Transcript
Chips, Classrooms, and Chocolate Chips: A Morning of Education and Humor
John & Gordy · Thu May 15, 2025
When the chips are down and democracy's back is up against the wall, two radio veterans step up to the microphone to right the wrongs, standing for truth, justice and just because.
Hey, are they ready to go yet?
It's John and Gordy on 92.7 WMDX.
To another fantastic looking day.
I mean this is just this is beautiful.
I have just a t-shirt on and through a long-sleeve shirt on just because I'm used to doing that.
Yeah, I I did need it.
Yeah, it's gorgeous today.
What a what a morning WMDX 92.7
It's John and Gordy in the morning, and boy, have we got a lot of stuff coming up this morning.
I mean, you know, it's just the fire hose of stuff, of idiocracy, fire hose of idiocracy.
Too much.
Yeah, there's way too much stuff to talk about.
We'll get to it.
We have Tim Slecker coming up, I believe.
Who knows what we'll talk about?
Education,
generally speaking, but from educators.
That's it from busted
talking about education.
Mm-hmm.
Good morning.
Yes
Happy Thursday can barely hear me.
Are you okay?
What's that?
You can't hear the headphones there.
You gotta turn those hearing aids up.
Yeah, whoop.
Yeah,
there
we go producer Sam
in
the box.
Sherry already texted and she says, good morning, John and Gordy and question mark.
Yeah.
Does she think that I've already been replaced?
Perhaps.
Oh, no.
Yeah, you're still
here for, what, another two and
a half weeks?
Yeah.
Oh, you're counting the days now.
No, no.
Yeah, okay.
You okay, buddy?
What happened
there,
John?
Got a man down here.
Did I pass my cough onto you or something?
Well, my son, he started coughing.
Isn't that strange?
Wow, right into the mic.
I know.
Right over this way, thank you.
I was going to ask, you know, what happened to Sherry?
We haven't heard from her in a long time.
I think she was on vacation.
Do you know that for sure?
No, I don't know.
I'm
just guessing.
It's a good
guess.
Anyway, we haven't heard from her.
And, you know, she calls up the other radio shows, not this particular program.
I would assume she has morning voice or, you know, she doesn't have enough coffee yet in the morning.
She says LOL.
She hasn't sent us an emoji lately.
No, no, no gigantic emoji picture.
So we're seeing sunshine this morning.
It's run 60 degrees, but we do have a pretty good chance for showers and thunderstorms popping up mid to late afternoon.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, some of them could be strong, so we'll keep an eye out on that.
All right.
Did you wear your Samsung WMDX watch?
Can you tell us what that says for a predicted afternoon high?
Really?
Sunrise and sunset.
I'm actually
curious today, huh?
Yeah,
sure.
No, you're faking it again.
Damn it, you fooled me.
Whatever.
All right, 60 degrees currently high today, around 88 degrees.
I think I'm right again on this one antelope tonight of 59.
Now, if you're curious at all when sunset is occurring.
I was just wondering that.
814 sure you sent an emoji.
Yeah, right on top of it dancing coffee cup.
Yeah, that's you know, I have one of those I bought I bought a big cup like that
dances
though with the advances and it has that band around it You know, it's kind of a cream colored cup with a band.
Yeah, brown band around I bought it because I was trying to disguise my beer As a coffee mug as a coffee
in my car.
Sometimes I can't wait to have my my beer.
Well, nothing, nothing hits better after a long long shift on the radio than a couple of cold ones while you're driving in the middle to No, that's not what I
have it.
It's usually something like you know when you go to like a state park or something and you want It's a hot day in the car and to drive it along and you really have to have something cold a real cold one
When are you gonna get to that story that you've had for a while about some some very specialized beer removal experts?
Oh,
yeah.
Yeah.
Beer removal expert.
Yeah, this beer removal expert said, yeah, a guy had a big party at his home.
He acts like it's a big bar.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And he embroidered shirts that you can order online.
I mean, it looks like an official bar.
Yeah.
Sure.
And he had extra beer the next day.
Let me ask for some beer removal experts to stop by.
Beer removal.
See, I didn't get it right away.
He's a
removal expert.
Sounds like a big money grab on this guy's part.
He's making shirts.
He's got a bar set up in his basement illegally.
Oh, it's
crazy.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He has them out in the yard.
Oh, big cabana.
The whole thing.
Lots of people.
It's an old friend of Anne's from high school.
They don't really know each other, but she follows him on Facebook, and that's where she saw his big parties.
We'll
let
us know next time you get a heads up on that.
We'll check it out.
Yeah,
we can be some of his beer removal experts.
The afternoon high today, it's going to be really toasty, right?
What did your, you said 86?
88.
88.
Okay.
Let's see what the, we haven't used the lottery balls for a while.
Should
we do that today?
Yeah, let's take on our balls.
Normally we do that on Fridays, but you know.
Well, they're kind of sweaty balls this morning.
First number coming up.
Let's see.
is an eight.
Indeed.
Okay, so we're all in
the 80s.
87.
87.
87.
According to the lottery ball.
So
it's pretty
damn close.
And the dew point is going to be very high, John.
Above 60.
That's not good.
You know, I'm allergic to
the dew point.
I
can't handle it at all.
Yeah.
Let's get to the national day count for today, the 15th
day of May.
We're
halfway through the month.
Can you believe that?
Oh boy,
oh
boy.
Every morning I look forward to this.
You.
What about me?
Hell.
Is it or is it not?
Bring flowers to some one day?
Is it national taco day?
National Nylon Stocking Day?
National Chocolate Chip Day?
Which one of those days does not belong?
All right, I'm not working, so I'm thinking Chocolate Chip Day.
It's not Chocolate Chip Day.
Is that
really your guess?
Yes, is that really your guess?
Well,
you're wrong.
It is Chocolate Chip Day.
What?
I made it easy for Sam to pick between three.
Did you pick that just so that I would pick the right one?
I don't know if I have the right one, but I'm going to try.
I know he's got one.
I'm just trying to be nice.
You're just giving it up for me, John.
I don't think it's Taco Day today.
You are correct, sir.
There it is.
You are
correct.
Where'd it go?
It's not National Taco Day.
That might be some other day, but it's not today.
It's Bring Flowers to Someone Day.
Why would May 15th be Bring Flowers to Someone?
April showers mean May 15th is bring flowers to someone day.
Seems suspicious
when you bring flowers to somebody.
Flowers are one
of a red flag.
Flowers are one of nature's, yeah I see these guys.
Every
once
in
a while in the grocery
store,
cause the grocery store is a good place to buy flowers.
You see these guys walking right here doing your shopping, but just a guy that grabs the.
those flowers that they have a few and that's all they're getting
you
know
I
think oh man what happened
to him
yeah
what what do
you do what
yeah another
victim
Anyway, where was I?
Oh, National Bring Someone to Flowers Day.
The act of giving flowers has been accustomed dating back to ancient times.
According
to
this, back to the Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures.
Yeah, men were
making mistakes back then, too.
Way back then.
Yeah, they were in the doghouse.
And you know, flowers have meanings.
Baby's breath means everlasting love.
White carnation.
carnations, incense, and purity.
Yellow carnations, sadness, or gloom.
Stop,
stop.
I'm starting to get sick
now.
Yeah, you're getting hallucinating.
Yeah, this is disgusting.
I can't do this.
Let's move
on.
It doesn't mean
anything.
I don't
do it.
No one else should.
It's National Nylon Stocking Day.
That's it,
yeah.
Do women even...
Did
they wear them anymore?
I don't
think so.
I'm not sure about that, but apparently there are many varieties and colors
available.
I
guess you do see that occasionally, nylon stockings.
Do you call them pantyhose numbers?
I don't know.
Stockings worn before the 1890s were made of woven cloth, such as cotton, linen, wool, or silk.
Before the 1920s, women's stockings were worn for warmth, as hemlines tend to run.
the stockings were made of more sheer items like silk or rayon, followed by nylon after 1940.
Isn't that interesting?
No.
No, I didn't think so either.
Okay, National Chocolate Chip Day, that's today.
Yeah.
Enjoy some chocolate
chip cookies.
It'd be nice if somebody just filled this in, you know.
Yeah.
Maybe, you know, update us.
What?
Do people wear nylons anymore?
I don't know.
And the pantyhose instead.
I don't know.
I have no idea.
I would think that.
You know, it would be the cake.
Everybody's wearing jeans now.
No one does this stuff anymore.
Why are
you looking at me?
You
know this stuff.
I'm in my 20s.
How would I know?
How would you know?
I'm just fascinated by the fact that Gord has not mentioned your t-shirt yet.
Oh,
the yellow submarine
t-shirt?
Yeah, I got a Beatles
t-shirt.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
I bought
a yellow submarine poster the other day at a flea market thing.
Will you ever stop buying Beatles merch?
No, I don't think so.
I mean, I see
every little stuff here.
I don't have that much stuff.
Yeah, I actually
don't.
Hey, let's see what was in the history books today, Sam.
Well, I was going to chime in with one of the things about nylons.
Yeah, tell me.
The reason that it's nylons day to day is I think it was 1940.
You mentioned that they I didn't even write this one down because I thought you were going to mention it that they were introduced on this day.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, that's
right.
OK.
And anything else?
No, that's the only thing, Gordy.
Yes, there's a couple other things that have happened on this day.
We've got thousands of years of history to choose
from.
I had to go through all the trauma of my sister and even some of my dates, you know, the run that you get.
in Nylons, you know?
Oh, God, yeah.
And what, how it just is so upsetting to them when it happens?
Yeah, really upsetting, you know.
Well, then they try to stop it.
It happens by accident, and they just think, oh, he's being really careful.
Then they have to go out and run out and get another pair of Nylons.
I think if they get a run in the Nylon, you can stop it with what?
Nail polish
or something.
Nail polish, yeah.
So it sticks to
your leg, and you can't get it on.
Yeah, it burns.
What were you saying, Sam?
Interrupted you you want to go back to the history books.
Yes, sure.
Well, Matt's
got a very happy about that.
I don't really care
Okay, good morning Matt, what's happening in your world?
You got it less than
a minute.
Hi
It's gonna be hot annoying today.
It is
yeah, it is About something let it
fly buddy
the nation magazine has a article out now about
This doomsday prophecy that the Christian white nationalist and the evangelicals have been preaching since Billy Graham days.
Yes
And I remember laughing it off when they would sell these doomsday survival buckets of terrible food
And maybe these people were eating it and that's why they're so
stupid
But apparently this is the mag of base that wants to see everything destroyed because
They're so pathetically naive and stupid that they don't realize they're going to destroy their lives as well, right?
Don't hold back, Matt.
Whatever
it is.
But it pisses me off.
They're bringing us all with them.
That's the problem.
And how do we stand up to this American Taliban that is buying all this MAGA swag while they tear the country apart?
Terrific question.
There's no easy answer.
You
know, they've been such great good Christians that it would be time for them to leave Matt,
thank you for that
question and
we will ponder that along with you and We're just getting started on a Thursday morning.
It's John and Gordy along with producer Sam coming right back
WMGX
92.7, John Peterson Gordy, young with you in the morning.
It's 22 past the hour.
It's going to be warm and humid today.
Highs in the mid to upper 80s.
Maybe some showers and storms late this afternoon.
So grab that umbrella as you head out this
morning.
Check
those windshield wipers.
Kick the tires.
Newer windshield wipers.
Hey, you know, I was driving around in Sun Prairie yesterday.
And I stopped by the Dunkin' Donut out there where we're gonna have a cop on a roof tomorrow.
Catherine's gonna be out there broadcasting, yeah, because she wants to run into some big beefy cops and uniforms.
She's a fan of the Men in
Uniform.
She is.
She likes it, yeah.
So there's a certain fantasy involved in it.
But I did stop in
and I said
hello to one of the managers Yeah, yeah She said I mean I asked to say could I see the manager?
Well, we have a bunch of
me Everybody's a manager
You need more than one.
Oh, yeah, so anyway the main manager
the owner, I guess, wasn't there.
But they're looking forward to this big event out there.
Oh, it's a big deal.
Raising a lot of money
for Special Olympics.
And when I went in there, they were almost out of donuts.
What?
They're doing a bang-up business of donuts in Sun Prairie.
Dunkin' donuts?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do they have that one specific doughnut that you liked?
I remember you talking about one
doughnut they don't make anymore.
Yes, yes.
In fact, I asked about it as well because I guess individually the doughnut makers have a preference, but I guess it's kind of Dunkin' Doughnut wide that they don't make the coconut doughnuts anymore where they sprinkle, you know, coconut on them or toasted coconut.
My favorite was the toasted coconut.
Really?
But I guess, I don't know, maybe, you know, took too much time to make those, to sprinkle it on.
Yeah.
Well, you know, times change and people's tastes change, and maybe you were the last one that would ask for
those
donuts.
There's one weird guy who said every once in a while, asking for coconut donuts.
What does he do with those donuts?
Yeah, well, I might be the last person that ever asked for it.
A toasted coconut donut.
Well, I mentioned yesterday we went to that big wing ding at Camp Randall Stadium.
Yeah, downtown Madison.
Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
And, you know, we there were like 700 people.
There was.
And a lot of people supporting a lot of people.
They have businesses on State Street.
I didn't realize that they had remodeled that whole end zone area.
Oh, they did,
man.
Wow, huh?
A couple of years
ago, or was that last year?
I don't know.
You're looking at
me.
I don't go to Camp Randall very often.
Ever since that ugly incident, the Pink Floyd show, you were running around with Speedo
and
T-shirt.
What, the Pink Floyd show?
I tried to get on stage.
That was bad.
That
was bad.
That shouldn't
have done that.
Anyway, it was a
good time.
A lot of suits and ties.
I was really surprised.
It
was so hot.
It
was
really hot.
All
these guys walking around.
all dressed up in their business suits, handing out business cards.
I don't know what they're building along the east side of Camp Randall.
Camp Randall, yeah, I guess that's the next.
But it was certainly fun walking
around.
The entire
state,
I did the same thing.
I walked all the way
around before.
Oh,
man, that was dumb.
Get the gate one.
Isn't that
unbelievable?
Yeah.
Wow.
But it was a good
time.
Yeah.
Great to see everybody.
Actually,
You really
walked around that.
I
actually did.
I
was like, you were 50 feet from the actual entrance.
I guess if I had read the instructions of
where we were supposed to go in, that
would have been helpful.
That would have
helped, too.
But I wasn't the only one.
Other people were walking in front.
I just followed some people.
You know, that looked like they were dressed up and ready to go.
So I
thought, well, they know where they're going.
And they obviously didn't.
No.
We got all the way around.
You don't know where the entrance is either, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Walked around the
whole damn place.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway.
We got
a lot of steps in there.
But anyway, yeah, good for downtown Madison, you know, keeping everything vital downtown here and doing those.
Well,
that's because we were, you know, we had our final broadcast at a short stack eatery, which is, you know, it's a landmark in this town.
Everybody had it out there.
It's a fantastic restaurant.
They did so well.
And like almost all the businesses on State Street, the owners of these buildings, these businesses, their leases are continually going up.
up and these businesses cannot handle that kind of increase.
I'm not
saying that's what happened to a short stack, but I would assume that is what happened.
And there are some business demands as well from these business owners that lease these buildings.
And sometimes the owner of the building doesn't want to go through the expense of updating the facility.
There's a lot going on.
I think when we talk to the mayor once, I brought that up as a question.
Is there a way to kind of supplement the individuals when these leases go up to keep them on state street?
Because they become landmarks almost.
Right.
Is there a way that we can do that while also providing some kind of relief for the building owners who provide these leases?
Yeah, that would be... We didn't get
an answer
on that,
just to let you know.
Sam, we've got a minute here for history.
You want to highlight something?
Oh, sure.
Why not?
What do we got?
What's good here?
Today in 1800, John Adams, president at the time, he ordered the federal government to move from Philadelphia, where it had been for about 10 years,
to
Washington, DC.
It's new and to current day present location.
The entire federal government at that time was only about 125 people.
Can you believe that?
Well, we should go back to that.
Back to Philadelphia?
Yeah, that's a more
simpler time, right?
I
mean, why do we need all these different office buildings?
Oh my God, you know.
Right.
Great.
I thought this one was funny.
Today, in 1940, the McDonald brothers, before they opened their McDonald's hamburger stand, they
opened
Donald's famous barbecue, which eventually evolved into that.
But I just got
to
play this.
They've got nothing on the grouchy captain.
Okay.
Have you ever been to the Grouchy Captain?
Yeah, I went to the Grouchy.
I
love the commercials so much.
I had to visit.
Great stuff.
I mean, everybody had the same kind of food.
Hey, when we come back, we'll talk to Tim Slacker from Busted Pencils.
It's all about edumacation, right?
It is.
This portion of the show is being brought to you by Ed's Old West Exterminators, the only exterminators in town who kill your roaches after giving them guns and allowing the roaches to draw first.
So it's fair
enough.
I think so.
I think Maggots love that.
This is John and Gordy in the morning WMDX 92.7 on your FM dial or also on your Civic Media app.
Check us out there.
You can call us or text us.
We're getting texts and we've got the Chuckster from Racine suggesting that we watch a little special called Bringing the Muppets to Moscow, which we probably will do.
I appreciate the tip on
that.
All right.
It is 635.
We've got sunshine this morning.
It's bright and beautiful.
It looks like a nice morning, but it's going to heat up through the day.
It's going to be really hot and humid by this afternoon.
We've got a chance for showers and thunderstorms mid to late afternoon and evening.
And we'll keep you posted on that high today about
87.
Time once again about this time each and every Thursday morning.
We talked to Tim Slacker from Busted Pencils.
find out what's going on in education, okay?
And this time, why don't we talk about what you've got coming up on Saturday.
You have a one hour broadcast, live broadcast on Saturdays from three to four.
And I think it has something to do with the teacher's concerns for what they're going to be able to teach because of the culture war.
Yeah,
feel the same.
I mean, you know, the first thing Johnny and I are going to discuss is the reality that, you know, we've been offered a single propeller airplane from a small school district.
And we're getting a lot of... Yeah.
You know, I mean, it's a gift and in no way should be taken as, you know, a bribe that Johnny and I would talk favorably about this sculpture.
Well,
uh, controversy about you accepting that apparently.
Yeah, you know, I mean, you know, it's a gift and.
You know, it's just one of those things.
I mean, who are we to say no?
You don't offend them by saying no, you have to accept it.
I
don't know.
You know, they said something about it, you know, it's single propeller, you know, interior leather, and you know, it might even come with a pilot.
Well, there you go.
That'd be great.
You know, the thing is, I mean, it would cost a lot if you had to buy it.
So this is a great free way of getting one.
And now we're finding
out it's not
so free after all.
All right.
No strings attached.
OK.
Well, you know, the thing here is that because of the culture war, there is something that the Trump administration is really carrying out in spades.
It is going after illegal DEI
Practices I I've never been able to figure out.
What's the illegal part of?
Diversity equity and inclusion.
I don't know what what would be illegal about that or how they couldn't make that Illegal three three words combined suddenly makes those three words illegal
Apparently,
yeah, so what is it?
What is it Tim?
Well, I yeah, it's a tough thing to I
I apologize for the little glitz there.
That's okay.
We lost you there for a few seconds, but you're back and we can hear you clearly.
It might have been all the haters about us accepting that.
Right?
Yes.
You know, I mean, here's a Saturday show, though.
This is, you know, real, really interesting.
You know, we have for the longest time, you know, you always ask the future teachers, people who are, you know, about to be in the classroom or even people that have been teaching a few years, you know, what is it they'd really like to know more about or to be better at?
What are their biggest concerns?
Is there going into a new school year?
And we're talking 50 years.
The research shows that the number one concern is that teachers would like to have more sense of how to, and I use this word control, but to have control of the classroom, classroom management, to be able to orchestrate how students move in and out of the classroom.
They raise, you know, raise their hands.
It's called classroom management.
And this really is foundational to being able to, you know, teach well.
And you understand what it, what it is, is because there's nothing like standing up.
Okay.
All
right.
We got a little back to him.
We've got a little bit of getting a little freezing.
Disconnection.
There must be really
cold.
You're
back with us right now.
Watch out where you're standing in the house
there.
I know.
I'm trying to move around here.
And so classroom management.
But we're looking at now the number one concern of teachers.
It has surpassed that.
It is...
Will I get in trouble if I teach the wrong thing?
And with that, the continued stress that that creates, and can my mental health survive being a teacher?
Yeah.
This is the number one concern of teachers.
And this really, as you said, John, goes back to the attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the culture wars, which has turned classrooms into this battleground where teachers, they're really concerned.
And we're bringing this up because if there is the teacher shortage that we've talked about so much,
This really is not a good development because this really has implications for how many people are going to actually going to want to be a teacher in the future and how many teachers are going to stay in the profession.
Yeah.
Well, you know, there was a controversy about.
Little competition sports competitions in some of these schools where they have a wheelchair basketball Events like that right and they used some of the language that is targeted in the DEI practices that Trump is going after so this is what
The problem they're having in schools is the language that they've used, words that they've used to describe these events are popping up because of probably AI research, you know, and they come up with these events and they start making them illegal or picking on individuals, you know, wheelchair, basketball, come on, you know.
Well, I mean, but John, you bring that up because and.
because that's inclusion.
Yes, yes.
You know, and so somebody would, I think what happens is you have reasonable people going, well, you know, we don't want to get rid of wheelchair basketball.
Right.
It's like, well, but, but that's inclusion.
And so the, if you support this so-called, you know, the attack on diversity, equity and inclusion, be realistic and try to figure out what it is that that then means when it gets translated into policy.
Right.
And so that goes back then to the teachers and what they're teaching, because the policy starts to come across as saying, hey, if anything is controversial in the content that I'm teaching, that could be pegged as some type of diversity training or teaching for equity.
And they're not going to do that.
They're concerned.
And so you think about that.
That is the number one concern of new future and beginning teachers is that, and I think you translate this into going, the biggest concern is I don't want to get in trouble.
Well, right.
Yeah.
And you don't want to move away from wheelchair basketball.
I mean, where do you go back to donkey basketball?
And what a
mess that was.
I mean, come on.
Never forget about it.
This portion of the show is being brought to you by Verlo Mattress of Madison, one thing that remains constant since 1958.
They are still direct to consumer and provide superior products at unbeatable prices.
Two locations here in Madison on the east side and the west side, or go to Verlo.
We're talking to Dr. Tim Slecker about education and what's going
on in the classroom.
I know this DEI being illegal is just silly and ridiculous and almost surreal.
There is an event at some of these schools where they have students of color summits.
Events right, but the thing is that it's held by a lot of white students So there are a lot of white students involved in these events as well So it's really you know not segregating individuals to you know their color it is it is it is an event for everyone and and that's the problem with targeting DEI Programs and they're not even DI programs are just programs right now.
We've now we
you know, pitch and hold them into DEI, which is, you know, just ridiculous at this point.
Well, and yeah, I think that too, you know, a lot of the diversity term has been the one that really gets a lot.
And John, I think though, you know, moving that I'd like to see more people talking about the inclusion aspect of that because when you start talking about inclusion, you really then become moving into particularly around the realm of special education.
And I think support and services for students with special needs.
A lot of most people are in favor of continuing to do that good work.
Yeah.
Mhm.
Yes, you know, and so it's kind of this thing, you know, how do you fight back?
And I think there's a gut reaction to going, well, you know, stop picking on or the diversity and things like that.
And I said, you know, let's come right out and talk about,
you
know, inclusion.
So what you're saying is, is that it's illegal to provide support services for students who need extra help, whether it's physical, whether it's cognitive.
And, you know, this is, you know, if you want to create
a sense of resistance, go where more people are more inclined to jump on and support.
And I just see support for inclusion and special education, particularly as being an issue that, you know, a lot of people are going, well, I, yeah, I want that type of support for my student, for my grandson, for my, you know, that really brings up that kind of spot where the public,
Once they understand what the attack on diversity equity inclusion really means that kind of changes the attitude, right?
Yeah, you know and it's a declaration by Trump.
I mean, it's an executive order Making it illegal and you can't just make something illegal and I'm wondering are there any are there any you know challenges in our courts about making something so
incredibly not illegal, illegal.
There has to be a challenge to this because this is causing a lot, as we've mentioned here, a lot of confusion in the schools and everywhere.
I mean, this is affecting everyone, businesses as well.
So, I hope somebody has a legal effort.
Yeah, well, I
mean, you know what?
One of our frequent guests and partners of the show, the president of AFT, the biggest teachers union, Randy Weingarten.
I mean, yeah, they're part of a lawsuit right now that is challenging this.
And that's a good thing.
And I'm glad you brought that up so that people know that.
But in the meantime, though, the sense of feeling threatened as a teacher is real.
Taking the lawsuit doesn't empower teachers to go, oh,
Now I feel safe again.
You know, that'll take time.
So we need to do that.
I just continue to think about, you know, again, Sam, who's about to enter this profession, how do we continue to attract great people like Sam when we're also telling them, hey, when you get into the classroom, don't do this, be very concerned about that and have these things and you start to go.
It's like, is that really the type of
situation that you want your kids, teachers, new teachers, do you always want them operating in a sense of anxiety versus a sense of
wanting to teach well and empower their students.
Right, exactly.
You know, I don't think we have time for this, but the Digital Equity Act is gone as well.
And we learned a lot during COVID that a lot of people need access to the internet, high-speed internet, in order to do their classes.
And we've got to prepare for the next event.
And now they're doing away with this.
So yeah,
and I obviously here in my parents house.
I also need that high speed internet
Stay with us Tim.
We'll come back with more with dr. Tim slecker on John and Gordy in the morning right after this
video MDX 92.7.
John Peterson, Gordy Young in the morning.
It is 652.
This portion of the show brought you brought to you by our friends at Madison Hearing Aid Center.
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You know, I just, yeah, what?
I just talked to Jim yesterday.
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Set up an appointment.
I'm going to appointment next.
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We're talking to Tim Flecker from Busted Pencils and I mentioned the Digital Equity Act is gone now with a stroke of a pen, Trump's pen, and this was a two and a half billion dollar grant that ensured everyone had equal access to the digital economy and it targets seniors, incarcerated individuals, veterans,
people with disabilities, those facing a language barrier, members of racial and ethnic minority groups.
Oh boy, that's it.
That's the bad thing right there.
Yeah, but because it included ethnic and minority groups, it had to go.
It doesn't matter whether it benefited everybody else.
Everybody else on that list.
But that was it right there and people in rural communities.
So they're going to go back to slow internet.
Even though we've learned our lesson during COVID that the internet is one of the most important things to continue with education.
Tim, what do you think about something like this?
This is a huge major step backward.
We think we're learning our lesson about slow internet, right?
Well,
in your point, I mean, this is, think about this is a real issue here.
I mean, you know, Wisconsin, rural anywhere, right, right
now,
I mean,
There are places where you can't get cell coverage.
You know, you're thinking about that.
And so the initiative to create the ability to have high-speed communications everywhere, particularly when high-speed communications are really essential to learning, the fact that we've, because of the name, the digital equity.
That must be illegal.
But come back to this word again and go, OK, what is it about the word equity that creates such fear?
Oh, that has to be horrible.
you know to me it's also where does the support for these and sadly I see a lot of support in the rural areas you know kind of a knee jerk reaction to support these types of silly types of policy implementations and and then the fact is is that it then hurts them the most and
you know maybe there's a shift there though happening you know we we continue to keep saying that you know when we make clear how this affects local communities and particularly their schools and their public schooling is is that actually some of the most vigorous support for local public schools does come from our rural areas so maybe what we're doing here though is saying you know hey um
Well, let's continue to shine the light on the fact that this is an attack on public education, world goals, and this is an attack on our community.
And in fact, this is trying to keep our community in the dark by not giving us the access to.
the digital communications that are essential in today's world.
Yeah, you know, and Tim, you know, you've alluded to the fact that Sam is going to be starting his education career as a teacher in the fall with substitute teaching.
And Sam grew up in a rural area where he had to take a school bus to school.
And some incident happened, I think, that led to him becoming a teacher all these years later.
Sam explained
this.
Yes, this was a very, very formative experience in me.
Scarring it sounds like wanting to wanting to join education Yeah, what what happened?
Well, okay, so this is in the wintertime.
There's snow everywhere.
Yeah my bus driver I think what happened was he missed a stop and Instead of you know, like driving up to the next intersection and turning around He tried to turn around like do a y-turn in the road except he couldn't tell where the road ended and like the ditch began So he drove us into the ditch and he got stuck there
And so they had to send a whole other bus out, and we were late getting to school that day.
You think he
did this
intentionally, though?
I think he did.
Well, I don't think he exactly knew what he was doing.
I don't know.
But they called us into the health office, everyone who was on that bus.
Because I think that the bus driver lied to...
The people in charge saying that he like accidentally drove into the ditch because they thought that we were all like concussed or something
Well scarred
you
for
life.
I
know I can't ever get back on a school bus
Yeah, and one of the things too in the rural areas they have school buses that have internet in them.
Well, there you go Yeah, those are pretty that's a pretty that's right because a little
long commute
to school because the, you know, the school districts have combined and now they're a longer district, longer rides to school.
They provide internet.
You can do your homework on the bus.
Yeah.
That sounds like an extension of a privilege to a group that needs to be stopped.
And we have to
leave it right there.
Well, yeah, thanks
for
chiming in.
We have Tim as our guest.
He didn't say anything in this break.
But you can listen to Busted Pencils, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, new podcasts, and then on Saturday at three o'clock on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Thanks, Tim, for joining us.
We'll talk to you next
time.
Thanks, guys.
All
right.
Yep.
And
coming
up on our next hour, we'll talk to Amy Horak with the Horticultural Report and also Brittany Merlot on the stormy weather that could be headed our way later on
today.
Right, yes.
It's all coming up on John and Gordy in the morning on WMDX.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let the sun shine.
It's the John and Courtney show.
It's a beautiful morning.
We got a new act.
It's phenomenal.
It's sensational.
It's terrific.
It's either mediocre.
No, it's disgusting.
It's a ploy.
What a
fucking ass.
You have a pretty fun show.
I listen to it most of the time, you know.
Keep up the good work.
God,
I love you.
Get the hell off the stage.
Nice work, everyone.
Sharp broadcast.
Really good.
Good morning, John and Gordy.
Good morning, John and Gordy.
Good morning, John and Gordy.
Good morning.
Good morning to you.
Good morning.
Yes.
WMDX
92.7.
It's 706.
Beautiful.
Sunshine this morning.
It's already warm.
Temperatures in the low 60s will climb into the mid to upper 80s late today and look for some showers and thunderstorms headed our way mid to late afternoon, maybe into the evening too.
Yes, Sam, you had a comment?
Well, I was going to ask when the rain is supposed to come.
Well, around three, four,
five.
My roommates and I, the ones that are left, I haven't even told the story about what happened last night.
The roommates that are still left here in Madison.
Yeah.
We're biking in New Glairs this weekend.
Some are leaving.
And some wanted to leave today, but they might not if there's rain coming.
Well, I hope they come back.
You never know what'll happen.
Don't leave a saying.
What happened last night with
your
roommates?
Well, the big friend group that we have, we all had a potluck, so everybody bought a bunch of pots.
What?
Pot?
Yeah, no, no, no.
We brought some really good food.
I don't know how everybody learned to cook so well, but... Well, that's
what happens when you smoke pot.
Yeah, you're right, you're
right, Jack.
Everything tastes really
good.
Kinda devolved into just a little bit of a party after that, and...
Then I found out that it was one of my roommates last night in Madison.
He flew out on a plane back to New York this morning.
I don't know how I just found that out last night, but a lot of the rest of the people who were at the gathering last night decided to stay up all night
with him.
I couldn't do that because I had to show up here, but when I woke up and I was about to walk to the station this morning, they were still awake.
They were sitting on the roof when they asked me to take a picture for them.
But I thought it was good for them.
Before each one fell off.
We should go up on your roof, Gordy.
No.
I don't
think so.
I have a very steep roof.
There's no way to get up there,
actually.
This portion of our show is being brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.
One thing remains constant since they opened their doors way back in 1958.
Virlo Mattress, they are still direct to consumer and provide superior products at unbelievable prices.
Two locations, east side and west side in Madison, go to Virlo.com and check out their lifetime comfort guarantee.
A little bit later on, we're gonna be talking with Amy Horak.
She'll be stopping by with the Horticultural Report when you should be doing this time of year, planting, you know, doing whatever, raking the lawn.
I don't
know.
She knows though.
She'll be in here to tell us about that.
And we'll get an update on the possible stormy weather from Brittany Merlot in just a few minutes.
You know,
we've talked about it on this program before, how these ice agents don't really necessarily
Have a standard uniform, okay?
We've seen them with jeans and camo and you know, whatever military malicious stuff
They
like to dress in and many wear masks and anyone can do it
And they're always rushing by.
They don't give you a chance to look at the tag on their uniform or whatever it is they're wearing at the time.
And you don't know who they are.
They don't show any kind of paperwork to address what they're doing and why they're there and why they're hauling people off.
So, I mean, anybody can do this.
This is a perfect way to start up your own human trafficking business.
I would assume, right?
I mean, anyone can do this.
This is really, really dangerous.
And I thought,
is it just me that thinks like this?
No, not true.
John, I was going to say, you're already a government employee.
You've got your foot in the door.
Why don't you become an ice agent and then arrest the ice agents?
There you go.
See, I
do work for Howard.
Yeah, so anyway, Representative Julie Johnson was talking to Secretary of Homeland Security, Christine Nome.
Oh boy.
She also has the same objective.
All right, let's listen to this.
This is cut 107.
Recognize Ms.
Johnson for five minutes questions.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Madam Secretary, for appearing before committee today.
I want to address several issues.
I'm going to try not to repeat a lot of issues that have been addressed, but I do have some substantial concerns over how ICE agents present themselves to the
public.
Oftentimes, we've seen many videos out there where they're masked and not properly identified.
I have a lot of real personal concern about that.
I just put myself in the situation of that woman from Tufts for example.
You're just walking down the street and all of a sudden out of nowhere three masked men not properly identified attack you and try to take you away.
I find that to be reprehensible and not the values of this country.
What steps are you taking to make sure that your ICE agents are not masked and properly identified when they approach someone?
Well, ICE agents always identify themselves to individuals that they're encountering or that they're working with.
What I would see as far as if
they are wearing something over their faces, it's oftentimes because that agent has been involved in undercover operations
or needs
to be able to continue the investigative work that they do on a day-to-day
basis.
But don't you think Madam Secretary that people have a right to see whoever's trying to apprehend them?
I think it's creating this unrealistic
vigilante system and are you aware
that
your materials, ice agents, jackets and the sorts are available on Etsy for 20 bucks?
Anybody can do that, throw a mask on and run around and terrorizing people of color without any regard for the law, without any regard because your agency does not have proper protocols to make sure their agents are clearly identified and marked when they're executing their jobs.
Our
agents do identify themselves, they verbally do that and then also by
the clothing that they're wearing, and if they do have something that is covering some of their facial features, it's for their investigative work or their undercover work that they do as
a part of their
job duties as well.
What I would say is that it is important that we follow the procedures and protocols for every encounter that we have, and they have done that in every situation to the best of my
knowledge.
I would suggest that your protocols need to be revised, because I don't think it's reasonable for masked men to be apprehending people on the streets.
I think that infers, that instills a lot of fear.
It doesn't instill security in the process.
And in states like Texas, that is open carry when any, any jacket dude can be walking around with a gun.
I think some tragic circumstances are at bay.
All
right.
Who was that again?
The person that was asking the questions.
That was Julie Johnson.
Okay.
And she was as concerned as I am.
I think everybody else is a little concerned that they should have a specific uniform.
Yes.
They should show the paperwork and not just verbally tell everybody, well, I'm a, you know, I'm an ice agent.
Well, well, thank you.
I believe you.
Some sort of identification.
Like some kid buying a toy sheriff's badge from the store and wearing it around like this.
And now we
know we can get, you know, Ice Agent jackets on Etsy.
Well, they're very inexpensive there.
Let's look that up.
You know, I made a trip to, on a vacation to DC.
And we went to all the spy shop and all this other stuff.
And in these shops, they had like FBI t-shirts.
Dark blue FBI written across it just like the real FBI shirts that they wear.
FBI.
Hats, I couldn't believe, I thought, is this right?
Can they sell this?
Because that's what they had, they had the jackets too.
Well, that's
crazy.
It's a spy store.
So, you know, people are just getting here from Russia and they need their
stuff.
And I know
the spy store
is my favorite.
You
know, you get in more trouble for like impersonating a postal worker than you do for impersonating an ICE agent.
Well, probably.
Yeah.
No doubt.
Oh, man.
I'm glad that somebody is on this and is concerned as I am about anybody just dressing up as an ICE agent.
Yeah.
All right, let's get to the immigrant situation here.
Trump is justifying immigrating white South African citizens into this country and making them American citizens.
This is cut 109.
Let's listen to what Trump has to say about this thing.
Now South Africa leadership is coming to see me.
I understand sometime next week.
And we're supposed to have, I guess, a G20 meeting there or something, but we're having a G20 meeting.
I don't know how we can go unless that situation's taken care of.
But it's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about.
But it's a terrible thing that's taking place.
And farmers are being killed.
They happen to be white.
But whether they're white or black makes no difference to me.
But white farmers are being.
Yes.
Brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.
And the newspapers and the media, television media doesn't even talk about it.
If it were the other way around, they'd talk about it.
That would be the only story they'd talk about.
And I don't care who they are.
I don't care about their race, their color.
I don't care
about their
height, their weight.
I don't care about anything.
I just know that
what's
happening is terrible.
People that live in South Africa, they say it's a terrible situation taking place.
So we've essentially extended citizenship to those people to escape from that violence and come here.
Those white South Africans, okay, got it.
Don't really know.
He doesn't look at the color, but
he
does mention white off a lot in
that
statement.
Well, I'm glad he's out there saving the white people in other
countries
and then bringing them to our country and promising citizenship.
How
do you like
that?
That's how easy it is.
And you know why?
Because they already have money.
And that's
one of the reasons they actually admit it to.
Well, they can assimilate better because they already have
wealth.
You know that birthright citizenship is up before the Supreme Court.
I think today today they're talking about that just yeah,
there's a side note
But yeah, I don't know, having this program of importing immigrants while we're deporting other immigrants, it's pretty obvious what they're doing.
They're getting rid of people of color in this country.
And
not
even really of color.
We consider Mexicans and Latinas, we consider them white according to the Census Bureau.
Is that right?
Yeah.
And they're putting a lot of, I mean, so much of this is about the optics and what does this look like?
And they want
to
get a lot of fear out there and people looking over their shoulder.
It's a very chilling effect on everybody.
Get your papers ready.
They can snatch you off the street anytime.
Better have your passport and your birth certificate and driver's license with you all the time.
We have Mark on the line.
Can we have time?
Yeah,
we
have time.
Let's go to Mark.
In about a minute, minute and a half.
Good morning, Mark.
Hey, just slam my FCC filter on there.
What is this stuff about citizenship when as soon as I get here stuff that Trump is actually implying with this.
It takes seven years to become a citizen.
It's something like you're here for two years and then you clear your interest to stay here.
Intention to stay here and it's another set of years.
I think it's usually like seven years to become a citizen and these people are going to be given granted automatic citizenship by Donald Trump.
I say BS on
that.
Absolutely.
Yes.
I'm glad you brought that up, Mark.
Yeah, that's right.
It
does take a while.
It's not gonna be him.
It's not.
Yeah.
It shouldn't be up to the president.
They're gonna fast track the white people.
Yeah.
Nothing
more obvious than that.
All right.
That's crazy stuff.
I know.
Mark, thank you for that.
I know.
Thanks, brothers.
All
right.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Oh, let's see here.
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Our first bachelor is...
Bachelor number one.
John and Gordy in the morning.
This is 92.7
WMDX722.
Beautiful sunshine this morning.
Want to remind you, you can sign up for the WMDX newsletter.
It's easy to do.
Just go to our website, WMDXradio.com.
And you can sign up right there.
Comes out every Thursday.
Katherine does a great job putting that together.
Talking about some of the events that are happening around the city and right in our backyard here.
And what's going on behind the scenes.
Put a lot of work into that letter.
So check it out.
Again, go to wmdxradio.com now.
Brittany Merlot is with us this morning.
Brittany, do you remember the dating game at all?
Is that something us old fogies remember and cherish so well in our thoughts?
Right from, yeah.
We briefly remember it.
Yeah.
I definitely think my parents are watching it or something, but the memory is faint.
Okay.
Well, no, that's good.
You don't want to remember
that.
It's something you can't forget.
You don't want to know the dating apps.
That is also something.
that
you cannot forget.
I'd rather have a dating show.
Okay, all right, but it was traumatizing and embarrassing for men.
Because it was
often awkward
and uncomfortable.
All
the
time.
Every show.
And
that's when I
realized that women really have a hard time out there in the dating scene because there are not a lot to pick from.
All right, so.
Well, let's turn to weather because, I mean, it's beautiful this morning.
Oh, yeah,
it's fantastic.
But it's going to be humid and
it's going to get really hot and we've got some storms headed our way later on today, right, Brittany?
Yes, all the worst things of that summer weather.
So we're gonna be feeling it all.
The mugginess is gonna be seeping in.
Dew points are gonna hit the mid-60s.
We're gonna get hot temperatures.
Yeah, I know.
That's a dew
point thing.
It makes my hair curl.
Yeah.
You wanna be in the ace.
Oh, but that is also all that fuel for these storms too.
So we're going to hit highs today of 87 degrees.
That sunshine is out there as well.
We've got some patchy fog far off to the east, but otherwise those thunderstorms, right?
So we were in an enhanced risk, which is a three out of five on the risk scale, which pretty much means we're going to see some numerous strong to severe thunderstorms moving through this afternoon.
I think they're going to spark up around the Mississippi Valley.
probably around two to three o'clock this afternoon and moving quickly.
So I think here into the Madison area, probably around three or four, four o'clock is that sweet spot.
I think that's when it's going to be hitting us and it moves out of here rapidly.
We'll be done by six o'clock, but.
We're going to be strong.
We do have a chance for ping pong ball size hail or bigger.
We can see
some tornadoes in these.
And also damaging winds scattered out throughout the storm.
This is going to line up and just push its way through the entire state moving into Michigan afterwards.
It's going to be a pretty decent storm system.
So make sure you know where you're going to take shelter in case the tornado warning goes out.
Okay, wow.
So between three and four we really got to be aware.
Just get into our basements and huddle in the corner someplace.
That's the message you're giving.
Hang out there for a good hour.
Yeah,
that is what I'm giving you.
But once we get through this, tomorrow's looking pretty nice and what about the weekend?
Yeah, so our temperatures are actually going to start to take a slide a little bit.
So we're going to go down to about 80 degrees tomorrow.
A few more showers and storms are possible in the afternoon because the system takes a minute.
It's going to be hovering over us.
So as that moves out, we're going to see a few more clouds still lingering on Saturday morning, still breezy.
Then we drop temperatures as the skies start to clear.
So we will see sunshine over the weekend, but highs only in the mid sixties.
Boy, bring a sweater.
After
today, it's gonna feel like that,
yeah.
Okay, Brittany, well thank you so much, and we'll keep listening for updates throughout the day, and we appreciate you joining us.
Have a good one.
That's our WMDX chief meteorologist, Brittany Merlot.
What does Catherine mean by not that?
Well, no,
she sent us a YouTube video.
Have you looked at it, Sam?
I haven't watched what she sent us yet.
She accidentally sent the wrong link at first.
I think she sent.
Okay.
Well, the first one she sent was a YouTube short of what looks to be a pig playing in the mud.
Right.
And the second one I think is like
some.
Is it different?
It looks like the
same link.
I don't know.
We'll check it out during the break here.
Let's get to the absurd.
Okay, right
now as we
continue with idiocracy
in
the country buried in the 400 page bill is
Is this the big bill?
My voice is changing now.
Look, it was a long night.
We were talking to all the people there at downtown Madison at the Camp Randall yesterday, and it was a big crowd, and you were, you were, you know, smoozing with everybody.
I know, I know.
Aren't you John Peterson?
No, no one says that.
Okay, a 1.4 billion dollar cut in fees to buy and register a silencer.
So let's listen to this.
This is Tom Susie asking about the silencer part of the budget bill.
That's 112 silencer.
Okay.
Here we go.
It's of this one party bill.
Done.
Now we're talking about it at one o'clock in the morning of a 400 page bill that involves trillions of dollars.
We're slipping in an item that is very much supported by the NRA.
I'm very proud of the grades I've received in my life and different things, but I got an F in the NRA.
$1.4 billion to try and make it easier to buy silencers in the United States of America that are often used by criminals, done in a giant bill in the middle of the night during police week.
During police week.
Maybe I'm missing something.
And I can't even imagine that most of my colleagues on either side of the aisle are actually aware that this item is actually in this gigantic bill.
So I hope the people that are here tonight.
Let's play the next cut there, 117 if you can, OK?
All right.
117.
Dialed up.
There you go.
Let's play
it.
She is a silencer.
This is the real silencer right
here.
729
Midwest Farm Report is next with Pam Yankee.
We'll be back with more of John and Gordy in just a
moment.
735 sunshine
WMDX 92.7.
It's John Peterson 40
days is
producer Sam Davison for a few more days until somebody else comes in has to deal with us
I'm the only guy who hasn't met him yet.
No, I haven't met me.
Oh, really?
No, I
was I was out in couple days if met
him.
Well, this is our next Dom.
Okay.
Yeah, Dominic.
Yeah, he'll join us on Monday morning.
I think this
Portion of the show is being brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.
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Still, they are direct to consumer providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
Virlo Mattress of Madison, two locations east side and west side, go to Virlo.com.
Okay.
All right.
Well, you know, everybody's thinking a big deal about Trump accepting this airliner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
great big plane big plane and 400 million bucks the reason he's doing it is because it saves the taxpayer money so he doesn't have to buy planes all he has to do is take that gift and and run with it fly in it
but
but you know everybody's done a little breakdown on that and it's not so free after all
the
taxpayers will be picking up the bill on this let's listen to this from CNN
Let's look at the capabilities of this unique plane, maybe the most unique aircraft in this country.
Look, it has to have highly secure communication systems that nobody can hack into, nobody can read.
It needs to have defensive systems to avoid missiles that might be fired at it or any other kind of weapons.
The ability to shield against electromagnetic pulse.
What that means is every wire in this plane has to be shielded in such a way that it can't be taken out.
from without and the capability to refuel in flight.
Remember, George W. Bush operated from this plane on 9-11 because that's what you do to make sure you have a safe command center in the sky.
Doing all of that on a plane of any sort, but a particularly one that's been gifted to you from another country where security analysts say you basically have to take the whole thing apart and put it back together to make sure there are no bugs, no built-in failures that have been put in there.
could take up to two years.
Now remember, there are new Air Force Ones on the way that Donald Trump negotiated.
They are on the way.
Will they be done in time for him to use?
We don't know, but presidents don't do it for themselves.
They do it for the next president, for the country.
Up to two years to do that.
And in that time, here's the really key part to bear in mind, making all of those changes to this free gift.
estimated to cost maybe three times as much as the value of the three gift and then allegedly this goes to his private you know presidential library his presidential library in other words for this free plane American taxpayers may pay an additional eight hundred million dollars for two years of use two years because this president
I mean, because he says he's been made this offer and he doesn't want to wait for the planes that we're already paying for to get ready.
Why are you taking this supposed free gift when there are huge ethical questions about it and a lot of practical and financial questions too?
Yeah, it's
going
to cost a lot of
money.
This is like being gifted a junker classic car.
Sure,
sure,
it's got value, but you're gonna have to pour more than what it's worth into it to get it to look nice.
It's
ridiculous.
Good comparison, yeah.
That's crazy, isn't it?
So having a relook at that, I guess maybe the press is doing their job in this case.
And it's not just the press, it's the alternative press.
It's the right wing press that's also coming out against this thing very strongly.
Yes.
Very strong.
You know, there's obviously going to be strings attached.
They say it's just a gift and
there's
no prid quid, quid pro quo or anything.
But you know, it's from Qatar.
Yeah.
You know, that's where Hamas leadership lives.
Yeah.
You know, it's
so why would they just
give him a plane?
You know, what really just out of the kindness of their hearts and they think he's a great come on.
It's just amazing.
It's gotta be something to it.
It's outrageous.
But he's not gonna get the message and he doesn't have to do anything because he's his dictator now.
He can do anything he wants at any time he wants.
Now let's also talk about lowering drug prices like Trump wants to do.
Last time Trump did this, by the way, the exact same thing during his first term, the court stopped him from doing it.
So what's the difference this time?
Nothing really.
But it looks good, and coincidentally, at the same time, Congress wants to make Medicaid more costly.
It all just works together, doesn't it?
No.
Trump said it would reduce drug prices by about 30% to 80%.
No, that's not going to happen.
After Trump was elected, he reversed all the costs, by the way.
I mean, this is the bizarre thing.
He
reversed all the cost caps that Biden negotiated for Medicare and Medicaid.
Over 120 million Americans are affected by this.
Now here's Rachel Maddow talking about what all of this means.
All of these cuts mean, this is cut 100.
Let's check it out, Rachel Maddow.
The National Institutes of Health, a government research agency that produces much of the science for these specific drugs and countless others, Trump has slashed each budget and nearly $2 billion in research grants there have been canceled.
The FDA shepherds drugs to market and make sure they are safe.
The FDA is reeling from huge staffing cuts, and the staff that is there can't complete basic tasks because, among other things, their government credit cards have been frozen.
Trump and his allies in Congress are currently debating how many hundreds of billions of dollars they're going to cut from Medicaid, which provides health insurance to tens of millions of Americans.
And as for those GLP-1 weight-loss drugs that can be a lifesaver for so many people?
Well, Trump has rescinded a Biden administration proposal to have those drugs covered by Medicare.
Even as the White House says, maybe weight loss drugs will get a big price cut.
They'll solve it with deals if you want to believe that.
But they're undoing the plan to have them covered by Medicare, which puts at risk the opportunity for tens of millions of Americans to benefit from those kinds of drugs.
That's right.
Yeah.
And now here's Fox Business' Gary Kulpbaum on what Trump's executive order really means about reducing drug prices.
This has cut 99.
This is Gary Kulpbaum on Fox Business.
President Trump just signed an executive order.
He's promising to lower prices by 30, 80%.
He said almost immediately the government will reduce what Medicare pays for drugs to the lowest price paid by other countries.
This will cover some cancer drugs and also weight loss medications.
The president did try something like this at the end of his first term, though it was blocked by the court.
So let's check in with Fox News business contributor and our good friend Gary Kallbaum to get more on this.
Gary, good morning.
Always good to see you.
Good morning to you.
So how will this work?
It's an executive order, which is a little different than getting passed in Congress.
How does that affect things?
Well, you said it best, blocked by the courts the last time.
Look, it's not a secret that this has bubbled up many times over past years where people ask, how do I pay for a drug here?
But if I went to Germany, it would be 80% less in price.
And of course, the pharmaceutical companies would come out and say, research and development.
What the interesting part about this whole political move is that it usually is the Democrats that are yelling and
about price of drugs.
Now we have a Republican, so it's gonna play out over time, but if something gets done, it's definite beneficial to the American public.
Yeah, Gary, as you know, a lot of people, this is kind of overwhelming when it comes to drug prices and pharmaceuticals and where they actually pay.
Where would they see it first?
If someone's watching for how the prices might change, where should they look first?
in their pocketbook.
Everybody now is putting out a list of drugs, what it costs here, and what it costs over there.
And some of the numbers are pretty stunning.
I'm not a big price control guy, but when it comes to these prices, and all your viewers can go check out the prices, it again is stunning how you can find the cancer drug that you pay $5,000 here, but $1,000 in the UK.
Yeah, Gary, do
they really battle for the consumer's will here?
Because I think the average American probably say they don't like the health care system, but they know it's so complex they wouldn't know what to fix.
So maybe they target the consumer or public opinion is on their side.
Look,
lower costs for drugs and medical care is huge.
I mean, I think the amount of money the government spends on it is gargantuan.
And the president's basically coming down on Medicare and Medicaid about how much they pay for these things.
And that's where we can save a heck of a lot of money if we can just meet halfway on some of these prices.
But again, from what I saw yesterday, pharmaceutical companies are putting their feet
right down in cement and fighting it.
They're talking about how research and development will be affected, and that's a benefit to the consumer.
Game on, as they say.
Yeah, let's finish with this.
I think people would also be shocked when you look like what you pay for prescription drug.
It'll show you what you pay, and then it shows what insurance pays, and that's a staggering number in many cases.
I've always been amazed how when you go to the doctor or you pay for drugs and you see, oh, they're charging you $3,000 but you pay $200 and they write off this and that.
Again, they have made the system so convoluted and so complicated.
You wonder if they do that on purpose just to drive you up a wall.
I wish it was less complicated.
That goes for our tax code and many other things that come from our government.
All right, there you go.
So that's a little long, but I do want to just mention here that we've also tried other ideas like mail order inexpensive drugs from other countries, other countries that have a great system of quality control.
No, no reason
why
we're not doing that.
Drug research, by the way.
Oh, it's not going to stop research from happening for lower the prices because most of that research is through the universities and foundations and the NIH.
But big pharma doesn't normally always do that.
They do some of it.
And why doesn't Congress set up this policy instead of an executive order from Trump?
Why do we go this route, after all?
And universal health care coverage, where pharma has to negotiate drug prices.
Why don't we do that?
Why don't we put universal health care and then negotiate the prices for what they have to pay?
All of this is mind bogglingly ridiculous stuff.
Just ridiculous.
I really don't even know what I'm in for I I've been saying a couple days now that I needed to Schedule a doctor appointment on my own for the first time and it's been it's been since I moved down to Madison that I went to a doctor and I finally did it yesterday And I thought that that was a bear to get done all of the all of the information and hoops I needed to jump through just wait till I'm old like you guys Have prescriptions.
I need to start getting filled.
I don't remind us.
I gotta tell you it doesn't get any
No,
it
doesn't I
mean setting
up an appointment or figuring out if you want to set up an appointment Yeah, and usually who do you call to set up the dam appointment?
It just
it's so convoluted.
It's
so much easier with universal health care
Yeah, no doubt about it.
You just go to the doctor your doctor you call him up you set it up Oh my god, this is just so ridiculous putting us through this and the fact that we're paying for Their health care coverage the people that represent us we send them to Washington or the legislature
in each state, and we pay for their health care.
And they act like it's some kind of privilege out here in the hinterlands to get health care coverage for us.
Yeah.
Well, Big Pharma is all behind it.
And they're controlling everything, apparently.
I've had it.
I'm walking.
OK.
Well, don't walk yet.
We still have a little
bit more of the show to go.
Coming up
next, we'll be visiting with Amy Horak with the horticultural reports.
And that's coming up after this break on John and Gordy in the
morning.
John
Peterson Gorda young in the morning with you and Larry who is this Eric?
Larry Clapton just for you John wasn't it this was a group that he was in right?
This was Eric Clapton solo with a band that he put together.
Okay.
Good morning Catherine.
I don't necessarily hate this
song
You don't necessarily hate it, but you hate it.
Is that what you're saying?
753.
You saw through that.
Listen, I just want to mention before we forget.
Tomorrow is a big day on the show here.
We've got a big lineup.
We'll be talking with Pam Yankees.
We do every
Friday
morning.
Also, Rocker will be in the studio with the Maxing preview, but it's also free ticket Friday.
We'll have brewers tickets to give away.
And not only that, we'll have Catherine Lake, she's gonna be live at Cops on a Rooftop in Sun Prairie, all benefiting Special Olympics.
And they'll have lots of donuts and maybe you'll get your special coconut donut made just for you.
They won't do it.
No,
I asked, I wanted it done.
They're not gonna do it for me.
Anyway,
what's
that Catherine?
Bring, okay.
They don't have John's special coconut.
The
coconut donuts, I keep looking for and searching for them.
All right.
Well, that's all coming up tomorrow.
But today we have Amy Horak
in the
studio here as we get ready to wrap up the show today.
Amy, thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for having me
today.
So the horticultural report, what's on your mind lately?
I
know you mentioned as you were coming in, really dry weather lately, dry May so far.
So how is that affecting things?
far as, you know, seeding lawns and what do people need to be concerned about because of the dry weather?
So we might see a little change tonight.
They are kind of calling for some stronger storms.
But regardless of that, there hasn't been a whole lot of rain the rest of May so far.
So
I would say if you have an irrigation system, now is the time to start testing that system, making sure everything's running properly, make any repairs if they're needed, and then you can start to just actually run the system, especially if you're doing any new plantings.
This time of year now that the temperatures are staying above 50 degrees, a lot of people are starting to plant either vegetable crops, flowers, um, annuals, things of that nature.
So if you're not going to go out there and make sure to water them in every day, I'd get that system running.
Um, and that being said too, if you're going to be planting new annuals, you can also start reseeding your lawn.
So fixing any turf damage that could have happened over the winter from either salt or plow damage, um, from snow removal.
that would be key to do and make sure you always have that one getting watered in but being mindful of
the actual rain that Mother Nature is going to provide.
So if it is going to rain, turn your irrigation system off.
I don't know how many times I've gone past someplace middle of a storm and you see the sprinklers running the same time.
It's a
downpour.
It doesn't make any sense.
And don't let your seed wash away, John.
Like John did.
Oh, well, you know, it was just a desperate attempt on my part to do not, not do any yard work, but, you know, see what happens.
And it didn't work out well.
Now I should mention that.
Our good friends at David J. Frank
help
us to bring us this segment and and now What do you think about this?
No Moe me if you're familiar with no Moe me right because we want to help out the bees the bee population right and pollination this
time
doesn't work out real well because of the dandelions Well, but some people are okay with dandelions.
No, okay Amy over to you
I mean, so there are actually some pretty big rules for spraying when things are in bloom.
So I think even with weeds, if like a dandelion is currently in bloom, you technically aren't supposed to spray it because the pollinators are going to go to it and going to feed off of it.
So if you want to control the weeds and not have, you know, all the little puff balls on your lawn.
um either spray that dandelion before that flower opens or wait for it to close up before it reopens again with the little puff ball seed head and then you can spray it so that because after that the pollinators aren't going to go back but you can get it before it goes to seed and then makes a thousand more dandelions.
It was a
great idea.
I think everybody's yard is probably in the same
Same position mine was yesterday.
I mean,
it was just
all all puffballs out there.
Yep.
Yeah, and I couldn't I couldn't stand it.
I went out there and I mowed the lawn.
I just could not handle that anymore.
It was awful.
If it's not like as some like a neighbor's lawn like I've seen like through the medians through the city.
I mean, there's certain ones where it's just a stand of dandelions.
It's just amazing.
It really
is.
Yeah.
They're cute when they're yellow and then they turn into the little puff ball and then there's the dead stems left behind.
You're like, oh no, it's going to get worse.
That's
right.
So talk a little bit more about the turf repair.
If you just have a few patches here and there, what can you do about that?
I mean, the rest of the lawn is okay,
but.
Yeah, just
little patches.
So little patches, you're going to want to get like a small like a rototiller.
So I mean, depending if it's big enough for like a standard rototiller, you'd use in a garden space.
You can use that on the lawns patch or they make an even smaller machine like a mantis.
That's like a trade name for it or just like a manufacturer's name.
But it's just like a mini version that'll cut into the grass and the soil.
Yep.
So it'll cut into the soil.
It'll help remove some of the turf and the dead grass.
Then you can add
some like, you know, fresh topsoil or compost something down to add organic matter, put the seeds down, put like a straw mat or something to hold the seed in place, tack it in place, water it in.
And then from there, just monitor if whether it's going to rain or if you need to set up a sprinkler system just to make sure that new newly planted seed is going to establish and grow for you.
Great.
Amy, if people want to find out more, what's the website for David J. Frank?
www.DavidJFrank.com.
Well, that makes it easy.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for stopping in.
We'll talk to you next time around.
Yeah,
it's
that blanket
you put over the seed that obviously...
What are you talking?
Did they
have a strong
blanket?
But they have large ones because that's what I want.
I want giant.
Thank you.
Let me just quickly mention this portion of the show brought to you by MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
Check them out.
Check out their website, MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
Get a free hearing test there.
Their goal isn't just selling hearing aids.
It's improving quality.
life through better hearing, right, John?
Yes.
Yes.
You
love your hearing
aids, don't
you?
I do.
I know you do.
I'm going to go
see him next week.
My appointment's on Tuesday.
I'll
let you know how that goes.
Again, MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
Stephanie Miller's next.
Have a great day.
