All right, I'm falling asleep now.
Our salute to Chuck Mangione.
Yes, morning.
Start out our Friday.
Good morning.
And a good morning to you.
What a beautiful day so far, right?
I
mean, this
is just unbelievable.
Look at the skies.
They're nice and
clear.
Just a few very light clouds in the distance.
That's right.
Yes.
Very mellow way to wake up this
morning.
Just a little technical glitch.
Just to let you know that
it was a
little hiccup.
It wasn't something that you were dreaming.
Because I know waking up to Chuck Mangio was something I did.
And I'll never forget those days.
That was nice soothing music though.
Chuck just recently passed away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know,
just maybe a month ago or so.
This is a guy who's never heard Chuck Mangio.
Yeah.
No, it's not soothing music.
It's really irritating.
It's just as bad as anything I remember in the past.
Okay.
So.
I mean, talk about being overplayed, right?
I think it was in every commercial.
Oh,
man.
Yeah, that song.
Oh, yes.
Whenever that came out in the late 70s, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was just on all the time.
Yeah, it was.
Which was unusual even back then for an instrumental to make it up the charts.
Yeah.
Back then on your... Instrumentals were on a big deal at that point.
Right.
That's when they started phasing out the instrumental... After that song.
Maybe that killed it, right?
That pretty much killed the instrumental.
That was a thing.
Well, I remember playing that song at Nazium at WAUK in Waukesha.
Yeah, I played it at WNNO in Wisconsin Dells.
That was
a killer for me.
Those were the days.
Thank you, Tom.
I think you get our paperwork in order here.
Our actual Civic Media station is a former elevator music station.
OK.
Well, that was fun back then.
What a way to start a Friday.
Hey, we had a good time at Night Market last night in Madison.
We did.
Say hello to a lot of great people.
Great time.
Going out with Art Paul Schlauser was there.
Yep.
Talked to him for a little while.
Everything's good with him.
Yeah.
And it was terrific.
We had a lot of people last night.
It wasn't as crowded as maybe the previous Night Markets, but still pretty good crowd.
Yeah.
Well, you know, our contest
A spinner, what did we call it?
The wheel?
The wheel, the spinning wheel.
The
spinning wheel.
It's not a roulette wheel.
It broke,
eventually.
It
broke a
couple of times, brand new.
It broke.
What we have to do, that booth, about two booths away from us.
Yeah, they got it.
They have a four foot radius spinning wheel.
And it's just like, you know, I mean, you could put a person on there and throw knives at it.
It's so big.
Yeah.
Pails in ours kind of pales in comparison to that one.
Yes, it does channel 27 is a big wheel too
when they when
they show up at a booth that like you know, I don't know what one of the downtown Farmers markets or whatever whatever wherever they show up.
I don't know what art art fair on the square
Hey, I just thought of the right little flapper
what that
is used for the wheel There's a little flapper
right that
keeps breaking
That's the thing and
and that that needs to work or else the wheel just keeps going forever and ever
the
plastic.
Yeah, I know.
But I got I just I just thought of it.
I just thought of what
should it be?
A piece of thick leather.
Oh, that one.
Yeah.
Yeah, kind of that would be a tough leather.
Yeah.
Well, any kind of leather, but thick leather,
that would do it.
Right.
I think so.
We never break.
We'll have to workshop that.
It's 19 minutes past the hour.
We're just getting going on Friday morning.
Rocker will be in later.
Also, we'll check in with Savannah Tomay Olson.
It's John and Gordy in the morning.
92.7 WMDX.
could muster the troops.
Yeah, let's let's talk about that.
And it's
corn corn maze season.
Yeah, let's talk about that.
Pretty cool boy.
I don't know.
We got the action.
Oh, it's right here.
WMDX 92.7, John and Gordy.
It's 22 minutes past the hour.
Nice clear start this morning.
A few very light high clouds.
59 degrees.
Very cool outside.
High about 76 today.
It's 63 right now.
It doesn't feel like it.
It's 63 over
there.
Let's check in with Pam Yonkey.
Fabulous farm babe.
Good morning, Pam.
Yeah, buddy's good morning, and it sounds like by the end of the weekend in the north woods They could have temperatures in the upper 50s when they wake
up.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that sounds great.
That might be a daytime high.
Yeah Well, here's the thing we've had such a hot summer and rainy summer and and swampy like summer Let's get some
cold
temperatures back in here.
Yeah, it's time for
fun
be be careful what you wish for because my the long term weather forecast for Wisconsin is that like starting next week temperatures are going to drop and we're going to dry out.
So all of a sudden what in what has been the dog days days of August and remember my farmers still need that heat to finish off this crop.
We still need the sunshine to finish off soybeans.
So, you know, this is a pretty steep about face.
And it's what the 22nd of August.
So we still got a good week to go before we would even expect this to enter in.
But I'm with you guys.
I'm ready for a break from the humidity and.
And I can walk outside and breathe in this.
Well, that's true.
I'm wrong.
Let's put it off for another week or two.
I want the farmers to get their crops in.
Yeah, they got to do that.
All right, let's talk about something that we're kind of warned about, that rural community hospitals and clinics are going out of business because they can't afford to be out there to not get the federal funding anymore.
But we've got a different situation happen in Lafayette County.
Yeah, and it's kind of cool because like you say, it really goes in the face of what everybody's been talking about yesterday was kind of the public grand opening for the Lafayette Hospital and clinic in Darlington.
Now, let's recognize that Lafayette County is one of the most rural counties in Wisconsin.
The building they replaced was built back in 1952 and had relatively little upgrades in that time because
of lack of funding.
You just don't know what's going to be happening with staffing.
So Jack Sauer, who is the chairman of the county board and also chairman of the hospital committee, said it was probably one of the proudest moments in his 24 years in public service to be able to get this project done.
And it took a lot of collaboration.
Compure Financial, which is an ag lender, stepped in and started working to secure funds through the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and kind of convert them into construction
construction loans, about $51 million was needed just for construction.
And then stop and think about everything that goes into a hospital, including technology and staffing.
Sauer said they also were very astute to make sure that they were going to have the people in place.
So to attract doctors to rural areas, you always have to put a carrot on the stick.
Well, for Lafayette Hospital, it was offering them a $50,000
basically scholarship to help against their education costs if they committed to coming to Lafayette and staying there.
They're turning into the regional source as a trauma for hospital, which means they can basically handle some trauma, get everybody prepped and set before they're moving on to a little bit more of an elaborate hospital.
But it's turned into a regional resource.
And like I said, I just can't say enough about how they worked.
hard collaborating with everybody.
You know, when it comes to politicians, everybody's ready to put their hand out, but it took a lot of them to collaborate to get the funding in place.
So well done.
Ben Jarbo, one of my assistants was down there for all the fun yesterday.
It's just, it's an example of how it can happen if you put the right people at the table.
What communities are in Lafayette County just to give people an idea of where it is in
Wisconsin?
So the radius that it would reach would be Darlington, Fenimore, Mineral Point, also as far as into Western Green County.
They're also pulling, obviously, from Grant County.
I mean, really, if you look at it on a map, folks, you're going to realize there ain't much here.
And now it will be the draw.
Now, will that put a strangle on some of the other hospitals in the area, perhaps?
Do I expect other communities in that area to try to match them?
probably not, but to be able to have one go-to facility that's well staffed, has the technology and the facilities, that is a wonderful story for rural Wisconsin, Southwest Wisconsin.
We need some predictability, and that's what this hospital offers.
Well, you know, just stop and think about it, fellas.
We talk about ambulance services not being able to find volunteers, fire departments.
Now, if you're in Southwest Wisconsin and you make a call, 911.
You may wait, I've talked to you about this before, 45 minutes to an hour before they can respond.
When you put a facility like Lafayette Hospital in Darlington, now all of a sudden instead of that ambulance having to make a run from...
you know, rural Southwest Wisconsin all the way into Madison or even into a closer facility in Iowa County.
I mean, that's, that's a life and death, death situation for people.
It is.
Pam, we only got a minute or so left here, but we want to talk a little bit about corn mazes.
It's that time of year.
They're
going to
start popping up, right?
Yeah.
People get
lost.
They do.
And that's part of the goal.
I'll tell you what, we'll, we'll tease them today and talk more about it on Monday.
But the corn mazes are coming together very, very well.
Monday, we will talk exactly about the forethought that has to go into creating these corn mazes.
They don't just pop up.
when somebody comes up with an idea.
This is something that was constructed on paper last fall was planted specifically this spring and now is being literally carved out of cornfields as we speak.
One of them, Trinan Farms up in Lodi, ready with a Wisconsin theme to greet you this year.
We'll talk more about that on Monday.
All right.
And we'll also find out on Monday about the hemp harvest that's ready to happen.
Or it's already underway, right?
The field burns are wonderful.
I just
love them.
Okay.
All right, Pam, have a great weekend.
We'll talk to you Monday.
Yeah, you guys too.
Enjoy it.
Thank
you.
Yes, the fabulous farm, babe.
Pam Yankee at the Midwest Farm and Food Report coming up right around the corner.
Also, Rocker in the studio later with the Maxing preview.
Of course, you know, idiocracy is in the wings.
That's next.
Stay
around.
Yep.
John and Gordy.
WMDX Madison.
Yeah, this
is WMDX 92.7.
It's John and Gordy in the morning.
Our number is 608-879-8255.
Phone lines are open.
Give us a call or get on the Civic Media app and shoot us a text or a voice note.
Yes.
Do that.
Yeah.
Hey John, it is Friday and you know what that means.
Yes.
more ticket giveaways oh my god really yes it's a free friday ticket giveaway for brewers tickets we've got a four pack of tickets up for grabs and we've got a keyword to tell you about you jump on that civic media app
and
send us this is uh for the thursday august 28th game against arizona diamondbacks
So that's this coming Thursday.
If you want to go to that game, if that's a game that you can get to, well, we've got a four pack of tickets.
If you text us the word bat, you'll be in for that drawing, bat, like a baseball bat, B-A-T, bat.
Text us, text that word to us, bat on the Civic Media app.
and you'll be in, we'll draw names out, and if you are the winner, we will contact you later on, okay?
So that is for, again, the Arizona Diamondback Scheme at the AMFAM on Thursday, August 28th.
Four pack of Brewer tickets, Texas word bat.
All right,
so let's
get to idiocracy.
How's that?
Let's get to it.
Let's do
it.
Hit the idiocracy button.
Okay.
As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point, a dumbing down.
With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.
What an idiot!
Oh, what a loser!
Now listen, Grapehead.
I'll explain it so even you can understand it.
Idiocracy!
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.
Woo!
How
dumb are you?
Dangerously dumb.
And, you know, what I'm thinking here is the first story is just across the wire here.
Oh boy.
Yeah, the latest COVID variant, Dub Stratus, is dominating Ireland at this point.
It is very, very contagious, but it is not more dangerous than the virus itself that's out there and has been out there for some time.
But as you know,
RFK Jr.
has banned any kind of advancement in the mRNA vaccine, so we may not see a different vaccine for us to get in order to fight off this new variant, Stratus.
That's what it's
called.
It's all up to RFK Jr.
Yes, I'm so glad he's out there.
Yeah.
Well, you know that means that because they're not really doing anything about it We can't really get the other vaccine as well just a booster Unless we pay for it out of pocket.
Is that right?
That's really the product.
It's the biggest problem we have.
Well, that's just making us pay for everything.
Okay.
All right.
Um, that's depressing, but okay
There's more?
Yes, there is a lot more.
There's talk now that maybe somewhere along the way the Democrats should have their own Stephen Miller.
We really want that?
Yeah, apparently we should have somebody that ruthless and cold and dangerous on the Democratic side of the aisle.
I don't know.
I mean, it's just talk so far.
We don't
have anybody likes, there's nobody like Stephen Miller.
You know, maybe that should be the question in the morning.
Who's like Stephen Miller on the Democratic side of the aisle?
Yeah.
Somebody, please.
Yeah, tell us.
Oh, God.
And now get this, you know, with the occupation of DC and businesses losing a lot of business, no one's going out because they, I guess, don't want to walk around Humvees and be challenged by
National Guard or police or, you know, Marines, whoever is showing up.
And by the way, the red states are sending their National Guard to DC, right?
And I heard somebody mention this and I thought, wow, oh, that is it.
This is like the North and the South.
Yes, it's a civil war.
That's what
they're setting it up to be.
Those states are sending their troops in to the North.
Yes.
Yes, they are.
That was a scary thought.
I'd still
try to deal
with that, wrapping my head around that.
Anyway, Trump has now promised that he's going to go out with these forces into other cities.
He's going to be out there.
Remember, he went out.
He went out with the National Guard to see how it works.
Walking around DC, checking everything out.
Maybe you should strap a rifle over his shoulder and see how that looks.
Don't give him any ideas.
Nope.
Don't do that.
No, sir, please.
No, you don't know how to operate that thing.
Please just leave it there.
Well, you know one of the big things about this redistricting problem that we have right now and this cut 169 You know with the redistricting in Texas Well, we've been talking about maybe matching that with all the Democratic states, but
get
this I mean what they have done in the redistricting could also be illegal and Unconstitutional let's listen to this cut.
Okay
In this proposal, a Hispanic Texan has one-third the political value of a white Texan under this plan, and a black Texan one-fifth.
It would take three Hispanics to equal the representation of one white Texan and five black Texans to equal the value of one white Texan.
Under these lines, Texas Hispanics will be the most underrepresented population group in all 50 states.
The level of under-representation will far exceed what even conservative courts have struck down in Louisiana, Alabama, and just yesterday in Mississippi.
Mm-hmm, yep.
That is
still in it like it is.
So that's obviously, I would assume, going to be challenged to the Supreme Court right away.
I guess so, yeah.
And we'll see go right out.
Yeah.
And of course, you know, California is approved redistricting.
Now it goes to the voters to approve.
We're just getting, you know, a hint at some of the polling and whether, you know, Californians are all for this or want to go with it this time around.
Yeah.
And they don't vote on this until early November.
Yeah.
November.
So yikes.
So it'll be polling all
the way
up to that point, which I just.
I'm not looking forward to this.
Well, who is?
But Texas started all this mess.
So
here we go.
I know.
Strap in.
See, this is just, you know, just part of the operation of chaos that they're putting in place.
Right.
Everything they do is just chaotic.
Well, they want to stir it up and, you know, and then when we finally get around to the presidential election, you know, if all these states have, you know,
Some of them have redistricted, some of them not.
It is gonna be chaotic when they go to count the votes.
And then there will be court challenges again, like should they have redistricted?
Yeah, I mean,
it will all go up to the Supreme Court again.
They're doing everything they want.
And then of course, going to court and challenging it all the way up to the Supreme Court and then getting their way.
Like this ruling that came out yesterday from the Supreme Court.
They rule that the Trump administration can move forward with slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding as part of its efforts to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Why is that illegal?
Why can't you do?
I don't understand how they can just say, yo, the Supreme Court?
Letting this go through right and they're gonna allow all these other cases of course in the lower courts You know work their way up to the Supreme Court again and ask this same question, but it was a 5-4 decision and And it's just a Robert sided with the Liberals this time around.
Okay, so anyway, this is Again, this is the NIH the National Institute of Health being cut dramatically the majorities unsigned order freeze the administration
proceed with canceling grants already targeted for elimination, while leaving in place restrictions on the administration's guidance for the future.
And this is outrageous because we've got studies, drugs, everything in midpoint, three quarters of the way through, almost finished research.
Yeah, you can't just stop it.
And they're going to drop it.
They're going to stop it.
That's ridiculous.
We're going, I mean, this is going to delay advancements in treatment for disease by 10 years or so.
Wow.
And then we're leaving up all these drugs to other nations in order to have them research it, own the patents, and then we'll be paying for that as well.
This is a disaster, and we can thank the Supreme Court for this, but of course the Trump administration, their goal of course is to challenge everything in court
and take it
up to the Supreme Court
and get an answer that they
like, right?
I know, it's outrageous.
You know, I hear Stephanie Miller kind of fumble around like we're doing, right?
Yeah.
Like, what's next, you know?
Well,
we have some breaking news this morning.
Yeah, we do.
Emergency, emergency, Batman speaking.
Warning all of you to brace yourselves for big news.
Okay, here we go.
Get this CNN now reporting the FBI is conducting a search at John Bolton's home.
Well get those enemies.
Yeah,
mr.
Mustache.
Yeah, they're gonna Wow, they're checking his yeah, they're just going right through
something how they complained and whined how Biden was weaponizing the administration.
Yeah weaponizing government against all their enemies What do you think is happening right now?
Well, this isn't a mystery.
We're
It's not like we're not seeing this in front of our very eyes.
And what could they possibly find at John Bolton's house?
Yes.
That the FBI has to go in there with search warrants and rifle through everything, like documents or something.
What do they look for?
Who knows?
He's not doing anything.
They're just intimidating him.
It's just, it's just intimidating.
This is ridiculous.
All right, I want to get into something from my...
Eric Erickson, you know, he was a pundit for a while in there, because I don't know why they got rid of Mike.
I kind of enjoyed his right wing positioning.
But
anyway, he's out there and he is not happy with the government.
You know, he said that the government is now dipping into socialism by taking part ownership of Intel.
All right,
let's check out 172 here.
The U.S.
government would become the largest shareholder of Intel.
This is actual socialism happening by a Republican administration.
This is a horrible precedent.
This is socialism.
All of you people were freaked out about Memdami in New York City wanting government-run grocery stores and saying the people need to seize the means of production.
That's what Harold Lutnik is doing right now, saying that the government must seize the controlling interest in Intel, the means of production in order to get government money.
You can't just be against socialism when the left doesn't.
There you go.
He was adamant at the end there.
Well, you know again, we've talked about this this is projection and it seems like that's all the right wing is about is projection Yeah, they're angry that the Democrats might be doing something before them Of course, it doesn't even occur the Democrats to have like FEMA camps We're not really thinking about that stuff, but they're angry and they make up this thing where you know Democrats are building FEMA camps to how is all the Republicans they don't love
like, which has not ever have been a thought in our head.
But, you know, they were angry about it.
Now they're able to at least start that project on their own.
So.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
You know, there's really not much left, right?
We're just stuck in bizarro world every single day.
We are.
This is just outrageous stuff.
And I don't even know if I should get into the next topic because we have very little time here.
Got about a minute here.
But we, you know, we've got a, I got a really interesting story coming up after seven o'clock.
I think this is really, really good.
It is about mega projection.
And we've got the right wing turning onto the fact that, hey, wait a minute, they're talking about us now.
You know what I mean?
The right wing is coming undone by Trump's dictatorship.
This is really good stuff coming up
next hour.
Got that coming up, and also we'll be talking with Rocker in our next hour with a maxing preview.
We'll be back with more after we hear a few well-chosen words and phrases from our dedicated and devoted sponsor people.
Wow, okay, wow.
Please stand by.
Uphuker leaves us with take me out to the ball game.
All right.
Let me hear you folks.
Oh one.
Take me out to the ball game.
Take me out of the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack.
I don't care if I never get back, I'll root, root, root for the brothers.
You do the same for the Cubs.
So it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game.
Thank you very much.
That's good stuff, isn't it?
That's Bob Yooker, of course, singing the Sevvini stretch.
at Wrigley Field, and that was last night.
They honored Bob Uker last night.
Brewer's, of course, because of Bob Uker's song, won.
Yes, they won four to one at Wrigley.
But anyway, I thought it was wonderful.
You know, the crowd gets into it.
There are no booze.
People go along with it because they really respect Bob Uker.
Oh, yeah.
And the rivalry.
I think they love the rivalry.
They sure do.
Right?
Yeah.
And in fact, we've got some Brewer tickets to give away here.
All right.
See how it all works together.
It does.
Yes, because it's a free ticket Friday.
We have a four pack of Brewer tickets to the upcoming game next Thursday, August 28th versus the Arizona Diamondback team.
And they'll be at Milwaukee and the Ampham Field.
The key word is bat, B-A-T, OK, like baseball bat.
So get on your Civic Media app, text the word bat.
You'll be in for the drawing.
We will let you know if you're a winner.
You get a four pack of Brewer tickets and you'll be off to the game.
OK, let's continue with idiocracy here.
Oh, boy.
Here's the video of the moment.
This is Texas State Representative Nicole Collier.
She was caught in the bathroom and threatened with a felony for being in the bathroom.
This is before the vote, where they approved redistricting.
Let's listen to cut 173, and by the way, she was on a conference call with Cory Booker at the time, and that's why they threatened her with a felony if she didn't come out and stop the conversation with fellow Democrats.
Let's listen to this.
All of our democratic elected officials
are actively they said it's a felony for me to do this.
Apparently I can't be on the floor or in the bathroom.
Well, you told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom.
No, hang on.
Bye everybody.
I've got to go.
Hey.
That is outrageous.
First of all, let me tell you something.
Representative Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
That is outrageous.
What they're trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a black woman.
And that is outrageous.
And I hope everybody took note of that.
The fact that she can't even let her voice be heard is fricking outrageous.
And this is what we're fighting for here.
All right, unbelievable.
Yeah, pretty pretty unbelievable.
Here's one reaction So she's there because she's refused to sign off on a 24-7 surveillance Request outside of the legislature.
Yeah, they have to be surveilled right you have to approve it and sign it so they could follow them around town or wherever they go Yes, including now apparently the bathroom and she's still being surveilled in the bathroom
This
is this is totalitarianism.
I couldn't even imagine that imagine you're getting Yeah Having somebody tag along with you all that time.
Yeah,
it's it's an incident like this that will be forgotten
We
won't be bringing it up anytime the Democrats forget this stuff.
We don't
bring it up, but they You know, I wish we did remember things and moments like this and bring them up often because we could certainly use the ammunition
That's why they're getting away with it.
I know.
I mean, it's
outrageous.
But maybe, you know, maybe we'll lose a few states in the meantime, because Canadian politician Elizabeth May wants a few of our states to join Canada.
How's that, huh?
Let's listen to cut 171.
This is Elizabeth May suggesting that maybe three West Coast states should join them, including some East Coast states.
Listen.
So California, Governor Newsom, and Washington State Jay Inslee, and newly elected Governor of Oregon Tina Kotak, how about it?
Want to put a referendum to your citizens?
Because this is what you deal, have we got a deal for you?
This is what you get.
Free health care, universal free health care, no more one-year-olds who suddenly fall off the Medicaid list and their parents are in the news because they're trying to do a GoFundMe so they can get their daughter to a doctor.
Universal, free healthcare.
And guess what?
Those gun laws that your Congress is too afraid to pass because of the national gun lobby, we already got our strict gun laws.
That's why we have the safest streets around the world.
Safer streets here, we already have good gun laws.
And women have a right to an abortion under our universal healthcare system.
But, you know, we don't have to stop there.
Donald, think about it.
You could get rid of all these states that always vote Democrat.
You know what else will take Bernie Sanders off your hands?
Proud new Canadian citizen of the great province of Vermont.
Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine.
We'd love to see you.
Yeah.
It's a tempting offer.
It is.
Free health care.
Yeah.
Why not?
You don't need a visa for that.
I mean, just, you know, absorb those states.
and women's health care, health care.
Oh, we do have, we have a call.
Yes.
Dick, what do you got for us?
We got a, about a minute.
Here, what do you
got?
Something kind of fun.
Trump went on a rampage about Los Angeles, slash California,
what
a hellhole it is, everything.
Right.
You know, 15 years ago, LA was a great town and the state was doing well.
Guess who was the mayor of LA 15 years ago?
Gavin Newsom.
Correct.
Guess who was the attorney general?
Kamala Harris.
Yes.
Yeah,
he actually was right for
it.
Accidentally, right.
It's amazing.
He's taught you to Trump is talking about how safe DC is now.
I mean, we'll think that Humvees out in front of every building.
They've got troops marching left and right.
It's really safe right now.
No one wants to rob anybody.
Nobody wants to go out of their home.
I guess that's the solution right there.
You know,
just lock everything down,
put a barricade up and
some soldiers.
My God.
We're watching live coverage on CNN of John Bolton's
house being rifled through as they search for
whatever.
Well,
this is insane.
OK.
Coming up in our 7 o'clock hour, Rocker will be in the house with a Maxing preview.
Coming back with more of John and Gordon.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Ladies and gentlemen.
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Something that Gen Z is doing a hell of a lot of top of that is they're also watching live streams,
which we are on YouTube and Facebook And you can call us 608-879-8255 Beautiful sunshine this morning looking great over State Street downtown here block off the Capitol where we were at the Madison Night Market last night had a great crowd there a lot of
A lot of people came up to our booth and said hello.
It's
good
to see everybody.
And Sam, Sam producer,
Sam was actually there.
Oh, he's back in
town.
Yes, he was there.
I couldn't believe it.
That was fantastic.
He was signing autographs and
everything.
People wanted, clamoring around Sam like, oh my God.
I know people push by us and you know, just went to
Sam.
Push by Dom, like, who's that guy?
We want to talk to Sam.
I know.
That make
you feel, man.
Yeah, I was crying when I got home.
Weeping.
It is seven minutes past the hour.
Yeah, it's going to be nice all day long highs in the mid to upper 70s.
Let's check in with Savannah Tomay Olson from our news department here at WMDX.
Good morning Savannah.
Good morning.
Happy Friday.
Happy Friday indeed.
What's happening in your world?
What's going
on?
Well, one of the biggest things this week is that Madison is getting a new clerk.
Of course, this has been an ongoing saga since last December when the city was notified that there were those 193 ballots that weren't counted.
And then ever since there were two investigations, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said that the former clerk, Mary Beth Whitzelbell, broke the law in how all of it was handled.
So now, Lydia McComis, who works for Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, so she works in a place where there are far more registered voters than we have here, will come here to Madison and lead the clerk's department.
When she does, she will have a lot of new rules to adhere to, because last week, the Wisconsin Elections Commission basically said, okay, so because Madison screwed up in this way, essentially, Madison will have to
go the extra mile and do these extra steps that other cities, communities, villages are not required to do.
Basically, it's kind of proved that the same mistake won't be happening again.
So that will be, you know, something to tackle as she starts and especially because the rest of the staff is the same, right?
So it'll be interesting to watch what happens there, but she begins at the end of September.
Well, I've got a suggestion.
I think we
should
send in the National Guard.
Make sure this runs smoothly.
Really?
I'm done with it.
Good idea.
Let's get it.
We'll get that suggestion.
This is catching
on.
Now, what's this about a new soccer team at Bree Stevens?
That's right.
I don't know if you remember.
A couple years after Forward Madison had started, it was I think like two and a half years ago now, big top events which owns Forward Madison announced that they were going to have a women's pro soccer team.
And so that was, you know, a long time coming.
We were waiting and waiting and waiting to hear more.
And this week, they announced that we'll have a pre professional women's soccer team.
basically because there were supposed to be improvements to Bree Stevens to make it to allow a pro team to play there.
That just couldn't really materialize.
Bree Stevens has needed hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades for years.
So instead, they really just wanted to get a women's team on the field.
So they're going to start next year, but they're accepting name submissions.
So anybody can send them an email and say, I think the
You know, we have Madison forward.
I think the whole team should be called the flamingos.
Oh, yes.
They said they had already gotten, I think it was 72 96 hours after the announcement and they had already gotten at least 500 security deposits for season tickets.
So there are people ready to watch women's soccer in Madison, which was pretty cool to hear.
They should call it the kicking flamingos.
Wouldn't that be the kicking?
No, but didn't we just have a baseball team?
a women's baseball team put in place?
Is that a
professional?
I don't know.
That was out at the where the Mallards play.
The
Mallards
play, yeah.
Oh,
the Nightmares.
The
Nightmares.
Yeah, that's part of the Northwoods League.
So it's all college kids playing for the summer.
It's women's softball basically equivalent to the Northwoods League
there.
And quickly, before we go, there's a restaurant closing and one that's opening, right?
That's right.
That's right.
I've taken a fur coat over on Willy Street.
That's one of our family favorites, you know, on a really nice occasion.
There aren't too many places you can get really good octopus here in Madison.
And I'm taking a fur coat is one of them.
Yeah.
Owner Dan Bonanno and Bonnie Aaron said that they basically just want to do something new.
So they're going to turn it into a new elementary.
So it'll be interesting to see what they do.
What's an elementary?
They have a location over on Monroe Street right now, and it's an Italian deli And I know is really trained in classic Italian food.
That's one of his big passions So he's gonna try to do more of that and then Taj.
Do you guys remember Taj to close back in 2019?
It was on Park Street.
It was
Indian restaurant.
It was beloved.
Yeah, love
And now the sons of the owners are going to bring it back.
They've secured where the borough is and the Duda Bodes building there on Park Street.
And they're going to open it within the next couple of weeks.
Because it's been six years and people still talk about how good Taj was.
So they're going to bring it back.
Ah, that's great.
That's
great news.
All right.
Well, thanks.
Savannah Tomayolson, thank you.
By
the way,
are you coming to our listener appreciation party?
It's happening September 6th.
Yeah, we're asking and we're forcing people to show up
there.
We're forcing all of our
fellow employees to show up.
We're putting everybody on the spot.
But you're definitely welcome to join us if you can.
Sounds
like a plan.
All
right.
That's exactly what everybody else says.
That's a good answer.
It's on my list.
All
right.
Savannah, thank you very much.
Savannah told me also.
from WMDX News.
That's right, our Listener Appreciation Party happening on Saturday, September 6th.
Dondren's Distilling Cottage Grove, if you would like to go, well, you're welcome to go.
It's free and it's open to the public.
It's happening on Saturday, September 6th at 3 p.m.
But we also have VIP passes and that gets you in for a tour of the distillery.
and tasting of some of their spirits and a swag bag from WMDX.
If you'd like to enter, the keyword is cucumber today.
Cucumber.
It's because they have a cucumber botca, John.
Doesn't that sound interesting?
Cucumber botca?
Yeah.
C-U-C-U-M-B-E-R.
Spelling is important.
Otherwise, the computer doesn't track it.
So, you know,
get
that spell.
Yeah.
What?
Oh, Catherine's on the phone.
Hang
on
a
second.
Uh-oh.
What did I do?
What did you do?
All right, Catherine.
Catherine, good morning.
You know, Catherine's not a very welcoming start.
You realize that when I'm on hold, I hear you.
Oh, yeah.
I forgot about that part.
I forgot about that part.
Oh, okay.
No, you talk to her.
I don't want to talk to her.
Well, I'm just calling because you mentioned Doundrens and asked, thank goodness you asked.
Savannah tell me Olson to come because I don't think I've sent her an email yet, but I did send once a Maggie.
Yes,
Maggie Dawn.
Yes, that she will come.
Oh, great.
I think Todd Alba
is going to be there
as well and Zomers.
The whole crowd is going to be there.
It's going to be awesome.
It's not just for John and Courtney.
That's right.
No.
We've asked Schwabba to be there.
Yeah.
You know, he's busy.
Well, he
lives way north of
here in four hours.
Brittany Merleau will ask her again.
I'm sure she is.
Yeah,
Brittany Merleau may come too.
So, yeah.
It's going to be a fun time.
I bet she's an adventurer.
She'll make it down.
She is an adventurer.
Yeah, why
not?
Okay.
All right.
Get your big story.
All
right.
Yep.
All right.
Thanks, guys.
All right.
This is the big story.
All right.
Do I have time for that?
Yeah.
Well, I got five minutes.
All
right.
I don't know.
I know.
The right wing podcaster and some media outlets are catching on realizing everything mega was afraid would happen under Biden and the Democrats was just projection plans they wanted to do before the Dems beat them to it.
Now, here's a podcaster.
His name is Tim Dillon, the Tim Dillon Show.
This is cut 178.
He's finally realizing something's going on here.
Let's listen.
They've already got the cops on the street that are, I mean, that are not cops, that are the military.
They've already got the National Guard on the street.
They already have all your information DC.
And now they just get to decide what is and isn't over the line.
That should scare everybody.
You're fucking nuts, dude.
If this doesn't scare you, you're nuts.
All these things that Alex Jones was, like, worried about when I listened to him in the late 90s, early 2000s, are coming to fruition.
I know he's a big fan of Trump, but, like, this is everything Alex Jones always talked about.
Military in the street, the FEMA camp, the tech company that monitors everything, the surveillance.
This is all of that.
I mean, not to sound like a f***ing nut.
This is everything a crackhead.
And I don't even mean a crackhead like crack, but a guy smoking weed in a room with a fucking black light and a fucking, you know, insane clown posse tattoo on his arm.
I'm thinking a very specific guy I was friends with.
Yes, you are.
This is everything that that guy would have talked about.
Bro, there's going to be military in the street.
I'm going to put you in jail for fucking thoughts, man.
If you just say them, bro.
You're gonna be in f***ing jail.
There's gonna be a f***ing company that monitors everything you do, bro.
Like, this is literally the wet dream of every conspiracy theorist that has ever lived and it's happening now.
Yeah That's Tim Dylan Okay, but yeah, we'll continue here the FEMA is of course you've heard shelling out 608 million dollars the states for migrant detention centers these are
FEMA centers in Texas, in Florida.
And now here's Ring of Fire hosts.
By the way, Ring of Fire's RFK Jr.
was part of the Ring of Fire for a while.
Oh, yeah.
Anyway, this is another host there, and he's ranting about it.
Let's listen.
But either way, we have been told when it comes to social security, we're running out of money.
Medicaid, we don't have money.
Food stamps, we don't have money.
FEMA, we don't have money.
Oh, what about concentration camps?
Oh, don't worry.
We got plenty of money.
It's never about not having money.
The government has money.
They just have different priorities than the average American citizen.
You see, we want things like living and being able to afford food.
And by living, I mean, you know, going to the doctor, getting quality educations.
But for those things, there is no money, never has been, never will be.
But when it comes to feeding the military industrial complex, we need more tanks, planes, and bombs.
Oh, we got tons of money for that.
Oh, we can't help the victims of natural disasters.
And then the same government agency FEMA turns around and says, hey, you got $600 million.
Who wants a concentration camp?
There's always money.
There's just never the will or the desire to spend it on the things this country actually needs.
What are they like?
Our government would rather spend it on cruelty.
Then spend it actually helping
us.
You know, we've talked about a lot on this program with our own Republican legislature They are really determined to punish people everything they do is about punishment Always suspicious that somebody is taking advantage of the government so they use as an ad that as an excuse not to fund
Anything that society needs in this state at least apparently so it's going on all over the place and everybody's turning on to it I have one more cut after this break.
Okay, and we'll continue this bizarre side of mega.
Yeah, we're watching some live CNN coverage of the They're searching the FBI is searching John Bolton's home We have some unconfirmed reports of what they found so far a mustache brush and some cheap suits from JC penny Well, that's it so far keep you posted.
He's
coming back
with more of John
Gordy right after this, getting a weather update.
This is
de-evolution right here.
De-evolution.
They're on tour again.
No, they
aren't.
Yeah, I
think they are.
Well, two
members died.
Okay, well, I know that I saw a thing yesterday where they're going out with the B-52s, B-52s
and
whatever's left
of De-evolution, I guess.
The two main members are still alive.
And well, and they were in this documentary.
They're watched on one of the streaming services.
Can't remember which one, but it was really interesting.
They really are artists.
Yes, they are.
Their videos are incredible too.
Amazing.
And you got me hooked up.
You got me hooked on that as well because I listened to a song of them when I was left here.
I started, yeah,
I'm hooked on
them.
I'm actually hooked on them.
They're really good.
They're really
good.
I want to remind you tomorrow, you know, we were talking with Lisa Bernard earlier this week about the Dane County
Main
Society.
This Saturday is that big event.
They're clearing out the shelters.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they're pulling out all the stops.
The shelter adoption finale is happening tomorrow.
And you can find more at their website.
Just Google for the Dane County Humane Society.
You know, if you're looking for a pet as a time, you can check it out.
They have like, you know, brown bags in the newspaper, and you bring the brown bag in, they fill it up with pets, and then you just leave.
Yeah, I don't think that's happening.
No, wait, that's been ours.
That's been ours.
That's been
ours.
I'm sorry.
OK.
All right.
Just go to
giveshelter.org slash adopt.
OK.
Oh, let's check.
Brittany Merleau is
waiting.
Brittany
Merleau
is
waiting in the wings here.
We got to get a weather update for the weekend.
Good morning, Brittany.
Hey, guys.
How's it going?
You got me laughing so hard
already.
Do you have any pets at your place?
I do.
I have two cats.
Two cats.
All right.
Well, that's nice.
What are their names?
baby and butters, and it's actually kind of a brown bag pickup I had, in a
sense.
No, seriously.
I'm going
to tell you my story.
It's kind of unique and interesting.
So I was living in Illinois, and we have jewels, kind of like...
festival, right?
I love Juelasco.
Oh yeah, Juelasco.
Yeah, we're all from Chicago suburbs.
Yep, okay.
So you're familiar.
So I'm just going there doing some grocery shopping to be honest.
I think I was going there just to pick up a case of beer or something.
It was the weekend and I saw these two, actually there's a bunch of cats up on the board.
And I was like, all right, I'm going to do this.
I called them.
They're like, hey, stay at Jewel.
We'll be there in two minutes.
This lady pulls up in a van with all of these cats
in the
passenger seat.
No lie.
I'm like, are you serious?
She's like, take as many as you want.
Take them all.
Take as many as you
want.
I was like, I'm seriously standing outside of the doors at Jewel and
just reaching
through this lady's window of her van to grab two cats.
And so that's what I did.
You lived dangerously.
They could have hauled you into that van and taken away and, you know.
We're
gonna attract people with cats.
Okay.
Well, that sounds like a dangerous situation.
And of course you live in dangerous situations.
I mean, that is part of your thing, you know.
A little bit of a risk taker.
Yeah, yeah.
So, well, we have some great weather coming up here and I can't.
I can't get enough of this weather.
I'll be honest.
Yeah.
So what can we look forward to?
What's up?
Yes.
Okay.
So it's the last some not the last.
Okay.
The last of this next few days where we're going to be flirting with 80 degrees.
So still warm today.
Partly sunny to start more clouds this afternoon in this evening because a cold front is moving through.
Now we're not looking at much rain that stays far north today, but we could see a few sprinkles overnight.
And tomorrow, patchy fog.
Ugh, repeat.
That'll kick on out of here because the winds are going to start to whip tomorrow.
So becoming windy and breezy this weekend out of the Northwest, gusts around 20 to 25 miles per hour, just pulling in this cooler air.
So on top of that, you know, the temperatures and the wind, it's going to be feeling even cooler.
But highs tomorrow, 75 degrees, Sunday, 69 degrees, Monday, 67.
And we still stay in the upper 60s on Tuesday.
before we start to go back to the mid 70s.
So we still have a nice warm Labor Day weekend ahead.
Yeah,
a nice little fall feel for those who want to break and just run around outside without sweating.
That's great stuff.
Oh, man.
Well, sounds great.
I can get start getting my walks in again.
I know steps.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
All right, Brittany.
All right, Brittany, well, thank you and
have
a great weekend.
Have a good one
Monday.
That's Brittany Merlot, our WMDX meteorologist.
Okay, got a couple of minutes here.
All right, I have one remaining story here.
We were talking about how the right wing and some of their media outlets are catching on to the fact that everything MAGA was afraid of under Biden is happening under Trump.
and they're realizing it now, right?
The FEMA camps, the military occupations, all of that stuff they thought Biden was gonna do and now Trump is doing it and they're suddenly realizing this.
But you know what?
It's always been projection with these people and this is a scary side of projection.
This is from way back in 2024 and a woman was interviewed about the FEMA camps and this is the fear that she had with the world health
Organization, you know, they they they are concerned about people's health and vaccines And it's of course a fear that mega's had that they were going to control the world.
Let's listen What's that?
What's the cut?
Oh 176 there we go.
All right, there we go there
So one of the reasons that I left the agencies is they have this this plan that
If you do not believe that the government is God, then you would go to one of these processing centers briefly.
If you could be reeducated, they would do that.
Although there isn't much need for humans, the globalists really are free to admit that there's no room for humans anymore.
It's our duty to expire so that...
To make the planet to atone for our sins basically of what we've done to the planet and So you will basically be killed and there are two different humane methods of killing and one of those is gassing and the other method is decapitation and they've been doing all these experiments Decapitating thousands and thousands of mice recording their brain waves all of that
Okay, so you get the idea
here, you know, she she quit FEMA because this is what they were planning And again, this is projection.
I have a feeling this might be what mag is all about
coming back with rocker in the studio maxing preview next
WMDX it's 92.7 on that radio dial as you're driving into work or you can listen to us Bluetooth our station into your car and listen on the
Civic Media app 735 highs today in the mid to upper 70s beautiful sunshine downtown right now in the low 60s
And it's time for us to welcome in Rocker into the studio.
Rocker, good morning.
Good to see you.
What's happening, guys?
You are awesome Friday.
It is
happening, you know.
We're just update here from CNN.
We're
watching live coverage of FBI rifling through John Bolton's house.
He's not home.
Well,
reports are leaking out about what they've collected so far.
A collection of mustache brushes and wax.
I left out the wax last night.
And some suits from JC Penney.
A collection of teddy bears.
That's new.
He's got a big collection of teddy bears.
with mustaches, I understand.
Yeah, with mustaches and some multicolored tap dance shoes.
So I didn't know he was a tap dancer, but you
know, you learn
something
new every day.
Well, he was in the administration for a while.
He did a lot of
tap dancing.
Well, you know, they also found some garter socks as well.
No kidding.
Well,
we'll keep you posted.
It's good for circulation.
Yeah.
So.
Max, Inc.
What's going on?
Oh, man, Max, Inc.
Radio Saturdays six to nine p.m.
And we feature local Wisconsin made music interviews live music performed in our studio.
But this week, Rob Roberts is going to be spinning local music.
He's going to be taking over the show on his own while rocker.
yours truly.
I'm going to be off this week.
I'm going to go down to 60 fest.
That's at the Eastside club.
It's actually a private birthday party for a couple of friends of mine, Danny, Megan, James Friedman.
They turned 60 and actually I'm right in their boat too.
So I go to 60 fest.
We had 50 fest 10 years ago, 60 plus now, right?
Oh, it's going to be a lot of good.
It's going to be a good time.
Hey, you know, have you guys ever heard of a double dip?
Well, now what are you talking about?
Well, that song that you guys play, right?
You know, the Double Dip, the Porteous Groove machine.
Oh, yeah, that's it.
So on Max's radio, we call a Double Dip when we play two songs from the same artist or sometimes from the same theme, right?
So we Double Dip it.
And today we're going to do a couple Double Dips.
Is that good with you guys?
Yeah, love to hear it.
Yes.
Tonight, Friday, August 22nd at 8 p.m., Dogtown Hollow is with the also-rand.
at the Bert Oak on Winnebago, and of course we played Dogtown Hollow here, and they have a new EP out.
It's a six song EP, and we've heard a bunch of the songs, but I brought in a new song from that.
They're Country Funk right here in Madison tonight.
They're playing at the Bert Oak on Winnebago.
This song is called Fancy Pants.
All right.
They shouldn't trust me, baby Shouldn't trust me, babe, oh my heart Hasn't learned from mistakes, it's made by Don't you hear me, baby?
Can't you hear me, babe?
Oh my eyes been telling lies That ain't no holiday parade Yes, I've been telling lies Well, I'll sell this blood Next time I see you, babe I may beg and off the road
I could try just one more time.
Each time I see you, baby, get me hypnotized.
Yeah.
All right.
OK.
Well, you know I love Dogtown
Holler.
You know.
Oh, yeah.
Good
stuff.
Well, so Dogtown Holler, hollow tonight with the also rands Friday, August 22nd.
That's Joe starts at 8 p.m.
the Baroque.
So let's double dip it.
He also rands.
They are with Aaron Schultz on acoustic guitar, Dan Kennedy on bass, Matt Joyce on keys and guitar and Eric Salisbury on drums.
This is an eclectic band here full of veterans.
This was recorded live at the Red Rooster in 2024 and they'll be with Dogtown Hollow tonight at the Burr Oak.
This song is called High and Lonesome.
Okay, here we go.
It's a little bit longer.
I don't want to hear
more of
this.
That's really good.
You only get a minute, John, sitting, sitting
down at
rock bottom, you know.
That's the also ran.
So the also runs and, uh, Darktown Hollow tonight at the Burr Oak.
So go check that show.
Oh, always a great place to see.
Well, let's all kinds of stuff.
I mean, they're really great.
It's a great club.
It's very intimate and a great sound system.
Yes.
Let's do another double dip.
You guys ready?
Sure.
We talked last week about Ross Thorn and the Spine Steelers and the Spine Steelers, those two gals making spooky folk based music in Madison.
They were in our studio live from the Man City on Max Inc.
Radio course.
You can find the podcast at civicmedia.us slash Max Inc.
Radio and they're on the far away tour with Ross Thorn right now and they're coming back to Madison Friday.
August 22nd.
So that's tonight at the high noon saloon.
Then they're off to Milwaukee, the Falcon Bowl tomorrow night.
And they corroborated a tune here with Ross Thorn for a Duluth based Folk Americana singer-songwriter.
So let's take a listen to this song recorded at Pack Durham Studios just released.
This is Ross Thorn with the Spine Steelers.
All right.
Pray that my dreams might carry me Far from this city that's been holding me down Somewhere far across the sea Far away, far away Pray that my dreams might carry me Without heavy heart I could make
Nice song.
Yeah, what
a beautiful voice.
Yeah, and great band show.
And every time I get a song and I hear a banjo, I'm like, oh, this is for John Gordy's show.
Well, thanks a lot.
So all you musicians out there who are like, gosh, maybe I could get on the radio by putting a little banjo in the song.
That's
right.
Gordy loves the banjo.
Short doses.
I like it.
You know, I just want to fill in here.
I think, you know, the spine stealers is another way of saying the tinglers.
Yeah.
Yeah,
because
that was the whole point
of the movie.
The tinglers was taking the spine out of people in their most frightening moment.
Wow.
That was
quite the movie.
I don't even think they gave me that explanation when we had them on the radio.
And I said, what is your name?
Yeah, really?
Well, we'll have to get them back in and quiz them on that.
Well, you know, that's great.
So we heard Ross Thorn and the Spine Steelers together collaborating on a song.
But then you wonder, well, they're playing tonight at the High Noon Saloon with the Spine Steelers.
So what is Ross Thorn like?
The new singer-songwriter.
Let's listen to a song from his brand new album, Fitting In.
This is Ross.
I lost my voice and my accordion, but I still know how to polka.
I like
it.
Okay.
Already.
Hey, hey We'll chase the blues away I may have lost my voice And my old sweet lover too But I still know how to focus
That's nice
picking.
I
like
that.
Picking and grinning.
That's pretty
good.
Doesn't that have fun?
That is Ross Thorne, of course, him, and the Spine Steelers will be together their on tour tonight.
High noon.
High noon.
We
should pass this song along to the polka guy.
Oh,
yeah.
On one of our civic
media
stations.
Tuba Sam, is it?
No, Tuba.
Oh, now I
got to look at Armors.
Tuba Dan, or something.
Tuba Dan, that's
right.
Yes.
He's got a great poker show.
One of our civic media stations way up
north there.
It's wild.
It's
really a great show, actually.
The thing is, you know, it's Tuba Dan, right?
He's got to have songs with tubas in it.
Not all pokers have a tuba in it.
This guy has found all the tuba poker
songs.
And he's got a sidekick named Corky, who
never
speaks.
We never hear from Corky.
He's on the show, but he
doesn't talk.
He's on spirit.
I wonder how many phone calls they get during their show, you know?
I don't know.
I've been up there a lot.
Oh, I've been on
requests.
They do,
yeah.
I want that song in 3-4.
Okay.
We
got some time here.
Let's get into something else here, Rocky.
I have some new music, brand new music.
In fact, I got it last night.
It's Marissa Ballasturi.
She's an Italian.
kind of an ex opera singer.
On September 19th, the emerging jazz vocalist, Marisa Ballesterie, will release her debut single, Curvei Vloci.
That means fast curves in Italian.
And the song is an upbeat 12 bar jazz blues written by Ballesterie's husband, jazz guitarist, Stephen Hall.
And with Ballesterie providing the Italian lyrics, this song features Madison Area Music Association winner, Jeff Weiss on Upraise Bass and drummer Noah Brooks from Chicago, the Marisa Ballester
will make its debut at the North Street Cabaret on the north side of Madison on September 18th.
That shows at 7 p.m.
Let's take a listen.
This is brand new.
This is Marissa
Balastriere.
Gordy,
I think we found the band.
This
is to do our Ken Nordin word jazz revival.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that would be
great.
This
would be the band to back us up and we'd do word jazz.
Yes.
I believe that this song, too, is about driving your Alfa Romeo through the mountains in Italy.
Fast curves, right?
Fast curves.
Yes.
Makes perfect sense.
Yes.
Marissa Ballester.
Yeah, that was that was fun.
Yeah, she's great.
She she was on live from the man city just a couple months ago.
So if you go to our podcast page at civicmedia.us slash maxing radio, you can hear her performance with her and her husband.
It was really good.
Well,
that was in Italian.
But you know,
well, she's she's an ex opera singer.
She lived in Italy for some time in even New York City, where she met her husband playing jazz.
And now
Back to Madison.
Good
deal.
Okay.
All right.
We will come back with more with rocker and maxing previews more great original music from Wisconsin next on John Gordy in the morning.
You're back.
Come
on.
One
thing you can do on this program.
Rocker, anyway.
WMDX, 92.7.
It's John and Gordy in the morning.
Just a few minutes left
here.
Rocker, I want to talk about the Middleton Good Neighbor Fest.
What's happening there this weekend,
right?
Oh, Middleton Good Neighbor Festival.
It's coming up.
We're coming up on the end of the fest season here, so everybody better get out to see one.
That festival has been going on since 1964.
Wow.
That's older than me then.
Right?
Yeah.
You
know, this is such a great event
that I
actually leave Costco just a
few hours to attend the event.
I take a little break from Costco.
Are you able to walk to this, John?
It's right around the corner,
probably.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
It's right down the street
for me.
So if we all go, Gordy, and we get too tipsy, we can just walk it over to John's house.
Let's do that.
Stay there for the night.
He'll greet us with open arms.
Once he lets us pass the security game.
The Kraken protects our yard.
And the two Gen Zers.
That's right.
August 22nd through the 24th, Middleton Good Neighbor Festival, 2100 Bristol Street.
The South Beach Pirate Summer.
That's their theme this year on the 22nd.
Today, angels and outlaws will be playing on the 23rd.
Some highlights include the mascot theory, 530 road trip, the Reverend Raven and Chainswoken altar boys featuring West Side Andy, a Middleton guy, Tim Daniels band and then the 24th Red Hot horn dogs.
The Good Neighbor Festival.
It's held the last weekend of August every year.
It's a great name.
Red Hot Horned Dog?
Yes.
OK, say it three times.
Red Hot Horned Dog.
Oh, let's get that out of the way.
Your mascot theory.
They're based here in Madison.
They're an Americana band.
They have a Kickstarter for the new album coming in October.
frontman Eric Kajelen.
He's making comeback after surgery for potential fatal brain condition.
And the new album Cosmic Hit and Run is all about that.
And I got a brand new song from it just last night.
So I thought I'd bring it in today.
Future Tyler Durden.
This is the mascot theory premiering right here on the John and Gordy show.
This song is called Gotta
Grip.
Hope to fly into a sunset-painted sky Asing ships and star-crossed lovers Peek your eyes from undercovers Cross my heart and hope to fly into a sunset-painted sky Asing ships and star-crossed lovers Peek your eyes from undercovers
Well, that's nice.
Yeah,
there's such a great man.
Still got a grip.
Yes.
I love to hear a great comeback story like Eric's story.
Oh,
yeah, that sounds like a little bit of his experience.
I suppose
he had right
at that point.
Yeah, it makes those it makes those lyrics really have meaning.
Yeah, it does and they'll be at the good at Middleton Good Neighbor Festival.
this weekend.
So check them out online.
Do we have time for one more?
Oh, yeah.
Yes.
All right.
Play machine.
This is a really new band.
They're playing August 25th at the High Noon Saloon with automatic lover and the Adam Tesfee Band, art pop band from Madison, Wisconsin that features Brian Liston and vocals on vocals and keyboards and Joey B Banks on the drums and
They're really kind of a new experimental band, just a duo.
So let's check it out.
This is a brand new song from them.
It's called Dangerous Road.
This is Play
Machine.
Cool sound kind of like 60 60 sound
kind of like yeah, I'm
waiting for some kind of phasing to go on it you can park ish, you know
My
face is
my brain was melting
So that
was a play machine play machine Joey B banks another thing of him on drums and of course he plays with automatic lover and they are just incredible head over to the high noon saloon August 25th to catch that show
Alright.
Very good.
And Max Inc.
tonight, or this weekend?
Saturday night, 6 to 9 p.m.
right here on WMDX, 92.7 FM.
And we'll be featuring songs of Wisconsin artists.
And Rob Roberts will be spinning the music for you.
It was great, because I was there, I was there last night.
Oh, yeah.
Dom came in and hung out with our show.
Very cool.
On Saturday night, there was a lot of fun.
Cool.
Rocker, are you going to come to our
WMDX
listener
appreciation party?
Saturday, September 6th at 3 o'clock.
It's
free, open to the public.
Please come on by.
I know you're busy every weekend, but love to have you stop by and hang out for a while.
Bring the kids, right?
So we got a playground there?
Yes, Dundren's Distilling.
You know all about
that place, right?
Yes, yes.
You've been there, done that.
Okay, great.
Rocker, thank you.
Always good to see you.
Thanks, guys.
Appreciate it.
Have a good weekend.
John, that's going to wrap things up for today.
On Monday, we've got a big lineup.
We've got former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin will join us, and also Tom and Christy Manus.
They wrote that book about Wisconsin roadsides.
Yes, and we've also got two other shows to do.
We'll be doing Pete Schwabba's show on Monday night and Tuesday night.
Yes, we'll tell you more about that next week.
Have a great weekend.
Stephanie Miller is next.
We'll talk to you soon.
So
long!
C-O-M-D-X, 92.7.
It's John and Gordy in the morning, just checking out a text here from CJ.
So John and Gordy, you guys, you're trying to rewrite history again, huh, man?
We'll get back to that.
Well, it's tough to do, you know, we tried so hard at the Smithsonian, I guess now you're gonna correct all that stuff, so.
It is 7.35, it's cloudy this morning, we'll see some sunshine hopefully along the way in highs in the mid-70s.
Right now it's 65 degrees.
Abby Abrovich has joined us from Dundren's Distilling.
Good morning, Abby.
Good morning.
How are you guys today?
Doing all right.
We're good.
We're trying to recover.
We're getting a lot of response to our listener appreciation party, getting a lot of people that want to join in.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun and we want to remind everybody it's free and open to the public.
Everybody can come out on September 6th.
That's a Saturday.
Going to start things out about three o'clock.
And, uh, you know, I have not been out there yet.
In fact, I want to come out maybe this afternoon and walk around and take a, take a look at things.
But, um, for people that have not been there, uh, tell us what Downton's distilling is all about.
Yeah.
So we are, um, it's a small family business that my husband and I own our stick.
We're kind of just nerdy engineer folks trying to make fun spirits.
Um, so we really focus on making unique.
and interesting flavored alcohols where we're really trying to focus on highlighting produce from local farmers.
And so we source ingredients directly from small local farmers producers as much as humanly possible.
And then we're really trying to make spirits that really highlight those.
So some of our best selling products are like a cherry flavored rum where I'm making the rum and then we're using Door County cherry juice from a multi-generational family farm.
I
make a honey liqueur with honey out of Mount Horrib.
I have maple syrup in a maple syrup liqueur that's from Greenwood,
Wisconsin.
So we really make fun products that are something a little bit different.
And then we have a tasting room out in Cottage Grove.
Um, so we have an, we call it a tasting room, but it's really like you can come, there's a ton of events.
You can not only sample the spirits, we have custom craft cocktails.
We then serve other alcohols and non-alcoholic products as well.
Um, but we have an indoor space and a giant outdoor cocktail garden.
We host, uh, over a dozen events a month all across the gambit from, you know, this listener appreciation event
to,
you know, I do.
Drag bingo, I do pro wrestling.
So I have a big wrestling event on September 13th
coming up with a
cage match.
So
cage.
Oh, yeah.
You do your own.
Well, no,
we bring in promoters
and they
like build it, but they build a ring out in our cocktail garden.
And so it's a good time.
We're just across the board all over the place.
There's something for everybody.
You were doing it before the White House decided to have their fights.
Yes.
A lot of fun events.
And you also, you mentioned children's playground.
Yeah, yep, yep.
So we are family friendly, pet friendly in our large outdoor like fenced cocktail garden.
We do have a kids playground.
So the space is really like a community space where people come to just enjoy time with their family and friends.
And then there's something for
kids or pets to do because there's a lot of green space outside as well.
So family and pet friendly year round, both inside and outside.
What's your address in Cottage
Grove?
300 Progress
Drive.
Okay.
All right.
And you
mentioned a non-alcoholic drinks as well, right?
Yeah,
absolutely.
We always have like five to eight mocktails.
So like basically a non-alcoholic.
Version
of a cocktail
and then we usually have a couple like NA beers as well because ultimately not everybody drinks and that's perfectly fine Everybody is welcome and we want to make sure there's something there for everybody.
Oh fun.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
So
Listener Appreciation Party again is Saturday, September 6th, 3 p.m.
for all our WMDX listeners and again open to the public and having a lot of fun.
It sounds like we're with the the tasting party.
Yeah, tour of the distillery.
Yeah, I'm gonna be doing a tour for any of the winners.
So we're gonna
get
like kind of a behind the scenes tour of the distillery where we do all the production kind of talk through show you the still show you barrels.
bottling, you know, some of our other processing equipment, where the magic happens, right?
And then I'm
going
to walk everybody through kind of like a small tasting flight of some of our more popular spirits and talk through how they're made and just like individual things about them.
Well, it sounds like a lot of fun.
We're looking forward to it and should be good to, you know, someone told me you also have trivia.
Yeah,
we do a weekly general trivia every Thursday year
round
and then we do like a themed trivia once a month It's on the last Wednesday of every month unless there's like a holiday on
that day or something, you
know, but so like this month our theme is It's a music trivia.
Oh, and so our theme it's like emo slash punk
pop music trivia and so we'll like play songs and then you have to answer questions about the songs or identify the songs.
But that kind of changes.
You're into that.
Yeah, I am.
And then like next
month, for example, the theme trivia is classic video games.
So
it's all over the place.
But then so that's the last Wednesday of every month.
And then like I said, Thursday is every night on Thursday is general knowledge trivia.
Excellent.
Well, great.
Well, Abby, thanks for coming in.
And we're looking forward to this party.
It's going to be a lot of good reaction to it.
So we're hoping for a good crowd there.
And again, that's Saturday, September 6, 3 p.m.
at Downdrens Distilling in Cottage Grove website.
Yeah, it's just downdrens.com.
That's D O U N D R I N S.
Very good.
Abby, thanks for coming.
Thank you so much, guys.
Appreciate it.
We'll see you on September 6th.
Absolutely.
We're going to have
a food truck as well,
and we're going to have
a good time out there.
Do you have, like, monkey bars or anything
like that?
We've got a little bit of food of some other things, giant pretzels and such.
Oh, he's worried about the playground.
He wants to play in the
playground.
You know, when they... It is adult friendly.
You can go on
the tube
slide.
Oh,
perfect.
That's, I'll try
that.
Okay.
Thank you.
Abby, Abby from Doundren's Distilling.
Okay.
Just see me doing that.
Abby Abramovich.
Did I get that close?
Yep.
You got it perfect that time.
Thanks, Abby.
Okay.
Well, let's continue
on.
All right.
We have,
we have this big announcement, you know, MSNBC is splitting off of NBC News.
And
they have a new name.
It's MSNOW.
MS Now.
They're
getting rid of the NBC pile.
What does that now stand for?
Thanks, Abby.
Okay.
MS Now.
MS Now.
A lot of people are playing with this thing now.
A lot of people on the right.
Oh, really?
CJ is probably involved in this too.
You know, he's always involved in these things.
He always has that last
word.
You think it's
a conspiracy or something?
He says the world's peacemaker.
We'll strike again.
Yeah,
Nobel Peace Prize goes to 47.
That's right.
Yeah.
In your dreams.
Okay.
But anyway, the same
MS now.
Yeah.
Some on the right are putting a period after MS.
So it's miss now.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
That's very clever.
Anyway, that's going to be happening later this year.
It will become that.
and it'll be a standalone news source, and they're hiring people, by the way.
They call it My Source for News, Opinion, and the World, and that's where the N-O-W stands for.
What is it again?
MS
Now?
MS stands for My Source, and then it's News, N-O-W, News, Opinion, and the World.
Okay.
I don't know why they had to do that.
Don't know either.
Who cares?
Just call an MS now.
Yeah, we don't.
It doesn't have to stand for anything, really.
Geez.
They were good through all these
confusions, but they are separating themselves from NBC News, basically.
Yeah, so later on, yeah.
So that's the deal
says here.
They've been on a hiring spree of late
out of necessity Scooping
up dozens of journalists not asking for John and Gordy to be a participant in the newsroom at any point
We're not we're not invited yet
other Norse news sources so far, you know trying to you know steal people away
in
the MSNBC Prez Rebecca Kultler says while our name is changing, you know
Who we are and what we've done has not changed.
All right,
so just you know Make everybody feel a little at home there.
Well, there's rumors that Stephen Colbert could wind up there.
Yeah,
that's what I hear.
Yeah.
Yeah, wouldn't that be
great?
It would be good.
Yeah Now I wonder if you
know Stephen gave up, you know when he was with the Daily Show Yeah, we're in and beyond that the Colbert report he gave up being very political and now
Yeah.
Now he's got to go back to it again.
I would like to see the Stephen Colbert report guy again.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I liked his character.
That was a good character.
He was edgy and sharp, and I thought it was more interesting
than him as a talk show
host.
Yeah.
All right.
All right.
Well, how about we have a little time here?
How about this?
The Nebraska Farm Bureau.
Tariffs are affecting Nebraska exponentially more than other states.
That's right.
The corn farmers were enjoying a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico.
Nebraska, which Trump won by 20 points, now has the worst
Gross domestic product decline in the US.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Wow.
Can't match that.
Well, yeah, you can match that.
I guess Ohio is also doing just as badly.
6.1 GDP drop coupled with the fact that 39 other states also saw contractions indicates a broader economic slowdown affecting the nation.
All right, so that is due to the tariffs.
Yeah, great job on the tariffs.
Now, let's ask Grock.
Well, what do you think?
Grock?
Yeah.
What does Grock think?
Hey, by the way, Grock answers all.
Oh, really?
So just keep that in mind.
I don't know why, but this is like a meme on X now.
And X has to put this out there because, you know, this is Ilan's deal, but he's not happy with.
some of the answers.
How bad was Biden's economy?
That's
one of the questions asked.
I thought
I'd bring this
in.
For
CJ, just in case he's still listening, hasn't, you know, stormed off angry.
Grock was
asked that.
Yeah.
How was Biden's economy?
Let's listen to what Grock says here.
Now I'm going to read it.
Okay.
Biden's economy between 2021 and 2025 achieved 11% GDP growth.
That's pretty good.
Unemployment below 4% for record periods and inflation tamed from 9% down to 2.4% with strong job creation.
Hardly a disaster.
Of course, you know, Trump beat this drum to death for four years so people believe that the economy was a disaster when it wasn't.
Trump's 2025
First or second quarter GDP was at 3%, not 11% like under Biden, but overall growth was only 1.2% and unemployment at 4.2.
Stalled jobs, tariffs reducing GDP by 0.9%, almost 1% while adding only 1,000.
What you guys are, you know, telling me to get out of this.
Well, you know,
maybe,
you know, it's a lot of numbers, but
no,
I'm going to tell you right now that Biden had a roaring economy that the
world
admired.
Remember, we were the winners in this.
And
now we have an completely different economy based on tariffs.
Sweet.
Let's change the
formula once we
have the winning formula in place.
There we go.
Okay, 748.
When we come back, we've got leftovers.
Just throw a net over me next time, you guys.
So many numbers.
Our heads are exploding here.
You know, that's it.
I'm gonna headache.
Yeah, you have to headache.
Back with more of John and Gordy in a moment on WMDX, Madison.
The Wisconsin landscape has lit up five million shining stars.
I am trapping up these to the land of the under 21 bars.
I'm going to Cheeseland, Cheeseland, the Dales and Door County.
I'm
going to Cheeseland.
92.7.
Check us out on the Civic Media app.
Text us and voice notice as well and just call up the show and throw your two cents in.
Why don't we go to Kurt right now and hear what Kurt has to say.
Kurt's on the phone.
Good morning, Kurt.
Good morning, guys.
I'll be quick.
When Arby has him on as a guest, I cringe.
And if you actually pay attention,
to car abilities talking, you think you're instantly in a Saturday night live
sketch.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree with you.
It's
sometimes it's,
yeah, I know it.
I don't want to hear his point of view.
Uh, yeah.
All right.
Appreciate it.
And your texts as well.
Yeah.
Good by the way, Curt mentioned that there's 100,000 photographs at the museum, not to mention databases.
What?
Trump is forcing Google to delete their databases.
Talk about them Smithsonian.
This is
an
ongoing temper tantrum of the orange blob and I appreciate that.
Curt is so true.
Okay.
All
right.
Let's check weather now with our WMDX meteorologist, Brittany Merlo.
Good morning, Brittany.
How are you?
Good morning, guys.
How's it going over there?
Oh,
good.
You know, the WMDX weather window can only do so much.
We
need the details.
We need to dig deep into this.
Tell us what's
going on in the weather.
The window is pretty accurate.
It's hard to see the future through it.
So we're going to see what we can see.
But I see sunshine, a lot of it coming through later today.
And just another comfortable day, 78 degrees, probably hitting for highs.
Or patchy fog again tonight.
It's fog season.
It is the season, I suppose.
And then tomorrow, still staying sunny, nice and summery, highs in those low 80s, high pressure system still in place.
And then we've got a cold front that is going to be marching through the state.
So a lot of us are going to be cloudy tomorrow.
Eventually you'll get there.
And then by Saturday morning, maybe a few sprinkles in the forecast, but really nothing too crazy at the moment.
But it does drop our temperatures.
It will get breezy.
It's going to feel like that, you know, those fall cold, crisp breeze.
That's what's going to be happening.
Great.
Both.
Saturday, Sunday, even into Monday, dropping temperatures to the mid-70s on Saturday, and then my favorite part is 60s.
On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
The
coolest day.
Yeah,
the coolest day is going to be on Monday mid sixties.
We're looking at for highs.
Nice.
That is so refreshing.
So nice.
You know, we have gone through the hottest.
Well, really humid too.
And just a lot of uncomfortable all this.
And now we're getting the cool weather back again.
Boy, we we welcome it.
Welcome it.
Yeah, it's still
cloudy here in downtown Madison right now and still I guess some patchy fog here and there.
But
it'll brighten up overcast at the moment.
Yeah.
I know.
And spog in places
too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know we talked about the WMDX weather window, but you know, it's never wrong.
As you mentioned, and it doesn't require batteries.
There's no downtime.
True.
It's new and improved by the way.
Of
course it
is.
Warping has been taken care of.
How's the maintenance?
How often do you have to replace it?
Really, you don't have to.
There's no fading.
Uh, it works right out of the box.
Uh, you know, it features the exclusive John and Gordy touch and feel hot or cold temperature surface.
Yeah.
Which changes with the weather.
Last time I heard about it.
So we're
trying to market a little bit.
Yeah.
And we came out with a deluxe version with the extra rugged tempered glass, uh, for those on the go.
Okay.
Yeah, available soon at our website.
At the store.
Where are you coming up with this stuff?
Yeah.
We're workshopping it still.
Yeah.
We've got a few bugs here.
Does it let bugs in?
Well, that's
it.
We've got to work on that.
All right.
Well,
thanks
for
putting up with the weather window ad that I just mentioned.
Brittany, thank you so much.
It's my only ad lib
here on the show.
That's Brittany Merlot, our WMDX chief meteorologist.
All
right.
We have Jim Santel coming up shortly.
We do.
He's up to speed on what's happening legally.
Alright, then in the various courts throughout the land.
Let's hear about some
dumb people here, okay?
I've got cut 163.
I really want to get into this.
This is from the mini philosophy.
It puts out stuff all the time.
This, I thought was interesting, 163.
Let's listen.
Okay.
About 25 years ago, the psychologist David Dunning and Justin Kruger ran a series of experiments to reveal something strange.
People who know the least often have the most confidence in their abilities.
This has come to be known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.
In short, if you're incompetent, you lack the skills you need to recognise your own competence.
And so you overestimate your abilities.
You think you're great when you're not.
But what's less commonly known is the opposites known as the reverse Dunning-Kruger effect.
This is when you become truly competent, it's when you research, you study and you put in the hard hours and you become acutely aware of how little you know.
Socrates was said to be the wisest man in Greece because he recognised just how little he knew.
If you speak to any expert or professor in their field, you'll notice how nuanced and uncertain their language is, whereas those who know very little are often very confident in what they say.
You see this every day in online debates where the loudest voices are often the least informed and people with real knowledge hedge their statements, they qualify their terms and admit uncertainty.
Bertrand Russell once said that the trouble with the world is that the stupid are so cocksure and the intelligent are so full of doubt.
The danger is that modern society risks rewarding confidence rather than competence.
We mistake the loudest voices for the best voices.
But of course, confidence is not competence.
And if somebody is walking confidently and loudly towards a cliff's edge, it's better to follow somebody who knows where they're going.
There you go.
Great stuff,
isn't
it?
Yeah.
Who was that again?
That's a mini philosophy.
Post stuff every once in a while, and I thought they kind of
hit the mark for Trump.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's 29 minutes past the hour.
We're going to check in with the Midwest Food and Farm Report.
And when we come back, Attorney Jim Santel will join us, taking your calls and questions, too, if you want to get in on it.
608-879-8255 or just text us on the Civic Media app.
Coming back with more of John and Gordy after
this.
Bit.
It's John and Gordy filling in in the morning show.
We're on vacation right now, but these two guys who sound very much like John and Gordy are filling in and doing a damn good job.
I think.
What are you talking
about?
Scared me so much there.
It's us.
It is really.
735 partly cloudy right now.
We should.
be in for some sunshine highs in the mid 70s right now 69 degrees and Mike McCabe is back from being off for a couple of weeks.
In a while.
Good to see you again.
It was only a week.
Okay.
Just last Wednesday.
Yeah.
Well, I'm back.
Time flies with Trump in charge.
Do
you
go anywhere?
Do anything?
Yeah, I
was actually up in the Eagle River area.
Family gathering rent some cottages up there on a lake.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah, and spend some time out in Backwoods and nice.
Yeah.
Good deal.
Welcome back.
It's a
nice place
up
there.
Yeah, I'm
actually still up there and this is
not me Right, right,
right,
okay,
so
Oh, it looks like I've started something.
I have wondered it.
You know, we were talking off the air about the Smithsonian and, you know, how negative our US history was.
And you talked about the Black Museum that they have there.
The
African American History Museum in DC is fascinating.
If you haven't been there, it's worth a visit.
before they start closing some of the floors.
The design of the museum is interesting because it's built floor by floor and the bottom floor is extremely dark, no windows.
And it's about slavery and it's sort of designed like a slave ship.
Each floor above it gets brighter.
and you reach the civil rights era and then there are windows and light is pouring in.
And so visually, it sort of gives you this sense of this journey from slavery to Jim Crow, to the civil rights era, to more modern times and powerful exhibits based on your discussion.
I do kind of wonder if they're going to close the bottom floor because it deals with with that history of slavery.
Well, the big thing here on
the screen was how bad slavery was is
something that really makes very angry.
So yeah, so yeah, the African-American Museum is on that target list, by the way.
Is that what it is?
No surprise there.
So
yeah, before before it closes, it is definitely worth a visit for anybody who gets out
in that direction.
Check it out while you can,
I guess.
Look at your latest sub-stack article here.
It's called Rising Above.
And you talk about, I just want to read the first sentence.
We live in a dishonest age and all the lying is giving fiction a bad name.
Pretty good.
So, expand on that.
You
know what we all say, we all say this, factor fiction.
Yeah, right.
The reality is that fiction is based on fact.
When you write fiction, yes, you use imagination, and yes, you blend facts in creative ways, but you do it to get to deeper truth.
You do it to create a broader understanding of what's going on in the world.
That's the
purpose of fiction.
You mentioned this about writing your book.
Absolutely.
This is exactly what you did in your book.
Absolutely.
I chose fiction
to tell that story.
It's basically the story of my late brother, Dan.
But I just felt that given what we're going through right now, given the challenges and the circumstances of life today, Dan passed away over 20 years ago.
And I wanted to write a story that related to the threats and the crises of the current moment.
But it's basically his story, but I didn't write a character named Dan, and I didn't write the story as Dan's exact life story.
But yeah, he was the inspiration for the story, and I wouldn't have that story to tell if he hadn't been my brother.
And so I chose fiction because of its ability to allow the imagination to take us to a place that...
the everyday news accounts will never take us.
And to get us to deeper understanding and to get us to wrestle with challenges that otherwise were inclined to just look the other way and overlook.
Was it Einstein that you quoted?
At the end of the article,
yes.
Imagination is everything.
It's a preview of life's coming attractions.
I love that line.
And, you know, if there's ever been a more logical mind than Einstein's, I don't know what that mind would be or whose mind that would be.
But, you know, he said that, you know, logic will only take you so far.
It'll take you from point A to point B. But imagination can take us everywhere.
And it can even take us to the point where we can see what's being done to us to fully comprehend.
this current moment that we're going through.
And so, yeah, I mean, imagination is our way out of this trap.
We have to be able to imagine the future that we want rather than the reality that we're currently stuck with.
Stuck in,
yeah.
Yeah.
We're in a way, we're trying to protect the reality that we had at one
time.
Right, you know, that's the thing that concerns me the most, is that when you think about what's going on in America right now,
There are forces that are trying to protect what we had, and there are forces trying to take us back before
we had those things.
They want to destroy those things and take us back to the time before those things even existed.
But what we don't have in this country right now is the imagination to think about what we'll be,
or
what
could
be.
And that's what's missing in this, in our politics, it's what's missing in our society in general.
And that's exactly where fiction can take us.
But, you know, people equate fiction with false.
They think that it's a synonym for false.
And they see it, you know, we've all been taught to think that fiction is just fantasy.
But what it really is, is the imagination.
about what we could be, where we could go.
We
need that.
One of the points you made was, it's making us numb to dishonesty.
Well,
that's why all the lying is all about it.
Right, exactly.
And what I'm looking at here is, using my imagination, projecting off into the future by three and a half years, will we have anything left?
Is there anything left really?
You know, I think, you know, if we use our imaginations now, it's dystopian future is what we're looking at.
What we maybe are
going to be involved in.
But you know, John, this kind of takes us back to many past conversations we've had about that great book, The Fourth Turning that I've talked
about
before or the other book that I've mentioned, The Upswing.
And, you know, and periodically we go through these phases where things are
are built and then we go through phases where people get disillusioned with that architecture and they start to tear that down.
And I think we're going through that time where things are being torn down.
But at the end, when everything's been burned to the ground, out of those ashes can spring new growth.
It happens in every forest when there's a forest fire.
What happens right afterwards?
All these new things start bursting from the soil and and you and you see that landscape greened over in a hurry It doesn't stay charred forever.
I don't know,
you know,
but we've got to imagine what we want to see grow
We saw a forest fire up there in Canada and all that resulted from it was the letter from the Republicans
saying
stop sending your smoke down here
Isn't that a great metaphor for what our society is stuck in right now?
It's like all they can see is they can't understand that fire is a part of nature and it happens.
And unfortunately the air currents will sometimes blow that smoke
in our
direction.
But it's not Canada's fault and nor can they stop it.
What we have to think about is, globally, is what we can do to prevent more wildfires in the future.
And we got to, at some point, come to terms with the fact that the climate is changing in this world and that that is producing more severe storms, it's producing more wildfires.
And we got to get to the root of the problem.
And Canada can't do that alone.
And a letter from a few members of Congress can't wave a magic wand over the problem.
It's not gonna solve anything.
We gotta think bigger than that.
Well, they're denying that
there is
climate change.
Absolutely.
They don't want, they want, they just want to blame somebody.
Oh, it's Canada's fault for not managing their forests properly.
Same thing
with California or Wyoming, Montana, wherever there's a forest fire, they didn't maintain their forests up there, they didn't
rake them.
try to do that in Canada it's quite a forestry forested area but anyway you know I just I always think of this as you know a time where we're we're trying to make sense out of
Something that doesn't make any sense at all and that is you know, we're hearing a lot of lies constant line They have taken over the US government's information on the internet and turned that into lying They've done everything possible to make lying just normal.
It's what we expect now now.
We have physicians
associations coming out with their own statistics and recommendations because the government now can't be trusted to provide that information.
And this is not the first time in human history that we've gone through such a phase where they're not telling these lies.
for the sake of just telling lies.
They're telling these lies to desensitize us to dishonesty and then make us more prone to their propaganda.
That's why they tell the lies, is to get us to the point where they can control us.
And that's happened before, many times over the course of human history.
And when, what were the most powerful ways that that was fought in the past?
Think about George Orwell.
Oh,
yes.
With 1984.
And with Animal Farm.
What was he doing?
But using fiction
to tell a story
that cut to the core of what was being done to humanity and took people to a higher place, a better place.
And we need to invoke imagination today to fight this.
And yeah, so I'm just struck by how...
how the dishonesty of our age is
giving
fiction a bad name.
And where
would people have been without Orwell to expose what was being done to them?
Talking with Mike McCabe here, sub-stack author and blogger.
And yeah, so where are the George Orwells of today?
Where are the leaders of today that, you know, we can, I mean, it seems like it's so, we need somebody to break through all these lies and show us a path to the future.
But
Is that the way it's going to happen?
Yeah, I think some of the Orwells are on Comedy Central.
Well, yes.
And then some of the Orwells are on Substack.
You
find them in
different
places, and some of them are humorists, and some of them are satirists, and some of them are powerful fiction writers.
748.
Can you stick around for a couple more minutes?
We have a question about putting up guardrails
on the internet.
All right.
OK, we'll be back with more with Mike McCabe on John and Gordy in the Morning, WMDX.
WMDX.
John and Gordy in the morning and we have a text here from Mark.
He says, ban the movie A Miracle in 34th Street.
The guy playing Santa Claus encouraged a young girl and of course the rest of us to use our imaginations and believe.
Believe.
That's
right.
A very good point,
Mark.
Thank you.
We're back with our resident optimist, Mike McCabe, looking into the future.
And we have a few more minutes here.
So let's see, we were going to talk about AI and setting up some guardrails.
And the story that we had this earlier this morning was age restrictions.
Yeah, I heard you talking about that on
my drive into
the studio.
Yeah, verifying the age Google is trying to put this in place.
I don't know when that's going to happen.
I believe the United Kingdom might be putting this in place or the EU, which is even bigger and more important.
Yeah.
I find this to be unsettling and dangerous, especially in the information age and how AI is being used now to calm all this information and make it very easy to access for those people who want to have access to it.
It'll become a business and those businesses will advise corporations and businesses on employees who are applying at their businesses.
Tell them everything that they've ever done on the internet.
And you know, these people might have just done a search because a friend of theirs had said something about it and they wanted to find out a little bit more or their kid or something like that.
It's so unfair.
It's so wrong.
This is the wrong way to set up a guardrail on the internet.
That's my opinion.
What do you think?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that kids are really creative creatures.
Yes.
And I'm figuring that even if they try to do this, kids are going to figure out a way around it.
Yeah.
Because they are very creative creatures, and they'll figure out a way to game it.
The other thing that I think is that it's just, what I find unwise is this human impulse.
to try to mechanize the solving of human problems and have some kind of machine, some
kind of
technology solve the problem for us when, in fact, these are human problems.
And we need to deal with that on a human level.
And so it's destined to fail.
But the price we may pay for a solution that will, I think, surely fail is gonna be a high price.
It's going to be a high price in terms of our own privacy.
It's going to be a high price in terms of the extent to which our behavior is surveilled, not perhaps by the government, but by big tech.
I just think it's folly to think that we can
have a machine do our thinking for us.
Speaking, I mentioned Substack before where some great authors can be found.
Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, has a wonderful article out on Substack.
If you haven't seen it, I really encourage you all to check it out.
He talks about the three kinds of jobs that exist.
And he said there are thinking jobs, there are making jobs, and there are caring jobs.
Fits them all into those three categories.
And he said that
the making jobs, you think about manufacturing, making jobs and the thinking jobs, which could be anything from journalism to anything that involves creative thought.
AI will eventually take over those jobs and then all will be left with our caring jobs, whether it's a nurse or a mental health counselor.
But those will be the jobs that will be left because the making jobs and the thinking jobs will be taken over by AI.
And I think,
That is not a good recipe for humanity because human beings, by their nature, want to make things.
And they also are blessed with the ability to think.
And why we would want to take a machine and say, you do our thinking for us.
You do our making for us is beyond me.
And
I think it's a path that takes us nowhere good.
And so to me, the subject you talk about, about guardrails.
for the internet.
I would extend that to guardrails for AI as well.
It's part of a much bigger conversation we have.
Why do we want machines to do our thinking for us?
And why do we want machines to do our making for us?
And why do we want machines to keep track of what we're doing?
Yeah, and you know one of the things that happened to me a while back a long time back was my kid They were playing music and they were downloading music off the internet and we got a warning from the internet Provider that we are illegally downloading music and then our subscription order
connection will be disconnected if it happens again.
Now it's something we were unaware of as parents and we didn't know anything about it.
We had no idea what songs that they downloaded.
They had no idea what they were doing or the songs that they downloaded.
So there was no way for us to fix whatever we had to fix or should look out for.
And what they did on the internet is on our record.
So because we use the same IP.
So the thing here is that this is really a huge, huge problem if they decide to verify ages on the internet.
I can't see any reason why this would be a good idea.
And I'm shocked.
I'm surprised that politicians would jump on board and the EU or United Kingdom would think that this is a good idea.
I don't know how.
Anybody has come to this conclusion that we should do something this crazy.
Yeah, you I mean you've described the downsides really well, but to me if you look for an upside I I'm thinking it won't work
If you think it's going to solve something, it won't work.
It'll ultimately fail, but we will still pay those prices that you described.
Yeah.
We got to leave it there.
Mike McCabe, thanks for joining us.
Check out his sub step.
Thanks for helping me out dealing with this.
Yes, we always appreciate your counseling sessions with John.
Thanks, Mike.
We'll see you next Wednesday.
That's it for us.
Stephanie Miller is next and tomorrow on the show, Tim Slecker will talk education and we'll find out the latest at the Supreme Court with Jim
and Santel.
All right.
We hope you have a great day.
So
long.
