Please stand by for the John and Gordy morning show. Phone lines are open right now. Call or text 608-879-8255 or use the free Civic Media app. And now, live from the Civic Media headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, here are John and Gordy. We're truly sorry.
Broadcasting from the executive suite of the mothership WM DX John and Gordie in the morning. Good morning. Hey, you know kind of shouting here Get your headphones adjusted up. Yeah Why don't you just like keep doing a show where you have to shout all the time you stand in one corner of the room the mics in the other corner
Yeah, that's a great idea. Hey, no, no, no, no, that's that's like me at home talking to the kids I Do that all the time Do you know really well, you know my guys. Yeah, they're always challenging me somehow some way Are they like this with other people like do they challenge other people's opinions are just yours everybody Yeah, yeah, they're very very opinionated
Are they contrarian to whatever you're? No, housing. No, I know I have to be more specific or at least maybe Radical oh, you know, I have to take a side I can't be in the middle I can't say well, you know, this has been going on for years and this is why and you really can't make that kind of decision without thinking about this first and you know, they're oh, no, no, no, no, it's this way
Dad, it's this way. Okay, all right. So much for nuance, you know, just, you know, and I appreciate that, you know? I mean, I, yeah, I think that's great. You know, I want my kids to be radicalized. You know, we've been accused of being radical, right? The radical left, right? So why not? Why not live it?
It's so funny because it's so much projection. Everything they do, the other side, the conservatives, Republicans and Megas, everything is just the opposite. It's opposite day every day for these people. And so we're not the radical ones unless going to a different economic system globally is just normal every day.
the way things should be. I don't know. It just seems crazy to me. Well, I'm sorry that you have to deal with this with your sons. It seems like they kind of scheme behind your back to team up. I do love it. It's just that they expect Mr. Handyman here to help out with everything.
But it's cool, you know, I tell them when you're, you know, fixing something or you want to try something different, you know, like furniture or an outlet or speakers, I say go for it. Yeah, just give it a shot. Give it a shot. Yeah. Yeah. It's the only way you learn, right? Right, exactly. Yeah. You can only destroy it once. Get another one. Okay.
That's your theory. Yeah, that's my theory. Okay. Well, I learned that when I first bought the house, I had a plumbing problem. You can only destroy the house once. No, no. But, you know, we had a plug drain in the bathroom when we first bought the house. And I had to plumber him because I was really afraid to move a pipe, you know, to take a wrench and twist it. And that guy came in with this gigantic wrench and he was...
pulling on that thing like, like there's no tomorrow. There's no tomorrow. And I said, aren't you afraid you're going to break that pipe? You looked at me like, no, not really. So I realized that, you know, sometimes you just got to use brute force. Yep. Some impact maintenance. That's that's that was my lesson in being a home handyman. Let's go for it.
Well, hey, it's Wednesday. It's the John and Gordy show in the morning with producer Sam flipping the buttons and switches in there. Yeah, we're flipping us off. Yeah, well that too. That's a daily occurrence. It's a little cloudy, but it's clearing out for a while, but then it's going to cloud up again. Yeah. And we're talking about rain this afternoon, tonight, maybe tomorrow. Well, it's not going to warm up as much as I was hoping it would. Yeah.
Looks pretty cloudy outside our state street window here. Yes. Well, the WMDX weather window. Yes. That's it. And currently 33 degrees according to the WMDX thermometer outside the state street WMDX window. Well, the WMDX Samsung watch.
He is saying that it's 35 degrees. OK, a little discrepancy there. It feels like 27 and a height today of 45. Well, let's see what the weather roulette wheel has to say about that. WMDX weather roulette wheel. We sure have a way. We got it covered. The way you look at it. Afternoon height, it's saying, oh, 42, red 42. So that's it. So should we?
What? What do you got there? Should we talk about the tacos and burritos? Oh yeah!
Because I was listening to Pete Schwab on the way in and he was talking to Mike Mercury. Yeah, our buddy from way back when, Mike Mercury, who will not appear on our show, but is happy to do Schwab's show anytime. But, you know, we're small potatoes to him. He fits on Pete Schwab's show, you know. You don't think he'd fit here? Well, I think he'd compete quite a bit with you. What? What do you say that? You know, you guys, you only have this...
extensive past, you know, and what you think happened and what he thinks happened, you know, sometimes collide. Remember, he was on our show a lot. He was. On our cable access show, Media World. Yeah. With Dave Gray. With Dave Gray. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And that was always a really fun experience, but you guys, man, it's this major conflict. We got into it. I don't remember. I'll have to go back and look at the video.
I didn't realize that we had any past like that. And then Dave Gray used to attack me all the time. That was kind of the thing, yeah. They'd come in and attack both of us and then we'd go out and have a beer and settle our differences after the show.
Well, those were the days, you know, we did relent though. We, uh, he, you know, Dave Gray wanted to host the show. Oh, I remember he wanted to host everybody. In fact, he wanted, he wanted us out to quit the show. And, uh, we gave him a chance to fill in every once in a while and we took a little time off. But anyway, the taco watch and taco warning is a big thing out there. And you and I didn't know about this, but Mike knew about it because he watches TV on the road every once in a while. And he found, uh,
a weather forecast that had a big taco on the screen. It's all about the tacos. And he didn't know what the hell was going on. It's a weather forecast and there's a taco on the screen. And it's a taco watch and taco warning analogy. It went viral and they're all using it. All the ingredients are laid out, but the taco hasn't been assembled yet.
In weather terms, the conditions are favorable for a taco. Why would they do that? So this is a way of predicting the weather or the weather watches and the weather warnings. For people to understand this thing a little bit more. Taco watch. By, yeah, using tacos. What TV station is using this? They're all using it. Up north?
Pittsburgh, I'm just looking here, yeah. Pittsburgh. Yeah, Pittsburgh. A lot of TV stations are using it. The taco watch. Yep. Okay, that's a new one on me. It says here, with severe weather in the forecast, it's a good time to go over the differences between a watch and a warning. So they go watch, we have the ingredients to make the tacos, warning.
We are having tacos. It's all about the tacos, I guess. It's sad that you quit too soon before the taco watch came about. I quit the weather world before the tacos. Oh, you missed it. Oh, well. Hey, let's get to the national day calendar. What do you say? Sure. OK.
You don't care. Doesn't matter. Nothing about tacos on here, but there's some food involved. Is it or is it not National Unicorn Day? How about National Library Outreach Day? National Education and Sharing Day? National Winston Churchill Day? National Name Yourself Day? Or National Carrot Cake Day? Which day is it not? It's not Carrot Cake Day.
Well, you are correct for a change. You've got it right. A shiny new dime added to your account. I never get it right. I know you. It's a rare day when you get it correct. It's National Unicorn Day. Do you care anything about unicorns? Do you ever collect unicorns? No, I really don't care about unicorns much, but little girls do for some reason. And what is that Paul Rudd movie that sold out right away at the Barrymore?
Ah, you talking the whole thing out of the festival? Friendship? Yeah, friendship. Yeah, I think that had everything to do with... Unicorns. Unicorns, didn't it? What are you talking about, Charlie? You didn't go see the movie, I did. You did? You saw the movie? Well, I kind of got snuck in, yeah. Okay, you got snuck in. So, what was it called? It was called friendship. Okay, so is there any kind of unicorn in friendship at all?
You don't remember I don't remember there. Oh my god really it was just were you drunk when you snuck in no I I went to go pick up my like my name tag my badge for the festival and then
Ben Ben riser one of the guys that we had in here that was programming the festival He said you should just go and sneak in and find a seat and so I did Okay, did you like the movie? It was I need to watch it a second time. It's just like a weird weird movie, but you're very funny. Yes, okay
Well, maybe it didn't have anything to do with Unicorps. Maybe there's another movie that he's involved in that does have something to do with Unicorps. Perhaps. It's National Library Outreach Day. We just had librarians day the other couple of days ago. So this is actually National Library Week. So they have several days devoted to your libraries. Check them out before they burn all the books. But you can also go in there and I think you can rent online. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can. Some books, so. That's a new thing.
It's National Education and Sharing Day, and let's see what that's about. Okay, National Education and Sharing Day on March 21st. Let's see. March 21st, that's not today. Why do they have that involved? Why is that there? I have no idea. President Jimmy Carter first inaugurated this day on April 18th. Well, again, the day is, okay. He was only inaugurated once, wasn't he? Yes. Well, yes.
Uh, it's just in honor of, um, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Oh, yeah. You remember him. Um, during his lifetime, he opened many centers of education. So these, this day is devoted to him. All right. Let's move on to National Chinese Almond Cookie Day. Did I mention that? No. Oh, that is. Are you looking at tomorrow's date or something? No, I'm looking. Oh, wait.
No, yeah, no, this is today. National Winston Churchill Day. You remember Winston Churchill, right? He had something to do with World War II for England. Okay. I'm trying to move along here because we're out of time. National name yourself day. Why would we want to name ourselves something else? Yes, we could. This is a day devoted to, if you had it for yourself to name yourself, to rename yourself, what would you name yourself? You know, you're stuck with the name that your parents gave you, right? Right.
This is National Name Yourself Day. All right. So if you want to take a different name, you can do that today. I think we've all done that. Yeah, really? Taken in aliens. Okay. Haven't we? What was your, what was your, okay, we'll be back with more of John and Gordy in the morning in a moment. John's secret identity. Yeah, we'll find out.
621 So Gordy, what
do you think
of 92.7 WMDX what
what do you think of Lil Nas
X?
Is that who we're listening
to?
This is him, yes.
Well, it doesn't ring a bell for me.
I don't know Lil Nas X. I'm not aware.
How do
you spell the Nas?
N-A-S.
Okay.
Nope.
L-I-L-N-A-S.
Nope.
I
mean, I've heard of him.
I just don't know much about him.
Okay, give us... That's fair.
He's... He's... He was born in 1999.
He's pretty young.
Oh, okay.
Well, what's the story what I thought it would be funny to well, it's his birthday today Oh, and I thought it would be funny to play a little little Gen Z music I guess you could say there you go.
That's
exactly what you were doing very hip
Sure,
yeah.
I feel much closer to my son.
If I said a little nasty to them, they would probably attack me.
Well, why don't you open up the history book here and let's see what's going on on this day.
Come on, you can do it.
Here he goes again.
Get him
a
lozenge.
Yeah.
Thank you.
You all right?
I'm good.
I think you
strained something over there.
I think I needed...
sip of coffee to make myself feel good.
Yeah, there you go.
It's
really
good coffee.
It's good to have him around here.
Just supplies this whenever we need it.
It's great.
Taking a look back in the history book today in 1865.
Yes.
Generally surrendered the Confederate Army in the beginning of the end of the Civil War.
Not the beginning of the end.
Sort of the middle of the end.
Yeah.
Sort of the middle of the end actually.
Apparently there was another surrender after this that I didn't know about.
But this is this is what marks like the official end.
All right.
OK.
Hundred years later, 1965, the very first indoor pro baseball game took place at the brand new at the time Houston Astrodome.
Wow.
which turned out to be a horrible place to play baseball.
Really?
Yes.
Why is that?
They didn't, you know, it was the first indoor place, so they didn't really...
know
what they were doing.
No,
what they were doing.
Yes.
The ceiling was just
too
low and the balls
hit the top of the ceiling and popped down,
right?
Well, no, but there was a problem with the ceiling.
It was, uh, I think it was very light colored.
I think they had to paint it because the pop ups would go up there
and they couldn't see it.
I think
that may have been a problem.
That may be it.
But over the years, it kind of deteriorated and they didn't replace it for a long time.
So it was kind of a dump.
When
did they replace it?
Good question.
We'll have to look that up.
Not sure.
Anything else happened on this date?
Some Vietnam protest history today in 1969, the Chicago Eight, who they say started the riot at the DNC in 1968, the year before.
They pled not guilty to doing that.
Uh-huh.
It
eventually became the Chicago Seven.
Chicago Seven, yeah.
Kicked one of the guys.
Right, right.
They just needed somebody to blame for everything that went down there.
I think they had
Jerry Rubin in there and Abby Hoffman and some of the other, you know, they
were... Tom
Hayden, I think.
Tom Hayden, yeah.
There was a great
movie on one of the streaming channels.
Right.
Yeah.
About that whole thing.
And the judge...
Well, I can't remember his name.
Yeah, I know.
Hoffman?
Yeah.
He was
in a lot of songs
at the time.
Eventually, they would
drop his name in a lot of rock music at that
time.
Oh,
yeah,
people fed up with
his decisions.
Well, the defendants kept making noise during the court proceedings and mouthing off and everything.
Eventually, they... That's why I think
it went down to seven, right?
They kicked one guy out.
Yeah.
And then the other ones, they started tying him up in court and actually...
of putting, you know, tape over there, not tape, but gagging them so they couldn't talk.
Yeah.
That
happened for a while.
That's not normal.
That's why no one liked Judges.
Hoffman.
Hoffman,
I believe it's Hoffman, isn't it?
Well, again, if only there was a
resource we could use to rip these things up.
Jonathan, if you ever get arrested, I feel like they're going to have to do that to you in the courtroom.
Gag you,
tie you up.
Yeah, that was quite the trial.
Quite the deal.
Okay.
Any birthdays?
Well,
we mentioned little noss sacks, but there's a couple other important ones.
Curly Lambo has a birthday today.
Oh, Curly.
Yeah, Curly.
Hugh Hefner has a birthday today.
Well, he would have had died
of years ago.
Yeah, that's right.
He would have been 99 today, getting up there.
And this is an interesting one.
You ever seen the pictures of like, from the 1800s of a horse galloping, it was like the first quote unquote motion picture?
Yeah, I have seen that.
The guy who did that.
He has a birthday today.
He spells his name weird, so I'm gonna pronounce it wrong, but it's Edward Moybridge, I think is how you would say it.
Early motion picture history.
Very good.
All right, a little bit later on, we're going to give away Peter Frampton tickets.
So why don't we be real sneaky about this?
Okay.
And sometimes, sometime in our seven o'clock hour, when you hear a song by Peter Frampton, just start calling and
We'll use the word, or no texting, sorry, text in.
Use the word Frampton when you hear the Peter Frampton music in the seven o'clock hour.
And we will select a winner there.
He's appearing in Milwaukee and we'll give you more details on that.
Also, Mike McCabe will be in during our seven o'clock hour.
I see Anna texted us.
John, you were thinking about the new Paul Rudd movie, Death of a Unicorn with Jenny Ortega.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, the movie follows a father and daughter who hit a unicorn with their car
boy.
That's an expensive car bill
I was you know, I was wondering why you know, it would sell out at the barramorts,
right?
It's like a family film.
Is this like a heartfelt movie or is this like a... No, I think it is.
I think it
is.
And Doug from St.
Francis, Texas, moving ahead for a promotion for the John and Gordy Taser Challenge, he's... Doug has taken it upon himself to become our marketing director.
Yeah, so this is really taking off now.
He's promoting the John and Gordy Taser Challenge, working on a deal with Monster Truck Tour.
Oh, he's working the deal out where we would be tasering each other.
as a feature act of a monster truck tour.
That would be kind of fun.
Keep working on that, Doc.
Maybe we're in each of one of those trucks.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, you asked me a little bit about Judge Hoffman.
Yeah, what was the
deal?
During
the course of the Chicago A-trial, Hoffman refused to allow the defendant Bobby Seale to represent himself.
That's
right.
After Seale's attorney became ill, this prompted conflict with Seale that led to Hoffman ordering Seale to be gagged and shackled in the courtroom.
jailed for contempt.
There you go.
He was a tough guy
and really
unfair.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, it's 28 minutes past the hour and when we come back, we'll get into idiocracy for today.
All that and a whole lot more on Johnny Gordy in the morning, right here on WMDX.
you
As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point, a dumbing down, until humanity was incapable of solving even its most basic problems. Now listen, Grapehead. I'll explain this so even you can understand it. We can duck and cover. There's a bullet shelter right there. There's no way to survive this, you idiot! Idiocracy. You're the smartest guy in the world. You're pretty dumb sometimes.
I guess you didn't know. I know. What are you talking about? I always got to keep you on. Always got to keep you on your toes. You cleared your throat over there. Well, I did clear it. Oh, it was John who did it. Yes. He always does that. No. Yeah. Blame me. 635. But anyway. Cloudy this morning. Rain later. High around 42. And right now it's 33 degrees. This portion of John and Gordy in the morning.
is brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison. The Virlo mismatch sale is going on for a few more days. Mismatch on the outside, same Virlo, long-lasting craftsmanship on the inside. So hurry and now save an additional 10% off of every mattress and box ring. Wake up and sleep better with Virlo. Mattress of Madison, two locations east and west. Go to Virlo.com. Okay, idiocracy. What do we got here? Idiocracy. All kinds of idiocracy going on.
Well, I must has said that we're committed to rooting out corruption in government memory He's been on that for a while here. Yes, so then he would go to Green Bay and offer millions of dollars to buy judges in Wisconsin. Mm-hmm. So there's nothing in Conflict there. All right. I mean just to open with
But I have this. This is, I just found this this morning. This is representative Melanie Stansberry. And I mentioned her a few times. We played a few cuts from her. She's fantastic from New Mexico. I want to play this because the house is back in session. And she noted it by saying this rant in the house. Do you have it cut 100?
It'd be nice if you would tell me what number it is. It's cut 100. I don't have cut 100. Let me do some digging for it. John, this is why we have a show planning sheet. Well, I have everything planned, but I'm throwing this one in. This is an extra. You just add this in today. Are you sure about that?
Did I? If you don't have that cut. I've got through 99. Well, I've got a cut about Peter Navarro and Elon Musk. Why don't we play that? Yeah. They've been calling each other names here for a couple of days. And then this cut explains that situation where Elon kind of went off on Peter Navarro. And then you'll hear Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, the pretend press secretary. Megan 2.0. Yeah.
That's her. So you'll hear both of them in this audio. Let's take a listen.
House feud is spilling over into the Twitter sphere. Peter Navarro, President Trump's top trade advisor, who also apparently goes by the pseudonym Ron Vera, dismissed Elon Musk's push for zero terrace between the US and Europe, calling the Tesla CEO, not even a car manufacturer, but a car assembler, reliant on parts from other countries. Musk, meanwhile, just posted on X, quote, Navarro is truly a moron.
There's been some public sparring between Elon Musk and the president's trade advisor, Peter Navarro. On some of these tariffs, Musk actually referred to Navarro today as being, quote, dumber than a sack of bricks. Are you in or is the administration, the president, all concerned? No, look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue. And you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history.
Boys will be boys. That's all. Well, that's part of transparency is having a juvenile rant against each other. We want children in our federal government, right?
Well, and apparently they really got into it even more. I mean, there's words that we can't use on the radio. They started calling each other. We'll start using them. So we can find out what's really going on. Yeah, well, I want to be as transparent as possible. Well, boys won't be boys. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It explains it. OK. All right, now let's get to, yeah, yeah. Representative Melanie Stansberry, New Mexico representative and houses back in session. But she's not real crazy about.
the mega agenda that they're pushing. So let's listen to this. Welcome back to my friends across the aisle.
It's really nice to have you back here in the people's house, especially after last week. Your leadership shut down the United States House of Representatives rather than accommodate new moms voting remotely with a newborn child. Stellar work, my friends, you have simultaneously managed to shut down the house and enrage millions of moms across America.
Because the American people actually want a government that represents them. And that's why they're also outraged by the agenda that you've gotten this rule and are putting on the House floor this week, including the SAVE Act, which would disenfranchise millions of Americans, including millions of married women. And you refused to take up an amendment that would protect them. So congratulations. How about the rogue ruling act that is also being heard this week that would undermine the courts?
couple of bills to roll back consumer protections to keep them from banks ripping them off. Is that your agenda? That's it. You're going to rip off American consumers, undermine their voting rights, undermine the judiciary and insult moms.
Cool. Yeah, this sounds like a great agenda. Oh, I forgot. You're also going to tank the economy while Donald Trump is playing golf and you're going to try to pass a budget that literally will cost the American people $37 trillion over the next 30 years while gutting their Medicaid, their food and housing assistance. Now, luckily, the American people are not falling for it and millions of Americans are speaking out or marching in the streets. And it is because of their
actions that Elon Musk
Thank you very much is finally leaving the building. But make no mistake, this agenda will continue as we see here this week. So that is why it is vital that the American people continue to speak up, speak out, keep marching, keep showing up and keep telling these folks that we reject their agenda and its harmful impacts to the American people and we will not allow it to continue. Who was that again?
That was Melanie Stansberry. Yeah, she is making a name for herself. She has had so many really fantastic rants we've played here on the program and she continues. House of Representatives. Yeah, yeah, she's
Yeah, she's fired up. Good for her. She's very good. That's the crazy agenda that they have, and the fact that they're giving all the responsibilities of Congress to the president is shocking, but I guess not surprising, right?
All right, you know, we have this is such an open administration. They're not doing anything in secret. They're transparent. Well, yeah, they're using apps that are very, very transparent to everybody, including somebody at the Atlantic. Yeah, Jeffrey. So, you know, signal is something that they want to supposedly use to cover up their tracks. But instead, well, they reveal to the world they are very open, the most open administration ever.
right at this point. Open to our allies and our enemies. Yeah, but you know what they have, now they have a sycophantic press corps, right? The press pool around them now are just right wingers at this point. And I just think this particular question to the president is a perfect example. It's 294 from last month, 294 and it is...
It is sickening and you might, if you have a gay reflex, you might want to just back away from the radio.
Wow. Okay. This is one hell of a question to the president. Tough stuff. Really tough stuff. Let's check this out. You and your team apprehended a top three leader in the violent gang and this 13 yesterday, just 30 minutes outside of Washington, DC. What has made you and your team so effective in finding, locating, apprehending and deporting these violent illegal migrants? I love this guy.
I wish more people would ask questions like that. Thank you. That's very nice. That's really see. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Well, they hand select who's in the press pool now. You know, there are some that are allowed to be in ones that are friendly and ask easy questions. And then when one sneaks in, you know, tough question, the question is a question of praise. You know, you did so well on that.
Did you do it? Wow. Okay. Well, you know, we've been talking about Peter Navarro who created a fictional character to back up the idea of terrorists being a good idea. I think that it's kind of funny that he picked his own name and just rearranged the letters for his fictional character. Unbelievable.
That's kind of cool. Which makes it easier. Very transparent. How about 296? 296, this is Peter Navarro. Full Orwellian. Let's go over there. You heard Lucas is reporting there where the president says he doesn't care if the prices go up on US cars. So what's the message to the US consumer?
The message is that tariffs are tax cuts. Tariffs are jobs. Tariffs are national security. Tariffs are great. For America, tariffs will make America great again. Whatever. What? Really? What the hell? Whoa. Okay. Okay. That's just, ugh. What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it?
Dumb as a bag of bricks. Dumb as a bag of bricks. Dumb as a box of rocks. I think it was a box of rocks, maybe. But anyway, that's crazy stuff, right? All right, let's get to this is a daily show. They put some clips together of golf outings by Trump. And then, of course,
juxtapose it with the soldiers from Lithuania coming back, and Trump oddly didn't attend the ceremony of the returning soldiers, and on top of that...
He didn't even say anything, make some kind of announcement, even at the golf outing, right? I mean, he could have said something, right? Just a little... No, he doesn't do that. He could have said that, but instead three days of golf, ignore the whole situation. Let's play this, cut 83. Here we go.
President Biden being criticized for appearing to check his watch briefly during a ceremony for the 13 service members killed in Kabul last week. Joe Biden was on the tarmac when the bodies were brought back to American soil, checking his watch. Joe Biden had the audacity to actually check his watch, not once.
but over and over again. Looks like he was being inconvenienced by having to show some respect for these American heroes. Check his watch during the dignified transfer of 13 troops. We all saw it. What would he need to check the time on? Why would he do this? As soon as I saw it on positive TV and I thought, is that what I thought I just saw? I am disgusted and I just don't understand. He is callous at base. That is what this man is. He simply does not care.
The remains of four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania will be returned to the US later today. President Trump is in Florida. He is not expected to attend. After that very moving send-off from Lithuania and from the government and the people of Lithuania, the White House announced here in the United States that when those four young fallen American soldiers
landed back home here in the U.S. President Donald Trump would not attend the dignified transfer. He would not be waiting at Dover to pay respects to the service members who died, even as Lithuania's president made sure he was there to see them off. Donald Trump has decided instead that he's going to Florida to watch a golf tournament and to go to a golf dinner tonight. What was it again that the Lithuanian president said about service? He said, for us,
It is more than a duty. It is an emotion. Mm hmm. Yeah. Words of wisdom from another country. Right. We don't have that here in this country anymore. Apparently not. Wow. Yeah. It's just sad. But yeah, you know, when Biden checked his watch, supposedly. Yeah. He made a big deal out of that. Big deal. That was the end of the world. Yeah. Obviously, the guy's, you know, a psychopath. But, uh, Trump?
Three days, playing golf, didn't have time. Not one word. Time to say anything. Not one word. Here we got some text here. Let's see here. Where do we go?
Go to Mark. Since Musk and Navarro want to go at it, give them the dueling daggers and let them really show their real manhood. There you go. That's not too bad. And of course, boys will be boys. The new catchphrase for the John and Gordy show.
Yeah, phone lines are open. You can text us too at 608-879-8255 or get on the Civic Media app. We will be back with more of John and Gordy in the morning in just a moment.
92.7 John and Gordy in the morning.
We're in
Idiocracy.
We are it's 33 degrees cloudy this morning.
We'll see some rain this afternoon and high around 42 in our seven o'clock hour.
We have Peter Frampton tickets.
I know you're a big Peter Frampton fan John.
Yeah,
that life album was
Frampton comes alive
played it enough.
I know I wanted
played even more than they played it all the time back.
It was actually a really great album.
But again, overplayed just a little bit.
But we've got tickets.
He's coming to, let's see, the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on April 15th.
So when you hear the Peter Frampton music in our seven o'clock hour, you'll want to be the first to text us.
And you can do that on the Civic Media app, or at 608-879-8255.
But the app is preferred, you know.
Right.
You get in a little faster that way, I'm just saying.
Right.
That's the way to
do it.
You won't be hearing us
play the Peter Pan.
What do you mean?
When we play the song...
In our seven o'clock hour.
Yes, that's the cue to play this is up to Texas.
I'm just kidding.
I know we are going to play it
and Let's go
to the phone lines right now.
We let's
go to
mark real quick here mark.
What do you got for us this morning?
Good morning mark
Yeah, good morning.
Yeah, you're talking about Joe Biden support, you know checking his watch I don't know how many times he checked his watch it just kind of ridiculous point But did Donald Trump even bother to pick up the phone and call the call the families on on this?
I mean, for no, because
they would
have talked about that, because for him not to show up is just to go golfing.
And the context is, let's remember, Joe Biden actually has sacrificed a son in service to this country because his one son got brain cancer from being exposed to the burning pits, and the Republicans have been trying mightily to cut the funding for those soldiers.
right service people that are you know that uh... for the long term because there's going to be more people dying of those diseases because of the exposure to those burning pits not only american servicemen and women but also people over there in iraq that were exposed to those burning pits as well and now they're cutting
funding for that
they're cutting the funding for that and it's just uh...
Well, they're cutting funding for the vets, you know, in general.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know if I've said, I don't know if I've said here, but I see all these commercials for the wounded warriors projects and the heroes project and all this.
Right.
And what disturbs me is that why is not our own government paying for the services for those, for those soldiers, service people, rather than having to, you know, put the go hat in hand and, uh, and get, uh, you know, private service.
private funding to give those service people the services, sorry.
Or
that they deserve.
Or give tax cuts instead.
You know, why pay for that when you could give tax cuts?
You know, one of the things I think this proves, obviously, that he did say what he did say about veterans and the cruelty
that
he displayed at cemeteries.
This guy really doesn't care.
And now that he's dictator,
He doesn't have to prove anything.
It doesn't have to make any announcements, even from a three day golf galley.
Okay.
So, you know, that's, that's the way it is.
All right, let's move on
to
Joe.
Joe, thanks for giving us a call this morning.
What do you've got?
Well, I just want to build on what Mark was saying.
Yeah, essential disrespect.
It's worth noting that
within Lithuania, apparently, citizens and villians designed the streets to pay homage to the Americans going by and had very, very kind words to say that they understand the sacrifice that the American soldiers had given them to try to keep Lithuania safe.
How long it's going to have, you know, continue with this nutball in charge.
You know, I have a feeling we're going to be out of NATO as soon as you can, you can manage it.
But I did want to point out one other thing with this situation with the Lithuanian government
and that are people and that is that they also donated tens of thousands of dollars to the families of these four servicemen to help them in this time of grief and sorrow.
I mean, they are giving more than we're cutting and the Lithuanians are giving to these families in order to make their lives easier.
What an incredible, generous and kind thing to do.
So let's put a tariff on them.
You know, you know, and it's just it's so
Burningly disrespectful and you keep this up and sooner or later people will go.
Well, this isn't a Player that I want to be on the in the game with you know, we're gonna exit so mark was absolutely right to indicate that We're cutting while the Lithuanian people are giving and that's a pretty sad state of affairs.
Thanks guys.
All right Joe.
Thank you Yeah, you know the fact that these three soldiers lost their lives just proves that they're
Losers
and suckers.
Yeah, that's what that that was the quote from Trump.
Yeah before when he was president once before there Well, you know, what's with these losers and suckers?
Yeah,
well, that's the
respect that he shows.
Oh, I know it's just it's mind-boggling
Let's see.
Phone lines are back open, 6-0-8-7-9-8-2-5-5.
Coming up in our 7 o'clock hour, Mike McCabe will join us.
He's got a great new article on Substack.
He's talking about Elon Musk, but from the past.
Yes, what goes around comes around.
Yes, it's a good article.
It's
quite a
character that he found in the past here in Wisconsin.
Byron.
I know a little bit about Byron Kilborn as well, but we'll get into that.
I'm familiar with
Kilborn
Avenue, but in Milwaukee.
It's
named after him.
It certainly is.
In Milwaukee?
Yeah.
A lot of people in Wisconsin Dells know the history of Byron Kilborn too.
We'll talk about that one.
It is 6.58.
News is next and we're coming back with big stories here.
I'm John and Gordy in the morning.
Stay with
us.
From the depths of a digital abyss, where truth drowns in a sea of clickbait and algorithms, a beacon ignites. From the heart of Badgerland, from our studios on State Street in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, it's John and Gordy on 92.7 WMDX.
We got Peter Frampton tickets to give away here on John and Gordy in the morning with producer Sam behind the controls We've got John Stewart from the Daily Show talking about the terrorists. Yeah, and we have Mike McCabe Who is going to be talking about what comes around goes around and the story of Byron? Killborn and how that relates to somebody that we all talk about every day here on the show and it's
seven minutes past the hour weather wise today clouds this morning rain this afternoon high around 42 right now it's 33 and we have a brand new feature here on John and Gordy in the morning well it popped up on our screen and we're going to go with it how do we explain this Sam do you know how this works so very very slowly it started with our company meetings here we've incorporated AI note takers wait a minute we have meetings
Yeah, yeah. Why? I know that they happen. I don't go to them. Okay. That's what our AI note takers are for. No, I don't have to go to the meeting. But yeah, we have these things and apparently we applied this tech. I don't go to the meeting so I didn't know about it. We applied this tech to listen to the shows.
and write a summary of each hour of the show and we wait so this is ai's version of what we did during our first hour exactly
Okay, so let's we're twisting Sam's arm on this because he's you want to do it. He doesn't he's very anti I write the description every day twice a day once for each hour And now I've got a machine taking my job for me But you use the outline from the AI and you write up your own version. No, this thing is brand new I've never seen it before today. Okay. Well, let's let's check this out. Okay, the title 60 seconds to read this is a review, okay
Okay. This is a summary of last hour. Yeah, the first hour. It's called Taco's Tariffs and Tinfoil Hats.
Morning mashup. That's what that's pretty good. I like it. Yeah, John and Gordy kickstart their morning with lively banter about yelling across rooms raising radical kids and their handyman adventures They dive into political rants about Republican agendas the hypocrisy of opposite-day politics and a humorous spat between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro a quirky taco watch weather analogy sparks laughs while discussion
on national days at a whimsical touch. Oh, it is whimsical. Melanie Stansberry's fiery critique of Congress, the missteps of Judge Hoffman during the Chicago A-Trial, and Trump's golf over heroes return, is a roller coaster ride for the morning show. Yeah. Oh, that's a pretty good summary of the first hour. I think that's fairly accurate. Well, don't you think so? Yeah.
Okay. You know, I appreciate AI now. I think it's fantastic. God, Sam, let's grab on to that. Yeah, Sam, it looks like we've been replaced. I'm leaving in a month and a half. We don't need you. I'm leaving in a month and a half anyway. Oh, boy. Just kick me on the way out. Okay, we will. Well, one thing that Summary didn't mention is we have Peter Frampton tickets to give away this hour. And when you hear a song by Peter Frampton, all you Peter Frampton fans out there, and they are many, you know, he's a great guitar player. He was in that band Humble Pie back in the late 60s, early 70s. Yeah.
And then he went on his own. Was that a group that he was in? I don't think so. Or is that a song that he did? Well, I don't know, but I know he was in Humble Pie, I remember. Then he went out on his own, he had a huge album, Frampton Comes Alive, that really made him. And so when you hear a Peter Frampton song, we've got two tickets to give away and you'll want to text us.
To win these tickets and first one that gets through we'll go to Peter Frampton April 15th at 7 30th the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee So that's the show if you can't go don't enter the contest. Okay. It's April 15th 7 30 Riverside Theater Milwaukee, Wisconsin when you hear the Frampton music, that's your cue. What should they text in they should text in the word Frampton Perfect. Okay. Okay, and we'll have more tickets to give away tomorrow, too
John, have we taken enough time? John, what are you looking at now? Is this another? Well, I was looking at review or something. From Racine, Chuckster wrote in, and it's quite the diatribe. This week, Trump's Department of Justice shuts down cryptocurrency regulatory enforcement. What? That's because they're going crazy with cryptocurrency now, and they don't want anybody to watch what they're doing, right? Yeah.
and he signs an executive order establishing Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, moves to install new crypto-friendly SEC chairman while tariffs free fall worldwide. All right, so anyway, that's good. So is it good?
All of this is really encouraging. So is the stock market? No, it isn't. All around the world, the stock markets are diving. Are diving. Is all of our money and currency going to be replaced by Bitcoin? Is that the plan? If stocks are no longer a safe investment, I think since we have the deregulation of cryptocurrency now, you guys need to come up with your own John and Gordy cryptocurrency. That's a safe investment, right? Yeah, sure. That'll be worth a lot. Let's design that. It looks so good.
I mean the coins that Trump has come out with are fantastic in a shiny goal. Oh, yeah, do that too. Yeah phone lines are open 608-879-8255 dick is online with a question or a comment What do you got for us dick go ahead? I Think I think I figured what Trump is up to yeah You know how some companies won't hire people when they get over a certain age
He's given, well, I'm up there. It's a nice thing. He's going to give us the ability to work until we're, oh, 90, 95, because we'll have to. And they're going to take away social security. So if you don't have that, you just tip over. Simple as that. We'll be screwing little tiny screws into the robots, into phones and stuff. Go ahead.
Did you guys see any of that ridiculous speech last night? No, you know, people all those countries are kissing. Oh, he's in he's in a tuxedo and he's rent and Raven of all countries are just as high down and they're rushing to settle this stuff with him over there. Sounds like we're going to listen to that tomorrow. That's show material for tomorrow. Wow. Yeah, that must have been past our bedtime. I didn't see that. I didn't see. Wow. Yeah.
Who wanted to retire anyway, right? Yeah, that's the point. Well, you never know. We'll be working till we're dead. Yeah, we'll be working till we're dead. But at the same time in Florida, they're going to have six-year-olds taking the jobs of immigrants that they no longer have in the state. Well, they've got to learn something about work ethic. Absolutely.
And the selling point for the 16-year-olds is that they do not get benefits at all. No health care, no nothing. Oh, they don't need it, right? They're young, they're fine. And there's no limit on how many hours they can put in. So I think that's great stuff in Florida. They're really experimenting down there. There was a headline I got in my onion newsletter that I get in my email every day. Report, recession fears forcing more Americans to hold off on retiring from the presidency.
Wow. Trump talking about staying. Absolutely. Staying past his second term. Absolutely. We got a text in here from Doug. He says, in China, it costs $820 a month to employ someone. In the Philippines, the same worker costs $274. How can America expect to move that manufacturing to the US? Your next iPhone will cost $3,000. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Come on. All right.
Well, we've got a little time here. John Stewart, let's play his rant. Now, we're going to play the whole thing only because I think these are important times and all the commentary that we can, you know, kind of jam in as historical fact. Let's put it in there. Are you sure you want to start it because we're not going to be able to finish it? Really?
Yes. Right up against the clock, buddy. We'll hold it off after Brittany Merleau is in here. I want to also bring this up. This is important. Microsoft has canceled $1 billion in projects to build three new data centers in Ohio just five days after Trump's tariffs. Really? Yeah.
Licking County Ohio will now lose roughly 1,000 jobs and $150 million per year in revenue for the local economy down there. 400 to 600 construction jobs and 450 permanent jobs were expected to be created.
at full operation of the three new data centers for Microsoft. Microsoft said it abandoned the $1 billion project after careful consideration of the shift in economic forecasting.
Hmm. Okay. See this happened to me too. You know, I was going to build a garage finally with solar panels and a charging station. You've been planning this for, yes. I really wanted to put this in. I had, I told you I had an investment account. I was going to spend all my money in the investment account and just put a garage in finally. Right. Now I can't, I can't because I don't know what's going to happen in this country and I'm glad that I held off.
Well, that's the thing. It's uncertainty. That's right. That's taken over. Microsoft said if the economy improves, the company will continue to evaluate the sites that they now own, and we'll be following that story.
It is 716. This portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison. The Virlo mismatch sale is back. It's going on for a few more days, but you better hurry. Mismatch on the outside, the same Virlo long lasting craftsmanship on the inside. So hurry and now save an additional 10% off of every mattress and box spring. Wake up and sleep better. Virlo Mattress of Madison, two locations, east side and west side. Go to Virlo.com and find out about their Virlo
a long-lasting lifetime.
Comfort Guarantee. I'd like to add in, you mentioned to text in the word Frampton. I know, but not yet. But not yet. There's been a couple of people who have already tried to enter the contest. Jump the gun. Hasn't yet started. Wait until you hear Peter Frampton grace the airways. Well, are we going to play it next? Well, you got to listen and find out. Whenever you hear Peter Frampton. Sometime this hour, real soon. I'm going to tell you, it's sometime soon. I want to hear it again. Do?
Frampton's at the Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee. Tickets are on sale now. That show is April 15th.
at 7.30 p.m. April 15th in Milwaukee at the Riverside Theater. Coming up, we'll check in with Brittany Merlot. She's got the latest on the weather. And then Mike McCabe will join us as he does every Wednesday, talking about Byron Kilbourne, the legend of Byron Kilbourne and who that relates to nowadays. What goes around comes around. Well, yeah, he's a past version of Elon in Wisconsin. Yes. It's an interesting story. We know how Elon did recent election.
okay boy hmm that music sounds familiar 18 minutes past the hour yeah yeah you're listening to John and Gordy in the morning on 92.7 WM DX stay with us a whole lot more to come
One, two, three, four!
This weather is not getting any warmer here. It's chilly this morning. What the heck is going on? We were going to put our clothes over the heavy clothing away. You were going to do it. I was going to do it. Now we still can't do it. Yeah. We're sitting here. I'm in a hoodie right now. We're in a flannel. We're all bundled up. Skies are gray. What the heck? I know. I know. And we've got. Oh, soon. Maybe rain, maybe snow on the way.
What's happening? Yeah. Do you have a taco alert? Do you have a taco alert? Have you heard about these taco alerts? Yes. Yes. You have. Taco watch versus taco warning. Yes. The ingredients to make it and then you have it. Yes. When did you? Have you been doing this on other stations but keeping it from us?
This has just been a thing. I don't know. I think it started a couple of years ago. Someone made this meme and it was the way to describe a tornado watch versus a warning and what the difference is because people were getting it confused apparently. So they use tacos, which I think is hysterical, but it works. It shows the similarities. I don't know why. I can't see the similarity at all. They show an unassembled taco saying, well, these are the conditions for a tornado.
an assembled taco, meaning there's a tornado watch. It's on, yeah. That's a warning. That's ridiculous. All right, well, anyway. All right, well, let's get real here. Let's get to today's weather here.
Okay. All right. Serious. Okay. We're sitting right now. Temperatures are in those mid-30s, but we've got a wind chill, so it feels like the upper 20s, so still a little crisp. Mostly cloudy skies today. We've got spotty showers rolling in by this afternoon, and they continue to rain on us on occasion through this evening. Now tonight and through early tomorrow morning,
that could flip to a little bit of snowfall as the system departs. Our temperatures will be flirting with the freezing mark by tomorrow morning, so we could be waking up to a trace on the ground, but don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. We're gonna warm up, we're gonna get to those mid-40s, and of course it's gonna turn back to a little bit of light drizzle as it departs. So then for Friday, we are looking at beautiful sunshine, high temperatures in the low 50s.
Saturday the sunshine continues, low 60s. Sunday, upper 60s. 50 more clouds in there. I'm there. I know. And then Monday. Might as well just throw Monday in. How about a 70? Oh, 70. I'm not coming in. I'm calling sick. I'm going to sit out there in the yard. OK. All right. Well, sounds good, Brittany, if we appreciate all that. And at least there's no.
taco watches or warnings out there. So we hold on to that. All right. All right. Thanks, Brittany. Yep. Have a great day. Yep. Okay, let's play John Stewart. If the MDX meteorologist is below. You're talking over each other. Who is this again, John? This is John Stewart. And this is cut 94. Here we go. If Trump wants us to stay the course with his radical plan, you might want to think of a strategy that inspires our confidence.
that you all know what you're doing. Like, for instance, these tariffs. Is this a negotiation? The president made it clear yesterday this is not a negotiation. Let me make this very clear. This is not a negotiation. This is not that. This is a national emergency. OK, it's a national emergency. It's not a negotiation. Well, I don't agree, but at least I have some clarity now. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. I always have.
Is this a negotiation or is this permanent? Forget about if they're permanent or not permanent. What are we doing? How will this bring jobs back? What are these jobs? Commerce Secretary Lutnick.
Trillions of dollars of factories are going to be built in America. The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones. That kind of thing is going to come to America.
This is also that millions of Americans Can develop the dexter those are the jobs? Yeah, that kind of thing is gonna come to America It's gonna be automated and great Americans the tradecraft of America is going to fix them mechanics fixing robotics That's what's coming to America. We're gonna be robot mechanics The robots do the screwing
And we're just there to make sure the robots are loomed. How long do these onerous tariffs have to stay in place to convince me to build my army of automated screw and robot mechanics? They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks.
But I guess that's silver lining number one of this trade war. Want something even more underwhelming? Here's the Treasury Secretary on if we've heard the good news on the stock collapse. One thing that I can tell you is the Treasury Secretary, what I've been very impressed with is the market infrastructure. Yeah. That we had record volume on Friday. And everything is working very smoothly. So the American people, they can be very... Very nice.
Very what? Tinkering comfort in that. But the best argument so far for any of this is the same one that we got about Tinkerbell. Being able to fly. You have to believe. Don't panic, okay? You've got a president who understands business. I am grateful for a commander-in-chief that has the business acumen. Luckily we have a businessman in the White House right now. The president did write the book, The Art of the Deal. The Trump is master negotiator and he does know The Art of the Deal.
You ever say, I got the book, I got the book, Art of the Deal. Yeah, that's why we're supposed to trust him. You ever look at chapter nine in Art of the Deal? It's about how smart Trump is about his casino in Atlantic City. Oh, oh, yeah. Chapter nine, I built a casino in Atlantic City. I'm a business genius. Whatever happened to the casino, Donald? You make a big announcement, but your reciprocal terra formula was just the trade deficit.
divided by imports equation. And when you got busted on that, you threw out this ridiculous f***ing calculus problem that's just shapes. That it boils down to the trade deficit divided by imports. Which is the formula that got the rich country of Lesotho hit with 50% tariffs. Lesotho. Yo, you're free rides over you denim making fat cats.
But we continue to blame everybody else in the world that we designed and police after World War two were the richest country in the world ever. We're not the world's victims.
If we have inequalities in this country... It goes on and on, but I think you get the idea that we've created tariffs to get back at these countries trying to destroy us even though it's the system that we came up with in the first place to make us the power that we are in this globe. Yes, well that system is dismantling now. Stocks continue to take a dive and we'll be here to hold your hand on it, but it's time for a break. We'll be back with Mike McCabe next on John and Gordy.
Tell your neighbors to listen to John and Gordy in the morning followed immediately by me a true broadcast veteran Stephanie Miller on 92.7 WMDX
All right, we have a we have a contest
Yes, who
won the Peter Frampton tickets?
Kurt.
Congrats to Kurt in Madison.
He was the first person to text in when we started playing Peter Frampton.
And we'll have another pair of tickets tomorrow.
And then another.
And then another on Friday.
He got
two more opportunities.
Peter Frampton's going to be at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, April 15th at 7.30 p.m.
So yeah, tickets again tomorrow and...
on Friday.
Okay, weather wise today, cloudy, rain this afternoon, high near 42.
And right now it's still 33 degrees, a little chilly this morning.
Time for Mike McCabe to join us.
Good morning, Mike.
Good morning.
Always good to see you.
And everything looking good out there for you today?
Yeah, you know,
Frampton comes alive was
One of the very first albums I had.
For a lot of people it was.
That was a huge album for me.
It was really great.
I mean it was a great live recording.
But it's just a rehash of songs that he released earlier on albums in the studio.
Those are
really nice quality songs.
I didn't know any of that.
Yeah.
Really?
I was barely a teenager.
Yeah.
Well, that dates
us.
Thank you.
And it was a double album.
When you opened the album cover up, it would make like a nice poster if you wanted to do that.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Remember it well.
Is that something you did?
No.
Pugging up on your wall.
No, not at all.
Be a framped in my idol.
No, no.
He's a great guitar player, though, and he's still on tour.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, well, that's great to know all right Mike
you've got an
article on your sub-stack About a guy named Byron Kilburn and how that relates to well somebody else that was recently in Wisconsin
He who must not be named
he who yes, right a
wealthy go-getter.
Yeah Well Byron Kilburn was a wealthy go-getter, you know he and he was an outsider He he was born in Connecticut
Way back when?
Way back when.
And his family resettled in Ohio.
But then his ambitions eventually brought him to Wisconsin.
And he was a guy who was involved in a vast array of money making ventures.
He was a canal builder.
He was a surveyor and a land speculator.
But he had a particular proclivity for transportation.
He
wasn't into electric cars.
He was steam-powered trains in his day.
And that's where the story really gets interesting.
That really
takes off from there, isn't
it?
The land acquisition for the railroad.
Yeah, and Byron Kilbourne, you know, he settled in what's now Milwaukee.
And at that time it was known there were three birds, and one of them ended up being named Kilbourne Town, because he was such a big deal there.
But Byron Kilbourne wanted to build a railroad across the state of Wisconsin, from Milwaukee to the Mississippi River at La Crosse.
Yeah, but he didn't want to pay anybody for the land that he needed for that railroad.
What he wanted was for the territorial legislators at that time to use their new powers of eminent domain to condemn land in this corridor from Milwaukee to La Crosse and give it to Kilburn in a land grant.
and have seized the land from the property owners and then give it to Kilbourne so he could build his railroad.
And he ended up making over a half a million dollars worth of bribes to members of Wisconsin legislature to pass the land grant bill, made over a quarter million dollars in additional bribes to other key power brokers, including the Lieutenant Governor and the
chief clerk of the assembly and the governor's personal secretary, and then eventually paid the governor at the time, Coles Bashford, $50,000 to sign the bill into law and give him this land that he could use to build his railroad.
Byron Kilburn is known to be Wisconsin's first millionaire, which is saying something when you think that the average worker at the time was making less than a dollar a day.
and a skilled tradesman, the daily wage of a skilled tradesman at the time was under $2.
So, you know, the kind of the bribes that he was making, these were breathtaking, astonishing sums of money to throw around.
And becoming a millionaire at that time was an amazing feat when you're thinking about people living on a dollar a day.
That's what the economy was like at the time.
And so he gets his free land and he builds his railroad.
He crossed the Wisconsin River.
It is what now is known as Wisconsin Dells and named the settlement after himself.
And a lot of people don't know this, but before Wisconsin Dells was called Wisconsin Dells, it was Kilbourne.
It was first known as Kilbourne City, then just shortened to Kilbourne until 1931, when that whole land grant scandal rubbed people the wrong way to the point where they didn't want
their community associated with that scoundrel anymore, and they changed the name.
The interesting part of this story, though, with Byron Kilbourne, is the reaction it provoked from the people of Wisconsin.
That land-grant scandal led voters to rise up and vote Kohl's Bashford out of office.
There were all these other power brokers, many of whom were bribed by Kilbourne, of course, who came to be known as the 40 thieves.
And eventually, Coles, Bashford, and the 40 thieves were all voted out of office.
And that set in motion.
That was like the first tremor in what ended up becoming an earthquake in the state of Wisconsin.
Bribery was outlawed.
Oh, geez, that's too
bad.
And here's the amazing thing.
A lot of people don't think about this, but for the first half century of statehood.
Wisconsin became a state in 1848 and it wasn't until 1897 that bribing public officials was outlawed.
So for the first half century of state it was perfectly legal
to
do what Byron Kilbourne did.
But people rose up against that, bribery was outlawed, corporate campaign contributions and election spending were also banned
in Wisconsin.
And that
set the stage for
an amazing flurry of progressive reforms.
Worker rights advances were made.
Child labor was outlawed.
Protections for women in the workplace were put in place.
Unemployment insurance for those thrown out of work.
Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to create that.
Financial compensation for people injured in the workplace.
Workers' comp was created.
For the very first time in Wisconsin came the first state in the nation to create such a system.
The first state health and the first state life insurance plan was created by Wisconsin, the first kindergarten, the first educational technical and adult education system.
All that was all done by the 1911 legislature.
One legislature did all of that.
And on top of it, they took the nominating.
process for elected officials out of the hands of party bosses who were picking their people in small field rooms and gave it to the people, created the first direct primary elections anywhere in the country, right here in Wisconsin.
Did they have something to do with the great socialist movement as
well?
Byron Kilburn did manage to get himself elected mayor of Milwaukee twice.
Now, this is a man who was described by someone who knew him well as a man with strong prejudices and a dictatorial disposition.
Yes.
Again, an echo from the past that sure applies to somebody who's an awful lot like Byron Kilburn who...
who looked at Wisconsin as being ripe for the taking and
came here
and threw around a bunch of money, slapped on a cheese head and thought that he could order us around.
And what Elon Musk didn't know when he did that was that there's this history in Wisconsin about how Wisconsin treats people who come in and throw their weight around this way.
But Byron Kilburn did manage to become mayor of Milwaukee twice, but
the response to Kilburn's corruption did lead to a series of socialist mayors in Milwaukee.
Those who became known as the sewer socialists, who built the sewer systems and the public libraries and the public parks and so many other things that made Milwaukee a great city and fueled Milwaukee's growth.
There was a string of three socialist mayors in the city of Milwaukee that that also were a response to the the corruption of that kill-borne era
Well, a lot of those policies they came up with went nationwide Absolutely absolutely
and you know in Wisconsin was a was a trailblazer and did all these things that were firsts in the nation that then Social Security was even invented here and and was
grabbed by national policymakers to make a federal policy, but the idea was created right here in Wisconsin.
All of these things happened in Wisconsin in response to a guy and to an era.
It was an awful lot like the one that we're living through now.
And Kilburn was an awful lot like this man who just...
came to Wisconsin and thought that he could, uh, could order us around and buy himself a state supreme court seat and all that business.
Talk to Mike McCabe here from a sub stack blogger and author.
So, so how did Byron Kilborn wind up after all this?
Since bribery was legal when he was doing it, uh, did he ever have to pay the price?
I mean, as a scoundrel who'd been ripping off people for.
couple of decades.
He certainly didn't go to jail.
The corruption that his corruption was, of course, legally blessed at the time.
But that changed because of the public reaction to what happened that that land grant scandal.
And it altered the face of Wisconsin.
You know, Kilborn, to this day, there's an elementary school in Milwaukee that bears Byron Kilborn's name.
Kilborn Avenue is a major thoroughfare right through the heart of downtown Milwaukee, still named for Byron
Kilborn.
Marquette's around there.
Yeah.
And there's still some places around the Dells that bear his name.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, so he became a titan of industry, a major railroad baron.
But the way he went about...
his business to enrich himself, rubbed people the wrong way to the point where it led to this amazing transformation of our political culture and our social fabric.
And it really made Wisconsin a place that became a policy pioneer that the rest of the nation looked to, to create protections for working class Americans.
What Musk just tried to do, I think was done out of ignorance of Wisconsin's history.
He didn't crack a history book and he didn't learn about Byron Kilbourne or the reaction that Kilbourne's corruption provoked in our state.
But like I titled the article, what goes around comes around.
And I think what you've seen here in Wisconsin is a reignition of that instinct that people here have when
some outsider comes and figures that this is land for the taking and he can.
throw his weight around, boss people around, and exert his influence.
Well, Mike, I think it's important that the rest of Wisconsin know this story as
well.
Absolutely.
So maybe a lot of people don't know about Byron Kilbourne.
And if they knew, they could make that comparison and probably have that same reaction to what Elon is doing here in this country.
We're seeing it across the country.
I think the protests aren't exactly against Trump.
They are against Elon and what he has managed to do to
the country.
And it's against...
the era, it's against what, you know, it's against what Trump and Musk and everybody else represent, what they're trying to force down people's throats.
And there is this powerful reaction that's been created.
I got a chance to speak to a group of high school students at DeForest High School last week and told the Byron Kilbourne story.
And not only did none of the students know the story, but the teachers didn't know the story either.
And I wrote that.
inspired me to write the Substack article.
And I've heard from so many people who've been faithful readers of mine, and they hadn't heard the story.
They didn't know the history either.
So I think this is really important for us to know our own history because people say that if you don't know history, you're doomed to repeat it.
But here's an example where if you don't know history, perhaps you will never be inspired to recreate some magic that was once created right here in
Wisconsin.
Mike, we got to take a quick break, but we'll be back with more with Mike McCabe.
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Back with more with Mike McCabe on John and Gordy in the morning in a moment.
They make the juice
WMDX 92.7 John and Gordy in the morning We're back with Mike McCabe and Mike is a sub-stack Blogger and also an author got a great book Miracles Along County Q and Mike Why don't you mention you're gonna be appearing in Evansville tomorrow, right? Yeah tomorrow
tomorrow evening at six at the Eager Free Public Library in Evansville. Eager Free. It's called, well, Eager is a very prominent family rooted in Evansville. So the library is named for the Eager family, but it's a free public library.
So yeah, it's the eager-free public library in Evansville, and I actually spent the early part of my childhood on a small farm outside of Evansville on Coles Road. And so they, and the book that I wrote, the novel I wrote, Miracles Along County Cube, has some Evansville-inspired parts to the story.
This week is National Library Week. Yes, it is. And the library wanted a local author, particularly one who had written with Evansville sort of as a backdrop. And I wanted me to be their speaker for National Library Week. And so I'm going to do a presentation about the book and then sell and sign copies after the presentation.
But then I hear the news that the regime in Washington has decided to shutter, by executive order, the agency that supports libraries and museums in this country. And public libraries and museums around the country stand to lose billions of dollars worth of financial support.
And I know it's a small gesture, but I figured I cannot go and sell and sign books and pocket the money and head off. So I'm gonna donate all the proceeds to the public library there in Evansville. And so anybody who's in the area, Evansville is not far from Madison. Anybody in the area who wants to come on down to Evansville, it's charming town. It's a wonderful little community. And I've got some roots there from my early childhood.
Anybody who wants to come six o'clock tomorrow night at the public library on Main Street. And if you want to buy a book, it's also a way to support the public library because every dime is going to go to them. So that's tomorrow, 6 p.m. Evansville at the library. So, okay, very good. Well, I hope you get a lot of people showing up and buying the books for a good cause. You got to wonder, you know, why any...
one would cut or freeze or get rid of support for museums and libraries in the first place to save money. That obviously doesn't make any sense at all. You see what's happening to the Smithsonian Museum. And there's this active effort underway to try to scrub the historical record, erase elements of our history.
And of course, public libraries, what are public libraries, but places where people can learn about our history and about the way things are in America, the way things were. And in a public library, you not only find those reminders of what we were like, but also hints of what we could become because we...
Telling that story of Byron Kilbourne, way back in the 1800s when all that unfolded. But it's not only a reminder of where we were as a state then, but it's also a hint at what we could become because you think about that amazing reaction by the people of Wisconsin to the corruption of that era and all the progressive reforms that followed as a result. That was because...
People rose up against that and we need to know that and people in power today people who are trying to replicate what Byron Kilburn did then don't want people to know that history They don't want to people to know that part of the story. That's why museums and and libraries under assault. It's not to save money. It's to try to
it's to try to warp history. Well, I'm hoping history in this case does repeat itself. I mean, we have Elon out there, and we have a very inactive Congress at this point, allowing the president and Elon to get away with all of this stuff, and the midterms might just be a repeat. And there's another echo that comes from that story. When Byron Kilburn offered all those bribes to members of the state assembly and state senate, according to the historical record, only one
Senator, a fellow who came to be known as Anas Damasakab turned down the bribe. Everybody else who's offered the money took it and voted for that land grant bill. And so that legislature behaved exactly how today's Congress is behaving. In the face of this same kind of behavior. All but in that case, only one stood up and said, no, that ain't right. Everybody else took the money and those were astonishing sums of money that were thrown at. By the way, where is that guy's city?
Anybody name a city after what was his name again? His name was Honest a Mass of Cobb. I don't believe he was from Cobb, Wisconsin though. But he said it wasn't right. But everybody else went along until the voters said, you know what? The 40 thieves are all gone and the governor's gone. We're going to change the direction of the state. It was the people who rose up.
But man, that legislature behaved exactly how today's Congress is behaving. And you were talking before, again, you're going to be at the Evansville Library. Again, the name of it. The Eager Free Public Library. Right on Main Street. I was thinking about this, too, because Baraboo recently redid their library, and it was a Carnegie library. And Andrew Carnegie, I was just looking this up, he was a Scottish American businessman, big business man, and he helped to build 2,500
Carnegie Libraries. Donated money. Unbelievable. There aren't so many weeks. There aren't so many Kilborn public libraries. Mike, we got to leave it there. Thank you for joining us. And that's going to do it for us. Stephanie Miller's next. Tomorrow we've got more Peter Frampton tickets to give away. We'll talk to Busted Pencils about the state of education. Hope you have a great day. All right. Well, yeah, same to you. Right back at you. All right. So long.
As we were saying. Let the sun shine. Is the John and Gordy show.
