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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.
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That's great.
John
There's
that is just
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.
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.
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 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.
Why?
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
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 U.S.
federal government.
So even for a city enjoying a 30-year low in 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.
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.
This was his response.
Yeah, 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
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.
making sure
Good morning.
Real quick on the D.C.
thing, something that Malcolm Nance said yesterday hitting out of the park.
goes, how did the city go from, you know, having his little parade get together to this horrible crime leading place?
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
who made the cuts?
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.
The four.
Not going to work.
Consequences.
All right.
for that call.
Yeah.
Thanks for pointing that out too.
Just it really is I mean this stark difference between having this big parade.
Yeah, 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.
It's silly stuff.
It's nonsensical.
Yeah, nonsensical.
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Coming right back, we'll update the weather and have much more of John and Gordy in the morning from
Madison, Wisconsin, WMDX.
Yeah.
Along with Dom Lee, our producer, broadcasting from beautiful State Street in Madison.
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to do the listener appreciation party if you want to get in on this the party is happening September 6th 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 and it's a family-friendly place as well.
There's a children's playground at Doundrens Distilling and you have a chance to get a VIP invite if you text us the word T, that's T-E-A.
Text that to us on your Civic Media app, and you and a guest will get a free tour of the distillery, tasting some of their spirits, and also get a WMDX swag bag.
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Saturday, September 6th at 3 p.m.
at Downdran's Distilling.
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 site of town, this is on our wmdxradio.com website.
Which site of town has it better?
Eastside or Westside in Madison?
Do you want to guess who's ahead?
The west side I guess the 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
one for
for
I think I have a dictatorship clip
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 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 know there we go.
So we're gonna I think we'll actually get Democrats support.
I really can't they can't do this one too.
Just rambling.
I 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 he's well 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 Yeah, that the public, you know
started believing it and 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 make an impression
and
Well, Jim Santel will be along shortly to make sense of it all for us.
He's gonna bring us some clarity, okay?
Right around the corner first, we're gonna 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.
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, the Dundrens Distilling and Cottage Grove to socialize and
have a fun to 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.
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to win.
Jim Santel is indicated he might be available to come to that doundren's distilling listener appreciation party.
Good morning, Jim.
Unless something comes up.
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 want to get to Mac, Matt, out in Middleton.
Trump constantly, consistently calls everyone that is not mega radical to...
from the fact that MAGA 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.
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 bagged that, 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, plenty 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 mentioned 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.
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 2 o'clock in the morning But it is a relatively safe city given us some of our other challenges in America Not one that needs our military intervention at this time.
And I know they're 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 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.
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.
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
This goes to the issue we note specifically USAID funding cut and, again, statistics about the number of people overseas who 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 and 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 against 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, that 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' 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.
They're maybe to 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 basically so basic substance substance issues Economic issues commerce issues no more.
Yeah, and our court today one of the courts said that's okay Kind of America are we where we 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 gonna pay for it or he's gonna get the funds to pay for it or or having a UFC fight I can't believe I mean you know I know you know on the grounds of the White House
I mean, to build any kind of building in D.C., don't you need to get that through Congress and get everybody to sign off on it and approve it?
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 anytime 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.
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Let's talk about the Supreme Court now taking on the case.
This is something they turned on, 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
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 touch John on the real issue of why this is so important.
It 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 up, 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 constitution 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 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.
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 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
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 news, 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.
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
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
Also Savannah Tome 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
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