Like a fine wine aged to perfection, until the bottle shatters against the rocks of history, two ancient warriors of radio broadcasting take to the airwaves of Madison for anyone brave enough to listen to the unvarnished truth, or something like that.
It's John and Gordy in the morning on 92.7 WMDX.
WMDX 92.7, John and Gordy in the morning and we are broadcasting live from Substack, no, Shortstack.
Substack, Shortstack.
It's all the same, right?
They serve pancakes at Substack too.
It takes a little
longer to get them though.
Short stack eatery.
Yes at the corner of Johnson and state and Henry.
That's so good to be back here again.
I love this place.
I know we were here for a number of months every Wednesday morning and then and then we weren't and now we're back.
But we're back for a reason because they're closing very soon.
Closing down short stack eatery.
They
are.
It's not easy running a restaurant and that's the whole point.
You know, it's like working 24 hours a day.
I mean, you never know.
You have to go into work and fill in for somebody if you're the owner or manager.
Yeah, so we thought we'd come here one more time before they shut the doors and move on.
And they've always been very nice to us here when we...
when we dropped by before on Wednesdays.
So looking forward to having Mike McCabe drop in a little bit later on, as he does every Wednesday.
And then our boy Wunder Zenin, who we discovered here at Short Stack, along with his dad, he'll be stopping in as well.
So that'll be interesting.
Well,
that'll be a lot of fun.
We haven't seen him in a long
time.
Yeah, he's got a story, you know, Rachel Mano had a little rundown of all the things that Trump is doing that we didn't vote for and We'll be getting into that a little after seven o'clock
great.
Yeah, and a weather today Well, it's looking kind of cloudy and we even have some fog.
Wow.
Yes coming into matters
London
fog really, I didn't think I'd be able to see in front of me But you know once you get in it, it's
it's okay.
It's pretty thick but
You know what causes that is the dewpoint, John.
Is it really?
Oh my God.
So we'll talk to Brittany Merleau all about that.
It's
my enemy.
Yeah, you shiver every time I mention the word dewpoint.
You just start shaking uncontrollably.
You can't handle the dewpoint.
But it's it's 58 degrees currently.
What is your Samsung WMDX watch?
Oh, you know, I remember the
official WMDX Samsung watch.
I know, isn't it?
I felt like I left an arm at home.
It's 59 currently.
The predicted high will be about 83
degrees.
OK, 83.
Sam, are you with us here?
Do you want to roll the.
whether we let wheel.
Oh, of course I do.
Why don't you try that?
Of course you do.
Okay.
There it goes.
Round and round we go.
Afternoon high will be four to day.
Yes.
That says 81.
So, all right.
Well, you said 83.
83.
Okay.
Well, we're pretty close.
The low 80s.
That's what we'll say.
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by Verlo Mattress of Madison.
One thing that remains constant since they opened their doors back in 1958.
They are still direct to consumer providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
Two locations in Madison, east side and west side go to verlo.com for more information.
That's verlo.com.
All
right.
All
right.
I can do
that.
Well, what should we do?
Should we get to the national day calendar?
Do you feel like?
Well, yeah, I think that's
my high point of the morning, usually.
At least for this first 15 minutes, it's the high point.
It is.
All right, well, let's get to the
national
day calendar today.
I think it's similar to what we had last year, right?
Yeah, by a year ago.
Yeah.
Is it or is it not one of these days?
OK, you ready?
Yeah.
Is it National Buttermilk Biscuit Day?
Is it National Table Tennis Day?
National Underground America Day?
National Dance Like a Chicken Day?
National Receptionists Day?
What day does not
belong?
I am so fearful that it's Dance Like a Chicken Day, but I'm not going to talk about that one.
It's not a buttermilk pancake day today.
Well, buttermilk...
Buttermilk
Biscuit Day?
Biscuit Day.
Yeah.
You don't think it's that.
No, I don't think it's that.
Well, you're wrong.
It is that day.
What?
Really?
It's National Buttermilk Biscuit Day.
It would have been great if it would be Buttermilk Pancake Day.
Yeah, because we're here at Short Stack.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sam, do you care to take a guess?
Well, just because
John is so afraid of what the implications of this day are, I'm going to have to say it's not dance like a chicken day.
Well, you're wrong too.
It is national.
No, that's like a chicken day.
That's the
saddest day ever.
All
right, it's not National Table Tennis Day.
Oh,
OK.
Let's knock that one in by both of you guys.
Table
Tennis is ping pong,
isn't it?
It is.
Yes, it is.
All right.
Getting an early morning crowd here.
Have you got the ping
pong table in your basement yet, Gordy?
No, I have not.
Yeah, I still intend to get one.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that or not.
Oh, man.
You
know, they might have it on the marketplace.
Well, I could see.
Yeah, you could see if there's been
one thrown out on the road for hippie Christmas.
Hippie Christmas.
Yeah, because I'm sure.
Just drive her on.
I'm sure it'd be in great shape if it's laying out by the road.
Usually those get beat up by the college or
spray painted with listen to John and Gordy in the morning.
Yes, right Okay, let's get to national buttermilk biscuit day boy.
Oh boy.
What who doesn't love him?
buttermilk biscuit, the high rising breakfast staple.
Whether you enjoy them with biscuits and gravy or butter and honey, National Buttermilk Biscuit Day is a day to enjoy a food holiday easily incorporated into all of your meal.
You could have it with anything.
Goes with anything buttermilk biscuit.
Well, you know, I throw something in here.
I just don't remember the flour, but they use a special flour for the buttermilk biscuits in the south.
Is that so?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So if anybody knows, just text
us.
Yes, you can
text us
on the Civic Media app.
And
Sam will let us know, because we don't have access to the text, right?
I don't believe you.
I don't think we do.
No, we don't.
I'll read
them out
for you.
Don't worry.
OK.
Well, I'm concerned.
You could also call us, right?
608-879-8255.
But use the Civic Media app.
That's the easy way to do it.
Yeah.
Download it.
Absolutely free.
And you can text us or call us from there.
OK.
onto National Underground America Day.
Did I mention that?
No.
Oh.
Underground America?
Yeah, this recognizes the approximately 6,000 people who live in some form of underground architecture across North America.
Remember they used to have all those houses up by cross planes?
Yeah, earth homes.
I don't know what happened to those because I drive by there every once in a while and they're not there anymore.
You
know what, it's there.
I think they had a lot of shrubbery around the house and made it look like they were really underground.
All of that is gone, but they're still underground.
It's like one side of your house is underground.
It's built into a hillside.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kind of cool.
Just ask John.
Just ask John.
It's national dance like a chicken day.
No, this is not going to be.
This is not going
to happen today.
Well, today, May 14th encourages everybody to dance like a chicken.
Why is that?
The day entertains from start to finish with people flapping their arms and strutting chicken-like.
Yes.
Everyone has probably danced the chicken dance.
John, you've danced the chicken dance every time you go to a wedding.
No, I
haven't.
No,
I stay away from
that.
What?
Yeah.
I heard you were the instigator of the chicken dance at the last and every wedding you've ever been to.
Oh, yeah, from
our big party that we had.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm looking at baked wings across the street.
Is there a new restaurant going in on the corner?
I think it is.
Yeah, I think it is.
I don't know what, what used to be there.
Didn't have signs up before that
I
remember.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Shiny object, squirrel.
Let's get back to dance like a chicken day.
I don't have much
of an
attention span.
That's why we have so many different stories on this program.
The chicken dance was written by Werner Thomas, a Swiss accordionist.
The chicken dance didn't even make it to the United States until sometime in the 70s.
It's associated with polkas or um-pa music, um-pa-pa music, originally written with the name der Enterschmatze, or Enterstanz, or something like the duck dance.
You know what I think this is?
Somehow it went from the duck dance to the chicken dance.
This is a form of bird
flu.
Okay, well then let's move on.
One more day here, I think we had National Receptionist Day, so we salute all the receptionists out there.
Megan, our receptionists, they do, they handle everything.
Sammy, have you got the history book ready to go there?
Oh, I do.
Do I have to open it, or can I dial up the digital version since you guys are... Just dial
it up.
Oh,
that's
a good idea.
Oh, that's a
good idea.
Let's
overload the internet.
Since
you're back in control.
I hope the internet can handle all of this information.
Okay.
What happened on this date in history?
Well,
way
back, way, way back, today in 1607.
Jamestown was founded.
Jamestown was
the very
first permanent settlement.
and to become the U.S.
colonies in the United States.
It was the very first colonial settlement.
Okay, yes it was.
Okay, that's
great.
1796, I hesitate to really say that this is official because by modern standards, this is back alley medicine.
Today in 1796, a guy by the name of Edward Jenner developed the very first smallpox vaccine.
Wasn't
much of a
vaccine though.
He just took he took pus from blisters of people who had cowpox and gave it to Gave it to people who had not yet had smallpox in an effort to make sure that they wouldn't get the disease
you call that a
vaccine
But
did it work?
But did it
work?
Yes.
Yes, it did work and it's he's considered today the the founder of vaccination basically
Yeah, so using the virus was one way of fighting the disease.
Today in 1804 Lewis and Clark departed on the Corps of Discovery, their big journey out to the West Coast to map the soon-to-be continental United States.
Yes, the Lewis and Clark Expedition Group had a hit song way back in the 1960s.
No, they actually did, Lewis and Clark Expedition.
We can look that up.
Yeah, I'll
pull that
up for you.
Look
that up.
Today in 19... What's that?
Sam, here's a question for you.
What Indian woman, what American Indian woman did they meet up with that helped to guide
them?
Sackajubia
or Chicago,
sometimes people call it?
Yes.
Very good.
Thank
you,
thank you.
Yes, good for you.
Okay.
Next.
That was a short bell.
You
guys fans of Seinfeld?
Oh,
yeah.
Today in 1998, the very last episode of Seinfeld aired.
I haven't
seen it.
From what
I've heard, it didn't have that great of an ending, did it?
No,
it was really disappointing.
And then they tried a different ending on Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David.
And I think that may have almost been the last episode, but didn't they come up with a special?
That was the actual last episode.
Yeah, maybe.
I don't know.
I liked Larry David's, you know, Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I still like
it.
It's great.
But he had the whole show.
Everybody on the cast.
Everybody on
Seinfeld.
And it took an entire season
to do the last episode of Seinfeld.
It was
a phenomenon.
It took a lot to wrap it
up.
Got a few birthdays today as well.
It's George Lucas's birthday, David Byrne.
Robert Zemeckis and Mark Zuckerberg.
The Zuck.
They're all celebrating birthdays
today.
All
right.
Bring his name up.
We are live at Short Stack.
Short Stack eatery, downtown Madison.
As they get ready to close their doors.
We'll talk to Mike McCabe in our next hour.
Back with more of John and Gordy in a
moment.
What is this?
What is it?
It's the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
I feel good today.
Yeah.
See, I remember all these old songs way back
when.
Boy, that's...
I've never heard that song.
Yeah, well...
There's a reason for it.
It's not a great song.
It wasn't a big hit.
No.
WMDX 92.7.
John and Gordy in the morning.
It's 23 minutes past the hour.
It's foggy around Madison this morning.
We'll see some sunshine in the mix and highs in the low 80s today.
Right now 58 degrees and we're at short stack eatery.
Corner of State Street and Johnson.
just about a block away from our studios here.
So used to come here every Wednesday and coming back because they're going to be closing their doors shortly.
And we're going to find out more about that coming out.
So, all right.
They're doing that just to spite us.
You think so?
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by our friends at Madison Hearing Aid Center.
They're at 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
They offer fast and flexible appointments.
Jim and Sarah will take care of you there.
They help people and they change their lives.
Their number one goal isn't just selling hearing aids, it's improving the quality of life through better hearing.
Check out their website at MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
You can actually do an initial hearing test on the website, MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
And again, they're at 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
They do great work, don't they, John?
They do, yes.
I have some
fantastic hearing aids.
You really like
them?
Yeah.
Very comfortable?
Yeah, yeah.
They're great.
And
invisible.
You don't see them.
And they have Bluetooth capability, right?
You can dial up anything.
Can you do your phone just through your hearing
aids?
Yes, you can answer your phone that way.
In fact, I found out that you can answer your phone with the hearing aids while still listening to Bluetooth on your car stereo.
It's complicated after a while here.
Do you have one in one ear and one in the other and you can so you I mean, no, is it stir?
It's
stereo.
Okay.
Okay.
I
mean,
it's kind of cool.
It's two channel.
Yes, right?
Okay We don't have stereo on our telephones yet, but you know, that's the next Stereophonic telephone.
Well, it's interesting you can listen to your radio and yeah, yeah
And you take your phone
calls.
Well, Cookie Ed Burns had a song, Cookie's Mad Pad.
Remember, we even have a little piece of it we play before our show sometimes, the Mad Pad.
That's true.
And in that song, he talks about stereophonic telephone.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yeah, wow.
It's kind of cool.
So the Beatniks knew that this was going to happen.
They knew.
They knew.
I just got this information handed to me by Shanaid, short stack eatery.
Last day is Sunday, May 25th.
That's when they will be closing their doors.
So they're open 12 more days, including Monday, May 19th.
Oh yeah, yeah, they're usually closed on Mondays.
Usually closed on Mondays, but they'll be open next Monday from 8 until 1.
Everything is for sale here.
Everything.
Really?
Everything in short stack eatery.
If you'd like to find out more, you can email them at shortstackeatery at gmail.com.
That's shortstackeatery at gmail.com.
Well, they've got a
big
fork and a big knife displayed on the wall behind you, just behind
you.
It's
huge.
Look
out.
Bump my head on that thing.
No, they actually, they do have a lot of memorabilia.
They're really on the walls and everything.
They're very cool stuff here.
So you might want to check that out.
All right.
All right.
We will check that out.
It's 26 minutes past the hour.
The big news overnight was that the stocks went up.
Skyrocketed they raced all of this year's losses
is that right
because investors are now very confident about the trade progress Trump is making trade they come down a little bit with China right a little bit well quite a lot Well, they kind of yeah, but there's still a lot left.
Yes 30% Yes
You know it seems like Wall Street doesn't really care about the tariffs that we're gonna end up paying for
apparently not
right Yeah, so but they're very confident.
I'm so glad that
Well, at least Wall Street is happy.
I hate Wall Street.
And we kind of enjoy the fact that it tanked completely to prove how bad Trump's ideas were.
We didn't appreciate tanking the Wall Street at all because, you know, we had our investments there.
If you have investments or 401ks,
yeah.
So, you
know, it was a conflict of interest.
On my part.
But anyway, stock futures rise, okay?
But here's one.
Here's a headline.
Trump's biggest win isn't a trade deal.
It's his distortion of reality.
There you go.
We have to thank him for that.
Well, I don't know.
I don't think that's a good idea.
He's over there in Saudi Arabia, you know, making deals and, you know, they're signing all kinds of papers.
And is he going to come home with the plane?
Is that from Qatar?
Oh, he's going to take that airplane.
Oh,
there's
so many people
that disagree with that.
Just
amazing.
Yeah, left and right.
Yeah.
Yeah, everybody does.
But, you know, he doesn't see that.
And it's going to be a fantastic airliner when he gets out of office.
Maybe this will be the incentive
for him to leave early.
Gee, I got an airliner.
I got a palace on it in the sky.
That's where I'm going to be.
And I'm hoping that maybe the FAA will be so screwed up by then that stuff comes back to bite you.
Yes.
We just have a minute left here, John, before we check in with the Midwest Food and Farm Report with Pam Miyake.
We want to remind you, Mike McCabe will be joining us, a sub-stack author.
blogger and he'll be in our next hour and our boy wonder who we discovered here at short stack eatery Zenon will be here.
He'll be
almost a year older, right?
Why well, yes, I I would think so unless you went into the time I don't know If he was as old as
He's also seven feet tall and there was a growth spurt
during that year.
We will find all of that and more.
Stay with us.
John and Gordy in the morning, live at Short Stack Eatery.
Stereophonic telephone.
Bad.
Dig this crazy pad.
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.
This is grade A weapons grade stupidity.
Just doing my civic duties.
We can duck and cover.
There's a fall each other right there.
There's no way to survive this, you idiot!
Idiocracy.
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.
Well, here we are again with Idiocracy, John and Gordy WMDX.
And I've got to mention this because I know you mentioned that your mouse didn't work on the glass top table.
You can buy a mouse with more sensitive.
lights, lasers.
Yeah.
That work on a glass top table.
He
even says it on
the box.
How
often do you run up against a glass
top table?
Exactly.
Gordy, why don't you just go and get a trackball mouse?
That'll work on a glass top table.
Yeah.
OK.
Well, you know, the thing is I got a glass top for the table, our new table in our dining room.
Yeah.
We got a glass top for it.
And then I found out my mouse didn't work at all.
So I went out and I had to buy like a 60 or 70 dollar mouse.
That does work on glass top tables.
That's amazing.
And the downside of that is if you lose it or lose track of it or leave it at the studio or you take it home with you, my mouse to your home.
house, then you start panicking thinking, oh my god, that's $70.
But it really is nice to have.
It's pretty flexible stuff.
All right, let's get to
idiocracy
here.
You
just mentioned that it's 6.36.
It's kind of foggy out there this morning.
Just be aware of that temperatures will climb into about the 80 degree arranged later this afternoon and Coming up a little later in about an hour.
We'll be visiting with Mike McCabe We're live here at short stack eatery as they get set to close their doors the last day is Sunday May 25th And so we thought we would come down here and broadcast again one more time like we used to do
Mike McCabe has got
a
good early morning crowd
here.
He's got a real bone to pick with, I guess, the Clinton administration.
Why?
He kind of blames the Clinton administration for getting us to this point in time.
Wait a second.
Why would he blame Clinton?
I
don't know.
We'll find out.
Wasn't Clinton the only president we've had in the last, I don't know, how many years?
Who balanced the budget?
Who balanced the budget?
We actually had a little surplus.
That's the good thing.
There were some
bad things.
But there was a bad aspect to it.
Yeah.
And it's a triangulation, remember?
Triangulation?
No, I don't remember.
All right.
Well, we'll find out more when Mike McCabe gets
here.
Definitely.
All right, let's get to... Idiocracy.
Let's get to Idiocracy, OK?
Senator Mike Lee of Utah has just introduced a bill to make all porn a federal crime.
Okay.
Haven't we tried this before?
Haven't they gone down this road
about
every 10 or 15 years?
They
do.
Every once in a while they attempt this.
And I think it's actually just kind of a show.
It's a showpiece.
Yeah.
Because as we all know, the Bible built.
Are the heaviest users of porn is that right?
Yes
Well, at least they have been for the last 30 or 40 years.
I don't know what it's like now.
Have you been tracking their use of porn?
You know I have.
Your personal survey?
Well, my wife used to write novels for Harlequin romance way back when now she does her own novels.
But she used to and we used to get a book in advertisements from Harlequin and they had a book of statistics.
You know, romantic statistics, and this was one of these statistics is that people watch porn in the Bible Belt.
Well good for them.
I don't know what to say to that.
Maybe there's nothing else to do.
That's why I'm saying this is kind of a phony bill.
Obviously, you know, they're trying to look, you know, holy pictures, right?
With Mike Lee.
And it's not, it's not working, Mike.
You know, you guys are the ones who watch porn, so take it easy, okay?
So he wants this might pass.
He wants to make it a federal crime.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anything to do with porn.
Well, you know, it's who knows.
I don't know.
This is wonderful.
And this is breaking news.
Trump is lifting sanctions on Syria.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Gee, it just happens to be in the Middle East.
Just after the new leader was elected, a former al-Qaeda fighter linked to the deaths of injuries and dozens of American troops proposed building a Trump Tower in the country.
Okay, so we're lifting the sanctions on Syria and just coincidentally Trump is planning to build a Trump Tower in that country I don't know if the two are related We could ask CJ he's he's in on all this stuff.
He gets money from Trump
You know it's interesting back to the $400 million jet that
Trump
is going to accept as a gift from Qatar
Qatar is where all the Hamas leaders live.
Yes, all the all the you know, they're all there in Qatar essentially they have They have anything to do with that you think so hmm some sort of bribery deal perhaps.
I don't know it just brings up all kinds of questions and They're gonna have to I don't think Congress is gonna go But somehow I think he's just gonna take the plane anyway.
Yeah,
just fly it over.
We'll park it somewhere and
I'm
pretty much convinced that that is true and I understand that I Saw a story on that and I believe that you know Hamas is very happy about all of this You know
just yesterday
story somewhere in here
just yesterday you guys I saw it was a I don't think it was the actual plane that Trump is being offered But it was like a gigantic plane much like
what he's being offered by Qatar, a flying fortress, if you will.
And it had the Trojan horse photoshopped onto the front of it.
That's what we're facing here.
Well, gee, that might be a signal.
Oh, my God.
What is
this?
What's wrong with this guy?
He's just signaling to everybody what he's doing.
Oh, God.
Yikes.
Well, what can you do?
All right.
Let's get to the next story here.
That's just amazing stuff.
You know, when you really think about it, it's not coincidental, okay?
But this one, and I wanted to get to this a couple of days ago, but this is where we're swapping out immigrants in this country.
For white people.
That's right.
The anti DEI Was transparent from the start It is a racist policy, but they're acting like they're actually trying to be neutral on color That's not true.
Trump found an even more obvious way to get his subtle message across import poor repressed white people from South Africa already wealthy
into this country because they'll assimilate a little bit easier.
Why don't we get to this cut here?
This is Caroline Levitt talking about it.
She was asked about this at a press conference cut 84.
All right, let's listen to this.
The president has shown support for South African refugees that are coming to the United States next week.
Can you talk about what these refugees are fleeing and why this is a priority for the administration?
Well, the president has actually signed an executive order on that matter, my office.
Can you get it back to you, Michael?
But this group in South Africa has faced racial persecution.
In fact, the government there has vowed to take away their farmland that they own.
And so the president has
has talked significantly about this.
As for further details on refugee claims and asylum claims, I would defer you to the State Department.
Oh, yeah.
All right, okay.
So there you go, right?
Talk to the State Department.
There you
got the whole
deal.
Marco Rubio
will explain this to you.
Yes, we're importing white people into the country, all right?
White South Africans.
And we couldn't be more obvious about it.
Friends of
Elon, maybe?
Well, you never know.
She says that South Africans are fleeing to the U.S.
because of racial persecution.
Let's talk about persecution.
1913, black South Africans were banned from owning land.
93% of farmland was handed to white settlers back then.
Entire communities were bulldozed for white expansion.
Fast forward, white South Africans make up 7% of the population.
That's it.
yet still own 72% of private farmland.
In South Africa.
Yes.
Wow.
But yeah, they're oppressed.
They want to come to the U.S.
Yeah, we get a better deal.
Where we're going for the white population.
This is white nationalism, if you ever heard of
it.
Yeah.
All right, how about this?
And this is something to keep an eye on.
Blinking.
If
you
excessively blink, it shows anxiety, all right?
Which pairs with line.
If you're lying, you have more higher anxiety, and that produces the physical blinking.
Is that from,
what, a medical journal
or a
psychology
journal or something?
Well, that's from just asked John.
He knows everything about this.
Really, you've been studying blinking
lately?
You've been doing
some research projects on
the side?
Well, I came across a story that said that.
I'm believing them.
So excessive blinking means you're lying?
Yes.
That's okay.
Well, it's a sign of anxiety and it could be that you're lying.
Why would you be suffering from anxiety if you're just answering a question from somebody unless, of course, you have ulterior motives, right?
Post on X presented a side-by-side look at Christine Gnome and Caroline Levitt blinking like crazy while being asked a question by the press.
So when you're talking to somebody, just make a mental note and say, I wonder if I'm blinking a lot.
Keep
your eyes wide open.
As much as possible and don't blink.
Just stare.
Just stare at people.
That's right.
They won't know you're lying.
That's right.
Is that
it?
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
I want to know.
I want Sam to queue up cut 29.
All right.
Okay.
All right.
Now we've got the tariffs a little bit lower in China.
Okay.
They're a lot lower, but there's still a tremendous amount of tariff.
Yes.
For China, right?
Right.
We're still paying a ton of money for Chinese products at this point.
It's about 30%.
It's not going to give us a break.
But Wall Street loves it.
So they made up all the differences, all the losses since the beginning of the year.
All right.
Well, EU customers aren't really happy with us.
Many other countries are smart enough to see Trump and his policies are terrible, horrible, racist and inhumane.
So they have an app.
Let's listen to what they have done to buy the right products at their stores.
Across Europe, a quiet protest is playing out in supermarket aisles.
American products.
left untouched.
The hashtag boycott Trump is gaining traction as Facebook groups rally Europeans to push back against US policies with their wallets.
Michel joined a French group in March.
As long as we have aggressive policy of American administration, we want to make pressure to say stop it.
His group even provides an app called de-Trumpify yourself.
that lets consumers know if a company's funding traces back to the United States.
One recent survey in France found that six out of ten people support consumer boycotts of U.S.
goods.
The poll also showed that the hardest hit American brands included Tesla, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Victoria's Secret.
But it's not just products.
Travel to the U.S.
from Europe is also down.
In March, visits dropped 17% compared to the same time last year.
hesitation and fear about going to the United States.
So Gillen, who asks us not to use her last name as she has family in the United States, joined a small group of American protesters on Thursday.
All right, there you go.
Wow, they're all ready for us.
They've created an app already.
A de-trumpifying app.
Okay, good to know.
I want that for my phone.
Yeah, I'm gonna check that out too.
648, we will continue live from Short Stack Eatery.
It's John and Gordy in the morning.
Stay with us.
WMDX.
92.7, John and Gordy in the morning.
We're at Short Stack.
We're helping them close out.
Yeah, their
last day is Sunday, May 25th.
It is 6.53, with a little fog around Madison this morning.
We'll see sunshine mixed with clouds and highs around 80.
Yeah, Short Stack.
They'll be open 12 more days.
including they're going to be open on Monday,
May
19th.
They're usually closed on Monday.
But this time they will be open.
And everything is for sale in short stack eatery.
You can find out more if you're interested.
You can go to shortstack eatery at gmail.com.
That's shortstack eatery at gmail.com.
Well, it'll be a disaster if
people start buying the tables.
Yeah, leave the tables to last.
We got to buy some stuff here.
Yeah, put them on layaway.
But you look around, they have a lot of stuff on the walls here that's pretty interesting.
Oh, yeah.
Very cool stuff.
Now,
when you warned me that somebody was sitting behind me, were you worried that I would be talking with my arms?
I was worried you were going to flail around like sometimes, too.
You get all excited about something.
I get really angry about a lot of things.
Yeah.
So I just wanted to give you that a heads up.
This portion of John and Gordy in the Morning is brought to you by MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
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They offer fast and flexible appointments.
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All right, I thought this was an interesting conversation between Senator Chris Murphy and Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem.
Really?
Yes.
He was pretty angry about the fact that Kristi Noem doesn't seem to have a problem spending money.
All right, so let's listen to this.
It's actually mostly Chris Murphy at this point.
Let's
listen.
Your department is out of control.
You are spending like you don't have a budget.
You're on the verge of running out of money for the fiscal year.
You are illegally refusing to spend funds that have been authorized by this Congress and appropriated by this committee.
You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required, that you are commanded to follow as spelled out in your oath of office.
You are routinely violating the rights of immigrants who may not be citizens, but whether you like it or not, they have constitutional and statutory rights when they reside in the United States.
Your agency acts as if laws don't matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress.
It did not give you that mandate.
You act as if you are disagreement with the law, or even the public's disagreement with the law, is relevant and gives you the ability to create your own law.
It does not give you that ability.
Let's start with your spending.
You are on track to trigger the Anti-Deficiency Act.
That means you are going to spend more money
than you've been allocated by Congress.
This is a rare occurrence, and it is wildly illegal.
Your agency will be broke by July, over two months before the end of the fiscal year.
You may not think that Congress has provided enough money to ICE, but the Constitution and the federal law does not allow you to spend more money than you have been given, or to invent money.
And this obsession with spending at the border as the...
Chairwoman mentioned has left the country unprotected elsewhere.
The security threats to the United States are higher, not lower, than when before Trump came to office.
To fund the border, you have illegally gutted spending for cybersecurity.
As we speak, Russian and Chinese hackers are having a field day attacking our nation.
You have withdrawn funds for disaster prevention.
Storms are going to kill more people in this country because of your illegal withholding of these funds.
Your myopia about the border, fueled by President Trump's prejudice against people who speak a different language, has shattered many of this country's most important defenses.
Finally, let's talk about these disappearances.
In an autocratic society, people who the regime does not like are people who are protesting the regime.
They are just often picked up off the street, spirited away, sometimes to open into detention, sometimes they're never seen again.
What you are doing,
Both the individuals who have legal rights to stay here, like Kilmora Brego Garcia, or students who are just protesting Trump's policies, is immoral.
And to follow the theme, it is illegal.
You have no right to deport a student visa holder with no due process, simply because they have spoken in a way that offends the president.
You can't remove migrants who a court has given humanitarian protection from removal.
Exactly.
Now, reports suggest that you are planning to remove immigrants with no due process and send them to prisons in Libya.
Libya is in the middle of a civil war.
It is subject to a level four travel advisory, meaning we tell American citizens never to travel to Libya.
We don't
have an
embassy there because it is not safe for our diplomats.
Sending migrants with pending asylum claims into a war zone just because it's cruel.
is so deeply disturbing.
Yeah.
Wow.
Pretty matter of fact, huh?
She didn't have much
to say.
No, she didn't have much to say herself in the middle
of all that.
Now, would this have happened under Biden?
That's the question I have asked.
I mean, Trump asked it all the time.
And by the way, where is the mega criticism of her overspending?
And not only that, she's not spending money.
on things we should be spending money on and
yet
she's overspending.
How the heck did that happen?
Well good for Chris Murphy for stepping up and reading her the riot act there.
You know I think what he had said there could be applied to a whole bunch of things that the Trump administration is doing at this point.
They think that because they were voted in that there is a mandate.
Everything is covered under that mandate.
Next time we're going to deal with that.
Things we voted, we didn't vote for when we voted for Trump to be the
president.
And also coming up in a little more than a half hour, we'll talk to Mike McCabe, sub-stack blogger and author.
It's all coming up on John and Gordy live at Short Stack Eatery, downtown Madison.
Stay with us.
He was saying, let the sun shine.
Is the John and Courtney show.
These are the times that try men's souls.
In the course of our nation's history, the people have rallied bravely whenever the rights of men have been threatened.
Today, a new crisis has arisen.
Citizens, hear me out.
This could happen to you.
People think I'm controversial, but the truth is, I'm a nice guy.
You know who I am?
In the field of live entertainment.
Oh my God!
I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.
Let me tell you something, you lowlife lion, four-plush and sack of shit.
I will tell you, this is going to be something special.
Just a show about nothing.
Hell, I like you.
You can come over to my house and fuck my sister.
Well, it's just fucking ponderous, man.
Ponderous, fucking ponderous.
hundreds as it is.
WMDX, John and Gordy in the morning.
It's 7 0 7.
We are live at short stack eatery downtown Madison and got a little bit of fog, some cloud cover this morning.
We'll see some sunshine and highs around 80 right now.
It's 60 degrees.
This portion of the show being brought to you by our friends at Verlo mattress of Madison.
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They are still.
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Alright, why don't we go to the phones right away?
Let's do that.
We have Mark and I believe Dick on the line as well.
So let's go to Mark first.
Mark, how are you doing today?
Morning.
I'm doing okay.
And so Trump is saying that these people from South Africa are the rich in refuse.
Yes.
that in the past we've, you know, it brings to mind, you know, Emma Lazarus' poem that is more than just, you know, giving you Richard Refuse.
I mean, the name of the Statue of Liberty that she assigned is Mother of Eggaziles.
Now, these people, indeed, Eggaziles, are they just, you know, people who decided, oh, we can, you know, we can make a big flash over here, big splash and come in and...
Because I imagine these people are not the best of South Africa.
I imagine they have connections, they have families, they have money, and it is just pretty disturbing that Trump is just...
I think they admitted that these people have money and will assimilate more easily into the U.S.
population.
I believe they've come right out and said that, Mark.
No speculation there.
But many of the people we get from south of the border, I mean, do not speak our language, but they rapidly assimilate.
They do jobs.
They work hard.
And they're providing us with services and goods that we want in this country.
And just the fact that they're a little darker than the rest of us in most cases.
The last
the last statistic I remember seeing was you know, they they start businesses 40% of immigrants start businesses in this country.
That's that's pretty damn good All right.
Yeah, it is
mark.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, all it's
thank
you
We appreciate it.
Yeah, you have a good day, too.
For reminding us that there is riff-raff.
Countries that are really horrible out there.
Right?
Well, but if they're white, let's bring them back here to the
US.
Let's go to Dick.
He is on the phone line this morning.
You can call us too.
6-0-8-8-7-9-8-2-5-5.
Dick, good morning.
Good morning.
Mark, spot on, as always.
You know, they're making a big deal of media on this trip, presently Trump.
is not going to be meeting at all with Netanyahu and making a big deal out of it.
And I honestly think personally it's by design because in my mind Netanyahu is one of the other world criminals, world-class criminals just like Trump.
And I think they're staying away from each other because he's just let Netanyahu commit the genocide he's committing.
And then when it's all over,
Trump will step in and their property already making plans as sons and Netanyahu and everybody else, what they're going to do with Gaza.
But I think he's just staying out of it for that reason.
Yeah, I think Netanyahu is, yeah,
I think he's bringing people into Gaza.
like Trump wanted to do with the U.S.
going into Gaza.
I think he's bringing other people.
I can't remember the story now, but I understand that he has another force coming in to take over and probably clear out Gaza as well.
In fact, I think they're providing food, but you can't get the food unless you leave.
i think i think there's something to do with that it's just my memory is starting to fade you know i'm i'm old okay please give me a break all right thank you for that call i i want to bring this up because we talked about this earlier in that humas is very happy with uh... with what trump is doing right now taking the airliner there is a big story newsmax has turned on trump and the airline deal along with working with humas
This is Newsmax.
Check this out.
This is fantastic stuff.
Cut 106.
Let's listen.
What do you think of accepting this gift?
I really don't like this.
I gotta say, it makes me really uncomfortable, and it's not just that, you know, this is not a gift.
This is Qatar, a state sponsor of terror that has Hamas in the palm of its hand giving a bribe.
And I don't think President Trump would capitulate to anything that they asked him to, but that doesn't mean that it's not below the appearance of a conflict of interest.
And I'll just say one more thing.
watching how quickly the Qataris were able to get Idan Alexander released.
Obviously, I'm so grateful to God and so grateful to President Trump for getting this man out of Hamas captivity where he was tortured.
But also, it really raises the question, they can make Hamas do anything.
In minutes, in hours, there are 58 other hostages there.
What about them?
Why is Qatar suddenly a major player in terms of controlling the scene?
I hate that.
Hamas is
celebrating, they see this as their first agreement with the United States and it just, it turns my stomach, you guys.
I don't disagree.
There it is.
That's not MSNBC.
No, that's Newsmax.
That's Newsmax.
Yeah.
Wow.
They're coming out swinging.
I'll tell you.
Absolutely.
And it does create a whole bunch of questions.
They brought up some actually great questions on Newsmax.
I might have to start watching.
No, I'm just kidding.
Well, let's get to our special guest here.
I
was just about to say that.
Now we present to you Zennan, who is, well, we'll get to you in a moment here, Zennan, but I just want to give a little backstory.
You used to visit us when we broadcasted from here.
In the early stages of our career.
Every Wednesday,
we would broadcast from a short stack and you were
one of the guests that we got to know.
In what grade were you when you were a guest last year?
Eight.
Eight grade.
And now he's
a
freshman.
And
where
do you go to
school?
West High School.
Oh, okay.
It's over in my neck of the woods.
Okay, so how's it going in school?
I love it.
It's so, so great.
Teachers, friends, classes, everything about it.
I really like it.
So public school actually seems like a good thing, right?
Yes,
to
me.
Yes, obviously.
You know, they really were fantastic for my kids as well.
And I don't understand any of the criticism.
It's all just made up mumbo jumbo.
It doesn't mean anything
really.
I agree with you.
I really
do.
It really is.
Well, we have Zennan here now as a freshman, but we have a story for Zennan to pass along to everybody here.
OK,
Zennan.
Why don't we
listen to this?
Take it
away.
Well, get this.
Trump is doing things that nobody has ever asked for, and I mean ever.
This is a great and, of course, partial list of things Trump has cut that no one hardworking American has asked for.
Here's Rachel Maddow with the rundown.
All right.
On top of being unpopular, unsmart, and obviously corrupt, they are continually doing things that have zero constituency.
Doing things for which literally no one is in favor.
Except for.
the proverbial cartoon villain twirling his mustache somewhere, right?
I mean, the headlines just today.
Trump administration halts research to help babies with heart defects.
Who is the constituency for that?
Who voted for that?
Or this one, federal purge, guts, infant death prevention campaign.
Alarming doctors.
Yeah, who voted for that?
Who wants that?
Who's the constituency for that?
That thing that Trump just did.
Today we learned that Trump cut off the funding for the medication used by horses that are ridden by national park rangers.
Who's in favor of that?
Seriously.
He cut off the funding for toner cartridges for the printers at the Social Security Administration.
Because yeah, that's waste.
That's fraud and abuse, right?
That they can print.
This comes after he plans to cut Narcan.
Narcan does nothing except keep people alive if they overdose.
He's cutting Narcan.
This comes after he cuts Meals on Wheels.
Who's against Meals on Wheels?
It comes after he cuts Head Start Preschool.
Because who among us didn't think that the preschool kids were the ones who were getting it too good?
And making America great again was about putting them back a few notches.
I mean, honestly, these guys every day are doing things that have zero political constituency that do nothing other than harm the country and harm the people in this country who are least able to articulate for themselves the pain that Trump is causing them.
Every day they are doing things that have zero political constituency that
obviously hurt the country while they are already historically unpopular, making headlines for really radically flagrant corruption, and while there are already people in the streets protesting against them every single day of the week in every single state of the country.
That is how we are starting the second hundred days of the Donald Trump presidency.
And the point is, of course, is that they always say that people voted for Trump to do these things.
But
nobody wanted them.
No one wanted them, and this is truly micromanaging an entire country.
I mean, I know that Trump likes to take control of his businesses.
He's put them out of business many, many times over.
But now he's micromanaging the country instead of allowing the departments to manage most of it.
They've dissembled most of the administration, and now he's in charge.
And they're going after the smallest things.
I mean, toner cartridges, right?
Social security
kind of needs toner total just printers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They'll go back to fax machines
So this is just then do you do you take a there?
Do they have current events classes in high school anymore?
I believe so but you have to be an upperclassman to take that when you're a freshman.
There's kind of the sets
core classes that you take and then you get to choose the electives.
I see.
You're going to go to summer school this year?
Yes, I am.
I'm taking personal finance just to get that out of the way.
And it's really nice because it's extra high school credit.
Well, yeah, that's something I like to just get out of the way.
Any kind of personal finance, I don't want to ever do it again.
I'd just like to take it out of the way.
Well, I meant it in the context of it is a graduation requirement.
Yeah,
it's good to have.
I mean, you're really definitely going to need it.
For sure.
Are you working this summer at all?
Are you doing any part-time work or mowing lawns?
I don't know yet.
I'll probably be volunteering a lot around.
Oh, really?
Well,
that's part of your curriculum as well.
You
have to have a certain amount of volunteer hours.
Is
that
correct?
Yes.
All right.
Well,
there
you go.
And any other plans for the summer?
Any vacation plans?
Are you going to travel anywhere?
No.
Just staying around here.
Okay.
Boy's soccer starts in August and actually I don't play.
You'd be happy.
I started announcing games.
So basketball and then boys and girls soccer.
You're doing play by play?
Not quite.
It's more of goals, baskets, field goals.
My
PA announcing?
Yes.
Really?
Good for you.
It's great.
I love
it.
Your broadcast career is off to a good start, young man.
You're going to go places.
Thank you so much.
Don't get into broadcast.
All right.
Good to know.
What are you
doing?
Hey, let's get to everybody.
We only
have 30 seconds here.
Let's not get to
AOC.
What are
we going to
get into?
AOC is taking a look at and rent through the Medicaid cuts by Republicans.
We'll get to that next on John and Gordy in the morning live from short stack eatery downtown Madison.
WMDX
92.7 John and Gordon in the morning working in a coal mine here at short stack eatery their final days
The
last day is Sunday, May 25th, John.
They're open 12 more days, including Monday, May 19th.
Not usually open on Mondays, but they're going to make an exception for the 19th.
And everything is for sale here at Short Stack.
So if you stop in, you can find out about that.
And you can go to their email to find out more, shortstackeateryatgmail.com.
All right.
We've got our special guest, Zenon, a freshman in high school.
visited us last year when we were broadcasting live here and has been kind enough to come out again and bear witness to this incredible program.
Thank you.
And
Zenon,
we
want to introduce you to Brittany Merlot,
who's
standing by with the weather this
morning.
If you have any questions for Brittany, just feel free to ask.
Now Brittany, we had immense fog in the area earlier this morning, really fantastically thick.
Yeah, but it
seems like it's lifting now.
Yeah,
tell us what's
happening.
Oh goodness, all that fog rolled off the lake actually Lake Michigan through those overnight hours.
It's pretty thick on occasion, but it is starting to dissipate.
It should be gone by 9 o'clock this morning and then we're going to see some partly sunny skies and we're going to get nice and comfortable again, hitting about 80 degrees today and it really looks like this.
Get her shower chances want to stay further north.
So I do think we're going to stay mainly dry tonight, maybe a brief scattered shower later after dark.
But I
really think
all of that rain is going to be holding off until tomorrow, which of course is the severe weather risk.
We're an enhanced risk now from the storm prediction center.
And we're looking at that line coming through probably from about four to six o'clock tomorrow night.
And we do
have the
risk, especially the ones that pop up early.
They could have a tornado with them.
very, very large hail, probably the size of ping pong balls as possible, some heavy downpours and also high winds.
So sometime tomorrow night.
Four to six.
Four
to six
is the
sweet spot for those storms to roll through.
OK, it's not night yet, I guess.
This boy Daylight saving time is here.
OK, I got it.
Mr. Weatherman over here is giving me an eye.
I'm not giving you the stink eye.
Brittany we have Zennan joining us here and Zennan do you have any questions for Brittany about the weather or anything you'd like to ask her?
Yeah, but it's kind of a narcissistic one.
How about in how about in Milwaukee?
We're supposed to fly out of there later today.
Where are
you going?
Nashville.
You're going to Nashville?
Yes, my mom has a work conference there.
Oh, I thought maybe you'd started a music career or something like that.
So how's that look, Brittany?
You said tonight,
what time?
Is this going to be late at night?
3.55
PM.
3.55.
Oh, you're good.
This afternoon.
Perfect.
You're getting an afternoon the first
time.
Take me with
you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
All right, there you go.
Any other
questions
there?
No, ma'am.
All
right.
Well, Brittany, thank you for joining us.
We're going to continue here from the short stack.
We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
It's nice to meet you,
son.
We'll eat a pancake for
you.
Pleasure is mine.
Thank you.
OK.
Thanks, Brittany.
That's
our
WMDX chief meteorologist, Brittany
Merleau.
Let's get to AOC.
She read the details of the Medicaid cuts Republicans are putting through her.
I think they're mostly trying to sneak it through.
They said, oh, no cuts to Medicaid.
Only the people who deserve to get Medicaid should get it, though.
That's the hand tip.
I mean they're telling you right away that this is what they're looking for and they do this to everything Everything including voting.
So and you get one million immigrants on Medicaid is what they're claiming So the Megas are trying to cut down on that by cutting out 13 million Americans off of health care.
So why don't we listen to this?
This is this is AOC talking about the details of the Medicaid cuts
And the math is not adding up.
They're trying to convince people that they are cutting millions of undocumented people from payroll, from Medicare, acting as though this is what's going to save it, even if you believe everything that Republicans have said today.
They are identifying one million, their claim, which I dispute, but if you believe them, their claim is that one million undocumented people are on Medicaid.
So why are they trying to cut 13.7 million Americans off their healthcare?
By the Republicans own energy and commerce tweet this morning, their claim is 7.6 million people are somehow ineligible for healthcare.
So why are they cutting 13.7 million Americans off their healthcare?
They've asked us to read this bill, and we have.
This bill bans the people that they kick off of Medicaid.
from even buying their own insurance from the Affordable Care Act exchange.
So once you are kicked off Medicaid, you then can't even buy your own health insurance.
It increases costs for people who they deem eligible and who are low income and forces them to pay even more.
And if you have a private insurer, don't worry, you're getting screwed over too.
Because your health care premiums are going to skyrocket from the disaster that is happening from this bill.
That's right.
You know, she doesn't bring up the fact that they're they're going to not renew the COVID Tax credit they increase the tax credit for the ACA the Affordable Care Act for everybody who is on the marketplace and they're gonna get rid of that So it's gonna add another two or three hundred dollars to your premium per month So a lot of people are gonna drop off of Obamacare right away because no one's gonna be able to afford the monthly premiums for it
So this is just part of what they're trying to do.
And it's not good.
And I'll tell you what, they're using health care to coerce a lot of people in this country to do what they want them to do.
And this is wrong.
That's why we should have universal health care.
There you go.
Unbelievable.
OK.
729, Zennan, thanks for joining
us.
Thank you so much for having me.
Continued success in your schooling and your career.
And
keep in
touch with us, OK?
And
congratulations on your cell phone.
He finally got himself a great thank you coming up after the break we'll talk to Mike McCabe sub-stack author and blogger next on John and Gordy in the morning live from short
stack
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WMTX 92.7, John and Gordy in the morning.
We are live at Short Stack Eatery one more time.
They closed their doors on Sunday, May 25th.
And of course we used to broadcast here every Wednesday for quite a while.
So we thought we'd come back one more Wednesday and say goodbye to them here.
They'll be out Sunday, May 25th, this is their last day.
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They offer individualized care, not one size fits all.
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And now Mike McCabe joins us.
Good to see you, Mike from Substack.
Good to see you.
Good to be
back at Shortstack one
last time.
I remember when I was first a guest on your show and we were broadcasting from Shortstack and I write for Substack and then you would say a Shortstack author.
It's
still hard.
We're still messing it up here.
It's
good to be back at Substack writing for Shortstack.
Exactly, that's what I always
say.
Ha ha ha
So your latest your latest article at Substack is the costliest casualty tell us about that now you were you're talking about Bill Clinton and Dick Morris, but you really you didn't include Newt Gingrich,
who was
also a major part of that
whole
situation.
Of course.
Yeah, I start out with the Fleetwood Maxon curse.
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.
Exactly.
The theme of that.
Yeah.
And that was the theme of the Clinton campaign in nineteen.
92, don't stop.
And it was really about tomorrow.
And then Dick Morris got his claws into
Bill
Clinton and taught him to take his opponents' ideas and make them his own.
And it really sent us down a road that has led nowhere good.
And a lot of things have been repped in our society.
And of course, that
that wreckage has accumulated now in the last few years and then spent in the last hundred days in particular.
You were talking about dead bodies on the side of the road.
Well, wait a minute.
I remember.
Well, you know, I was talking about casualties in the article and about how this road is sort of littered with carcasses.
And you know, there's been a lot of things wrecked in America, but I think some of the...
most significant things that have been wrecked as honesty and decency and optimism.
When you think about the national mood right now, we live in a very dishonest age where lying has become casual.
And we live in a really indecent age where cruelty and bullying seems to be celebrated.
It's no longer taboo to...
be cruel.
It's almost cool to be cruel.
And then, of course, optimism.
When you think about the national mood, there's just this sort of doom and gloom attitude about America and America's future.
But to me, the costliest casualty of all has been imagination.
We're sort of stuck.
you know thinking either about where we are right now and people aren't happy with that or trying to go back to the 1920s or the 1890s or whatever we're trying to figure out what's the golden age and how can we get back there and we've stopped thinking about tomorrow so you know that Fleetwood Maxon came to mind and and so I just then I Focused the rest of the article on five things that we could imagine that could make
tomorrow better than today.
We could get to a better place in this country.
That's what the article is really all about is.
is trying to recapture or rediscover imagination.
We could redo the song.
Stop, stop thinking about tomorrow.
Don't stop
thinking
about
tomorrow.
Stop,
stop.
So how do you get that creative spark back about imagination?
What are your five suggestions to get
there?
I started with housing because when you think about what working class people are struggling with.
The cost of housing is right up there.
And young people, I ran into a really interesting statistic.
Less than half of people under 35 are homeowners across America.
And most of them don't feel like there's any hope of them ever owning a house.
But we're not thinking about, hell, the current regime is trying to cut rental assistance by 40%.
That's their answer to housing.
is cut rental assistance by 40%.
But we're not talking about things like maybe prohibiting hedge funds and private equity firms and other speculators from buying up houses.
Just say hedge funds and private equity firms, you can't buy single family residences, which they're doing out of speculation, which drives up prices for everybody else.
And it's making a housing market that is pricing
young families out of that market.
And so we could do something dramatic like that.
We could take a bold step like that and say you cannot, if you're a private equity firm, you can't buy a single family home.
That's something that should be taken up on a state level.
I
believe.
Hell, I don't care whether it's taken up at the state level or federally or locally.
But there has to be a stand taken where housing is for people who need shelter.
And home ownership has always been so central to people's idea of the American dream.
Well, the American dream has been stolen from an awful lot of millennials and Gen Z. Sure.
generations because they don't feel like they have any hope of ever getting beyond renting and getting to home ownership.
Well, so a stand has to be taken.
We have to think imaginatively about what's driving up these prices and what we could do about it.
Well, there would be one idea.
And it's not getting talked about.
It's not talked about on Capitol Hill out in Washington.
It's not being talked about up the street at the State
Capitol.
I don't want to make it look like I have a special insight into things.
But
I
did have a special insight
into
this.
I was in real estate for quite a while.
And in the early 2000s, I noticed that there were a lot of what we called McMansions.
These are large homes, neighborhoods like that.
Nothing wrong with them.
They're beautiful places.
But I was thinking that these aren't going to be priced in any way that younger generations will be able to afford them.
And that's all we were building are these
large
big mansion neighborhoods.
And that was the problem.
I could foresee this has become a huge problem.
And now they're not available.
for the next generation because they're way too expensive.
We're not even talking about local neighborhoods, old neighborhoods, legacy neighborhoods.
We're talking about just not being able to afford anything.
And I think somewhere along the way, nationally, as you say, or statewide, we really need to get the special interest out of.
Or even locally with zoning.
Zoning,
exactly.
To build smaller homes that people can actually afford when they're...
30 years old or 35 years old or 40 years old that that has that market is really is really challenging and a whole generation or two generations now are kind of priced out of the homeowner.
Well, they're
calling it mother-in-law homes
And
they're
actually putting in small tiny little houses
in the backyard.
Yeah, they're really cool.
Seems to be a
trend.
Above a garage.
And that's the kind of imagination that we need in our country.
And that's got to become part of the national discussion rather than simply fixating on how miserably we are about conditions now or some golden age that we'd like to return to.
We're talking with sub-stack blogger Mike and Cabe.
OK, so we covered.
Housing is one of the
what you know, they did they're they're they're doing away with section 8 Housing credits vouchers.
Well, yeah, when they talk about cutting rental assistance by 40% right central to that is to try to get rid of section 8 Yes, and that's been this that's their answer to the housing crisis is let's let's take away assistance from low-income renters
It's
devastating.
I talked to a lot of people in section
8 doing the census
and it
is just I can't imagine them not
Having that help.
Yeah.
That's right.
So what are some of the other ideas to maybe spark some imagination and look at the future?
Again, when you talk about working-class people, particularly the younger ones, childcare is wrecking family budgets.
Yes.
It is so expensive and long waiting lists and all of that.
And so that got me to think.
And we have the centerpiece of our
way of supporting children and families is a K-12 education system, which dates all the way back to the 19th century.
And if you were starting over and trying to imagine a system today, you wouldn't create a K-12 system.
You'd create a P-14 system.
where it would start with preschool.
Exactly, yes.
Basically at infancy or just shortly thereafter.
And it would continue at least two years beyond a high school
diploma.
An associate's degree.
The K-12 system was created at a time when most people were living off the land.
Everybody was working right there on the farm.
And then when industrialization happened and people went off to the factories, somebody stayed at home to take care of the kids.
And now we've got two income families, and both parents have to work in order to make ends meet.
Just to survive,
yeah.
Yeah, in order to pay for that mortgage, right?
Right.
And so we have a system that is ill-suited to our times, and we should have a P-14 system, preschool to at least two years beyond high school, because with today's economy...
Is a high school diploma going to be enough to make you really employable and really able to do what you need to do in the workplace?
No.
So we've got to think about a system suited to our time, and we haven't had a good discussion about that either.
We're trying to protect K-12 education, but we're not thinking about what we should imagine for the future that actually makes sense for the way Americans live today and how the economy works.
Well, the way the Megas talk now, it is just in high school education.
what they're talking about, but that isn't going to do it.
They need special training, they need extra training.
And then on top of that, you know, we're sitting here watching them hold on to a tremendous amount of surplus money in the state, which isn't really surplus money, it should be spent.
It should be spent on us, but they're holding it up because they want to give it away as a tax cut.
So they don't want to pay for childcare, which they know is a huge problem, growing problem, festering problem in this country, but they're not going to spend it on us.
That's why we pay taxes for these kind of...
situations to be solved and they're not going to do it.
They're saving the money for a tax cut.
So that's me in the
soapbox again.
That's okay.
Damn it.
We'll let you get right back on the soapbox in just a minute here.
This portion of John
and
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We are live at short stack eatery downtown Madison just for another few minutes here before we wrap up.
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They're going to be selling everything in the building here.
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You want my chair?
Well, not yet.
We'll keep it for another few
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Somebody bought my chair.
Back with more of John and Gordy in a moment.
Oh, no, don't take his chair.
Ah yes, you can hear that coffee percolating.
Yeah, this is John and Gordy in the morning.
WMDX 92.7.
Hope you're having a good one after the dense fog this morning.
Kind of moved out of the area a little
bit.
We'll see partly cloudy skies for the rest of the day and high near 80 degrees.
It is 753 and just a few more minutes here live at short stack eatery.
They closed their doors on Sunday, May 25th and we appreciate you know all the time that we spent here over the.
previous
months when we used to do the
show every Wednesday.
This is really a great diner.
Yeah, so we're gonna have something to eat afterwards.
Sam, I know he wants something to eat.
Sam, how about a... What would you like to eat?
How about a croissant?
So how do you say
croissant in French with a
typical
French pronunciation?
I don't think they serve croissants.
Is it croissant, croissant, croissant?
What
do you think,
Sam?
Well, essentially, if you are able
to... If it's a croissant...
the way that Julian says it, then yes.
Yeah.
We
could bring
in a little judge.
Oh, we just showed up in the studio here.
Who are you?
Oh,
Kath.
Oh, no.
We're down
at Short Stack.
Come on down.
We're here
for a few
more minutes.
She can't hear us.
I guess she forgot that you guys were not here today.
I'm stuck in the studio.
You guys are blocked down the road at the restaurant.
I know, she never listens to me.
You know, especially from sub-stack, not short-stack, sub-stack.
Mike McCabe is here and we're talking about his latest article, his post, Costalist Casualty.
Fill us in.
the rest of that article.
Some of the
ideas
about looking at
the future.
One of the things I mentioned is that Iceland has recently been testing a four-day work week.
And
the
results have been spectacular.
And not only has it not hurt business, businesses have not been injured or harmed.
But there's been reduced mental health problems, drop in depression.
It's created greater family stability and a better family
environment.
And here in our country, all the terms and conditions of the workplace, the hours we work, the overtime rules, all of that.
although that was created 87 years
ago.
And
we're not talking about sort of revisiting any of that and thinking about a structure that makes sense for the modern world, the way we live today.
You were talking about then we've lacked that imagination in order to create a better future.
That to me has been the costliest casualty of our politics in recent years and especially the last 100 days.
But then I brought up the fact that look at what makes people spectacularly wealthy today.
It used to be that the super rich were industrialists, manufacturers.
And now they're technologists.
The very richest men in the world are all people.
They didn't invent the technology.
They didn't invent any of it.
But they take technology, technological advances, and they adapt them and use them, exploit them to put
you know to replace human labor and to bloat their own net
worth and
they have become spectacularly wealthy worth hundreds of billions of dollars and I you know one of the ideas I said is we really need to make sure that the fruits of technology are broadly shared with with all Americans and we need to create some kind of a technology dividend yes so that so that not only the super rich
the oligarchs are benefiting from the fruits of technology, but it's widely shared throughout society, and we're not even having a conversation.
Yes, dream on, Mike.
And that's what we need to do a little bit more of in this country is start to dream, start to imagine what's possible, what the future should look like, and instead we're stuck in this rut.
Well, I showed you this article Trump announced this week that he would end the Digital Equity Act
which provided $2.5 billion in grants to ensure everyone had equal access to the digital economy.
So he's walling off society to the oligarchs.
And think about what people think about is red America, rural America.
Oh, yes.
They'll never have that.
Gaining access to
the internet has been devilishly difficult in rural communities.
And so are we going to say to all those small towns that, sorry, the internet's not going to make it to you?
The
digital world is not going to be at your doorstep?
And the bad thing is that we're really talking about fiber optic, bringing it out to the rural areas.
And what Elon wants to do is bring Starlink.
to the rural areas, which is a much slower system.
It gets jammed up.
If a lot of people are on it one time, it's going to be very, very slow.
So Starlink is not the answer, but he wants that contract.
He's getting it.
And talk about how technology is being used to enrich the oligarchs rather than help the whole country.
That's a great example.
He wants the profit from this.
at other people's expense, we need to make sure that technology is beneficial to all of America.
That's the conversation we need and it's not a conversation that's being had on Capitol Hill or up the street here at the State
Capitol.
We're just down to a minute or so here.
Anything else from that article?
The fifth thing I mentioned
was healthcare.
Healthcare.
The
whole debate
is whether we
should either protect Medicaid or Medicare or phase them out.
and dismantle them.
That's the conversation.
But, Doug, we shouldn't simply be thinking about health care for the disabled or for the elderly or, you know, we should be thinking about how do you create health security for each and every American, for everybody.
And that, again, is a
A conversation has been very impoverished in this country.
We're
not talking
about it.
They're using healthcare as a course of thing in this society.
You missed the story, but AOC read the Medicaid cuts.
And what happens is if you get bounced off of Medicaid, you cannot sign on to the ACA.
It blocks you from signing up in the marketplace because you were kicked off of Medicaid.
I can't read my header on the reason why.
I don't know why.
but that's part of it.
And for working class people, man, that's another huge stress is being able to go to the doctor when he gets sick.
Health care is huge.
And we got to leave it there.
Mike McCabe, thanks for joining us.
We'll talk to you next Wednesday.
We never
seem to have enough time.
Well, isn't that the truth?
Coming up tomorrow, we'll talk to Dr. Tim Slecker from Busted Pencils all about education and Amy Horak from David J. Frank with the Horticultural Report.
Nice.
I've been practicing record
record that save that recording Sam
Thank you to our friends here at short stack eatery.
We wish them the best of luck.
Have a great
day
