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What's happening?
Morning, guys.
I heard you talking about socialism and, uh, ma'am Dami and.
Yeah.
And it occurs to me that this late-stage capitalism that we're experiencing kind of mimics communism in some ways because when you have less and less companies making particular things and during the pandemic they decided to cut certain things and only produce a smaller number of things like cutting certain flavors of things and ice cream companies are doing this and so on and so forth.
And with Trump buying up a stake in Intel and they're trying to tell companies what to make what to do Maga loves Russia and they want to become Russia.
They're trying to make a center Russia, which is kind of is more communism than than capitalism
Yes.
Yes.
So it seems like Maga is inadvertently pushing communism, but they don't understand the connections or see it
think you might be honest.
That's really ironic, isn't it?
to our world.
But that's not good, right?
It's an insolusional fever dream.
Right.
But do you think, though, I think more people are waking up, but...
he just
They don't see the militarization of our cities.
You know, they don't feel uncomfortable with anything that's going in now.
And now we've got to look forward to the comprehensive crime bill that Trump is putting together.
A lot of problems coming up here.
So we've got a lot of stories to report on, especially tomorrow as well.
So.
Matt, thank you for that call.
Thanks, Matt.
We're going to get into immigration here, right?
We got to talk about this because I came across a cut here.
This is Tim Weiss.
He is a writer and anti-racism lecturer and he had some really good points about immigration in this country and this has cut 190.
So let's listen to this.
This immigration drama that we have right now is only possible because we don't understand our own history.
As a country and particularly those of us of European descent, we have lied to ourselves about how we got here.
And for what reason?
See, black folks know why they're here.
Native peoples know why they're here and how they got here.
A lot of Asian folk know, particularly if they're Chinese-American, they know they got here because their ancestors were brought over to work on the railroads by the railroad barons who didn't care if thousands of them died laying track, 19, 20 hours a day.
But for those of us who are from Europe, we have this fiction that we've told and we believe it, even though there's no truth to it.
You know what the fiction is?
It's two parts.
Number one, we say things like,
with regard to Mexicans coming over the border, with regard to immigrants coming up, but only that border.
That's the only one we care about, right?
The southern border.
I find that interesting.
We're not flipping out about Canada, right?
We don't have any of the Minuteman or the anti-immigrant groups sitting off the coast of Nova Scotia with a gun and a scope trying to like pick off the sneaky Canadians that are trying to sneak in here for our superior healthcare system.
Which, after all, would be a pretty stupid thing to do.
But in any event,
We only care about that one border, forgetting for a minute that that border was created at the end of a war that was started on false pretense by this country after which we jacked half of their country.
And you weren't taught that in school either because our history books aren't interested in telling the truth.
They tell this very patriotic history that has no relationship to the fact.
So that border is artificial.
Mexican folk who are coming here, documented or not, let's be clear, are coming home.
Their families were here before our families were here in almost every instance.
But we forget that and then we say things like, well, I don't mind them coming.
I just want them to come legally like my people did.
The hell is that even mean?
Come legally, there was no law to break when our people came.
The fact that we didn't break a law that didn't even exist, you don't get cookies for that.
You don't get like a pat on the back and a gold star because your great, great, great whatever was law abiding when there was no law that he could have violated even if he wanted to.
But we've told this lie that we came for these upstanding principles.
So we'll say things like, well, you know, our people came for liberty and freedom, democracy.
These people are just coming for stuff.
They're just coming for jobs.
They're just coming for healthcare.
They're just coming for stuff.
We came for high-minded principle, right?
Because we believe that.
What kind of third-grade version of American history is that, right?
Like when Donald Trump says, well, Mexico's not sending their best.
What the hell?
You think Europe sent their best?
Europe, no, our people were the losers of Europe.
I'm not trying to be an asshole.
I'm just telling you the truth.
Like, our people were the losers of Europe.
The winners didn't get on the boat.
You understand what I'm saying?
The winners didn't leave.
Why the hell would you leave if you were winning?
Only the losers left because they had no choice.
They were dying.
They were starving.
They couldn't support their families.
A lot of them were convicts who were sold into indentured servitude to work for rich European people.
They were barely above the level of a slave themselves.
The idea that we had these high, we didn't believe in liberty and freedom.
And we know that because once we got to the colonies, we set up the opposite of liberty and freedom.
And I don't just mean that for like black folks and native folks.
I mean, even for other white folks, like we spent most of the time in the early colonies trying to figure out who the witch was.
It was like, well, you're not a Christian.
Well, no, you're not a Christian.
Well, no, you're not a Christian.
I'm going to hang you from a tree.
Really?
Well, I'm going to drown you in the stream.
Well, I'm going to set you on fire.
Like, that wasn't liberty.
The colonies were some of the least free places in the history of the cosmos.
But we act like we came for liberty.
And they're just here to take advantage.
Let's be clear.
Our people didn't come for liberty.
They came for stuff.
They came for stuff like land.
They came for stuff like opportunity.
They came for stuff like the ability to feed their families.
And there's no shame in that.
None at all.
But just like there's no shame in our families having done that, there's no shame in Brown families doing that and coming over that border for Mexico, Central America, wherever else they might be coming.
Yeah.
Um, I've got also this, uh, you know, they're trying to make the city safer and Trump wants to send troops.
into chicago and all the other liberal cities oddly yeah uh even though uh many of the uh southern well let me just tell you that i got a story here a total of 53 cities in louisiana mississippi ohio south carolina tennessee and west virginia
had higher crime rates than Washington DC in 2024.
Despite this, these states deployed their own National Guard troops to help address DC's newly declared crime emergency.
Interesting fact, is this?
Why
Oh, all right.
I thought this was another, we're kind of clearing.
clearing the paperwork out here.
So I'm going to skip around a little bit.
It's almost like a dumpster fire.
Well, yeah, it is almost like that.
Trump said that Biden didn't know what he was doing and what he was pardoning all these people, right?
Because
About nothing.
That means that all those partners that he gave.
to some very bad people, very unpatriotic people, very evil people.
It looks to me like those partners are worthless.
Because number one, you shouldn't use an auto pen, very specifically.
But if you do, it has to be a very good reason.
And they have to know that the President wanted it.
The President didn't want this.
The President didn't know he was alive, okay?
He never approved any of this stuff.
He wasn't for open borders and all the other things.
He was never for open borders.
I've known Biden a long time.
He was never very sharp, but he was never in favor of open borders and all of the other things he did to destroy a country.
morning.
It's just so painful to listen to this man who believes that he knows
I
know.
If there's one thing you learn in life, there's a little humility because
Boy, we don't know.
However, we do know that people confuse the word socialism.
It's just this mushy term that you can kind of apply here or here.
I don't like that program because it's socialism.
Your previous caller mentioned, uh, um, Trump's a big hogging of Intel, just getting in there and getting ownership and Intel to 10%.
Yes.
I can't think of anything more socialist than that because that is, uh, I mean, there's just no way you get anything that's more quote, socialist.
involvement in economics, where we're used to the idea of government being involved in products that help us, Social Security, Medicare, VA, very successful.
Those are all socialist entities and you know it's kind of perhaps sad that the
Mr. Trump is good and his fellow writers in the sage are going after those programs which are so popular and helpful Whereas let me just get it.
Let me just get another Get myself another plane another billion dollar plane and get government money to fix up my plane for me It's you know the problem is I think that the word socialism
Who knows what it means?
knows what is socialism?
Gee, I love Medicare, or is that one guy had that wonderful sign, tell the government to get their hands off my social security.
know.
And you know what?
pure
all
Yeah, I mean, a good example that's on the on the platter is the National Weather Service, which is, you know, a public good that we pay for through tax dollars.
We love it.
You know, we're just used to having it there.
And let's start talking about what happens when we have to pay a fee to get that.
Which socialism do you like?
I love the weather service.
Good point, Joe.
Yeah.
Thank you for that.
19 minutes past the hour.
We're getting a couple other calls here.
Hang on the line.
We're going to take our quick break.
Then we'll check in with Brittany Merlot.
get the latest on this beautiful weather.
It's all coming up on John and Gordy in the morning and Brewers tickets right around the corner.
Stay with us.
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Good morning guys.
How's it going down there?
A little chilly still rocking the hoodie this morning because how
About 46 degrees this morning.
just a few degrees cooler than you, not too bad.
I don't know, it just cuts right through me, but I've been leaving a window open overnight, so that's probably my
have
and
Oh, yes.
Get it while you can, right?
Oh, I know.
I
Yes bright beautiful a lot of sunshine to start the day I think those clouds are gonna hold off until this evening and then we got a chance of rain late tonight Maybe some thunder overnight Could linger a few showers in the morning tomorrow, but then it kicks on out of here
right cold front Yeah, another one.
How's that great?
Okay?
Perfect weather, high pressure system, sits right over us, keeps the rain just to the west.
It's pretty crazy.
It stalls this system and it just spins there in Iowa and Minnesota while we sit here nice, bright and sunny, comfortable.
Mid-70s, pretty
Low 70s on Friday, Saturday.
Then we'll hit those mid-70s on Sunday and Monday.
And then we'll go to the upper 70s for middle of next week.
Then the rain pushes in by maybe Wednesday or something.
Well, I guess
We need
great show last night.
Fantastic.
so
Oh, gosh.
I'm not sure.
Let me look into that.
to you again.
All right, guys.
Have a good
All right, yeah.
That's Brittany Merlot, our WMDX meteorologist.
Hey, it's time for us to give away some tickets.
We've got Brewer's tickets up for grabs here.
We've been giving these away all week long.
And these are for the September 4th game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
You know, the Brewer's pulled it out in the ninth inning last night against the Diamondbacks.
They won 9 to 8.
Brewer's continuing to be hot.
We'll give away a pair of tickets to the first caller.
Whatever call
Caller you are, if you're the first caller, 608-879-8255.
That's 608-879-8255.
Call us and you'll be going to the game and we'll meet you there on Thursday, September 4th against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Give us a call.
I think we have our caller on the line right now.
Can we go to Carrie?
Carrie calling from, where's Carrie calling
for
never not one.
Yeah, I don't know where
Yeah.
Yeah, it's an evening game, right?
All right.
Very good.
Yeah, I was looking up socialism here.
And in a socialist system, businesses can be governed
Owned as a form of social ownership where the state owns and manages the means of production for the public benefit This is a central concept in state socialism and can involve state-owned enterprises designed to generate profit for the public public private services the implement
government policies through that.
However, socialism encompasses various models and social ownership can just be a part of that.
There are other forms like cooperatives or community ownership.
My sons are always talking about the cooperative model where everybody owns part of the businesses and benefits from it.
That's what they're always talking about
at
about here when we're hearing that they want to buy up more businesses or have partial ownership in them and you know the way Trump is acting he's gonna tell Intel what to do he's telling other businesses what to do my god okay let's get to one
morning
what trump is doing is national socialism fascism moose Laney did it would
you know it would tell us
yes national and they're so
it's
all right that's a different sir and trump is acting like a national socialist fascist you're sending out sending in the troops and uh... was before they could be an ashes order the national guard church split heads and try to get uh... your response or you can't get you can see the blood flow like you want to see and and you can hoist up the bloodstain vant banner of the of the
confederacy or the stars and bars which are actually the real confederate flag right you know just uh what they're flying off flying around all the time was just a confederate body battle flag it was never the real the official better flag
highs
are
I'm not I'm not doing any traveling.
around around here.
Yeah
You know, I just want to kind of play off the the song the American dream is killing me you posted a letter editorial from somebody who says that they're living in the shadow of the American dream and And it's an individual who is not married
It's not because they don't love each other.
I'm reading from the letter.
But because getting married would kick my partner and my daughters off the Medicaid that keeps them healthy.
You know, I can't emphasize enough how important healthcare is in this country for people to navigate life.
If we didn't have the possibility of going bankrupt with healthcare costs,
We could do so many things.
We'd be so free to do other things and not ever have to worry about it.
And it just, it boggles my mind if we could just take care of universal health care, we could just free up so many people.
I can't imagine what it must be like in European countries where they have universal health care and they don't even have to worry about it.
They can just do business, they can create a business, they can employ people without worrying about covering them with health care.
This is just an incredible impediment on our society, isn't it?
It is, no question about it.
And it's an unnecessary impediment.
When people say we can't afford universal healthcare, a national healthcare program would never work, then you look at dozens and dozens of industrialized countries all over the world
who
not only have it and have made it work, but have...
removed a huge stress from the lives of the citizenry's there.
And for our country, a country this wealthy with 20 some million millionaires and
with
hundreds and hundreds of billionaires, with that kind of wealth in our country for us to not do this is madness.
It's just sheer madness.
it puts a lot of people on the edge of a cliff.
And that man who wrote the letter, sort of on behalf of his family, he didn't just write about healthcare.
He wrote about, can you even afford to have children with the cost of childcare?
Can you even think about,
owning a home, and if you do own a home, can you keep that home?
Can you ward off foreclosure when you run into rough times?
Those are the key features of the American dream, this idea that if you work hard, you can have a home of your own,
you can
raise a family, your kids can...
end up being better off than you are, that's the essence of the American dream that your kids will be better off than you are.
And now I think an awful lot of Americans have this nagging feeling that their kids will be worse off, that they may be struggling, they may not know where the next meal is coming from, but they have this fear that their kids will be even worse off.
And so yeah, here's somebody, he says in the,
In the letter, this isn't a Democratic or Republican problem.
This is an American problem.
We've
got all of these people who are just not able to make it.
And then we've got this grotesque economic inequality so that so many people are just rich beyond the wildest measure.
With AI looming, there's an awful lot of jobs that are going to be eliminated.
And if our country doesn't take some action at some point as AI develops, what you're going to have is that people who didn't invent AI, it shouldn't be their property, but they've made it their property.
They are the owners of AI.
those billionaires are gonna become trillionaires.
And then an awful lot of people will be without work and will be left behind.
And so there's a recipe out there.
Universal basic income is part of that.
What I was gonna say is there's a recipe for what is really grotesque economic inequality to grow worse.
To grow significantly worse because you're gonna see people
who had jobs, who had professions, you're gonna see those professions taken over by machines.
And it won't just, there is this wonderful article by Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, and talked about three different jobs.
And I think I mentioned it briefly last week.
yeah.
You know, there are the jobs that involve making something.
And there are the jobs that are sort of thinking jobs, anywhere from lawyers to journalists.
And then there are the caring jobs, the people who are sort of caring for others, nurses, you know, people who are, you know, counselors, all that kind of stuff.
And people, I think, think that robots and AI are only going to go after the jobs that involve making something.
But I think everybody from the lawyers to the journalists can be replaced by AI too, the way this is going.
And
I think there's going to be an awful lot of people who felt like they had a profession, they had a career path, and then all of a sudden a machine is going to take over for them.
And then where are they left?
And so whatever it is that
However, we work to redistribute wealth in a way that makes our society sustainable.
We got to get busy having that
started talking about the gig economy about 10 years ago and That was the warning flag right there for me I thought wow we really need this universal basic income thing because you know people in the gig economy They make money on the side.
They don't count it You know as a something to tax because they think they can make it, you know, you know
Something they can sneak by on but of course they're cheating on their social security at that point their retirement So, you know, we need something to kind of prop everybody up with this new economy and now with AI it wasn't just gig economy and lift workers You know, we got we have this whole thing where people's jobs are being replaced with AI and robots Yeah, so now we've got to really think about this.
It's not
Making people lazy or sitting on the couch or something like that, you know, it's nothing like that.
It's it's it's something It's a safety net for everybody, right?
Yeah, whatever form this takes.
I mean you we have to make sure that just all of the proceeds from Savings that are achieved by replacing people with machines Just don't go into the pockets of the billionaires who will become trillionaires.
You've got to have a society where we're
the benefits of technological advancements
are
widely shared.
Or we're not gonna have a society that can hold together.
And I think in a way that's what that young man's letter was really all about, is that there are so many signs in our society of sort of that American dream slipping from the grasp of regular working people.
And we got to do something about
And
He's a Lutheran pastor, or at least was.
In Kenosha.
In Kenosha, yeah.
And he led a Lutheran congregation there.
And he prepared a sermon.
He was fixing to stand before his congregation and endorse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for president.
And his denomination nationally said, you can't do that.
And he resigned.
position.
He gave up his vocation and then went ahead and delivered the sermon off church grounds because he felt so strongly.
He feels that AOC is the, what would Jesus do candidate?
Look out for your neighbor candidate.
Exactly.
And so he went ahead and gave this sermon and surrendered his job.
because he felt so strongly and he did it to endorse someone who is not a declared candidate for president and may never be.
So I don't think it was even necessarily about trying to give a boost to AOC.
It was really a plea for leadership in this country that isn't beholden to those billionaires and those wealthy interests and somebody who is
has the courage of conviction and is willing to speak truth to the American people.
And so I decided to write an article about it because I do think that AOC is a generational talent.
And that's actually the title of the article that I wrote is generational talent.
And the article is really as much about Jonathan Barker and what he did as it is about AOC.
But she's...
got rare traits, no question about it.
And what fascinates me or what boggles my mind is how much her own party has tried to keep her off center stage.
This is a woman with really rare political talent.
And they denied her a committee chairmanship.
They have tried to keep her sort of on the sidelines to the greatest extent possible to keep the old guard.
in charge.
And to me, when I call her a generational talent, in the sports world, that term gets thrown around a
lot
for these phenoms who come up and are going to break every record or whatever.
And it's an overused term.
But in politics, it's not used.
But she's a generational talent, not only because she has rare political talent, but also she represents generational change.
She was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
And she really represents a changing of the guard.
And the old guard does not want that changing to happen.
And so I was really struck by how a Kenosha minister decided in these times, he must be heart sick about what he sees in the country.
He must be deeply troubled about the nation's soul to lead him to actually be willing to resign his position.
to be able to say, look, we need this kind of leadership in our country.
Well, you know, I always thought that the lack of support for Democrats was based on what the Republicans were saying about them.
But at the same time, there's so much truth in the fact that they're holding themselves back from the next generation.
the new ideas, the people who are driven by something much deeper and much better, a better outlook of this country.
And they're just holding it back.
You know, we've talked about this before, but.
You know, we really have geriatric politics in our country.
All we do.
And both major parties reflect it, where you've got this geriatric leadership in our country.
And what it ends up leaving us with is one side saying, let's just keep things the way they are.
And the other side saying, no, let's go back to the 1920s or the 1890s.
Nobody's talking about tomorrow.
right here.
So
I actually get most of my comments.
People email me directly or they comment on social media and they or they message me on social media.
So I used to get more comments directly on on sub stack.
But now I get most of the feedback in in personal emails and and and Facebook messages and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
people got their ways of wanting to provide feedback.
I think part of what's behind it, to be honest with you, is that people are wary now of commenting in a very public forum.
Yes, you're right.
Because they feel like then that the trolls are going to come after them.
And so people can...
respond to a sub-stack article of mine and email the author directly.
And so I get these emails all the time from people who want to share their thoughts, but they kind of want to share them with me.
They don't want to put them out there, which is sad.
I think there's a loss when that kind of public exchange or public dialogue is threatening to people.
Yeah, I think we have a lot to worry about with Trump in charge You know with surveillance now You know Google and all the other services are asking for age verification Which can dip into what we do historically on the web of course they're gonna look at our history and figure out You know what kind of people we are
what age we might be from the places we visit.
And I have a feeling that they can also sell that information to maybe businesses or corporations that want to know more about us as an employee.
So we might be locked out of the job market simply by visiting a website that they don't agree with.
Right.
Right.
I've been writing for Substack for almost three years now.
And I've I've gotten a very consistent level of feedback from readers.
But
where that feedback comes from is really different.
It's changed dramatically and people are less likely to put a comment directly out there on the internet, but they'll share their thoughts with me.
We were talking about that earlier, but when we talk about working hard and saving up,
All that just goes away with one health care event.
And I think that is in the back of everybody's mind, especially anybody who has kids or has a job.
We know that that money we're saving up could just...
disappear, it'll be that rainy day fountain for an emergency.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And hey, if anybody out there, before we go out, before we're out of time, if anybody out there wants to read that letter to the
editor,
the man's name is Andrew Tate.
The last name is T-A-I-T.
You can look up Andrew Tate letter to the editor, I bet you'll find it.
But also on my substack, I not only have that most recent article about Jonathan Barker, the Kenosha pastor, and his endorsement of AOC.
But on my sub-stack, which is Abion House at mikemacabe.substack.com, there's a feature called notes.
And aside from the articles I read that I share, I'll occasionally share these other more brief notes.
And I have Andrew Tate's letter there.
And so people can read it there if they want, if they can't find it elsewhere.
But it's really worth reading because I think it speaks for millions.
I'm writing this as a man watching families like mine wear themselves thin, working hard, doing the right thing and still falling behind.
Yeah.
And then he asked the question, who is this country really for?
And then he goes into the, because it's not for parents doing their best to raise their kids in a broken system.
It's not for the factory workers and farmers who show up every day, no matter how little is left in the tank.
It's not for the families trying to make life from the land and paycheck and a paycheck.
They may be the flag.
Maybe the flag doesn't fly for them.
at all.
I don't want handouts, I want fairness.
That's the biggest question to me.
That's the biggest question we face.
Who is this country for?
Is it just for these people who have laid claim to AI and are going to take away everybody's jobs and replace them with machines and then rake in the profits because their costs are lower?
Is it just for them or is it for
for all of us.
His question is such a powerful question.
I think a lot of the makers have been convinced by the Republicans that when you spend money, it's wasting it.
We need to spend money on us.
That's what it's all about.
And they have made that a dirty word.
We don't want to spend money.
We're not going to spend more government money.
What is that all about?
It's for us.
They made it poison.
Well, we need to leave it there.
Mike, thank you for joining us.
Always good to see you.
Mike McCabe's here every Wednesday.
And again, check out his excellent Substack articles.
You can check them out on substack.com.
Well, people are benefiting from these therapy sessions.
Tomorrow in the show, we've got Brandy Grayson from Urban Triage.
They're putting together a big event.
And we'll find out more about that also.
Former US Attorney Jim Santel will join us.
And from Busted Pencils, Tim Slecker talking about the latest in education.
Yeah.
That's the big lineup.
Yeah.
Stephanie Miller is coming up next.
John, you got big plans for today.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to relax after our marathon?
I,
down.
Yeah, that's your assignment.
That's my assignment for
WMDX.
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