Hello everybody, Welcome, here we go. It is that time again,
Happy Friday. Friday is my favorite day here at w m n H.
But it is Friday, August eleven, twenty twenty three, and we are
live Matt Connerton Unleashed, Live from the studios of w m n H five
point three FFM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. And it is a
glorious day outside. This weather is pretty close to perfect to be quite honest.
Also now of course on channel six on Comcast if you're in Manchester,
and hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around the globe.
You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all of your
live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, etcetera,
etcetera. And we've got an exciting show for you today. That song
you just heard, Party in the Storm, that is from the band Lynwood
Strange and band from Boston. They're gonna be actually joining us today. They're
our musical guest. They'll be joining us at the top of the hour.
They're gonna be calling in, calling in because you know, let's be honest,
if you're even though Boston is not that far, not far at all,
but on a Friday afternoon and rush hour traffic. No, I don't.
I don't blame them for wanting to call instead of coming up. So
jeez. We had a musical guest one time who actually ended up canceling on
their way here. This was a couple of years ago. Because she realized,
she texted me. She's like, Matt, I'm stuck in traffic and
there's just no way I'm going to get there in time. I gotta if
I ever get to an exit, I've got to get off and turn around.
But anyway, so they will be calling in. So lynnwood Strange is
the name of the band from Boston, and there are a musical guests today
and coming up. In the first hour and just a little bit, we
will hear this week's classic film review from our friend Eric Pilcher, and for
this week's review he has chosen Donnie Brasco. Her Donnie Brasco. I'm still
not sure as at Brasco or Brasco, but great film from nineteen ninety seven
starring al Pacino, who's definitely in my top five as far as all time
favorite actors, and Johnny Depp great in his own right, So that will
be coming up actually probably probably around four forty pm show, so about yeah,
about a half hour from now. We will get to that. Eric's
film reviews, of course, a very popular segment on the program on Friday's
also, of course, because it is Friday. And again I did mention,
Friday is my favorite day here at WMNH because it's my long day here.
I get to do double duty and I do love it. So in
addition to this program, I will be back tonight from eight to eleven pm
for Retro Spectrum Radio with Paul c as we do every Friday, and I
have the honor and privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on that show,
along with DJ Steve and of course Mike from Queen's City Cabinetry. Queen's
City Cabinetry one of our great sponsors here at WNH, but Mike is also
one of our co hosts on retro Spectrum Radio. So we have a great
time every Friday night. And this is what Paul posted on social media regarding
tonight's show. We're going We're doing it again. We'll play twenty songs that
all have one thing in common call in if you know what it is,
the winner gets bragging right. The fund starts at eight pm Eastern. Do
join us. And by the way, we like to remind people if you
are joining us for that show online, please sign into the Facebook Live chat
on the Retrospectrum Radio Facebook page and hang out with us in the chat room
during that show. We do love it. But what we suggest you do
is open a second browser tab and go to WMH radio dot org and click
listen live so that you can stream the audio of the show in all of
its glorious stereo. Because Paul does mute the Facebook feed during the show,
just so we don't get kicked off for you know Facebook, they you know
how they can be with their copyright enforcement. So rather than repeatedly getting kicked
off of Facebook, Paul mutes the Facebook feed so you can hang out in
there and chat with us. But then you can open a second browser tab
and stream us at WMH radio dot org. So join us for that tonight.
It's a lot of fun. We have a great time. Let's see
six zero three two five, six zero seven, and the studio line is
open if you would like to join us. Six zho three two five zero
six zoh seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one
seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You
can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com. And of course you can
interact end O Pine in the Facebook live chat and we'll say a lot everybody
in there in a moment. But the best thing to do so that we
can hear and enjoy your dulsa tones is to give us a call at six
O three two five ozho six zero seven. Also one more programming note.
This is regarding Monday's show. Jenny has booked Bob Henneley to join us in
the first hour. Bob was supposed to be on with us earlier this week,
but he I guess as a nursing strike going on a nurse's strike in
New York, so he was covering that. Bob is a very respected journalist
and he's also a fellow radio guy. He owes a show on w BAI
in New York City. That's right, he's a real New Yorker. So
he wasn't able to join us earlier this week because he got bogged down with
the cover ridge of the nurses strike. But He's gonna call in on Monday
in the first hour, so looking forward to that. Jenny and I are
really looking forward to speaking with him. And then in the second hour we
have a musical guest on Monday. I want to make sure I get the
name right because I said it wrong. I actually said it wrong the other
day and then I felt badly. But one of the people in the band
that we have Monday is also Jam Tomorrow. That's the name of the band.
I think I said it wrong the other day. Jam Tomorrow will be
our musical guest live in studio in the second hour on Monday. And Michael
helped Lee Pierce. One of the band members used to be in a band
with me. We were in the band Chemical Distance together for a couple of
years. So and Mike's a great guy and an entrepreneur, and I haven't
gotten to see him in quite some time. I don't think I've seen him
since before the pandemic, So it'll be really cool to have them here and
get to meet the new band. And I think they're gonna play live in
studio, so that will be on Monday. So we have a full show
Monday. Bob Henneley and then Jam tomorrow will be here with us live as
well. So lot's going on. Let's go ahead and say hello to everybody
in the Facebook lat chat and then we'll get into some stuff. Kind of
a big news day, of course, every day is a big news day
these days. Oh, Mike from Queen City Cabinetry, he knows Michael Halpleep
Heerson says Mike is a nice guy. Yes, absolutely, absolutely yeah.
Carol Zaroawitz, I'm always concerned I'm not saying that quite correctly, joins us
in the Facebook lap chat and says hello, Hello, Carol. Also Eric
Pilcher, of course, who does our classic film reviews. He is in
the chat room and says hello peeps. Jenny is also in the chat room
and says shalom, peeps. Also be Pinard or I'm not sure if it's
Pinard or Pinard. I'm gonna go with Pinard says good afternoon. All Ion
Venom four, who I strongly suspect is from Greensboro, North Carolina, says
hello hashtag Matt, we say to you, and good afternoon. Hello hashtag
Jen Coffee we say to you from us. Ion Venom four is also asking
we say what artists you played. Yes, that is the band Lynwood Strange
and they're going to be calling in today. At the top of the hour,
Miriam Bannish joins us in the Facebook latch at and says, well,
hello there, and Eric Pilcher said, Friday's favorite day because of the classic
film review. Well that too, of course a very popular feature on the
program. So big legal news today. Now there's actually, once again there
is legal news involving Trump, and we haven't really gotten into that this week
because I've been, as I've been saying all week, I've been suffering from
a little bit of TFS Trump fatigue syndrome. But there's some legal news there
and maybe we will touch on that today, but I have this terrible fever
from the TFS. But also, I would say even bigger news regarding Hunter
Biden, and this just kind of came out of nowhere. I was quite
surprised, and apparently not only was I surprised by this, but the White
House was surprised because I don't know if you know this, but Hunter Biden
happens to be related to our president, so apparently they didn't know anything about
this either. And you know, Merrick Garland of course tries to keep the
White House out of it, and President Biden tries to stay out of it.
But I did not see this coming. In fact, media is reporting
democrat on Fox, and the only Democrat currently on Fox I can think of
his Tarlov. Tarlove. I forget her first name from the five Democrat on
Fox, says Garland. Announcing Hunter Biden special counsel was a surprise to the
White House. It says here. Oh, okay, I'm sorry it was
not Carlo, it says here. A former Democratic state senator from New York
claimed that news of the special prosecutor appointed to investigate Hunter Biden blindsided the White
House. Former State Senator David Carlucci, Democrat of New York, appeared on
Fox News Today to defend the Justice Departments in partiality for naming David Weiss as
special counsel. When he made the claim, Carlucci said, quote, this
shows the independence the DOJ wants an independent case here. So that's why it
was a surprise to the White House. As we've learned that President Biden didn't
even know about this happening, and Garland went ahead with the special counsel for
Weiss to show that independence, and I think that's what we see here.
Unquote, why now, asked anchor Sandra Smith. Carlucci replied, quote,
whyever, right. I think this is something that originally Republicans did want.
They want Wise to be the special counsel. Now it's actually happening, So
I think it shows independence. I think it shows the movement away from the
White House, and this will not be a political witch hunt but an actual
trial. Unquote. Republican consultant Garrett Ventry claimed that Weiss's quote shredded his credibility
during this entire process. I think it's one thing to point out here Democrats
have been using to talk about talk about it assuming you will see this come
out, that he was a Trump appointee. But I think as a former
state judiciary aide who did confirmations, people need to understand that district court judges
and u S attorneys are handpicked by home state senators. So he's essentially handpicked
by two Democratic state senators from Delaware. Unquote. I don't know much about
the process that specifically that element of it, to be honest with you.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Weiss's appointment this afternoon to look into alleged criminal activity
by Hunter Biden. The DJ would not comment when asked if President Joe Biden
was also under investigation in Hunter's foreign business dealings. That's very interesting and Republicans
will certainly seize upon that. If you remember, it was only what was
it a couple of weeks ago now, I think it was July twenty six,
so yeah, two to three weeks ago when it was a pretty also
a pretty bad day for Hunter Biden on that day, to say the least,
when we found out that the plea deal that had been arranged had fallen
through. And I remember at the time, well, when we discussed this
a couple of weeks ago, when the plea deal fell through, I said,
you know, I reflected back to when the plea deal was originally announced
and I had pointed out how odd it was. I found that there were
two somewhat differing and conflicting statements put out, one by the Department of Justice
and one by Hunter Biden's lawyers. The statement from the Department of Justice included
a line about this investigation is ongoing, even though they had reached a plea
deal on what had been certain things that had been established, you know,
the tax charges and having a gun, you know, falsifying a form because
when you get a permit for a gun, you have to a test on
that form that you're not a drug user, effectively, And but the DOJ
and their statement left open prosecutors left open the possibility that there may be further
charges in the future, because this investigation was ongoing. Hunter Biden's attorneys.
Their public statement was something to the effect of Yep, Okay, here's the
deal, and that's it. We're done, and we're moving on and everything's
good. This is settled. And I remember wondering at the time and hearing
other people in media wonder, two, why is there a difference in their
statements. And there was some speculation that, well, the Department of Justice
sess this kind of a standard thing that they always put into their statements is
like to leave that window open a crack, But it doesn't necessarily mean anything.
It doesn't necessarily mean that something else is coming down the pike. But
I just remember thinking at the time, m I wonder if it's also possible
that Hunter Biden's attorneys just went with it, hoping taking the risk and just
hoping that nothing else was going to come up in the DJ's investigation and and
telling Hunter Biden, yeah, we you know, we we think we're good
here. And then it turned out no, we're not good here, as
we found out near the end of July. But this is now the situation
now though, with David Weiss being elevated to a special counsel. That brings
up all kinds of possibilities. And by the way, people will speculate or
people will speak fact Julie when they don't actually know all the facts of Obviously
a lot of people on the right say, oh, see, Joe Biden
is you know, they throw these phrases around like Biden crime family and whatnot.
It's uh, you know a lot of speculation and and and by the
way, there are some people on the right who don't buy into that.
Even on Fox News, for example, you know, Steve Doocy whenever they
have, say Jim Jordan or or James Comer on Fox and Friends to talk
about, you know, how President Biden is involved in all of Hunter Biden's
deals and it's a you know, they it's a criminal enterprise and all that.
You know, whenever they go through this exercise, you know, even
Steve Doocy on Fox says, by the way, guys, do you have
any evidence of this yet, where's the smoking gun? You've been promising us
for months now? Listen, Just to be clear, I'm not saying I
don't think there's something there. This is a significant event today where David Weiss
has now been elevated to a special counsel, apparently at his own request.
So there's something there, but we don't know what that is. And it
could be it might not have anything to do with President Biden. It might
simply be that Hunter Biden is in more trouble than we might have thought.
And you know, I want to wait and see how this plays out.
I think it's reckless any responsible where people leap to these wild conclusions. And
again, some of the personalities on Fox have really pushed back on that.
Even Sean Hannity has pushed back on that. I forget if it was Comber
or Jim Jordan. He had one of them on his show recently and he
said, you know, this has been going on for a while. Do
you have any actual Do you have anything beyond your speculation at this point,
because this is all you know, what you've given us is circumstantial so far.
So I'm not interested in doing that because I think it's I just think
it's foolish to do so. But I will acknowledge, certainly regardless of whether
or not President Joe Biden is involved in any of this. And again,
until I see something, they haven't given us anything. Until I see something
that really strongly suggests. And by the way, and I've addressed this on
the show before too, I do not count Hunter Biden telling somebody on the
phone who he's trying to get something from, well, you know, my
father is sitting here with me right now. I'm sorry. Just because Hunter
Biden said that to somebody doesn't mean that Joe Biden was actually sitting at that
table with him. As I've pointed out before, a drug addict will,
if he's trying to get something out of somebody, a drug addict will claim
that Elvis Presley is sitting at a sketching table with him if he thinks it's
going to help him get what he wants, and if he's trying to coerce
somebody to give him something, so you know, him just saying that doesn't
make it so. But again, what has happened today the events of today
are very significant and a big surprise, and I'll be very curious to see
where this goes. And just to get everyone caught up. NPR as a
pretty concise piece on this, if you're not, if you haven't seen the
news or heard the news. Garland names special counsel and Hunter Biden investigation.
So it says here Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who has been investigating criminal
allegations against President Biden's surviving son, Hunter Biden, has been named a special
counsel. Attorney General Merrick Garland said today. Weiss made the request to be
special counsel to Garland on Tuesday of this week. Weiss, a Trump appointee
as US attorney who was retained during the Biden administration, has been investigating Hunter
Biden since nineteen. He reached a tentative plea deal with Hunter Biden, but
it collapsed amid scrutiny recently from a Delaware judge. So that's what I was
talking about before that we talked about recently on the show and the plea deal
which seemed like it was in place, but the judge said, no,
we've got some we've got a problem here, and today's events certainly don't don't
help anything. The order of appointment for Weiss was to serve I'm sorry.
The order of appointment for Weiss to serve as special counsel authorizes him to quote
conduct the ongoing investigation described above, as well as any matters that arose from
that investigation or may arise unquote. The order gives yse authority to quote prosecute
federal crimes in any federal judicial district arising from the investigation of these matters unquote.
And of course, you know the reason a special counsel in these the
reason they're giving so much power and authority and autonomy is so that they're not
in any way beholden or expected to reach some sort of a politically motivated conclusion
in their case, or to conduct their investigation of the case with any political
motivations or machinations going forward. Not that they're necessarily completely out of anyone's authority.
Certainly, Richard Nixon famously fired Archibald Cox in the Saturday Night massacre.
But but this does give David Weiss some pretty broad authority and as I said,
autonomy, which is really the key, and I think that's completely appropriate
Attorney General Garland said Weiss requested the special council status earlier this week after determining
that quote in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he
should continue his work as special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed.
Unquote. Now I assume, but again I'm speculating. I don't know,
we don't know, you don't know who knows. But I am assuming
that whatever this isn't necessarily the case. But whatever their justification was for leaving
that window open when they made the initial announcement about the plea agreement, whatever
the DJ's reason was for doing that might have something to do with why David
Weiss went to Garland and said, please make me special counsel because I've got
something here. Okay, again, this is from NPR. The scope of
the ongoing investigation is not clear, and under Justice Department guidelines, prosecute do
not spell out as yet uncharged allegations, but the appointment paperwork for Weiss references
two criminal matters against Hunter Biden and says he began probing Biden, among others,
several years ago, and by the way, the among others that might
include that Devin. What Hells's last name? Devin? I forget now that
guy who went and attended a closed door hearing and talked a lot about Hunter
Biden, but had not really anything to say of relevance about Hunter Biden's father,
Joe Biden. Although it's very strange. Well, I don't want to
get sidetracked. We'll leave that alone for now. Hunter Biden's counsel, Chris
Clark said in a statement, quote, this doesn't change our understanding of mister
Weiss's authority over the five year investigation into mister Biden. For years, both
mister or Weiss and the Department have assured us and the public that mister Weiss
had more authority than a special counsel and full authority to negotiate a resolution of
his investigation, which has been done, whether in Delaware, Washington, DC,
or anywhere else. We expect a fair resolution, not infected by politics,
and will do what is necessary on behalf of mister Biden to achieve that.
The development comes just weeks after the judge and the Hunter Biden case said
she wasn't ready to accept the plea deal struck between the president's son and the
DOJ and asked both parties to submit additional briefs and return to the court on
a future date. She demanded that the lawyers from both sides make clear that
the deal does not convey broad immunity offered a Biden from prosecution on his business
dealings. As a result, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor offenses
related to his filing of federal income taxes. Today, the prosecutor in the
case said the parts are at an impass on the plea deal and a trial
is an order according to a court filing. See, so this is more
than one thing going on here. I mean, it's all connected, obviously,
but there's more. There's more than one bit of bad news, somewhat
colossally for Hunter Biden because yeah, obviously the DOJ has has more they're investigating
with the elevation to Special Council status of David Weiss. But also it sounds
like there's no plea deal and this is going to trial. Actually, maybe
that'll work out for him, that they're going to trial part Maybe that'll work
out for him, But it doesn't seem like he has that kind of luck,
does it. Let's see, the DJ said in the filing, quote,
following additional negotiations after the hearing held on July six, twenty twenty three,
the parties are at an impass and are not in agreement on either a
plea agreement or a diversion agreement unquote. It said. Prosecutors requested Biden's position
on August nine, and asked for it by August eleven. Biden's lawyers said
they needed an extension until August fourteen, which the government declined. Biden has
not yet provided his position, the filing said. The filing said, quote,
as a result, the government respectfully requests that the court vacate its briefing
order since there is no longer a plea agreement or diversion agreement for the court
to consider unquote. US District Judge Mary Ellen Norika ordered Hunter Biden's lawyers to
respond by noon on Monday, August fourteen. Earlier this year, Hunter Biden
agreed to plead guilty to two mismeanor offenses related filing of federal income taxes.
Federal authorities also charged him with a felony firearm offense, which he agreed to
enter a pre trial diversion agreement that allows him to avoid prosecution. And again
just to clarify for anyone who's not aware. So when you go to when
you go to get a gun permit, one of the things that is on
that federal form is you know, you have to attest that you are not
a drug user. And Biden, of course, in filling out that form,
he attested that he is not a drug user, and he did that
while using drugs. It's something that people are very rarely prosecuted for because it
gets a little that gets dicey, because so for example, this is a
little bit of a side street, but this is something we used to discuss
a lot on a show that I used to do that I was a co
host on before coming to WM ANDH. How So, for example, if
you're in well, if you're in a state where it's fully legal, where
cannabis is fully legal, for example, but it's still federally illegal, you're
technically you're violating that federal law if you fill out that gun permit and you
attest on that form that you are not a drug user because it is still
federally illegal and in fact it is still Schedule one, which I think is
absurd. Of course, I'm for full legalization federally, I oppose the drug
war in a broader sense as well. That's my position. But it's but
if you're in a state where it's fully legal, not fully but on the
state level, right under the Tenth Amendment, state sovereignty, that gets tricky.
Now technically again, technically you are falsifying that form. It's federal form
if you say that you don't use anything illicit that's illegal. But I'm quite
certain that millions, literally millions of people in this country have filled out that
form who use cannabis, and you know, said maybe they said to themselves,
well, you know, I don't think it's it's a drug, or
I'm in a state where it's legal, so you know, I'm just gonna
you know, so it's not something that people are typically prosecuted for. But
that's what that is. Let's see. J Fed joins us in the chat
room, and also Melanie Liberty, both from the Great state of Vermont.
Of course, Dylan Reynolds joins us in the Facebook live chat high Dylan he
says, I work at an FFL. There is a yes no question dedicated
specifically to controlled substances. Yes. Roniferverro also joins us from California and says,
hello everyone. Yeah, that's the thing. It's well again, I
mean, we could do a whole show just on that subject. But just
to be clear about what that's about, what the federal firearms charge is about.
So, according to Weiss, the Trump appointed Delaware US attorney, Biden
did not pay federal income taxes for either twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen, despite
owing more than one hundred thousand dollars in taxes each year. Additionally, in
October twenty eighteen, Biden possessed a firearm despite knowing he was an unlawful user
of and addicted to a controlled substance. Weiss's office said Biden faced a maximum
penalty of twelve months in prison on each of the tax charges, and a
maximum penalty of ten years in prison on the firearm charge. See that's interesting
to me, by the way, too, We're talking about something that people
are rarely actually prosecuted for, but if they do happen to be prosecuted,
they're facing up to ten in prison. So that's pretty serious. It may
not be largely enforced, because it's not necessarily largely enforceable, but if they
choose to you know, that can come with up to ten years, it
says here, but Weiss's office noted that actual sentence is determined by judges are
typically less than the maximums well, of course, and that's true across the
board. A source familiar with the deal said that Justice Department had agreed to
recommend probation on the tax charges, but a judge would make the ultimate decision.
Republicans have said the Plea deal struck was an example of unfair treatment for
Biden. Soon after, former President Trump was arraigned on separate and unrelated federal
charges relating to his handling of classified documents. Trump was separately charged for his
role in the January sixth Capital riot. A Trump spokesperson said in a statement,
quote, if this special Council is truly independent, even though he failed
to bring proper charges after a four year investigation, and he appears to be
trying to move the case to a more Democrat friendly venue, he will quickly
conclude that Joe Biden, his troubled son Hunter, in their enablers, including
the media, which colluded with the fifty one intelligence officials who knowingly misled the
public about Hunter's laptop should face the required consequences unquote. Already Again, what
was I saying earlier about you know, I think some of the wild conclusions
that people jump to are a little bit irresponsible, But Okay. Responding to
the appointment of the Special Council, Representative James Comber, Republican of Kentucky,
who chairs the House Oversight Committee which is investigating the younger Biden said, quote,
Let's be clear what today's move is really about. The Biden Justice Department
is trying to stonewall Congressional oversight as we have presented evidence of the American people
about the Biden family corruption unquote. See that's the thing. So even if
you could argue, as some will, that this is a that this was
done as a political maneuver to try to sort of mollify Republicans who are who
have been very, you know, very critical of the d o J and
saying they've got their thumb on the scale for Hunter Biden and all of this,
there are some who I'm sure this somebody on a conservative program, Howe
Car is probably saying that right now. If you're not in the Northeast,
you might not know who how He Car is. But but I'm sure he's
saying that right now on a show something to that effect. But here's the
thing. It would be a pretty foolish move if this were a political move,
which I don't think it is, and I will not speculate on that
further unless we see some evidence that it is. But I I don't know
what the point would be because no matter what you do, James Comber and
Jim Jordan, and of course many others, but they seem to be the
ringleaders, they will spin it and can I mean, it's politically it's easy
to do, right. Oh see, they're just trying to make it look
like they're being honest, but really they're just doing this to try to stonewall
us in our investigation. I mean, that's already what they're saying, Comber
and Jordan, that's already what they're saying. Had this announcement not come today,
they would have continued to say what they were saying before. So it
really doesn't matter. They're going to spin it no matter what. So I
don't think there's a political motivation here. I don't see any evidence that there
is. So I will defend Merrick Garland in terms of anyone if anyone wants
to say that, you know, they think he's acting politically here, I
will say, well, I don't see any direct evidence of that. Where
I will not defend Merrick Garland. However, where I will not defend him
is if anyone wants to say, you know, I've been paying attention here
and I'm starting to get the vibe, especially when it comes to David Weiss,
that Merrick Garland may not necessarily have control over this process, and that
he's kind of let this get away from him a little bit, and we're
not sure that he's really up to the task here. If that's your perception,
you might be onto something, granted, But see, even that gets
into it this weird thing where we don't want him taking too much control.
We want the investigation to proceed to whatever conclusion it shall ultimately arrive at.
But but it kind of seems like this this has been a little bit disjointed
with David Weiss, and there seems to have been some conflicting information about over
the past weeks or even months over what the range of his authority was already
and did he ask for more authority or did he not? And I think
his own statements have been a little confusing at times, and so it kind
of seems like just in terms of a manager, right if if you want
to think of it that way, in terms of Merrick Garland's management style,
if you're starting to get the vibe that he's not as in control as maybe
he should be in terms of running the Department of Justice, you might be
right. Again, there's a lot we don't know here. There's a lot
we don't get to see. But I'm starting to wonder. So we'll see
where this goes, and maybe if we have time later in the show,
So we're gonna get to Eric Pilcher's classic film review, and then after that
we have a great musical guest coming up at five pm, and then if
we have time at the end of the show, we might There was also
some Trump legal news today, and even though I have been suffering from TFS
frump fatigue syndrome, it is pretty interesting. So we will try to get
to that. We'll save that for the end of the show. But I
wanted to get but this Hunter Biden stuff. This is it's a very very
bad day for him, I would suggest, And if it's a bad day
for him, it's also a bad day for President Biden, and this investigation
obviously isn't going anywhere, and it probably isn't. It's not gonna help Biden's
reelection prospects. All right, we have Ron on the line, but Ron,
we are tight for time. So I will just ask you to be
terse if you would please, Yes, sorry, Will, is President Biden
stayed clear of all of this or does he have some powers to kind of
help bids? You know, that's I guess that's it. That don't be
the whole question. Well, publicly he is he has stayed clear of it,
you know. Obviously, Uh, some Republicans like Comber and Jim Jordan
and others, you know, they'll argue that behind the scenes Biden is really
in control of everything. But again, there's no evidence of that and it
would be politically very dangerous for him to insert himself in it. So I
will, I will take him at his word on that that he's not interfering.
But regardless, I mean, it's a terrible drag on his presidency and
on his re election campaign, and I would say I would put that as
another log on the fire in terms of reasons that he should not seek reelection.
And should let somebody younger on the Democratic side get in there and go
for that nomination, because this is not helpful to him and his prospects for
a second term. Uh, all right, I'm doing my best to keep
up with tis my it's money boggling, but I mean I'm interested enough for
I'm trying to sort through it in any of it pays to answering my question.
I still want to listen. You've got a good show going on.
Thank you, and look forward to tonight. All right, Ron, thank
you so much for the call. I appreciate it. Thank you for my
god, you got it. By bye. All right. We always love
to hear from Ron, but we are on a little bit of a tight
schedule. Let's get to this. Up next, we have Eric Pilcher's classic
film review, a very popular segment on the program, and this week he
has chosen Donnie Brascoe, the nineteen ninety seven film starring Al Pacino and Johnny
Depp. Great movie, and let's give this a listen. And then we're
gonna go right from that into our segment with the band lynnwood Strange. They're
gonna be skyping in from Boston and looking forward to talking with those guys.
So busy Friday. Here but here it is. This is Eric Pilcher's classic
film review of Donnie Brascoe. When I introduce you, I'm gonna say this
is a friend of mine, that means you're a connected guy. If I
sentenced that this is a friend Owes, that would mean you have made guy
cap. When Lefty brought Donnie into his world, who's this game's Donnie in
front of mine? He took a risk on a kid he hardly knew.
And I'm gonna have to school you and my friend school men. What why
this guy never carries his money in the waters and always in a role bena
on our side. He gave him his trust. Try to get rid of
that mustache and give yourself a pair of parents just like me. He loved
him like a son. Nobody can touch you because I represent you. Gep
your nose clean, follow the rules, be a good Ny, and maybe
one day when they opened the books, you could come up whitse guy and
die with your Donny. But he never knew the truth. There's a war
going on in that mafia family and that's where Joe undercover. Oh nay o,
man, I want to know where my husband is. We don't know.
We're gonna freeze up. No, oh, the guy's freeze up.
He said it was gonna be three months. It's going on three years.
Who he's with and who he's close to and all the top dogs. Now
he's right in the line of fire. There was a rat and flower that.
Then you know what to do when you find that rat right left,
could be I found him a ruddy and our thing you get sent for.
You go in alive, you'll come out dead. And it's your best friend
that does it. We have got to pull him out. You think I'm
a rat? How many times I have you into my own house? If
you're a rat, then I'm the biggest month in the history at the mafia.
If I come out left, he dies, They're gonna kill him because
he vounched for me, because he stood up for me. That's the same
thing as if I put a bullying this and myself. Do you understand,
Oh my ike, i'm ana spoke on the wheel. I saw in you
they die. Yeah, let's take a walk. I'm your rust. Fright.
This goes without saying, especially if you are a longtime listener of this
program and Matt Connerton. Unleashed gangster films are some of my favorite all time
films. Watching The Godfather in nineteen ninety eight made me see film as art
and not just entertainment. It also led to me researching the Mafia or La
Cosa Nostra feverishly, something I still do to this day. One film that
stands out to me not just because it's a true story, but how it
is an in depth profile of those that lived the life. Released in nineteen
ninety seven, directed by Mike Newell and based off the real account of FBI
special agent Joe de Pistone, Donnie Brasco tells the tale of Pistone played by
Johnny Depp, a man that goes undercover into the Banano crime family as jewel
thief Donnie Brasco. What begins as a simple undercover task becomes much greater when
Brasco is befriended by lifetime wise guy Lefty left Guns Ruggerio played by Al Paccino,
and gets fast tracked on his way to becoming a member of the mafia.
Our first clip is Brasco being introduced to Ruggerio. This scene is important
because it shows how Brasco has no fear in telling this reputed wise guy that
is diamond is a fake, despite knowing Ruggerio's standing and that he could essentially
kill Brasco with no repercussions. Then the clip after that will show Ruggerio beginning
to school or teach Donnie on the ways of the mafia in the way people
are described while taking him to a family meeting with the boss of the Banana
family. You're down the jeweler. Yeah, it's some beautiful thing. How
don't you give it to your wife? My wife. I'm not gonna give
it to my wife. I ain't married. They're a girlfriend, Yeah,
I got a girlfriend. Yeah, some marryer. Hey, you're for real.
I'm asking you the middle a diamond for me. He Now all I
want from my end, there's eight thousand. I'm saying to youause you should
give it to somebody that don't know any better, because that's it for gazing.
All right, that's a for gazing. How do you know it's a
for gazing? You looked at for two seconds. It's a fake fa Yeah,
I know where the Foe Gays is take found. I want to see
something. I'm gonna show you something there you go, that's something. That's
a beautiful thing. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing. That's not my thing.
What about this? Well, let me just say, go ahead,
train and shut You wanna be a dun skirt, Give it a shot,
dun skin? You call him a dun skin. You know who you're talking
to, my friend, Come on, have a specer. You wanna go
and embarrass yourself with this thing? Em borrass myself with my family, my
children, my mother can hold our head up in any neighborhood in this city
where she walks down the block seat in all the five boroughs. I'm known
forget about it. I'm known all over the world. Anybody ask anybody about
Lefty from Mulberry Street and you wissing up the won't treat you know. I
didn't mean no disrespect. It's a misunderstanding, right you go? All right?
Then sit on, man, were you you gonna walk out on me?
You gonna walk out on me? I walk out on you. You
got a car, I got a car. Let's go get your car.
Come out the kid, And now Donnie's lessons in the Mafia begin. Okay,
when I introduce you, I'm gonna say this is a friend of mine.
That means you're connected. Guy. If I said it's that this is
a friend of ours, that would mean you a made guy like I peace
you? Yeah, friend of mine, a friend of ours. Look what
do I call you? A friend of ours? Or about me? I'll
say a doctor? The characters, you got a couple of us olds.
I got some uh, some things I gotta be yeah, yeah, yeah,
what do you want one hundred? Yeah? What are you doing?
What are you doing? Whyse guy don't carry his money in a wallet?
Hey? Whyse guy carries money in a role like this? I think NA
on the outside like that? Come that mustache? I gotta get rid of
a mustache, says against the room side. Get a pair of pants?
Have you saying a dress like I dress? This is my factor, more
even than my own fact? Is that right? I don't got a family.
You don't got a family. Now, I'm an orphan. I grew
up in an orphanage. I think the question about you know, even if
you had a family, if this is your family, I think this is
your family. You know what I'm saying. Yeah. What sets this film
aside from other films about the mafia is how in dapt The film allows these
characters to evolve. Each person has these mesmerizing character traits. However, Dapt
con pais this very well with his performance as Pistone. Our next clip shows
this. Following an argument with his wife over his assignment. Pistone breaks down
and explains the tough spoty is in. What makes this truly great is you
can actually hear the conflict between Pistone and Brasco, almost as if they are
two different people, even though they are one of the same. Did you
ever once ask yourself how I make it to my days. I pretend I'm
a widow with medals and scrapbooks and memories. I pretend you're dead. That's
in my life. Makes sense to me. Just go away, Stay away.
God, do you hate me? When I love you so much?
You think I hate you? I don't hate you. This job is eating
me alive. I can't breathe anymore. And if I come out this day
left he dies, They're gonna kill him because he vouched for me, because
he stood up for me. I live with that every day. That's the
same thing as if I put the bullet in this at myself. You understand
I spent all these years trying to be the good guy, you know,
the man and a what for? What for? Nother? I'm I'm coming
like that. I am known. It was alluded to in our previous clip
that Pistone is in monumental danger. That is made painfully obvious in our final
two clips of this review. First, Donnie is confronted by Capo or Captain
Sonny Black played by Michael Madsen. He is faced with the possibility of being
executed if he does not reveal the plans him and Lefty have for a club
in Miami, but then he could be disloyal, which is an unforgivable sin
in the mob. Then, in a desperation moment at a Japanese restaurant,
Donnie refuses to remove his boots, the reason being it is whereas recording devices.
Desperately, he comes out with a way to not have to remove his
shoes, albeit if horrible consequences for the innocent matre D. I want to
know what you're up to? What you mean yesterday last night? What were
you doing last night? Now I'm saying when yesterday? What time is?
Come here? I'll mess around with me yesterday afternoon? No, why is
Lefty got such a heart eye to sent me back to New York. I'll
come on, I mean, guys busting your paws down there. I wanna
know. I want to know what you got going on down here, understands,
and you want to know about if you have a skimmed on him out
to night. That's right. Look, I don't mean any disrespect. And
I know you're a skipper and I'm a nobody, but I can't do that
to Lefty. Listen to me. I'll eat your records. You understand me,
every fool of you. This is life and death and a fender.
She might say so and tell me can't do shoot? How about if I
fuck you? Write your now do what you have to do something? We
can't do that to men. And now Donnie gets desperate, said, how
many hold on this way? Mary says he's very injured. See I mean
she read about in the parade. Man's very very big man to the thie.
Take off Shootes goes off, don't remember anything? What kind of fish
I appreciate? Take off Shootes are kidding me? Thank you? I'm afraid
it's necessary. He's a Japanese tradition show. Is that right, don't forget
about it. I ain't doing I'm afraid he's necessary. Forget. I don't
take your shoes off? Hey, daddy, what when in roll? Nick?
Who? Okay? War? What? War? Oh? We did?
You want to fight it again? Take off your shoes. I ain't
gonna do it. Do take your shoes or take my shoes off? What
I want to eat sometime tonight? And take off your shoes. I'm gonna
chop off your fep sunner. What do you want me to do? Who
want to take all this? I had to grow up in an orphanage because
my own man was killed down there in Okinnow all right, I'm gonna take
my shoes off of this. No, I ain't doing that. I'm afraid
it is necessary. Listen, Uh, my friend's not gonna take off your
shoes there, and mister Moto, I'm afraid is necessary. Whither are the
rest of us? Okay? So why don't you just give us a table
before I smack you? You must take off your shoes. That's what makes
this film so compelling is the fact that it has been confirmed by former members
of the Banano crime family to be mostly accurate. This undercover FBI agent was
within one murder of becoming a member of the mafia. The work of Pistone
led to over two hundred indictments and over one hundred convictions of Mafia members.
It led to the Banano family being removed from the Feigned Commission and becoming outcasts
in the American Mafia. To this day, Joe de Pistone is viewed is
one of the top authorities on the Mafia. He has since written three books
after his best selling book Donnie Brasco that this film is based off of.
But this film has to be the ultimate testimony to his sacrifice and his hard
work. What makes this film truly special and stand in a class of its
own is it's a true look at this secret society. It's not glossy and
glamorous like Casino, Goodfellas, or even The Godfather. It is also not
as gritty and raw as mean streets. What it is and what makes it
timeless is it is unflinching and poorizing. It provides the deepest look into the
Mob done by a film. Couple that with the brilliant performances across the board
and a gripping story, it truly makes for one amazing and captivating film.
I hope you will join me next week when in observance of the recently passed
on director William Friedkin, we will look at his seminole classic film The French
Connection for W. M. N H and Matt Connerton Unleashed. This has
been a classic film review with Eric culture Ye Who's downs class? And why
did you always happened to me? That has never been there? Friday price
below your Saturday? You won't get out free Sunday and you f miss Tray
on Monday. You get the geta we are let's see myself from meet Tuesday.
Sometimes you look at just a get away. Sometimes night have no asses
when you stroke out the cold clean man, be resting and turn up the
music just to kids, little beats on the duddle stay supplementary release, turn
up Friday half price, were going on Saturday? You will get out free
Sunday. Praying for this trial Monday, young in the keel, play fast
to Friday price with a you Saturday. You will get out free Sunday.
This child Monday. That's good stuff. That is some nasty guitar work there,
that's great. That is Guillotine from the band Lynnwood Strange and we've got
a couple of the guys on with us via Skype. How are you guys?
Welcome? Hey, how are you hey? Hawaii? Doing well?
Doing well? Who do we have on with us? Go ahead and introduce
yourselves please. I'm Joe Dganaro, a guitarist and songwriter. Okay, Mike
Downing drums, Very good, very good? And uh now, how many
guys are in the band total? You're a four piece right? Correct?
Cool? And uh, you guys are from the Boston area, yeah,
White Andsville, Mass, Lost, Central Mass, Wooster in that area.
Okay, Okay, very good. I originally I originally was from Boston at
one point. Okay, And uh, I gotta ask you this. Usually
I saved this for later, but I'm just super curious. Uh, let
me ask you, now, where does the name come from? What is
Lynnwood Strange? So we were originally Audio Mirror and there's a amplifier company with
the same name. Oh no, I didn't want to have any problems.
Yeah, and somebody suggested Strange and I was like, well, you know,
there's gonna be a million bands names Strange. Why don't we build in
a little uh you know, safety net and call it Lynwood Strange since down
the bottom of the road here is the Linwood area of Northbridge. There you
go. No, I like it. And part of part of picking a
band name, too, is it it can be difficult because obviously you want
something that you know somebody else isn't already using, and you know I've the
process. Yeah, yeah, but Lynnwood Strange, I mean that that sounds
pretty safe. I assume you haven't running anyone else who's using that name.
There you go, there you go, And you guys are how long have
you been around? From what I saw online, looks like you've got you've
been around a bit. Yeah, since about October twenty twenty, I believe.
Oh okay, so actually not that long. No, it was a
lot of changes along the road. Yeah. We change singers, we change
many bass players. We had a second guitarist he left the band. Yeah,
but now the four that we have seemed to be the best option.
Good good, best drama. And you know, being in the band's like
being in a marriage. I mean you literally gotta kind of all get along
politically, and you know, it's it's it's it's it's hard, it really
is trying to find someone with your same goals and so forth. And as
I told Joe and we started this thing, he says, I mean,
hey, what's your plans? I said, well, I want to take
this as far as I can possibly take it. And here we are.
Yeah, I know, Joe's written quite a bit for this band. Some
of us contribute lyrics and so forth, but Joe's Joe's been the main staple
here. Yeah, I know what you mean though about it's it's hard.
I've been in a bunch of bands and and sometimes it's hard too when you
have Obviously having the right mix of personalities is a big part of it,
but also to just dealing with you know, because you mentioned wanting to take
it as far as you can. Sometimes you're dealing in a band with different
varying levels of ambition, varying levels of dedication and commitment, and that can
be really hard when you've got you know, if you've got four people or
five people or three people who aren't all willing to really push things. You
know, if you've got a band where maybe almost everybody is really ambitious,
except you've got that one person who is just kind of treating it more like
a hobby, and it's not that important to them. That can be really
difficult. So I understand what you're saying about kind of going through that process
of getting to a point where you've got four guys who are all on the
same page and moving together as one. We had a we had a bass
player. We'll just say his name was Ben and we'll leave it at that.
And he, you know, he playbos. I mean, he he
was extraordinary, had a great sense of music and everything. And then when
we booked Uh to play out, he just pulled back like a frightened turtle
and we have that let him go. It's stunk. But as you said,
just trying to get everybody on the same page dream wise is it's It's
It's hard, it really is. We're all professionals, most of us.
I mean, Joe's a paramedic, I'm I'm an instructor, Pad Locke who's
lead singers, Mike he does lock Smith, and Jimmy our bassis is a
I T. Professional. So we're all busy. Yeah, okay, but
like I said, we want to we want to push this as far as
we possibly can go with it, and we really appreciate Yeah, we really
appreciate you having us oh yeah, No, I like your sound. It's
it's uh, it's wonderful to have you here. Yeah, I I like
the I like that kind of raw, you know, it's sort of almost
got a garage rock vibe, you know, but you know, kind of
kind of heavy and straightforward. And Joe, your your guitar solos are nasty,
and I mean that in a in the best possible way. I love
your solos. I mean they're they're just have you always played that way?
You play with just a lot of attitude and aggression, and it's really good.
It's just what I play, what the song asked for. If that
makes any sense, Yeah, it does, it does. I try to
stay in the songs, try to I don't know, it's just the way
I've always done it. Yeah, yeah, I try to pay him compliments.
He's just he's a very humble man. He does not like it.
So then you'll throw it back in the ad. Yeah, you're a good
drumma, You're a great drama, are you the obviously Joe? So,
Joe has been here the whole time? Are you the newest member of the
band? No, no, no, no, no, you have that
back with Sir Mike was here the longest. I answered, Mike said,
Oh, I'm sorry, Okay, I misunderstood. I think it's because Mike
christer Mike. Yes, I've been with him for the most part through the
inception of this band. Yes, it's been the both of us. Oh,
I see, I see. Okay, So who's the who's the newest
member then, Amma, Yeah, that would be Jimmy Jimmy Hilton, Jimmy
Hammer Hilton. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So now do you guys play
out a lot? Are you doing a lot of shows? We do about
one a month, maybe two, depending on what's going on. Yeah,
we have a private gig coming up at the end of the month, and
then the second where of September we're playing Polar Park, and then the sixteenth
of September we're playing Battle of the Band's Fair Time Recreation in Northbridge. Yeah
and yeah, like he said, it's a Battle of bands, three bands.
And then what's October fourteenth is the Midway in Boston, I know it
well. And then August, not August, October twenty seven will be the
last gig of the year, and that's gonna be at Huskies in Worcester.
That's gonna be pretty much our Halloween gig. Oh cool, anybody who comes,
feel free to come and costume. Ronda Ferverro from California. She's in
the chat room and she says, you guys have a seventies New York music
vibe. Wow, thank you. Yep. Somebody once said about our music
it's like kiss Black Sabbath and ACDC had a really ugly baby. Right well,
tell us whatever, tell us about influences. Who are you, guys
influenced? Spy? I can definitely I can see why someone said to you
what they said. I can hear all of that. But but in in
your own words, you guys, what who would you say? Your influences
are? Well, I mean I got started in Drummond because of John Bonham,
But I mean my my musical influences range from the Rolling Stone right up
to Radiohead. I was quite a bit of a YouTube fan back in the
day as well, just didn't care for the high hat jumble that Larry Mullens
used to do. But those are my influences anywhere, and I always I
always admired hot rock, ac DC, the who. But who's your influences?
Jo? So I I my might want to play guitars because of Matthias
Yabs of the Scorpions, No Kidding and the solo from Winds of Change.
It's probably the first video that I can remember, and watching him play that
solo in that video, it's what made me want to play. Huh.
Besides that, I mean Skinnered, Black Sabbath, A C d C.
Kiss, especially Kiss, but seventies Kiss, Jeez, Sabotage, Chris Leiva
was amazing. Randy Rhodes, Yeah, trying. I think that's pretty much
everybody. I mean, Oh, the skid Rowe Yeah, I know it
sounds weird, but not really. No, Yeah, one of my favorite
bands. Yeah yeah, no, me too. By the way, Kiss
is my favorite band. And I can definitely hear the Ace Frayley and you're
playing Yeah, yeah, I don't know why it just happens. No,
I love it. I love it. I mean yeah, I can definitely
hear it. And you know his his his approach on on some of the
uh do you well, okay, let's nerd out on this just for a
second. Do you have a favorite Ace Frelei solo love Gun No Kidding.
My favorite is Strange Ways You could cut Glass with his guitar tone on that
it's just uh, you know what I mean. But no, but the
way the way you approach your your solos that I can I can definitely hear
a lot of Ace Frelei and some of the some of the other guitar players
you mentioned too. Now, what about the other guys in the band similar
backgrounds I assume in terms of taste and music or does anybody have anything that's
really kind of unusual as far as something they like that you wouldn't expect.
The two of them are more punk, yeah, in aspects, especially Jimmy.
Jimmy's the fat punk. Jimmy's kind of rounded in in his his music.
Yeah, because you'll be talking to him about the craziest punk band and
then all of a sudden he'll pull up Sebatia Johan Sebastian Bach or something like
that. You're just like, where did this come from? Right? That's
good though, That's good. That's for Padlock. I know he the clash
Led Zeppelin. What are some of the others that he said? What's the
name of that that punk group that he's always talking about? Oh, I
don't know what what's his name name? I can't think of the sex pistols.
No, no, no, no, it's like some one from California.
He came from California originally Green Day and he he was out there with
a lot of those groups at that time period is a Green Day. They're
from California. No, no, older, older, m I'm the youngest
in the band. I'm forty four. Everybody above me is what fifty six?
I don't know. We don't have to go back, very eternal.
That's all it matter. That's right, that's right. Funny thing. We
were looking for a bass player and Jimmy, who's also a really good guitarist,
caused me up and he says, hey, I noticed I recognized your
ad on Craigslist. I'm like, are you looking for a bass player?
I'm like, uh yeah, And then it just dawned on me, Wait,
are you do you want to play bass for for for this band?
He's like, if you'll give me the shot, I'm like, oh,
hell yeah, Jimmy. Jimmy's a lot like us. I mean, it
would probably take pneumonia walking pneumonia to miss band practice. I mean, that's
how and that's why I love these guys. They are dedicated. They they
don't miss any days, unless, of course it's family emergencies or someone's in
their deathbed. Yeah. Yeah, So that Craigslist ad. We were unfortunately
trying to not tell our current bass player at the time we were separating ways.
So it was the most generic ad. There was nothing about the band.
There was. I just took to writing the ad as if it was
him. Yeah. Wow, Jimmy picked up on an instantly. Yeah yeah,
oh that's funny. So and it's one last thing. So this guy
Joe has somebody on the hook. I'm like, I don't think, so
let's just go with Jimmy. And if you don't work out, you don't
work out, then you can have that other guy. But I knew,
I knew. I just knew jim he was gonna work out. He like
I said, he very really misses rehearsal time. And and it's uh yeah,
beyond that, his personality fits perfectly for sure. For sure. Now,
So, so how was the process of replacing the other bass player,
because I mean, what was the old guy? Was was he upset or
was he just kind of because it doesn't sound like he was amicable. It
was amicable. He's in like three or four other bands. Oh okay,
I think everybody knew it was coming. Oh okay, including him, because
I got the duty of calling the bass player. Oh that's because you're the
band aid ripper. Yeah, the band aid ripper. And uh so I
call him up and I said, look, I'm just gonna get right to
it. It's not working out the way we thought you would work out.
And his response was okay. Yeah. I said, you know, anytime
you want to come by and get your stuff. I mean, I don't
want any hot feelings, but it's just it's my friend is just not working
out. And that was it. These guys all said, like, did
he say anything, did he say? I'm like he just as I said,
he was amakabolda, you know he. I guess he didn't think so.
I don't think he thought I was working out either. Yeahmself, Well
that that certainly helps. So Mike, why are you called the band aid
ripper? Remember how I said many bass players, yes, because none of
us like to do it, but Mike seems to love it. Oh no,
no, no, no, Well all right, he's the one able
to do it. He's always the one that's made the phone call. Hey,
listen, We're sorry this ain't working out. Yeah, well, well
the truth of it is, And don't take this the long way. I'm
just I'm a very very I had. It took a long time for me
to get to be this person, so I just want to be very straightforward,
truthful. It's not working out, and and that's that's it. I
mean, yeah, what else can I say? I love it. I'm
I'm I'm gonna very assertive person. Nothing to do with being to get off
my lawn kind of guy. See, he's going back to the age thing.
You see what he did there, Mike, he went back to the
age thing. You're in. You're you just made the list, buddies,
you just take the list. Oh I like the good Uh that's a that's
a deep cut, Chris Jericho there, Well, absolutely well well done,
well done. Yeah so you so. Now, so the current lineup,
it sounds like it's pretty solid and it's been has it been a couple of
years now with this lineup, it's been a while six months oh okay,
so relatively relatively new. But it sounds like it's very easy to fit in
because Jimmy just picks up. Yeah, you know, like I said,
he was playing guitar before this with Mike in a different band. Yeah,
and then so he for him to just come in and just kind of he
just knows. Yeah, that's good. That's very good, very good.
And now you guys have obviously you have a bunch of music online. Are
you working on anything new? Are you currently recording anything new or always?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, always. It took us long to get that
part those two up there, the two albums, but yeah, we're always
working on new stuff. We probably have another, I would say at least
another ten or eleven that we have in process. Yeah, we need to
bring out and finish and get to where where we're at with the other ones,
but it's going to take time. Yeah, of course, of course.
Very good. And you guys have a show tomorrow night. Correct No,
oh no, okay, I don't know why I thought you did.
Do you have one coming up? You got one coming up soon though.
You must have one on the twenty six. But it's a private fundraiser for
uh, somebody I used to work with. Oh, no kidding, wow,
okay, okay, Yeah, a coup from Grafton, mass who him
and his spouse lost everything in a house fire. Oh, wow. Oh
that's terrible. No, that's great that you're you're doing a benefit for them
though. Excellent, excellent. Are you Are you a former police officer,
Joe? No, okay, not at all. Uh, firefighter in the
past. Oh yeah, paramedic now, but no, I have no need
want to be a coup ever, job is horrible. I did listen to
Yes you have that song uh you go we go? Uh I saw that
on on Spotify, and uh so I figured, you know, there must
be a firefighter or a former firefighter in the band. So when I was
younger, I wanted to be, you know, a firefighter completely. And
then I actually was on the fight upontment. It was me, both my
sisters, both my brother in laws, and one of my brother in laws
brothers, all in the same department. And but as time progressed, I
migrated right over to the ambulance. Yeah, no kidding. Wow, yeah,
very cool. I don't know medic since so five, so EMT since
two thousand, so about twenty two years give or take. Oh wow,
very cool. Now we love our first responders around here, that's for sure.
I don't know if it came up in your communication with Jenny when she
was booking you guys, probably probably not. But she she used to be
an EMT. Yeah, yeah, yep, absolutely. Unfortunately, you know,
when she had breast cancer and the and the aftermath of the surgery and
everything, it kind of took her career away from her. But yeah,
she used to be She used to be an EMT. So no, we
love our first responders absolutely, so so much much respect. We have two
I guess you'd call them first responders songs kind of by accident. Oh what's
the other one, uh, stretcher fetcher. Oh okay, yeah, I
saw that on Spotify too. Yeah, I'll have to I didn't get a
chance to listen to that one. I'll have to check that out. I've
got we're we are going to play Cadillac Jack at the end of our conversation
to book end the segment. That's that's a really cool song. I like
that one. I like that one tremendously. But that was a weird song
to come about, come about I don't know I get the bright idea to
write a song about drinks. Yeah, and that's what it ended up.
Ass. I like that song too, gotcha Cadillac Jack, because you know,
it's like, what it's uh whiskey seller. Yeah, and then I
have to look up the lyrics. I'm never usually sinking. I just yelled
Cadillac Jack. Yeah, I'm doing the vocals. Well. Very good,
Very good, guys. I really appreciate talking with you. Oh by the
way, our friend Joe Friday is in the chat room and says, uh,
God bless police fire and EMT EMT. My family is all police and
fire, but they all say EMTs are underrated and underpaid. Absolutely and uh
totally agree. And uh Ion Venom four in the chat room says hashtag Lynnwood
Strange. You guys rock very nice, very nice. Well we should see
yeah, yeah, we should mention. So where should people go online to
keep up with everything you guys are doing. Www dot reverb nation dot com,
slash linn It's strange, okay, or they can find us on Facebook
Lynwood Strange or you know, actually those are probably the two best ones.
And they can watch all our videos free of charge on on on YouTube if
they want. Oh yeah, this YouTube channel two yep, which you just
look for Lynwood Strange. It'll come up for those that have a few bucks
in their pockets. iTunes, you can go to Amazon and you go to
any of them. We're on something like eighteen different outlets or something. I
don't know. It was part of the package deal. Yeah, yeah,
And you guys are easy to find, you know, it can just google
you. You have a unique name, which is very important for you know,
so people can find you easily. So so that's excellent. All right,
guys, Well listen, Joe and Mike, this has been wonderful.
We'll cut you loose and then I'm gonna play this. Uh, I'm gonna
hit this track, Cadillac Jack. But thank you both for joining us today.
This has been great and h absolutely absolutely we will do this again in
the future for sure, but thank you so much. Guys. Take care,
all right, okay, okay, you got it. Bye bye,
all right, very nice. That is Lynnwood Strange, two of the guys
from the band, one half of Lynnwood Strange, and let's give this a
listen. This is called Cadillac Jack. We're gonna play this and then we're
gonna show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we will be back
with the balance of our show plenty Moore, Matt Connerton, unleashed still to
come today, but here it is lynnwood strange with Cadillac Jack. Oh and
I don't hear anything. Sorry, and that was completely my fault user error.
I will edit that on the podcast. Here we go. I would
have the dog bar woman, don't call on they want, don't don't say
they want jacket the Bold reatta jacket Sat bold s time I the other job
time when he sat in the door bar, check on the breach that you're
going with or went out of reach. But you don't gotta like jacket ball,
gotta like jacket in them, Sat Bold sit in his little like jackets,
have not bow fella like jacket side close when the hour showing sweet dealing
lasting time, but like it's strong fire shot bow have a like jacket on
blow when they jack jack Jack Jack, Come on down to the hop Knot
at one thousand Elm Street, Manchester's premiere Kraft Beer and Gourmet Pretzel bar,
tell us more. At Rudy, we make our dough fresh every day.
We make a variety of styles of pretzels and serve Kraft beer cocktails and a
few bottles of wine. We do the traditional pretzel and we have multiple flavors
for that. We also do stuff pretzels, pretzel sandwiches, free dessert pretzels
and pretzel knots the Hop Knot in the Brady Sulivan Plaza at one thousand Elm
Street. Bring your kitchen to light with Queen City Cabinetry, located at eighty
seven Elm Street in the historic Sunbeam Law in Manchester. Open Monday through Friday
eight nine am to five thirty pm, in Saturday's ten am to two pm.
They can be reached at six zho three two two two two zero zero
seven. We're on the web at Queen City Cabinetry n h dot com.
Come see the possibilities. Queen City Cabinetry. Another prown sponsor of w m
n H Clemente hemingtone Beetzaia Family Friendly or Sabot Day Night Clemento hemingtoes Beetsabria.
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Best contels around. Come in as friends and leave us family. This
hour on WMNH is sponsored by CGI Business Solutions, located at five Dartmouth Drive,
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Novels. Welcome back everybody as we cruise into our final segment today of Matt
Connerton Unleashed, and we are live from these studios of wm n H ninety
five point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. And it is
a glorious day, perfect day outside in terms of the weather. I love
it. Also on Comcast channel six if you are in Manchester, New Hampshire.
I have to get used to say in that Channel six. But that's
pretty cool. Peter White and I were talking about that the other day.
That is, uh, that is quite quite awesome. It's like it's like
we've been promoted, moved way up the way up the cable there. Of
course, welcome to all of our online listeners across the nation and around the
globe. You can go to my way Sitematt Connerton dot com for all of
your live streaming options, social media links, contact in folk show archives,
etcetera, etcetera. Today is Friday, August eleven, twenty twenty three,
so nice to have you all with me. Friday, of course my favorite
day here of the week at WMNH, because it is my long day here.
I get to do double duty and I do love it so so I
will be here, of course until six pm with this program, and then
I'm back tonight from eight to eleven PM for retros Spectrum Radio with policy of
the honor and privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on that show,
along with DJ Steve and Mike from Queen City Cabinetry. Queen City Cabinetry,
of course, also one of our great sponsors here at WMH, but love
hanging out with those guys on Friday night. Paul put this on social media.
Tonight on retro Spectrum Radio, We're doing it again. Will play twenty
songs that all have one thing in common. Call in if you know what
it is. Winner gets bragging Rights. The fund starts at eight pm.
Do join us, and of course you can listen at WMNH Radio dot org
and you just click listen live. What we also ask you to do too.
If you're on Facebook is come to the Retro Spectrum Radio Facebook page,
join us in the live chat during the show, but open a second browser
tab so you can listen to the show on the WMH website. That way
you get to experience it in all its stereo glory. And Paul does mute
the Facebook feed because on Facebook we get kicked off for copyrighted music, you
know the deal. So these just open a separate browser tab to stream the
show. But we do love chatting with you on Facebook during the show.
So that will be tonight from eight to eleven pm Eastern Time, of course,
because we have listeners all over the place right here on WMH ninety five
point three FM. Also a quick programming note regarding Monday's show. In the
first hour, we'll have journalists Bob Heney. Bob was supposed to join us
this week and then I couldn't make it because he was covering the nurses strike
apparently in New York City. So Bob is gonna join us this coming Monday
instead. Really looking forward to speaking with him. He is not only an
accomplished journalist, but he's a radio guy like me. He's on wb AI
in New York City, so really looking forward to talking with Bob. And
then in the second hour we have Jam Tomorrow band who's going to be coming
in and joining us live in the second hour and performing. And one of
the guys in the band, Jam Tomorrow, used to be in a band
with me, so that will be very cool to see Michael Helpley Pierce.
We used to be in a band together called Chemical Distance, but he's got
this project, Jam Tomorrow, and we're gonna be debuting their new single two
on the show. By the way, I've almost forgot to mention that very
very important. So Monday will be a lot of fun. If you've missed
any of today's show. Today has also been a lot of fun. Of
course. We had Eric Pilcher's classic film review and this week the subject being
Donnie Brass, and then we just talked with Joe and Mike from the band
Lynnwood Strange down in Massachusetts and played a couple of their songs. If you
miss any of that, of course, they will be in the archive at
WMNH radio dot org and on my website Matt Connerton dot com, so you'll
be able to get back to those later. Oh, I had forgotten about
this. H Scott Robinson says in the chat room, don't forget Texas Mike
will be singing on the show tonight. Ah, Yes, we love Texas
Mike. Maybe we can get him to sing his theme song. If you're
going to play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band,
which isn't literally true, it's just a song lyric. It confuses people,
but we've interviewed many Texas bands on the show who in fact do not have
a fiddle in the band. But yes, always speaking of Dalca tones,
always nice to hear the dalsa tones of Texas Mike. That will be fun.
I'll look forward to that. If you would like to join us,
we'd have a little bit of time left in today's show, but only a
little bit, so don't wait until the last minute. But six ozo three
two five zero six zoo seven is a studio line six zo three two five
zero six Z seven. You can also text me at six ze seven nine
one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton.
You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com and of course you can
interact endo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do
so that we can hear and enjoy your dolcet tones is to give us a
call at six oz three two five zero six zero seven six zho three two
five zero six zoo seven. Jay Fed in the chat room was suggesting purple
Rain. Perhaps we can get Texas Mike to sing that tonight. But looks
like our friend Shannon is on the line. High Shannon, Hello, Hello,
I just wanted to say I know what you're happy day? Yea was
a little screwed up. Yesterday was Friday yesterday. Yes, I'd say,
hey, I don't know exactly who the haters are and the bullies and the
hypocrites on Peter White's show that listen that don't like me, but I don't
think police is one of them, or Steve dj ST's. There are people
problem, I said, hi, and Mike pellapet, there's people on the
morning show who don't like you. What did you say? There's people on
the morning show who don't like you? Oh yeah, Peter said it this
morning. There's people who really don't like you. Oh my goodness, So
they can kiss my key, sir. Right, you guys like me,
the answer the phones and work there, and you know a few others.
That's all that matters to me. Well, Shannon, as Paul Stanley of
Kiss, one of my heroes, once said, you should be just as
proud of who doesn't like you as you are of who does like you.
Yeah. I don't know if that helps. Probably not, but I'm just
throwing that out there. I'll run it around him, be proud of be
equally proud of those who don't like me then as those who do. Yes,
Okay, it's good to have haters. But uh, yeah, I
don't call it anymore. Uh, you don't call the morning show respectrum because
he could never probably see you could never hear me. But I just wanted
to say tell the guys. I said hi, And uh, maybe when
Peter moved studios, he'll put Queen's City Cabin industreet opened by appointment only on
Saturdays. Huh A long time see, I remember that you guys go about
your day. You have your families to do. All this I listened for
a living basically, and a long time ago. Unless it was made up
for radio. Mike Bellapida said he was only open on Saturdays by appointment only
Oh, okay, I see so all right, Poor Peter keep saying for
Mike, Peter keep saying open tend to two. He probably wants to sleep
in and you know, I don't know, and Peter won't let him.
Wow huh and Peter won't let him. M I don't know what's what if
it's my phone of yours? But do you hear statuck on my end?
Yes? Uh, it's it's actually and I don't usually hear that sound,
but I am hearing it today. Yeah, yeah, it's strange. Well,
all right, Shannon, Well have fun tonight. All right, thank
you, Shannon, appreciate it, and I'm a nice weekend. Say hi
to Jennifer. Make you ever hug? I will okay, by bye.
All right. That was our friend, Shannon, And that does open up
the line for you if you'd like to get in with a quick call.
Six O three two five oh six zero seven six zero three two five zero
six zero seven. J Fed says, I send Shannon a hug, please
tell her, yes, of course, and Jenny also says, huggies.
Yes. No, we love we love Shannon on this program, and I
suspect they love for on the Morning show as well, but you know,
it's a little bit of a little bit of ball breaking that goes on around
here. Well, maybe that's not the right term. Who's you know,
Shannon's a female. But you know what I'm saying. I think it's all
done with love and affection. Uh, let's see, Oh something just quick,
a quick thing that I if I can find it. I thought this
was interesting. Politico has this story for the first time US government lets hackers
break into satellite in space. Hacker groups are on a military indorsed mission to
infiltrate and orbiting US satellite. This kind of thing fascinates me, so it
says here hackers in the desert in the Southwest are lobbying a barrage of cyber
attacks at a US government satellite today, and it's exactly what the Pentagon want
to tap in. The US Air Force and Space Force are hoping the effort,
the first ever attempt to use hackers to break into a live orbiting satellite,
will help them build more secure space systems and identify security gaps that could
be exploited by China and other adversaries. Five teams of hackers are competing at
the Defcon. Hey, that's a band remember Scumpy's band Defcon competing at the
Defcon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, too remotely sees control of SpaceX satellite Moonlighter,
currently spinning in the Earth's low orbit. Along with trying to break in
and build a data link to the satellite, hackers are also trying to keep
enemy teams out of their own vulnerable system by using encryption and firewall protections.
The satellite is zooming around the Earth at about five miles per second. Air
Force and Space Force A staffers told reporters Monday the event, which comes with
a fifty thousand dollars prize for first place, may feel like a fun sci
fi thriller, but it also reflects the growing danger of America's enemies developing cyber
capabilities to infiltrate and block US defenses. Yeah, I mean, and that
is very serious and something that you know, is very potentially very dangerous to
the United States and of course dangerous to other countries too. Who you know,
we depend on this satellite technology. And if someone were to say,
for example, someone were to attack the United States and they were to successfully
take out our satellites, either destroy our satellites or infiltrate them and hack them
and find a way to render them useless, or however they were to go
about it, we'd be in real trouble. And again that applies to other
countries as well. So this is I'm glad they do this kind of thing,
because every time there's a story in the news where it's like, oh,
this government database got hacked, or you know, the Pentagon may have
been hacked or something, it's I don't know about any of you, but
I say, yikes, that's really bad, and we don't want that to
happen, it says here. China is developing capabilities to deny, exploit,
or hijack enemy satellites, according to a classified intelligence report among the dozens leaked
this spring by an Air guardsman and reviewed by The Financial Times. The US
military also uses data from satellites to guide a majority of their munitions, move
troops in positions, communicate and gather intelligence, and China has already been making
attempts. In twenty eighteen, hackers from China targeted and unidentified companies satellite communications
operator in what appeared to be a mission both to spy on and explore how
to gain control of the satellites. According to a report by cybersecurity research firm
Samana Tech. It's unclear if the attempt was successful, but the plan was
foiled. Russia has also been honing its satellite hacking capabilities in Ukraine. Just
after the Kremlin launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in February of twenty two,
it infiltrated the satellite network of US based telecommunications company of vias At.
It took the hackers about forty five minutes to deploy malware that knocked up to
forty five thousand modems offline, according to an analysis from Viasat and NSA leadership.
On Thursday of this week's earlier Vegas Cybersecurity conference, Black Hat, this
goes on, but you get the idea, so very interesting. I hadn't
planned on talking about that, but I saw that news story pop up.
There was there was some Trump news. Should we look at We'll look at
this just quickly. So if you if you didn't hear the first hour of
the show, we opened with we were talking about the Hunter Biden news today.
The legal news for Hunter Biden very bad. Another avalanche of bad news
for him. There's also Trump legal news and I figured we'd save this for
the end of the show, because you know what happened with Hunter Biden today.
That was a bit of a bombshell, whereas with Trump his legal news,
it's more of a just sort of a steady drip every day. So
I figured out, I will save this for the end because by Monday there
will be a bunch more Trump news, of course, but this is from
NPR. Judge delivers mixed ruling on protective order in Trump's jan sixth case.
The judge overseeing the former president Donald Trump's trial in the January sixth case sided
with Trump's lawyers and ruled that a protective order sought by prosecutors will will cover
only material the Justice Department designates as sensitive, not all the information to be
exchanged in the discovery process. But Judge Tanya Chutkin sided with the Justice Department
in designating witness interviews and recordings as sensitive and covered by the protective order.
She said, quote disclosure of any of those materials creates too great a risk
that witnesses may be intimidated unquote, or the jury pool be polluted. The
order is a partial win for both sides. Trump's lawyers had argued that a
more restrictive protective order would violate his First Amendment rights as he campaigns for president.
Prosecutors worried Trump would make the criminal discovery process and the details he learned
they're part of his political campaign. The judge said, quote, the existence
of a political campaign is not going to have any bearing on my decision.
I'm going to keep politics out of this unquote. By the way, so
that seems to be her position. More broadly speaking, too, is that
a political campaign will not interfere with this process, with this trial. So,
in other words, Trump doesn't get to say, according to what Judge
Schutkin has noted so far, Trump in his attorneys don't get to say,
well, you know, he's got a campaign event so at such and such
a place, or he's got a debate, not that he's planning to debate
on such and such day, so he can't be in court that day.
He's got you know, we make accommodations for you know, people have jobs,
have to earn a living, and this is his job, is running
for president. She is apparently having none of that, and that will not
interfere. She has made that clear that will not interfere in the trial and
the proceedings thereof. Other judges might allow for some of that. For example,
I assume that Judge Eileen Cannon might be more amenable to making accommodations,
but Judge Schutkins says, uh no, we won't be doing that. It
says here. Judge Schutkin noted that Trump is still governed by conditions of his
release that include not intimidating or harassing witnesses or interfering with the administration of justice.
If those kinds of statements are made, she said, quote, I
will be scrutinizing them very carefully unquote. And some of this, by the
way, is coming up because of you know that that post the other day,
for example, I think it was on truth Social you know, if
you come after us, We're coming after you, or something like that,
which some people thought was a threat to you know, the judges or Jack
Smith or But the thing is something like that is so broad. How do
you I mean, clearly he's threatening somebody. That's a threatening thing to say,
But who exactly is that intended for? You don't really know, So
it's a little bit hard to prove that that's a direct threat or that it's
a form of witness intimidation, which again may have been his intention, but
you can't prove it. It's a vague enough statement that you can't prove it.
You know, you might suspect, you might, there might be conjecture
in that vein, but you can't really be sure. So, you know,
and we are talking about his First Amendment rights. We do have to
keep that in mind. I suppose it says here and she rejected a proposal
by Trump's lawyers who allow a broad swath of people working with the defense team
to view the discovery materials. Chutkins said unindicted conspirators, her words, could
have access to these materials under the defense's broad definition, as well as volunteers
and consultants to the defense. She said, quote I live in Washington.
Anyone is a consultant unquote. Chutkins said the Justice Department bore the burden of
showing good cause for a protective order on such basis as on such basis as
witness protection, security, and protection of information vital to national security, but
she said she also needs to minimize the efforts of pre trial publicity. Under
precedent, Chutkins said, quote, mister Trump, like everyone else, has
a First Amendment right to free speech, but that right is not absolute unquote.
A protective order bars Trump and his attorneys from improperly using any evidence,
which may include sensitive and highly confidential information that prosecutors share with the defense team
before trial. Earlier this week, prosecutors proposed that Chutkin set a start date
of January second, twenty twenty four for the trial. The government lawyers estimate
their part of the case could last about four to six weeks. Trump's filing
on a trial date proposal is due next week. After hearing, the prosecutors
had a max a masked Oh my god, seriously, after hearing the prosecutors
had a masked eleven point six million documents or files. Is that possible?
Can that possibly be? Right after hearing the prosecutors at amount at a masked
eleven point six million documents or files they would start handing over to the defense
on Friday, the judge joked, quote, I can only imagine your pre
trial you're I'm sorry, I can only imagine your trial proposal now unquote,
to Trump's attorney John Lauro, A good one. She's a regular henny youngman.
That judge Chutkina, the former president who is the frontrunner for the GOP
nomination in twenty twenty four, has been suggesting he wants to delay the case,
perhaps until the next election. Well, of course, if he regains
the white outs, Trump could instruct his attorney general to drop the case or
even seek to pardon himself. Trumps pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Trump already has a busy legal calendar for twenty twenty four. He's set to
face trial in Manhattan on charges related to hush money payments to the adult film
stars Stormy Daniels in March twenty twenty four, and go to trial in Florida
in May twenty twenty four on charges that include willful retention of national defense information
and obstruction over classified papers. He's stored in a ballroom, bathroom, and
storage area at his Maralago resort. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently told the
Brian Larr Show on WNYC he would be amenable to moving the New York trial
so long as the judge there agrees. All right, well, we I
mean, how does he even have time to run for president? He's got
his dance card is there that mister Trump quite full? Oh here's the song
we haven't played in a while. We'll close with that. All right,
we gotta go. We are out of time. Please don't forget it is
Friday, which means I will be back tonight from eight to eleven pm for
Retro Spectrum Radio with Paul ec live here on WMH ninety five point three.
So please do join us tonight, don't forget Monday. On the show,
we have a journalist and radio host Bob Henily joining us from New York City.
He'll be calling in from New York in the first hour, and then
in the second hour we have Jam Tomorrow, great band with my friend Michael
help Ley Pierce. They will be here with us live in studio, and
I think they're planning to play live as well on the show, so that'll
be a lot of fun. If you miss any part of today's show,
it'll be up in just a little bit at WMH radio dot org and on
my website Matt Connerton dot com. Thank you to everyone who called, everybody
in the chat room, and thank you of course to Eric Pilter for another
great film review and the guys from Linwood Strange Great Boston Band. All right,
and uh we gotta go. I will talk to y'all a little bit
later. By everybody everyday. Sorry, wait, I am in time,
every woman, John Boston deal and you do even if word shall we saw
you praise of casts of Fati teen sel play the lot to when we go
all over town on teens and we shall see to at the gate of him
in the rooms off see etil of Fred. Wait till I try all I
beautiful be greeting to bring your kitchen to life with Queen City Cabinetry, located
at eighty seven Elm Street in the historic Sunbeam Law in Manchester, open Monday
through Friday nine am to five thirty pm in Saturday's ten am to two pm.
They can be reached at six zero three two two two two zero zero
seven or on the web at Queen City Cabinetry n H dot com. Come
see the possibilities. Queen City Cabinetry, another proud sponsor of WM n H.
Come on down to the Hop Knot at one thousand Elm Street, Manchester's
premiere Kraft beer and gourmet pretzel bar. Tell us more at Trudy. We
make our dough fresh every day We make a variety of styles of pretzels and
serve Kraft Beer cocktails and a few bottles of wine. We do the traditional
pretzel and we have multiple flavors for that. We also do stuff pretzels,
pretzeler sandwiches, free dessert pretzels, and pretzel knots The Hop Knot in the
Brady Sulivan Plaza at one thousand Elms Streets,