The opinions that you may hear us express expressly or otherwise over the public's airways is in no way to represent the opinions expressed or otherwise by our management, producers, sponsors or various members of their staffs or their families or few friends.
Nor should these views express the opinions of the broadcasters, the disc jockeys, the salesmen, the program and music directors and their secretaries and girlfriends and wives and their staff.
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WMDX 92.7.
John and Gordy in the morning.
A beautiful morning indeed.
Happy
Hop Day.
Another great day.
Yeah, I know.
A shortened week as well.
Right.
Everybody's got a three day weekend coming up.
That's it.
Yeah.
and should be a hot weekend.
Today's gonna be beautiful though.
We're at 64 degrees and bright, beautiful sunshine overlooking the capital this morning on State Street.
Looking good for the rest of the day.
Humidity level, not bad.
Not bad.
Two points seems to be...
Lower than 60 I'm guessing.
I
could be wrong.
That's just a guess
in
my part.
Do you have the
WMDX?
I do not have the deep point exactly at this
point, but I do have a
high of 86 degrees today.
86.
That's going
to
warm up considerably.
My
watch says 69 degrees.
Okay.
Currently, you know, it once said 64, now it went up to 69.
Wow.
And I'm just going to, you know, venture a guess here.
Is that the
indoor temperature here in the studio?
humidity
is 79% which is up there and the dew point is at 62 degrees that's just a little over teetering in
the uncomfortable part yeah let's check the we have the WM DX dice ready to go
ready to roll
this bar dice I'll shake them up and let it fly let's see see we're afternoon high is gonna be there's an
eight and a four.
So it's either 48 degrees for a high or 84.
I'm guessing 84.
All right.
Right.
Well, I had 87, but you know, we're okay.
In the mid 80s, we won't have a fight over it.
Like yesterday.
That brutal fight
we had, we destroyed a few chairs.
Well, knock down drag out every once in a while, you know, just to get the, you know, get the nerves out.
That's true.
You know,
I'm really there's built up frustration.
Let's say good morning to
our when it comes to the weather our producer
Dom, good morning, Dom.
Oh,
yeah.
Clipping the switches, pushing
the buttons over there.
How's
he going?
Pretending he
knows what
he's going to do next.
I'm pretending like I know what I'm doing right now.
Yeah, that's good.
What do you got on your head there?
What is this?
Is that a beanie?
Yeah, I wore this before, but I just like the way it looks.
I don't know.
I bought it off Timu for like $5, and so I've been wearing it ever since.
I'm very comfy.
Does it have
some sort of secret message with those
markings?
Yeah, it looks like markings.
It looks like markings of something.
They're
hieroglyphics of something.
Yes, but that's why I think it's pretty cool.
I like the hieroglyphic kind of lettering.
I don't know what it means, though, so maybe it might not be a good idea to wear it all the time.
Well, is there a way that you can
possibly flatten it out and take a picture of it and do a search online
and see if there
isn't some interpretation?
Because I know what it says.
It says, Stu, STU.
Oh, OK.
STU.
Stu.
Stu.
Like,
yeah, it's a name.
Oh, okay.
So it might be a name.
I don't know.
All right.
All right, Stu.
See that.
We'll call him Stu from now on.
I remember at the beginning, when I first started, Gordy kept calling me a bunch of random names that made no sense.
Boris.
When the came to mind.
Yeah.
Yeah, Boris.
And then I don't know what else.
What else did I call you?
I don't remember.
I don't know.
I don't even know.
Bill, you called me Bill one time.
Pretty sure.
OK.
I think it starts with an A, ends with a whole.
I don't think that.
That doesn't sound like me.
Well, anyway, a little bit later on, it'll be the return of Mike McCabe.
We're all anxious to hear what happened when he went to Tanzania.
And he wrote a beautiful article in sub-stack.
It is really something
else,
isn't it?
Really something.
Yeah.
So we'll talk to him
about that.
Yeah.
He'll have to explain everything.
I don't think we have too many questions.
He just, I mean, it was an experience of experiences.
I don't think I would be very comfortable in Tanzania, but, but he, he enjoyed the fact that everybody enjoys life without technology.
Right.
Right.
Even
Rhodes.
Right, so we'll dig
deeper into that, I guess.
That's right.
So we'll find out in our seven o'clock hour when Mike McCabe joins us.
Phone lines are open early, 608-879-8255.
You can call us or you can text us on the Civic Media app.
Always free to download and always free to use.
And we'd love to hear from you.
Yeah, send us a
voice note or
at least give us a text.
Yeah.
What?
All right.
What's the matter?
So what's on your
mind?
We have essentially almost passed a budget in the state and we'll be getting to that a little after seven o'clock.
We'll be going over the details of what is in the proposed budget between the GOP legislature and Governor Evers.
Yes.
Well, it seems like they've come to some kind of agreement and maybe just working out the fine
I thought it was really cool that they actually got all the stuff they did get They got more money for the university.
Yeah, and I know that I know there are Democrats trying a hard line They're not liking it.
They're not going to vote for it.
I I think that's short-sighted I mean you get what you can with this legislature at this point anyway.
Well, we'll dig into that.
Yeah
What's happening there?
This portion of John Gordy in the morning is brought to you by Virlo Mattress.
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Yeah, you don't even need a box spring anymore.
No, not anymore.
Right.
Right.
I don't why I think you can
buy them if you really need one, but you really don't need a box spring anymore.
Well,
unless unless
you don't have the
the support in the bed frame.
Yes, not.
I like I was saying, I still have that triple decker.
bed that I have that goes up to like the roof of my apartment.
You haven't fallen out of it again,
have you?
I have not, thank God, but I remember when that did happen, I hurt my leg for a while, I was hobbling.
Yeah, it wasn't
good.
No, no, we thought for sure that was permanent.
The end of me
there.
But it adds personality, you know, if we see you at an event of some sort, we'd
see you
hobbling
over
there.
It has a little personality, like
Gunsmoke.
Oh,
Chester.
Chester.
The deputy.
That's way before Dom's time.
He wouldn't know who we're talking about.
Gunsmoke, the TV
show.
I probably shouldn't have brought that up.
That's really too old for most people with me.
James Arnes.
James Arnes.
He was, you know, he was the brother of Peter Graves.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Who starred in Mission Impossible, another TV show that Dom knows nothing about.
And James Arnes, of course, was
the thing.
The
thing in, yeah, in the
movie.
He
was
the carrot.
At least
they call it
a carrot.
I said Peter Graves directed one episode, Which Doctor, which aired in 1966.
Which Doctor.
Which Doctor.
I don't know.
I don't really know much.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do tell.
Okay.
That's great.
Well, you know, a lot of the stars in those days, they used to direct episodes, right?
Yeah.
Robert Cope did a whole bunch of eye
spies.
Did he really?
Didn't know that.
Yeah.
You know, I see they brought the Cosby show back on TV.
Oh, they did?
They slipped it on there now?
Yeah.
Suddenly that's
forgotten.
That's okay.
Yeah.
Cosby show
is back in syndication.
Look, iSpy has built Cosby in it, but it shouldn't be avoided.
I mean,
For the for the time it was a pairing up of a white guy and a black guy Yeah, and that was groundbreaking and they were spies.
Yeah, and they were cool spot and Cosby got the Emmys every time every year for that show and called who wrote episodes and directed it and was was a guy I looked after I mean He just had a presence and he never got any awards for any of it.
I'm still a little resentful
Well, he went on to have a great career,
Robert Galt.
He was in, remember the ones where he was in Colombo a couple of
times as the
bad guy, the murderer.
And those were great episodes.
Maybe it was just one episode with Colombo.
What is the greatest American hero?
Was he in that?
He was the...
I don't know what the guy that guided the super hero and sort of the father hero or father figure for the super hero.
Yeah, the reluctant super hero that had trouble flying.
Yeah.
Yeah, never could fly never fly right.
Could not direct himself in the sky.
That was a good series.
And then he was in he made a lot of guest cameo appearances.
Yeah.
Talking about Robert Culp.
Yes, Robert Culp.
He was in Everybody Loves Raymond.
Uh, yes.
You mentioned that
a number of times he played, uh, raised
father in law.
And before the whole thing blew up with Bill Cosby, they had a couple of reunion shows.
Did they get together's of I spy.
And it was really
cool.
No kidding.
Really?
No TV movies.
The return of I spy.
I had no idea about that.
Okay.
Well, you know, Robert called played a, uh, a tennis player and.
That's right.
Bill Cosby was his manager.
They globetrodded and inspired at the same time, so it's a great
premise.
We'll have to look that one up and see if we can find some episodes and maybe play some clips.
This portion of the show brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
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Madison Hearing Aid Center.
Yeah, you know, I get a lot of ads.
I don't mind getting ads.
It's OK.
And it's targeted toward what I normally look at.
So I'm OK with that.
And I get a lot of seal information that way.
When you're on social media.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And I keep seeing this ad that says Costco buyers love this device.
Do they?
And.
I have sucked into that twice now.
Is it the same divide?
Are you talking
about a specific one?
This
is the trick.
What?
It has nothing to do with Costco.
You know, you're thinking, well, the Costco buyers are buying this particular item at Costco and they just love it.
That isn't the case.
No, they're just using the name Costco to draw in people who love Costco.
Interesting.
To sell their product, which has nothing to do with Costco at all.
And it's really making me.
Angry because you know, I live at Costco.
I know you
do my second home.
My third home, of course, is Woodman's but other than Boy when the roof came down in Woodman's where am I gonna sleep
tonight?
Tough day for you.
Yes.
But can you order it through Costco?
I mean,
can you order online stuff through Costco?
Well, yeah, you can order online, but this product has nothing to do with it.
And now I read a story where there is a clothing manufacturer suing Costco because Costco used to sell their clothing, but all of a sudden now there's a Kirkland brand that seems to have the same kind of clothing.
If you ever shop there, Kirkland replaces almost everything in the store of brand names.
They have their own eventual name tacked on these products that they used to sell from other manufacturers.
I'm wondering if how true this is that they've been kind of stealing products from people.
It doesn't seem
that that's an ethical thing to do.
Well, I'm okay with it.
I love
Costco.
Can't wait till they build one of those Costco's around here with the apartments above it or the condos.
That's right.
It's the beginning of a Costco city.
I can't wait.
Yeah, they have those.
19 minutes past the hour just getting started on Wednesday morning, the second day of July.
Back with more of John and Gordy in just a few moments.
623,
sunshine.
Looks like it's gonna be beautiful all day highs in the mid 80s right now 65 degrees Where the hell did John
Lenny got the idea doing that?
That's just messing around with the studio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was one of those songs What's the name of that tune?
Go ahead John.
You know my name.
Yeah, you
know my
name.
Look up my number.
Yeah
They had done that over a course of several years.
Yeah, they were just when they were messing around in the studio.
They had and you can tell it's kind of a montage.
It goes from different little bit to different little parts.
And yeah, so that's just the end.
It's a weird character.
It's almost like I've seen.
I've
seen somebody talk like that in the old 30s, 40s movies.
It seems to
me anyway.
He could do good gibberish that John Lennon.
Yeah, that was good stuff.
He was good at the gibberish.
That was very good.
Well, isn't it time for our new game show
thing?
What do we
do?
What do we call this again?
What's happening now?
What is it?
Would you rather?
Which would you rather?
Which would you rather?
You gotta get this right.
Would you rather?
Would you rather?
That's the title.
Better one or the other?
Would you rather?
Would you rather?
Let's start this off, shall we?
Alright, first question.
What's worse?
Yeah, basically.
Point.
2.0.
Go ahead.
Would you rather swim in a pool full of Nutella, or a pool full of maple syrup?
Oh man, hands
down maple syrup.
Hands down maple syrup.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I gotta go with that too.
I can't stand Nutella.
Yeah,
really?
What's the reason?
Just you don't like the taste?
Oh, yeah, I don't like the taste at all.
I
don't
like that.
You like Nutella.
Would you go with Nutella?
I love Nutella.
I would be a really?
Yes, I could eat that whole pool.
Are you kidding me?
Would you put it on toast or what do you like?
Yes, I put it on toast and yeah.
Isn't it isn't
a
strange disgusting?
Gen Z loves Nutella,
and I don't know why that is.
My sons
love Nutella, or at least Brad does, my younger one, 23 years old now.
But
he
loves me, he had me go out and get the damn stuff.
God, what's the flavor?
What kind of flavor
is that?
It's sort of a chocolatey thing.
It's a chocolatey mixture.
Not really, though.
But it's not.
But it's not.
It's hard to explain, honestly.
I can't explain it.
That's why it's so good.
And I also really like marshmallow fluff, too, which I don't know if you guys know marshmallow fluff.
Marshmallow, I can... Yeah, that's
okay.
I used to spoon it out of the jar.
Oh my God.
So sweet.
All right, all right.
We got another one.
Yep.
We got another one Would you rather spend a week in the forest or a night in a real haunted house?
So a week in the forest
You go to a haunted house.
Oh,
yeah, definitely.
I'm no
kidding me do the week in the forest.
I think I'm gonna do the week in the floor.
Yeah, all those
bugs and I'll tell you what
when
you're in a haunted house You're looking for spirits and ghosts and some kind of scary experience.
That's stimulating.
That's true
That's true.
That's
true.
Come on, have I convinced you?
I don't buy
it.
No, I don't.
You don't buy into the spirit
thing?
No, I don't.
You don't
believe in ghosts or monsters or anything?
Nope.
Okay.
Not a believer.
Guess you didn't see 13 ghosts when you were younger.
All right, let's continue.
All right, and then last question.
Last but best question.
It's a special
sign language we had in the studio.
I got that.
You didn't really deserve it for that, but I just thought I'd throw it in.
Okay, go ahead.
Okay, would you rather sleep in a doghouse or let stray dogs sleep on your bed every night?
And this is every night for the rest of your life, okay?
So this
is... I'm gonna sleep in a doghouse.
Okay, well,
I guess I gotta... Yeah,
that's a terrible choice.
I would do doghouse.
I'm really yeah, I don't trust it.
Just don't trust the stray dogs on my actual clean sheets I'm trusted
well every night for the rest of your life isn't did you throw that in there?
Yeah, well, yeah, that was a personal.
Yeah.
All
right, see what it what it tells us about you Dom is kind of scary, but I would have to say that the stray dogs in my bed why not I got the crack and I got
my
board
You know, really?
It's like a bed of hair now.
Does he
sleep
in
the bed
with
you?
No, she
wants to desperately, but
I don't know
how she sleeps on the quilt, but somehow all that hair ends up on my pillow and I have no idea how that happens.
Um, okay.
Does the dog get in there while you're at work or away from the house?
Well, the pillow is right next to the window, and she likes to prop herself
up on
my pillows in order to look out the
windows, check the squirrels, where they're running, what tree they're going up next.
I think that's how it's done.
Oh, boy.
It's not fun.
It's not easy.
I'm pulling hair
off my face all
night
long.
That's kind of gross.
Okay, it's not that bad, but
it happens every once in a
while.
Okay.
Is that it for what's happening?
What's going on?
Your choice.
The thing
is, this thing could be writing up a psychological profile of both of us.
Somebody
accumulates this information and they'll know just who we are
and where to
find
us.
I
save all of these questions.
Send it to Homeland Security.
They've already got all the data they need on
us.
They're
getting more data every day, every single day.
A little bit later on, Mike McCabe will join us and he'll be.
talking about all kinds of things from his vacation.
He was over there for
what,
10
days or something?
Yeah.
Over in Tanzania.
I had to look that up on the map.
I couldn't even, I didn't even know where it was.
I knew it was in Africa somewhere, but that's all I had.
I got to ask him about the Warthog River, right?
And then the River of Mosquitoes.
Yes, that doesn't sound good.
The River of Mosquitoes.
No, it doesn't.
Yeah.
But apparently it wasn't that bad.
No.
So.
Find out more times have changed 629 we're coming back with idiocracy on this edition of John and Gordy in the morning
Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody,
somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody,
somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody to now.
right now mid sixties john we got a uh we get these every once in a while an email oh this is from this one's from jamesville from d and d says uh you know there's a question i guess you can fill out a questionnaire or something from
one of our websites and anyway it says what are you looking for in local news that's the question and D answers real news the truth and we found it on your station along with enough levity to start our day off right starting the day on levity that's what we bring to the table right some levity once in a while um we got a lot better than the s word all right we got a text here from Doug
Yes.
We were talking about Alligator Alley, right?
Or Alligator Alcatraz.
That's right.
Yeah.
Wisconsin can't build its own migrant detention center, question mark.
How about the cheese curd slammer?
It works for me.
My
wife came up with a few.
Did she?
Yeah.
Like, because alligators were something that we feared when we were kids
in
the 50s and 60s.
Yes.
So she came up with quicksand.
Elcatraz,
you
know, surrounded by quicksand.
She came up with another one.
I just can't remember what it is.
And then, uh, and finally she came up with sharks, something surrounded by
sharks.
Okay.
Just sharks.
Yeah.
Sharks didn't have a good name for that one.
Sure.
Well, what, you know, it's got
to have some kind of alliteration.
Eligator Elcatraz has the alliteration.
It
does.
It does.
And cheese curd slammer.
It's got a little bit of that.
Yeah.
And in quicksand, quick, I don't know what we
could
use for
quicksand.
Yeah, I don't know.
Quicksand used to show up in a lot of old movies and from the TV shows in the 50s and 60s.
You told me that Beaver.
Leave it to Beaver.
I'm
pretty sure.
I think I remember.
Well over his
hand all we could see it was his hand by the time they finally rescued
him.
Wasn't that it?
We always saw the hand, right?
Yes.
Remember
when we met?
We met Eddie Haskell.
Yes.
Yeah.
We interviewed
Eddie Haskell because he was here for a parade.
Yeah.
Well, he was part of a holiday parade or something.
And it wasn't in the 50s either.
No.
What was it?
Well, we were working in the 80s, right?
We were working at Channel 47, and they tried to bring back a modern version of Leave It to Beaver.
And it wasn't bad.
It wasn't bad, but it was the new Leave It to Beaver, you know, and they brought back Eddie Haskell in that TV show and Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow.
You know, they were much older adults then, and they had...
their kids of their own that were getting in trouble.
Jerry Mathers still acted like the nine-year-old beaver in the TV show, which was a little unsettling.
Very odd.
Okay,
this is...
Yeah.
This is idiocracy.
It is time for idiocracy, yes.
So, uh... I completely forgot to play the intro for it.
Oh, what?
Oh, well, go ahead and play it.
Let's... I think we should play something.
We'll
play
a
snippet of it.
Why
not?
Here we go.
As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point, a dumbing down, until humanity was incapable of solving even its most basic problems.
We're there now.
At no point...
In your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought?
Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber.
Right?
You go and do something like this.
We can
duck and
cover.
There's a fall at each other right there.
There's no way to survive this, you
idiot!
Idiocracy.
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.
I don't know if we're
dumb.
Dumb
survived this one.
No, I know it.
Alright, our first example is Marjorie Taylor-Green getting a little out of hand with the gavel in this case.
She went nuts!
We've featured on this program a number of times.
A great representative out from New Mexico.
It is Melanie Stansberry.
You might remember
her.
She's amazing.
She
has some great stuff.
Yes.
But she was trying to make a point.
And Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn't having any of it.
Why don't we check out and cut 188.
The gentleman yields, no one loves veterans more than President Trump, and he's made that apparent.
That's why he's
working for
peace
right now.
I'm the chair of this committee.
I'm the chair.
You're not recognized Miss Danbury.
You're not recognized
either.
You can't just speak anytime you
want.
I'm the chair of this
committee.
Miss
Stansbury, you're not
recognized.
She has the gavel.
Ms.
Stansbury, you're not recognized.
Point of
order.
Point
of
order.
Point of order.
All right, Madam Chair, calm down.
Let's move on.
Ms.
Stansbury, you're not recognized.
Point of order.
Boy.
Yeah.
It's out of control.
It really is out of control.
It sounds like you two fighting.
I'm going to have to
get a gavel.
How can she do that?
She just gavling, you know?
Stop!
Stop!
You're
losing the argument.
Oh my gosh, she is.
You know, but the thing is, you know, you got to think about the people who voted her in.
We think she's bad.
How about the people who said, hey, we like her.
Let's vote for Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Oh man.
Alright.
That's a great opener, I think.
Okay, now.
I thought of this the other day.
You know, we're under a dictator right now.
I was the first one,
first radio
host in the universe to declare that Trump was already a dictator.
Yeah, that
was months ago.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So anyway, Trump is the dictator, but we almost had one in the 60s and a lot of people have forgotten.
Comedian Pat Paulson ran for president.
Do you remember this?
I do.
Mother's Brothers?
Yeah.
He launched a near successful campaign until this speech tanked any chances he had.
Let's play
it.
Okay.
Time has come for us to sit down and reason together.
Too often serious world problems are discussed in an environment full of passion and unreasoning anger.
The day when a fiery orator could influence an audience with feminine tirades has long since passed in this age of sophisticated political awareness.
Let us then communicate with each other on a civilized level.
Even President Justin disdains the impassioned appeal to the emotional sensibilities of his cattle, his people.
People love it.
People love it.
Not for me, the rabble rousers scorching indictment.
Of course, it is true that some leaders have made progress with recalcitrant peoples through the use of demagogic emotional display.
But that is to be expected when dealing with a great bulk of the lower and middle class peasants who are easily swayed by pyrotechnic performances.
But if I am elected, I shall lead this nation forward as never before.
to a position of preemence throughout the world.
I believe it is our manifest destiny to dominate the oceans of the world and to bring the white man's burden to the underprivileged nations of the earth for they are better accustomed to parents.
Oh, boy.
It didn't go well.
It got ugly
then.
They love it though.
They're receptive.
And further I say, the dominance of this country and world trade military power shall be enhanced and enlarged to the point where entire nations shall bow down and wobble in the dust at our feet.
I sense a problem
here.
We shall march together in a tremendous fight for the manifest destiny that shall be ours.
Yeah,
and you can see why, you know, that was a speech that tanked his entire run for president, sadly.
He had given a number of TV speeches on the Smothers Brothers show before leading up to that.
That
actually was the Smothers Brothers, yeah.
So that was a great run, and he ran.
the next year.
Right.
You're after that.
Keep running.
Yeah.
Well, anyway, Pat Paulson, comedian and a lot of fun on the Smothers Brothers show.
No doubt.
Yeah.
All right.
This is kind of a weird one.
The Wall Street Journal reported this stuff.
Walmart coin.
Okay.
Walmart.
Yeah.
Walmart coin could be coming to a super store near you thanks to the cryptocurrency industry backed genius act.
God, Walmart, Amazon, and even some major airlines are considering issuing their own stable coins.
Now these are the ones that are a little bit better than all the other ones, but they're still prone to corruption.
The new
bill is
stable
coin.
Yeah, stable
coin.
What is
that?
And the stable coin means that it's, it's exchangeable for actual cash and money.
Okay.
Because it's stable.
Guess
if you call it
stable, it's got to be a stable coin and it's okay then.
Okay.
I
don't know I'm not into the script just
crypto stuff at all.
The new bill rolls back federal oversight of stable coins and permits corporations like Meta and X to issue their own made up monopoly money with exorbitantly high fees.
See, and the whole reason why we have this crypto idea going is that X wanted to become the next PayPal.
Elon wanted to turn it into a PayPal.
As well so you can make purchases on it and he can make some money and charge a lot of money The Justice Department meanwhile is currently suing Apple for alleged antitrust violations that trap iPhone users into using its own tap-to-pay and digital wallet technology using our current cash system Now I don't understand it because you know Samsung has its own wallet.
Oh, yeah,
Google has its wallet, right?
And I use both of them and my cards are in the wall
Right.
So Apple has its own wallet.
I don't know why it's getting sued because in that wallet will be our credit cards, our debit cards.
Right.
So
what's the problem?
And in one state, I even believe they have their driver's license in it.
So you don't have to carry that around anymore.
You don't need a wallet or a purse.
Anyway, Oracle, an artificial intelligence firm, also reported they're tapped by the administration to stage a purchase of TikTok.
And Palantir, the mass surveillance corporation, reportedly compiling a master list of American data is also trying to pick up on TikTok.
Oh, great.
Now we just heard from Trump that, you know, there's some kind of deal going with China on TikTok.
So we've got Oracle, China, and Palantir.
Vine for TikTok and it still isn't sold and Trump said he'd released that in a couple of weeks.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Back to the two-week thing, right?
Now I
think he's playing us.
I think
he had a smile on his face when he said it, but he doesn't have a sense of humor.
So no kind of wonder about that.
Right.
Meanwhile, the new Defense Department initiative just recruited executives from Palantir.
Metta and OpenAI to join the US Army Reserves as part-time military officers.
Together, they form a new executive innovation corporation dedicated to bringing about a new era of defense technology.
It sounds scary
as hell.
I know.
What the hell is that all
about?
Wait, run that by me.
Yeah.
It's a new initiative.
Executives from Palantir, Metta and OpenAI
are
joining the Army Reserves.
And they're going to have the Executive Innovation Corporation.
Now,
here's the problem with that.
Doesn't make any sense.
They actually disbanded.
In fact, all of the tech people at the Defense Department walked out.
They left.
Oh, wow.
Because they were
afraid of what they wanted to do.
Now we have the biggest, you know,
biggest tech people joining the reserves.
God.
All right.
That's it.
That doesn't sound good.
Okay, 648.
We're coming back with more of John and Gordy in the morning, right, bees?
He asks John and Gordy in the morning.
The American Dream is killing us all at this point with the big bad bill.
Oh boy.
And we're going to get to something that is just so mind boggling the alligator Alcatraz in just
a few moments.
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Pretty much.
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Alright,
okay
One of the makers out there are really gleeful over the alligator Alcatraz they just love it while they were debating the bill in the Senate Trump took a tour the alligator Alcatraz
He didn't
you
know
They asked him a couple of questions and he gave answers that were not anywhere near what the questioner was asking.
I
don't know if he couldn't hear them.
We've included an
answer in this bit.
Okay.
So, uh, and by the way, we have a texture from Robert MacFarlane.
Yeah.
Uh, he suggested the cheese curd clink.
Oh, there you go.
There you go.
There's a ring
to it.
Cheese curd clink.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Eliteration.
We're always looking for that.
Yeah.
All right, anyway, this is Tim Miller from the Bulwark with MSNBC's Chris Janssen.
And they were discussing the disturbing alligator Alcatraz visit.
The new ice detention center in the Florida Everglades.
All right.
Well, let's listen to it here.
Hey everybody, Tim Miller from the Bulwark here.
I was just on MSNBC with Chris Janssen and we were talking about this supposed so-called alligator Alcatraz, this new ice detention center in the Everglades.
And I wanted to share the conversation with you.
I got to tell you, Chris really kind of brought me down.
This doesn't usually happen on TV, but I hadn't seen, you know, some of the details around how, let's just be blunt, how excited.
MAGA voters are, I guess, about this detention center in the swamp.
People are buying t-shirts, little hats.
Let's talk with Cam about this because Benny Johnson on one of his feeds wearing alligator Alcatraz hat.
It's just like, it is so dark and so cool.
It's so gross on so many levels.
It's like that we are screwing with this natural habitat.
like to just because we want to create some 80s action movie detention center for people, some of whom I am going to presume are not even violent criminals.
That's right.
It is.
It's deeply disheartening.
So we talk about that with Chris Janssen.
We talk about the reaction, the Cuban community in Florida, which I think might become a problem for Trump.
And
You know, what I didn't get into as much as I wanted was just how how sick it is.
Just how sick it is that this is the priority, that this is what these guys are doing.
The president and Florida governor Ron DeSantis seeming to delight in how the natural environment of a swamp, the wildlife that comes with it as well, would make it difficult for anyone trying to escape.
The snakes are fast, but alligators, but we're going to teach them how to run
away from an alligator, okay?
If they escape prison, how to run away?
Don't run in a straight line, run like this.
And you know what?
Your chances go up about
1%.
The security is amazing, but what?
Natural and otherwise.
Five people have died in ICE custody since January.
The latest, a 75 year old Cuban man who came to the United States nearly six decades ago.
but died after three weeks in detention.
Is the threat of cruelty the point here a deterrent?
I think so.
The whole thing is extremely dehumanizing.
Like the idea that somebody had spent here for 60 years, you know, needs to be held in a cell, like for what?
What it has, though, Tim, been big plus for the MAGA base.
I mean, the Florida Republican Party is selling all kinds of Alligator Alcatraz merchandise.
There you see some of the t-shirts.
They've got hats.
One Florida Republican Party official said that the traffic to their website and the donation links have skyrocketed by 400 to 500 percent.
So
now you're just trying to depress me on midday.
I'm just stating the facts.
Just stating the facts, Tim Miller.
Yeah.
It's amazing, it really is.
It's sick and it's sad.
It should come up with something like that,
right?
Yeah.
It's a temporary tension center.
The walls are chain link fences.
Right.
That's your privacy.
And it was a former airplane landing area in the swamp.
Like a landing
strip.
Yeah, so
they've converted it into this now.
Let's go to the phones.
Real
quick, we got about a minute,
Dick.
What do you
got for us?
Well reporting now to that the money to do that was stolen from FEMA.
Oh, yes.
Yes, that's right.
Yes
Wonderful.
Yeah, that's great real quick.
Here's something for you.
Who said this?
foreign policy slash military actions Are a little more nuanced and watching shows like the press.
I'm paraphrasing.
Yeah.
I don't know
Pete
P.T.
Pegstad back when Trump was a candidate.
Wow.
Okay.
Wow.
All right.
Good find.
All right, Dick.
Thank you.
We'll
be
back with more.
We're going to get to a big story and that is the budget here in Wisconsin.
Yeah, it seems
like they have a
deal.
Yeah.
And also in our next hour, Mike McCabe returns with John and Gordy.
These are the times that try men's souls.
In the course of our nation's history, the people have rallied bravely whenever the rights of men have been threatened.
Today, a new crisis has arisen.
Citizens, hear me out.
This could happen to you.
People think I'm controversial, but the truth is, I'm a nice guy.
You know who I am?
In the field of live entertainment.
Oh my God!
I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.
Yeah.
Let me tell you something you lowlife lion, four-flushing sack of shit.
I will tell you this is going to be something special.
Just to show about nothing.
Hell, I like
you.
Well, it's just ponderous, man.
Ponderous.
Ponderous.
Yeah, ponderous.
WMDX, not in Gordy.
Working that ponderous level.
This is 92.7.
You can also check us out on the Civic Media app and text us there all.
Or voice notice as well.
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Right now, let's
get into the Wisconsin budget.
I mean, this kind of slipped under the radar, shouldn't have.
They actually agreed to something.
Yes.
Finally,
for once.
Right.
I think this is groundbreaking stuff.
Now, I believe that Minority Leader Diane Heselberg says that they have the votes in the Senate to help pass this budget.
Okay.
Because there are Democrats out there that won't vote for this.
Even though I really think let's take what we can get from these guys.
I mean, when you look at what
They're finally going to spend some money on.
I think this is a really good thing.
And the fact that the tax cut that they were so demanding is smaller than I thought it would be.
And I'm really glad for that.
Now, there's a surplus of about $1 billion in the state.
state fund right now.
So
after they
pass this, it'll be a $1 billion surplus yet, which is good.
I mean, you're gonna need that, especially after all the cuts on the federal level.
We're gonna have to backfill a lot of those cuts because they're making states pay more for the programs that the federal government used to.
But anyway, this is some of the details of this budget deal.
It includes a $1.3 billion tax cut, as I mentioned, increased Medicaid funding
which is going to help backfill what the federal government is taking away and unbelievably a boost for the UW system, which is crazy.
I mean, they were going to take all this money away.
Right.
And now all of a sudden they're going to put all of this money back in, which is fantastic.
Good.
The agreement still needs approval from the full legislature that's going on today, where some of the Republican senators have expressed reservations, but forget it.
Just vote for the damn thing.
Let's get this over with.
And as I mentioned, you know, Governor Evers is good at doing this stuff.
I mean, they're used to working against each other.
And now they're kind of working with each other, which is a strange thing.
So if they're starting to work together just a little bit, let's keep Governor Evers in there if we can.
If he decides,
to run for reelection and I hope he does.
I know Dan Schaefer,
a
specific media's Dan Schaefer
says,
no, no, let's go for younger people.
We do have qualified people to run.
I just would prefer that Governor Evers stays in there because I think Republicans want Evers in there to tamp down what the Republicans in the legislature want to do.
could
be and he's
a
moderate he's a moderate guy he said he would make a decision after they got this budget deal
yeah figured out so
who knows
so we'll see the full vote today in the legislature and then and then of course governor Evers will look it all over you know uses veto pen if he wants to use any of it in
in this bill, but we'll see what happens on this.
Of course, this marks a big shift in budget negotiations.
They finally agreed to something, my God.
Pinch me, I must be dreaming.
Exactly.
It includes the tax fit, but also, let's see here, it would expand the state's second lowest tax bracket.
Now that's a big deal because the Republicans always wanted that tax cut to include up to four hundred thousand dollar incomes That is a little high and that's why Governor Evers never approved the tax cut now with the Lower bracket the second lowest bracket being expanded more people in the middle class are gonna get this tax cut right, but remember anything any tax cut at all affects
All people making money.
So even the wealthy get this tax cut as well So now each bracket has its own tax cut.
Yeah, just to keep that in mind exemptions from retirement income from taxation Creation get this of the film tax credit
Oh, really?
Yeah, it's a $5 million per year tax credit for getting companies in here, TV, networks, movie studios to come in here and film, and now they're going to get the actual tax credit for doing so.
That's fantastic.
They repealed it.
We had it for a long time, and they repealed it, but they brought it back.
How about increased funds from Medicaid?
And that'll help people stay on Medicaid rolls here in Wisconsin.
Again, backfilling.
because the Fed is going to cut some of that, the Fed percentage of it.
The agreement increases the amount of hospitals get paid for the state to stay in business because of the Medicaid payments, spending on childcare.
That is gone up to $300 million, which is incredible.
Plus, by the way, $110 million directed toward payments to the childcare providers themselves, which was really important.
That's a big one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because they were just going to give it to the people to send their children with that tax rate.
But instead.
Those individuals might not send their children to whatever preschool or
not preschool daycare
center.
And they would go out of business.
So now the daycare center's providers will actually get some money.
A
cost of educating students with disabilities is also getting a shot in the arm, a good spending amount.
And the state's public universities will receive, get this, $256 million boost over the next two years.
And that also includes a tentative deal of more than $840 million for the UW campus building projects.
Wow.
I mean, that just, that's great stuff.
That is really terrific for the
UW.
Yeah, that's excellent.
So the budget looks pretty good.
You know, they were.
Maybe they were just in contrast trying to make it seem like they were going to do anything at all.
And then surprise everybody when they finally got together.
And well, it works on me.
Yeah.
I'm ready to go.
Big thumbs up, huh?
Yeah.
That's what I'm thinking.
OK.
Well, good.
Yes.
All right.
Phone lines are open.
608-879-8255.
You can always text us on the Civic Media app and send us a voice note if you'd like to do that.
You can chime in 608-879-8255.
Now, the guy that won't go away is our former Governor Scott Walker.
He keeps coming out there and posting stuff on X. What's he up to now?
And this time he posted this, every Senate Democrat voted against requiring able-bodied working age adults to work pathetic.
What's he talking about?
They want Medicaid to include a work requirement.
That's not why Medicaid was created by the Congress.
Way back when it was a health care program for the needy for the poorest.
And that's why they created Medicaid.
It wasn't.
to force people, coerce people into working.
And there are very few people that are just, you know, sitting on their couch watching TV or playing video games.
That is such a stupid cliche that it makes me very angry when I think about it.
But anyway, you know, this whole thing, you know,
The courts have decided this too.
They have decided that it is just a healthcare program.
You can't put stipulations and strings in it to make people work.
Especially if they're, you know, I mean, they're very ill or they're elderly.
Elderly and disabled.
All of these people really need this.
And plus, by the way, most of the people who do collect Medicaid money, food stamps, they're already working.
They're just not working enough.
And now they have this requirement of 80 hours a month working hours.
Really?
You have to work 80 hours
a
month or you don't get whatever it is, Medicaid or food stamps or healthcare.
And that's a problem because that's like $20 or 20 hours a week.
And my son who has a job only works sometimes, maybe 15 hours a week, sometimes 20, but it's not going to amount to 80 hours.
So they suggest that if you don't get the 80 hours and, you know, put in some volunteer time, like,
well, you got time for
that.
That counts as well.
It's almost like being in high school where, you know, you're required to put volunteer hours in.
I don't know.
Let's go to the phones here.
We got Todd and Billy.
What do you got?
Todd or Billy?
Well, you know, I've noticed that I don't think Congress has a worker appointment at all.
Like they don't have to work.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They should point.
Yeah.
We should take their health care away if they don't put in the hours.
All right, thanks, Todd
or
Billy.
I appreciate it.
Let's move on to Mark.
Mark, what do you got
for us
this morning?
You had to bring Scott Walker up again once again.
I'm sorry.
Wasn't he one of our younger governors?
And let's remember to Scott Walker ignored infrastructure in Milwaukee County.
And so Donald Street garage collapsed and killed that kid.
If Scotty is that kid still dead?
I mean, it
is just...
Well, as you remember, Mark, you know, he bankrupted, nearly bankrupted Milwaukee County as county executive.
He was going to break parts of the county off and then give it to the state to manage.
Do you remember this?
And the worst part of it, the business community in Milwaukee knew this and they kept it a secret during the election so people wouldn't...
based their vote on the fact that he was nearly bankrupting the colony, which was just crazy.
They justified it that way, and people accepted that as a justification.
Yeah,
crazy.
I talked to Tom Barrett himself and told him during that first campaign that he should use the Donald Street grudge collapse against Scotty Walker, not to mention this whole running his campaign from his county office.
Oh, yes, yes.
all that were managed to escape that nuisance and uh... all his old staff was doing the business for him in that office is just beyond me you're talking about ronald reagan before being that if if only ronald we had ronald reagan's compassion for the immigrants uh... this administration that we had under there because he wanted to find a pathway to citizenship for those people
for for the yes yes of those people i mean these are human beings and they're gonna stick them down in a gulag down florida that's just as bad as some of the stuff that they had over in nazi germany when the people out in the cold well the cold is just the opposite of the heat and the heat is just the opposite of the cold it's supposed to be just as miserable conditions there those guys should be ashamed of themselves anybody who was wearing those alcatraz alligator alcatraz and stuff should be i don't know this
yeah
definitely kick on the ass well i
think throw something at
him
Really,
OK.
Mark, thank you
for that call.
All
right, Mark.
We appreciate it.
608-879-8255, back with more of John and Gordy.
And coming up in just about 15 minutes, Mike McCabe returns.
Stay with us.
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All right.
Just a little note on the big bad budget.
Senator Chris Murphy brought
this up.
He said,
here's the latest in a turn to believe in order to secure the last GOP votes, Republicans exempted from the nutrition cuts, states with the highest level of errors,
in their food stamp program.
They exempted them.
Let it go.
So the states that waste the most money get no cuts.
Now, you know, there is a truly a double standard on the right.
It's mind boggling
once again.
It's crazy stuff.
Yeah.
All right.
Now, you know, health care is the biggest, one of the biggest issues I think that we have here on this program.
We bring it up all the time.
If we just had a universal health care system in this country, we'd have.
I think a lot happier people
in this
country.
A lot less problems and a lot less lawsuits and bankruptcies, healthcare bankruptcies.
But we have the right kind of people in charge now.
So let's, we're going back yesterday, I kind of goofed this thing up, but Dr. Oz, we're going to go back to Dr. Oz and what he has said.
And I just want to kind of present this only because what they think is,
misuse, fraud, and whatever else, corruption, is really not that at all.
It's just their opinion of programs they don't like.
And we're gonna get this from Dr. Oz about the reward of health care.
Again, working, and if you work, the reward is health.
See, if we had a universal plan, they couldn't coerce us.
Right?
You know, you'll get health care only
if you work.
But if we had it, then they'd have to think of another reason.
I want to know what another reason is.
All right, anyway, here is the first cut from Dr. Oz.
I'm surprised that the Senate has decided to completely depart from the House framework.
when it comes to Medicaid and the provider taxes.
I was told we've got a fix on the provider tax issue.
We're going to help rural hospitals.
There's nothing in here for rural hospitals.
In fact, what they're doing is lowering the provider tax to make it even worse.
So it's like we're defunding rural hospitals.
So the Congressional Budget Office estimated that more than 10 million recipients would lose their Medicaid benefits from the House bill.
The Senate bill, at least the one that just came out of committee, would go farther than that.
The plans that I've been asked to preside over Medicaid
and the Affordable Care Act exchanges in particular, are not stable programs.
Medicaid spending has increased 50% in the last five years, and a major driver of that are the able-bodied individuals who join the program, and half of which of these individuals don't work, and many of them could work.
I actually think work is a good thing in general, is if we allow able-bodied individuals on Medicaid to get a 90% match from the federal government, states gain the system.
We already know what happens when you take people off Medicaid.
We just did it for the last two years.
Under the Biden administration, if you give people a chance to work or volunteer, participate in your community, go get an education, or lose your insurance, they take the job.
All right, that's a lie.
The research has proven that that doesn't really happen.
So I want to get to a list now.
This is the next cut.
This is the fraudulent list.
This is what he thinks is bad, misuse, fraud.
Let's listen to a part of
it.
20% one in five of the people who are on an Affordable Care Act exchanges are inappropriately on that program.
One in five and then what do you
mean inappropriately?
Well as I give you an example there is no real adjudication of how much money you're making so you can pick whatever supply you want to be and the amount of reimbursement you get from the program is based on your income levels.
We also have about 230,000 people we believe were mistakenly
on, for example, Medicaid multiple states, but there's a much bigger number of people who are on Medicaid and the exchanges in the same state.
Jake, we think there's $14 billion in those two categories alone.
So if we're buying insurance for people, and the American taxpayers, people watching this show are paying extra money to appropriately get Americans who are needing to get the right insurance, but they're not supposed to have insurance.
If they don't even know they have insurance because some broker made up a, hey, free health care here sign, which literally happens, and then gets these folks.
They
don't know they have health insurance.
I
tell you
what, you're filling out the forms.
You know that you have health care.
The people you talk to, you know, you talk to those people.
You know that you went online.
You filled out the forms.
You know you have health care.
You're not sold by some salesman
at the door.
Hey, I'm
signing you up now.
Okay.
See you later.
How do you get a check from them if you don't have all the information?
This is so.
So ridiculous.
You know, this is Dr. Oz.
This is a healthcare system we have now and now they're going to pollute all of the online information that you get about healthcare with their.
Theories and their conspiracies that's what we're gonna get they're gonna destroy what we know as health care in this country in the next three and a half years So there just stand by buckle down
Buckle up.
I got a real strap in.
Yeah, just take a deep breath.
Okay, we got it We got to move on here and it's the return of Mike McCabe next he's back from
Tanzania Safari.
Yes, he's going to tell us all about it when we return with more of John and Gordy in the morning.
out of the magical mystery tour in just a few moments with Mike McCabe.
Yes we are.
This is
WMTX, John and Gordy in the morning.
Bright beautiful sunshine today, highs in the mid 80s, right now 65 degrees.
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All right.
Kay.
Sounds fantastic.
Look, who's back in the studio, John?
Yes,
back from the safari.
It is Mike McCabe.
You can read all about it
at a substack.
It's a fantastic story, amazing stuff.
And I hope that we can
encapsulate exactly what happened out there.
I mean, this is almost like an expedition.
Right?
Would you describe it as an expedition in Tanzania?
Yeah.
It was that.
Yes.
How many people were on this trip with you?
Yeah.
There was a total of six.
Okay.
And it ended up only with four, right?
They're making stuff up now.
No, they didn't lose anybody.
No, he didn't lose anybody.
Everybody made it home safe.
And I came home with a big smile on my face and just an absolutely buoyant mood.
And that's what that continent does for you.
It's amazing.
But you described the people there had smiles on their faces all the time.
Oh, man.
And
you know, I had experienced that before.
I lived in West Africa for two years and people smile more there than they do here and they laugh more and they sing and dance more there than they do here.
But even compared to Mali where I spent two years, he had Tanzanians are really, really upbeat about life and it's an extremely poor country.
Conditions are very, very harsh.
Roads are poor.
The per capita income is something like $500 a year.
Wow, jeez.
They're still smiling.
And that's the amazing thing.
They're living on more than $1 a day, but not much more than $1 a day.
Yeah, they've got smiles on their faces as wide as the Serengeti Wow,
and not much technology around them, right?
I mean it was
you know compared to Mali.
It's actually it seemed like a pretty developed country it seemed more prosperous and more advanced and partly because it's got a more temperate climate so Agriculturally they're they're well out ahead.
They can just grow more stuff and they've got a
a very vibrant tourist economy, of course, because of all the wildlife in Tanzania and the national parks.
And those game reserves are a magnet for travelers all around the world.
So they've got more tourist income than a country like Mali.
But still, this is a very, very poor country and conditions are harsh.
And yet there's a lightness of mood, a lightheartedness
A
welcoming
mood.
And a tremendously welcoming mood.
One of the things I mentioned in the article I wrote for Substack is that they really do say Hakuna Matata a lot.
They really?
You hear it constantly because whatever is going sideways or whatever comes up that isn't quite right when things fall apart, yeah, Hakuna Matata.
Hakuna Matata, no worries.
No worries.
And so they've got troubles.
They've got hardship, but they don't worry about it.
They don't obsess over it.
There's this lightheartedness that is really remarkable, and it's infectious.
You end up feeling like all these problems that I obsess over are just not that big a deal.
So their resilience, their unflappability in the face of...
hardship or turmoil is really a remarkable characteristic.
So people think about going to a place like Tanzania to visit the game reserves, the national parks, and
see
all the wildlife.
And that is stunning.
The landscape is stunning.
The diversity of wildlife is jaw-dropping.
But to me, the thing that makes the most lasting imprint is the people.
And you know, the amazing thing.
is that we're talking about a region that spans only a few hundred miles and there are 120 different ethnic groups living there.
And they all have their own tribal languages, yet the genius of the society there is that they've all accepted a common language.
That has enabled all of these different ethnic groups, all these different tribes to live harmoniously.
And they're
fiercely proud.
They talk about it all the time, about how we've got 120 different ethnic groups, and yet we live peacefully.
We live with each other.
And so when they would always try to teach us words of their language, we traveled a fair amount with a guy from the Shaga tribe.
We ran into a lot.
We also interacted a lot with Masai people.
They didn't try to teach us Masai or they didn't try to teach us Shaga.
They didn't try to
teach
us, you know, their own tribal language.
They were trying to teach us Swahili.
Yeah,
wow.
And because that's their common language and it's what knits them together as a society.
So, yeah, it's a tremendously diverse.
society, but yet also a really cohesive and unified one
just goes to show exactly how bad social media is To our psyche
and I tell you for two weeks You know all the all that hubbub
on
social media was
an
abstraction and all of all of the heartaches and all the troubles that we have here
are just irrelevant there.
They're not thinking about America's troubles.
And we live in a really individualistic society, and it's so easy for us to become full of ourselves and think that the whole world revolves around us.
It was an incredible, both an incredible experience, but also a blessing to realize that there...
You know, I'm not at the center of their universe.
Americans are not at the center of their universe.
They really couldn't care less about what's going on here.
They got their own problems, but then also, hey, Hakuna Matata.
That's
right.
No worries.
No worries.
How was the travels, Mike?
I mean, how long did it take you to get there?
Well, first of all, because this is Southeast Africa, right?
Yeah, yeah, it is.
This is Southeast part of the continent.
It is.
And so we flew to Amsterdam first and actually spent a couple of days in Amsterdam, which was a nice way to get more in the same time zone.
It's only an hour different than Tanzania.
And it had a wonderful time.
Amsterdam's an incredible city, and we really enjoyed our stay, but it was brief, and then we got on another flight.
So it was like eight hours or so to Amsterdam, and then it's another, so nine to Tanzania.
So it's a long journey, and then the rest of it was overland, and the roads are not good.
No, they're all gravel roads.
Most of the roads, other than in the, we flew into Arusha, which is a fairly large city, and there are paved...
There are paved thoroughfares there, but once you get out, it's almost all gravel roads, and it's this incredible washboard.
It's just bone jarring as you go over these roads.
And then you turn off onto these dirt paths.
The gravel, it's all unmarked too.
I have no idea how these people find their way.
They must be using landmarks.
baoba tree over there
and then a big tree there and then you turn left there and you
exactly because all these roads are unmarked and yet they seem to know exactly where they were going and and then you get off under these dirt paths which are just cratered you know they I can't describe them as potholes because they are craters and it's very deeply rutted and and super dusty but then it rained a time or two and then they would turn to mud
And it was slick and greasy mud.
So tell us about the alligator pits.
I mean, you must have seen a few of those.
We saw a crocodile or two.
Oh, you did?
Crocodiles?
Yeah.
Because in any river, there's hippos.
There's
dozens and dozens and dozens of them.
So we saw a lot of hippos.
We saw a couple of cracks.
Quicksand?
Did you have to avoid
quicksand?
I fell into no quicksand.
Here's the amazing thing.
When you're
out there on the Serengeti, I kind of had this feeling like we would see the wildlife from a distance because you're right there in the midst of wild animals.
We even stayed in a tented camp.
that was in the Serengeti, it was in the National Park, and there are no fences around the camp.
So animals just wander through.
There's a lion that came through the
camp.
Yes, there were baboons through the camp, and you're just part of that nature.
But the first time we got really up close to a lion.
That's really unnerving.
But the chaga man we were with, he said, you can open the windows.
You're in no danger.
And he said, you know, if you've never been taught to cook, you don't know how to cook.
These animals have never been taught to hunt anything in a vehicle.
They've never been taught to hunt two-legged creatures.
They have no interest in you.
And indeed, we would be really close to this wildlife.
cheetahs, leopards, lions.
That's a rule that they're aware of that they don't have to attack
people.
They don't even care.
And we saw some of them with kills, devouring animals that they had run down and killed.
And there they are feeding on a carcass.
And they had absolutely no interest.
One of the funniest moments is our truck pulls up and there's probably 20 some lions with mostly females with cubs.
And one of the lions decided that the shade of the truck was a really nice place to lay down and lay right down by the
tire.
And my son actually poked his head out the window and took a selfie with this lion laying by the truck tire.
And so after a few days, we kind of realized the animals have their own life.
The parks are for them.
They're not for people.
The people there don't have any desire to have dominion over those animals.
They live in harmony with them.
The Masai herders are out there, you know, driving their cattle and their goats and their sheep to pasture.
When there are elephants and zebra and...
you know, lions and leopards
out there
among
them.
So we have a really different relationship with wildlife
here than they do there.
Kurt texted us a story here.
Lion kills businessman at luxury safari lodge.
You know, it could definitely happen.
But we literally, we had a lion who was sitting up on a ledge when we came into this camp.
And during the night, it apparently, you know,
the staff had had seen it pass through the camp.
Now, we have mutt lions here in our country, but they attack people and we have grizzly bears that attack.
I can I can I
can report that I I was within five feet of a lion on multiple occasions and did not get attacked.
Wow.
Really, proof
of that.
So
yeah, you know, I'm sure it happens.
It must happen occasionally.
But but they were so they were they were really.
assuring us.
And we went on a hike in the Serengeti, amidst all these animals.
And we went with a local, he happened to be Masai, who had a gun.
And he says, I'm not going to shoot anything.
I don't want you to be concerned.
It's just for safety's sake.
Just for show.
An
abundance of precaution.
I'm not going to shoot the animals,
and
I'm not going to shoot you.
We'll find out more what happened on that hike.
And I want to ask about the food, too.
And the crater.
The crater filled with clouds.
Yes.
That was a sight.
All that coming back with Mike McCabe on John and Gordy in the morning.
WMDX, John and Gordy.
The early morning show.
We'll get to our guest.
Mike McCabe in just a few moments and is out of Africa story.
We have sunshine today and highs in the mid 80s.
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You have one of those adjustable
bed frames, don't you, Mike?
You
took a long one on this trip to
Africa, I think.
Well, now he's going to get an adjustable
bed
frame after sleeping on the ground or
whatever it is.
These were big canvas tents, and they actually had beds in them.
Oh, they
did?
Yeah.
And they were up on raised platforms.
So they are permanent?
Yes, it's a permanent, tented camp, and they are sprinkled throughout the National Park there.
Now tell us about the Cloud City.
Yeah, this is fascinating.
You're a cloud
crater.
Yeah, it's a region called Ngoro Ngoro, which is actually named for the sound of a cowbell.
with the Masai herders think of cowbell sounds like gora gora and and they named this area but there was this there's this huge caldera this huge area where a volcano blew the top off a mountain and left a huge bowl yeah and
And what they described it as, they said, this is not rainforest, although it was very dense jungle at this spot.
They said, this is a cloud forest.
It doesn't really rain so much as all of my
life
just takes moisture from the clouds.
And I woke up in the morning and that whole bowl was full of clouds.
And it really gave you the sensation of this little.
patch of land that you're camping on was sort of suspended on the clouds.
It was like floating on the clouds.
It was the darndest sight.
You mentioned that you had a similar kind of vision when you were a child,
right?
I once, when I was a fairly small child, I imagined out loud what heaven must...
Must be like
I kind
of I kind of envisioned lodging or like a village up above the cloud in mid-air and and and was kind of Ruthlessly mocked by the adults in the room But but here I'm sitting at the age of 65.
I'm sitting in this camp Looking out over the rim of this crater.
Yeah, and I'm thinking I'm thinking, you know
Is this heaven?
Because it sure seems like we're floating on clouds
here.
And of course, the sun gets high and the clouds eventually lift.
And then the floor of the caldera opens up before your eyes and it is just teeming with wildlife.
Thousands and thousands of animals grazing.
And then there will be these little Masai villages, these clusters of huts with thatch roofs.
And they're living amidst all that wildlife.
driving their cows and their sheep and their goats to good pastoral ends.
Is it
something like an Indiana Jones episode where it's just teeming with centipedes and large spiders?
Well, we did do a hike.
We did do a hike up the rim of a smaller crater.
And Gorongoro Crater is the huge one.
We did Almaty Crater.
And we went with a Maasai man.
And every once in a while, he would say, watch out their fire ants
crossing the
path.
Make sure to step over them.
Because if they get, if they get, they bite like crazy.
And it did remind me of that Indiana Jones
scene.
And
so there were these ginormous ants and biting ants.
And
my wife did get bit by one, but not by 1,000, which was
good.
So what kind of food do they use?
did you have in
Tanzania?
I mean, what are the McDonald's like there?
Burger King?
No McDonald's,
not even in Arusha, which is where we flew into, but their staple food is called yugali, which is basically a really thick
paste or porridge made out of corn flour.
And you dip it into a sauce that made of tomatoes and onions and things like that.
So that's what they eat kind of on the day to day.
But they do raise a lot of cattle and sheep and goats.
And so they eat a lot of meat.
We rarely eat meat in Mali.
They eat meat a lot in Tanzania.
So we'd get various dishes stews and various dishes with...
meat in it.
And so
not all
that, you know, some of the dishes almost had kind of a Western feel to them.
Others were very typically African.
What's
a dominant spice that they use in that area?
Oh, gosh, I don't know.
Not terribly spicy food, I have to say.
They do have this delicious bread.
If you are a fan of Indian food, their bread is very much like non-bread that is an Indian cuisine.
Just delicious.
And you mentioned banana beer.
Yeah, I got to try banana beer.
It's a local brew.
We were in a small village.
Well, actually kind of a large village.
But the Chaga tribe...
is known for its banana beer.
They cut it with millet.
So millet is kind of the grain that they use.
And they ferment that.
And they ferment the bananas.
They create sort of a banana paste and then ferment it.
Does it get rid of some of the banana flavor
a little bit?
Kind of smooths it up.
It tastes like beer, but with a bit of a banana flavor.
So it's a little sweeter than a beer you'd have here.
But, and it was very, it had a lot of particulate matter in it.
Oh good, well yeah, that's nice.
And so, and so you had to kind of, you had the texture you had to get back.
You had to pick it out from your teeth.
You know, there's a
Savannah Bananas should probably
pick up on this thing.
Oh, that's a good idea.
They should have banana beer at their ball game.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yep.
Well, Mike, fascinating.
And if people want to find out more, they can check out your latest sub-stack article.
It's really good.
Yeah.
Mike McCabe, thanks for.
Thanks for joining us and welcome back.
Thank you.
All right tomorrow on the show Tim Slecker from busted pencils Also, we'll check in with Jim Santel get the latest on whatever happened the Supreme Court the last week or so Yeah, the
Supreme Court
big decision in the
state about abortions.
We're gonna find out today
Mm-hmm.
That's gonna do it for us Stephanie Miller's next have a great day so long
