A rocky road farewell and a beef over apples (08-09-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned Joe Biden at the end of the last hour and the sophisticated operation that was employed to hide the fact that he was cognitively declining. And that's why people, you know, half the country probably wasn't aware. They literally were not aware. Because anytime they went, if you went to search for it, and you were a Democrat or you were, and they know who, like, they know these things. They have an entire profile.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Like all of these media companies, internet companies, they know more about you before you even sign up with an account. Right? There's like, I think Facebook said they had like 24 markers of every person. Whether you have an account with them or not, they already know 24 personal details about you. And then because they know that, they then can target you with particular ads and stories and all that.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're looking for like, hey, what did I just see about Joe Biden or my crazy uncle at Thanksgiving, he said something about Joe Biden being a vegetable or whatever. And so you'd start looking in, you know, Joe Biden, senile or something.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And you will then get followed around on all your different excursions online.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And you'll be hit with stories that show Joe Biden not as senile as an inverse thing.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_00]: They bought Google searches and they use the cookies.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you're, you would be laboring under the delusion that Joe Biden is not laboring under delusions.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And so then you see him at the debate and you're like, oh my gosh.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And so it prompts, you know, the coup that we saw.

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, by the way, Joe Biden and his wife, Dr.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Jilson hosted a thank you event yesterday for hundreds of staffers who worked on the reelection campaign that he chose to exit about three weeks ago.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Judging by the security tents, the location offered a dose of political nostalgia.

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: The staffers met with Biden at the Queen, the Queen, a music venue.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: That music venue played a critical role in his successful race for president in 2020 because he was often speaking to the public from the theater's stage.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: The event featured food and wait for it.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Ice cream.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't be a Biden event without ice cream because he just loved the ice cream so much.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: The news media were not invited to attend the event, but a participant insisting on anonymity to describe the gathering said that Biden and his wife gave speeches and took pictures with staffers.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Whew. Thank goodness you protected the anonymity of that source on that one.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Holy cow.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: That is some groundbreaking, devastating details about the event.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The president has kept a lower profile since leaving the presidential race, reports Josh Bolk at the Associated Press.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: A response to a loss of confidence in his ability to beat Donald Trump after a disastrous debate on June 27th against his rival.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_00]: That's how AP frames this.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: That's how they describe why Joe Biden is leaving, why Joe is not running for why he dropped out of the race in the way he did when he did it.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: The president has kept a lower profile.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, he's in hiding.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Joe Biden is in hiding.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Since leaving the presidential race, a response to a loss of confidence in his ability to beat Donald Trump.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Why would people have lost confidence in his ability to beat Donald Trump?

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It was just one bad debate performance.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what Joe said.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you saying Joe is lying about that?

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you saying that Kamala Harris lied about that?

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you saying that Tim Walz lied about that?

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Because they all said Joe Biden was fine.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He is fit to serve.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So why?

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: He has pared back his travel schedule and has held more closed door policy briefings.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Once again.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a fundamental question of journalism.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Who?

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: What?

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Where?

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: When?

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And they don't seem interested in answering this question or even addressing it because we know what the why is.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: They just don't want to say it because then it sort of like admits what we all have known or at least the half the country that isn't being followed all around on all of their social media sites,

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: being bombarded with images and videos of how awesome Joe Biden is and how he's totally not senile.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Just amazing.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me go to the phones here.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Chris.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Chris.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the show.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's good to hear from here.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Here.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Here you.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, thank you.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm usually here.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm what you would call a long time lurker.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_02]: And now that I'm a first time caller, I can no longer be a lurker.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Now I have to call you.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, I lied to your screener because I said I'm going to sing the praises of Pete Calender.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not going to sing, but that's a lie.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's fair.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: That's good, actually.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_02]: So in the American lexicon, and I'm trying to speak fast because I want to say a lot of things.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_02]: In the American lexicon, we had the word three.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_02]: The three P came into our lexicon.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_02]: And at that point, I could no longer call myself a Pete Calender originalist.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Now I have to be called a pre-Pete fan.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Do we understand what a pre-Pete fan is in relation to Charlotte, North Carolina?

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And I've been here for 39 years.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: A pre-

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_02]: That means a pre-Pete fan.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_02]: That is a person like me who, when you, I believe you were in the nine o'clock hour when you were

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_02]: originally here.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I was.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_02]: And I became a fan.

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_02]: And I was delivering pizzas at the time.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_02]: By the time you left, I was a fan.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, thanks.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_02]: So, and there's a lot to that.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_02]: So this is a, this is a kind of a thing on me because.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_02]: So I was a fan of you.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_02]: You left and I'm sitting there.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Terror Spacious got booted for saying something.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Later on, Jeff Katz got booted for saying something.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And at that time, I'm like, oh, no, Pete Calender said something.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So, but it's true.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I know it wasn't anything like that.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't get, it was, so the, this, this was like three owners ago.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: We got, the company is now, they, they got swallowed up by somebody else and they bought

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: the station.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It was Jefferson Pallet, right?

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was JP Forever.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And they got, and so then they got bought by Lincoln Financial.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was a, it was Jefferson Pallet insurance company that owned us along with like, I don't

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: know, 20 or 30 TV and radio stations.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't a large operation and it was an insurance company.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they sold, or they got bought by Lincoln Financial.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And then Lincoln Financial sold just the Charlotte properties for some reason, just us.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And they sold us to greater media and greater media, I think paid too much money.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the economy tanked and then they had to fire a bunch of people.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And I was part of that.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_02]: So an encouragement to you because you are who you are.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_02]: You know this, you don't have to be told this, but even though you're going to

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_02]: got booted, you continued on, you still, and you're still you.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_02]: So you go off.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_02]: So this was a gig on me is that you came back one time and you filled in, right?

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_02]: You filled in for somebody over here.

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_02]: And I was excited because I got to hear a little bit of you.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_02]: The next time, and I'm 52 years old.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So the next time you filled in for somebody, I heard like the last 30 minutes of your fill

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_02]: in.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm sitting here like, who is this guy?

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_02]: And it wasn't until the very end of the show.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_02]: I was like, man, I should have known that tea counter.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, the third time, the third time you came in, and I believe this is inside baseball.

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if it's true or not.

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_02]: The third time that you came in, you, you, you quote unquote filled in for a week long.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_02]: And I felt like that week long was like a trial balloon for you to come on.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_02]: I felt like you were going to take everyone on the spot.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think you did.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I might be wrong with that.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, all that to be said, I'm a big fan.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad you're here.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Me too.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_02]: You're doing all this stuff that I don't have to do.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_02]: So I don't have to research as much, although I try to.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm a giver.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: So real quick, real quick in relation to the Josh Shapiro thing.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_02]: You can push back on me to see if I'm leading into something right or wrong.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Josh Shapiro was never meant to be chosen by Kamala Harris.

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And this is kind of what I see.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_02]: The number one, she doesn't know anything really.

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_02]: But she has seen these things that happen in relation to the Hamas wing and the war going on and everything.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And the last thing we saw was what?

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Several thousand people at Union Station.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_02]: So she saw all this.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_02]: So what does she need in order to kind of fill the deal in who she's going to pick?

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Number one, she's going to pick somebody that she already knows where they stand.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_02]: So all these meetings that she's going to have with these potential candidates, the real crux of the meeting would be,

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_02]: what's in your closet?

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_02]: What is this going to be that's going to hurt me?

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_02]: So the thing that she wants to do is figure out where the community stands as far as having a Jew to be, say, running vice president.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Now, the way she gets those phone calls to come to her, she says that he's on the short list and we're having this meeting in Philadelphia to announce.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_02]: But when you do that, you give the appearance to all these people you need to hear from.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_02]: So she gets a slew of these phone calls about where, as Van Jones states, you know, the dark side of all that.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Very much against the Jews.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_02]: So the purpose of Josh Shapiro was never to be chosen, but to get a clear, concise message to Harris as to where society might even be standing as far as.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, look, I mean, that's as legitimate as a read as most of the others that I have heard.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: The other or another reason, like nobody else wanted the gig and Walls was the only one that would say yes.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_00]: That's possible, too.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Chris, I appreciate the kind words.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad to hear from you.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Got a message here on the Twitter machine, formerly known as X, from Timoteo, who says,

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_00]: after the Trump-Biden debate, Trump praised the moderators for being so fair, which all of us thought they would not be.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think the moderators were in on the setup of Joe Biden?

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Were they told to behave themselves and let Trump win?

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think that they were told to let Trump win.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that they were trying to probably just, again, I try to, I try not to assume motives of people.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, and simply, I mean, think about it this way.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_00]: They did a good job moderating because we have become so accustomed to poor moderation.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They did not interfere.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Fear, you know.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I still am not a fan of the format that they used during the CNN debate.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But as for that format, they did a fine job in adhering to the time constraints and all of that.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And they cut the microphones, you know.

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: But all of that was designed to rein in Donald Trump, who that night was the most disciplined I've ever seen him.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And, of course, that's all gone now.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: He's back to, you know, yelling about Governor Kemp in Georgia and, you know, not running a whole bunch of advertising.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know what that campaign is doing.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I really don't.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand it.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't, maybe it's 17-dimensional chess.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: But it definitely is not following any kind of strategy that I've ever seen.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But that doesn't mean anything.

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think they were, quote, in on it.

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I do wonder the people that had been protecting Biden, and they obviously were.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: We all know this, that the people around him were aware of his decline.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Because how could they not be?

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: That's why they, I mean, it's a very, this is one example.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But to me, this is like the most proof positive example.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Which is, remember when they surrounded Joe on his walks to the chopper?

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You remember that?

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Because Joe would make the walk out to the helicopter, Marine One.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_00]: He would make the walk out there.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes, remember, he would do the little jog thing.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, look at me.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm spry.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You know?

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And he would do this little half trot for a couple of steps, try to make people think that he, you know, wasn't old.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And in decline.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And then it became weird because of his gait.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: He had this odd gait.

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And what did the campaign, what did the administration do?

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_00]: They put a bunch of his aides around him to walk him to the chopper.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And they served the purpose of, yes, they'd be able to pick him up if he fell down or something.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But that's a really well manicured lawn.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It's probably very flat.

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_00]: So there's not a lot of chance that that would happen.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00]: No, they were put around him to shield him from the media.

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_00]: That would be camped out and, you know, shooting the video, taking the pictures as he walks across the lawn.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they surrounded him.

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_00]: That to me is proof positive that the people around him knew.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00]: They knew that he was in decline.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And they hid it.

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The question I have, and maybe at some point in the future we find out,

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: the question I have is why did they put him up on the stage that night in the condition he was in?

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Because I also believe that they had been administering various drugs to him.

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, he's a regular on the morning show.

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Here on WBT with Bo and Beth.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And he talked about what's in the White House medicine cabinet.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I think the drug was called Provigil, I think.

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And it makes you, as he described it, it makes you better.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: As in sharper.

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Because he had taken it one time.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_00]: They gave it to him when he had done like a trip halfway around the globe.

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And he's like exhausted.

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: He's got jet lag.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, here you go.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Take this.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So he knows this drug exists.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's in the White House medicine cabinet.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So why would that be the only drug available?

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I got to believe they're giving him stuff to make him feel better, behave better, perform better, whatever.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So did the drugs not work that night?

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Did they get the dosages wrong?

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Or did they just not give him stuff?

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's a possibility.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And if so, why?

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe they did try.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_00]: They gave him whatever the normal battery of the stuff would be.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And it just didn't work.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's possible too.

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And they couldn't hide it anymore.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe that's the best he was.

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe it was just such a bad night that even with the stuff that they were trying to do to mitigate the decline, that they couldn't hide it.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that the moderators were in on it.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Because the reaction after the performance, they seemed stunned.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody seemed stunned at what they just saw.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Timoteo asks, should we expect the moderators in upcoming debates to go back to taking the Democrats' side and helping Kamala debate Trump?

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I think if they keep trying to rein in Trump like they did during the last debate, it might hurt her too.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_00]: But they've already agreed to one.

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if she'll agree to more than that.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_00]: In December of 2023, no, not even a year ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into the major fundraising platform ActBlue.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people don't realize this, but if you ever try to make a donation to a Democrat, it runs through this ActBlue.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And Republicans have win red is theirs.

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Which, shame on the Republicans for just accepting red as your team color.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_00]: You know?

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You just went along with that.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: You should not have just accepted red as the Republican color.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: That was crap.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, ActBlue.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_00]: The Attorney General of Texas is trying to determine whether ActBlue's operations are compliant with all applicable laws.

[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_00]: How did this come about?

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, there have been numerous stories, including a couple here from North Carolina, of people who make a couple or sometimes even just one small donation to a candidate or a committee or something.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_00]: They make a donation.

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It goes through ActBlue because everybody uses this as the fundraising platform inside the Democrat Party.

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you think you're donating $5 to my good friend Ray Cooper, the governor, for his re-election four years ago, and you make a $5 donation.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And now you're in their system.

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It goes through ActBlue.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And then ActBlue does something with the money.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll keep some for its administrative costs.

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it may direct that money to other candidates, not to Roy.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_00]: But that's separate.

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_00]: The problem here is that, let's say I made the donation.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00]: If you go and pull FEC filings, Federal Election Commission filings, and you run a search of my name, and you now find out that I've donated, say, 20 different times.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And nobody ever goes to these people and asks them, hey, did you donate?

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody ever says, Pete, did you donate 20 times?

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Totaling, you know, $17,000?

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But there are now people asking these questions, going through these reports.

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And again, there's been a couple of them in North Carolina.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe Stephen Horn identified a couple of them.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: James O'Keefe has gone and found some as well.

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Formerly of Project Veritas.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Now James O'Keefe Media.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Or, yeah, James O'Keefe.

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway.

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_00]: The people that they've identified claim that they did not make the donations.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: They haven't been charged.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody is taking money out of their accounts.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not like there's some sort of theft going on from people's bank accounts.

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_00]: But if I made a $5 donation to my good friend Ray, because he's my good friend and all, and I make a donation,

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_00]: now all of a sudden I show up in the FEC filings 20 different times as donating to other candidates, maybe not just Ray.

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And when asked, I say, no, I didn't make these donations.

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But I was never charged.

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So what's going on there?

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a way to hide the donations that otherwise would exceed the statutory caps.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_00]: You're not allowed to donate too much money to candidates.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you've got names and credit card information, quote unquote, then maybe you can mask some of the donations that are coming in that are in excess of the cap,

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and you just assign it in your books to somebody else.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So one of the ways that you prevent this from happening is you collect the CVV codes on the backs of the credit cards.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Because those things are never retained, right?

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to require it, though, when they enter it in to make the donation.

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, ActBlue has never done that.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_00]: ActBlue turned it off.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_00]: ActBlue was not requiring you to punch in the CVV code on the back of your credit card and to do it any time you want to make a donation.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It means that the card numbers get stored, but the CVVs don't.

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: That means you can then take money and charge it, quote unquote, using these numbers, and you can make it look like you're charging the same person.

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_00]: They're making all these donations when, in fact, they are not.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the concern.

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, after the Attorney General of Texas started poking around, major focus of the investigation is their failure to require donors provide the CVV codes when making donations by credit card on the ActBlue platform.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_00]: ActBlue now says it's cooperating with the Attorney General from Texas in his investigation, and so now they have changed their requirements to include the CVV codes for donations on their platform.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Now they're doing it.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Now they're doing it.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_00]: You know what this reminded me of when I saw this story?

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Was how the Obama campaign in 2008 turned off their security measures that would block donations from overseas.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And when they were called out on it, they didn't fix it.

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he won.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And then after the election was over, the FEC, now under his control, right, the FEC gave him a fine and they just paid a fine and moved on.

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But it allowed him to raise unlimited amounts of money.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_00]: He was the first candidate since Nixon.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And all of the reforms and the taxpayer-funded campaigns, right, to take the taxpayer-funded money, he was the first one to not take the money.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So he could raise a billion dollars.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And John McCain had to take the money because he went broke during the primary and he had to take a loan out against that taxpayer fund.

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_00]: That's how he got his loan.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So he had to take the fund.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So he was restrained.

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I think he got like $200 million or something, $150 million, something.

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I forget what it was.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So he was capped.

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Obama was not.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And now nobody is capped anymore.

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody takes the federal funds.

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's what it reminded me of.

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure it has nothing to do with anything, though.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure all of the stuff at ActBlue is above board.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Reading a story out of the Carolina Journal that the North Carolina Association of Educators,

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_00]: the teachers union here, has said, don't call it a union, has sent a letter.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a union.

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It's an affiliate of the NEA.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, they sent a letter to the campaign of Michelle Morrow, the Republican candidate for superintendent of public instruction.

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And they are demanding that she stop using the image of an apple in her campaign materials.

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And they're claiming it's some sort of a trademark infraction, infringement against their apple logo.

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So the similarities are they are both apples.

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_00]: They are both red.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_00]: So obviously she's infringing, right?

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's very clear.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Red icons, these little red cartoonish apples.

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The NEA apple, it's got the little stem and leaf on the top, which faces left with the leaf on the right.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_00]: The stem kind of bends to the left.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Michelle Morrow's image, that's reversed.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And she's got a little bit of like a shininess line, you know, like a little white part that makes it look like the apple is shiny.

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And the teachers union has also a shiny part, but it's smaller and it's in a different location.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_00]: So obviously it is the same logo.

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Who would have ever thought to use an apple in an education campaign?

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_00]: That's just crazy.

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Has she seen CMS?

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if they have seen CMS.

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Because their C looks like an apple.

[00:25:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Did you ever notice that?

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh.

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Are they aware of the iPhone?

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_00]: The computers?

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Like all of that?

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what about the Beatles?

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Didn't they have a big fight over Apple?

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Between Apple and the Apple, right?

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't there a big fight over the copyright stuff?

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the NCAE.

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they're in violation.

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_00]: She said, the claim that the Apple in my logo, which I also used in my 2022 school board campaign, is somehow an infringement of their trademark.

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Is absolute nonsense.

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, their accusation that I am trying to make the public believe that I have their endorsement is absurd.

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_00]: She doesn't want their endorsement.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_00]: She says, I don't want anybody to think that I'm connected to their radical progressive organization.

[00:26:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_00]: This is just silly.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Just absolutely silly.

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me go over here and get Michael on.

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, Michael.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Michael.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thanks for taking my call, Michael.

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a 20-year-old veteran.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you about Trump's got to have discipline, but I just want to say that there is a God because Miss Cori Bush in Missouri.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: She paid her husband a quarter million dollars for security.

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_01]: That woman's pure evil, and I mean, I've been happy all week.

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's good.

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's good to see the positive in things like that.

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, you've got to also keep in mind, though, it's probably been a very tough week for Hamas after losing their leader in that assassination and then Cori Bush's defeat.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It's got to be a tough week, you know?

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: And one more thing.

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I just want to say, if Trump has some discipline, I think Trump should announce his secretary of defense, his secretary of state,

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and the border wall, name like four guys who he's going to take, and they all need to campaign together, and that would really probably put us over.

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I just pray to God every day because I don't know where this country's going.

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Like you, my brain hurts.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I know we need to have fair elections, and I don't think we do, but just the way people think, it just, I mean, I'm a 20-year-old veteran,

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and I just can't understand why people can continually vote a certain way when, you know, they see it right from their face.

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_01]: But I appreciate it.

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, Mike.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate the call, sir.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for your service.

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome home.

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a good weekend.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't, well, that's why I did the stories over the first two hours talking about the way tech companies have manipulated

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and hand in glove with some of the Biden campaign staffers and the administration.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_00]: That manipulation at the tech level is the most concerning thing to me because it's a black box.

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't see into it, you know?

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no transparency there.

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendorshow.com.

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.