Transcript
Chaos at the Capital: UFC on the Lawn and Military Moves (Hour 2)
John & Gordy · Thu Aug 14, 2025
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And now, live from the Civic Media headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, here are John and Gordy.
We're truly sorry.
You should
be.
You should be.
You're sorry.
You're sorry ass.
This is...
WFDX John and Gordy in the morning.
I'm John Peterson.
That is
Gordy.
Good morning.
Hi.
How are you
doing behind the glass?
We got the control booth.
Dominic Lee.
There is morning.
Good morning.
Good morning,
guys.
He's limping around this morning.
Yeah, you must have seen a episode of gun smoke and he's doing his chest.
That's it.
You know, I never wanted to use that.
I never wanted to use it because that
That really dates everyone.
Yeah.
But, uh...
Yeah, I just laughed and nodded my
head
right there.
I didn't know what
it was about.
So an old Western TV show from the 50s and 60s.
Chester, what was it?
Chester?
Gunsmoke was the name of the show.
Chester was Marshall Dillon's sidekick.
Yeah.
Deputy.
And he had a serious limp.
Dennis Weaver, yeah.
Bad limp.
So how did you get this limp when you were playing soccer?
Yeah, I you know every Wednesday I always like to get active right I haven't been active in six years because I just sit on my
butt every day
Yeah, and I decided to change it up a little bit and it turns out I twisted my ankle while I was playing and so I was I've been hobbling ever since I've been hobbling ever since and
It is excruciating, Gordy and John.
It's excruciating.
Well,
you need some painkillers.
You need some Tylenol.
You got some painkillers.
You got to have a pocket full.
You want a one.
You need a hot water bottle.
Remember hot water bottles.
I'm going to target after this and getting some Tylenol.
I don't know.
You don't have to go that far right across the street.
There's a guy standing around
out there.
Yeah, he's
got a bunch of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Supplies.
Well, we hope you're feeling better soon.
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that.
You don't need to go to the x-ray
room, do you?
I
don't think so.
I'll get it checked out later today.
I'll get it checked out later today.
Maybe I will.
I don't know.
I'm not here tomorrow.
You won't.
You know what's happened.
My
god.
Do you have health care?
No.
No, I don't.
Oh, wait, you do, don't you?
I do have health care, actually, yeah.
Through your parents, right?
Through my parents.
Yeah, until I'm...
25, 26.
Well, under 26, right,
25.
Yeah, it's a nice deal.
Let's hope that stays around for a while.
Nothing seems to be holding up under this administration at all.
I saw a slight, small, short video of Zelinski walking out there, you know, getting ready to have his meeting with Trump and Putin.
I just made an observation here, but because I have been shopping for pants lately, I am... I'm looking at Zelensky and... Zelensky, I just want to say it the right way.
So anyway, it looks like he's got either skinny or slim jeans that taper to the ankle on.
Okay, slim fit.
I think yeah,
but
they're tapered to the ankle.
That's an additional style.
Okay.
And I think he has those kinds of pants on.
So he's ordering some pretty damn good pants on Amazon.
And looking good, by the way.
Yeah.
You know, what's going on
in Ukraine, he's not
eating a lot.
So he's
fit and trim and ready to go.
Yeah.
Well, it's a nice day here this morning.
It's nice and cool.
I'm sorry.
It's actually beautiful out there.
Now this says mostly cloudy, but it looks pretty clear downtown here.
So you might see a few clouds this morning, but otherwise 59 degrees currently highs close to 80 today.
John's checking his WMDX Samsung watch for the dew point because we heard yesterday it's going to climb and it's going to start to get muggy again, I think.
But you're
making
some
big promises here.
OK, I will try to follow through on those promises if my watch reacts.
Oh, to use this feature, you're allowing.
Okay,
in the meantime, what's the sunset?
I'm asking you too many questions.
You are asking, now it's asking.
Pushing a lot of buttons over there.
What's happening?
Everything is correct.
Something reset or asking me these stupid quit.
Okay, never mind.
You're gonna have to move on.
Oh, no, I have it.
I have it.
Okay.
I got it.
Okay.
The dew point is currently 59 degrees.
I like to look at it as 59% but they use degrees.
And I think that's, you know, that's all we need to know.
That's low.
That's below 60 and that's great.
Below 65 is normally the uncomfortable point.
Right?
Yeah,
sure.
You know, the guy who
was a former weatherman.
For 20 years.
I think what you meant to say is when you get above 60, it starts to get muggy.
60, 65 really starts to get muggy and then 70 forget about it.
That's exactly what I tried to say.
Okay.
All right.
Let's see.
Well, thanks for correcting me in front of everybody.
My apologies.
A little bit later on, we're going to talk to Tim Sleckern about a half hour and find out the latest on education.
What's new?
What's Linda McMahon been up to
lately?
The big thing for them is that school's starting up.
And
it's
back to school time.
It's exciting.
to see everybody, you know, prepared to get back to in, I guess the homeroom or the school room that they always talk about, they have their little homeroom bit.
Well, and get prepared for some sticker shock at the store.
Back to school supplies are all
feeling the weight of inflation or whatever you want to say.
Somewhat, you know, they try to put a lot of this stuff off.
Especially with China, because a lot of this stuff comes from China, they gave them a 90-day extension on
all
the big, huge tariffs they're gonna levy on them.
And that means that they're trying to put this off through the Christmas season.
So 90 days will apply to a lot of the individuals who want to order from.
China so they'll get in on the low prices before the tariffs go up and then they'll put another freeze on that and then extend it for another 90 days We'll be talking about it ad nauseam forever.
Yeah seems like it.
Yeah
Yeah.
Um, and then, uh, in our next hour, attorney Jim Santel.
Yes.
Join us.
Get the latest on the Supreme Court.
I thought they were supposed to be in recess.
They are.
All right.
But they're still,
they released their, uh, their, uh, list of items that they're
going to
be taking a look at in October, I think,
when they come back.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
And the Brewers are 12 in a row now.
Yeah.
Brew crew.
Woo-hoo.
Yeah, free.
12 in a row.
Free burgers.
Yeah.
What's the name of that place?
You know the name of the burger
place?
George Webb.
Oh.
Yeah,
they have any around here
George
by the way, I thought I missed it because you know they they did that they broke the streak and It's great that you get these free burgers, but I thought oh no I'm not in Milwaukee to take them up on it
They
do schedule the day that they're going to have the free burgers.
Oh do they yeah, okay?
So you if if you thought you missed it you did they're gonna come out with a day They'll announce that really soon until
you got
everybody
who can make it to Milwaukee to get a free, tiny little hamburger from George Webb.
They're like sliders, right?
Yeah, that's what they're basically.
So you get, what is it?
If they beat the record, everyone gets free sliders.
Well, they put it out there ahead of time if they went
12 in a row, which they've done a
couple.
Yeah, it's not a
record, but if they go 12 in a row.
Yeah.
Free burgers.
Wow.
Free
burgers.
Yeah.
Oh, what an incentive.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, I know it.
Tiny little sliders, you know.
But everybody's, it's, it's a cool tradition.
And it's a lot of free publicity for him, too.
Oh, yeah.
I saw signs, you know, in some of the brewer's highlights of the George, what's his name again?
George Webb.
George Webb, okay.
Yeah.
So, yeah, they got a lot of free publicity.
Everybody, it's a win-win for everybody.
We always like I didn't think you'd go that far, but you did Love to throw out those old Okay, is it time for what would you do if you were whatever the thing is?
It's about that time.
I don't want to do this, but is it which is worse if you understand
Whatever
you're saying under the reverb.
I also also made an outro.
So let's listen.
Oh, I can't
wait
Wait until you hear the outro reverb.
All right at the other end All right.
All right first question.
Would you rather be able to breathe fire?
or Breathe underwater It's very simple.
You know nice and easy.
I'm gonna
breathe underwater.
Yeah.
Yeah, rather than that.
You want to breathe fire?
That'd be sick
Yeah, I want to be you know, I want to be in how to train your dragon.
I want to breathe some fire I try to few joints that are like breathing Some bomb hits.
Yeah, yeah Okay, so you guys done that before all right.
No, no
We just heard we heard through the grapevine what that's like.
Okay.
All
right.
All right.
Yeah, I would probably breathe in water, too I don't want to breathe right
all right change your mind.
Yes when you guys were right
Alright.
Second question.
Would you rather create a new holiday or create a whole new language?
Hmm.
Made you guys think this
time?
Yeah.
No, I'm not really thinking, but I'm thinking
about-
I'm
just dozed off
for
a
moment.
I'm thinking about the Klingon story that I haven't gotten to where the guy's teaching his-
His new born as a first language at the Klingon language.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Language.
Yeah, we might get to that.
So what's the choice again?
Language or what was the new holiday holiday
holiday?
Yeah, holiday.
I'll go with the
holiday.
I'm there with the holiday too.
Yeah.
Yeah, we created a whole new holiday as well.
Yeah, you guys really persuaded me today.
That was yeah, well, you're easily swaying.
I
cannot wait to hear the ending that you produced.
Oh, yeah, wait for this.
All right.
Here it goes.
Hold on.
Actually, you know what?
Let's do opera.
Let's let's do it.
Ready?
Are you ready?
I think I'm ready.
Yeah, push the
button.
I hate this
segment.
See, you have no idea what it
said.
That was
difficult to understand, but I heard something about it.
You hate this segment.
I hate this segment.
That was the only thing you heard.
A couple of would-you-rather's in there and then just, I hate this segment.
I think
that's my idea.
Is that what it
was?
That's what it was.
Can you play that again?
Yeah,
you
just
want to play that
again?
All right,
let's
see if I
can.
Was
there something about ordering a pizza?
Yeah, would you rather order a pizza?
And then would you rather this would you rather that?
Okay.
Yeah,
wow Turn off the reverb and and you guys can actually listen to it legitimately.
Okay.
All right.
Oh good.
No.
Well, that sounds good But I
think as a
piece of production
that I know would have been redone, you know, simply because there was too much reverb.
For you to keep that as our intro is the best idea.
It
really
is.
It was all planned, so
there
we go.
Great.
Ah, so glad we could share that with everybody.
Okay, this portion.
A little behind the scenes stuff.
Yeah, a little behind the scenes.
You're really getting the hang of the things.
Yeah, yeah.
With the reverb and echo.
And that's about it, yeah.
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by friends at Verlo Mattress.
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Okay, we got a lot of stuff coming up, you know Tim Slacker from busted pencils will be in here and we've got a few topics to Take up.
Yeah, and that is a few things from Prager you Dennis Prager They have a little university that isn't really one but they call it that and we'll be talking to him about his impressions of Prager you and the New tax funding that they're gonna be getting
and also attorney Jim Santel will join us in our 7 o'clock hour
A lot straight ahead, stay with us.
It's 92.7 WMDX Madison with John and Gordy.
You can ask me what's trending?
What's trending?
You can ask me what's trending?
What's trending?
You can ask me what's trending?
What's trending?
What's trending?
What's trending?
Oh yeah.
WMDX.
92.7, John and Gordy in the morning at a beautiful, beautiful Thursday morning.
We've got so much coming up today.
I mean, we are just throwing out the stories.
We're spewing them.
There's so much to talk about.
It is 623.
We're seeing mainly clear skies, maybe a few clouds here and there today and highs close to 80 and currently 59 degrees here.
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Okay.
All right.
What is trending?
DC, I'll tell you what.
There were a bunch of people that were not happy to see the troopers on the streets.
Yeah, there are a lot of
videos out there where people are protesting and shouting at the troops that are out in the streets.
You even mentioned a checkpoint, right?
Out
in the street.
Wow.
Checkpoints
in our cities.
Yeah, they put a traffic checkpoint in one of the busiest places in DC.
They were, you know, the news crews were, of course, there too.
It's like, let's call in the media, you know, as soon as they put up the checkpoints.
Oh, yeah.
And so then people started gathering and yelling, and there wasn't any, didn't appear like anything broke into violence or anything like that.
But there were a lot of very unhappy people and a lot of yelling.
Well, tempting violence.
That's for sure.
Yeah, tempting violence, yes, on the edge of it.
And that's what was happening in Washington, DC last night.
Yeah.
So
here's what I'm thinking.
And I think Democrats should do this.
We should threaten each and every one of these Trump appeasers that are going along with Trump.
We should threaten them that we'll go after them.
They'll be part of.
Whatever it is that comes after Trump because we're gonna go after Trump too.
The guy is just breaking laws left and right and getting annoyed with it, you know Trump a new administration can come in and then go after these people and if you're ever a part of it or if you participated in anything that Trump ordered that was a Constitution or illegal your
Ass is on the line.
Yes.
All right, and if
we did
that that would discourage a lot of these people from participating or thinking ah, there's no consequences Trump ordered it.
I think we should go after them.
We should threaten them and tell them we're coming after you because you went along with this.
You're not innocent.
Well a lot of these National Guard troops don't want to be a part of it either.
You know a lot of them there's a lot of stories out there about many of them are just
you know, to sign they don't want to do this.
Well,
they can, they can plead their case in court.
Yeah.
Right.
So, uh, you know, that's the way it is.
I mean, you're part of it.
That's the way it has to be.
Yeah.
Well, that's the way it should be.
Plus a university, same thing, you know, uh, the people that are running these universities like Harvard, they're going along with this.
They're very close to an agreement of $500 million.
Yeah.
Is it 500 million
or a
billion?
Who knows?
Anyway, there's a close agreement now.
They're just moments away from doing this, and they're going to pay them off, and they're going to go along with a lot of this stuff, and they're going to have DEI for conservatives for the MAGA.
500 million.
500
million.
500 million.
So it's
just ridiculous that everybody's folding their tents.
Victor Orban, I'm sure gave him this this tip, right?
Yeah Victor Orban did
this buddy.
Yeah,
so now the whole thing is just like he's you know step by step by step doing everything Orban did and the universities are coutowing to the administration That's it.
I mean this is full the tense time.
Yeah, and he's got like three and a half years to influence Colleges now and they're gonna bring in different people
you know, certainly the mega contingent will be teaching in those in those colleges now.
And it's going to be pretty much a nightmare.
Again, next administration or the people running for the next administration threatened
threatened to go after these people.
So in DC last night, in addition to, you know, because.
Trump's calling the shots here, you know, Mr. Micro manage everything.
In addition to the DC police who made up a bulk of more than the dozen police officers at this one particular checkpoint.
CNN is saying they observed agents with Homeland Security investigations, Department of Homeland Security with the enforcement and removal operations, a division of ICE, National Guard troops.
So they've got a mixed group there of all these different enforcement agencies.
on hand and Trump's calling the shots.
So there you have it.
All right.
And everybody's going shopping and they're seeing all of the prices going up.
They are really, really going up.
Especially meat prices.
Meat prices are outrageous.
They've already been outrageous.
They've been that way for years.
Maybe this is a good thing for the vegetarian people.
Because there will be more vegetarians sprouting up because of meat prices.
Can't afford meat.
Go with me.
Sure, the veggie burgers
are so appetizing.
So anyway, the beef prices are up, up, up.
They were up before.
Now they're really up there.
And I went out shopping to get some of the deals yet where they haven't marked it up.
Hopefully they haven't marked it up like those frozen one pound packages.
That's what I went out to shop for.
And I got a few, by the way, I found a few.
But here's the thing.
Brazil supplies us with the supplemental meat.
because we don't have a huge meat market in this country, so
we
always bring in imported meats, and that's Brazil, and Brazil has this huge tariff on coffee beans and now meat, so we're not getting the meat supply, and that's why there's even a bigger shortage
of red meat.
And on it goes, and up it goes, all the prices going up, up, up.
Hey, we've got the Midwest Food and Farm Report coming up next.
There's more straight ahead.
John and Gordy, after we take a few minutes to consider what our friendly and knowledgeable sponsor people have to share with you.
Stay with us.
With no more keys We're
going to elect a
president
No more keys He's going to do what the people want No
more keys We're going to run things our way No more keys Nobody's going to tell us what to do Rockin' at a rolling position and a slashin' Over the horizon, what can it be Looks like it's going to be A free country
Well, it was, anyway
Alright, WM DX 92.7.
This is John and Gordy in the morning
635 sunshine this morning.
Few clouds along the way high near 80 this afternoon.
Right now 59 degrees coming up in about 10 minutes.
I'll reveal the next keyword in our listener appreciation party, happening at Doundren's Distilling.
Just open everybody, but we have special privileges.
Yes, for the VIP passes.
So we'll tell you more about that in about 10 minutes.
Right now, Tim Sucker joins us from Busted Pencils.
Good morning,
Tim.
Good morning, man.
I am so happy to be in a free country.
Enjoy it while you can.
Oh, I know.
I know you guys, you know, in education are really kind of excited about the new school here.
Oh, man, you know.
I yeah teachers are just bursting Get back and figure out if whether they're allowed to even talk Say
anything in the class room anymore.
Yeah,
you know better make sure that you know, I just stick to the script man You
know
There is a new player in this now that we've lost PBS
Yes, an
educational channel that used to tell teacher kids, you know really good lessons, right?
Yeah, well somebody's stepping in now.
It's Prager you Dennis Prager
has
this you know university of stuff and
And now Trump is deferring now to Prager U to fill in some of the gaps that public television used to fill.
Dennis Prager, pretty conservative guy,
right?
Well, very.
Yeah.
Always
has been, always will be.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, an expert, though, in children programming.
Well,
I've got a clip here.
Why don't we play this clip?
This is a clip 112.
And this is...
from a Christopher Columbus animation that they have about slavery.
Let's listen to what Christopher Columbus thinks about slavery.
Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world, even amongst the people I just left.
Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?
Before you judge, you must ask yourself, what did the culture and society of the time treat as no big deal?
Yeah, it's no big deal.
There you go.
What's a perfect example?
And you know, I can't wait to see that.
I didn't realize Christopher Columbus
was, you know, they were able
to tape him and
record him.
Somebody found that record.
Oh, wow, that's interesting.
That's pretty good.
I know.
I know.
I mean, who can argue with you?
That logic.
It's better than being dead.
I know, you know, slavery
has its upside.
Yeah, that's good.
You know, I mean, it's it's the glasses half.
If you look at it, you know, right?
Look, look, you're not dead.
You know, wake up every morning and first count your blessings.
You know, oh my, oh my God, I might be a slave, but I ain't dead.
That's right.
And if slavery is acceptable, then
that's
OK.
Yes
No, this is we've covered this quite quite a bit in busted pencils Because you know, this is if you look at it, it's this you know kind of sweet little cartoons and you know I tell everybody go out to Prager you and take a look at some of these videos, you know, they're they're they're cute.
They're animated They're kind of like this, you know, if you remember back to you know, the schoolhouse rock type of videos
You know, they're engaging, they're fun, and it's almost, if you're not paying attention, you might think, wow, this is really cute kids programming.
But what you just did there, you guys, by putting that clip is to highlight going, okay, but what are they saying?
I think you have to slip these little nuggets in, right?
You know And that's it and there's a ton of these videos That that just put forth a you know and remember this is It's a very indoctrinated view of American history and I Thought we were combating ideology and indoctrination in education.
Yeah
Right?
And so it's interesting, but at the same time, I mean, pointing this out constantly, is that, well, it's your indoctrination that's a real problem, not ours.
Right, exactly.
Yes.
You know, and sometimes you just wish to be like, just come out and say that.
And say, like, look, we're tired of...
The indoctrination we believe your side was putting forward.
We're now in charge We're gonna start doing our own indoctrinating So just sit back and watch it, but you know what it comes across though is is that somehow
you know, and even with kids, but but this vision of of American history, which is what a lot of these Prager you videos are trying to do is is not true.
Right.
That's the problem.
Very gently, of course.
It's just it's not it's not true.
And
Yeah, and think about that too, the way you can, you know, you situate this going like, hey, everybody, don't worry about Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street and, and, or they explore and, you know, whatever Mrs. Frizzle and their, don't worry that those, those, they're going away.
We've got something that will easily take its place.
And.
that's frightening because um take a look you know I think there was one we did with uh Frederick Douglass where um Frederick Douglass even kind of made a comment about you know slavery
I might have fought against it, but, you know, and it's the inner, you know, the interjection of a butt phrase.
Yeah,
exactly.
You know, and yeah, you know, so I, well, you know, be aware, people, as we're listening to these things.
you know I you know and this comes on they say you know all week um earlier in the week too and they'll say you know the Smithsonian um and you know we saw this earlier that they are under this um you know decree that you know they that anything exhibit that the Smithsonian has cannot you know must be free of indoctrination right yeah
Yeah, I think there's a math formula for that.
Some kind of like DEI minus
mega.
Equals.
Yeah, equals what we're doing now.
Here, the Trump administration has partnered with the platform on a founders museum exhibit that will be at the White House for visitors using taxpayer dollars, I would assume.
I hate it when it's spending on PBS.
But they certainly like Prager you to use some of our taxpayer dollars as tech outlet 404 media explained They're gonna create AI slop videos in which we see John Adams say facts do not care about your feelings So yeah, that's and again, this is called AI slop.
That's an actual term.
So yeah, exactly
For any of these videos that are created through AI,
that's usually AI slot.
That's what they call
it.
And by the
way, this is rolling out in Oklahoma too, Ryan Walters.
This month, that is
state will be using new ideology tests from PragerU for a certification of teachers who come from states with what we call progressive education policies, something he said is necessary to protect students from radical leftist ideology.
Again, using taxpayer dollars for that instead of PBS.
So in other words, California and New York teachers stay away from Oklahoma.
Yeah.
You know, because it's just like progressive teacher education ideology.
And I know a little bit about teacher education considering
that
that's
what I made my
entire career on.
And I can I can tell you that.
Oklahoma and the colleges there and universities that are preparing teachers are doing exactly the same type of work that they're doing in new york colleges and universities and california universities which is using research-based understandings of what's best for kids what's the best curriculum and you know hey drumroll i think or something like that i can see
you know
Drop it in there Gordy
We're going to use a drum roll actually in just a moment here, but we're talking to Dr. Tim Slecker We'll get back to more of our discussion in just a moment But right now we want to tell you more about our listener appreciation party that's coming up That's right.
WMDX is hosting the ultimate listener appreciation party.
It's happening September 6th at Dondren's Distilling and Cottage Grove to socialize and get together
and build community, have a few drinks and enjoy the facilities there.
You can bring your kids, by the way, this is open to everybody, okay?
It's free and open to the public.
You can bring kids.
They have a playground at Downerans that they'll enjoy.
But we're giving you a chance to enjoy something a little bit extra.
VIP invite for you and a guest that includes a free tour of the distillery, a tasting of some of their spirits, and a WMDX sweat
bag with all kinds of goodies now you need to listen to this keyword and then text to win okay there's the drum roll you asked for Tim okay what's the keyword
Is that drum roll ever end, or is it just continuing forever?
Is there a little splash at the end of that?
No splash.
OK.
The key word is T. T. T-E-A.
T. There must be a
reason why we picked T.
Well, that's because they have a green T vodka at Dundren's Distilling.
Well, there you go.
T is the key word.
You have to text us to get in on the drawing for this.
And if you're one of our, we'll draw a couple of winners this morning.
And you got to get that entry in before eight a.m.
OK, so T is the key word.
Use your Civic Media app.
It's free to use, free to text.
T
is the key word.
All right, we're talking to Dr. Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils about Prager.
Are you filling in those blanks now left by PBS as they go out of business and cut their programming dramatically?
I don't.
You have a final thing you wanted to add to that before I bring up AI as another hot topic for you guys.
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, Prager, you, I would just remind everybody that this is not quality.
kids programming.
This really is hardcore indoctrination propaganda and then back to Oklahoma again saying you know he's going to screen teachers for progressive ideologies.
He's not going to have quote any teachers because what they consider progressive ideologies are things like you know concern for special education recognizing that lots of students have different situations and that teachers should be responsible
to those diverse kids anyway.
I
know it's just outrageous to even think that any of this is taking place and people aren't protesting and I can't believe there's some kind of lawsuit to use a standard like that in public education.
Yeah, I mean there is something called the First Amendment somewhere along the way and we are kind of forgetting about that now.
We will
return with Dr. Tim Slecker in just a moment.
We've got a couple of phone calls lined up as well.
Hang on the line there.
We'll be right back with more of John and Gordy in the morning from Madison, Wisconsin, WMDX.
Stay right where you
are.
I'm going to
get
you
That was UMDX.
It's Johnny Gordy in the morning.
Great day in Madison, overlooking State Street.
The leaf blower guy, I guess maybe that leaf blower that fell off the truck yesterday.
Yeah, they haven't been back since then.
Yeah.
Yeah, a little problem with it.
That's all right.
Sunshine Today highs close to 80, a few clouds here and there.
This portion of the show brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center at 4706 Cottage Grove Road.
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All right.
Let's go to the phones.
Phone lines are open.
608-879-8255.
Mark is on the line.
We're here with Dr. Tim Slacker from Busted Pencils.
Go ahead, Mark.
Yeah, I wonder if included in the Oklahoma curriculum will be a
little study of really in the 19th and 20th century Oklahoma agrarian socialism in Oklahoma, which is a book that I found at St.
Vinnie's to talk about where the farmers were upset with their conditions.
So they were experimenting with socialism in Oklahoma of all places.
Wow.
And for this goofy Dennis Prager U, I wonder if they're going to teach the
that the Puritans weren't too tolerant of other Christian denominations.
You got cross wearing it, wearing a cross, you'd be considered a papist, and likely to get flogged.
Or if you're a Quaker, like, oh, Mary Dyer, I guess, that she kept preaching Quakerism, and eventually they hung her.
Wow.
I'm
gonna guess that Prager, you hasn't gone that deep into the weeds.
Not
yet.
My guess is that Prager, you and a lot of the religions of the great awakening, first and second great awakenings actually would have been unwelcome in Fjord in New England and with what they teach and what they continue to teach would have been met with some rather severe sanctions.
Right.
You know, egg that was the least of it, but, um, because they didn't really tolerate any kind of dissent there.
So, and then to celebrate Christmas in New England until, you know, it was illegal until I think after the revolution.
Yeah.
Well, at least that won't be banned, but everything else will be.
We'll be, we'll be going back to those times, those wonderful times that I'm sure Prager you is celebrating in animation form.
All right.
All right, Mark, thank you for the call.
I want to get to something here that you guys always talk about on busted pencils, and that is AI.
Johnny's a little afraid of it.
You, of course, have accepted a little bit more of what the possibilities are for AI.
But, but.
But,
Jeffrey
Hinton, he's the Nobel Prize winning computer scientist and former Google executive known as the Godfather of AI, fears the technology he helped build could wipe out humanity.
And he says the tech bros are taking the wrong approach to stopping that from happening.
He has a suggestion here.
He's presented an intriguing solution, building maternal instincts into AI models.
All of them.
so they care about people even once the technology becomes more powerful and smarter than humans.
Hint and stress, it's critical research that should be done.
That sounds logical, doesn't
it?
I have, from the very beginning, always said please and thank you to my AI cause.
Good manners are important.
Yes.
You knew right away.
Just, you know, when the time comes, they'll be like, Tim's a good guy.
He respected us right from the start.
His co-host Johnny though.
He'll be on the run.
He'll be a fusion.
It is an interesting premise about, you know,
I mean, it really only reflects, quote, you know, what we tell it to reflect.
And so kind of at the base level, this idea of saying, hey, why not just kind of introduce into its training concern and care for people?
Yeah, he says here, the right model is the only model we have for a more intelligent thing being controlled by a less intelligent thing, which is a mother being controlled by her baby.
These super intelligent, caring AI mothers, most of them won't want to get rid of the maternal instinct because they don't want us, their mother to die, right?
I mean, isn't that crazy?
I mean, I love his thinking.
This sounds like a great novel, by the way.
I mean, it's you know, it really does come out of a lot of the science fiction Episodes.
I mean, you know, I'm a huge Star Trek person next generation the board, right?
They could not they could not figure out how to do anything until it was very simple like wait a minute These are a networked intelligence, you know, humanoid mix of machines and Hey, why not just send a programming thing that says go to sleep?
And
boom,
the board went to sleep.
And then they walk up in the Trump administration, and now we're all connected.
Wow.
I
mean, I think, again, this is a very credible person, though, too, that is putting out there, Nobel Prize.
And how do we talk about these issues?
Because it's kind of going in one way.
You know when you get people like him admitting going like like hey, we don't even really know how it does what it does You know that is kind of like on like what really?
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
I can I can hear a shatner in the background
We got to leave it there thank you for joining us you can always listen
to
busted
pencils on the Civic Media Radio Network, the great podcast that they have.
I think anytime you bring up the Borg, I mean, you're there.
We made
it.
Thanks, Jim.
Yeah.
Thanks,
guys.
All
right.
Once again, the keyword for the listener appreciation party.
Just want to remind you the keyword is T. You can text that in.
We'll continue to remind you in our next hour about that.
More of John and Gordy after this.
Love it!
It
is seven minutes past the hour.
Sunshine this morning.
Highs getting up close to 80 degrees.
We'll see a few clouds along the way, but it's bright and beautiful in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
John Peterson, Gordy Young along with Dominic Lee, our producer.
As we move into the seven o'clock hour, this portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress.
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You know, for bigger dreams, those students really need to sleep well.
I think you're right.
Good sleep is important.
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You can be a part of it.
It's free and open to the public and you can just show up on September 6th at 3 o'clock at Doundren's Distilling.
But we also have a VIP invite to offer.
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Get that into us before 8 a.m.
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Again, the key word is T, so get that into us.
We'll have a couple of winners from today and we'll notify you if you are a winner, okay?
That's great.
John Peterson, over to you.
All right, well, we'll pick up a little bit of idiocracy here this morning.
Why not,
right?
There's
so much going on
that is just
insane.
It never
ends.
And crazy.
And I think let's start off with the ultimate fighting challenge that... Really?
That's going to be at the White House celebrating the 250th birthday of our nation.
And I can't think of a better way to do it than have been just free for all.
They're going to have a UFC fight.
Really?
They're going to set up the ring and have a fight.
That's right.
A UFC
fight.
Yes.
And a little nepotism is also a part of this.
UFC CEO Dana White stated that Trump's requested.
his daughter Ivanka be involved in the planning of the event.
Why are they all in hurry?
Everybody's got to get paid.
They're trying to make as much money out of this as they possibly can while they have the four years.
Let's listen to cut 117.
So
every one of our National Park battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of
America 250 and I even think we're gonna have a UFC fight.
We're gonna.
Does anybody watch UFC the Great Dana?
We're
gonna have a UFC fight.
We're gonna have a UFC fight.
Think of this on the grounds of the White House.
I'm thinking about it.
We have a lot of land there.
We're gonna build a little.
We're not.
Dana is gonna do it.
Dana is great.
One of a kind.
Gonna have a UFC fight.
Championship fight.
Full fight.
like 20, 25,000 people.
We're going to do that as part of 250 also.
We're going to have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events, but the UFC fight is going to be a big deal.
Well, I'm sure
that'll
be great.
Whose idea was that?
Why would they do this?
I think there's a term that we often bandy about, and that is white trash.
I don't know why, why don't we just put a little trailer park in the back of the White House.
What is that?
And again,
having been a census taker, there are great people out in the trailer parks.
You know, really nice people.
Nothing bad against them.
I'm
just
saying that the standard...
truly Southern is something else.
Anyway, look, this is the way it is.
And we're going to have to accept it.
Prager, you giving us our educational material now.
But a UFC fight on the White House lawn.
Don't
worry about the damn lawn because Trump knows everything about grass.
Oh, that's right.
All right.
Yes.
So he's a grass
expert.
Well, you did you hear that?
I
did too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, how did he get on this ramble?
Let's listen to cut 113 the grass expert who knows all about lawns and golf courses less
We're gonna be redoing the parks redoing the grass.
You know grass is a lifetime like people have a lifetime Lifetime of this grass is long been gone when you look at the parks where the grass is
All
tired Exhausted we're gonna redo the grass for the finest
Grass is, I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses and if you don't have good grass, you're not in business.
Grass.
Oh man.
He's just really gone off the
rails.
You know, if Cheech and Chong were popular today,
we
could take grass a little bit differently, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he knows
everything.
He knows everything about grass.
It's looking a little tired.
Why?
God.
There's nothing left.
Is there
really
anything left?
And listen to this from Rachel Maddow.
She was talking about the the National Guard and DC and how this opens up a whole new avenue of stopping crime in in the capital city.
Listen, it's cut 108
108.
Okay.
All right.
Here we go.
Let's listen.
President Trump today deployed hundreds of National Guardsmen and women into Washington D.C.
Send the U.S.
military to become the police force in Washington D.C.
The lead in the Washington Post tonight, quote, President Donald Trump announced today that he is placing the DC police under direct federal control and will deploy the National Guard to the streets of Washington, an extraordinary flex of federal power that stripped city leadership of its ability to make law enforcement decisions and could expose residents of the nation's capital to unpredictable encounters with a domestically deployed military force.
A domestically deployed military force.
because tough on crime.
That's right.
You think it's really about crime?
You think it's really about being tough on crime?
Do you want to maybe track down the ax and machete triple murderer Trump just released to the streets of Orlando to go ask him if he thinks it's about being tough on crime?
Probably not, then.
Or you maybe want to pop in to ask Ghislaine?
at that Bureau of Prisons Crown Jewel facility that kind of looks like a community college?
Want to go ask her?
I think
it's because he's so tough on
crime.
That said, I mean, let's be generous here.
Maybe it's not really just a generic tough on crime thing.
Maybe it's specifically because it's DC, which is the seat of the US federal government.
So even for a city enjoying a 30 year low and violent crime, maybe that's still just an intolerable amount of crime, specifically because it's DC and DC is where the federal government is.
And maybe he's just really sensitive about protecting
the federal government.
Maybe he's really sensitive and really focused when it comes to protecting the seat of the federal government from any kind of crime.
January 6th, no, forget about that.
He's just sensitive about it now.
Maybe that's it.
Well, let's see.
Today's Monday.
On Friday, this happened.
A sustained violent attack on the headquarters of the federal government centers for disease control and prevention.
See
how those little pock marks, those little holes, those are bullet holes in the CDC.
More than 180 shots fired.
He was found with five guns, including four long guns, and bullets that he fired at the CDC broke at least 150 windows.
One police officer was killed, the gunman died as well.
It's not clear if he shot himself or was shot by law enforcement.
It is a miracle, obviously, that CDC personnel other than the police officer protecting them were not killed.
The head of the agency that includes the CDC, Donald Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, posted this online after the shooting.
He's showing fish that he caught.
This was his response.
It wasn't until later and after he...
Finished posting his fishing pictures that he got around to expressing condolences for the you know shooting or whatever
This
major attack on a federal government facility again 180 Shots fired into the CDC this major attack on a federal government facility has so far garnered no response whatsoever from President Donald Trump let alone an armed response into Atlanta where the CDC headquarters is But he did send in the National Guard to Washington DC today because
Tough on crime?
You think?
Maybe it's not about crime.
Maybe it's not about defending the federal government from threats, right?
Maybe it's not about any other thing he might voice.
Maybe it's what you can see with your own two eyes.
Maybe it's that he really enjoys using U.S.
military force against American civilians on American soil and wants any excuse to do it anywhere he can.
Yeah, I think that's it.
That's it, right at the end.
It's a show.
It's a show of force, but it's
all a show for the cameras.
You know, the thing with RFK Junior, not saying anything, not doing anything, on a fishing trip, showing pictures of his catch.
Right.
Remember the big deal that Mecca's made over Pete Buttigieg, not being at every possible train wreck?
Right.
I
mean,
that is something to consider.
They were outraged
by that.
Why
wasn't he there?
Why wasn't
he there?
Right?
Well, there's a train wreck, I think in Texas, wasn't it, toxic material?
None of it is leaking, but I don't see Sean Duffy hanging around.
I don't see anybody complaining that Sean Duffy hasn't been there and standing on those trains,
making sure
everybody's doing their thing.
No complaints.
Where are the Megas?
Let's go to the phone lines right now.
Dick, what do you got?
Good morning, Dick.
Good morning.
Real quick on the D.C.
thing, something that Malcolm Nance said yesterday hitting out of the park.
He goes, how did the city go from, you know, having his little parade get together to this horrible crime leading place?
Exactly.
Yeah.
That's a home run, is it?
It really is.
Another one that just cracked me up.
He wants all his data.
I just read this story on
You know who's going to what college and who's being admitted and all that stuff Okay, that comes from the education department in that group that was Getting and collecting all that data.
There are a hundred people there now.
There's four
Wow
who made the cuts?
Yeah,
and now he's demanding all this stuff wire white males and Asian I can't believe he really cares about Asian people But that's what they're saying they need this information for yeah, and yet, you know when you
flashed it from a hundred people specifically dealing with that.
Yeah.
The four.
Obviously.
Yep.
Yep.
Not going to work.
Consequences.
All
right.
Dick, thank you for
that call.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for pointing that out too.
Just it really is I mean this stark difference between having this big parade you see suddenly it's well the way he described it You know the homeless people who don't commit crimes.
They don't have the ability to do that.
They're carrying around their stuff, right?
So I don't know you know getting rid of hey you guys better leave now It's like they have been just hanging out because they haven't gotten a ride yet.
You
know, it's just
It
just doesn't make it.
It's silly stuff.
It's nonsensical.
Yeah, nonsensical.
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Oh, yeah!
WMDX, it's 92.7.
And you know who this is?
Yeah, who?
John Peterson.
Yeah.
And Gordy Young.
Yeah.
Along with Dom Lee, our producer, broadcasting from beautiful State Street in Madison.
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Again,
phone lines are the texts are open and civic media text is the
way
to do the listener appreciation party if you want to get in on this the party is happening september 6 3 p.m at downdren's distilling in cottage grove we're asking all of our listeners you can show up it's open to the public and it's free to just
Come on in, we're going to get together and socialize and have a few drinks along the way.
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Just go to our website, wmdxradio.com.
For more information, you can click on the Downdran's Distilling VIP
banner there and find out a lot more.
By the way, that poll is continuing, John, which side of town, this is on our WMDXRadio.com website, which side of town has it better, east side or west side in Madison?
Do you want to guess who's ahead?
The west
side.
I'm guessing west
side.
You're wrong.
Okay.
East side, 55%, west side, 44%.
It's close.
They have it, but you know has it bet who has it better?
What does that actually mean?
Yeah, who has it better which is nicer which is
More convenient.
I'm gonna say I
will admit I think there are a lot of great places to go on the east side.
Oh,
yeah a lot of different Eclectic places to go.
Yeah, and I think they may have the upper hand on this.
I I
have often complained
saying, why did they build that store there?
Why didn't they do it on the West Side?
I have often complained.
The East Side has a lot of music happening, and it's got Willy Street, of course, the famed street over there.
They've got the
movie theaters at the mall, where they serve food and beer.
I thought, why didn't they do that
on the West Side?
Isn't the East Side like older?
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Generally speaking.
Well,
there's a lot of development out there and they've put in new stores, bigger stores.
Yeah.
I'm a shopper.
Yeah.
I'll just admit that.
You are.
Well, you
know, if you finally admit it.
If you live part-time at Costco, you must be
a shopper.
Well, I was watching this poll, Ipsos poll.
Yeah.
And maybe it hasn't taken into consideration DC in this, but who handles crime better, you know?
And believe this or not, minus 26 for Joe Biden, okay?
Plus one for
Trump
for
handling crime.
What?
People seem to think that this is the way to handle crime.
It's just put...
What the National Guard marines the police
out
in the streets
running rough
up people having checkpoints.
Come on.
What in the hell is I I said this before Trump was elected.
But I thought I was getting a sense that a lot of people did want to see a dictatorship.
Hmm.
Really?
That they were thinking that this is the way to go.
I think I have a dictatorship
clip there right at the top.
I just added it, I believe, look into the file there.
I think we have one.
Okay, something on dictatorship
there for
Dom?
Okay, he's got
it.
Why don't we play this?
This is done before the election.
Okay.
We're going to fight crime.
That's a good thing.
Already they're saying, he's a dictator.
The place is going to hell and we've got to stop it.
So instead of saying he's a dictator, they should say, we're going to join him and make Washington safe.
But they say, he's a dictator.
And then they end up getting mugged and, you know, but the stats are very bad.
But we're going to.
There he goes.
We're going to.
I think we'll actually get Democrats support.
I really can't.
They can't do this one, too.
Just
rambling.
Yeah.
He stumbles off the
stage.
Honestly
just
don't get it.
What is it these people see?
Oh my god, you know, it just doesn't end.
And your head splits, it breaks.
You can't wrap your head around anything that he's saying and everybody loves it and he's plus one for handling crime in the country as opposed to Biden.
You know, the thing is with Biden, the Republicans were so adamant about Biden being a criminal that the public...
you know, started believing it.
And again, this is what I've been saying all along is that when you have somebody who runs for president for four years, this is what Trump did.
Four years he ran, he had rallies all over the country.
He ran to be president this time around.
That's why he won.
And we had a three month period for Kamala to make an impression.
And it was very close, very close.
In fact, Trump didn't get the popular vote when you consider Kamala.
votes and all the independence that got votes, Trump came in second.
So it's just insane
to
think, and this is Trump
now saying that,
hey, you know.
Crazy upside down world.
Well, Jim Santel will be along shortly to make sense of it all for us.
He's going to bring us some clarity.
All right.
All
right.
Right around the corner first, we're going to check in with the Midwest Food and Farm report.
Then we'll be back with attorney Jim Santel in our next half hour of John and Gordy in the Morning on WMDX Madison.
WMDX giant Gordy in the morning, 735 sunshine to start the day.
We'll see a few clouds along the way and highs near 80 degrees.
Want to remind you again, our listener appreciation party, you are invited to it.
It's open to the public.
We're gathering everybody together September 6th at Downdrins Distilling and Cottage Grove to socialize and
have a fun get together.
You can bring the kids, they have a playground out there and we're giving you a chance to also win a VIP invite to that party.
So everybody's invited.
Okay, it's open and free to the public.
But if you want to get a VIP invite, you get a little something extra.
free tour of the distillery for you and a guest and a tasting of some of their spirits and a WMDX swag bag.
How do you enter?
Well, you can send us an entry right now with your Civic Media app.
Just jump on there and text us the word T. That's T-E-A.
Before 8 a.m.
and we'll draw a couple of winners today.
We'll have another chance tomorrow and next week we'll have some more chances.
to win.
Jim Santel is indicated he might be available to come to that down to instilling listener appreciation party.
Good morning Jim.
Unless something comes up.
I know you're
a very busy guy.
I am especially attracted to it as should all your listeners be by the fact that Dom told me in addition to all those wonderful other package things.
The two of you are going to be doing dramatic readings of some of my president's most significant recent statements.
I'm looking forward to that.
I think we all are.
I actually think that's a great idea.
That could be a lot
of
fun.
Jim, good morning to you.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Good to see you.
Yeah, we would love to have you there if you could make it.
I do want to get to just
a few of our texts before we get into anything else here.
I want to get to Mac, Matt, out in Middleton.
Trump constantly and consistently calls everyone that is not mega-radical to deflect from the fact that mega is extremist and 100% radical.
The simple-minded eat this stuff up.
and deflects from every other word that he says.
That's one of the responses that we had.
Also, I was thinking that PragerU was where all pregnant students were going to go to school.
Sounds like another Southern idea.
We were talking education with Tim Slecker.
Oh, yeah.
And somebody
recommended a website to go to because there is an AI that's built with empathy.
Really?
So they have a link there.
I don't know if we'll post that any place.
Yeah, we should.
Tom can post that.
And I
believe that CJ is likely taking notes on our criticism of Trump and preparing to denounce us to Trump's Ministry of Truth, Social.
By
the
way, he said he's going to make it out to our party.
CJ is?
Oh, that'll be a lot of fun to see him.
Hey, he's, like I say, everybody's invited.
Yeah.
Well, that's what I'm hearing.
Alright, and I
know that Matt Rothschild actually went out with him, right?
Oh, is that
right coffee
really?
Yeah
CJ.
Yeah.
Yeah
Okay, we always reach out to the other side.
They don't give a damn about it Well, he's got a lot of stuff here to get to and you know, let's talk about DC.
We've been talking about it Of course, he's gonna plant greener grass now.
He knows everything about grass out DC.
Yes president is
focused on grass.
That's right But what about the military takeover where they have checkpoints now in the street?
Isn't that something DC?
Yeah, it is is something and I happen to Bring a little bit of additional perspective on this obviously for about 30 years I worked for domestic law enforcement and then for two years as gentlemen as you and some of your listeners know I was in Iraq during the war 2006 2008 and brought home to me something that we academically have always understood that the functions of domestic policing
are dramatically different.
The missions of it are dramatically significantly different than our military operations, right?
The purpose of, as we all know, war is disaster.
It is catastrophe.
It needs necessarily, there are just wars out there.
We have seen them.
They've been in our history, but it is catastrophe.
And the point behind military operations are destruction.
and bringing an enemy to its knees.
That is a very different functional thing.
And again, General Petraeus would talk about this and others in the military there, a very different function than doing something else that we were also responsible for, not only in Baghdad, but now of course, always in America, a domestic policing operation.
Again, different function, different purpose.
What is the purpose of domestic policing?
It is service and safety and security.
It is just the
opposite of what a military operation is.
Now, not to say that some of those don't overlap from time to time.
When I was in Iraq, plainly trying to maintain safety and security inside the urban areas of Baghdad and Kirkuk and Mosul, other places, but there are fundamentally different operations.
And that's why, for example, when you mention these checkpoints and the other encounters
that again, residents of the District of Columbia, visitors there will have.
You've got a very different approach when you are in the military than when you are in the domestic police force.
And I certainly do hope that my prediction does not come true, but the possibility of having some catastrophic event because of that difference in mission.
And that's what really concerns me.
And again, beyond that, of course, as you have said in this broadcast repeatedly, there's no reason for this at all, a 30% reduction from last year alone in terms of crime.
You can go there.
I'm not saying you walk around every place in every neighborhood at two o'clock in the morning, but it is a relatively safe city, given some of our other challenges in America, not one that needs our military intervention at this time.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's crazy.
And I know the right wing wants to
essentially call in a question.
All of the statistics, the police department has been gathering.
That's what they're doing now.
They're saying it's been manipulated, and that's why it's so the crime is down so much now.
And they've also accused one of the police officers commanders there of lowering the statistical averages.
So yeah, but but that is a retaliatory thing.
It's you know, it's in the weeds, but
I'm thinking that there is a lot of truth to the fact that crime has gone down dramatically in DC.
It's gone down dramatically in all the cities across the US.
They were accusing Biden of not taking care of crime.
Crime was down dramatically everywhere.
So they're going to have a hard time convincing other cities that they should be taken over by the National Guard in this case.
And he wants to take over Chicago and LA again.
New
York.
Yeah, New York.
The whole
thing.
Do you have spikes in events?
Absolutely.
Are there events that attract the attention appropriately of the media when they happen again, human calamity?
Yes.
But those statistics that you're talking about, where do they come from?
They're from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Where do they get their numbers?
By law, they are mandated.
That is, local municipalities and towns and villages are mandated to provide information about their own local statistics
to the FBI for the purpose of assembling nationwide information.
This is not made up by people in Washington, DC.
This comes from localities put together there so that we can identify exactly what you just said, John Gordy, that we have had dramatic decreases once again in crime in recent decades, not just months, not just years, but in decades.
Talking to Jim Santel attorney at law and Jim
You have something here about the DC appeals court.
Yeah, I want to ask you about
that Let's find out is it is this something outrageous that we should be worried about where they determine that Trump can lawfully terminate foreign assistance funding?
Because you know the you know the Supreme Court is handing Trump an awful lot of power at this point now the DC appeals court has done pretty much the exact same thing Is this something
we
should be worried about?
I think it is.
This goes to the issue we note specifically USAID funding cut, and again, statistics about the number of people overseas likely died.
We don't know that with great specificity, but likely died because of the lack of funding that we have now effectively pulled out.
We know the USAID office in Washington and other places have been shuttered.
And so we have, just yesterday, Federal Appeals Court, District of Columbia, this is a two to one, three judge panel, a two to one vote.
And again, it's not the entire panel, but they basically said that under something called the Impoundment Control Act, which is what the Government Accountability Office uses and invokes, frankly, no independent entity, no independent person can challenge, so it's sort of a standing issue, can challenge the President's decision only, only the Government Accountability Office, which is the Congress's independent watchdog,
They're the only ones that can sue.
And interestingly, they haven't done that up to this point.
Although, again, curiously, earlier in the year, the government accountability office has founded that the president's impoundment of those funds authorized by Congress was illegal.
So it's very, very wonky, very, very lots of things going on here.
But the upshot is two judges out of three yesterday said he's got the capacity to do that.
You do have a third judge.
And that judge basically says, courts holding that the grantees have no constitutional cause of action is as startling as it is erroneous, goes on to say, majority holds when the president refuses to spend funds appropriated by Congress
based on policy disagreements, that is merely a statutory violation and raises no constitutional alarm bells.
And that's what we've seen in virtually every other court out there is saying, no, Mr. President, you can't do this.
Only the Congress can do it.
Only the Congress can affect tariffs and those kinds of things.
This is another one.
We've got two judges out of three.
It's a large panel of total judges there.
Maybe we'll go up to what's called an en banc hearing.
But right now, you've got an appeals court that says, go ahead, Mr. President, keep those funds away.
Even though Congress, the elected body of our nation, has said we want to support this overseas initiative to keep people alive, cultural issues, basic substance issues, economic issues, commerce issues, no more.
And our court today, one of the courts said, that's OK.
kind of an america are we where we're thinking about right now when that comes to that sort of a ruling right exactly
what about all these you seem like side issues but you know stuff at the white house where the president just wants to build a ballroom and he's going to pay for it or he's going to get the funds to pay for it or or having a ufc fight i can't believe i mean i know
i
know you know on the grounds of the white house
I mean, to build any kind of building in DC, don't you need to get that through Congress and get everybody to sign off on it and approve it?
All kinds of things
that he wants to
build.
Baltimore's huge, and I suspect that's one party to which none of the three or four of us is going to be invited at any time soon.
But the answer, of course, is remember that the White House
is our house, right?
The President of the United States does not own it.
Have there been changes?
Of course, the South Portico was added on during the Truman years.
Other things were renovated over time.
And the issue again about whether those kinds of things should happen at the White House, certainly there is government involvement.
And the notion you simply say, well, I own it right now.
I'm going to build something here.
And oh, by the way, others are going to support it.
That may address some portion of the financial issue, but there are historical issues there.
There are certainly just basically security issues related to establishing this creating this huge entity, this huge thing that will be built there for what presumably hundreds of people coming in.
Those issues have to be addressed.
This is not just an independent thing that happens.
Your point is exactly, exactly well noted.
Well, it's just another distraction.
It's another issue to take away from the Epstein files issues, which are going to
Right.
Right.
He wants to deflect the attention away from that.
And he's continuing to do that.
It is 748.
Jim, we can have you stick around if you're able to do that for just that.
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Back with more with attorney Jim Santel on John and Gordy on WMDX Madison.
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A few more minutes here with Jim Santel and Amicus, a law
review.
You can hear it on Saturdays from 9 to 11 o'clock.
PM.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, it's in the morning.
In the morning.
Don't tell people
that.
If only they would let me go 11, 12, 13 hours.
We've got plenty of material.
Yeah, what the heck?
The lights would be off, and producers would be gone, but Jim Santel does his own job.
Just going on and
on.
Let's talk about the Supreme Court now taking on the case.
This is something they turned down, I believe.
in 2023, but they're going back to it.
They have a majority now who agreed to take this case.
It is the case in regards to the city clerk, I believe, that would not pass out a marriage certificate to a same-sex couple.
And I think this... Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but is this something to do with...
like a conscience clause where people have a religious belief and they get an exemption and they can actually turn down giving something up because of their conscience or their religious belief.
Is that what this is about?
That's certainly what she maintains, but you really touched, John, on the real issue why this is so important and needs to be understood in terms of what it is.
This is a clerk.
She is Kim Davis.
There are, as you know, I don't even know the numbers, probably tens of thousands of clerks across America.
They're very important.
They make government go, put some municipal government, and they do what are called ministerial acts, which is you go and you pay your tax bill.
Maybe you pay off a parking citation, all kinds of things.
And yes, indeed, you go to get marriage licenses.
And what happened, of course, is the Supreme Court, a decade ago, said it is now cons...
You've got a privacy right to same-sex marriage.
And that applies to everybody across the nation, regardless of where you are, regardless of what your conscience or your religion may say.
And what that means is that I cannot bring my particular view about religion or should not be able to bring my view about religion, my conscience into doing.
What are these ministerial acts?
I've got an obligation to do that because that is what the
law is.
That's what the rule of law dictates.
And what happens is she says, no, I'm not going to do that.
And she gets involved and she is fine.
She's jailed briefly.
There's a several hundred thousand dollar fine against her for various things.
And she is appealing that judgment now saying
that should not have happened, and buried inside that is this notion that she wants the Supreme Court to remember to take on the case and then to overturn what it did in Obergefell, which is the case that affirmed privacy rights to same-sex marriage.
So it is a lot going on
here again.
It's a bigger case, but she's melding this inside this religious advocacy and maintaining that her decision as a clerk, not to do what the people elected her to do, is somehow forgiven by the fact.
and the decision not to engage in what she is assigned to do, that that is forgiven by the fact that she individually, personally, does not like what the law in America is.
Well, there are two alternatives.
One is you either follow that law in your role as a government official or...
You don't take that job.
You don't run for it.
And we do not, we do not prevent you from thinking things and from advocating, again, in the privacy of your own conduct, what your religious faith is.
We just prohibit you from bringing that into a ministerial act, something that she has obliged to do.
She is just playing wrong on the law.
And this notion of somebody going to bootstrap a review of Obergefell for the Supreme Court for what it's worth.
You're right.
The composition has changed after Judge Justice Kennedy's opinion.
There have got to be four justices who say, let's bring this on and off a lot of people.
I've stopped predicting what the Supreme Court is going to do long ago, right?
But the Supreme Court has got to say, yes, we're going to take that case on.
There is still hope.
that at least six members of the Supreme Court will say, no, no, let's not revisit this.
We've got other things to do.
And so they may not decide to put this on their docket for October.
But right now, you're right.
The request is pending for the Supreme Court to take this on.
They can also narrow the question.
They can determine whether or not it's just a mere sterile issue, whether they're going to go big and address Obergefell once again.
But it is troubling that once again, we're back there and the privacy rights once again in the new.
we know that at least one, if not two, justices would be very much inclined when it comes to all these kinds of things.
This same sex marriage, all kinds of marriage arrangements here, including a different race marriage.
All those kinds of things could be back on the table.
Well, the thing that I
always thought
was, you know, it's unconstitutional to deny somebody else their rights.
I mean, if they
go
in there and apply for a marriage license and you have some kind of religious conflict with it, you can't deny somebody else their first amendment rights because then it becomes unconstitutional.
I know this is very simplistic thinking.
That's what I was taught when I was a kid.
So, you know, once you once you start taking somebody else's rights away, that's where the conflict takes place.
Exactly.
And another.
you can't do it.
And in this case, you know, she certainly wants these rights.
You know, this is a dominionist thing too, a religious dominion.
They want religion to take precedent over constitutional law.
That's what, you know, Christian nationalism is all about.
So
we'll watch the Supreme Court very closely soon and see what they do.
They've got a decision apparently on September 29th.
They'll tell us whether they're going to be going ahead with this or not.
I'll be back before then and see you on the 6th before then.
So lots of things to talk about.
All right.
We got to leave it there.
Attorney Jim Santel.
You can listen to his excellent podcast every Saturday morning on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Jim, thanks for joining us.
Yeah.
Always a pleasure, gentlemen.
Coming up tomorrow on The Big Show, Pam Yankee will join us.
Also, Savannah Tomey Olsen with a news update and a rocker with a Max Ink preview.
And I don't think we'll run out of idiocracy.
Oh, we've got plenty of it.
No.
Yeah, we'll have that and a whole lot more.
We hope you have a great day.
Stephanie Miller is next.
Thank you for joining us so long.
See you later.
