In a world filled with chaos and confusion, in an echo chamber filled with lies and deceptions, comes a ray of light.
Live from Madison, Wisconsin, it's John and Gordy in the morning on 92.7 WMDX.
Once again, another great morning.
WMDX, 92.7.
It's John and Gordy filling in every aspect of your political life.
I mean, we are going to keep you informed.
We are here to raise your hopes and dream up as we delve into idiocracy.
every moment of every day.
Is that what we're
doing?
We're
trying to bring people up.
We're
trying
to add a little bit of levity to a life of horror.
We're holding your hand through...
Yeah, the apocalypse.
Yeah, I motion.
I'm thinking way too hard on this.
Yeah, really.
He's up there.
I know.
Yeah, right.
That's kind of pretty heavy.
I know.
You got that?
Okay.
There we go.
That was a beautiful morning, though.
It's Friday.
Yeah, it's Friday.
Of course, a lot of people traveling this Memorial Day holiday weekend, and it's eight minutes past the hour.
Let's check the current temperature here.
All right, let's do the Samsung
watch.
I actually do today.
Yeah.
Yeah, I managed to remember
putting
it on.
Okay.
Currently, we have 48 degrees.
48.
In the capital city.
Really?
Okay.
OK.
All right.
And what do you have?
Outside the WMDX window.
Oh, yes.
On the WMDX thermometer, it says 43 degrees.
Oh.
So.
And predicted high temperature today of 64 degrees.
OK.
Yeah.
Well, let's see.
Which one of the weather devices should we use today?
Should we use the lottery ball machine?
Do we have that handy?
Well, we'll take out our balls.
Let's use it.
OK.
OK.
All right.
Thank you, Don.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Oh, boy, those balls are spinning around, aren't they?
First ball up the shaft, 60.
Six.
Six.
It's a six.
Yeah.
Six.
And three.
What did I say?
You, you said, I don't know what you
said.
I said 64.
Okay.
Well, it's pretty damn close.
It is pretty damn close.
All right.
Great.
So it's going to be a gorgeous day.
Looks like a good weekend Saturday and Sunday and Memorial Day Monday.
And, uh,
You know, we'll talk to Brittany Merleau.
Do we have Brittany today, I imagine?
Okay, unless she's taking a long week.
And we have producer Dominic in the air chair in the producer's studio.
Pushing the
buttons this morning.
Flipping the switches, pushing the buttons.
Yep, I'm so ready.
I'm
so ready.
Yep, I'm excited.
Let's
do this thing.
You're driving the bus for the first
time.
Push a whole bunch of buttons.
Might be a little bumpy, Sam.
We still haven't told him about the big green button on the side of the wall.
Oh, yeah.
We still don't know what it does.
It says push to exit.
We don't know where we're going to exit to.
Right.
Yeah, you see that?
Nobody knows what that does.
Yeah.
Everybody's afraid to touch it.
That's an actual
fixture.
It's actually mounted in the wall.
It's got to be something to it.
Yeah, it had to have
some kind of purpose.
Yeah.
Maybe
it's like, well, this place used to be the office of a bank.
So maybe if somebody was here in a meeting and it wasn't going so well for a particular person, somebody else could press that button and then like a trap door would open up and they'd be sent away.
Perhaps.
It
doesn't say exit on it.
It says push to exit.
Wow.
Yeah.
I was
going to say maybe it's just an alarm
system for
the police department in case there was a robbery at the bank.
But that's not it.
That's not it.
But we're on the second floor here.
So why would it say push to exit?
There's no exit.
What would be?
Yeah,
I don't get kicked out the window.
Yeah, okay Creates a vacuum and just sucks you out the window onto State Street could happen
All right,
well,
we're a block away from the Capitol.
Yes, we are.
Everything that's going on over there now.
I mean, the legislators are working on their bills and trying to come up with something, some kind of match with Tony Evers, the governor.
And we'll see what happens with that.
I don't have high hopes, of
course.
No, I do not.
What?
You know, we're going to
talk to what?
Oh, they're all get along just fine this time around.
Don't you think?
I think so.
It'll go smooth sailing.
We're going to talk this ventilator on.
I know there's some big issues that the state legislators are looking at and we'll catch up on that next hour.
All right.
Should we get to the history book or do you want to, you know, if we were going to do the national day calendar, when there's one thing on there that kind of jumps out on me, but you know, I don't, we don't.
We don't want to do this anymore, but I mean, you know, National Road Trip Day,
it's a Friday
before Memorial Day.
Yes, yes, the Road Trip Day.
It's National Cooler Day, you know, take your cooler along.
Yes.
You know, that protfest is going on today, by the way, in Madison.
It is, but today we can bail on that.
Ace Freyly, Freyly.
Yeah, Freyly.
OK.
Ace Freyly
decided
that,
well, he
has some kind of injury of some sort.
The headliner.
Yeah.
Was it injury or illness?
Oh, I don't know.
It's one or the other, but it's not real serious.
He just can't make that concert in another concert.
Okay.
Remember the big hit song that he had?
No.
He was in New
York.
Bad Kiss, right?
It
was New York Groove.
Okay.
Okay.
New York Groove.
Make a note of that, guys.
New York Groove by Ace
Freyly.
New York Groove,
Ace
Freyly.
Freyly.
Who bailed on the broadcast concert.
Yeah.
Too ill.
Too ill to make it.
Yep.
Okay.
It's also national don't fry day.
Mm-hmm.
Meaning use some suntan lotion because it's, you know, the unofficial start of summer.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
National taffy day.
But here's the one.
This is the big one.
National lucky penny day.
No, that's not so lucky anymore.
Because they want to eliminate the penny.
Yeah, they'll probably do it too.
It's too expensive to make pennies anymore.
I think
it
costs
you said about six cents or so to
my
penny.
Yeah, five or six cents.
So it's, you know, really, really racking up the debt on top of the trillions and trillions of dollars.
So we have to worry
about pennies.
We got to get rid of the penny because the millionaires and millionaires want to get a tax cut.
Well, we got anywhere.
We got history stuff.
Yeah.
Sam, do you want to do history stuff?
Do I have to?
You don't
have to.
Well, you got one week to go, right?
You're
right.
I'm going to miss this when I'm gone.
Are you really?
Well, you could phone it in.
You
know, you could
call in every morning
and do it.
Every single morning from the school?
Sure.
Yeah.
Why don't you do that?
Great idea.
Does the name what?
Yes, I know.
We're going to start off with something fairly depressing.
You know, we hate to hear that anybody gets hanged, but...
There's
an infamous pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate.
Pirate
And then there eventually was a change in the government in Britain, and they kind of caught up with him, took him in, arrested him, and he was hanged on this day, 1701.
Or hung, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, whatever.
I always go back and forth what the proper way to say it is.
Hanged is
the proper way,
if so it's not.
Yes it is.
Okay.
I think it's hung.
I think it's on.
I think it's two and two
here.
I
wonder if he
was
well-willed.
Did it go well?
That's what
I meant.
Okay.
Go ahead.
What else we got?
1785.
Ben Franklin, a little bit of a Renaissance man.
He, on this day at 1785, showcased his invention of bifocals.
Really, did he have a big party?
Yeah,
yeah.
It's a big glasses party, right?
Check these out.
Everybody tried them on.
Well, you guys, I don't know if you wear bifocals.
You both wear glasses.
I'm sure you're both thankful for them.
Transitional lenses, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They work well.
Do you wear contacts or anything, Dom?
No.
I have 2020.
2020 vision.
Really?
I'm hoping to keep it like that.
You're not going to keep it like that.
It doesn't work like that.
No.
John likes to mock the voice of...
The youth.
Yes.
So you're going to fit in just great around here.
The
internal optimism.
It's not going to work.
Anything
else?
Some more criminals killed on this day.
Oh, really?
Today in 1934, Bonnie and Clyde met their end.
The hands of police in a shootout.
Yeah, just saw the, I
don't know why,
but they did show the vehicle recently on the news.
All covered in
bullet
holes?
Oh, yeah, bullet holes.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That movie did not
exaggerate.
Yeah.
Wow.
Warren Beatty and Fade Done
Away.
Fade Done Away, yeah.
That's a
good
movie.
You guys can probably speak to the next thing a little bit better than I could because this happened decades before I was born.
Today in 1979, Tom Petty,
he stood
up to his record label and declared bankruptcy.
Right.
This was a bit of a protest by him against his record label.
I think it was for how much they were charging for the cost of an album.
Yes.
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Yes.
The record companies kept boosting the prices up and, um, you know, the artists weren't getting that much more money for it.
So, yeah.
Good for Tom.
Good for Tom Petty.
Yes.
He was great.
I saw him, let's see, three times during his career.
Yeah, that's really great.
I wish I had seen him.
I saw him the first time over at the old Dane County Coliseum, which is now the Alliance Center.
Yeah.
It was terrific show.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Anything else
you guys seen the shining.
Oh, yeah Still it's still on my I have so many movies on my need to watch list and I haven't gotten to any of them The shining is still on my need to watch list
you like the what
do you think of a shining
put that to the bottom of
you really didn't like you didn't like it
a Little over the top
It's a horror movie.
I know, but what John doesn't like?
John doesn't like, is it horror movies or is it like some kind of slasher movie?
Slasher, yeah.
Because
that's the way they made horror movies back in the 80s and 90s.
They made slasher movies, calling them horror movies, which was an egregious mistake.
I mean, you have to have ghosts, you have to have monsters and
horrors.
Oh, you're all for like the old school B-hor movies, right?
Yes, well, kind of.
Yeah, I didn't
like
those either.
What
didn't you like about
The
Shining?
It was just needless violence and as far as I was concerned, just over-the-top acting.
Okay.
But you know, I like to see ghosts, and again, I like to see monsters.
That's a horror movie.
You didn't like the Jack Nicholson plowing his way through that door with the axe?
No, I actually did not like that.
Here's Johnny.
Yeah,
I know.
I
know.
I know.
Great scenes of all time.
It is one of the great scenes.
It's just, you know, kind of comical.
Now it is, yeah.
Done and redone so many times.
Yeah.
All right, well.
Okay, anything else on the birthday... I don't see any
birthdays.
I didn't find any important birthdays.
Nobody had a birthday today?
No, nobody in entirety of human history has ever been born on this date.
No one's born on this date.
Apparently.
We'll take calls, by the way, if it's your birthday.
Phone lines are open,
6-0-8-7-9-8-2-5-5, yes.
We should call up the nitty-gritty and see if anybody's going to get their birthday beer at six in the morning.
Right?
Well, I want to remind you, you know, this portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by a brand new place where you can break stuff.
That's right.
It's Crash Box Therapy.
Smash your stress away at Crash Box Therapy.
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Make your appointment now at crashboxtherapy.com.
Crashboxtherapy.com.
Sounds like a great place.
Oh, it just sounds wonderful.
Take everybody there.
We need that.
All right.
We're coming back with more on a Friday morning Memorial Day weekend.
Sean and Gordy, stay with
us.
I can't wait to get on road again.
That's right.
92.7.
Rock and roll.
Come on.
It is 623.
Sunshine this morning.
It's Friday and Friday.
Boom,
boom.
Yeah, that was a part of that was the theme song for where the action is.
It became that.
There's so many different theme songs for where the action is a Dick Clark show.
On the afternoon.
Yeah.
Like right after school.
You could go home and watch.
So many groups.
You know,
it was Paul Revere and the Raiders for a while.
It was the Robs from Milwaukee were actually the group for a while.
No kidding.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
I remember
Paul Revere.
Raiders.
Yeah.
That was the time that we
watched.
Yeah.
where
the
action
is and a little bit later on rocker will be in the studio speaking of music local and regional music he'll be here with the max sync preview right now because it's friday it's a free ticket friday we're doing this all every friday all the way through the summer here through the brewers baseball season giving away a four pack of tickets
And all you need to do is listen for the keyword to text to enter in this statewide contest and tune in all day since every host will have a different keyword, meaning you'll have five different chances to win each and every Friday.
The game this time around, the tickets are for Tuesday, May 27th versus Boston.
Yeah, Boston's coming to Milwaukee Tuesday, May 27th.
So.
Our show's keyword for the four pack of tickets is radio.
Okay, radio.
He spelled it like this, kids.
R-A-D-I-O, okay?
Oh, it's not rodeo.
No, it's not rodeo, it's radio.
Okay, so you can download the Civic Media app in the Apple or Google Store, find our station, WMDX, use the text button to send that keyword.
radio in to be entered.
And don't forget to listen throughout the day for other chances to win.
Again, that's a four pack of tickets to Tuesday, May 27th, Brewers versus Boston.
OK.
Now, when we go to the
Brewer game, you and me.
Yes, that's happening.
We're going to give away tickets.
Yeah.
For
that.
Is that going to be a four pack?
Do you think?
No.
Oh, it's a two pack.
It's going to be a two pack.
All right.
Tupac.
Tupac
is going to be there, right?
Tupac, Tupac.
But wait.
But that's not a part of this kind.
No, no, that's way later on.
Well, it's, yeah, we'll tell you what game that is as soon as I double check it.
It's the 29th.
It's July 29th.
July 29th.
It's Cubs and Brewers, but that's not a part of this.
I don't want to confuse people, okay?
I don't think it's that confusing.
But you'll be able to go to the game sitting at the end of May here and we're talking about the end of July.
But we're going to go to that game.
Yes.
And we're going to be there and some lucky winner will have a chance to be sitting next to us.
Well, you know, their job
is going to keep me awake.
What are you
talking
about?
It's a cops in the bro.
Yes, it's
seven in the evening.
You know, I'm passing
out about
nine o'clock
or so.
Game actually starts at 640, but, you know, who's who's
kind of.
Oh, yeah.
Well,
correct me if I'm wrong.
Difference.
Okay.
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.
One thing remains constant.
Since 1958, they're still direct to consumer providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
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All
right.
Well, you know, the big thing that we were following was the Supreme Court case where there is a state that wants to start their own Christian
charter school, and that means that taxpayer dollars will go to a religion, which I think is an endorsement of a religion, but the Supreme Court, on a four to four decision,
What is wrong with those conservative court justices?
I am just,
I'm
stunned by that.
They must obviously know that we shouldn't send taxpayer dollars and endorse a specific religion.
I don't care how many different kinds of religions will eventually start their own charter schools.
It shouldn't go to religion.
We shouldn't be paying for Sunday schools five days a week.
Yes.
Well, so that four to four decision actually blocked.
It's a big setback for religious.
Well, it's a setback
because it didn't change any change.
Yeah.
So so the challenge is going to just hang out there for a while.
They're going to come back eventually and event and hope that Amy Coney Barrett.
is part of the decision.
She had to recuse herself for some reason, but
they want
to bring another case back where she wouldn't recuse herself and then be the deciding vote.
But again, you know, there's something wrong with Supreme Court justice if we can predict every move that they make, every decision that they're going to make.
And it's Alito and Thomas every damn time.
These guys
are so Republican, so partisan that it's just
It's insane.
We know where they're gonna go with it.
I mean, they have done so much damage already to what we have as a country.
I mean, declaring that everybody has a right to own a gun, you know, our money is free speech.
This is the total destruction of this country.
These two decisions, total destruction.
And then they're continuing to destroy the country with more bad decisions.
Well, in all these court cases that are coming up because of the Trump administration, they're just clogging up the courts below them, and they're busier than they've ever been.
And they wrote that the president has immunity.
Yes.
I mean, there's nothing in the Constitution that endorses anything like that or even suggests it.
Right.
But they put it in there
anyway.
So, you know, the people, these conservatives, these magas out there that say that Democrats like to massage the Constitution, that it's kind of an ever-growing Constitution.
Wrong.
You guys just make stuff up and you think like, well, that's OK.
It
benefits us.
Yes.
Well, we've got idiocracy right around the corner more.
We're just getting warmed up.
Wound up.
Wound up and worn up.
Yeah, something like that.
Okay, 629 Midwest Farm Report with Pam Yankee and crew coming up next.
Then we're back with Idiocracy and a whole lot more on John and Gordy in the morning.
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.
At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.
Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber.
You go and do something like this.
We can duck and cover.
There's a ball of shelter right there.
There's no way to survive this,
you
idiot.
We
can't.
Idiocracy.
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.
WMDX, John and Gordy in the morning trying to make sense out of all this.
It is
6.35.
A beautiful start to this Friday and the Memorial Day weekend.
Sunshine and highs today will be in the
low to mid 60s.
It's going to be great all day long.
Hey, you can get the latest information on what's happening around Madison and behind the scenes here at WMDX with the WMDX newsletter.
We've got some news and events, and Catherine writes some great articles.
Yes.
In
fact, there's a great article in there about Memorial Day weekend, and her father, who was, we were talking about that, and we'll be
talking about that
on our Memorial Day show.
All three of our parents, yours, mine, and Catherine's, were a part of either World War II or the Korean conflict.
Exactly,
yes.
It was a
war.
You can get the newsletter, the WMDX newsletter by signing up at wmdxradio.com, our website, wmdxradio.com.
Do we have a picture of the new WMDX t-shirts?
You know, I don't think we
have the picture yet in that newsletter, but we do have new t-shirts.
We're going to be modeling those.
I'm just going to say, what are you going to say?
Now, it's good that they're using another model instead of John and Gordy as the models, because you certainly don't want to look at our mugs.
Oh, no, I think we should be the models for it.
You think
so?
Yeah.
Well, John, you're modeling one of the t-shirts right now.
We've got it on today.
This is exactly why listeners should Bluetooth us into their car radios and watch us at the same time on social media streams.
While they're
driving into work.
Exactly.
You should watch TV.
You should watch John and Gordy when you're driving.
Exactly.
Wow.
Just be safe and careful how
you do that.
I've changed your mind, haven't I?
You were so angry when I started doing this thinking, oh, you can't do that.
Well,
then
I tried it for myself, and I was truly converted.
Yeah, there you
go.
Let's see.
Just
try it once, and you'll be hooked.
See, he listened to you.
He listened to you.
Well, some
Gen Zers do that.
I don't believe it myself that I listened to John Peterson.
Well, you know,
John and Gordy
listen.
A lot of people want to admit
that.
We listen to you, and we can listen a whole lot better, because we've been to the Madison Hearing Aid Center.
And we have.
Which brings us
this portion of the show, the Madison Hearing
You were telling
me all about it, right?
Oh, sure.
I mean, sometimes you can't hear, you know, some of the talking because of windy days or standing outside with a group of people at the beer garden.
You can't hear what everybody is saying or, you know, noisy family situations arguing over politics.
Or concerts, you can't
hear
people around you.
Instead, you don't want to hear the music or want to hear what people are saying around you.
So you can tune them out as well through AI on these hearing aids.
From Madison Hearing Aid Center.
Oh, you can even automatically tune out trombones if you want.
Wait a minute.
You can tune out a
trombone?
Are you kidding me?
Yeah.
How
can technology tune out trombones?
We'll just turn off the trombone blocker and see if you can.
I can't hear it.
Okay.
Sam has been playing all this time.
Now you turn it back on.
Turn it back on.
Turn the blocker.
Yep.
No more trombones.
See how
that works?
It's amazing.
Madison Hearing
AIDS Center, they have
fast and flexible appointments.
They are helping people change their lives.
Their number one goal isn't just selling hearing aids.
It's improving the quality of life through better hearing.
And blocking out trombones.
Exactly.
Madison Hearing AIDS Center.
4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
Go to their website, MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
Jim and Sarah will help you out, like
they
helped out John, and they're helping me out, too.
All right.
Oh, excellent stuff.
Let's get to idiocracy now.
I've got a little sales pitch for everybody out there.
This was an ad.
My wife actually pointed me to this ad.
And here it is.
This is how it reads, OK?
All right.
Hey, fellow Patriot, if you're like me, then you
love to show your support for President Trump.
The other day I had a thought.
What if I could order a custom debit card or a credit card that had President Trump's picture on it?
Imagine using it to pay for things.
You'd be the talk of your friends and family.
What?
Yes, you would be.
Not in a good way.
So I looked online and unfortunately all the major card companies won't allow you to do that.
So I came up with a solution.
This is an ad.
Introducing our brand new President Trump credit card and debit card vinyl skins.
All right, what yeah now this is an idea here What are they?
Yeah, what are their high quality vinyl stickers that?
Transform your normal credit card into a patriotic President Trump card that you can show off and pay with All right, it makes a great conversation piece to have it in your wallet or purse and I get a ton of compliments when I pay for things
See, see, normally people don't expect him to ever pay for anything.
He's a well...
Oh, Welcher.
But anyway, this guy is, this is his idea.
We have three beautiful designs and you don't have to choose.
We've packaged them all together so you can have multiple designs on your different cards and credit cards.
And you can give a few extra ones to your loved ones.
You know, when you first said these vinyl skins, at first I thought they were something similar to the Supreme Court justice themed condoms.
Oh, yeah.
We're distributed a couple years ago.
Yes.
Yes.
Good slogans on those by
the
way.
Yes.
I wish we had that in front of us now.
All
right.
And then anyway, he says, I know this is something you absolutely need to have.
So I wanted to let you know before we make a public and sell out.
But will your card still work with these?
The skins on it, right?
They're just coverings, right?
Yeah, they're coverings.
So you
slide your card into the covering and it does expose the credit card number and it
allows you to
tap as well.
So it doesn't block that.
And it says, yes, apply these high quality skins.
Doesn't affect the ability to swipe or tap your card.
But we can't promise that you won't.
piss off a few liberal cashiers.
What's the name of the company?
Proudpatriots.com.
See, if they can do that, you know, maybe we could do that.
Have John and Gordy skins on
credit
cards.
That's where I was going.
See, the ideas just keep coming.
We've
got to workshop these.
I think that'd be great.
We'll
have to talk to the marketing department on
that
one.
I still am really hot on the John and Gordy plates.
You really want to have some
plates with our pictures on them.
Or at least a dream come true for you.
If there's a sticker you put on the middle of a plate, you buy it from Goodwill.
Jeez.
But it'll be a set.
So don't worry about that.
It won't be, you know, just random plates.
All right.
So, okay.
Well, we'll again, we'll have to work on that one.
But the sleeves, the
sleeves, the skin,
the Johnny Gordy.
I
like it.
What
else is in the
idiocracy
file today?
This is happening locally in the southeastern Wisconsin as long as we have Trump's racial signaling allowing white immigrants into the U.S.
and our race-baiting legislative Republicans at the Capitol attacking free-thinking DEI programs.
We're going to see more of the neo-Nazi groups boldly gaining power.
And I want to queue up this cut here.
It's cut 144.
This is a story about the neo-Nazis groups.
And they're putting stuff out there, flyers all over the Milwaukee area, Racine Kenosha area.
And as long as we have our white nationalist president, these guys are going to thrive.
Let's listen to the story.
There's been a sharp increase in the use of racist propaganda by white power groups in Wisconsin.
The message
found on flyers and ziplock bags that were left in Washington and Ozaki County communities read, would you open your home to a fugitive you don't know?
Then why should we open our borders?
The Arian Freedom Network is the group responsible.
It's a neo-Nazi group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
That means the group shares a hatred for Jewish people and a love for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
Jeff Tischhauser researches the white power movement for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
They're maybe successfully recruited some people and now they're trying to make a play for territory, just like a gang would, right?
So they're trying to say, hey, we're here now.
We're here in bigger numbers.
Come and join us.
Or for the targeted communities, get out of here, basically.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is tracking about five white power activist groups in Wisconsin who use firing as a tactic.
Since 2018, this tactic has exponentially grown as
a
way for these groups to sow fear in targeted communities as well as produce propaganda online.
And we've tracked about 1,000 percent in Wisconsin.
There's been a 1,000 percent increase.
in the use of racist propaganda by groups since 2018.
Tish
Hauser says deportation rhetoric, like the Aryan Freedom Network uses, has always been a tactic of white power activists, especially in their push for policy that supports getting rid of people they consider illegal.
But what's different about them using that rhetoric today, Tish Hauser says, is that that same rhetoric is mirrored by the Trump administration.
They're feeling very much emboldened and cheering each other on as they see
the rhetoric, but also policy goals that they've had for decades being picked up by the Trump administration.
Tish Hauser says there's immense emotional trauma that comes along with seeing these fliers, and that's what these groups want.
Tish Hauser says if you see racist fliers in your community, you can contact your police department.
There you go.
Simple solution.
Call the police.
Call the police department.
Wow.
And, you know, as Trump brags about bringing white immigrants into this country from South Africa, thank you, thank you, this really does embolden their cause.
But he doesn't think about that at all.
This is the accuracy, of course.
Now, how about this?
The administration appears to have started dismantling the Consumer Product Safety Commission and doesn't think it's important to keep dangerous toys and cribs off the market.
Of
course, we know that Sam goes around during a hippie Christmas here, and he's selling baby cribs and strollers.
that he's picked
up on
the side of the road.
That's right.
So we've got to prevent that from happening.
Let's listen.
I know.
I know.
I think Sam can benefit from this.
But here it is.
Cut 81.
Public safety.
OK.
Yesterday, the administration appears to have started dismantling the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
This is the federal agency, an independent one that does recalls and is responsible for product safety.
Does the administration not believe that it's important, you know, to keep toys and cribs?
I mean, you're a young mom
off of the product, of the market.
It's a federal agency within which branch?
It's the executive branch.
Who's the head of the executive branch?
The president of the United States.
He has their Congress.
He has the right to fire people within the executive branch.
It's a pretty simple answer.
That's not an answer.
I mean, again, the question was he's demandling public safety.
So it doesn't matter what branch of government it is.
Doesn't matter that the president has the power to do what he's doing.
Why is he doing it?
Why is he doing that?
Right.
Dangerous.
Great question.
It's just ridiculous.
I can't believe that answer.
She gave a non-answer.
That was
it.
That was all.
All right.
Hey, want to remind you that it is a free ticket Friday and the key word this time around is radio.
You could win a four pack of brewery tickets to the game May 27th versus Boston.
Just get that key word to us.
You can text us.
On the Civic Media app, the key word is radio.
Coming back with more idiocracy, I'm John and Gordy in the morning.
Daily Show Cut 2.
Kick things off with President Trump's meeting with the president of South Africa today.
And because it's Donald Trump, things got weird.
Death.
Death.
Death.
Horrible death.
Death.
I don't know.
What a host.
Death.
Death.
Death.
Hey, do you want a Diet Coke?
Death, horrible death.
That's... Now, the reason Trump turned this White House event into a murder podcast is that Trump is convinced that there is a white genocide going on in South Africa, which, of course, means there is no white genocide happening in South Africa.
It's not even mathematically impossible.
I mean, you'll never run out of white South Africans when one of them is making 5,000 kids a week.
But...
But still, Trump thinks there is one, and you know he cares about it because he said white genocide.
It's like someone told him, hey, it's not just a genocide.
It's a white genocide.
You know, the bad kind.
And Trump's like, oh, get him in.
But don't worry, South African president, there's a way out of this.
Cutter got Trump a plane.
What sweet, sweet bribe did you bring him?
I brought you a really fantastic golf.
book
weighs 14 kilograms.
And it showcases the golf courses in our country.
Yeah, you f*** that up.
You lost Trump at book and you definitely lost him at kilograms.
Yeah.
Oh yes, WMDX, John and Gordy in the morning, 92.7, you can text us and tell us what you think as well and we'll get it on the air here.
By the way, those pictures that he presented to the president of South Africa, well, they weren't all real.
authentic or in most cases they were of other countries.
So we have a CNN report here cut 160 if you could queue up cut 160 and this is a CNN exposing the truth about those videos.
Let's listen.
OK, because Larry, you can give us some context on one of the videos that President Trump played in the Oval Office.
He was claiming that there was a thousand roadside graves.
Apparently, this is a video that had been of a political statement made by a specific political party in South Africa, but not of actual grave sites, just a political demonstration to highlight violence against farmers.
OK, that's it.
That's it.
All right.
Did you think that there was more?
Oh, I was hoping there was more.
You made the cut.
I know.
I know.
You know, I make so many of them.
And we don't get a lot of them on the air.
But so all those pictures came from different countries?
Yes.
Yes.
Some of them did.
One was just a political picture.
You know, they were making statements.
One of the opposition groups in South Africa.
And that was all it was.
It was staged.
So these aren't real pictures, but death.
Death.
Death.
More death.
Yes.
Wow.
Great host.
Yeah.
What a party guy.
Is
he going to be continuing to do this, bring all these foreign leaders into the Oval Office and then try to, you know, put them on the spot and humiliate them and get into arguments with them?
As
long
as he can get away
with it, I'm thinking a lot of people are rethinking those visit or invitations to the white.
I know I would.
Yes.
All right.
Let's talk about this is, you know, big in the news now, the big meme party that Trump attended last night.
This was in his private time.
He's not taking money and grip.
Yeah, he is.
No.
They've hauled in.
Oh, well, you
know, it
is
342 million.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, way back way back in a New York deposition Trump said that his brand went from three billion to ten billion the day he got elected in 2016 Okay, so the grift is working and so here is Caroline Levitt answering the question about Hey, is this a legal thing that you can do cut 78?
We're looking at cut 78 all
right
The group that's running that coin is encouraging people to buy in order to win a dinner this month with the president.
Why is the president planning to attend a dinner for the top investors in his coin?
Look, the president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws.
The president has been incredibly transparent with his own personal financial obligation throughout the years.
The president is a successful businessman and I think frankly
it's one of the many
reasons
that
people reelected him back to this office.
There are at least some people who are buying this coin who seem to view it as an opportunity to influence the president's views.
There was a logistics company
company this week that said they would buy $20 million in the coin in order to advocate for free trade between the U.S.
and Mexico.
If buyers are buying for that reason, are they wasting their money?
Look, I can assure you, the President acts with only the interests of the American public in mind, putting our country first
and doing what's best for our
country, full stop.
That's his intention, and that's
what he's focused on.
Let me just get
to
the premise of your question that both of you have raised.
I think it's frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump
is doing
anything for his own benefit.
He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once, but twice.
And again, the American public reelected him back to this White House because they trust he acts in the best interest of our country in putting the American public first.
This is a president who has actually lost money for being president of
the United States.
I don't remember these
things.
That was Caroline Levitt, Trump's press secretary,
responding to a question about Trump laundering money to himself via his crypto coins.
And this isn't just spin.
This is gaslighting on an industrial scale.
First, let's start off with the most obvious.
Trump never divested from any of his businesses when he became president.
Unlike virtually every president before him, he maintained ownership of his company while he was in office, creating unprecedented conflicts of interest.
So it's the
Monuments Clause that is being violated, left and right.
It's
right
in the Constitution
there.
So if he normalizes it, will the Supreme Court say, well, it's been happening for so long now, you know, like the years.
Yeah, we're just going to let it
go.
Yeah, it's OK.
So he can do this now for us.
Apparently so.
How wonderful.
It is six fifty nine coming up after the break.
Savannah Tomay Olson will join us with a look at the news from around our area.
Also, we do have a chance for you to win four pack of Brewers tickets.
Yes, the key word continues into our next hour or two.
The key word this time around is radio.
You could be going to the game on Tuesday, May 27 versus Boston.
It's a four pack of Brewer tickets.
the key word to text us is radio.
And more on the big bad build coming up.
It's all coming up on John and Gordy in the
morning.
Transmitted by Wire.
Here is the latest news brought into your own living room.
You'll be hard to satisfy with anything left.
Let's get on top of it all for a while.
The talk is cheap.
Keep, keep, keep.
Always gossiping.
It's the John and Gordy show.
This is High Five Fronts.
And that's the way it is.
We'll do it live.
On 92.7 FM, WMDX.
Take it away,
boys.
I've been really bad at lyrics to songs,
so
I just make up lyrics.
That's what I do.
Why not?
I think a lot of people do that as well.
Sure, yeah, sing along with stuff.
Yeah, just make it work.
Why
not?
Makes us poets.
Everyone.
OK,
all right, so 92 ports out of WMDX.
It's John and Gordy in the board.
What?
We're kind of
lost here.
What do you mean we're lost?
I mean, we're lost in the celebration of giving away tickets for the Brewers game.
Yeah, we
got that.
How happy can anybody be?
Just go to a Brewers game.
It's nice, beautiful weather out there.
Right.
All right.
Anyway, we'll get to that in just a moment, right?
But first, we want to get to
Savannah Tomah Olsen.
She's standing by here.
That's it.
Our WMDX news director and Savannah.
Good morning.
Here we are Memorial Day, holiday weekend.
You ready for it?
Good morning.
Happy Friday.
Oh, I'm ready for it.
Are you guys?
Oh,
yeah.
Yeah, definitely ready for it.
Now we've got give us an idea of some of the headlines you've got for us coming out.
Right.
So one of the big things to watch next week is that the meritor nurses, the union that represents meritor nurses had voted to go on strike starting on Tuesday.
And basically negotiations at the last minute broke down with the hospital.
And the union told the hospital reps that their next negotiation date was next Thursday, but that strike was scheduled for Tuesday.
So as of right now, it looks like about a thousand meritor nurses.
will go on strike starting on Tuesday.
So we'll see how that plays out or whether something will happen in, you know, the final hours as it often does with labor negotiations.
But for now, that's, that's the plan.
The hospital says that everything that they'll stay open and they hope to just run everything as normal.
But I think all eyes will be on Meritor first thing Tuesday morning.
Boy, it'd be hard to run a hospital without nurses.
I don't know.
what contingent plan they have, but that seems like a devastating one.
Both my sons, my Gen Z sons were born at Meritor.
Yeah, boy, those maternity rooms are huge.
You know, 80 people
can fit
into those rooms.
That they are.
My son was born there and man, those nurses were great.
I have a list on my phone of all their names, like that, you know, that's how valuable our nurses are,
right?
Yeah, my daughter was born there as well.
Yeah.
So, so the issues are, I imagine, you know, money, of course, and then our
working and those are the things
they have to nail.
Safety and retention were two of their biggest things.
Safety retention and then pay was their third point.
So if safety and retention are right there at the top of the list, I think they've got some stuff that's real important to them.
Meritor says that they've made some changes based on those negotiations and they've been negotiating in good faith.
Um, but we'll just we'll have to wait and see what happens.
I wish I had a definitive answer on what's going to happen Tuesday morning, but it'll, it'll be interesting here.
All
right.
And, uh, watching that one, you know, one of the big stories I think is the artwork on garbage trucks.
Uh, wait, what?
Artwork
on,
artwork on
garbage trucks.
Oh, aren't
you following this one?
Come
on, man.
What
are you talking
about?
What is
this?
I haven't heard of this.
Oh yeah.
So John and Gordy, uh, artwork.
Sam been paint.
Are you spray painting garbage trucks?
No, but that's a great idea.
All
right.
No,
wait
a minute.
Savannah, tell us what the real story is.
This is my favorite story of the week.
So a four year old named Fred here in Madison sent a letter to the mayor saying.
I like the blue garbage trucks, but can we get some different colors?
I would prefer purple or rainbow.
That's what he asked for.
Pretty reasonable, I thought.
And so the mayor's office got with the streets division, and then they got with Madison Arts, which is an organization under the city of Madison government.
And they decided they were going to start putting art on some of the garbage trucks.
So now there are two garbage trucks that thrive around and collect trash around Madison.
One of them has this really pretty painting by a local artist of a turkey exploring one of Madison's neighborhoods.
And then the other is of the Madison skyline.
And they're huge, like on the side of these garbage trucks, all because Fred wanted some color.
I can't wait to see these.
You might see them in your neighborhood.
I just thought that was the coolest thing.
That is such a neat story because, you know, for the city to take something like that seriously and then act on it and then create these garbage trucks
just
from a four-year-old's idea, I'm just, that's fascinating.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It's terrific.
And that was something the mayor said.
She said, when you write to us or you call us or you email us, like we're going to read it.
That doesn't mean we can fix the problem immediately, but, you know, they, they did take it seriously.
And now the garbage trucks will be a little prettier, maybe not less smellier, but prettier.
We'll be
looking at the garbage truck picture, you know, and hitting the garbage guy standing outside the truck, trying to flag us away from them.
You know.
I think that's a great idea.
But it
is a fantastic idea.
And we'll have to get the John and Gordy logo up on each
of one of those
garbage
trucks.
What do we have to do to do that?
Yeah, I don't know.
We got to talk to the mayor, I guess.
All right, Savannah, do you have plans for the Memorial Day holiday weekend?
You going to be traveling at all?
I get to live my Memorial Day weekend dreams and be on a boat on Sunday.
Is that not the ideal way to spend the weekend?
I'm pretty
pumped.
Yeah, that sounds wonderful.
Very good.
Well, you
enjoy the holiday.
As long as
it's not a styrofoam.
boat.
Sam managed
to pick one up.
I'm preparing for the Fool's Flotilla coming up next month.
Oh, that's right.
Oh,
yeah.
Okay.
Savannah, thank you very much.
We appreciate it.
Have a great holiday weekend.
That's right.
Yeah, you guys too.
Thanks a
bunch.
All right.
Savannah Tomei Olson, WMDX News.
Okay.
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
They are fast and flexible with appointments.
stress convenience over complexity.
They're located in an accessible setting at 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison and they help people change their lives.
They're not just selling hearing aids.
They improve the quality of life through better hearing.
Bluetooth, AI.
Yes.
I mean, all the technology is there in hearing aid now.
So it's
fantastic
stuff.
Yeah, John's got them.
I've got them.
They really do help you out.
And you can get them too.
You can find out more by going to Madison.
hearingaidcenter.com, that's madisonhearingaidcenter.com.
And it has a special block on it that tunes out any trombone sound.
Really?
You're getting better and better with that trombone for not
having any idea how to play it.
Scares me every single time.
Yes,
you're
frightening our new producer
Dominic.
I can't believe he went out and bought that thing
just so he
could
fix it.
But thank goodness that you've got the trombone filter on these Madison hearing aids.
Yes,
well good.
Interrupting everybody else's show around here.
We've
got our talk network director Luke Mathers.
Peeping his head into the studio door, he's got a very confused look
on his face.
Luke is writing up a memo right now.
Rockers, he's very concerned about you as well.
Banning
Ultron Bones from the station, I guess.
Doug Hearer says
from
St.
Francis, with your new hearing aids, are you more aware of what you've been saying?
Well, no, it doesn't
work.
Wishful
thinking,
Doug.
Thank you for that text.
You can call us or text us at 608-879-8255.
Mark got off the line.
I wanted him to sing a song for us.
He mentioned...
Captain kid was at it.
Oh, was that okay?
Well, he had a song that he used to sing in grade school I wanted to hear that song if he could just give us a call back Well, we do have dick on the line,
but
we do have dick on the line Let's
go
to the phones right now dick.
What do you
got for us?
Good morning dick
Good morning guys.
Happy holiday early.
Um, you know, I'm the probably the only one old long enough to you remember the old
celebrity roast at Dean Martin thing.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, sure.
Oh, yeah.
You can still find them online.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they were somewhat funny sometimes.
But Trump seems to have turned that Oval Office meeting into it.
Like, for instance, he can bring people in his staff in.
Eggstead could be Foster Brooks.
Yeah.
And then Steve Bannon, he could shave his head.
He could be, you know, Don Rickles.
One of the women they could do her hair and she could be Phyllis Diller.
I mean, this is how ridiculous they become and how demeaning.
Yeah.
At least those were somewhat funny.
But
yeah, this is
this this thing the other day.
I can't imagine anybody like you guys said earlier wanting to sign up for this.
I know, I know.
It's just ridiculous, right?
What's in it for you?
Yeah.
You know,
Oh, come on over and get humiliated.
Exactly.
No one's going
to be invited over to the White House anymore because no one wants to go to visit this guy.
Right.
And again, you know, then they made fun of the fact that all the news networks came out with ambush, the word ambush in their news headline stories, you know, got ambushed this time.
They ambushed them.
Yeah, it is.
It's an it's an ambush.
That's what it's
called.
My god, okay big thanks a lot for the
call.
Thank you for that.
Yeah
By the way, we still have our free ticket Friday going on right now.
You can win a four pack to the Brewers game coming up against Boston on May 27th.
You can text us the word radio.
You can do that with the Civic Media app.
Just download the app.
It's free to do that at the Apple or the Google Store.
Find our station, WMDX.
And then there's a text button right there.
You can send us the key word, which is radio.
And there'll be other chances to win throughout the day on the Civic Media.
radio networks.
Fantastic.
Stay
tuned.
Let's talk about the big bad bill.
Okay.
Mega bill favors the wealthy, of course, according to the story.
It doesn't do much for the middle class and hurts the poor.
So I got a clip here of Steve Ratner from Morning Joe and he's talking about he always gives us the real answers.
Let's
listen to cut 157 Steve Ratner.
Okay.
If you're in the top 20% of Americans, you're going to get roughly a 3.7% increase in your after tax income, really all from these tax cuts.
But if you go all the way to the bottom and everything in between essentially leads you to the bottom.
If you're in the bottom 20%, you actually lose $800.
Why do you lose $800?
You get a very small tax cut.
and you get a very large cut in Medicaid and these other benefits that we were just talking about that affects the 20% disproportionately.
So this is a highly regressive bill that essentially favors the wealthy, doesn't do much for the middle class, and hurts the poor.
And then if you want to see this in stark comparison, if we simply eliminated the tax cuts for people making over $500,000 a year, which is roughly what President Biden was proposing, it would save $1.1 trillion.
That happens to be just slightly more than the Medicaid cuts
and the food stamps or snap cuts, if you will, put together.
So if we simply eliminated these tax cuts, we could eliminate these budget cuts on these poor people and end up from a budget point of view in the same place.
OK, so the bottom 20% lose about $800.
But boy, they're going to lose a heck of a lot more because they're getting rid of the bonus money that was given during COVID
for
the ACA to help people pay their monthly premiums.
And that's going to go up to $300.
gonna get hit really hard.
Let's go to the phone lines right now.
We've got Mark up there.
Mark, what do you got for us?
You're gonna sing us a song.
Just got a minute, Mark.
You might remember the song, but it is, my name is Captain Kidd as I sailed and I went on to the end of the song and I had to look it up to the execution dock.
I laid my head upon the block.
The law's no moral mock as I sail.
So take the morning here and heed.
to Shun Bed Company.
They'll wind up just like me as I sailed.
And I can't remember what grade I was in.
I mean, you guys must have heard it when you were in school.
Yeah,
but I
can't remember it.
I was hoping to get it.
Ah, the memories.
But boy,
Marta, what an
uplifting song for a grade schooler.
Appreciate it, Mark.
When we come back, we'll check in with Brittany Merlot on the weekend weather for Memorial Day.
Stay with us.
WMDX, 92.7, a little Bubba Hope tip.
We've got sunshine this morning, temperatures in the mid-40s getting into the mid-60s.
What
a
great
looking
day
so far.
John, you want to explain to Dom what the story behind Bubba Hope tip?
Bubba Hope tip is a movie with Bruce Campbell in it.
Of course, any movie with Bruce Campbell is a great movie.
and he plays a guy who is actually Elvis Presley.
And he tells
the story about how he switched places with Elvis.
And so he could retire and he's in a retirement home and a mummy.
goes around the retirement home, sucking out the souls of the people in the retirement home, and Bruce Campbell is out to stop this mummy
from doing this.
You mean Elvis?
Elvis is out to stop the mummy.
Okay.
I got to see it after the show.
You got to show me
a clip.
It's great stuff.
All right.
I know it doesn't sound great, but it is fun.
And that music theme, I mean, it's just a great soundtrack,
by the way.
Good
thing.
Brian Tyler did the soundtrack.
Okay.
Uh, it is 723.
Thank you for that little synopsis of that movie.
And now it's little Johnny at the movies there.
Let's, uh, let's get to Brittany Merlot.
She's patiently waiting to tell us about the weather for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Good morning, Brittany.
How are you?
I suppose
Brittany, you're going
to
probably want to spend some time watching Bubba Hope tap, right?
Right now after that.
Really sold that baby.
You did.
You know, I've never heard of these mummies sucking souls.
Well,
things are looking great out there this morning.
We've
got
sunshine here in Madison.
How is it in Wausau?
Oh, it is so beautiful.
My gosh.
I don't know if it's just because it's Friday.
We've got the long weekend ahead or the sunshine, but it has got me bouncing off the walls in excitement.
for this weekend because we've got nothing but sunshine.
I got up this morning and I ran out of the car and I'm thinking, God, am I late for work?
It's so bright and sunny out here.
I was so used to the cloudy, rainy weather that I never thought it would be this light this early in the morning.
It is.
Yeah, it's weird.
Oh, yes.
And it feels good.
It looks good.
We're going to sit there in those comfortable temperatures all weekend long.
Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, not too wet.
It's fantastic.
We're going to be in those low sixties today, mid sixties tomorrow, upper sixties by Sunday.
We're going to hold the upper sixties on Monday, and then the rain starts to move in on Tuesday.
So it even looks like all the rain chances stay away too.
Yes.
I'm so excited.
Oh, that's great stuff.
All right.
Wonderful.
Can't beat that.
Let's record
that
and play it
over and
over.
Repeat, repeat.
Yes,
please.
Well, that's fantastic.
And you've got people coming to visit you.
You don't have to travel this weekend, right?
No, I don't they're gonna have to sit in the traffic up to the north woods this time Yeah, I'm very excited.
We're gonna be exploring the waterways probably doing some kayaking a little bit of off-roading and stuff like that and of course grilling
Yeah, oh, yeah, some river rafting.
I suppose you know why river rafting sure why not get out there while the water levels are high and dangerous All right, that sounds great.
Well, they're moving.
Yeah.
No.
Well, Brittany you
have
a great weekend
And enjoy the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
That's our chief meteorologist, Brittany Merlot.
Thank you.
Okay.
This portion of John and Gordy in the Morning brought to you by Crashbox Therapy.
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That's crashboxtherapy.com.
Let's go back to the Big Bad Bill.
Okay.
Like
to thank Doug out in St.
Francis again.
You want to do the show, Doug?
I mean, really seriously.
Fill it in
for us.
This has anybody paying attention?
Scott Fitzgerald.
So I just released about the Big Bad Bill list.
Well, here I'm going to play.
I want to get into this a little bit here.
We'll get to what Fitzgerald said.
But first, let's hear representative Angie Craig.
She had this to say, which I think a lot of people are saying to themselves as well.
This is cut one.
159.
All right.
Let's listen to what she says.
All
right.
What do you get?
Are you kidding me?
We already have work requirements in SNAP.
What we're doing is we're adding work requirements to single parents of seven year olds.
That's
right.
Who thinks that's a good idea?
It's egregious.
And you talk about childcare costs in this country, it's egregious where we are.
And you know, Mr. Norman, and I could use, I could give you examples for every single one of your districts, but I'm going to use his just because I had it open here.
We're talking about 11% of the state population in South Carolina.
that he's going to cut.
We're talking about $321 million a year to the taxpayers of South Carolina in additional cost shifts.
We're talking about a billion dollars a year to the state of Pennsylvania.
These are real dollars.
if we move forward with these.
And so I have no idea why we think it's a good idea to repeal attacks on silencers when we are gonna feed fewer children in our country as a result of this.
It's a moral damn failure is what it is, Congressman.
I couldn't say it any better.
I think the member Craig, I think you articulated it well.
Yes, absolutely.
And Doug did write Fitzgerald's latest release about the big bad bill, list cuts in taxes on social security.
Wisconsin does not charge attacks on Social Security.
Thank you, Doug.
That's a very good point.
He also said, we're delivering on the promises made to the American people to bring tax relief, what, to the billionaires?
I never thought that was a really good idea myself.
And he says, reduce government waste and secure our border.
This puts President Trump's America First agenda where it belongs.
front and center.
There you go.
Well, you run on that one, Scott.
Okay.
Yeah.
You keep just keep saying that back that baby up because when people find out what's really happening.
They're not going to be very happy.
729, this portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.
One thing remains constant since they opened the doors since in 1958.
They are still direct to consumer providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
Two locations, east side and west side in Madison.
Go to Virlo.com.
Coming back with rocker with a Maxink preview local and regional Wisconsin music right here on John and Gordy in the morning.
Let the sun shine.
Is the John and Courtney show?
to M-D-X.
Johnny Gordy in the morning.
It is 7.35, sunshine, mid 40s this morning, mid 60s this afternoon.
Hey, it is a free ticket Friday.
That's right.
Your chance to win a four pack of club level seats to the Brewers game on Tuesday, May 27th versus Boston.
This happens every Friday through the summer.
All you need to do is listen for our keyword to text to enter it for this statewide contest.
And don't forget to tune in later on today during Jane Show and Tom and Todd and Maggie.
They will have different keywords, so more chances to win these tickets throughout the day.
Again, it is for Tuesday, May 27th versus Boston.
in Milwaukee, the keyword this time around is radio, okay?
Radio is the keyword for your chance to
win.
What was that again?
I said radio, R-A-D-I-O.
If you spell it correctly, you'll be entered into win.
And that should be the first word in your text, okay?
Radio.
R-A-D-I-O, John.
Oh, wait, wait.
I'm sorry.
You're not eligible.
I had the Gordy block on my, uh...
Oh, didn't you?
On your...
My AI.
Hearing.
Hearing.
All right.
Just download the Civic Media app in the Apple or Google Store, find our station, WMDX, use the text button.
Oh, that's
right.
It's Banana Bread Day here, the Banana Bread
Bake Off.
Banana Bread Day was Tuesday, not Friday.
Banana Bread Bake Off was supposed to be Friday.
Did you not read the memo what she put it in the calendar for Tuesday?
So I brought my bread in on
Catherine has brought her banana bread into the studio.
You
put great
tips in there, don't you?
What oh and nuts nuts, okay?
Yeah, this is our secret plan to
do away with
our afternoon producer Aaron Zommers who's like deathly allergic to nuts.
Is that right?
Okay.
Well,
no, we're gonna
have
to leave in a huff.
You can just leave.
You don't have to leave in a huff.
Pissed off now.
Specifically, okay.
Way to go.
Okay.
Guess what?
Rocker is here.
Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Good night.
What's happening, John and Gordy?
How
you doing, man?
It's happening here.
How you doing, Sam?
And a new guy, Dom.
How you doing?
Good.
How are
you?
Oh, I'm doing pretty good.
You know, I was I was listening what you guys were talking about some place where you like break stuff
Yes,
well that that sounds like a lot of fun, right?
What was it called?
Yeah, it's
called crash box therapy
crash box What I actually want to know about it is number one, can you bring your own stuff?
No, you can't crash and no too.
Can you donate stuff?
Can I bring my stuff down
there?
That's what I was thinking
I have a
big giant 48 inch
high quality Sony TV that doesn't work anymore.
If you go to crashboxtherapy.com you'll be able to see what what you can and cannot do.
Okay.
Oh, there's rules.
It's like the axe throwing like you can't get drunk and throw axes, you know.
It's frowned upon.
I mean, what kind of rules do these places have?
Well, yeah, that's yeah.
I gotta check it out.
All right.
guys max inc radio coming up tomorrow night Saturday night 6 p.m.
to midnight on the civic media radio network this week we are going to be speaking with Turtle Island dispensary Ian Marsden we're going to be talking about the flower and all kinds of stuff mushrooms spores you wouldn't believe what's all at this store right over on Johnson.
No limit.
They are risk, uh, rock-ons and finalists and they're going to be playing at Sarmfest.
They started their band in the music school here over at Madison Music Foundry and they've continued on after graduating.
So we'll hear from them live in the layer this week.
Taylor Sherrick.
apparently has a pretty big pedigree here in Madison.
He's gonna be doing an acoustic duo.
If you didn't know, he is the singer from Foo Foo Dolls and the Remedy.
So it'll be pretty cool to have him here in the studio.
His dad, Damon Sherrick.
Yeah.
John and I worked with Damon Sherrick at
channel 47 many years ago and Damon now works at Full Compass and his father Bill Sherrick ran channel 47 for quite a while.
He was
the
general manager.
We knew him as well.
So yeah, and they're all guitar players, Bill and Damon and Taylor.
So Taylor's going to be a part of the acoustic duo, right?
Yeah, that's going to be exciting to see him.
It's going to be mainly him singing solo, but he'll be have someone with him.
We'll actually talk about him.
in one
second.
Where's the key?
They have a new song that's going to be released, Madison Alternative Band, and After Hours with Rob Roberts.
So that's Max Inc Radio, 6 p.m.
to midnight, right here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
And we'll also have Rocker, Terry Barr, and Yanei.
She's one of our new producers on Max Inc Radio, so she'll be in the studio too.
Great young producer we're bringing here to Civic Media.
Great.
Taylor Sherrick, singer, songwriter.
He is the singer of the Foo Foo Dolls and the Remedy, as we said, May 25th.
That's this weekend.
He'll be playing at Broadfest with the Foo Foo Dolls at two o'clock in the afternoon and then with the Remedy at four.
So he'll be doing double duty at Broadfest this weekend on the 25th.
And then June 1st, Taylor Sherrick is live at the Tumbled Rock Brewery in kitchen.
I believe that's in Baraboo, right?
It
is in Baraboo, yep.
And tomorrow night, live in the lair on Max, Inc.
Radio 8 p.m.
We'll have him right here in the studio.
This is his brand new song with a whole all star cast and crew recording on this.
Taylor Sherrick, music is family.
Back when I was just in the car, you'd show me different
Giving me
That sounds wonderful.
Isn't that good?
It's a nice song.
Quite a production.
He'll be playing that song and then he'll be bringing in one of the female singers to sing on that with him tomorrow night, live in the lair on Max Inc Radio.
Tremendous.
There's always a great live concert on Max Inc Radio every Saturday night, right?
And you
can go to civicmedia.us, find Max Inc Radio, and you can go back in time and hear all of those live in the lair.
podcast we do.
You've got the big John and Gordy stamp of approval.
All right.
Yes.
There
you go.
Okay.
The Wisconsin Union Terrace, you know, last week on Maxing Radio, we had Sean Michael Dargan.
And we're going to be talking about him in just a minute.
But John is also the
advisor, the student advisor for live music booking of the Memorial Union, and they have been doing just a great job of putting local music on the terrace, the Union Terrace, which is one of the best places to see a concert.
Isn't it?
Fantastic.
www.union.wisc.edu.
Go there and click on the terrace to see the entire schedule.
But I thought I'd tell you some of the great local artists that are playing at the terrace this weekend and then coming up in May and June, May 23rd, Sista Sensi, Reggae and May 24th.
So that's Saturday.
Today, tonight is Sista Sensi and tomorrow, Latin Pride or Kesta with Rebuliu.
and they are really cool.
It's gonna be a lot of like fast dancing and stuff, so get down there.
Coming up in May and June, May 29th, Old Soul Society, May 30th, the Madtown Manish Boys, May 31st, Nestor with Bing Bong, June 6th, Automatic Lover, June 7th, Sam Lyons, and June 12th, a special rare show, The Material Boys.
You know the material?
I don't know about material.
No, they're like they're bluegrass.
Okay.
But they they kind of got big because they were doing bluegrass but like Madonna songs.
Wow, you know, I mean, things like, you know, virgin touch for the very first time.
And they do this whole thing.
And like, like that's how it's interesting.
And they've been on hiatus for a while.
So it's a it's a great show.
Excellent.
And make sure to go check www.union.wisc.edu.
And you can see the whole schedule.
It's pretty amazing.
Excellent.
Sean Michael Target.
New there's a new taproom in Madison.
I don't know if you guys have been there yet It's called the lone girl from the brewing company that's out in Wanakee, but they had they
have a brewery right down
a Taproom 1817 East Washington Avenue right by your Har River
So Thursday is 6 to 9 p.m.
and Friday is 7 to 10 p.m.
They have rooftop concerts, right?
Wow.
They have craft beer, Roman style pizza.
It's a custom flour with a 72 rise for like a thick and light, airy pizza.
I
kind of want to try it.
I get to do that once in a while.
Highlights include coming up.
May 29th, Robert J May 30th, rail hopper and the 6th of June, the Ryan McGrath band is going to be up there.
I'll be bringing in some songs from Ryan coming up in the weeks.
We got to hear from him.
But tonight, May 23rd, the lone girl brewing over on East Washington, Sean Michael Dargan tonight.
Here's one of his new songs, brand new, a million words or
less.
That's a really cute song.
I
love that million words or less.
That's a great line.
You know, it's the new Twitter rule, right?
Yeah.
That's
great
stuff.
I love that.
Sam Ness, we've talked about him before.
He's a Wisconsin area music industry, the Whammy Awards.
He's a folk performer of the year for 2025.
Just won that.
And of course he's up for Mamas.
He's a 12 time Madison area music association MAMA award winner and he's been inducted into the MAMA Hall of Fame in 2024.
Tonight, Sam Ness is May 23rd.
Sam Ness is at the Balanced Rock Wine
Balanced Rock Winery.
Let me say that again.
Balanced Rock Winery in Baraboo and tomorrow night, May 24th and June 7th.
You can see him right here in Madison at the Dane County's Farmers Market, but you're going to have to get up early.
He's 10 a.m.
Okay.
But you can see him at Red Rock Saloon coming up June 9th.
So check Sam Ness.
He's easy to find online.
Check his schedule right now.
Let's listen to a song from 2021.
This is She Is Love.
Sam Ness.
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
They are 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
They have fast and flexible appointments.
Jim and Sarah will set you up.
They are helping people changing their lives through the quality of life, through better hearing.
Madison Hearing Aid Center, 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
Individualized care, not one-size-fits-all.
They emphasize convenience over complexity.
They will help you out.
Go to their website for free hearing aid test, MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
We will be back with more of Rocker in the Max Inc.
preview right here on WMDX.
Stay with us.
92.7.
John
and Gordy doing the thing in the morning.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Sunshine on State Street right off the Capitol Square, 753.
It's going to be beautiful all day long.
Highs in the mid-60s.
Looks great through Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
This portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.
One thing that remains constant, John.
Since
they opened the door
in 1958, that's when they opened their doors.
They are still direct to consumer providing superior products at unbeatable prices.
Verlo mattress of Madison to locations east side and west side or go to Verlo.com.
I hear they're almost running out of the adjustable bed frame.
No,
they have plenty in stock.
Don't spread rumors like that.
Better get in there.
Mattress will be
mad at you.
We're spreading those rules.
Can you
imagine being punched by a
mattress?
When are we going to get Maddie the mattress in here?
Same fault.
Oh boy.
What?
It's Sam's fault.
You
only got a week to go.
He's still
getting the spray paint removed.
Okay,
that's right.
Go to
verlo.com for more information.
Okay, back to Rocker with the Maxink preview.
Rocker, what do you got
there as we wrap up the show?
There are some things coming up.
We'll get quick to Harmonious Whale.
Remember, they are that band with Sims and Maggie.
He's on mandolin, world-class mandolin player, and Maggie, she plays a cardboard box with brushes.
They're going to they're going to be have a reunion with stand-up bassist Jeff Weiss.
So I thought I'd bring in a little bit Saturday, May 24th, 8 p.m.
at the Coda Cafe.
That's over on Willy Street.
This is Miss New Orleans from the Beyond the Pale album, Harmonious
Whale.
at each night and day.
I know I'm not wrong.
The feeling's getting stronger.
The longer I stay away, I miss the moss covered vines, the tall sugar pines, where mockingbirds used to sing.
Who
is that again?
Harmonious?
Well.
But who's the singer?
Maggie.
Maggie?
Yeah, it's Maggie.
You just go by Maggie?
Maggie Delaney Pottoff.
Wow.
What a
voice.
Yeah, she's an amazing singer.
And she's a vocal teacher, so you can look her up and take lessons from her.
Yeah.
Great harmonies, Will.
They've been playing for 30 years.
And he's singing lessons.
Yeah.
Kota Cafe, Saturday, May 24th.
That is tomorrow.
Hey, guys, I have a little surprise for you.
Uh-oh.
a
surprise.
Yeah, you know, I've been I book all the music at at Wood Fest
coming up every year
civic media and WMDX is always a big part.
Right.
And so we're getting ready to let our schedule out.
It's coming on Monday.
But today's Friday.
So how about some teases, some previews?
What do you think?
Yes, please.
We have our schedule coming on on Monday.
That's going to be at woodfest.com.
Greatest music festival ever, right?
Right.
Exactly.
Kick off the festival.
We're going to go with bands from New Orleans at one of our stages, starting with Mama Dig Down's brass band.
Oh,
really?
So they have the convergence.
It meets right at one of the stages and then
BAM starts out with some New Orleans from Mama Dick Downs, Brass Band.
We're
also going to have Mr. Blotto.
They're from Chicago.
They are just a really great kind of fairly big regional band.
They're really awesome.
Mr. Blotto.
Check them out.
Kelsey Miles, she's coming back from Kansas City.
And we're going to have her write it at Woodfest.
So that's going to be a lot of fun.
Her whole big band, I think it's nearly a 10 piece
band.
And Brothers Almanac, these guys, they're amazing Alman Brothers Tribute Band from Minneapolis.
So that's going to be, I think it's going to be a huge treat to see them.
Fat Function.
We are bringing the fat, the funk to Atwood Fest.
So.
What a lineup, man.
There are a couple of previews, but I still have one more preview.
Okay.
All right.
A Dem Test Ve Band.
OK, they are going to be headlining one of our stages.
A dem test phase known for his soul funk rock sound with a hip hop edge.
He was in the band Black Poet Society back in the 90s.
And when he went out to New York City and then moved back, he came back to Madison during just before the lockdowns, the lockdowns happened.
And he just stayed here in Madison.
He said, you know, I'm not going back to New York.
A dem test for a band six piece band will be playing the Baroque on Friday, May 30th and 7 p.m.
And then July 27th.
at Atwood Fest.
Look for the Atwood Fest schedule at atwoodfest.com early next week.
This song pressure under pressure.
It's about feeling of chasing your dreams while being aware of the pressures of life, emphasizing the importance of being grateful for what you have under pressure.
A damn
test.
That's going to sound good at Atwood Best.
It really is.
And by the way, your neighbors, Gordy, are streaming us in New Orleans.
I guess they're pumping it right out on...
On Bourbon
Street?
Yeah.
Excellent.
We thank them for that.
Maxink Preview.
Yeah, it's coming up six to ten p.m.
Maxing radio tomorrow night on the civic media radio network
Rocker.
Thank you very much.
Have a great weekend.
Have a great Memorial Day, too That's gonna do it for us Stephanie Miller's coming up next.
I gotta tell everybody to check out the civic media Website because we've got in the store.
Yes shirts.
Check it out us.
Have a wonderful weekend so long
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.
To say what needs to be said, it's John and Gordy on 92.7 WMDX.
Good morning, WMDX.
It's John Peterson, Gordy Young in the morning.
And another big day, another slew of weird news and, and, uh, idiocracy.
It just, it just doesn't stop.
And they just, and they just passed the big bad bill.
Big bad bill.
They just passed it in the house.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
It's not in the Senate yet.
No.
But anyway, it.
Who could have predicted that?
Who could have predicted that the House would somehow, you know, find the votes
or pass
the dumbest bill in the world.
The most, actually, you know, people are starting to.
catch on to this whole game and the fact that this is one of the cruelest bills ever passed in the U.S.
I think it'll go down in history.
I mean this is punitive.
Everything that Republicans do is punitive and we do that in this state constantly.
We always penalize everybody.
We don't give them anything.
We don't fund anything.
We penalize them.
And this is one of those huge big bad bills that punishes everybody.
And wait till you hear what's in that damn bill.
After seven o'clock we'll be featuring some debates.
Adam Schiff and who is it?
Sheldon Whitehouse.
They will be trying to get some answers from the administration department heads and they don't get any answers.
And oh, you're going to be really surprised at this.
A lot of people, a lot of parents out there have deductions.
They have dependence that we have to take care of.
Well, that's changing.
You will not believe this.
And the implications are gigantic, huge.
Just wait till you find out.
Okay, all right, and that's all coming up next hour, but I can't wait.
We've got idiocracy.
We've got to cover the smaller stories, but You know that'll be maybe after Brittany Merleau because we've got Jim Slecker from busted pencils coming in at 735 635
Tim Slacker.
Tim Slacker.
Okay, what did I say,
Jim?
We really shouldn't have booked Jim and Tim on the same day, should we?
What did I say,
Jim?
You said Jim.
Jim Slacker.
I think you were
thinking also Jim Santel.
Jim Santel after
7.30,
yes.
I
can't keep track anymore.
I know.
It's a jam-packed
show.
It is.
It's
cloudy
out here this morning
and
kind of chilly.
Well, you know, I feel a little disoriented because I don't have my watch on.
I noticed.
I forgot.
You keep
forgetting it.
Why?
I thought you slept with it on, right?
Well, I do.
And then I take it off when I get up and it charges within an hour.
So it's charged for the rest of the day.
until I take it off again in the morning.
So
I
mean, I have a routine here, but my son came up this morning and he was telling me how the Democrats are voting and who votes more Democratic and who isn't.
And he's on this thing because Gen Z's, they want to change the way.
the Congress works.
You know, they want some youth in there, they want something better, and they don't want these old, traditional boaters,
you know.
A lot of the old guys.
Like this to happen.
That'd be an age limit.
You know what the onion headline that I got yesterday was?
What was that?
It was a cobweb covered skeleton grips his desk as he claims he'll run for a 15th term in the Senate.
Oh no.
That's good.
Wow.
Okay.
I love that.
That's what it's come to.
Well, so it's cloudy, it's chilly out there, 44 degrees on the WMDX thermometer right outside her window overlooking State Street,
here
from the global headquarters of Civic Media, and it feels like 39 degrees.
There's a little bit of a light breeze.
But what would the afternoon high be today?
What should we use?
Which one of our many devices did we get the weather wheel fixed?
You want to do that?
I think we have the weather wheel fixed up and ready to go.
We haven't heard this in a long, long time.
Right.
Yeah.
And storage.
Yeah.
Good spin there, Sam.
Throwing off a lot of cobwebs.
And it's, what does that say?
59.
That's what
I'm seeing from here.
OK.
59 degrees will be the high for today.
It's too bad.
We don't know sunrise, sunset.
You don't have your watch on.
Do you have that
information?
I pulled up my weather app and it's blank.
It's not telling me.
That means we're not going to have weather today.
Yes, no temperatures, no highs, no lows.
Kind of calm.
What are we going to
do?
I don't know, bump into walls?
I guess.
That's what I'm going to do this in.
All right.
Well, OK, here we go.
Well, you want to have the National Day calendar?
Well, you know, I know we
weren't going to do that anymore.
But I'll
just mention that I wasn't going to do it anymore.
What am I
thinking?
I mean, if we were going to do
it,
we'd find out about National Craft Distillery Day.
But I know you don't drink beer anymore.
So
you don't care about that.
National Solitaire Day.
You play Solitaire?
No, it's just a game, right?
I don't play games.
National Vanilla Pudding Day.
Vanilla Pudding Day.
I love
Vanilla
Pudding.
Do you really?
Oh, God, yes.
Everybody loves Vanilla, right?
No, I can't stand it.
Wow.
National Biomusical Instrument Day.
Wait a minute.
National Biomusical
Instrument
Day.
Wow.
Sam.
I didn't know you played trombone.
I sure don't.
Well, how did it get in here?
Look out.
Don't hit Dominic with that slighting thing.
There's
no room in there for a
trombone.
How did that get in there?
Why do we have a trombone in here?
Every radio station has a trombone, John.
Oh, yes.
I forgot.
FCC law now.
New administration.
So how did you come to get that trombone if you're not a trombone player?
Well, I kind of wanted it just for the bit.
Trombones are just such a fun instrument.
I found it on Facebook Marketplace a few months ago.
How much?
No, really.
Well, it was half broken at the time.
I fixed it up, but it was only like $30 or $40.
Wow.
That's a good deal.
How did it break?
I mean, it looks like
one piece.
One of the tubes was missing, so activated my plumbing skills and soldered on a new brass pipe.
Dominic, do you play any musical instruments?
It's National Biomusical Instrument Day.
I used to play the recorder when I was in first grade.
Other than that, I have not touched a musical instrument since.
I used to play with my tape recorder.
Oh, okay,
I'm sorry.
Yeah, those recorders, those plastic recorders.
Do you think that that company would still be in business if it wasn't for first grade?
classes all across America
just
forcing kids to try to
play any kind of
musical instrument because they don't, you know, you don't, you don't progress anywhere.
It didn't
inspire Dom to go any
further with the musical
interest.
I think I actually, I had a black belt too.
There used to be like a colors on the recorder that you can like how, how, how really good you are at the recorder.
And that's like, it determines like if you have the black belt or, you know, a yellow belt or anything like
that.
And what did you
move up to the Black Blind?
I think I just had an orange belt, so I think level two.
That's pretty good, though.
Yeah, you really worked up there.
Well, do we have
any
history items to talk about today
for May 22nd?
Oh, you know, I suppose so.
Do you want me to open the book?
Please open the book.
Oh,
God.
No,
don't do
that.
Look out, Tom.
I'm gonna...
He blew his nose.
I cannot be in this room anymore.
He blew
his nose.
What's that?
I cannot be in this room
anymore.
Okay.
Dom is now... He wants to get
out of there.
He's kind of souring on this whole
thing.
I wonder what's happened in the history book that we had that...
Trombone speak up there.
Right.
Well, it is by musical instrument day.
You're right.
It must be that.
It makes sense.
I wonder what happened on this day for them to choose May 22nd as... Well, I don't know.
We don't do
the National Day count
already.
Well, I guess we'll never know then, Gordy.
Yeah, I don't
know.
All right.
Well, stuff that we actually know that happened today.
A little bit of downer history, I guess.
Today, in 1939, the Axis Powers officially formed.
Germany and Italy, they signed their big agreement.
Not good.
Not good.
Japan joined them shortly thereafter, but that was the initial.
Axis of
Evil.
This coming up here, 1992, Johnny Carson, he hosted his last show.
Yeah, that's right.
Far before I was born.
So, Johnny Carson is not as big of a deal to me as it is to you guys, but can you remember who was his last
guest?
I don't remember the last guest.
You don't remember the singer that got on Johnny's
desk?
On the desk?
Was that it, really?
Rolled around on there while she sang a song.
Was that Ben Middler?
Yes, it
was.
Oh,
okay.
Good call.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I
remember it.
I didn't think that was the last.
I know, you know, they lead up to these last shows.
Yeah, I get confused.
Johnny
led up to it for a year.
All the guests.
Yeah.
All I remember is that Letterman didn't get it.
That was a
big
dissapointment.
That was a controversy.
The guy who did take over after Johnny, of course, was.
And
now
here's Corey.
There you go.
I am so glad you had that.
My
imagination is that some weird, weird strut.
I mean, that is weird, wild, wacky, wacky strut.
You're correct,
sir!
Little Phil Hartman.
Yeah, and Dana Carvey.
Yeah.
SNL.
Anything else happening on this date?
So you guys are going to have to fill me in on this.
I should have looked up the video of this happening.
Today in 2004, then President Bush crashed his mountain bike.
Do you remember hearing about this story?
Yes, I
do.
I don't really remember that.
He wasn't seriously injured
obviously.
No, he kind of just got up and kept riding.
Hmm people people sort of made fun of him for it.
Well, I remember when Biden fell off his bike Yeah, I don't know how I missed that that I saw the video of that yesterday
He was seriously injured in that president Bush was he
wasn't was
he?
Well, that's why he was in a wheelchair for the rest of his noise Yeah, no, I remember it.
I don't remember the details
Okay, Bush was a total incompetent So I wasn't surprised
didn't pay much attention to him.
No, I did
But you
know, it was it was his puppet master that I paid more attention to and that's Dick Cheney.
Oh, yes Yesterday about how the man in the White House right now isn't really in charge.
That's true.
I did I should have brought that up.
Yeah, but he was in charge.
Well, we know
We know that Project 2025 is in charge of the White House.
OK.
Russell
Vaughn.
Russell Vaughn.
OK.
Or vote.
Vote.
They say vote.
Vote.
No, I think.
OK.
Yeah.
It's 18 minutes past the hour.
This portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by our friends at MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
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Okay, coming up a little bit later on, Tim Slecker will join us from Busted Pencils in just a little while, and then in our next hour, Jim Santel, Attorney at Law, just getting started on a Thursday morning in beautiful downtown Madison.
It's John and Gordy in your morning.
Here we go
Johnny Gordon in the morning
90.7
623, it's cloudy and chilly this morning, 40 degrees, the high just in the upper fifties.
We'll get a weather update along the way from Brittany Merleau in just a little while.
Right now, Pam Yankee joins us from Midwest Farm Report.
Good morning, Pam.
Good morning.
Thanks.
Thanks.
For sure.
quite a change from the heat and humidity we picked up last week.
Oh yeah, this is incredible.
I'm actually going to enjoy this.
When
the
dew points are gone, I'm happy.
I'm a happy person, all right.
He's all about the dew
points.
I hate dew points.
Hey, a big announcement, the new Alice in Dairyland, huh?
Yeah, forward to it.
We met her on Saturday night.
Some of us had no honor.
Since she was a little girl, her name is Sarah Hagnell.
24 years old, grew up in Poinet, just recently graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in food science marketing and also international marketing.
She's been very involved in 4-H and FFA as a kid.
And then when she was up at the University of Minnesota, got involved with the Gopher Dairy Club up there, she's done quite an extensive amount of internships.
So she's definitely ready for the job.
On Saturday night, there was a couple different historical perspectives that those of us in agriculture or the followers of Alice and Dairyland probably didn't miss.
First of all, Crawford County had never hosted Alice and Dairyland previously, so that was the first time for them.
And wonderful turnout from what my reporters have told me.
More than 200 people that were at the beautiful Douseman host in Prairie de Sheen.
just a fantastic venue for the event.
And then a lot of our former Alice's were there as well, which is kind of a tradition.
If they can make it back, they do.
I know that not all 78 of them were there, but still.
And then the other historical perspective is the fact that Sarah is Ashley Hagenau's sister.
Now, if that rings a bell to you, Ashley Hagenau was our 76.
Alice in Dairyland.
So just two years ago, she wore the crown and tiara and spoke as Wisconsin's agriculture ambassador.
And now Sarah will be taking over the spot now.
It's going to take a couple of weeks before you actually get a chance to see Sarah out on the job, although she's super excited and obviously ready to go.
The Department of Ag Train Consumer Protection decided a couple of years ago that it's kind of a rough transition to start a brand new job as Alice in Dairyland.
in june dairy month you can imagine the calendar is pretty frenetic and there's a lot of different bells and whistles you've got to try to get used to so they postpone the beginning of the new alice's term until july so we'll get a chance to shadow our current alice hailey heinzel for a month or so and then we'll be on the job starting in july the other thing we found out on saturday night is that marathon county
is going to be hosting the 2026 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days.
That'll be May 14th through the 16th in Wausau.
And Sarah has committed to visiting Marathon County every month of her tenure so that she can help Marathon County prepare what's obviously going to be a fantastic event for 2026.
So and congratulations to mom and dad.
Lisa and Bob Hagenau from Poinet.
Bob the real player in the dairy industry has been his entire career and I'm sure he's just pumped up with pride this morning to have both of his girls.
getting to speak up for Wisconsin agriculture.
It's
almost sounds like a movie, doesn't it?
You know,
the two sisters
compare notes.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Now we were talking about the, uh, the weather as we started out, it's a much cooler today.
And of course we had those big storms that rolled through last week.
And I understand they're still doing some cleanup in Dodge County.
Is that right, Pam?
And I know that, uh, folks have probably been seeing some of it on social media.
It just breaks your heart.
I mean, I've been watching a lot of my listeners have shared stories about particularly the Schmidt farm in Juneau.
We also saw a farm by Alto that was almost a direct hit with either straight line winds or tornado.
I'm sure National Weather Service will come out with more clarification.
But I want people to slow down and think about how it's tragic wherever these storms occur.
But if you're a dairy farm, it is so complicated to try to put pieces back together.
Immediately, you've got to try to figure out, first of all, veterinary care for those animals if they were injured, if they've got to be euthanized.
And then the next thing is, if the facility is gone, now I have to find a farm nearby where those cows can go.
Now, most farms that was counted are already pretty much at capacity.
So you're asking a big feat, a big favor of somebody to let foreign animals, literally animals you don't know, animals you may not know health on, to come into your herd.
Then the next thing is, where is that milk going to go?
the farm that you may be at was built for a certain capacity.
Now you're bringing your cows over.
Then it's the extended care of the animals that may still need some care but are being fed and milked.
And that's the other thing.
Where's the feed now?
The feed could be scattered across three counties by now.
How are you going to pull that back together?
So thoughts and prayers to those folks in Dodge County, the farmers that were hit because just once the storm ends, the real nightmare of the situation can just begin.
So I'll be following up with them to see if there's anything we can do or say.
Well, you're right.
I mean, those cows have got to get milked twice a day, right?
Yeah.
I mean, that's still.
Wow.
And you don't think about, you don't, how many times have you driven around any place in Wisconsin?
The barn may be there, but it's been idle for so long.
There's no water.
There's no electricity.
There's no milk handling equipment.
I mean, there may be a building, but what the dairy farm needs as far as, like you said, milk and cows and doing that stuff, and then figure animals are creatures of habit.
Those cows don't know that barn.
They don't know where they're supposed to stand.
They don't know where the water in the feed is.
They're already agitated because they've been through a traumatic experience.
So like I said, I'm going to follow up with some of the veterinarians that were stepping in to try to help those farms after the storm had passed and see what the status situation is there.
I'll see if I can't pass a couple of notes on to you guys later.
They'll like to hear about that.
Yeah.
Well,
very
good, Pam.
We appreciate all you do for us here and for that update.
Midwest Farm Report, food and farm going to your table.
We have that all the time here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Pam, have a good week.
We'll talk to you on Friday.
Yes.
See you later, boy.
All right, take care.
It's
Pam Yankee.
In fact, that Midwest Farm Report is right around the corner.
And when we come back, idiocracy for a Monday morning.
Oh, boy, we got a lot.
Can't wait.
We got a lot to tell you.
I'm John and Gordy in the
morning.
you
It's John and Gordy in the morning.
John and Gordy in the morning and we are having a wonderful time here this morning.
Even though it's raining outside
and
drizzle and
we have Mike McCabe
in the studio from Substack.
Is it raining out there still a little bit?
Yeah, it's dismal out there.
It's all bright and shiny in here.
But man,
it's one of those dreary days outdoors and
sprinkling a little bit, but not bad.
Yeah.
All right.
It is 7.36.
This portion of the show being brought to you by our new sponsor here.
You might be interested in this, Mike.
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Get your aggression out, you know?
You don't want to go around with a chip on your shoulder or something.
It's going to break stuff.
I mean, a lot of the topics we talk about here, you know, really make us angry.
Now, if we could
just,
you know, bring a little crash box therapy here into the studio.
Maybe they got a portable version of it.
I don't think that's a good idea.
We don't want to break anything in our brand new studio here.
It might hurt something.
We don't have enough equipment in the brand new studio break.
Well, they're they're they're promising to put that in something to keep in mind.
All right.
All right.
Mike, it's good to see you.
Yeah.
Good to be here.
Blogger and author of Miracles Along County Q.
That's right.
So we were just checking out your latest post.
Right.
It's pretty dark stuff
there.
I want a
negative.
Yeah.
Geez.
I know you're standing up for the rural community, but
Boy, you know, they're pretty...
No, I actually think...
Political active sometimes.
Well, yeah, and I think there's an uplifting part to the story.
There is, there is that.
Yeah, I mean, it was outright revolt in the early 1930s, in the area where I grew up.
Not far from county Q, as a matter of fact, and runs through Clark
County.
Wow,
there you go.
Yeah, and a lot of people don't know about the milk strikes of 1933.
It's not taught in school, not something that is on very many people's radar, but well, tell us about
it.
Well, you led up to it by maybe some comments in the audience from people who might actually think that rural communities are a little bit on the very conservative edgy side.
Yeah, and the area I'm talking about where all this started, where the milk strikes were born, is today,
the reddest of red areas in our country.
It is a MAGA Republican stronghold today.
And in the late 1920s and early 1930s, this was a hotbed of progressivism.
Yes, it was.
And farmers had had it.
They weren't getting fair prices.
And so they just decided, dog on it, we're gonna organize.
And in Abbotsford, Wisconsin.
which is not far from where our farm was as I was growing up, not far from where the town, where my novel is set is at.
Farmers came together, hundreds of farmers came together to start to organize, to withhold their milk.
And then not too long after that, 5,000 farmers showed up in nearby Marshfield.
to continue the organizing campaign and eventually over 100,000 farmers in Wisconsin had joined the milk strike.
They were dumping milk at the roadside and on railroad tracks and they were blocking shipment of milk to creameries, to places where it was bottled or made into cheese.
They even were blowing up some cheese factories
and creameries with dynamite, they were obstructing the roads, erecting blockades to prevent trucks from getting milk products to Madison and Milwaukee.
They just decided we're gonna shut everything down.
There's not gonna be milk or any milk products anywhere in the state of Wisconsin.
This eventually spread to other dairy states across the country.
And it ended up getting the attention of the Roosevelt administration, and the very first farm bill came out of that.
A federal response that produced a New Deal-era supply management program that made sure that farmers got a fair price and were able to be profitable was put in place in this country for the very first time.
So here in this area where it's today, about the biggest MAGA Republican stronghold that you will see anywhere in the state
of
Wisconsin started this revolt.
The governor at the time was a Democrat.
Now Democrats and Republicans were different animals back then.
They were, yes they were.
But the governor at the time was a Democrat.
He called out the National Guard to confront the strikers.
they were met with tear gas and beaten with clubs and one farmer was shot in the neck and died in his brother's arms.
It did not stop the strikers.
The Wisconsin State Journal wrote an editorial at the time comparing that killing of that farmer to the beginning of the American Revolution.
And this strike got even bigger until it led to massive reform of milk pricing.
in what became the very first farm bill ever enacted by Congress.
And the Roosevelt administration put into effect a system that treated farmers far more fairly than they had been treated.
So that kind of, hey, you know, that Democratic governor at the time compared these farmers to...
to socialists and said that they had fallen under the influence of Bolsheviks.
And these are the people who are in the same area that today is very
red.
It's amazing how their heritage has so much to do with socialism.
Absolutely.
And at that same basic time, I didn't write about this, but
But there was something formed in North Dakota called the Nonpartisan League.
That very same time, the early 1930s, and they put in place public purchasing and transport of wheat, because that was a big wheat area.
They actually formed the first and only, it still exists today, is the state bank of North Dakota, a public...
bank to provide credit to farmers and to make sure that farmers could get product to market at a reasonable cost.
And that bank, the state bank of North Dakota, still exists to this day.
And so there was... How did Trump miss that?
There was this prairie populism.
It's a state bank.
It's not a federal bank.
He's going after everything.
I know.
But there was this prairie populism.
And those organizers of the nonpartisan league...
in North Dakota, they were socialists.
They were, you know.
It was popular back then.
Socialism was very popular.
Yeah, and so I think my point was just that, look, it hasn't always been the way it is today.
Not in Clark County, Wisconsin, not in North Dakota, in none of these places.
It's not always been this way, and it's not always gonna be this way.
And the seeds of...
of reactionary right-wing politics have always been there, but also the seeds of progressive, even revolutionary politics
have
always been in the ground there.
Now, I also mentioned that this was not a one-off.
What happened in 1933 was not a one-off.
During my childhood, I was 14 years old at the
time.
Was it 1974?
It was 1974, so I was 14 years old.
And this was in Curtis, and our farm was just miles outside of the little town of Curtis in Clark County.
And I remember this well.
We had reached the point where shipping an animal to market cost you more than what you got paid for the animal.
If you sold an animal in market, it didn't even cover your transportation costs.
I remember that story.
It was a big story back then.
And people were so frustrated with the pricing and the market.
that farmers in Clark County ended up organizing a calf kill and dug a huge trench.
I remember exactly where it was.
And they dug a huge trench.
Over 650 calves were slaughtered
and
dumped in this trench and about a dozen and a half hogs also were killed and dumped in the trench.
Now, my family didn't participate.
We knew about it.
Everybody knew about it.
We chose not to participate.
But it made national news.
It ended up covered in the New York Times.
Walter Cronkite announced this news, reported this incident on the CBS Evening News, and we all watched it.
That little Curtis, 150 people in the middle of nowhere, made the national news because of this outburst of frustration.
And so as recently as 1974, you had this...
you had these seeds of revolt that were right there.
It was seething.
And I think it's just so important for people to remember that the way people seem today is not the way they've always been and it's not the way they will always be.
It's a heck of a lot more fluid than people imagine.
And so that was really my point
with this
latest Substack article.
Talking with Mike McCabe, a Substack blogger and author, 746.
So Mike, what can we learn?
Let's talk about today's farmers.
And is there a possibility that they could do some sort of drastic action?
What are they upset about that would cause them to do something that they did back in the 1930s or in the 1970s?
You know, we have had... Are they organized, I guess?
Farmers have never been organized at any given moment, but in 1933, they got organized.
And they got organized in a hurry because there were feelings of desperation.
And the same thing happened in 1974.
When I was growing up, farmers are not... They're working all day, seven days a week, out on the farm.
They're not prone to being going off to organizing meetings.
But when conditions reach a point where they can't take it anymore, when they reach that breaking point, they get organized in a hurry and they'll take these dramatic actions, as happened in the milk strikes in 1933, happened more recently during my own upbringing.
And we had 50 years of market stability and decent prices.
Farmers had times when they would struggle, they would have times where they were doing relatively well.
But it was, we had 50 plus years of market stability.
Well, a lot of that is getting unraveled.
And, you know, that little town of Curtis was 150 people then, but when I was growing up there, just over 200 people now, but it's the majority of the population is Latino.
Most of the people living in Curtis are not white.
You mentioned that, yeah.
Because they're the cow milkers, they're the farm workers, right?
And if...
current immigration policies Take the take us to such extremes that you're deporting people simply because because they're brown or black You could cripple American agriculture and if people are pushed to that limit again where where their their operations are crippled You'll see you'll see them rise up again.
Well, I know that Trump has exempted
farm workers at this point
so
far.
Yeah
We'll pick it up there when we come back with Mike McCabe, sub-stack blogger and author 748 back with more of John and Gordy in the morning after
this.
And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker.
So God made a farmer.
God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at the meeting of the school board.
So God made a farmer.
God said, I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt.
and watch it die and dry his eyes and say maybe next year.
I need somebody who can shape an axe handle from a persimmon sprout, she'll horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of hay, wire, feed sacks, and shoe scraps, who planting time and harvest season will finish his 40 hour a week by Tuesday noon and then paining from tractor back put in another 72 hours so God made a farmer.
God said I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales,
yet gentle enough to yeen lambs and wean pigs and tempt the pink combed bullets who have stopped his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadowlark.
So God made a farmer.
All right, I'm getting depressed.
Thank you very much.
It's not a good
life.
WMDX 92.7.
I want to thank
Laura, for the text this morning, she loved the Costco pedestal fan story.
I don't know if you realize it, but you called it a fantastic, at least twice.
So thank you, Laura.
John, you didn't even get to the hopeful part of that little poem from Paul Hart.
Well, yeah, where was that?
At the very end, it's about a kid who wants to become a farmer when he grows up.
Well,
there's still plenty of kids out there that want to do that, right?
Damn.
FFA and
all that.
How much time
do
we have here?
All right, 4-H.
It's 7.54.
This portion of the show being brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
Pardon me.
MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
They're at 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
They offer fast and flexible appointments.
Talk to Jim and Sarah.
They are helping people change their lives.
Their number one goal isn't just selling hearing aids.
As John and I both know, we've been there.
We've done that.
We've got hearing aids that are amazing.
It improves the quality of life through better hearing.
It's Madison Hearing Aid Center.
Go to their website, Madison Hearing Aid Center.
See, we thought we were indestructible at those concerts that we attended.
That's what you think, those rock concerts back in the 70s.
Loud music will do it.
You pay the price in the end, though.
That's what happens, oh boy.
We're back with Mike McCabe now.
We were talking about farming and oh
boy.
Yeah, there's a different impression of farmers, and it's a misimpression of farmers because you gave a few examples in your post at Substack.
regarding how farmers vote.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I've done work over the years that put me on the road a lot and put me in front of a lot of audiences.
I was a candidate for governor and spent a lot of time, you know, going to every nook and cranny of the state talking
to a
lot of people.
And one of the things I hear when people know of my rural background is that, well, you know, they vote the way they do because they're bigots.
Yeah.
And, you know, and I get where they're coming from.
I hear what they're saying, but I always challenge that.
Always.
And one of the things I say is, OK, if bigotry explains their voting, then how do you explain the results of the 2008 presidential election when dozens of the most rural counties in Wisconsin voted to elect the first black president in our nation?
Right.
And then in 2012.
If it's bigotry that inspires their voting, if bigotry is their guide when they go to the polling place, then how do you explain 2012?
We had a U.S.
Senate election, and one of the candidates was the only four-term governor Wisconsin has ever known, Tommy Thompson.
And the other candidate was an out lesbian, Tammy Baldwin.
And most of the most rural states in Wisconsin voted for the out lesbian.
And so again, I think it's really important to realize that the seeds of political revolt are there in rural Wisconsin in very recent times, and I think to this day.
But if people are feeling frustrated, they'll also lash out and move in the other direction.
But I don't think we can write off any population.
I don't think we can write off any part of our state or our country.
because there are seeds of progressive revolt everywhere in every part of this land.
Now we were talking off the air about the other revolt and that was during the...
milk pricing problem that we had here in the state.
There was an oversupply of milk and we also had problems shipping milk into Canada.
It was at that time as well.
And so, you know, they were dumping milk all over the state.
Yeah, and the thing is, you can't turn off cows.
They have to be milked every day, at least a couple of times a day.
And the milk comes, but if you are getting
such a miserable price that you can't even afford to ship it to market, then the only recourse you've got is to dump it.
And you see that from time to time.
When
milk
pricing gets ridiculous enough, farmers will just say, well, we can't even afford to get it to market.
So we're going to have to dump it, which is a horrible waste, of course.
But that is when you reach that point of desperation.
And that's what will turn people
to sometimes really unexpected kinds of political action.
Well,
you know, Pam Yonkey,
Midwest Farm
Report, she was on the program just this Monday and mentioned that when the tornadoes come through and some of these barns are devastated, you still got a milk cow's wordy a milk
thing.
Who milk's that?
Where
does the supply go?
I mean, that is a huge problem.
I never even thought of it before.
I go to a neighbor or, you know, try to truck the cows somewhere else.
I mean,
it's
different cows being milk.
at another farm, it's kind of, you know, chancy.
I mean, no one knows what's got.
There's a lot of work out there where these farmers have to get together and help each other out.
Oh, it's an incredible act of faith to throw seeds in the ground.
And because they're, you know, a killer frost can destroy the crop, you can lose
it all
to a hail storm or tornado.
And that's always been the nature of farming, but
yet...
People do it.
Yeah, that's it.
They do.
Mike, thanks for joining us.
We'll see you again next Wednesday.
It's Mike McCabe.
You can check him out at Substack.
with his blog every week there.
This portion of the show brought to you by Virlo Mattress of Madison.
One thing remains constant since they opened their doors back in 1958.
They're still direct to consumer providing superior products and unbeatable prices.
Two locations in Madison, east and west side.
It's Virlo.com.
Adjustable
bed frames.
Don't forget to ask about those.
And about their lifetime comfort guarantee.
That's right.
Tomorrow on the show, Dr. Tim Slecker, Jim Santel, attorney at law.
Have a great...
day.
