Transcript
Trump’s Harvard Vendetta & The Fight for Democracy (Hour 2)
John & Gordy · Tue May 27, 2025
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.
WMDX 92.7.
It's John and Gordy in the morning boys second day of the week that we have to work we worked on Memorial Day, and it was a long day for us so Well,
oh it's we recorded
it's wanted to create the illusion that we were here yesterday, and we you know we went all out right
well sure We always go all
out we
all know we always do we can't
not go all out.
Yeah.
We always go all out every day.
I know.
I
know.
Happy Tuesday.
Yes.
Oh, yeah, we've got we've got my favorite three day weekend song.
Do you?
Yes.
Really?
So we'll have to we'll have to play that throughout the show.
All right.
You sent me that before.
Did we pull it up online?
I
forget.
I just made a new one.
What do you mean?
Yeah, I
made a Updated to cut two different cuts version of the song.
Okay, it's a Monday kind of Tuesday
There you
go.
So yeah, I didn't bother looking for an older version of it that we had done earlier
in our careers, but I thought I'd throw a new one together.
I did that this morning.
I don't
remember doing a new, an old one.
Really?
A Monday kind of Tuesday
kind of thing?
Yeah, a song.
We
did that?
It's an old song by Hello People.
Oh,
okay.
I think this group wore clown paint.
The
painted
faces.
kind of blows their credibility right away but
hello people
hello people yeah they were like uh mimes you know and they were doing these songs and they were really good okay i i think they did uh they did a zombies song okay
i
love you i love you i love you i love you yes i do
that doesn't ring a bell but okay
All right.
Well, anyway, we're gonna play that we're gonna
play that throughout the show.
I know we'll forget but
Our new producer Roscoe in there.
He's he's got it all figured out
Roscoe.
It's Roscoe
What
was the first one Boris Boris Boris, but I correct it.
I correct.
I'm in your corner.
I'm sticking
up for you
Roscoe
You don't know either
Sorry, when you get older, you can't remember names as easily.
Well, I think that's it.
He's just got too much information up there.
Well, I
know it's Dom,
but I think
that's a nickname.
I think it's Roscoe.
Yeah.
Well, we're starting out kind of cloudy this morning, and it looks like it's going to stay cloudy all day long.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
Kind of a dreary start as you head back to work or school or whatever you do.
Schools are kind of wrapping up right now, right?
They're wrapped up.
Get ready
for summer?
Well, I know the university is, but what about elementary high school?
Yeah, I don't know.
High schools?
I think they're just about done there.
What do you think?
Do I look like I'm in elementary school?
No, but you could pass for, you know, middle school, maybe.
I still get
kids'
meals every
time I go to Culver's.
You
what?
I still get kids' meals
every time I go
to
Culver's.
You
guys have made fun of me for that before.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Well, good for you.
So it's cloudy and what does your watch say as far as temperature?
I've got 52 degrees here.
WMDX official Samsung watch show 56 currently.
High today of around 70.
Okay.
Let's do the roulette wheel and let that spin.
We have that and we can check the afternoon high.
Here we go.
All right, round and round it goes.
The Sunset's going
to be at 826.
826 Sunset time.
OK, 69.
Oh, cool.
Red 69, so well.
I like red 69.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Oops, I shouldn't have said that.
Well, nothing to concern yourself about.
A little bit later on.
Lisa Bernard will be here with the
Dan County Humane
Society.
I stopped in there over the weekend just to browse again, looking for a dog still, but there were very few this weekend.
Maybe it's just because it's Memorial Day.
I'm not sure.
Well, I'm not
pushing it into it.
I'm not forcing you to buy a dog.
I
know you're not.
I talked to you about this
and you acted like,
well, stop pushing me.
Do
I say
that?
I'm just
trying to help.
Of course you are.
Okay.
You know, when the right dog comes along.
I
know, I know.
And also we're going to talk to Michelle Orga.
Do you know how to pronounce her last name?
Orga?
I believe Michelle Orga from Second Harvest.
Thank you, Roscoe.
Okay, she's from Second Harvest, which is like a food bank facility.
So we'll be talking to her a little bit later.
What?
What's the problem?
You have a problem with the pages stapled together that
way?
Yeah, you know, we want to save ink if it's using the color laser printer.
We don't want to use, you know, a whole bunch of different sheets if you make a mistake the first time.
And apparently somebody only printed one side, so.
Okay.
I get it.
It's all good.
It's not a big deal.
All right.
If we were doing the national day calendar, these would be the days where we don't do them anymore.
But, you know, this is what we're missing.
National Grape Day, Grape Day.
And it was also coincidentally National Grape Popsicle Day.
So these two, they couldn't merge.
What a coincidence.
Yeah, they could.
Why?
They could emerge those two.
They could have saved some paper.
It's National Cellophane Tape Day.
This is real.
Really?
Cellophane tape?
Well, I
thought they phased that baby out, didn't they?
I think so.
Because it's magic
tape.
It was invented in 1930.
Yeah.
That's really all you need to know.
That's the tape that turns yellow.
By the 3M company.
Yeah, it used to turn yellow.
It did.
Yeah.
Back in the old days.
OK.
Well, let's check and see what's happening
on the...
That's kind of a double whammy,
isn't it?
You wreck something, you rip a sheet of paper, and you're trying to fix it, and you want to make it look like it was never ripped in the first place.
And then after about 10 years, there's this big yellow...
piece of tape, making it look like it was ripped once.
It kind of distracts from your attempt to make it seem like it's normal and never ripped.
Right.
Yeah, but that's... Yeah, that's bad.
Early, early days, it faded or it changed colors.
You
know what?
Who should use cellophane tape?
What's that?
Who?
Sam.
Sam.
Why?
On his car.
On his car.
What do you want?
Are you talking like
scotch tape?
Yes.
Yes.
Put my car together with scotch tape.
You have cellophane tape, not the magic tape, you know, that disappears and never turns yellow.
This is cellophane tape.
This is the worst tape you could ever.
It would look great.
It would add more color.
No,
you're so
right.
You could use a
splash
of yellow.
Splash of yellow.
Make it look like you actually taped your windshield out.
Right?
Right.
Great
idea.
Anything
happen on this date in history, Sam?
Do we turn to you or do we turn to... I think you turn to Roscoe, right?
I think you turn to Roscoe.
Alright, so... Go for it.
I can't give a straight face
to
him.
Okay, so on this day...
Did you know Dracula?
The Dracula book actually went on sale, 1897.
Oh, cool.
There we go.
I
actually never, I never actually read that book, but...
Not a lot of people
did.
Also, Golden Gate Bridge also opens in 1937.
Yeah, that's a
big bridge.
I also never went on that bridge either.
I feel like I
need
to go out
of the
house.
I've never
been there.
Have you been
there?
I actually
have, yeah.
It's a beautiful bridge, fantastic.
And you go to the other side of the Napa Valley label it.
There we go.
So it's gorgeous.
Yeah.
And then also, Bob Dylan releases the freewheeling.
In 1963.
Wow.
Second album.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was good.
Very good.
Very good.
Yeah, that's... Never
listen to it.
Yeah.
Okay, I'm just faking
it.
That's okay.
It's good.
Yeah.
All of his albums are good.
Wait, what is Catherine Lake?
What?
She's trying to
get a hold of it.
Tape talk.
Very deep.
Very deep.
Hey, we're just getting warmed up after three days off.
You know, give us a break there.
Well, you know, I thought, yes, we're talking cellophane taking your calls.
Six, eight, eight, seven, nine, eight,
five.
Experience with cellophane tape.
You give
us a call.
Text us.
What do you think about double sticky tape?
How about masking tape?
We're talking duct tape.
Yeah, it's tape talk this morning.
Oh, boy.
Any birthdays to celebrate today do we have it doesn't look like there's anything on the list here
there has not been a single human birthday Wow That
should be some kind of record I would Apologies if it's your birthday today may 27th or we didn't mean that
Okay, well, okay, that's that's all that's it.
Yeah, see
Well, we got a few
minutes.
You know, with some Monday kind of Tuesday, we were anticipating having Pam Yonkey in here to give us a farm update.
But we forgot.
Well, it's Tuesday.
She's taking a day.
That's right.
Oh, she's only with us on Mondays and Fridays.
So she's not normally with us on Tuesday.
So that's that's
that.
Maybe we should go to her studio sometime and kidnap her for a whole show.
OK.
I.
She did not like
that.
I mentioned something to Gordy just before we went on the air about AI.
You love AI, don't you, Sam?
Dom, you like AI as much as Sam does?
Sure.
You know, it has its ups and
downs, yeah.
John showed me a video that was
amazing.
It's truly an amazing thing.
I discovered it this morning.
It's an auto show put together by AI.
It didn't really happen.
So it's like Max Headroom, kind of, right?
Well, it looks like you're actually interviewing people at an auto show who are buying EVs, and they're interviewing people, and the people are unique and different, and each one has their own comment about why they're buying a new car.
And you have the showroom in the very back, and all the people moving
around.
People walking
around.
Well, again, it looks like...
news coverage of an auto show.
This is how the robot overlords are going to take over.
They're going to get us all to buy their electric cars in one day.
One day when all we have is electric cars.
They're going to take over.
They're going to start crashing into buildings.
It's going to be mass hysteria because of you, John Peter.
Because of me, because I pushed it.
And I'm thinking, this was my first idea.
We have to do something like that for the John and Gordy T-shirt shop.
The merchandise
shop.
Merchandise shop.
Because it looks so real.
You
know, like a grand opening coverage of it on television.
Right.
It really was impressive.
It was.
Now, my son, who's also Gen Z, freaked out when I showed this thing to him.
You know, I'm thinking, I'm laughing.
I'm thinking, oh man, I could do so much of this.
He goes, holy, that thing is going to take a city's worth of electricity.
just to create that video.
What?
Yes.
No.
I mean, it's just not really.
Yeah.
I guess it, you
know, to have that kind of technology to create an auto show that looked real, it would take that much electricity, electricity to do an entire city.
So that's the problem.
That's why the oligarchs and the billionaires love, you know, having Trump on their side.
What they want to do is they want to create more electricity in order to
run these AI generators.
Fascinating.
I wouldn't think it would take that much.
It does.
It takes that much.
I didn't either.
I mean, I didn't either.
I thought, well, it just takes a nice graphics card.
That's all.
OK.
Are we?
I don't know what they're up to.
I don't know.
Are you trying to find that song?
We're
running out of time right now.
So
let's.
Yeah.
It's almost 20 past.
Yeah.
We will continue with more of John and Gordy for a Tuesday morning.
Right after
this.
WMDX 92.7.
Oh, yeah.
That's wild.
Monday, kind of Tuesday, I like that.
It's the only song.
It's Hello People.
Yeah.
And they're the ones who had face pain on.
They look like mimes, clowns, whatever.
I don't know what their act was.
Kind of a circusy thing.
And they did that.
And I love you.
The old zombie song.
Yeah, I think I remember.
I love you.
Yeah to hear it again, but okay.
Well, that's good.
It's 23 minutes.
I like that.
I like that.
We should play that a little later too.
23 past the hour.
It's cloudy and cool 52 degrees high around 70 today.
This portion of the show being brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
They're at 4706 Cottage Grove Road in Madison.
They offer fast and flexible appointments.
They're family-owned.
They're located in an accessible setting.
They offer stress-free alternatives to big hospital visits.
It's Madison Hearing Aid
Center.
Okay.
Doing a great job, Jim and Sarah, and we're both...
That's right.
Doing the hearing aids.
Yeah, I took it with me this weekend.
We had a graduation party at the Great Dane at Hilldale.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I thought, well, you know, I'm going to be in a crowd, right?
I'm going to test this crowd thing out so I can hear the voices better.
Now, you can tune it to hear voices.
Right.
Or you could tune out the crowd or
You could just tune it to the normal way it's tuned for your ears, for your hearing loss.
And did you find it helpful in
talking to people in the crowd?
I did.
Now, why was this a thing that you went to class reunion?
Was this
a class reunion?
Yeah, for a
nephew.
A nephew
is celebrating the class graduation, so.
So in a crowd, it helps you to get rid of the background noise.
It does.
Yeah.
It's amazing.
MadisonHearingAidCenter.com.
You can check out their website.
They've got a hearing test right there.
You know, it has
AI included in it.
I know.
So it interprets everything through AI.
And I think somewhere along the way, it is going to grab onto my brain and I will be AI controlled.
Okay, well you can talk to Jim and Sarah about that as you go in for your
appointment and I'm hoping it doesn't happen.
I don't think that's I don't see that in the copy that I'm reading but you know it could be true.
There must
be something in my coffee this morning, huh?
Could be.
Let me just say MadisonHearingAidSetter.com.
All right.
And they're at 4706 Cottage Grove
Road.
We should take that
out of the...
Don't listen to what John said.
You're not AI controlled if you get hearing aids.
Maybe some day, but not today.
OK.
Yeah.
OK.
You know, there's a, I watched a show last night.
I think, well, my friend always gives us a little glimpse at what's on Apple TV because
we don't
have Apple TV.
So he takes the shows and he puts it on Plex.
So anyway, I'm sitting and I'm watching this new show.
I think it's Murder Bot.
Have you heard about this show?
Murder Bot.
Murder Bot.
No.
I have never heard of it.
I have never heard of it.
Yeah.
It's a robot that finds a way to
Circumvent his controls where they somebody else has control over him.
He has the limits put on him electronically But he found a way to bypass that now he is independent of all robots around him in the world He is a self-thinking
This is what I was just talking about with the AI car meat video.
Yeah Robots are gonna get us to buy buy them in the form of
AI EVs.
This is me.
This is me getting on my tinfoil.
Oh,
I know.
I know.
You know, a guy who drives around an old VW bug.
What is it?
73?
74.
74.
Like it was really different from the 73.
But anyway, yeah, and this robot is concealing himself.
So no one knows that he is an independent thinking robot.
But he also has thoughts of killing people.
Oh, great.
So there's always that tension.
Yeah.
I only
watch Murderbot.
That's the name he came up with for himself.
He was trying to come
up with names and he
thought,
murderbot, that sounds good.
Wow.
Anyway, to check that out.
I'll keep you updated on the episode.
Thank you.
Is that the leaf blower?
It is.
How
can we hear that all the way over here?
He's way across the street.
No, he doesn't.
He doesn't have headsets on.
Damn it.
Could you run down there Sam and...
Tell him to put on... Put on his headsets.
Headphones to listen to us or for hearing protection.
Well, that
wouldn't be about it.
You know, I do have headsets that tune into the radio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or Bluetooth from your phone.
But anyway, he should have Mon.
The city
does provide him.
So get on that, okay?
All right.
Why
is it my responsibility?
Well, you're the one who's leaving.
Yeah,
you're only here four more days.
Till Friday.
Till Friday.
Friday's it.
You don't have to remind me.
Oh, you're right.
Friday
is episode number 400,
too.
Yeah.
400.
All right.
Well, a lot of people crying, a lot of tears will be shed.
Yes.
Okay.
He's crying already.
Okay.
That's enough.
Enough of that.
Now, you know, the leaf blower guy.
Yeah.
He was, I wanted everybody to know this.
He found some paper on the sidewalk, remember?
Oh yeah, last
week.
We were watching him
very closely.
And he blew the paper off the sidewalk into the street.
He didn't pick it up.
No, and that's where he left it.
I don't know.
He
created work for the street
sweeper.
Apparently, they're all in cohorts.
They're working
together.
It's teamwork, man.
It's 29 past the hour on a cloudy Tuesday morning.
And we're coming up a little bit later on we're gonna be talking to Lisa Bernard In just a little while about from the Dane County Humane Society stay with us for more of John and
Gordy
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 fallout shelter right there.
There's no way to survive this, you idiot!
Idiocracy.
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.
They're always dumb, and we have quite the stack of stories coming up this week.
I think I sent over about, what, 25 stories that I found over the weekend, three days a weekend.
And it is, oh my gosh.
And I want to apologize now for not getting to all of them.
All at once, okay?
We're gonna spread them out throughout the week.
But there's some really interesting stuff here that I think everyone would be very interested in knowing.
A lot of stupid stuff.
Stupid stuff.
92.7 WMDX.
Is there
anything good about stupid stuff now?
I don't think so.
Okay, it's cloudy out
there.
I
didn't touch your head.
Oh, yes.
God
sabotage the show right away 52
degrees currently the high today close to 70.
It's gonna be cloudy all day long.
Maybe a sprinkler a shower thrown in
well, but yeah, just throw that in
John.
Do you think the net effect of listening to this show is for people to gain or lose intelligence?
Well, we're hoping that it
It balances out somewhere.
Good answer.
There you go.
All right.
Elon is crying.
Oh, yes.
That's
a
problem.
This is a story from Gizmoto.
Elon Musk gave an interview to Bloomberg News appearing at the Cutter
Economic forum via satellite Elan's whiny and childish interview is his latest and most juvenile to date the article said really even he called the interviewer UK broadcaster Michelle Hussein an NPC does anybody know what NPC means NPC it's a
non playable character
there you go
in a video game, Musk snarked about a judge who ruled against him as an activist judge who's cosplaying as a judge in a Halloween costume.
Okay?
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Cosplaying in Halloween costumes seems like a, you know, a redundancy, but I...
Go back to this NPC for a second.
What is that?
Is that a video game
term?
He called an interviewer in NPC a non-playable
character.
It's if you want to kind of insult somebody saying that they're like, they don't have any free will.
They just kind of wander around and do what the machine tells them to
do.
Those are the characters you see walking around on the screen that don't have anything
really to do with the game.
No dialogue,
yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
Anyway, and he also whined about activist investors, who didn't allow him to run his company like he wanted.
The world is against Elon and Trump, isn't it?
And for some reason...
the world always attacks millionaires and billionaires.
For some reason, I don't know why.
It's
such a sad story.
Oh, it's rough being a billionaire-millionaire.
Musk was asked about USAID and recent comments from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who criticized the cuts that would cost millions their lives, something backed up by research, but Musk called Gates a liar.
which is very juvenile.
I'm going to play part of that interview here that reveals Elon as a sociopath.
We all knew he was.
Not to mention a Trump-like persecution complex.
Wouldn't you think?
All right, let's listen to Elon cry.
Okay.
Did it make you regret any of or think twice about your political endeavors?
I did what needed to be done.
The violence
antibody reaction.
Um, and I'm just, I'm not someone who's ever committed violence.
Um, and yet, uh, massive violence was committed against my companies.
Massive violence was threatened against me.
Who are these people?
Why would they do that?
Oh, I don't know.
You're killing other people.
How wrong can they be?
They're on the wrong side of history.
Oh my God, really?
And that's an evil thing to do.
To go and damage some poor innocent person's car.
to threaten to kill me.
What's wrong with these people?
I've not harmed anyone.
Something
needs to be done about them.
And a number of them are going to prison.
And they deserve it.
Any more will.
You're referring to the attacks on Tesla showrooms.
But I
think... Yeah.
Well, it's into showrooms and burning down cars is unacceptable.
Those people go to prison.
And the people that funded them and organized them will also go to prison.
Don't worry.
But wouldn't you acknowledge that some of the people who turned against Tesla in Europe were upset at your politics?
And very few of them would have been violent in any way.
They just objected to what they saw you say or do politically.
Well, it's certainly fine to object to political things, but it's not fine to resort to violence and hanging someone in effigy and death threats.
That's obviously not OK.
You know that's absurd That is in no way justifiable at all in any way shape or form and And some of the legacy media nonetheless have sought to justify it, which is unconscionable shame on them.
Oh,
yeah, like
yeah, we've justified that shame on us
He is he's really off the deep end and this is the guy who took a chainsaw to our government A guy who just became a citizen a guy who is from South Africa.
He's one of the picked-on white guys
And just started firing people left and right
exactly all kinds of agencies and Matt yeah Matt out there in Middleton
Yeah.
Can you move that?
I'm trying to.
Good God.
There we go.
Pop up something.
We're reading quite low chat things.
All right.
Let's it says Matt Matt says, maybe we hate billionaires because they are systematically destroyed our planet, country and society.
Yeah, I think so.
Here's another comment.
If your actions and this is this is my point for playing this.
If your actions cost millions of lives.
You are committing violence.
You don't need to pick up a gun or swing a fist or a chainsaw.
You can do it from the office chair and a keyboard.
It's called violence no matter what.
Yeah.
Yeah, so he doesn't you know the thing about the magas they don't understand that when people react negatively to their thought process or some of the
things that they
do It's it's an action or a reaction to their actions Mm-hmm, and they don't expect blowback.
They never do and when it's blowback.
Oh, well those people are woke.
Yeah suddenly.
Yeah
Phone lines are open, 608-879-8255.
You can call us or text us on the free Civic Media app.
Let's go to the phones right now.
Joe is on the line with a comment or a question.
Good morning, Joe.
Go ahead.
Hi guys.
I thought I just, you know, wait down the conversation.
Earlier, you had your producer Catherine call in to suggest that your comments about the tape was maybe not what you should be spending your time on.
I'd like to differ.
I think there's a lot to be found
with
tape.
I'm a big fan of gaffers.
You know, I've
given little gaffers just around in case you never know.
Expensive.
That sort of thing, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's very, very helpful.
You break your
glasses, whatever you can get by.
You look goofy, but you can get by.
And I just wanted to add that in this environment, that's perfectly fine to talk about, because after all our order in chief, Mr. Trump at West Point was talking about trophy wives.
If he can go that direction, why not?
Why not tape?
I would also indicate I'd love to have
Yeah, people think a little bit.
I believe he had an issue where he was describing Biden's cancer diagnosis as stage nine.
And I thought, this is fascinating.
Why stage nine?
Not seven, not six, stage nine cancer.
And it just made me wonder if he'd just heard something that had
Spark that nine-ness, if you will, cloud nine, you know, Prince 1999 or maybe watch plan nine from outer space.
Plan
nine from outer space is what I was thinking.
That could be.
But I think that speculation is fine.
And I think that talking about tape helps prepare us for this kind of speculation.
It
does.
It shows you how far our technology has taken us.
From cellophane tape to magic tape.
There you go.
There you go.
Thanks
guys.
Alright.
Thank you Joe.
Appreciate that perspective.
See you Catherine.
Alright.
Got the stamp of approval.
Thanks.
It's all good.
But you know, Elon, after listening to that, it's crazy isn't it?
I mean he doesn't understand that he's...
killing people with policies.
They got rid of vaccinations and realized, oh, maybe we should have those vaccinations.
Throwing these people out of work that have been longtime government employees.
Who have health care, by the
way,
through the government.
Right.
Now they don't have health care.
Good luck with that.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, anyway, should we move on to the next big story?
We shall.
Yeah.
How about three big, ugly things in the big bad bill that was passed?
All right.
Well,
they finally passed it, yes.
Yeah, and they're acting like they really did a good thing.
And I hope they keep acting like that.
That should anger everybody when they finally find out really what's going to happen.
And I want to throw this out there too.
There was a lot of talk about the effects it's going to have on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.
My advice to everybody that is a liberal, progressive, Democrat, pro-democracy person, what you need to do right now is talk only of restoring the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act.
I know this seems kind of out of left field, but really...
This is a huge, huge issue.
This was an additional tax cut provided by the government because of COVID.
And they added some extra oomph to everybody's ability to buy food and everything else by paying more of their insurance premiums per month.
But now they're gonna get rid of it at the end of this year.
It has an expiration date.
It's not like...
you know, Trump said, OK, we're going to get rid of it.
No, it ends.
It was designed just to last until the end of 2025.
But they could renew it.
That's where Trump comes in.
They're not going to renew it.
And what's going to happen now is that people are going to be being one to two, three hundred dollars a month more.
for their premiums and I said a month.
Now this is really going to have a profound effect on the economy and what people can go out there and do and buy.
And I'm just saying that the Democrats should very much focus on the elimination of this tax credit, this bonus tax credit.
They have to talk about it because at the end of the year, boy, when this thing hits, people are gonna be shocked because
a lot of people
aren't gonna be aware of this.
And if they are aware of it,
They're gonna see their bills go up dramatically when they're signing up for the Affordable Care Act.
A lot of people have their insurance through that.
In fact, the wonderful thing here is that the biggest signups in the last five or six years were in the southern states.
So those states are really invested in the Affordable Care Act.
And if those premiums go up, Republican voters are gonna go down and they're gonna vote for a
Democrat.
Okay,
focus on that focus on that.
Let's talk about that.
Okay.
All right, there we go Okay, very good.
It is 648 this portion of John O'Gourdie in the morning is brought to you by Verlo mattress of Madison.
I'm done.
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Okay, well one thing that remains constant since Verlo opened their doors back in 1958 is they are still direct to consumer and provide superior products at unbeatable prices to locations in Madison on the east side and on the west side Just go to Verlo.com Coming up right around the corner here in just a couple of minutes We're gonna talk to Lisa Bernard from the Dane County Humane Society next on John and Gordy in the morning
Somebody, somebody, somebody,
somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody,
somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody,
somebody, somebody, somebody,
somebody, somebody.
It drives me
crazy trying to find a home for these wonderful animals.
My
God, how can they be homeless?
Why don't you just take them all home, John?
Well, I would.
I would,
if you could.
Well, you mentioned the small, tiny little pets that people have, which, you know, I'm kind of against those.
We shouldn't have guinea pigs.
We shouldn't have turtles.
We shouldn't have
all
those.
What are you talking about?
Some kids love those.
No,
we shouldn't have them because
they do kill them.
What?
Yes, yes, it's not a pleasant thing.
You're saying from not properly taking care of them?
Yes, yes.
Well, that's why we have Lisa here from the Dane County Humane Society that can tell us about how to take care of our pets.
To make sure
that these are responsible owners.
Alright.
92.7 WMDX.
That's cloudy.
You know what?
He's just, you know, we shouldn't say such a dark morning.
I know you're really bringing everybody down here.
Lighten up the load here a little
bit.
I'm just bringing out some of the trauma that I had as a
child,
killing my cute little turtles.
You know, I didn't mean to.
You know what?
Turtles?
Does this
happen more than once?
No, yeah, I had a bunch of turtles.
Well, you
don't have just one solo turtle.
You know, they have to have friends.
Lisa, help us out here.
Why haven't I ever heard this story
before?
OK, OK, we can save that story for another time.
Let's get back to the Dane County Humane Society.
All right.
And Lisa Bernard, good morning, Lisa.
Good morning.
I
don't want to bring everybody down too late.
Okay.
All right.
We're going to try and recover here.
Let's talk about some animals that have some really great personality.
Yes.
That's what I'm talking about.
Perfect idea.
Hey, you know, one of the best dogs with personalities would be a Labrador border collie mix.
Okay.
Right.
Let's start.
Well, let's start out with that.
Yeah.
We have Finn, right?
Finn.
Yeah.
Seven years old.
Seven years old he came to DCHS earlier this month.
He's about 45 pounds.
He's
completely black.
He's so handsome.
Oh my gosh, and his eyes will make you melt Don't let his age fool you because he is so very energetic
He loves play fetch.
He could do it all day long.
He's very smart.
He knows sit, touch, shake, stay and come.
And our volunteers and staff have been working with him on leave it and he's picked it up really fast.
You know, I gotta say, you know, they do live to be about 14 or 15 years old.
So yeah, seven years old, halfway there.
Yeah.
And they're
smart as
heck.
That's that border collie part.
Really intelligent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
And he's been walking really well on leash.
Sure.
Sometimes he'll start out with pulling, but he's been doing really, really great with having a loose leash.
He's not a fan of other dogs.
And apparently he's afraid of cats.
So he's
looking for a home that doesn't have either.
He's a smart dog.
Yeah.
Today away from the cats too.
And then
he's
looking for a patient family who's going to give him time to settle into his new home and then spoil him with lots of pets.
Even though he likes a lot of pets, he's not big on snuggling.
Okay.
So that's Finn, Finn, seven years old.
Okay.
You have now also another dog at American Pitball Husky Mix, Ziggy.
50 pounds.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes, she's pretty solid She's mostly black with some brown on her legs and a white chest.
She came to us in April She's she too is very smart Has a very big personality and it even bigger heart.
She loves receiving attention and affection so much so that she can get a little over excited about it so
Having a family who understands that okay now she's getting excited too excited.
Let's let her have some time to chill out.
It's
a
good thing.
She's also very adventurous because she knows how to escape from her fenced in yard at her previous
home.
So
she might need someone who's gonna hang out with her outside in the yard or have really tall.
You
wrote on here.
She's a member of the Lonely Hearts Club.
Oh
my gosh.
That's not good.
Okay.
Just have a minute or so left here.
Tell us about you have a cat here named Diamond.
Yes.
Diamond.
She's three years old.
She came to us at the end of April.
She's been blossoming in an office.
She is independent, but she loves coming up to you to get spoiled with attention.
She enjoys being brushed, receiving pets.
She'll even jump on your lap for more attention.
She's quite the foodie,
and
she also enjoys playtime.
She's got a lot of energy, so she's looking for someone who she could, who's going to enjoy her charming antics.
She's a lot of fun.
She's a cat in the window, as they say.
She loves looking out the world.
Okay, pretty cool.
Yes.
Yes, she does.
Lisa, if anybody's interested, how do they find out more?
They could go to our website, giveshelter.org, or they could stop by our shelter.
I do want to quickly mention, we do have critters sale happening 50% off all of the adoption fees on our critters right now
too.
Like guinea pigs.
Gotta find everyone home.
Ginea
pigs.
We have a lot of guinea pigs, including little babies, who are just many versions of the big ones.
Oh, okay.
Critter Palooza, okay.
That's Lisa Bernard.
Lisa, thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
Talk to you in a couple of weeks.
Yep.
Dane County Humane Society.
And we're coming back with much more on John and Gordy in the morning.
Stay with us.
All right.
Right here on WMDX.
Is the John and the Lord he shows.
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Is the John and the Lord he shows.
John and the Lord he is the morning.
As we were saying.
Let the sun shine.
Is the John and the
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Here is the latest news brought into your own living room.
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Kid, kid, kid.
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It's the John and Gordy show.
This is high five plus.
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Take it away, boys.
Oh boy, we'll take it somewhere.
We've got some stories for you today.
And the big story today, of course, is Trump is going to cancel roughly $100 million in government contracts with Harvard.
He's
really mad.
He really doesn't like international students.
Harvard lives off those international students.
I mean, that's why people come to Harvard in the first place.
This guy, what an idiot.
Okay, but we're gonna get to three Yale professors in just a moment.
Okay, it's seven minutes past the hour.
It's cloudy this morning and cool, 52 degrees.
Yes.
Highs close to 70 for today.
Coming up, we'll talk to Brittany Merlot, our chief meteorologist in just a few minutes.
And also a little bit later in this hour, Michelle Orgay from Second Harvest will find out.
the latest going on there.
Oh,
okay,
all right.
Yeah, this portion of John and Gordy in the morning is brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center.
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You can really do some great things like get a certain kind of setting for when you're in a restaurant, eliminating a lot of the background noise.
It's really helpful.
It is.
Good stuff.
All right, let's get to this is a really big story.
Three Yale professors are leaving the US for the University of Toronto.
Is that right?
Yes, they are just taking off.
Yep.
Professors Marcy Shore, Jason Stanley and Timothy Snyder.
They're leaving.
They cite threats to civil liberties, the judiciary and free speech as signs of serious democratic.
decline and it doesn't work for them.
Professor Snyder said this in a clip I'm about to play.
If you think there's this thing out there called America and it's exceptional, that means that you don't have to do anything.
Whatever is happening, it must be freedom.
So you really don't have to think about it.
These are great comments.
It's a little bit long, but I think everything that they're talking about here is something we all should be considering.
This is cut 170, let's play that,
okay?
I'm a historian of totalitarianism.
I look at fascist rhetoric.
I've been thinking about the sources of the worst kinds of history for a quarter of a century.
Experts say the constitutional crisis is here now.
The Trump administration deporting hundreds of men without a trial.
A massive purge at the FBI to make people afraid of speaking out against him.
I'm leaving to the University of Toronto because I want to do my work without the fear that I will be punished for my words.
The lesson of 1933 is you get out sooner rather than later.
Wow.
I've spent a lot of time in the last decade trying to prepare people if Trump were elected once.
Let alone twice.
Look what happened.
Is
this crazy?
I did not flee Trump.
But if people are going to leave the United States or leave American universities, there are reasons for that.
One thing you
can definitely learn from Russians is that it's essential to set up centers of resistance in places of relative safety.
We want to make sure that if there is a
political crisis in the US, that Americans are organized.
We've just gotten started.
You haven't even seen anything yet.
It's all just kicking in.
My colleagues and friends, they were walking around and saying, we have checks and balances.
So let's inhale, checks and balances, exhale, checks and balances.
And I thought, my god, we're like people on the Titanic saying our ship can't sink.
We've got the best ship.
We've got the strongest ship.
We've got the biggest ship.
Our ship can't sink.
And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can't sink.
The golden age of America has only just begun.
America has long had an exceptionalist narrative.
Fascism can happen elsewhere, but not here.
But talking about American exceptionalism is basically a way to get people to fall into line.
If you think that there's this thing out there called America, and it's exceptional, that means that
You don't have to do anything.
Whatever is happening, it must be freedom.
And so then what your definition of freedom is just gets narrowed and narrowed and narrowed and narrowed and soon you're using the word freedom.
What you're talking about is authoritarianism.
We are seeing those steps accelerated right now.
We cannot allow a handful of communist radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws.
What starts to matter?
is not what is concealed, but what has been normalized.
There's no limit to the depravity.
President Trump did not rule out the possibility of a third term.
And the sadism.
The White House released this video titled ASMR illegal alien deportation flight.
And the cruelty that we are watching now play out in real time.
This facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use.
Is this okay?
Is there a line I wouldn't cross?
Is there something I would not do?
Poland
recently went through a shift towards authoritarianism.
Unlike in Russia, unlike in Hungary, the media remained a place in Poland where you could criticize the regime.
And as a result, democracy
The moral of Poland is that our democratic institutions, the media, the university, and the courts are essential.
You know you're living in a fascist society.
When you're constantly going over in your head, the reasons why you're safe, what we want is a country where none of us have to feel that way.
Wow.
There's a lot to unpack there.
That's great.
Really, really great stuff.
Thumbs it up.
And you'd expect that from three Yale professors, right?
Right.
And you can find that, by the way, at the New York Times website under the opinion page.
They do have an entire video.
That's just a part of the video.
There's about two or three minutes more of it.
In fact, I have another segment here where we're looking at Russia.
because all these things have happened in Russia and they're a great reference point for these particular professors.
So could we play a cut 187 real quick here?
All right, here we go.
There are some words in Russian in particular that I feel help us to understand what's happening in the United States because we now have those phenomena.
It's the idea that the powers that be can do anything they want to you.
And you have no recourse.
This not knowing who is next creates a state of paralysis in society.
The tough student whose visa was removed because she co-authored an article in the tough student newspaper.
I thought, what would I do?
If guys in masks tried to grab my student, would I scream?
Would I run away?
Would I try to pull the mask off?
Would I try to videotape the scene?
Would I try to pull the guys off of her?
Maybe I would get scared and run away.
The truth is, I don't know.
Not knowing terrified me.
It's a deliberate act of terror.
It's not necessary.
It is.
It's just being done to create a spirit of us and
them.
It's a word in Russian for corruption, but it's larger than corruption.
It refers to a kind of existential state in which not only everything but everyone can be bought or sold.
Critics
are calling this a quid pro quo deal between Adams and President Trump.
There's an expression in Polish.
I found myself at the very bottom.
And then I heard knocking from below.
In Russian, that gets abbreviated to there is no bottom.
We cannot allow a handful of communist radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws.
What starts to matter is not what is concealed, but what has been normalized.
Yep, there you go.
Well a lot to think about I mean
in
all these little things add up to something huge and that
is
loss of democracy and we're pro-democracy on this program So I hope we all kind of learn something from it But one of the amazing events do you have something do you want to throw in there?
Well, I just thought thought of something funny that I read over the weekend We were talking about these Russian sayings in that last clip.
There was a paraphrasing here one that I one that I read Man goes up to a newsstand every day and looks at the
paper but doesn't buy any, and eventually the guy running the newsstand says, why don't you ever buy the paper?
The guy says, well, I'm looking for the obituaries.
And the guy says, well, the obituaries are at the back, comrade.
The obituary that I'm looking for would be on the front page, my friend.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
OK.
That's good.
Not
implying anything by
that.
I just thought it was funny.
That was good.
60 Minutes, Scott Pelley issued a clarion call to the graduates of Wake Forest.
The notification of the US is unfolding under Trump.
And Project 2025 in America's youth is the last bulwark, preventing autocracy.
And this is part of Scott Pelley's speech.
Cut 180.
This moment, this moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack.
Journalism is under attack.
Universities are under attack.
Freedom of speech is under attack.
And insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses,
our homes and into our private thoughts.
The fear to speak in America.
Power can rewrite history with grotesque false narratives.
They can make criminals heroes and heroes criminals.
Power can change the definition.
of the words we use to describe reality.
Diversity is now described as illegal.
Equity is to be shunned.
Inclusion is a dirty word.
This is an old playbook, my friends.
There is nothing new in
this.
Scott Pelle, are you giving the
commencement address there?
Just an amazing thing.
Getting everybody's attention.
The host of 60 minutes coming right out and saying
that.
Wow.
Well,
yeah,
60 minutes.
These are the times we're calling for this now.
This has to happen now.
We have to be this outspoken, regardless of appearing news-like and impartial.
There's no time for being impartial at this point.
And again, CBS under a lot of pressure with whatever
their merger deal
was there with Paramount Plus that they were trying to
get through.
That's to be okay by the
orange
guy.
Yeah, Trump's got to okay that.
And so they gave a lot of heat to the executive producer of 60 Minutes and he ended up resigning.
So yes, media is under pressure.
And I can't emphasize enough how
Trump is micromanaging the entire U.S.
economy, which is just so incredibly dangerous.
Yes.
When we return, Brittany Merlot will join us.
Our chief meteorologist tells us what we can expect weather-wise for this week.
And coming up shortly, Michelle Orgay from Second Harvest will join us on John and Gordy in the morning.
Stay with us.
Palm trees swayed in the breeze, waves crashing up against the shore as we lay out on the beach, asking our neighbor in a foreign language, is it hot?
And you'll say, yes, yes.
In English, you'll say, yes, it is hot.
What else would you wish for something to eat?
Would you like something to eat?
Would you like a croissant?
Perhaps.
Oh,
perhaps.
Perhaps.
Yes.
Yeah,
actually,
I was just reliving the end to body heat.
Oh, yeah.
Where they're out on the shore and she is asked in a different language.
And she goes, what?
Because it is hot.
And then she goes, yes.
That's a great movie.
Oh,
yeah.
I know.
I
get away with
the ending.
Oh well.
That's too bad, Sam.
Well, you told your... I was gonna bring up your story of how you came to watch Body Heat the first time.
Oh
yes, yes.
University Square Four Theatres down here.
We were drinking heavily.
I think
so.
I
think
I might have been with you.
Yeah, a crowd of us.
Pretty sure.
And we wanted to see something really risqué.
Oh my god, Body Heat
here at the
University
Square Four Theatres.
Let's
go.
Yes.
We walked out of there stunned and amazed.
Kathleen Turner.
Yeah.
William Hurt.
Oh boy.
What a movie.
Okay.
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I think the memorable scene in that is when
Kathleen turned, is kind of pulling him around the bedroom.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
You kind of get an image of that.
All right.
What, you don't like?
No, pulling him
around the room.
Yeah.
Okay.
But what about the scene?
Yeah, don't go into any details there.
What about the scene where William Hurt throws the patio chair through the door?
How
was he going to fix that before husband gets
home?
I was worried about that.
Oh boy.
We have both Mark and Dick on the phone line.
Guys, hold on.
We're going to check in with Brittany Merlot, our chief meteorologist about what's happening weather-wise this week.
Good morning.
She had guests over this
weekend.
Family came up.
What did you do with your guests from Memorial Day weekend?
Your family?
What did you do?
Well, I dragged him out into the woods.
Oh, thank
you.
Okay.
Is there more to that?
I did,
I did.
Okay.
Yeah, so we took
a bunch of Jeep Wranglers in the family.
So we
took them out on the trails.
We've got this off-road four by four trail system over here and we went muddin'.
Got a little mud on the tires.
It was fun.
Oh, yeah.
There you go.
Good times.
It was crazy to see some of these jeeps, though.
I mean, you see them out on the road, the big tires, all these things.
Right.
And you wonder what in the world.
I saw them out there rock crawling, like deflated tires on these pointy rocks just jacked up.
It was wild to see in person,
honestly.
I'm like, oh, I hope that's not your daily driver that you've got on this rock.
So that's why they have those tires.
It's just for the mudding, right?
Yeah.
Climbing, yeah.
Okay.
Absolutely.
Cool stuff.
How was
your Memorial Day weekend?
Did you guys stay outside?
Did you enjoy the crisp 60s?
It was
beautiful
weather wise.
I loved it out there.
Yeah, this is
fantastic.
Just fantastic weather.
Kind of cloudy today.
It was perfect.
Yeah.
I know the darn clouds rolled in.
We're going to be stuck with them today, tomorrow.
Maybe some spotty sprinkles at times today.
High temperatures, probably in the upper 60s, flirting with 70.
And then tomorrow we cool down just a little bit to the mid sixties with some scattered shower chances.
Then we dry out as the slow pressure system leaves us alone.
We're going to get warmer too.
So sunshine by Thursday, that holds the entire weekend and we're going to hit 80 degrees by Friday.
We're going to hold that.
through
the
weekend and into next week.
Wow.
So summer weather.
I like it.
Oh yeah.
Summer has arrived apparently.
Yeah.
Full force.
All right.
Well, I want to thank you for that weather.
That's fantastic.
You always give us great weather sometimes and we appreciate it.
Sometimes.
It's
your fault.
Thank you, Brittany.
You have a great day.
Thanks, guys.
Have a good one.
I'm the UMDX chief meteorologist, Brittany Merlo.
Okay.
Got a couple of phone
calls.
Maybe we can
squeeze these in for the next break.
Let's go to Mark.
He's on the line this morning.
Good morning, Mark.
What do you got for us?
Well, reading again from the Declaration of Independence, I mean, it seems a line struck me.
That and it goes that they too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of course singularity Which means common ties of common blood?
It seems to me it could be addressed today is is it too many of our people in our government today?
particularly among the Republican Party You know it definitely among the administration.
They are deaf to the voice of justice and to our common humanity.
I mean it is just beyond me that This is acceptable to any Americans at all, but I mean that apparently these people don't care about
as you know that when we declared independence I mean too many of our British brethren were deaf to you know our ties of common heritage there and now it's our common humanity that apparently Trump wants to erase.
You know for some reason I just think being conservative there's a sociopath quality to them.
You know and it can be emphasized it can be you know of course you know held back but I think there's a quality to the MAGA.
The contention that they are sociopaths Well,
maybe
so
for a great many of them.
Yes.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, thanks, brother.
Yeah,
if you're not a millionaire or billionaire, I don't really care Dick.
Good morning.
What do you got this morning?
Well, except with the president and food and you know food and playing him again.
Yeah, you know, obviously, he didn't know who he's been for the last 20 years.
I know.
Yeah.
And then Putin's comeback is pretty funny too.
And that he, you know, he's the emotional part.
Well, you'd have to be somebody that has emotion.
But in the last, there's situation with the universities.
Yeah.
This is a populist president coming out guys.
Now he's threatening to give this money to the trade schools.
But you see the reason he's doing that is because he debt-beated so many people in the trades over the years.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, exactly true dick just on right on point.
I actually
had that cut of Trump Admitting that he was owned by Putin
Dick, thank you for that.
We'll get to that We will get to that coming up next right around the corner of Michelle or gay from second harvest will join us We'll find out what's going on with the food banks and much more on John and Gordy in the morning
That's
what it's all
about.
That's
what they're
singing on the streets.
WMDX 92.7 and John and Gordy.
Madison.
Despite coincidence, it happens that way every day.
I will shut up now.
Okay.
Keep saying that, but then you keep talking.
Excuse me, I'm all choked up now.
Cloudy skies today, 52 degrees currently, highs close to 70.
Pardon me.
A little bit later on, temperatures will climb.
We might get a spot or two of rain, but otherwise just kind of cloudy today.
Okay.
I gotta read what Doug has here.
He texts us.
He says,
you have more stories than airtime.
If you were to talk at the same time, you could deliver twice as much content.
Both of us talking at
the same time.
In
industry first, he calls it.
I would assume yes.
You
know, he is the idea guy.
Doug has got a million ideas and some of them are interesting.
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Okay, all right.
Michelle Orgay is with us now from Second Harvest.
Good morning, Michelle.
Good morning.
Good to
have
you here.
Thanks.
We appreciate you coming in this morning.
So for people that don't know what Second Harvest is all about, you're kind of a food bank for food banks, right?
Yeah, we're...
Kind of a central hub for supplying a lot of food pantries in our 16 county service area in southwestern Wisconsin.
There are about 300 partners and programs.
And so you've heard of a lot of our partners in the area, the river, Badger Prairie Needs Network, Way Forward, St.
Vincent DePaul, a lot of the folks that you've heard of providing food support to folks, we help provide food to them more than half of our partners, or more than...
the majority of our partners get more than half their food from Second
Harvest.
And where does Second Harvest get their food?
Well, we get our food from donations.
We purchase some food.
We do get a little bit of food through some USDA commodities.
But that's less than 5% or 10% of our food.
Primarily, we rescue food.
We recover food.
We get food that is still great, but isn't going to make it to its final destination in time.
So we're a food recovery powerhouse.
And last year, we distributed
more than 26 million pounds of food.
Yeah, well, 26 million.
Yeah, that's a
lot.
Yeah, man.
Yep, big semi trucks coming and going, smaller trucks.
We traveled nearly 200,000 miles in our 16 counties last year.
You know, this food recovery thing is kind of interesting.
How does a person get involved in that?
I mean, do you automatically know that some of the food that
gets a little old or isn't sold that particular day is something that can be recovered.
How does a person know that?
How does a person who's rescuing it or the other person?
Well, how does it grow here?
Or whoever it is that's providing the restaurants?
Food rescue's been going on for many, many years and it's grown in...
in size and sophistication, I would say.
There's
an
infrastructure around it.
Food banks, there are 200 feeding America food banks around the country, and all of us do it to some degree.
And our partners do it as well, but yeah, you...
We have regularly scheduled pickups at grocery stores, at food manufacturers, distribution centers, farms, et cetera, farmer's market.
We go actually on Wednesday nights to the farmer's market.
And we purchase the food that hasn't sold from farmers there.
Second harvest goes on Wednesday evenings and gets that.
And then we distribute that directly to a partner agency.
So lots of different ways to get the food.
But yeah, when there's food out there that can be used and it's still good, we get that.
What's good to know?
I did not know that.
Now, we were talking a little bit before we came on the air here about how things have changed since the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, there was a certain amount of need during the pandemic that went up.
And then what happened after the pandemic?
Yeah, well, before the pandemic, we were working hard and getting a lot of food out there and felt we were stretched to...
some limits there.
And then during the pandemic, we're like, well, we can do this too.
We're built for this.
And we we rose to the challenge and the community supported us.
And we went from about 500,000 pounds a month, distributed to our partners.
And then we went to a million a month.
And
we're like, whoa, I can't believe we're doing this, right?
And now we're at about two million pounds of food every month distributed.
And and that's twice as much as during the height of the pandemic.
And we could distribute more.
We just don't the resources and capacity.
are a challenge.
That's amazing to me that it didn't go a little bit back down after the pandemic, that people would be able to go back to work, but it actually went up.
It went up.
Costs have gone up.
For the lowest wage earners, their wages haven't gone up as much as other folks.
You know, there's gotta be a reason for this.
I mean, there is a social reason why we have these food banks and why there's a necessity to have them.
It's almost like the end results of capitalism.
This causes people to be hungry, to not be able to afford food or have access to it.
There's this cause.
The cause is there.
Are we trying to deal with any of that?
change that at all so it makes it easier on you and and certainly you have more food and and the ability to continue this
well it's a
It's a combination of things that can solve this and part of that are SNAP benefits.
We can talk about that in a moment, but we talk about the root causes,
the root
causes of food insecurity.
And at Second Harvest and at many food banks, we consider the root causes of food insecurity to be lack of a living wage, lack of affordable housing, insufficient access to healthcare, and ultimately underlying that is a lot of systemic racism.
The effects of food insecurity, they're more than twice that in communities of color.
This has a lot to do with the institutional barriers that have been set up over the years, generations, redlining access to education that have allowed, you know, white folks to have build wealth over generations and, you know, in particular, black folks have not been able to do that.
People of color in general have not been able to build wealth, have not been able to participate the same, they've been blocked from a lot of access.
access to income.
And this is ultimately an income thing, right?
And so how do you fix this?
Well, you need to give folks access to basic resources so they can get where they need to go.
Food changes lives whether you have it or not,
right?
If
you have it, it helps you get to where you need to go.
It helps with your development, your brain development, your ability to work hard and go to school and not be absent from work, right?
Many jobs, if you don't go, you don't get paid, right?
Exactly.
If you don't have it, hunger makes everything harder.
You just can't get to where you need to go, no matter where you lie in the political arena of what if folks deserve food, if folks are, you know, hand up versus hand out.
If folks don't have food, they're not going to get where they need to go or where you think they should be going.
Right.
So this big, beautiful bill that passed through the house has a lot of benefits for the SNAP program being cut.
Yes.
Extremely.
And how do you expect things are going to shake out here as we go through time here if this bill passes through the Senate gets signed?
Well.
You know second harvest in our 300 partners and programs are going to continue to work provide food access to any of our neighbors in need But this makes it a lot harder.
We're already pushed to the limits There are folks our partners are seeing two to three times the number of folks are seeing in the past You know years and nearly 700,000 people in Wisconsin currently rely on snap We call food share here in Wisconsin to make sure they have enough food on their tables and This is going to really this is this is going to be devastating for them.
You know we
Even though Memorial Day isn't officially about veterans, thinking of veterans, there are 1.2 million veterans in the United States who use SNAP benefits.
And 24% of working age veterans are food insecure.
This is a benefit that helps so many folks.
There's this picture folks think of when they think of somebody who's using SNAP benefits.
And
it's part of the stigma that's associated with it is that there are folks who paint this picture.
To qualify for SNAP benefits for a family of four, you have to be at what's referred to as 130% of the federal poverty level.
That's $41,000 for a family of four.
So few people actually qualify for SNAP benefits, but those who do, it's one of the best ways to get them support, right?
To actually be what's called a survival wage in Dane County, it's $68,000 per year for that family of four.
And to be at a thriving or a stable...
It's $119,000.
Amazing.
I
know that the Trump administration is cutting a lot of these food programs and they're doing it because Trump has this idea that a lot of that food has preservatives in it.
It's high in salt and it's made to last a long time.
So he wants to change that and make it fresh fruits and vegetables and
How realistic is something like that?
I think that was referring to a specific program about there was the CSFP, the commodity supplemental food program.
There was some information about how he wanted to replace that with these fresh fruit boxes, fresh food boxes.
And he referred to the food that was coming through pantries and food banks as canned goods.
That's just not true.
It's interesting because...
So it's not true.
It's not true that fresh food isn't getting out there.
We're solving a
problem that's not true.
We do have we do have shelf-stable foods, but almost more than two-thirds of our food that we distributed was was was fresh perishable high protein fruits vegetables.
That's it's similar
to all the food banks.
We distribute fresh, good food, and it's not that.
As much as you can, at least.
I mean, everybody has food that's, you know, they can hold on to for years.
Yeah, what's at your house, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Michelle, we just have a couple of more minutes here.
Michelle Orgay from Second Harvest.
So I know there's always a call for action for perhaps volunteers for Second Harvest or some of the food banks that you work with.
Let's talk about that a little
bit.
Yeah, if you go to our website, Second Harvest SW, which is southwest.
SecondHarvestSW.org, you can find information about volunteering.
We need volunteers all the time and financial support for us, for our partners, volunteering at our partners.
If you're not located, we're near Monona in Madison.
If you're closer to one of our partners, please volunteer there, support any of us.
And seeing that...
there's this big, beautiful bill or whatever.
I know you didn't call it that.
We call it the big, bad bill.
That's
what we call it.
It hasn't gone into effect yet, right?
Contact your senators, read through it, find out what you do or don't like about it, and tell your senators what you think.
All right, that's a good plan.
Michelle, thank you for joining us this morning on Michelle Orge from Second Harvest.
Thank you so much.
Come back again.
Keep in touch.
I will, thank
you.
And again, if you'd like to find out more about Second Harvest, you can go to their website, secondharvestsw.org.
That's secondharvestsw.org.
Thanks again, Michelle.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
We will continue.
Come back to wrap up the show and tell you what we have cooking for tomorrow's show.
Yeah, and we've got an international Harvard student.
He's got something to say, too.
OK, we'll have that right after this on John and Gordy in the morning.
Cold reheated.
Have a big dinner.
Have a white snack.
If you don't like it, you can't send it back.
The stupid story of why Lil Donnie is so obsessed with Harvard.
Since he got into office, Donnie has been losing his little mind over Harvard.
But this goes way, way back.
See, Obama was a Harvard graduate, and Trump repeatedly said his education gave him an unfair advantage.
In fact, many presidents have attended Harvard, including John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes,
Taylor,
and Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and George W. Bush.
Zooming out a little bit, we can...
see many presidents attended Ivy League schools, but Donnie didn't.
In fact, he couldn't even get into Horton, a school his family financially supported without Fred Trump applying some pressure, where one of his professors called him, and this is a direct quote, the dumbest student I have ever met.
Now the narcissist's brain doesn't take rejection well, and they hate any club they're not a part of, but it gets even stupider.
Obama enrolled in Harvard, but when Baron Trump applied in 2023 he was reportedly denied along with every other Ivy League school Trump was experiencing his rejection all over again He was triggered his baby tantrum brain broke and now he's bringing the entire government down on Harvard It's very weird.
He would focus on this one school until you understand just how dark
by a bollically petty little baby, Donny, really is.
Well, Jenna says it all there, WMDX, Johnny Gordy, in the
morning.
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All right kind of kind of nice to know the background He is Patty and he'll go after everybody I remember seeing an old clip in an interview that he did where he actually admitted it way way way way back then So this is nothing new.
It's just even worse than before Trump's policies are not only destroying the lives of Americans.
It's shattering the dreams
Gordy.
Yes.
Of students around the world who have worked hard to get in to the global educational icon, Harvard.
All around the world.
Yes.
Yes.
It's one
of those global universities.
It is.
You know, John.
It branches all over the place.
I'm a little surprised that you aren't, or that you haven't, gone a similar route to Trump when you got kicked out of art school.
Surprised that you didn't go after them.
Yes, I should.
Well...
They're no longer in
existence.
Jobs already done.
Yeah.
But now it's the Milwaukee's Institute of Art or something like that instead of blatant art school.
OK.
But anyway, this is a Harvard International student kind of worrying about what's going on here with Trump.
So let's listen to this.
Got 84.
Oh, 184.
Here
we
go.
All right.
Do we have it?
Harvard International student, what are you thinking about?
I'm also sad for all of the students who have dreamed of going to an institution like this and have had it ripped away from them for what I can see so far as no clear and good reason.
So I was hoping to study education and entrepreneurship at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and take that degree and launch schools around the world.
Found out yesterday, funnily enough, after being on a Zoom with the Harvard team talking about
international student affairs that the Trump administration has decided that international students will be barred from enrolling at Harvard next year and that all international students now will have their status revoked.
I've had this dream of studying in the US and it's devastating and I know that there are several students now at the university who are wondering whether they're going to have to be deported or if they're even going to be able to get their degrees.
So it's a moment of huge flux.
I'm trying to stay strong and focus on what I can do.
But it's really scary and the uncertainty is really difficult to deal with.
You know, that's the thing.
The
uncertainty.
Yeah.
It's just crazy.
And what this guy wants to do is, you know, start other schools around the country or around the world.
It's just an amazing thing.
Now, let's get to another cut here.
This is a Harvard professor, David Armitage.
And he has something to add to the whole idea of attacking all these colleges.
Very authoritarian.
Let's check it out.
We're being made an example of a whipping boy, if you like, for the administration's fear of critical thought, fear of a civil society which has not knuckled down to the MAGA ideology.
It doesn't want any organs of opposition anywhere.
And if you put this in a wider context and think about the way in which authoritarians across the world, from Brazil to India to Hungary and China,
they often go for the universities first because they are places which are deliberately set up to create freedom of thought and to provide critical opposition particularly to politicians as well as of course through our research and our teaching to generate the factual basis which is absolutely essential for the running of society and the prosperity of the country.
Yeah and you know we've gone after the university here the UW.
I know remember this way back in 2011
There were big protests around the Capitol because of Act 10.
Oh, sure.
And the university had kind of a, it's not the art department, it was something else, but they did have a show planned, an art show planned of all of these very creative protest posters that they had.
And Steve Nos, he was a representative at the time, now he's a senator, but at the time he was representative of Steve Nos threatening the university.
And said they're pulling funding if they put that show on showing these posters these protest posters of you know portraying Scott Walker as some evil
you know, Nazi Hitler, but he didn't want any of this to be shown, so he warned the university that he would pull funding from the university if they did have that show and it was canceled.
So
that censorship, that's government censorship, no doubt about it, no one whined or complained about it.
So it's one of those things, you know, they're going after the colleges because there's free thought and they get to say what they want and there's, you know...
Chaos.
It's just
chaos.
We're without them.
We've got
to keep them alive and well.
It's a chilling event.
Mike McCabe will join us tomorrow.
He'll share his thoughts with us.
Stephanie Miller is coming up next.
We hope you have a great Tuesday.
We'll talk to you again in 22 hours.
Yup.
That's
all I'm going to say.
So long.
