ActBlue to be probed; Mexico outraged at US ad buy (04-24-2025--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three 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 dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. Better breaking news. This is from Eric Daugherty, the assistant news director at Florida Voice News. And I get well, he's quoting Politico. I guess I'm just reading a tweet or next, President Donald Trump is about to make sorry, I'll start again. President Donald Trump is about to take major action against Act Blue, the Democrat's fundraising arm No. Don't. Trump is set to sign a memorandum targeting foreign contributions in American elections. Attorney General Pam Bondi is reportedly to be involved in the crackdown on Act Blue. Act Blue is reportedly bracing for this action. Now. I've talked about Act Blue, We've covered it for a couple of years now. The way that they fundraise and their accounting methods and such. There is, in my opinion, ample evidence for this as a predicate for this investigation. Ample evidence. There are countless stories, spanning years, of people who appear in the ACT Blue database and on the filings with the Federal Election Commission the FEC, of making dozens and dozens of donations for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars that when they when reporters, those who are intrepid enough to track people down, they find these people and they ask them, have you made any donations? And they say no, or they say yeah, I made I made a donation to you know, Joe Biden in twenty twenty, Like, did you make a did you make twenty donations through Act Blue over the course of, you know, the last three years. No, I don't even have that money. I'm on a fixed income. I can't afford that I gave Joe Biden like twenty five dollars, But somehow that person's name shows up in the FEC filings as having made dozens of donations. There's a guy in western North Carolina who has made quite a name for himself in his coverage of Helene. His name is Matt van Swoll and he found by searching through the records that he has somehow somebody has made donations in his name, four of them, at least, I think, to candidates in Kansas. He's like, I've never been to Kansas, I've never made these donations. How did they get my name? And why is somebody making donations in my name? And this has been reported multiple times across multiple states going back years. So what is going on? My personal belief and my speculation on this is and I think it's grounded in a pretty logical approach, which is that in order to mask large contributions from smaller, you know, fewer donors. You know, I donate ten million dollars and either you know, I'm not allowed to because of campaign contribution limits, they need to spread that money around among a bunch of different donors when they report it to the FEC. So the people aren't being defrauded, right, This guy, Matt van swall he didn't make those donations, and there wasn't money taken out of his bank account to go to democrats in Kansas. The point is to mask the donation's original source and added benefit, it gives the illusion that there are all of these small dollar donations, which is indicative of you know, popular grassroots support. So they could say, you know, oh, we had this fantastic day of fundraising. We had a billion people make five dollars donation. It really is a testament to the message resonating in all of that. Right, So there are two benefits to doing this kind of a thing. And by the way, this isn't new, this kind of gaming. Of the. Campaign contribution data collection and reporting systems, this is not new. I covered it sitting in this very seat, well not the seat. They bought a new chair. I don't know, probably about a decade ago. But back in two thousand and eight, Barack Obama running for president the first time, and remember he was propelled by all of these small dollar donations and you know, five ten bucks here and there, and they had really they were the first to harness you know, emails and text messages went directly to people, Hey send us a five dollars donation. Now you see it everywhere, but that came from the Obama world, and they found that people would be more willing to make smaller donations more or often. But then they also got in trouble because they shut off a and it was a it was an internal security feature inside of the platform, which was all they had to do was check a box basically and turn off donations from foreign IP addresses or foreign residents, foreign governments, whatever like. Only domestic donors are allowed, and that's the law. But they never checked the box. They never clicked that little box, and so they were pulling in millions of. Dollars from overseas. This was identified, there was an investigation, but then Obama won and they said we're going to close that, close the investigation. Nothing to see here. This is not new. Act Blue could have been pulling in millions and millions of dollars from overseas and then masking the donations the source through this kind of chicanery. So I'm glad that ag Bondi and the DOJ is looking at this because they should. They absolutely should. And if you think that they should not, then just say you should get rid of all of the campaign financed laws. Just get rid of them. Just allow foreign governments and donors to influence our elections. That's the whole point of this. What else, Oh, speaking of spending money overseas, the United States has apparently spent over five hundred thousand dollars on hyper targeted YouTube advertisements in order to discourage irregular migration. We have a new term in the illegal immigration debate, folks. It is now called irregular migration. Was as shocked as you are. I was not aware. I did not get an update to the AP style book that guides journalists on you know, what pronouns to assign people and whether it's the Gulf of America or the Gulf of Mexico or whatever. I was not provided a heads up on this that this change was coming. But according to Wired magazine Wired dot com, apparently there's a new term to be used. It's called irregular migration. So now we have moved away from illegal immigration to irregular migration, all in an effort to make it sound like it's not really a bad thing, like it's not illegal and they're just migrants. And I've said this many times. A migrant, right is somebody who moves state to state. Like that's you're you're moving around, you intend to return to your home. You got migrant farm workers, for example, they just come over, they'll do some farm work, and then they go home. Illegal immigration means that you have entered this country illegally and you do not intend to go back. You're here to stay. So now we're using this and this is it. You control the language, you control the debate. So what's with these YouTube ads? Why is the government spending half a million dollars, which honestly is not a lot of money when you look at the size of the government's budget. But I'm just kidding. They don't really have a budget, but they are half yea half a million dollars. You could buy a lot of YouTube ads for that. What are they spending these YouTube ads on? And who are they targeting? What's the message? I shall explain? All all right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news, slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. The United States has spent more than five hundred thousand dollars on at least thirty YouTube ads this month. That's not really the ads they're spending it, they're buying ad time. Okay, I'm sure there was some production value, you know, associated with the ed then looked like they actually required a lot of money to do. But the five hundred k. Is is to buy advertising on YouTube. Okay, And the ads, according to Wired dot com quote threaten undocumented migrants with deportation and a ban on re entry. So, in other words, the law they're telling the ads are telling illegal aliens that are wanting to come to America that you will be deported and then you will be banned from re entering. So if you ever want to re enter legally and try to establish residency and get naturalized as a US citizen, it's best that you leave and then come back in the right way. Otherwise, if we can, we're sending you back and you will not be allowed to come back in right. This is obviously outrageous the. How dare you tell us your law? The campaign is led by Homeland Security Secretary Christy no and it includes messages that criminalize migrants. This is wired dot com. Ostensibly, Wired is like a tech website, right, they talk about like computers and like tech related stuff, which is weird because like a lot of stuff is wireless now. So whatever. Their framing of it is that the ads are criminalizing migrants and promoting self deportation through their app. Department of Homeland Security now that it's under Trump's control, right, they changed the app and they tell people on the app that the people use to I'm here illegally and claim their BS parole. Now the app is saying, hey, you probably want to go home and come back the right way, because we got your information. I went over this the similarities to the Weimar Republic where they created the gun registry lists in order to prevent those you know, Nazis from owning guns. We want to know who has all the guns. And then of course they get ousted from power, the Nazis take over. Now the Nazis have the list, and that's kind of what happened with the CBP app. I'm not saying they're Nazis. I'm saying that you made this app, you made people sign up for it under the premise that this is their ticket in, and then you lost power. And now the other team comes in and they're like, oh, thank you very much. Everybody with this app, go home. According to data from the Google Ads Transparency Center, to which Wired had access, the US government has allocated five hundred and ninety four six hundred dollars almost six hundred K to a digital advertising campaign to deter irregular migration new term right, irregular migration. So I guess, so, what's regular migration? Is regular migration? Legal immigration? Is that the same thing? Or are you guys gonna twist and corrupt that definition too? Or is it regular just the volume, Like it's irregular, unusual that we saw millions and millions of people under the Biden administration come across the border illegally, Like that's not normal, so that would make it irregular. What the funds are distributed across thirty different active ads with a marked geographic focus. They are targeting California, Texas, and Florida. I wonder why why did they choose those markets? Interesting? Are there like law populations or something of illegal aliens that are in these states? Answer? Yes. Other states with high migrant populations, such as Illinois and New York were also high priorities. In contrast, some border regions received considerably less. Arizona, for example, saw just a twenty thousand dollars add buy. This spending pattern is evidence, they say, of a strategy focused on established migrant communities rather than border areas. So why would that be? I think this is actually quite smart. You know why, because the people who are in these quote migrant communities in these states, they this may surprise you, they know how to dial a phone, and they know how to speak to their relatives and friends back in their home countries, and so they then will convey the messaging to those other countries. See how that works. It's word of mouth, you know, kind of like the word of mouth system that was used to encourage people to come. Right, that's how that happened. Messaging went out, TV ads were we're running, but mainly you know, social media apps and text messaging and phone calls, word of mouth, and everybody came to understand this is how you do it. This is how you get across the border. And if you get there, they're going to give you debit cards and phones and everything else. It's oh, it's great. Streets are paved with cheese, you know, or gold if you will. This distribution reflects an attempt to maximize the psychological and social impact of the message in areas where the migrant population is more vulnerable to misinformation. Why they're more vulnerable to misinformation. There isn't anything that's misinformation in these ads. What would that have to do with They're literally telling you the correct information. The administration is telling you you this is the law. We are enforcing the law, and if you want to avoid the punishments, then here's how you do that. I find it to be helpful. Right at like it's sort of like dropping leaflets before you, you know, do a strike on the target. Hey, civilians, get out of the area. The US government announced this campaign back in February. As a matter of fact, the goal, according to Wired dot com, the goal is to deter irregular migration by combining advanced targeting technology and confrontational language. They said it so meanly. That's the problem, you see. Mean here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins Offashville dot com and make memory that'll last a lifetime. Let's chat with Kirk. Hello, Kirk, welcome to the program. How are you hey? Doing great? Thanks for taking a cally, sir. I was curious about in their lending or something like this for migrant workers where they can get a limited green card or something. Yeah, they can get their like a work visa. Yeah, and then there's like a farm worker program. Yeah. There were all sorts of carve outs for migrant labor. So why are they using this unusual migrant. Or whatever irregular migration. Wired dot com has apparently adopted this as the term rather than illegal immigration. For some reason. Yeah, yeah, I cannot explain it. They do not. They don't explain it. They just use it as if that's the term that we should all understand to be the term that we've all not used for now or something until now. Yeah. I'll just making sure I was right about that. I thought I heard about it, and I'm like, well, there's their way to get in and work legally and make a living. Yeah, correct, Yeah, you are correct, Kirk. I appreciate the call buddy problem, all right, thanks. Yeah, it's an attempt to control the narrative. It's an attempt to make you feel a certain way about the topic by the words that are used to describe the topic, right, That's why they do this. So these ads that Department of Homeland Security has been putting on TV in Mexico during soccer games and primetime shows, they've also been putting into YouTube content as well. In one of the messages, Christy Nome warns, quote, if you are considering coming to the United States illegally, don't even think about it. Let me be clear, if you come to our country and violate our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome. Okay, what's the problem with that. She's not saying everybody that comes in is committing crimes. She's saying, don't come. If you come and commit crimes, we are going to hunt you down. You violate our laws. We will find you and we will send you back. This initiative is part of a broader context of state and federal campaigns aimed at discouraging immigration, ranging from public communication strategies such as billboards and informational messages, to more aggressive measures such as the installation of barbed wire and deportation operations. How dare you like? So I get the sense that the author of this piece, Anna Lagos, I suspect she's an open borders person. What like, we're not allowed to have a deportation operation, We're not allowed to have barbed wire along vulnerable parts of the border. In response to the ad by the President of Mexico, Claudia Shinebaum is pushing for legal reform to ban foreign propaganda in local media, calling the spots a violation of sovereignty. I don't think it's a violation of your sovereignty. They bought some ads on YouTube. The Mexican authorities have labeled the ads quote discriminatory, Yeah, okay, socialists, Yeah, Okay, they're discriminatory. No, it's a public service announcement. They're trying to they're trying to keep your citizens safe, trying to prevent them from making a dangerous and arduous journey across the desert and into America, only to be caught and sent home again. Tuesday, Shinbaum announced a reform to the federal telecommunications law to prohibit foreign governments from buying advertising space for political or ideological purposes. I don't think it's either of them. I think again, it is a public awareness campaign. The spots star Christy Nome. They link irregular migration with violent crimes, she says, quote pedophiles, rapists, murderers. These are just a few of the illegal aliens we have deported. Okay, right, yeah, so that like, that's not that's not propaganda. That's true. What are they allowed to promote tourism culture but not discriminatory propaganda? She said, and that Christy Nom's messages are an attempt at interference and a risk to the dignity of migrants. My goodness, she's just she's hitting all the high notes here. My goodness was. She educated one of our Ivy League schools, the Shinbaum Presidente. The DHS strategy depends not only on aggressive messaging, but also on technology tools such as the CBP one app, which which used to help migrants prepare for entry into the United States illegally and now allows them to schedule appointments for voluntary deportation or to apply for asylum. However, human rights organizations claim that the app, promoted in advertisements lacks transparent guarantees and exposes users to expedited deportations. Yes, that is what the app would be used to do. Absolutely, Again, this is what happens when you violate the law like Biden did and Alejandro Majorcis did, when they violate the law to encourage and abet the illegal immigration, and then somebody else takes over who says, no, we are going to follow the law. You have now given them these identification tools. Now, the problem may be a little bit tougher for Mexico to solve because you know Facebook and YouTube and so how are you going to stop how are you going to stop Mexican nationals or members of the migrant community who are living in America? How are you going to stop them from seeing the ads when they're dialing up Facebook, Instagram, YouTube whatever in America. Talk about sovereignty, all right. I mentioned our sheriff. Apparently he had a run in with Ice out at the jail yesterday or day before. They put out a press statement. I've got it, although I had to scroll past like the first ninety percent of the news release because it's his freaking picture on like the top third of the press release. This is what a raging narcissist. Would do the press release most like, well, the top third, the top third of this of this page is him, his mug, his face standing there in the uniform, and his huge name Gary not by fall McFadden right there at the top, like look at me, look at me. I'm the sheriff. Here's me. And then he tells the harrowing tale of how he encountered some ICE officers outside the jail as they made an arrest. But of course he is the hero of the story, because, as you know, all narcissistic sociopaths are the hero or the victim of their stories. They are never the villain. All right, So spring is here a time of renewal and celebrations. You've got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos slides? Are they preserved? Because over time, these precious memories can fade and deteriorate, lose the magic of yesterday. At Creative Video, they help you protect what matters most. Their expert team digitizes your cherished family moments and transfers them onto a USB drive, freezing them in time so they can be enjoyed for generations to come. I urge you do not wait until it's too late this spring, celebrate your past. Visit Creative Video today and let them preserve your legacy with the love and care that it deserves. Creative Video Preserving Family Memories since nineteen ninety seven, located in mint Hill, just off four eighty five. Mail orders are accepted. To get all the details that create a video dot com. You'll have to forgive me as I attempt to read this press release from Mecklemburg County Sheriff Gary. Not my fault, McFadden, because most of it is taken up by his fate, or a third of the sheet is taken up by his face. I've never seen another elected official do this, by the way, this kind of massive glamour shot on every press release that you issue, And so the font the type on the image is really really small because his face takes up so much of the page. So I'm sorry. So I got to like get real close to the screen here so I can try to read the harrowing details of his encounter with ICE. I would like to address. An incident involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE that took place at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse on Wednesday, April twenty third, around noon, A concerned citizen alerted me that there were three individuals who were not clearly identified as ICE agents or law enforcement handcuffing a man and escorting him to an unmarked vehicle. Upon arriving at the scene, I personally witnessed the encounter and immediately how close by were you? You happened to be there at the precise moment that the member of the public saw this encounter. Somehow alerted you, or alerted the sheriff's office, and then the sheriff's office alerted you, like the front desk or something alerted you, and then you came racing out, or you just happened to be there on your lunch break or something, or were you there with some I don't know. I got questions. Upon arriving at the scene, I personally witnessed the encounter and immediately initiated a conversation with ICE officials. The discussion focused on the need for clear communication to minimize disruption. Oh my god, go pound sand you raging hypocrite. Oh look at me, I'm Gary mcfatten. I'm trying to work with ICE. Look at how cooperative I am. I'm the hero and kind of the victim. This guy's got such a pronounced case of first person syndrome. We are all just in his little movie of his life, you know. Anyway back to his description, the discussion focused on the need for clear communication to minimize disruptions of court proceedings and ensure the safety of everyone involved. Yeah, that's why ICE wants you to tell them when you're turning people loose, so they can come get them inside your jail. That's why they're doing that, and you refuse to give them the call. Gary, you're refusing to call them. You don't believe deportations will solve the illegal immigration problem. You ran on a platform of eliminating two eighty seven. G don't whiz on my boots and tell me it's raining. He continues, This includes it's undocumented individuals, courthouse staff, guests, and the ICE agents themselves. What about the residents, Gary, what about the residents? Where's your concern for the residents aka inmates? But he calls them residents, but he left them out of the press release for some reason. He says, I even provided the ICE agents my personal cell number. I'm such a hero in an effort to strengthen collaboration. This is something I've been asking for and talking about all along. Dude. They told you what they need from you. They asked you to call them before you release somebody with a detainer. That's what they have asked you to do, and you won't do it. You want them to call you when they don't know someone's about to be released. Really does that make sense any sense at all? Um? See again, this type is so small because his face is so big. Let me see something here. It is something I've been asking for and talking about all along. The situation that occurred on Wednesday, April twenty third is a great example of why it's so crucial Ice and the Meckelberg County Sheriff's Office work together. Yeah, welcome to the party, pal. While the Meckelberg County Sheriff's Office fully respects and recognizes the authority of Ice to carry out its duties, it is also the responsibility of the Sheriff's office to make certain that all law enforcement actions conducted on courthouse property property are done safely, transparently, and in coordination with our office. Actually, no, because it sounds like this was outside. It sounds like this may have been outside. I don't know. He doesn't say, was it inside the building? Was Ice hanging out inside the courthouse? Were they at the jail hanging out down one of the hallways on the before people can leave the building. To that end, I am working to develop a formal directive outlining policies and procedures for any future apprehensions on courthouse grounds. So he keeps saying on courthouse grounds, and this is leading me to believe that this occurred outside the building because he doesn't tell the ICE people when he's releasing them, so it sounds like ICE set up a sting on the perimeter and they were waiting for somebody to come out of the building, and as soon as they got out of the building, they went over and took them into custody. I described I saw one of this. It happened literally in front of my house about a month ago. We're just standing out there talking to our neighbors, and they had set up a sting and they caught some guy, threw him in the car and took off, and that was an ICE operation. So he's making policies and procedures. I am committed to creating a safer and more coordinated approach to these situations moving forward. There's already a model for it, Gary, there's already a model. All you have to do is give McCall just call them when you know that one of your residents is going to be released. They've bonded out. You are aware of this. Your office should call ICE and say, Hey, this guy that you guys put a detainer on, we're about to turn him loose. He's being processed for removal right now on behalf of Meckelberg County Sheriff's Office. I'd like to thank the public for their vigilance and to sure the community that their safety and rights remain a top priority. Yet you can't stop Ice from taking people into custody. I guess what he's wanting is for is for Ice. He's I wonder well. His policies and procedures include like you got to give the You got to give the target a running start. Is that what the idea is here? You got to get let him get out of the building, and you got to give him like give him one hundred yards, let them start running away, make it more difficult for Ice to get him. Is that the idea. I don't have much time for this, but let's see, I got one minute, Tony, welcome to the show to and you're yeah, you're not ready for me, So you're going to go back on hold. If you want to stick around, you are free to stick around through the news. But I didn't have enough time for. Him anyway, But I was going to let him make his comment. But now we'll have to re rack the story. If Tony hangs on, I will take his call after the news. But it sounds like what McFadden wants is to hamstring these ICE operations that occur outside the jail, because he's already hamstrung their operations inside the jail. I've gone over the details of this for what three years? Four years. Gary McFadden ran on a platform of not cooperating with ICE. He scrapped the two eighty seven G program that allowed ICE to identify to deputize basically Sheriff's office employees deputies in the jail. Give them access to the systems, they could identify the people in the jail, they could do the detainers, and then they could then come and take custody of these people who are to be deported. And McFadden scraped the program state and then he refused to cooperate. State legislature came in said you got to cooperate, and one of the detainer paragraphs says call ICE, here are the phone numbers, call us before you release them. And he says, well, I don't have to do that because that's not the law, it's a request. So he refuses to do it. That's the solution, Just cooperate, Just follow their procedures. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone. Hmm.