When the chips are down and democracy's back is up against the wall, two radio veterans step up to the microphone to right the wrongs, standing for truth, justice and just because.
Hey, are they ready to go yet?
It's John and Gordy on 92.7 WMDX.
Nice morning again.
It's just, you know, it's the same every day, isn't it?
It's almost like Groundhog Day.
Happy hump day.
For weather anyway.
Yeah, happy Wednesday.
WMDX, John and Gordy in the morning.
92.7.
Check us out on the Civic Media app too and voice notice if you can.
Yes, we have just just a few clouds this morning, but it's mainly clear and it's going to be a beautiful day.
Highs in the low 70s, but it's
It's nice and cool again this morning, 49 degrees currently.
It doesn't
feel it.
I mean, you can go out with just a, you know, a light
shirt on and that's about it.
Yeah.
Well, you want some pants and shoes, you know, some
other.
I didn't think pants were necessary.
We were going to talk to you about that.
Maybe after the show.
Fight some
trousers.
I'm surprised no one said anything.
Don't look at the stream, OK?
Don't look at the stream.
Oh, God.
Oh, yeah.
So here we are.
Wednesday, a little bit later on, Mike McCabe will join us.
He's got
a
new Substack article.
And we'll talk to him about that.
We've got more Brewer tickets to give away.
They won again last night.
You know, last minute win.
Racking them up.
Yeah.
You're doing great.
So we'll have some more brewers tickets and you'll be able to go to the game if you win those tickets with us.
Yeah.
Your dreams have come true.
You'll come to Ampham Field and sit next to John and Gordy.
Yeah.
Well, I can't wait for that.
That's coming up really soon now.
I mean, the month is just sliding by here, you know.
Yeah.
We're going to have to get our... Well,
the game is September 4th.
Wow.
against the Phillies game that we're going to.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's, uh, let me see here.
That's seven days
away,
about a week.
Sure.
Or so.
I think you're right.
Yeah.
Right.
Days and I had to, yeah.
How many days in this month?
I don't know.
No idea.
30 days.
Some people know that.
September, April, June and November.
There you go.
All the rest have 31.
Okay.
So 30 days, right?
Do I have to recite it again?
30 days, half of September.
April, June, and November.
I don't know what that means.
Do you hear August in there anywhere?
Yeah.
There's
31 days in August.
Okay, 31 days, okay.
Well, we went to a Brewers game before too.
This is the second time that we're going to.
And they won last time, so I'm hoping they get another, another dub again.
We're gonna try another restaurant at the stadium.
Really?
I thought the sandwiches were good, but I just want to try someplace else, you know, just see what's going on.
Maybe get one of the sausages, because
that's what
they...
That's what they talk about at the stadium.
The race of the sausages or whatever
they call it.
That's the big deal during the seventh inning stretch there.
And maybe you'll get another chance to catch another foul ball.
Wow, huh?
No
way.
You can't top that.
You get one chance in a lifetime.
That's it.
And you find yourself holding a beer in one hand.
And I don't usually drink beer anymore.
Boy, do I miss it.
You know, but why did you stop?
Well, you know, health health reasons.
I mean, it's not a deadly thing or anything like that.
It's just you have to cut down on the on the alcohol when you get to be a certain age over 55.
Okay.
No hints as to how old we are.
I'm not I'm not telling.
But hey, fun, fun night last night on Pete Schwabba show, right?
Oh,
we had a good time.
We were talking UFOs and ghosts, and it was a great
time.
It was a
good time.
We found out that the Earth was not going to be pierced by some kind of flying object in outer space, so that's good.
As far as we know.
Well, no, he definitely said it's not happening.
We're getting missed by that object, right?
But if it's an alien object and they can control it, these aliens, you know, they can steer it at the last minute.
What, are their minds in some kind of remote
control someplace?
Maybe, yes.
Maybe so.
Maybe it is Galactus.
And
Mitch Goff was also really good too.
Yeah, yeah.
The ghost explorer, yeah.
Yeah, excellent.
Phone lines are open.
as well as the text line, 608-879-8255, or you can text us on the Civic Media app.
Shall we get to what's happening?
What's worse?
What's your problem?
All
right, this is a dream come true for me.
Well, this is too
early.
Should
I hold on to
some kind of rant
and talk about politics?
You got another rant ready?
You have a rant ready?
We could check out the latest poll numbers here.
Oh yeah, why don't we check the poll?
We do that every morning around this time.
You can go to wmdxradio.com and participate in the poll.
You gotta tell us what you think because it's really, really important.
Oh, it's a really important question.
Do you support legalized recreational marijuana in Wisconsin?
A, yes, but I forgot what's the question.
That's at 60%.
B, absolutely not, unless the price is low enough, that's a 20%.
And C, only if Trump lowers the price by 200%, 20% for that.
Only if Trump lowers the price by 200%, that's giving him 20%.
That's what I just said.
Okay, get
some money back and maybe some extra marijuana.
Or whatever they call it
now.
Isn't it strange?
I can
imagine the songs that could come out by
just these weird
mentions.
Weird names now that they have given each and every one of these elements
that
make you high or
at
least make you feel good or even
cure disease.
We should dig out some old Cheech and Chong.
I mean, everybody knows, you know, Dave's not here, but they had a lot of other funny stuff.
They did.
They had several albums.
Yeah, couple of movies, two or three movies.
Yeah, we should do a little deep dive into that.
Why don't
you check and see in our files, my files.
I do have
one.
We
have that Cheech and Chong, the record.
Yeah, I do.
Oh, you do?
Yeah.
Wow, why don't we hear it?
Sure, let's play it.
Comedy cut first thing in the morning.
Let's
go.
What
happened there?
They're
running it
back.
Yep.
Yeah, let's hear
it again.
Okay.
And it running back twice.
That's not the whole cut, but
okay.
I have to find the whole thing.
It goes on and on, you know, where he keeps scratching
the
record.
He keeps scratching the
record over
and over.
I don't know what happened.
Is that my cut?
Because I have that whole cut on there.
I repeated it a number of times on there.
Because it was so much fun.
Okay.
I mean, you
know, back then, you know, these audio files, they really loved vinyl.
Oh, yeah.
And I just thought this was a good poke at them.
Yeah.
So I can't really find that cut any place.
Really?
I have that recording, but I have no idea where that particular track is.
No kidding.
In the library, yeah.
Who is Cheech and Chong?
Am I too
young to know?
Cheech Baron.
Okay.
And Tommy Chong.
Okay.
They were a comedy team around 1969, 70.
Based on Smoking Pot, essentially.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Yeah.
From LA they were
first movie was up in smoke.
Yeah Check it out.
Okay, I'm impressed.
I think it's time now to go with would you rather you know, why not?
Keep the comedy coming It's just never stop
Yes, it is.
All right.
First question.
Did
you even more echo to that?
No, I did like weeks back, but now I've just left it and now
it's
been a staple, I think.
Yes, you're so used to it now.
First question.
Would you rather have an invulnerability field around yourself or no one in your presence can lie ever?
They all have to tell the truth when they're by you.
Wow, okay.
Boy, this is a deep question for you, Donald.
Yeah, I know.
I was trying to go funny at the start of this would-you-rather-hole spiel, but now I'm going, you know, this is gonna be intense now.
Yeah.
What do you think, Chuck?
Well, I don't expect anybody to lie to me, so I'll take the invisibility shield.
That's a good,
well-thought-out
answer.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think I'd go along with that.
Oh, I think I would go along with that too.
You
persuaded me John.
Thank you.
Okay.
Well, I should go into a long explanation By the way, when are we getting here from Linda?
This is you went out to
our game
Yes, roll it back up.
Okay, let's go back because she just says I love Brewer games went to Wrigley and another game in Milwaukee so much fun.
Yeah Linda go to our what yeah You should you should enter the contest.
Yeah, you know if you feel like it
Absolutely.
And she supports legalizing THC.
Yeah,
go to the poll and you can also chime in.
The poll you can find at wmdxradio.com.
Okay, back to you for part two of Would You Rather.
All right.
Part two of Would You Rather.
All right.
Well, I thought that was it.
Still got another one.
Would
you rather survive forever on just coconut water or fatty fish?
I'd go with the coconut water.
I think I think I would do the same because you get
hydration easily
swayed Electrolytes.
Yeah, I am
You like the fatty fish
yeah, oh, yeah, just yeah, yeah the fatty fish That's where I'm going
you get protein,
you know
Oil and everything.
Yeah, make a threes.
That's what you get.
Well, that's true.
Yeah, that's true actually
this coconut water
It's not healthy.
It's not too
bad.
Yeah, I think it is healthy for you.
Yeah.
Yeah has a ton of electrolytes.
Okay.
Oh good Thanks for sharing Let's see.
Well, so we got going today.
We've got the Brewer's tickets to give away Mike McCabe will be in and Yeah, you know, you've got all kinds of stories.
I mean you've got a backlog once again of stories.
I do I do
And you were talking before we went on the air about how tomorrow we're going to have even more.
But why is tomorrow?
We got so many
stories that, you know,
all
these other stories broke, like late last night and now this morning.
So we're going to get a lot of stuff.
Yeah.
And it's going to be just an avalanche of news tomorrow as well.
I mean, it just keeps happening and happening.
I just, you know.
I have to kind of just get this off my chest because it gets so angry about it.
Oh, oh, we don't have any time.
All right.
Well, we got time.
We got a
minute.
I guess I'm just gonna have to wait till tomorrow.
What are you talking about?
Okay.
All right.
Well, yeah, a lot of stuff went on in that cabinet meeting yesterday.
Wow.
Apparently the never ending cabinet meeting where everybody's just kissing Trump's butt.
It's over and over again.
How many things can you say about that line and whatever?
It's just too much.
It's too much.
Okay.
Uh, let's see.
We are just getting started on a Wednesday morning, uh, after a late Tuesday night.
It's kind of a, well, you know, it's the marathon session for us this week.
It is.
Yeah.
Okay.
19 minutes past the hour.
Uh, a little bit later on, Mike McCable join us.
We will be right back after a few well-chosen words and phrases from our dedicated and devoted sponsor people.
All right, stay with us.
It's John and Gordy in the morning, WMDX.
WMDX.
John and Gordy in the morning, 92.7.
Bluetooth us into your car stereo and listen that way.
Or just watch us on Facebook or YouTube.
I mean, we want you to drive safely, but at the same time, we know that you can do two things at once.
That
is watch, watch us
and drive.
Sure.
Why not?
That's going to be our slogan.
Drive.
Okay.
Again, you've got to workshop some of these things before we throw that on the air.
You're right, right.
OK.
Yeah, we got to rethink that.
Go with that.
OK.
The John and Gordy Show, that's us.
That's
John Peterson, Gordy Young, and Dom in the producer chair there.
You may or may not know this, but the John and Gordy Show was nominated for Best of Madison.
They still haven't awarded anybody yet.
I mean, we know that we're in the final six.
We don't know if we're in the top three.
We won't find out who won the whole thing until the end of September.
This is ridiculous to keep this such a secret, right?
Somebody knows, you know, you know, somebody at Madison Magazine probably knows.
They're having competitions all the time at Madison Magazine.
Yeah.
Anyway, let me start again.
The John and Gordy show were nominated for Best of Madison, so was one of our favorite dinner spots, Sugar River Pizza.
Now to celebrate, WMDX is giving you, that's right, you, talking to you now, a shot at winning your dinner with a $50 gift card from Sugar River Pizza.
We do this every single week.
You can continue to enter every week.
Head to wmdxradio.com, enter online.
We'll reset the contest every Friday, so make sure you come back for more chances to win.
That's wmdxradio.com.
You could win a $50 gift card from Sugar River Pizza and WMDX.
Yes.
Okay.
Great pizza at Sugar River.
Oh, I love it there.
Yeah, and that's at the Sugar River Pizza location in Sun Prairie.
Yeah, that's gorgeous place.
Yeah.
A lot of beer on tap, too.
Oh, man.
And those big windows.
I mean, how do
you drink beer from time to time?
Yeah.
Yeah.
What a view from there.
Got those big picture windows that can open them up.
Oh, I know.
I
know.
And then you open them up.
You
don't
have to hold mosquitoes and
stuff like
that.
OK.
No, they
actually...
Sure,
the people at Sugar River appreciate your side comments about their beautiful patio that looks out over
over the ponds
that they have
out there along the freeway.
Good God can't take you anywhere.
We asked them about it.
They don't have.
any mosquitoes out there.
It's like a mosquito-free zone out there.
I was
surprised to
hear that.
And I was actually glad to hear that.
There aren't that many.
Dig your way out of this
one.
Go ahead.
I do want to
bring it
on.
I think it's amazing because we went
through like a month of mosquitoes, right?
And then after that, even though we had tons of rain, they didn't come back.
Okay, right.
I has anybody noticed any mosquitoes.
No, no, no,
I know my
house All right, so I'm right again.
Okay.
I'm not
trying to dig myself out of something that I found myself in So,
you
know, I got this thing that really makes me angry is heck Pam Bondi is She's not looking healthy first
Yeah, I don't want to go by looks here, but she always looks a little burnt out constantly.
She's
busy.
Her eyes are red.
And she's very abrupt.
She's not a happy person.
And
no, I'm not worried about her health.
Well, she was at that cabinet meeting.
That cabinet meeting went three hours and 16 minutes.
Yeah, can you imagine?
Can you?
Oh, man.
That should go down in history.
Save that video.
Anyway, Pam Bonny keeps going out there accusing a Braco Garcia of being a part of MS-13.
There has never been a decision that links him to that.
The courts have not decided that.
She continues to accuse this guy as if he were guilty.
She is not.
She's the attorney
general.
She's the attorney general.
She can't go out
there and just make accusations,
unfounded accusations.
Don't
do this.
Right?
Yeah.
Oh man, no judge of any kind has ever ruled that Garcia was ever a part of MS-13.
Get it straight.
What is wrong with her?
And then she went on on this rant about
Grooming children that come into this country and they're gonna get rid of it finally once and for all the There's nothing to any of this what they're doing is they're scaring the daylights out of every American that believes anything these liars say and that's just bothering the heck out of me I can't
they're going with fear uncertainty and doubt and hate That's their whole agenda
That's it.
Andrew says you might need a muzzle for John today.
Thank you for that text, Andrew.
Read my mind.
Well, okay, Andrew, do you think I'm right about Pam Bondi?
All
right, come on, man.
Go ahead and text us back,
Andrew.
But, you know, she came out with a comment and it just really, really irritated me.
She ended the comment by saying, uh, we're not going to set him free.
We're going to, uh, uh, get rid of him, keep him out of the country.
And we're not going to have him free in this country like the liberals want.
Wow.
And I was like,
what?
You're the AG, you represent all of us liberals and conservatives alike.
You don't sit there and take a shot at the liberals.
And oh, you know, the liberals, well, I guess in this case, we just want to hear that he's guilty sometime.
But if he isn't guilty and it hasn't been decided by a court, then stop accusing him of something he hasn't done.
All
right,
Neil, where
is that damn
muzzle?
I want
the muzzle.
Okay, we'll find it.
29 past the hour.
After we check in with the Midwest Food and Farm Report, we'll be back with Idiocracy on John and Gordy in the Morning, WMDX from beautiful Madison, Wisconsin.
Human evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence with no natural predators to thin the
herd.
There was a place without boundaries, a place without limits.
Welcome to Costco.
I love you.
A place that is about to be violated.
Idiocracy.
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb
sometimes.
Yeah.
Yeah, you got it.
WMDX.
92.7.
It's John Peterson, Gordy Young, sitting in
this
morning along with their engineer.
Dominic Lee.
Alfredo Garcia.
He's got my name already.
Come
on.
No, you're not guilty.
Don't worry about it.
You don't have to go by Dom.
Seriously, you do not have to change your
name.
It's a great start to the Wednesday.
We've got clear skies now and cool temperatures, 49 degrees highs in the low to mid 70s.
And it's going to be nice all day long.
Maybe a little rain later tonight talking about
that.
You
think so?
That's what I think.
Yeah.
Well, you might be right about that.
got brewers tickets to give away.
We'll do that in our next hour.
And also Mike McCabe will join us in our seven o'clock hour.
Got a new sub stack article about AOC.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that was that was a good article.
I agree with them 100%.
He's also got a few other things we'll cover.
Interesting stuff as usual.
You know, it's always fun talking to Mike.
Let's get to
Well, we were watching in the headlines this morning, right?
Yeah.
President Trump says that he can do anything he wants
because he's president.
Yeah, that's the quote.
Yeah, I have the right to do anything I want.
I'm the president of the United States.
There's nothing unhealthy about that.
But
he's not a dictator.
No, not yet.
No.
Although, you know, maybe some people want a dictator.
That's what he was kind of going with yesterday.
You know, some people like the idea.
Well, he's doing everything himself.
He's
not relying on anybody, you know, kind of replace the police, the armies, National Guard.
I
mean, he is the he's the commander in chief of everything.
He's the boss.
Now, interesting, though, you know, with all the security that he's providing for DC and.
Maybe other cities as well.
He's also defunding the police.
He's making crime worse.
Well, what?
All right, we've got we've got a guy.
This is Dan Coe, founder of Rembrandt Media and he has a response to Trump's claims.
Let's listen to this.
Okay.
Make the argument to me that Donald Trump is the one defunding the police.
So there is no president in modern history who has done more to cut money to law enforcement nationwide.
Donald Trump announced that he was freezing $1 million, excuse me, in grants to 48 states and 550 community violence intervention programs, including for things like police overtime in Meridian, Connecticut.
I used to be chief of staff at the city of Boston.
rate of homicides per 100,000 in Boston is 3.5.
Compare that to DC at 27 or Jackson at 72.
The reason why we did that is because we brought the community together with the police.
We built that trust.
There's an organization called Youth Alive in California in Oakland, one of the places that Donald Trump pointed out.
They go to the bedside of youth after they've been involved with violence.
113 people last year went through that program.
Only one got into violence again the next year.
That program just lost their funding.
So you tell Donald Trump how we're going to reduce crime in neighborhoods when you're cutting the very funding that will prevent it every time.
Isn't that amazing?
Yes.
That's a big story.
The thing about preventing crime is also one way of cutting down on crime, right?
Kind
of the same thing.
Well,
maybe they don't get that yet.
Apparently not.
Wow.
Yeah.
So they keep cutting.
and cutting to help out the local police, but bring in the National Guard, bring in the military.
All right, I'm going to bring
out Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Oh,
yeah.
He debated a talk show host.
Boy, these guys aren't real bright.
Anyway, this is Patrick Bet David, and they were talking about COVID.
And we're going to hear the old arguments about COVID from Patrick Bet David.
And Neil, of course,
has an answer to all of it.
And I really like this discussion.
So why don't we play this?
Here we go.
From what we knew at the beginning of COVID to what we know today, what do we know about the vaccine today that we didn't know while we were all testing it on America taking it?
What have we learned now?
What do you mean testing it on America?
There were tests before it was released.
Nine months is not a long time to test it.
No, but it was tested.
Yeah, but the average is 30.
The average is five to 10 years.
I mean, nine months is not enough.
OK, so you have to
say, no, you have to ask.
It was tested on in trials.
Okay, there were trials.
That's what the point of phase one, two, three trials are all about.
Enough to get data on how to then advise the larger population.
If you just say it wasn't tested, is it a gap between your awareness and understanding how things work and what actually happened?
Do you say, let's keep testing it while the virus keeps spreading.
People are dying.
Hospitals are becoming overloaded.
Do you say we have good data on the thousand?
It's not yet at a million in case you wanted a million.
Are you gonna say, let's still do it on another, let's wait another six months so we get another million in here?
Will you do that as a public health
professional?
No, I would have said allow the individual to still have a choice that's okay with a thousand instead of a few million.
Leave the person have the choice not force him to take it or else you're gonna get out of the Marines and you've been doing this for 14 years not force him to take it or
There's a public health contract where in part we depend on each other For health our wealth our security and the like if you do not get vaccinated
you will put other people in this organization at risk, and that organization does not want to take that risk, so you do not have this job anymore if you decline it.
There has to be a consequence to you not participating
in that social contract.
Somebody may say, well,
Freedom of choice.
I want to choose what I want to do with the body if I can't force you to get an abortion You shouldn't be able to force
because it's not about you
It's about
people you interact with and that's the social contract in a case where you can contaminate someone else
It's
not about you.
COVID vaccine hasn't been tested for it.
It was something we just came out.
But let me... I don't know what point you're making.
Other than it was
tested, you might... Nine months is not a... You might prefer... No, it's not a matter of time.
It's a matter of how many... Yes, the number of people is paramount.
As many people as you
can.
I think it was thousands, but... Is it fair to say that some of the side effects we may not know for 5, 10, 15, 20 years?
Your decision point is
not.
I don't want to take the virus because five or 10 years from now, there could be a...
effect which is a possibility.
If you say I don't want to take the virus because it hasn't been tested for five years and there could be some long-term side effect that worries me.
At 1.87% of everyone dying in the hospital of COVID was unvaccinated.
Your risk
choice is, I'm not going to take it because maybe somewhere down the line something will happen and we don't know what that is, or I will risk getting COVID.
And if I get COVID, depending on your age and other things, there's a 3% chance of me dying in the hospital.
That's your choice.
The individual not have the right to say, I don't want to
take it
because you don't have the right
to
contaminate someone else.
So what do I
do?
Stay home
all day?
Or to go to the beach.
Yeah.
I want to know how you process this as a guy that's well-read, smart.
I process the data.
What
happens to
me if I get COVID?
There's a chance I'll get long COVID, and there's a chance I'll be hospitalized, and there's a chance I'll die.
I take the vaccine, it mitigates this, and I will accept the risk that in five years I'll grow a third arm.
That's the kind of decision that I make.
You want a world where you can do whatever you want and have it influence other people.
I'm not
saying
that.
You kind of are.
I'm
not saying that
though.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Back and forth, back and forth.
It was great stuff though.
That's the argument that we've been trying to make all this time.
And finally, you know.
So that was Neil deGrasse Tyson, and who
was the other individual
there?
Patrick Bette David.
I've never heard of him.
It doesn't sound like a great talk show host either.
But anyway, didn't make a good point and kept getting back to this freedom thing.
You know, we saw it in our own Supreme Court here with Rebecca Bradley.
Okay.
Telling our governor that he was a tyrant.
because he asked people to stay indoors and not have large groups of people get together.
He was a tyrant for that.
The whole point here is that we're not using healthcare to take over the government and become a king.
We're actually trying to prevent people from dying and it's a public health issue.
It was a pandemic.
Yes.
Public health.
Did we not remember that?
I don't know why we were never able to kind of land this.
This idea but the point is it's it's public health.
Yeah, it's a separate issue It's not political or it shouldn't be maybe that's what they they see it as a political issue that they can use someday but the Liberals don't look at it that way It's a pandemic and we need to save people's lives and a lot of people were dying.
Yeah
All right, so good argument.
I appreciate that.
Here's something good.
You know, I've been around a long time and you remember media matters, right?
Sure.
Yeah, a federal judge blocked people from trying to silence media matters.
A federal judge blocked the Federal Trade Commission from investigating
Media and Matters for America the liberal watchdog group that was criticized of so many times by the right wing in fact It has been criticized because it went into it actually Posted a lot of video and comments from people who actually have made outrageous statements and they get blowback from it and they're blaming media matters for it.
Well, I mean that's their
That's what happens.
That's kind of, yeah, that's the way it goes.
They don't like getting blowback for any of this stuff.
The district judge Sparkle Suknamin issued an injunction against the FTC, ruling that its probe purportedly to investigate an advertiser boycott concerning social media platforms amounted to a violation of media matters, free speech rights.
Okay, and she wrote it should alarm all Americans when the government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate and That's media matters been criticized for so many years and it's just mind boggling because all they do is they play back the video
That, that's all they do.
It's their job,
yeah.
It's
when, for some reason, you know, they're lying and
they're,
I don't know, just ridiculous accusations all over the place.
Okay, we got time for, we do not have time for that.
We've got three minutes.
Yeah, I have something.
I just, you know, John Stossel is the craziest guy in the world.
Yeah, John Stossel with ABC
for a long time.
He was a consumer reporter for so many years that all of a sudden he just went off the deep end.
We'll get to that after the break.
But now I can't get to this story.
There's too many stories here.
All right.
How about BlackRock and private equity?
They've got a big scam going on.
They're buying back an entire housing development.
Let's listen to Cut192.
Do we have time for that?
Let's go
ahead.
All right They buy a whole housing like a 500 house division and they're gonna get those at a huge discount because they only make five models and they buy everything
in
bulk They might we might have had to pay 500,000 for it.
They're getting them at 300.
Okay, they buy 500 houses at $300,000.
Okay, they put them all in a portfolio They could flip that through a secondaries market, but even better They could hold those houses for a year don't let anyone move and keep it looking like a construction zone.
Okay, and then a year later
They sell three of those houses that they bought for $300,000 to themselves in another fund for $700,000.
And
that creates
three comps in the neighborhood.
They do one of each of the
models,
okay?
And now the entire neighborhood each house is valued at seven hundred thousand dollars and then they're gonna turn them into obscene rentals and Simultaneously, they're gonna have a double and a half value on that portfolio to borrow against right and every American in that community was just priced out of everything around that community
They're so smart aren't they just so smart the way they do this thing.
They're so we just clever the way So that's what they're doing and these private equity firms are doing this all over the country buying these giant neighborhoods and then you know
Raising the price of each home with just individual little sales
and
that creates the comps and then it raises the prices for all the other homes Yeah, what a scam and I used
to be a real estate agent at
one time.
All right
Okay, it is 648 we were coming back with more of John and Gordy in the morning 92 FM WMDX
Who is it?
It's me, Dave.
Open up, man.
I got the stuff.
Who is it?
It's me, Dave, man.
Open up.
I got the stuff.
Who?
It's Dave, man.
Open up.
I think the cops saw me come in here.
Who is it?
It's Dave, man.
Will you open up?
I got the stuff with me.
Dave man open up.
Dave?
Yeah Dave come on man open up I think the cops saw me.
Dave's
not here.
I knew a guy like
that.
No man I'm Dave man.
Hey come on man.
Who is it?
It's Dave man will you open up?
I got the stuff with me.
Who?
Dave man open up.
Dave?
Yeah Dave.
Dave's not here.
No man I am Dave man will you come on.
Open up the door!
Will you?
I got the stuff with me.
I think the cops saw
me.
Who is it?
Oh, what the hell is it?
Open up the door!
It's Dave!
Who?
Dave!
D-A-V-E!
Will you open up the goddamn door?
Yeah, Dave!
Dave!
Right, man.
Dave, now will you open up the door?
Dave's not here!
There you go.
It's a classic.
It really is.
92.7 WMDX with John and Gordy on this Wednesday morning sunshine.
Beautiful start at this morning highs in the low 70s later today and right now 50 degrees here.
You know, we were talking earlier about how many dispensaries are there now on State Street?
We'll have to go down.
It's down.
We're going to give you that assignment.
I want you to actually physically go out, just you gotta take one walk down and one back up here.
Okay, I'll bring my notepad.
Count the number of deaths.
And I want you to be able to go around a corner.
I mean, they might be just around the corner too.
And then eventually we want to find out how many are in Madison altogether.
Right.
I know that's a big assignment for you, but maybe you can get some help.
And buy whatever you feel like buying.
That's what I was gonna say.
Can I go into each,
you know, establishment?
Well, you're old
enough, yes.
That's
easy.
I don't
know.
Check your ID again, but okay.
All right, let's get to John Stossel.
Has socialism failed?
What?
I don't think so, but...
The better question is, has capitalism failed?
Most people.
Now the EU is doing fine with their socialist ways, but really the question is...
have consumers caught on to the fact that maybe capitalism is putting everybody where they are right now.
From paycheck to paycheck, they can't afford anything and prices are going through the roof.
Well, let's listen to John Stossel as only he can put it.
Socialist politicians are on the rise.
This democratic socialist will probably be the next mayor of Minneapolis.
And socialist Zoran Mondani is likely to be the next mayor of New York City.
Socialism.
always fails.
In
my last video, I covered some of Mamdani's bad ideas, but he has more, so I made this second video.
This campaign is for every New Yorker who believes that government's job is to actually make our lives
better.
Mamdani says he'll make our lives better by giving us free stuff.
I'll make childcare available to all New Yorkers at no cost.
I like where he stands on freezing rent, making public transit cheap and free.
Child
care, universal at no cost to New York families.
Bosses, fast and free for every New York.
And yet he has noticed that government doesn't do a great job now.
These are the slowest buses in the country.
Buses and subways are a good example
of
socialist confusion about what makes things work.
Original subways in...
New York were all private.
It carried tens of millions of passengers.
Private companies built most of the subways.
Then after 50 years they said let's raise the fare from a nickel to a dime.
People didn't like Daddy of paying a higher fare and the mayor took advantage of that and said well fine the government will take it over and we won't raise the fare.
But of course government did raise it.
The socialist politicians also say
They'll make workers' lives better by raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour.
That's popular.
Last year, California's fast food workers celebrated the new $20 minimum wage.
Yeah.
Also, consumers have to pay more.
Restaurants in the state have increased prices by 10% faster than all other states.
It's just supply and demand.
We freeze
the rent.
Activists like that.
But they only like it because they don't realize it creates shortages.
Everywhere it's been tried.
St.
Paul, Minnesota imposed rent controls.
The most stringent measure in the country.
So in St.
Paul's Twin City, Minneapolis, socialist Aisha Chugtai said, I want us to follow their lead.
She's now vice president of the Minneapolis City Council.
But when I interviewed her, she didn't even know that rent controls stopped most apartment building in St.
Paul.
Builders still build in Minneapolis.
Building permits were up 65 percent.
But in St.
Paul, they're down 60 percent because of rent control.
You're not going to get more apartments by pushing this.
OK,
that's John Stoss.
Silence reveals so
much.
That's right.
OK.
You know, the thing is, you know, rent control, if you don't have it, then people can't afford to rent, right?
I mean, that's the problem.
And there are ways around that.
The cities have been working on all of that.
So there are ways.
And
he avoids, of course, talking about the other ways in order to keep.
Rent under some kind of control and make it affordable for everybody.
Mm-hmm.
So but you know, it's his wise-ass Smirking attitude that just really I just find it funny, you know I used to watch him all the time and I'd end up walking away from the TV talking like him for some reason.
I don't know why Calling everything into
question Why is it like
that?
Yeah
Anyway,
you know, I was just looking up according to Forbes magazine.
Yeah, there are 900 billionaires more than 900 or somewhere around 800 to 900 billionaires in the US and You want to guess on how many millionaires there are Wow,
take a
wild guess 24 million Wow millionaires people are getting in the US.
They're very rich.
You're doing just fine.
Yeah
OK, we're going to check in on news and weather.
And when we come back, we'll check in with Brittany Merlot in a little while on the
weather.
We've got immigration coming up as a topic and flag burning, just another addition to that.
And Brewers tickets to give away on John and Gordy in the morning, WMDX.
It is.
Coffee.
Coffee.
Coffee.
At least we haven't had that annoying coffee guy stop.
I'm so happy he has not been around
here.
Oh my god.
I think he got arrested.
Maybe he picked up
by
ice.
Well, you know, he
doesn't.
Oh, no.
Who wants corn?
I just mentioned.
Oh, no.
You got to get out of here, man.
You got to get out of
here.
Oh, good.
I'll push him out the door.
Get him out of here,
Don.
Yep.
Just.
OK.
Again, we have to light the doors.
OK.
All right.
All
right.
He's leaving.
Get out of
here.
OK.
All right.
OK.
Oh, me.
Oh, me.
It's John Peterson, Gordy Young, and Dominic Lee in the producer chair.
Beautiful sunshine this morning.
Look at it.
Out the big window here.
Overlooking State Street, downtown Madison.
Looking great.
72 for a high today.
Right now it's...
right around 50 degrees.
I'm
so relieved.
Take a deep breath.
Trump says new comprehensive crime bill is in the worst.
Oh,
thank
goodness.
Good.
Oh, we got to stop crime right now.
Yeah, we do.
All right.
Should we take a call here?
Yeah, let's take it.
We got maps on the line checking in from Middleton this morning.
Good morning, Matt.
What's on your mind?
What's happening?
Morning, guys.
I heard you talking about socialism and uh, ma'am domi and and it occurs to me that this late stage capitalism that we're experiencing kind of mimics communism in some ways because when you have less and less companies making particular things and during the pandemic they decided to cut certain things and only produce a smaller number of things
Like cutting certain flavors of things and ice cream companies are doing this and so on and so forth
and
with Trump buying up a stake at Intel and They're trying to tell companies what to make what to do Mago loves Russia and they want to become Russia.
They're trying to make a center Russia, which is kind of
is more communism than capitalism.
Exactly,
yes.
So it seems like MAGA is inadvertently pushing communism, but they don't understand the connections or see it.
I think you might be honest.
So it's really ironic, isn't it?
It's incredibly ironic, yes.
It's insane.
It is insane.
Welcome
to our world.
But that's MAGA, right?
It's an insolusional fever dream.
But do you think though I think more people are waking up but I
Don't you know, I don't think so in my mega friend of Milwaukee often time calls me a communist and a terrorist and You know,
he just throws
these words around and to them
We're the communists and we're the danger to this country.
So they don't
listen to anything else.
They don't see the militarization of our cities.
They don't feel uncomfortable with anything that's going in now.
And now we've got to look forward to the comprehensive crime bill that Trump is putting together.
A lot of problems coming up here.
So we've got a lot of stories to report on, especially tomorrow as well.
Matt,
thank you for that call.
Thanks, Matt.
We're going to get into
immigration here.
We got to talk about this because I came across a cut here.
This is Tim Weiss.
He is a writer and anti-racism lecturer and he had some really good points about immigration in this country and this is cut 190.
So let's listen to this.
This immigration drama that we have right now is only possible because we don't understand our own history.
As a country and particularly those of us of European descent, we have lied to ourselves about how we got here.
And for what reason?
See, black folks know why they're here.
Native peoples know why they're here and how they got here.
A lot of Asian folk know, particularly if they're Chinese-American, they know they got here because their ancestors were brought over to work on the railroads by the railroad barons who didn't care if thousands of them died laying track, 19, 20 hours a day.
But for those of us who are from Europe, we have this fiction that we've told and we believe it, even though there's no truth to it.
You know what the fiction is?
It's two parts.
Number one, we say things like,
with regard to Mexicans coming over the border, with regard to immigrants coming up, but only that border.
That's the only one we care about, right?
The southern border.
I find that interesting.
We're not flipping out about Canada, right?
We don't have any of the Minuteman or the anti-immigrant groups sitting off the coast of Nova Scotia with a gun and a scope trying to like pick off the sneaky Canadians that are trying to sneak in here for our superior healthcare system, which after all would be a pretty stupid thing to do.
But in any event,
We only care about that one border, forgetting for a minute that that border was created at the end of a war that was started on false pretense by this country, after which we jacked half of their country.
And you weren't taught that in school, either, because our history books aren't interested in telling the truth.
They tell this very patriotic history that has no relationship to the fact.
So that border is artificial.
Mexican folk who are coming here, documented or not, let's be clear, are coming home.
Their families were here before our families were here in almost every instance.
But we forget that and then we say things like, well, I don't mind them coming.
I just want them to come legally like my people did.
The hell is that even mean?
Come legally.
There was no law to break when our people came.
The fact that we didn't break a law that didn't even exist.
You don't get cookies for that.
You don't get like a pat on the back and a gold star because your great great great whatever was law abiding when there was no law that he could have violated even if he wanted to but we've told this lie that we came for these upstanding principles so we'll say things like well you know our people came for liberty and freedom democracy these people are just coming for stuff they're just coming for jobs they're just coming for health care they're just coming for stuff
We came for high-minded principle, right?
Because we believe that what kind of third-grade version of American history is that, right?
Like when Donald Trump says, well, Mexico's not sending their best.
What the hell, you think Europe sent their best?
Europe, no.
Our people were the losers of Europe.
I'm not trying to be an asshole.
I'm just telling you the truth.
Like, our people were the losers of Europe.
The winners didn't get on the boat.
You understand what I'm saying?
The winners didn't leave.
Why the hell would you leave if you were winning?
Only the losers left because they had no choice.
They were dying.
They were starving.
They couldn't support their families.
A lot of them were convicts who were sold into indentured servitude to work for rich European people.
They were barely above the level of a slave themselves.
The idea that we had these high, we didn't believe in liberty and freedom.
And we know that because once we got to the colonies, we set up the opposite of liberty and freedom.
And I don't just mean that for like black folks and native folks.
I mean, even for other white folks, like we spent most of the time in the early colonies trying to figure out who the witch was.
Right?
It was like, well, you're not a Christian.
Well, no, you're not a Christian.
Well, no, you're not a Christian.
I'm going to hang you from a tree.
Really?
Well, I'm going to drown you in the stream.
Well, I'm going to set you on fire.
Like, that wasn't liberty.
The colonies were some of the least free places in the history of the cosmos.
But we act like we came for liberty.
And they're just here to take advantage.
Let's be clear.
Our people didn't come for liberty.
They came for stuff.
They came for stuff like land.
They came for stuff like opportunity.
They came for stuff like the ability to feed their families.
And there's no shame in that.
None at all.
But just like there's no shame in our families having done that, there's no shame in Brown families doing that and coming over that border for Mexico, Central America, wherever else they might be coming.
And that again is a writer and anti-racism lecturer, Tim Weiss.
Tim Weiss.
That lays it right out there, doesn't it?
It sure does.
That's a great piece.
It really is.
14 minutes past the hour, we're getting some text in here this morning.
John, you can text us on the Civic Media app.
Doug says, uh, why aren't you guys burning a flag on State Street this morning?
It's not illegal.
Not yet.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, you know, on top of it.
Yeah.
Um, I've got also this, uh, you know, they're trying to make the city safer and Trump wants to send troops.
Into chicago and all the other liberal cities oddly.
Yeah, uh, even though, uh, many of the, uh, southern, well, let me just tell you that I got a story here.
A total of 53 cities in louisiana, mississippi, ohio, south carolina, tennessee and west virginia had higher crime rates than washington dc in 2024.
Despite this, these states deployed their own national guard troops to help address dc's newly
declared crime emergency.
Interesting fact
is that they do that.
Wow.
Oh,
all
right.
Um, I thought this is another inch.
We're kind of clearing, clearing the paperwork out here.
So I'm going to skip around a little bit.
It's almost
like a dumpster fire.
Well, yeah,
it is
almost like that.
Uh, Trump said that Biden didn't know what he was doing and was pardoning all these people, right?
Because of the auto pen.
All right, let's listen to cut 201.
This is, uh, this is Trump talking about Biden.
You won't believe it.
Let's listen.
Okay.
About nothing.
That means that all those partners that he gave to some very bad people, very unpatriotic people, very evil people, it looks to me like those partners are worthless because number one, you shouldn't use an auto pen specifically.
But if you do, it has to be a very good reason and they have to know.
that the president wanted it.
The president didn't want this.
He didn't.
The president didn't know he was alive, OK?
Oh,
that.
He never approved any of this stuff.
He wasn't for open borders and all the other things.
He was never for open borders.
I've known Biden a long time.
He was never very sharp.
But he was never in favor of open borders and all the other things he did to destroy a country.
He really doesn't know what he's talking about, does he?
No, he doesn't.
I mean, he is actually rewriting history.
While Biden's
still alive
in the moment.
So here we go Let's go to the phones right now Joe.
What do you got for us?
Good
morning?
It is just so painful to listen to this man who believes that he knows
everything If
there's one thing you learn in life is a little humility because
Boy, we don't know.
However, we do know that people confuse the word socialism.
It's just this mushy term that you can kind of apply here or here.
I don't like that program because it's socialism.
Your previous caller mentioned, uh, um, Trump's a big hogging of Intel, just getting in there and getting ownership in Intel to 10%.
Yes.
I can't think of anything more socialist than that because that is, uh, I mean, there's just no way you get anything that's more quote, socialist.
involvement in economics, where we're used to the idea of government being involved in products that help us, Social Security, Medicare, VA, very successful.
Those are all socialist entities and you know it's kind of perhaps sad that the
Mr. Trump is good and his fellow writers in the sage are going after those programs, which are so popular and helpful Whereas let me just get it.
Let me just get another Get myself another plane another billion dollar plane and
get
government money to fix up my plane for me It's you know, the problem is I think of the word socialism Who knows what it means, you know,
who
knows what is socialism?
Yeah, I love Medicare Or is that one guy had that wonderful sign tell the government to get their hands off my social security.
Yes
I know.
You know, the socialism thing, true.
I mean, they want to take up more businesses.
They want to invest in more businesses because they want to share in the profits.
And you know what?
That is pure socialism right there, right?
Making a profit from businesses.
I can't imagine a more socialist thing to do.
And they're doing it very slowly in a way, in a creeping way that their cult members do not notice.
And we could
be up there all
day long saying what we're saying, Joe, but they're not going to believe anything we're saying.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, a good example that's on the on the platter is the National Weather Service, which is, you know, a public good that we pay for through tax dollars.
We love it.
You know, we're just used to having it there.
And let's start talking about what happens when we have to pay a fee to get that.
Which socialism do you like?
I love the weather service.
Yeah.
Good point, Joe.
Yeah.
Thank you for that.
19 minutes past the hour.
We're getting a couple other calls here.
Hang on the line.
We're going to take our quick break.
Then we'll check in with Brittany Merleau.
Get the latest on this beautiful weather.
It's all coming up on John and Gordy in the morning and Brewer's tickets right around the corner.
Stay with us.
WMDX 92.7 This is John and Gordy in the morning.
Feel free to text us or voice, note us, and tune in on the Civic Media app.
You can get us anywhere in the world.
It is 23 minutes past the hour.
Beautiful sunshine downtown Madison on State Street.
Let's check in on the weather with our WMDX meteorologist, Brittany Merlo.
Good morning, Brittany.
Good morning, guys.
How's it going down there?
It's really nice down
there.
Great.
How is it in
Warsaw?
Little chilly still rocking the hoodie this morning because how
cold is it there?
Yeah, how cold?
Oh 46 degrees this morning.
Okay,
just a few degrees cooler than you not too bad I don't know it just cuts right through me, but I've been leaving a window open overnight.
So yeah,
oh you gotta have a nice
and
cold Yeah, sleep.
Oh, yes get it while you can right?
Oh, I know I
know 55
degrees here.
Yeah.
Yeah
So what do we expect for the rest of the day looking pretty nice,
huh?
Yes bright beautiful a lot of sunshine to start the day I think those clouds are gonna hold off until this evening and then we got a chance of rain late tonight Maybe some thunder overnight Could linger a few showers in the morning tomorrow, but then it kicks on out of here.
All right
cold front.
Yeah another one.
How's that
great?
Okay?
Yeah
And then looking ahead to the Labor Day holiday weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, what do we, what do we expect?
Perfect weather, high pressure system, sits right over us, keeps the rain just to the west.
It's pretty crazy, it stalls this system and it just spins there in Iowa and Minnesota while we sit here nice, bright and sunny, comfortable, mid-seventies, pretty much.
low 70s on Friday, Saturday, then we'll hit those mid 70s on Sunday and Monday.
And then we'll go to the upper 70s for middle of next week.
Wow.
When the rain pushes in by maybe Wednesday or something.
Well, I guess
Gordy and I picked the right time to take a few days off.
We're taking four days off.
We
needed after filling in for Beach Wabba.
Great show last night.
Late night.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
Yeah,
so
yeah, we'll be gone Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, but back Tuesday.
Now,
we have a text here from Robert.
He says the weather fee will be paid to AccuWeather.
They're buying up all the Dopplerators.
Is that true?
Yeah.
Oh, gosh.
I'm not sure.
Let me look into that.
All right.
I hadn't heard about that, but yeah.
Huh.
Interesting.
All right, Brittany.
Brittany, thank you so much.
We'll talk
to you
again.
All right, guys.
Have a good one.
All right.
Yeah.
That's Brittany Merlot, our WMDX meteorologist.
Hey, it's time for us to give away some tickets.
We've got Brewer's tickets up for grabs here.
We've been giving these away all week long.
These are for the September 4th game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
You know, the Brewers pulled it out in the ninth inning last night against the Diamondbacks.
They won 9-8.
Brewers continuing to be hot.
We'll give away a pair of tickets to the first caller.
Whatever caller you are, if you're the first caller, 608-879-8255.
That's 608-879-8255.
Call us and you'll be going to the game.
And we'll meet you there on Thursday, September 4th against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Give us a call.
I think we have our caller on the line right now.
Can we go to Cary?
Cary calling from... Where's Cary calling from?
Tosa.
Tosa?
Oh, really?
And we have to apologize for what you had to go through at prom.
Cary,
must have been awful for you.
You've never heard that one before, right?
Yeah, you never heard that, I know.
Never not once.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Where is Tosa?
I don't know.
I've.
Oh,
okay.
I got you.
All
right.
Well, hang on the line here.
So you can make it on September 4th, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's an evening game, right?
Yeah.
I believe so.
We'll have to double check on that.
We're not sure.
All right.
Well, I'll tell you what, hang on the line here.
Tom's going to get all your information we need to get, and we'll talk to you and get all that.
Congratulations, Gary.
Congrats.
All
right.
All right.
Very good.
Yeah, I was looking up socialism here, and in a socialist system, businesses can be governed
owned as a form of social ownership where the state owns and manages the means of production for the public benefit.
This is a central concept in state socialism and can involve state-owned enterprises designed to generate profit for the public.
Public private services, they implement government policies through that.
However, socialism encompasses various models and social ownership can just
be a part of that.
There are other forms like cooperatives or community ownership.
My sons are always talking about the cooperative model where everybody owns part of the businesses and benefits from it.
That's what they're always talking about at least Gen Z. So just thought I'd kind of focus a little bit on what we're talking about here when
We're hearing that they want to buy up more businesses.
Right.
Or have partial ownership in them.
And you know, the way Trump is acting, he's going to tell Intel what to do.
He's telling other businesses what to do.
My God.
OK, let's get to one.
What?
We've got Mark on the
line.
Oh, we
have
Mark on the line.
Let's go.
Mark, we've got to keep it real quick here.
What do you got for us this morning?
You know, what Trump is doing is national socialism, fascism, what Mussolini did.
Oh, you know, with.
Oh, yes,
yes, national.
Corporate thing there.
So it's right.
That's the difference there.
And Trump is acting like a national socialist fascist.
You know, sending out, sending in the troops and, uh, who knows before they can, they can ask, he's going to order the National Guard to start splitting heads and try to get, uh, your response.
So he can, he can get, he can see the blood flow like he wants to see.
And, and he can hoist up the bloodstained vamp banner of the, of the Confederacy or the stars and bars, which were actually the real Confederate flag, you know, just, uh,
But they're flying off, flying on the road all the time, was just a Confederate-bioted battle flag.
It was never really the official Confederate flag.
Well, I'm glad you called on that, Mark, because that is the other socialism that we didn't cover in that little statement that I read.
Mark,
you're right.
You're right.
National socialism, and that
is fascism.
Thanks for that call, Mark.
I want to mention also that Brewers game against the Phillies on September 4th with John and Gordy sitting next to you.
That is all due to and thanks to Doundren's Distilling.
That's Doundren's Distilling in Cottage Grove.
And for
Kerry, that is an afternoon game.
Yeah, it is an afternoon game.
We've got Kerry on the line and we'll talk to her during our break here for the Midwest Food and Farm Report.
Mike McCabe is in the studio next on John and Gordy in the Morning on WMDX.
Stay right where you are.
Good morning, 92.7.
Hope we haven't brought you down today.
A little late for saying that, but we apologize again.
Well,
we have rays of sunshine out there.
For the administration.
Yes.
It's going to be a beautiful day.
Weather-wise, highs in the low 70s, right now 53 degrees.
And Mike McCabe joining us now.
Good morning, Mike.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm good.
You got plans for the Labor Day holiday?
You doing any traveling?
Or are you going to...
Stick at the homestead there.
I'm not I'm not doing any traveling.
Yeah, okay, gonna be around
around here.
Yeah
You know, I just want to kind of play off the the song the American dream is killing me you posted a letter editorial from somebody who says that they're living in the shadow of the American dream and And it's an individual who is not married
It's not because they don't love each other.
I'm reading from the letter.
But because getting married would kick my partner and my daughters off the Medicaid that keeps them healthy.
You know, I can't emphasize enough how important healthcare is in this country for people to navigate life.
If we didn't have the possibility of going bankrupt with healthcare costs,
We could do so many things.
We'd be so free to do other things and not ever have to worry about it.
And it just, it boggles my mind if we could just take care of universal health care, we could just free up so many people.
I can't imagine what it must be like in European countries where they have universal health care and they don't even have to worry about it.
They can just do business, they can create a business, they can employ people without worrying about covering them with health care.
This is just an incredible impediment on our society, isn't it?
It
is.
No question about it.
And it's an unnecessary impediment.
When people say we can't afford universal health care, a national health care program would never work, then you look at dozens and dozens of industrialized countries all over the world who not only have it and have made it work, but have...
removed a huge stress from the lives
of
the citizenry's there.
And for our country, a country this wealthy with 20-some million millionaires and with hundreds and hundreds of billionaires, with that kind of wealth in our country, for us to not do this is madness.
It's just sheer madness.
it puts a lot of people on the edge of a cliff.
And that man who wrote the letter, sort of on behalf of his family, he didn't just write about healthcare.
He wrote about, can you even afford to have children with the cost of childcare?
Can you even think about,
owning a home, and if you do own a home, can you keep that home?
Can you ward off foreclosure when you run into rough times?
Those are the key features of the American dream, this idea that if you work hard, you can have a home of your own,
you can
raise a family, your kids can...
end up being better off than you are, that's the essence of the American dream that your kids will be better off than you are.
And now I think an awful lot of Americans have this nagging feeling that their kids will be worse off, that they may be struggling, they may not know where the next meal is coming from, but they have this fear that their kids will be even worse off.
And so yeah, here's somebody, he says in the,
In the letter, this isn't a Democratic or Republican problem.
This is an American problem.
We've
got all of these people who are just not able to make it.
And then we've got this grotesque economic inequality so that so many people are just rich beyond the wildest measure.
With AI looming, there's an awful lot of jobs that are going to be eliminated.
And if our country doesn't take some action at some point as AI develops, what you're going to have is that people who didn't invent AI, it shouldn't be their property, but they've made it their property.
They are the owners of AI.
those billionaires are gonna become trillionaires.
And then an awful lot of people will be without work and will be left behind.
And so there's a recipe out there.
Universal
basic
income
is part of that.
What I
was gonna say is there's a recipe for what is really grotesque economic inequality to grow worse.
To grow
significantly worse because you're gonna see people
who had jobs, who had professions, you're gonna see those professions taken over by machines.
And it won't just, there is this wonderful article by Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, and talked about three different jobs.
And I think I mentioned it briefly last week.
You do, yeah.
You know, there are the jobs that involve making something.
And there are the jobs that are sort of thinking jobs, anywhere from lawyers to journalists.
And then there are the caring jobs, the people who are sort of caring for others, nurses, you know, people who are, you know, counselors, all that kind of stuff.
And people, I think, think that robots and AI are only going to go after the jobs that involve making something.
But I think everybody from the lawyers to the journalists can be replaced by AI too, the way this is going.
And I think there's going to be an awful lot of people who felt like they had a profession, they had a career path, and then all of a sudden a machine is going to take over for them.
And then where are they left?
And so whatever it is that
However, we work to redistribute wealth in a way that makes our society sustainable.
We got to get busy having that conversation.
Yeah, I agree.
started talking about the gig economy about 10 years ago.
And that was the warning flag right there.
For me, I thought, wow, we really need this universal basic income thing because, you know, people in the gig economy, they make money on the side.
They don't count it, you know, as something to tax because they think they can make it, you know, you know,
something they can sneak by on, but of course they're cheating on their social security at that point, their retirement.
So, you know, we need something to kind of prop everybody up with this new economy.
And now with AI, it wasn't just gig economy and lift workers.
You know, we have this whole thing where people's jobs are being replaced with AI and robots.
So now we've got to really think about this.
It's not
Making people lazy or sitting on the couch or something like that, you know, it's nothing like that.
It's it's it's something It's a safety net for everybody, right?
Yeah, whatever form this takes.
I mean you we have to make sure that just all of the proceeds from yeah savings that are achieved by replacing people with machines Just don't go into the pockets of the billionaires who will become trillionaires.
You've got to have a society where we're
the benefits of technological advancements are widely shared.
Or we're not going to have a society that can hold together.
And I think in a way that's what that young man's letter was really all about, is that
is that there are so many signs in our society of sort of that American dream slipping from the grasp of regular working people.
And we gotta do something about
that.
We're talking with Mike McCabe, sub-stack blogger and author, your latest sub-stack article, talking about a Wisconsin minister.
And we kind of alluded to this, I think last week, or touched on it a little bit, but tell us more about Pastor Jonathan Barker and what he's done.
recently.
He's
a Lutheran pastor,
or at
least was.
In Kenosha.
In Kenosha, yeah.
And he led a Lutheran congregation there.
And he prepared a sermon.
He was fixing to stand before his congregation and endorse Alexandria Casio-Cortez for president.
And his denomination
nationally said, you can't do that.
And he resigned his position.
He gave up his vocation and then went ahead and delivered the sermon off church grounds because he felt so strongly.
He feels that AOC is the, what would Jesus do candidate?
Look out for your neighbor candidate.
Exactly.
And so he went ahead and gave this sermon and surrendered his job because he felt so strongly.
And he did it to endorse someone who has not a declared candidate for president and may never be.
So I don't think it was even necessarily about trying to give a boost to AOC.
It was really a plea for leadership in this country that isn't...
beholden to those billionaires and those wealthy interests and somebody who has the courage of conviction and is willing to speak truth to the American people.
And so I decided to write an article about it because I do think that AOC is a generational talent.
And that's actually the title of the article that I wrote is generational talent.
And the article is really as much about Jonathan Barker.
and what he did as it is about AOC.
But she's got rare traits, no question about it.
And what fascinates me or what boggles my mind is how much her own party has tried to keep her off center stage.
This is a woman with really rare political talent.
And they denied her a committee chairmanship.
They have tried to keep her
Sort of on the sidelines to the greatest extent possible to keep the old guard in in charge And to me, you know when I call her a generational talent, you know in the sports world that Term gets thrown around a
lot
for these you know these phenoms who come up and are gonna break every record or whatever And it's it's an overused term, but in politics.
It's not used But she's a generational talent not only because she is has rare political talent, but also she's a she represents generational change
She was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
And she really represents a changing of the guard.
And the old guard does not want that changing to happen.
And so I was really struck by how a Kenosha minister decided in these times, he must be heart sick about what he sees in the country.
He must be deeply troubled about the nation's soul to lead him to actually be willing to resign his position, to be able to say,
Look, we need this kind of leadership in our country.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I always thought that the lack of support for Democrats was based on what the Republicans were saying about them.
But at the same time, there's so much truth in the fact that they're holding themselves back from the next generation.
the new ideas, the people who are driven by something much deeper and much better, a better outlook of this country.
And they're just holding it
back.
You know, we've talked about this before, but, you know, we really have geriatric politics in
our country.
All
we do.
And both major parties reflect it, where you've got this geriatric leadership in our country.
And what it ends up leaving us with is one side saying, let's just keep things the way they are.
And the other side saying, no, let's go back to the night.
are the 1890s.
Yes, that's even worse.
Nobody's
talking about tomorrow.
We will continue our conversation with Mike McCabe in just a moment on John and Gordy in the morning.
WMDX.
Stay right here.
So happy, so bright.
It's a beautiful day.
WMDX 92.7, John and Gordy in the morning, along with Mike McCabe from Substack.
Got a
few more minutes here.
Mike, we've been talking about your article here on Substack.
You get a lot of reaction on Substack.
You get from comments from time to time.
I actually get most of my comments.
People email me directly or they comment on social media and they or they message me on social media.
So I used to get more comments directly on on Substack.
But now I get most of the feedback.
in personal emails and Facebook messages and all that kind of stuff.
People got their ways of wanting to provide feedback.
I think part of what's behind it, to be honest with you, is that people are wary now of commenting in a very public forum.
Yes, you're right.
Because they feel like then that the trolls are gonna come after them.
And so people can...
respond to a sub-stack article of mine and email the author directly.
And so I get these emails all the time from people who want to share their thoughts, but they kind of want to share them with me.
They don't want to put them out there, which is sad.
I think there's a loss when that kind of public exchange or public dialogue is threatening to people.
Yeah, I think we have a lot to worry about with Trump in charge, you know, with surveillance now.
You know, Google and all the other services are asking for age verification, which can dip into what we do historically on the web.
Of course, they're going to look at our history and figure out, you know, what kind of people we are.
what age we might be from the places we visit.
And I have a feeling that they can also sell that information to maybe businesses or corporations that want to know more about us as an employee.
So we might be locked out of the job market simply by visiting a website that they don't agree with.
Right, right.
I've been writing for Substack for almost three years now.
And I've gotten a very consistent level of feedback from readers.
where that feedback comes from is really different.
It's changed dramatically and people are less likely to put a comment directly out there on the internet, but they'll share their thoughts with me.
We're all just one step away from going bankrupt because of health care.
We were talking about that earlier, but when we talk about working hard and saving up,
All that just goes away with one healthcare event.
And I think that is in the back of everybody's mind, especially anybody who has kids
or
has a job.
We know that that money we're saving up could just disappear.
It'll be that rainy day fun for an emergency.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And hey, if anybody out there, before we go out, before we're out of time, if anybody out there wants to read that letter to the editor.
The man's name is Andrew Tate.
The last name is T-A-I-T.
You can look up Andrew Tate letter to the editor.
I bet you'll find it.
But also on my sub-stack, I not only have that most recent article about Jonathan Barker, the Kenosha pastor, and his endorsement of AOC, but on my sub-stack, which is Abion House,
at mikemacabe.substack.com.
You know, there's a feature called notes.
And, you know, I can, aside from the articles I read that I share, I'll occasionally share these other more brief notes.
And I have Andrew Tate's letter there.
And so people can read it there if they want, if they can't find it elsewhere.
But it's really worth.
reading because I think it speaks for millions.
Well, I think he writes here, I'm not writing this as a Democrat or Republican, I'm writing this as a man watching families like mine wear themselves thin, working hard, doing the right thing and still falling behind.
Yeah.
And then he asks the question, who is this country really for?
And then he goes into the, because it's not for parents doing their best to raise their kids in a broken system.
It's not for the factory workers and farmers who show up every day, no matter how little is left in the tank.
It's not for the families trying to make life from the land and paycheck in a paycheck.
They may be the flag.
Maybe the flag doesn't fly for them.
at all.
I don't want handouts, I want fairness.
That's the biggest question to me.
That's the biggest question we face.
Who is this country for?
Is it just for these people who have laid claim to AI and are going to take away everybody's jobs and replace them with machines and then rake in the profits because their costs are lower?
Is it just for them or is it for
for all of us.
His question is such a powerful question.
I think a lot of the makers have been convinced by the Republicans that when you spend money, it's wasting it.
We need to spend money on us.
That's what it's all about.
And they have made that a dirty word.
We don't want to spend money.
We're not going to spend more government money.
What is that all about?
It's for us.
It's our money.
It's
our money.
We put it there for you to spend it on us.
Make life easier.
That's right.
Why?
They made it poison.
Well, we need to leave it there.
Mike, thank you for joining us.
Always good to see you.
Mike McCabe's here every Wednesday.
And again, check out his excellent Substack articles.
You can check them out on substack.com.
Well, people are benefiting from these therapy sessions.
Uh, tomorrow in the show, we've got Brandi Grayson from Urban Triage.
They're putting together a big event, and we'll find out more about that.
Also, former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel will join us.
And from Busted Pencils, Tim Slecker talking about the latest in education.
Yeah.
That's the big lineup.
Yeah.
Stephanie Miller is coming up next.
John?
You got big plans for today?
What are you going to do?
Are you going to relax after our marathon
broadcast sessions here?
Now I only
have
to prepare for one show.
Walk down in the
dispensaries.
I want to see all the dispensaries
today.
I'm going to walk down there.
Yeah, that's your assignment for
today.
We're going to send up and down State Street and
count
how many marijuana dispensaries
there are on State Street.
And if you have a
chance
to listen to last night's Pete Schwabba show where we filled in, it was a fun show.
Yeah, Stephanie Miller's next.
Have a great day.
Talk to you tomorrow.
It's Johnny Gordy, WMDX.
