I want to play this television coverage of what happened to Adrian Andrew Martinez.
Okay, let's listen to Cut 163.
A tense confrontation between Border Patrol agents and a 20-year-old man named Pico Rivera.
Adrian Andrew Martinez was on a lunch break working at the nearby Walmart when a video shows him standing up to agents who appeared infuriated.
Backup arrives and armed agents swarm Adrian taking him down.
His family told KTLA that Adrian was detained after he intervened, allegedly assaulting an agent who was questioning someone else at the shopping center.
They tried to take the janitor or something.
That's what I heard.
But I heard that he tried defending the janitor.
They tried taking.
His friend who did not want to be identified says he's a US citizen.
Soon after, protesters took to the streets marching from city hall to the intersection of Washington and Rosemead demanding ice out of Pico Rivera.
This is not the country that we live in.
This is not what we represent.
and we're desperate.
They're pushing us to the edge and we're trying to keep everybody safe and peaceful.
The Trump administration says its quote lawful raids will continue throughout
Greater
LA as it ramps up deportations in blue cities and that agents are targeting criminals.
That's not true.
They're getting everybody.
They're seeing only targeting people that are car washes, that are working, that are selling flowers, that are selling ice creams, etc.
It's not just criminals.
Residents in this working class Hispanic communities say they will resist the ongoing ice raids.
We were granted a very special opportunity from our parents.
My family is immigrants.
other kids from that just feels morally wrong.
And I just got off the phone with Adrian's mother.
She tells me that she has yet to hear from her son at all.
She knows that he's in federal custody, but at this hour she doesn't know where he's being detained.
Now, I watched the video of him being detained and taking away Adrian.
All he was doing was standing there yelling at these ICE agents, telling them, you know, this guy has done nothing wrong and he's trying to defend his fellow Walmart employee.
And it's just, in its sad, he was just yelling at him.
He wasn't interfering with anything.
Right,
he
wasn't doing anything.
He wasn't touching the agents or the ICE agents at all.
Let's listen to the scuffle.
Okay The
thing
is the ice agents were pushing and pushing and pushing and he said don't touch me of it.
Yeah, but anyway, he didn't touch back
But because he was yelling, you could see this ice agent come back at him, and then take him in custody.
And that's how this whole thing happens, and you start sweeping up other people in these ice raids.
And it's so sad to see, because he's only 20 years old.
He's only 20
years old.
Yes, 20 years
old, and he's trying to defend a fellow employee.
Kind of heroic.
Unreal.
And these things are happening all over the country.
It's stunning to me that we're...
We have we don't have a choice in all this and I don't know if you've seen these polls out there But people are actually enjoying this the poll numbers for Trump are going up the way He's handling this people aren't aware aren't worried about it.
They're not really concerned Which is very concerning to me.
Yes when we had the election and they voted Trump in I thought yes the American public
really does kind of want to try out a strong man and see how that works out.
And I think they're still on board with it.
Yeah.
And I apparently so.
I don't know.
Just scary as heck.
It's frightening.
Yeah.
So anyway, that's that's that's going on all over.
I mean, there were other examples in the news as well.
But I thought that was quite revealing.
And he's an American citizen.
And now they don't know where he is.
Well, that's
Yeah.
That's
happening a lot.
And the whole, I guess the reason I'm bringing this up is because that would be like my son.
And I know they're like this.
They would try to defend a friend of theirs, a fellow employee.
They
would do the same exact thing.
And I'm just
worried about my
kids being swept up in all of this and not hearing back from them and not knowing what happened to them.
And that's really starting to bother me an awful lot.
And I don't know why the CJs and my mega friend in Milwaukee,
why they're not concerned about it, why they don't see the impact of this on society.
Our civilization in this country, this is what makes us the United States and we're not United.
anymore
and it's gone from the ice agents targeting that you know the the original idea gang members you know we're going after the gang they've got tattoos and you know they're bad guys and we're gonna swim they're bringing fentanyl in and all this but now it's gone to hotel workers Walmart workers I mean come on it's it's
It's progressed quite a bit from the original mission, apparently.
Well, it really has.
Now, another topic we've talked about on the show is AI.
How much can you really trust it?
I don't, I don't trust it anymore.
I was very much on board with AI.
I thought, what a great new thing.
I mean, you know, it will open up a whole new area of thinking and work, but it is not that.
Because this story came across, get this, Musk's own AI creation, Grock, has been accused by conservatives of favoring liberals in its responses.
Now they're accusing an AI-generated thing of being liberal or indoctrinated.
by the liberal media somehow, somewhere along the way, because, you know, Grock has to use what's out there to get its information.
I'm sorry, what does Grock even mean?
I can't remember.
There is a reference to that.
But the question was asked in a neutral way.
Grock, since 2016, has the left or the right
been more violent?
And the answer that Grock gave was, since 2016, data suggests right-wing political violence has been more frequent and deadly,
with
incidents like the January 6 Capitol riot and mass shootings all past the 2019, causing significant fatalities.
That's what Grock had as an answer.
And
the
response by the creator of Grock, Elon, this is what he said, major fail.
as this is objectively false.
Grock is parroting legacy media.
That's where it's getting its information from the media and legacy media isn't like one or two media companies.
It's everything that's out there covering the media, covering what the news is saying.
and Grock is using that information, and that's a problem.
In fact, Elon says, this is something he's going to fix.
Now, that alone scares the daylights out of me because that immediately discredits anything AI is creating for us out there as a way of finding information, right?
Because if he can fix the information, then what's the point of AI?
What are we doing
here?
Elon thinks he knows best.
What's best for everybody?
Oh man.
Yeah, this is uh, anyway, he's promising now to fix, uh, uh, Crock.
Oh, we can rest easy.
I mean, what, what is he objecting to?
Uh, Vance Bolter being accused of, uh, you know, assassinating, uh, political figures.
I mean, I don't know.
Obviously that wasn't a Democrat.
Right.
And all of the other examples that Grock had come up with, you know, police reports, you know, eyewitness news, the whole thing.
That's what AI is supposed to be doing accumulating this data and give you an answer.
But now Elon says he's going to fix that.
Doesn't see what AI's response is.
I mean, AI pushes back now
on things.
I feel like
Elon says that a lot too.
I feel like that's
just a common thing that Elon says.
Yeah.
Well, that's true.
That's true.
Now, there's good news too, and we'll get to Jim Santel's coming in here in just a few moments, and we'll be talking about the latest court decisions that are out there.
But one of the big decisions we'll be talking about is the order by a judge to start resuming passports for transgender Americans who sign it with an X. They cannot block that from happening now, at least.
momentarily.
That's coming up from
about that.
All right.
We're also going to be checking in with Brittany Merleau.
We'll get the latest on this muggy weather and
A whole lot more in this portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by our friends at Madison Hearing Aid Center.
Jim and Sarah do a terrific job.
They're MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
They're at 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison and they help people change their lives.
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And again, they're at 4706 Cottage Grove Road, doing a terrific job.
MadisonHearingAidSetter.com.
And just
a moment, we'll get to the Hegseth hearings.
Oh,
boy.
Yeah, this was really something.
Yeah.
And Brittany Merlot right around the corner with the weather on John and Gordy in the morning.
music playing
Hey everybody, Rocker here.
Join me for the Maxing preview every Friday morning with John and Gordy right here on WMDX.
And now they're up for best radio team on Madison Magazine's best of Madison poll.
Let me just say these guys rock.
So they're getting my vote and I hope you get out your vote too.
They may be old, but they still know how to rock.
Thank you, Rock.
Please, please vote.
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or anything.
You are sounding desperate.
Please vote for
us.
You can only vote once in this poll, and you have 11 days left.
We tried
to
game it, but we couldn't find a way to do that.
That's right.
It's 23 past look at the Sun coming through the
isn't that amazing that just happened You know why why because we have written him real well.
Oh, she's our ray of sunshine
every
morning.
Good morning, Brittany.
How are you?
Thank you guys.
I'm pretty good.
How are you
doing?
Okay, good.
It's still kind of muggy out.
Yeah, that dew point still in the low 60s.
I think
Right?
Yeah, about 62 degrees.
So it's
up
there.
You tracking
that?
Got an eye on it, John?
I'm watching
it.
Got a bunch
of rain that moved through yesterday.
And last night, that kind of tapered off and moved out.
But yeah, it's beautiful.
It's beautiful looking anyway, right now.
After yesterday, right?
But you had flash flood warnings down south in Janesville area too.
I know that was not you guys.
Close enough.
I'm glad you missed it.
That's close.
Right?
Right?
But we're looking at a lot of sunshine today, honestly.
Nice and warm, mid-80s.
Dew points aren't too, too bad considering what we have coming ahead.
Comparatively, it's more comfortable today.
So we've got this front still draped over the state.
The darn thing.
It's taking its time.
So it's still going to send a few more showers and storms possible.
But I think a lot of those are going to stay north.
Probably east and away from you.
So I really think you're good to go until tomorrow morning That's when you can't escape the rain
more
showers more storms Again, I think it's gonna be gone by the afternoon So we could see some sunshine by the end of the day tomorrow winds start to get breezy out of the south
And that's where all that heat and humidity starts to surge in.
And I don't know about you, but I'm going either in the water or staying inside in the AC because these temperatures are going to hit about 93 degrees.
That's
what
I'm thinking.
Both Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then the dew points in the mid 70s, potentially upper 70s, which is gross.
I
know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
It's time to go to the water park.
That's what I'm thinking.
Well, that's
it.
Find the sprinklers, water toys, the squirt guns, anything.
Everything and anything.
Well, yeah.
So get used to the heat.
And you know why?
Because summer is coming up.
That's right.
Summer begins tomorrow, right?
It does.
It's
the summer solstice.
It's the longest day of the year.
We've got tomorrow and a little bit of Saturday.
And then the days start to slowly get shorter.
Crazy to think about.
OK, now sunset is at 8.40 tonight.
So we'll have to watch that.
Maybe go up to 8.41.
You know, I'm just
seconds longer, unfortunately.
I know, I know.
It's about 15 hours and 22 minutes and 19 seconds of daylight.
Wow.
Right off the top of your head.
You know, you are
good.
It's going to be really, really hot and, you know, summer is beginning.
And, you know, it just starts me to wondering, you know, we haven't talked about interplanetary weather in a long time.
Do you have something ready for interplanetary?
weather.
You bet.
Of course
I
do.
Let's talk about the sun.
Wow.
Okay.
Sure.
So
I
had no idea that the sun was, I knew it was really, really hot, but I didn't know how hot it was at the core.
Do you guys have any guesses?
I have no idea.
I mean, how?
How do they measure that, first of all?
I'm gonna say it's more than 10,000 degrees.
I don't know.
It's a
guess.
You were on the dot to the surface temperature of the Sun.
10,000 degrees is what the surface of the Sun is, but down at
the core.
Woo,
20.
seven million degrees Fahrenheit.
What?
Seven million degrees
Fahrenheit.
Cool soft quite a bit on the surface.
But it's a dry heat, right?
It's a dry heat.
The
molten heat.
Dry heat.
Wow, that's just amazing.
Thank you.
I'm thinking about
it.
It's outrageous.
Well, thank you for that interplanetary weather.
We appreciate that, Brittany.
Oh, you're welcome.
Those are always fun.
Always stay cool
as we go through this weekend.
There we go.
OK.
Close the book on that.
OK.
Hey, have a great day.
We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Find out about the weekend some more.
OK?
Sounds
good.
All right.
Take care.
That's Brittany Merlot, our WMDX meteorologist.
OK.
And this portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by Furlough Mattress.
You can wake up and sleep better out of Furlough Mattress.
A lot has changed since 1958.
Some things remain constant throughout Furlough's history.
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Furlough Mattress, two locations in Madison, east side and west side.
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Not a lot of time
here.
Enough time for fitting our story about Hexeth.
You know, he had some amazing comments to the people interviewing him.
Well, maybe we can talk to Jim Santel about that a little
bit.
Well, maybe.
There's some
legality involved in
some of that.
He doesn't know what's going on.
He's a former host on Fox News.
Come on.
Talking about Hexeth now.
Yeah, he's Hexeth.
He knows what's happening.
This is just ridiculous.
This guy is nuts.
And it doesn't seem like he cares.
He's just playing a game with the Senate.
He's very combative.
He doesn't want to answer anything.
That's the thing.
He's trying to be clever.
And it's not coming across well.
In fact, it's belligerent.
And these senators weren't real happy with a lot of his responses.
No, they weren't.
Yeah.
And that's, uh, that's going to continue.
Is he done with this testimony
or is he going to be back?
I don't know.
We should be done.
We don't want to hear any more from him.
He has nothing to add.
Yes.
Nothing to add.
All right.
Jim Santel coming up with a lot of legal, legal things to talk about and
Pam Yonkey, the fabulous farm babe with the Midwest food and farm report next.
And then we'll be back with Jim Santel on John and Gordy in the morning.
you
92.7, John and Gordy in the morning.
We are rocking.
We are rocking now.
Yeah, sunny skies.
It is 735 highs in the low 80s today.
Get used to staying in the air conditioning.
It's going to get even hotter the next few days.
Right.
And now Jim Santel joins us.
Attorney at law.
Good morning, Jim.
Thanks for being with
us.
The gentleman always good to be with you on a Thursday morning.
As we often say, lots of things going on, it's a lot.
A
lot to consume, a lot to digest.
Yeah, where do we begin anyway?
Difficult
to keep it all straight.
Well, let's start with the big decision on transgender treatment.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Tell us about that.
Sure.
So this is
pending obviously in this term of the United States Supreme Court, an oral argument way back in December when the Biden administration, remember Joe Biden, he used to be our president
at
the time, he was advocating that the Supreme Court overturn, reverse and reject position of Tennessee and about 25 other states out there that have limited the legality of medical people and healthcare providers providing transgender healthcare to
youths, people under age of 18 who are going through the transgender process.
That includes beta blockers and other hormone treatments.
The Supreme Court has said that, yes, indeed, states can do that.
They can issue a legislation that prohibits medical providers in particular states from doing that.
And again, about half the states in the union have some variations on that.
And so it's not just respect to Tennessee, but throughout the country that this has big impact.
And of course, the issue is not only the effect upon transgender youth, but as we were chatting offline, what is the consequence of this in many other areas?
We know the Supreme Court has, for example, recently permitted the president to go ahead and get rid of transgender.
service members in the military, at least on a temporary basis.
We've got issues about sports and, yes, bathroom issues continue to not plague our nation, but they seem to be a focus of a certain component of the population.
So the concern is not only about the argument here and the position, but also the impact of this.
For what it's worth, John Roberts says, you know what?
Because this is an evolving field, he talks about the safety, the efficacy, and the propriety of medical treatments being unresolved on the face of the planet, invokes some English studies and things in Great Britain.
It's just because of that, it's the people, it's the representatives and legislatures, they should make those decisions courts should not.
Sonya, Sonya said a minor needless to say goes
in
the opposite direction.
And she says, no, no, just you need to embrace this as an equal protection issue.
And that's her position.
Well, it's such a partisan issue.
I mean, you know, all the way through these laws that they put in place in all these states, it refers to sex in in every line.
And the court said that it didn't have anything to do with sex.
Right.
Right.
And that was their
decision.
Yes, yeah, it has to do right with with distinctions other than sex It is the kind of argument that once again Maybe only lawyers and people who play around with these
kinds
of things can fully appreciate again Sonya said the more it takes that apart and she gives a great number of examples she actually identifies a number of
of youth principally by their their initials not their full names and says this is entirely about sex it has to do with obviously gender dysmorphia and how you feel about your own body it is completely about that.
and she accuses the majority of saying you're hiding behind this linguistic categorization and saying that there's no equal protection issue here.
Of course there is, she says, and also treating males somewhat differently than females.
Lots of arguments about the nature of the equal protection that's not being afforded here.
Treating, she says, similarly situated people differently.
and dismisses what John Robertson majority say about that.
I think a lot of the comments from the conservatives on the court made it very clear that this was a purely political decision.
I'm just looking at an article on this and Justice Clarence Thomas, for example, insisted medical experts, get this, unbelievable, have surreptitiously compromised their medical recommendations to achieve political ends.
Where the hell did he get that from?
I mean, what kind of legal decision is this based on?
That's right out of the clear blue.
And then Amy Coney Barrett raised concerns about boys and girls' sports teams.
This had nothing to do with the case at all.
And they're using all of these political arguments, these political points, to make a decision.
that affects all of these states and all of these children and the families that are trying to help their own children.
Right, and it is regrettably a part of the language of the Supreme Court these days that we do invoke from time to time these
these push button and dog whistle kinds of issues
to
say, you know what, this is about that.
This is not about that.
This is healthcare.
This is about the equal protection argument, 14th amendment.
And as Sonia said, Amar is so very compellingly says in, again, an extensive and extensive dissent.
She says, this is about young people and the families and the people who love them and decisions being made at those levels.
and sort of indicates my words, not hers.
How dare you turn this into something other than that issue?
And lots to read, 118 pages.
I
know
all
your listeners have already consumed all of that.
I know Dom isn't going through it for a second time.
It is highlighted
and doing an
index on
it.
But again,
it's a lot.
It's a lot.
Yes,
it's
a lot.
Well, here's one.
Here's what the son of my ear said.
She said the court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims.
I think that is the bottom line.
that that's telling it like it is.
Absolutely.
And again,
she she's joined by obviously we have to note Elena Kagan and Khadija Brown Jackson.
Kagan writes something separately as well.
But they're very strong in opposition to this.
Sometimes as we know in history, the descents become eventually the majority opinions, but obviously not in this time, not
in
this era.
And we wait for the next shoot a drop on these kinds of important issues.
Tom with Jim Santel, host of Amicus every Saturday on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Jim, what other court cases are pending with the Supreme Court this term before they adjourn?
Sure, we've got just some of my accounts somewhere in the teens.
So lots of cases yet to go out of 65 altogether.
This is a big one.
One of the other ones may be coming out this Friday, maybe next Thursday.
Those are the days in which the Supreme Court has once again said we will probably issue opinions on those.
And then we're coming right up against the Fourth of July holiday, which is a very informal, informal deadline for getting all this done.
But lots of cases, including, including as we have talked recently on this very broadcast.
that thing called birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment the attempt by the president to carve out again a subclass of people who we thought were citizens up until now and the issue there not so much about the 14th amendment but whether or not judges an individual federal judge has this right to enter an injunction a temporary restraining order that applies nationwide the universal injunction issue we
may
not get a decision on 14th amendment we may get a decision on whether or not
Judges can do those kinds of things a big deal at a time when lots of judges are doing just that including including in the passport area with LGBT Travelers many many things out there.
So that that's a big one other other issues obviously of equal importance don't want to rank them but issues related to storybooks that children should be permitted to or not permitted to see in the public schools that have LGBT issues some things related to internet access for adult sites
all kinds of things that the Supreme Court is wrestling with these days.
Well, they're bringing all this stuff up because they've got the Supreme Court in their hands.
So certainly they're going to get some of the decisions that go their way, just like the transgender youth treatment case.
But let's get into what happened here in our own Supreme Court, making a great decision this time in favor of Josh Call or
basically any AG at this point making decisions in lawsuits.
Summarize that case for us.
Sure.
So what's going on here goes way back to 2018 who said the justice is speedy right in the state courts or the federal courts.
What happens?
You recall this and again Dom does well as I continue to invoke our
Our chronological age is here.
Way back then, what happened was Scott Walker in the wake of the election of Tony Evers and Josh Call.
Legislature passes legislation in the state that basically says, if the executive wants to settle civil cases, these are civil matters, not criminal cases, before you do that, before you settle any claim against the state, you got to come basically to the Joint Finance Committee back over to the legislature and get our approval on that.
It's been up and down.
down in the courts 2020, the Supreme Court rejected the challenge said, Josh, call go back to the lower courts.
Eventually, interestingly, there was a certain Dane County circuit court judge.
Her name was and still is Susan Crawford, who
ruled in
2022.
This is unconstitutional.
You can't limit the executive branches prerogative in this area.
Finally, finally gets back to the Supreme Court.
And then again, as you've indicated,
just a couple of days ago.
In a unanimous decision, we should all be celebrating that once our justices are in agreement, seven to zero.
That does happen at the federal level, by the way.
Supreme Court unanimous, he says no, rating from the pen of Brian Haggadorn.
He says that this is a constitutional issue.
You can't give the power to control litigation to the legislature.
That's within the purview of the executive and the attorney general in particular.
That's the reason why this is so very important.
Yeah, they originally, of course, let this thing slip through.
And now, unanimously, they at least focused on one issue, and that is the settlement issue, throwing it to the legislature, which was crazy all by itself.
We're not even dealing with it at this point.
I don't think there's any cases or lawsuits pending in regards to the power that they took away from the governor.
I think that's done.
That's a done deal on that.
But this was in the lame duck session of the legislature.
They pushed this thing through.
Other states did that, by the way, but the governors didn't sign off on it.
Scott Walker did.
And this is what has resulted from it.
to limit his successor.
And again, that's the big issue.
And frankly, for Democrats, republicans because at some point again, change his hands.
Again, the capacity of the exe all kinds of ethical rea imagine the specter.
I've got a domini again.
I'm invo many times this morning.
We he is trying to settle the k we've got a resolution for t
about dollars, things in the context of our own clients.
And then we've got to go to the legislature and air all of this and have a legislature vote or at least a committee vote on whether or not we think this settlement makes sense.
Disclosing in that setting, all things we've talked about already, all kinds of issues that make this very impractical.
Thank goodness in Wisconsin, we're no longer doing it that way.
Back to normal.
Wow.
Do you know if anybody is challenging the issue of DEI being illegal?
Is there any
kind
of case floating out there because I know, you know, the president has declared it illegal that people can't do it and he's preventing private interest from actually carrying out DEI.
Is there?
Yeah.
There are actually many of them, but they go into specific areas.
For example, programs inside federal agencies that have been shut down, and people coming forward and challenging those on the basis that they're materially affecting the capacity of the agency to do its work.
They're impacting things like rights of people and permutations all across the board as he continues to perpetuate that unfounded notion that somehow this is bad for America.
All right, Jim, we're going to come back with more.
So
hang in
there.
Stay with us.
coming right back.
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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Love you, John and Gordy.
We love you too, Stephanie.
Stephanie Miller show next on the Civic Media Radio Network.
John Agordi back with attorney Jim Santel from Amicus, a law review.
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We're
talking during the commercial break about nationalizing what, the National Guard or
the Marines?
Yes, sending
everything in.
And that has become a huge issue now.
And you mentioned something about that.
It's something there was a hearing yesterday about, right?
Yes, exactly.
We know we talked about it on this very broadcast last week, a federal judge named Breyer, B-R-E-Y-E-R.
It's not the former Supreme Court judges, but Charles Breyer, he's a district court judge in San Francisco.
And he looked at all this, he had a hearing and he said, you know what, the basis upon which any president can federalize the California or any National Guard is you got to make a finding of a rebellion.
People trying to overthrow the government.
You've got to have an invasion and talks all about how this is just not that.
This is people protesting and we have some of it may have gotten not.
violent with a capital V, but a little some rocks thrown and things like that.
But that's not a rebellion trying to overthrow the government.
So he basically says, Donald Trump, he can't do this.
You're without constitutional and statutory authority.
It is appealed right away, of course, by Donald Trump through your Department of Justice and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is again the court above
Judge Breider, again, in Crumpus in California, in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, Hawaii, a huge portion of the country basically said, we're going to have a hearing on this to determine whether or not the lower court's order should stand.
They did that just yesterday, about an hour-long hearing or so, and it's just an opportunity again to review what the lower court has done.
Hard to say, we don't predict a whole lot from what happens in oral arguments, but it appeared that at least, again, this is just a three-judge panel, and at least some of the judges were at least sympathetic to the president's view.
that he is the commander-in-chief.
He's got to be concerned for the entire country.
And for that reason, he's got the authority to do this.
And so we'll see what the Ninth Circuit does.
Couple of options that may come out of that, if indeed the Ninth Circuit goes in the opposite direction.
One is in what's called an en banc proceeding, could have all the judges of the Ninth Circuit, 20 some of them getting together to review that.
Probably in that setting, they would go with Judge Breyer.
Ultimately, where could this go once again?
Our friends at the Supreme Court, this could end up there as do many of these cases, but it's topical right now.
It is hot right now, not only because of illegal issues, because it relates to the government's, the president's capacity as we were talking again, to bring what are basically political differences.
I don't like the political and partisan views of a mayor in a particular city.
And because of that, I'm going to do something either to restrict their funding.
In this case, even to shut down
the legitimate public debates that are going on in those cities, that's a different kind of thing that the president has never done before in American history.
Well,
it's not an insurrection.
It's not rebellion.
No.
Again, these are protests.
So how can the Ninth Circuit even come to any kind of conclusion that it would be okay for the president to nationalize the military
like
this?
That's the head scratcher.
When you read Judge Breyer's opinion, it is so good.
There's some great language in there too.
I read it during the course of the events, the community events of last Saturday about how it's troubling that the president would even say that somehow public debate, protest.
the opportunity to exercise your first-minute rights.
Somehow that's a rebellion,
Mr.
President, but that's insurrection.
So it is difficult to believe that any judges, however, whatever their political background may be, would go in that direction.
We'll see if things have happened like that in the past, but we're not done with this issue by a far, far stretch.
Now you said it's a three judge panel.
They could go to the full circuit, right?
Yes, it could.
If again, and likely the governor, he is the plaintiff in this case, if there is an unfavorable decision to the California, he could say, you know what, I want everybody to decide this and they may well grant that request.
Especially in the ninth circuit, if you get an opinion from two or three of these judges,
that's different from what probably the majority of the Ninth Circuit judges would do, likely that this may be heard by all of them, and that could further delay all this, of course, but this is not the end in the federal courts by any means.
And again, maybe one day, no time soon that this could get up to the Supreme Court as well.
But the crazy part is that don't they know the repercussions on granting something like this?
I mean, every city can be occupied at that point.
Everybody could be watching the military, you know,
Role
in their town.
Marching through
their towns.
That's that's the concern that your questions just raise.
Okay, the president wakes up in the morning and says, you know what?
I don't like what I'm seeing those protests along the highways and in the public ways and There is rebellion going on and I can make that I'll make that finding as the president did and for that reason the tanks then can roll in and we can do something again The the National Guards have been federalized a couple of times.
It's always been to advance civil rights, right?
It's to
ensure that that again the ended President Eisenhower
sent in the National Guard to ensure that segregation, Brown versus Board of Education too, is followed way back in the 1950s.
We do that to enforce the rights of people not to trample on them and restrict them.
That's why this is so very different today.
Boy, it's just absolutely crazy.
It just makes us all really nervous and on edge.
And we're already watching the military trim through our towns, our cities, and grabbing people off the street.
And people are just worried about their friends, their loved ones, their co-workers.
The chilling effect is just outrageous.
And you like to think that the courts would go in that direction also to support rights of people.
Jim, we got to leave it there.
Thanks for joining us.
We appreciate it.
We'll talk to you next time around.
You can listen to Jim's show, Amicus, a Law Review on the Civic Media Radio Network on Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m.
And tomorrow on the show, we've got Rocker joining us, also Savannah Tomei Olson and Pam Yonkey.
That's going to do it for this Thursday.
Busy day today.
Busy, busy, busy.
Stephanie Miller's next.
So long.
Wait.
Uh-oh.
Look out.
Here comes the, oh no.
Look out for the drone.
