Beagles spared, a lab closed, and Alcatraz re-opening (05-05-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] 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] Years ago, when Obama was president, he called it Cinco de Cuatro at some speech on Cinco de Mayo. He called it Cinco de Cuatro. And I used to play the soundbite every year of him saying it. It wasn't until about six months ago when I got Christy, my wife, to watch the series Arrested Development.

[00:00:53] That was the name of the annual party in that comedy series. It took place in San Diego or something, and they set up a Cinco de Cuatro party in order to try to draw the crowd away from the Cinco de Mayo party.

[00:01:14] And I realized, I think Obama was a fan of Arrested Development. Maybe that's why he said it. Anyway, happy Cinco de Mayo to all who celebrate. I may be a little punchy here. I've been popping the leaves like they're pez because over the weekend, I don't know how you spent your weekend.

[00:01:36] I hope you had a good time and, you know, spent it in a productive fashion. My weekend was productive. We shoveled five tons of rocks, Christy and I did, around all of the planter beds because, you know, the HOA was cracking down on everybody, not updating, freshening up their mulch in the garden beds and such.

[00:01:59] And I was like, you know what? I'm just so tired of having to keep going back every six months and putting down mulch and pine needles and everything else. So I just got a massive delivery of rocks and I thought this is going to be the way to go. And now I am in pain. Oh my gosh, I'm in pain. So I feel like I just got multiple COVID booster shots or something. It's just every muscle.

[00:02:26] I did not get the booster shots, no. So I don't even know. But that's what I heard happen. Anyway, let's start with science, actually. Some COVID-related stuff. But first, do you remember the science? Dr. Fauci?

[00:02:42] Do you remember one of the programs? No, no, no. Not the way he fought the AIDS people that were trying to get like different treatments for HIV AIDS at the time. Not that. And not the COVID stuff. But do you remember the Beagle experiments? Remember that stuff? That all came out a couple years ago.

[00:03:09] So get this. The National Institutes of Health Director, Jay Bhattacharya, recently announced that the agency has closed its last in-house Beagle laboratory on the NIH campus. The announcement comes just days after Department of Government Deficiency Head, Elon Musk, posted on Twitter, formerly known as X, that he would investigate funding Beagle experiments.

[00:03:37] A report from the White Coat Waste Project, the WCW, detailed the lab's history of allegedly pumping pneumonia-causing bacteria into more than 2,000 Beagle's lungs, bleeding them out and forcing them into septic shock for deadly experiments.

[00:03:58] Shortly after the Trump administration took office, the FDA announced in April that it would phase out an animal testing requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of testing on materials that mimic human organs. Which seems like a more humane way to go, right? Like, it's just materials. It's not on, it's not on like a living animal.

[00:04:30] More importantly, it's not on a cute living animal, right? And cute, by the way, when it comes to animals and pets, it's basically it's due to eyebrows. I think if the animal has eyebrows, that's what makes it cute, generally speaking. During Trump's first term, it's science. Look, I don't make the rules. That's the, yeah, that's the rule. During Trump's first term in 2019, the administration closed the government's largest cat lab. 2019.

[00:05:01] I feel like this should be, I don't know, like this should be what Donald Trump is truthing out on the truth social, right? Why not highlight the fact that you're saving cats and dogs? It, like, I feel like that would be a bit of a PR win, you know?

[00:05:22] PETA, people for the ethical treatment of animals in 2021, highlighted the science Dr. Anthony Fauci's alleged approval of funding for tests in Tunisia, where beagle puppies were drugged and their heads were locked in cages filled with hungry infected sand flies. Is that really science or is this, is this just torture? Like, are you just torturing animals?

[00:05:51] Because I feel like that's one of the precursor steps to serial killing, right? Don't you always see that in the TV shows and such? It's like, oh yeah, that kid down the block, he killed some people's pets and then lo and behold, he stepped up to humans, you know? The Indiana-based company that bred the beagles for the research, a company called Envigo, Envigo, Envigo, I don't know.

[00:06:14] Anyway, they pleaded guilty in 2024 to neglecting thousands of dogs at its Cumberland, Virginia breeding facility and will be required to pay more than $35 million in fines, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. PETA is awaiting information about the condition of the dogs that will be released.

[00:06:39] And if they are in good enough shape to be placed in a home, they say they stand ready to help. See, so they're not just about the wacky protesting, too. Like, yes, they will strip naked. Well, actually, they don't even do the naked stripping anymore. Like, they used to strip naked, spray paint the body as like an animal and then, you know, put the person in a cage. They usually would get like hot models, you know, and they would paint them up and they'd be nude in the... They don't even do that anymore.

[00:07:08] Now they make fake cow robots that, like, shame people if they're wearing leather in Greenville, South Carolina, downtown. It's just... So, no, but they are going to help with the Beagle placement operation, which is good. That's very good for them. That's good news. Not so good news. The Department of Health and Human Services has implemented a pause on research at one of the country's most highly secure research labs

[00:07:38] following repeated safety incidents. So, they're doing tests on, like, COVID stuff. SARS-CoV-2, the Ebola virus, Lassa fever, Eastern equine encephalitis. This is a... Yeah, this is up in D.C. This is at Fort Detrick's Integrated Research Facility.

[00:08:04] And according to a Fox News digital report, these incidents have been occurring for the last few years. So, the facility is now put on pause as they... So, they cannot conduct their risky research on the deadly infectious diseases. It's one of only a handful across North America. And it's part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, once again.

[00:08:33] And it's located at the U.S. Army Base Fort Detrick outside of Washington, D.C. The research there studies treatment and prevention of deadly, high-consequence diseases. Okay, so what happened? Well, it may or may not have something to do with a lover's quarrel. I will give you the details in a moment. 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?

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[00:09:58] Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. So, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued a pause on all research at one of the country's most highly secure research labs, Fort Detrick's Integrated Research Facility outside of D.C. Why?

[00:10:26] Well, according to an HHS official who was willing to speak on the matter under the condition of anonymity, the pause stemmed from a lover's spat between researchers at the facility. The spat resulted in one of the individuals poking holes in the other's personal protective equipment.

[00:10:55] If you're working in an infectious laboratory, and now you're stooping your colleague, things obviously go sideways, and you attempt to murder them, and oh, maybe like a couple million people too? Because that's what would have happened, right? If you're poking holes in their PPE, they're going to get sick.

[00:11:24] They're going to contract something that they're working on, and then they're going to go spread it. So, that individual, the whole poker, has been fired. I think they should also be charged. Attempted murder? And if there's some sort of a charge, I don't know, like from the Anthrax era maybe, you know, like biological terrorism something, throw that at them too. This is unbelievable.

[00:11:55] I mean, I thought that the astronaut wearing the diapers traveling across country to go attack her lover's wife or whatever it was. Like, I thought that was a crazy story. This? The HHS official said the incident is just the latest example of safety incidents at the high-risk lab, which this person blamed on a poor safety culture at the lab that was enabled by the previous administration. Now, I don't know if that's true or not.

[00:12:25] It's an anonymous source. But, like, that's, yeah. The whole poker needs to be charged. Attempted murder, at the very least. Meanwhile, Trump is ordering the feds to look at reopening Alcatraz. I have a proposal. I have a proposal. How about we relocate the lab to Alcatraz Island?

[00:12:56] Let's, because that's not, look, that thing is not going to reopen. I don't think that's, I don't think they can reopen it. It wasn't even open that long. I watched Escape from Alcatraz. Like, all you need is a couple paper mache heads and you're out. Like, I don't know. I don't think it's going to reopen. It's also a big tourist thing. So you've got to find some other way to, you know, I don't know, make the island profitable.

[00:13:25] But Donald Trump is calling for the notorious prison. Are there any prisons? Like, they called the Seacod Prison down in El Salvador. They called that one the notorious prison. This is a notorious prison also. Are there any prisons that aren't notorious? It's now a historical landmark right off the coast of San Francisco in the bay there. He wants it to be rebuilt. He wants it to be rebuilt bigger, obviously,

[00:13:53] and reopened so it can house the country's most ruthless and violent criminals. Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening, which is how we legislate now. Alcatraz opened in 1934, but the prison, located on a 22-acre spit of rock, I don't know what a spit of rock is. It's an island, right? It's a... Okay.

[00:14:21] Anyway, it was closed after 29 years. It was only open 29 years. It is one and a quarter miles... One and a quarter mile? Yeah, one and a quarter mile from the shore. The Bay Area Island was considered practically escape-proof, although there were 14 documented attempted escapes. The most notorious one from the notorious prison

[00:14:49] was the June 11, 1962 escape by John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris, which inspired escape from Alcatraz. It remains a mystery whether the three reached the shore and survived, although the FBI says, no, they drowned. But it's the FBI, so I don't know. The three prisoners chiseled an escape route from their own jail cells and built makeshift papier-mâché heads.

[00:15:17] The final attempted escape from the prison, almost six months later, inspired what has become the swimming route of the escape from Alcatraz triathlon. See, now you're not going to be able to do a triathlon if you reopen the prison. The final attempted escape... Oh, I already read that. Sorry. Its most notorious inmates include gangsters Whitey Bulger, Al Capone,

[00:15:46] George Machine Gun Kelly, who married Megan Fox, if I recall correctly. Also, the infamous, not notorious, but infamous Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, and public enemy number one, Alvin Karpis. Alcatraz ultimately closed in 1963. You know why? Not because of the attempted escapes. No, the island operations proved far more costly than mainland-based prisons,

[00:16:15] which kind of makes sense, right? I've heard everything is more expensive on an island. You've got to ship everything in. Everything has to come over by boat. It's just a very expensive operation to run, particularly compared to the prisons on the mainland. Alcatraz Island today is a popular San Francisco tourist attraction operated by the National Park Service. I doubt it's going to happen.

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[00:17:42] Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. All right, so I got ideas on Alcatraz Island. Let's make that the lab island. This way, you know, if you got lovers that are poking holes in each other's PPEs, then it's just, it's contained on the island, you know? And then we'll know, oh, something bad happened at the lab, right? Because the whole island is now dead. And then it's not gonna, it won't get over to the mainland, you know?

[00:18:11] You could do like quarantines and stuff very easily around that island. And speaking of labs, North Carolina is looking at stricter rules for lab-grown meat. Mm, mm, mm. I, well, see, okay, I may actually try it. No, mm. See, I got texture issues with food. Like, I won't eat peaches because they got hair on them. That fuzz, I don't like it. And, uh, so I don't know. Like,

[00:18:40] I guess I would have to see the meat and I'd have to like, kind of, I'd have to poke it with the fork and see what it does. Like, because if it, if it, if it jiggles, I'm not gonna eat it, you know? Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna eat it. Oh, I might. I don't know. I don't know. But the annual Farm Act is making its way through the North Carolina legislature and agriculture, as WRAL's Will Dorian reports, uh, agriculture is North Carolina's

[00:19:09] largest industry, pumping over $100 billion a year into the state economy. But, the industry also faces a number of headwinds. They talk about the, uh, the bird flu, uh, the tariff policies, um, a lot of uncertainty. So, one of the things they're looking to do is to ban raw milk,

[00:19:37] enact stricter rules for lab-grown meat. By the way, did you see, like, that robot in China started attacking the human robot builders? Could the same happen with lab-grown meat? I don't know. Like, if you make this meat, and then it, like, it could go crazy. Maybe. I don't know. I'm, I'm not a scientist. Ooh, how about putting

[00:20:07] the lab-grown meat on the robots? Like, you could, you could grow the meat around the robot's skeleton, you know? You can make them look, you can make them look hilarious, actually. But, um, now they also want, in the farm bill, they're also, and some of the other pieces of legislation, they also want to make it harder for solar companies to expand onto farmland.

[00:20:35] They also want to make it harder for people to sue pesticide companies for making them sick and they want to ban certain foreign companies, China, from buying up farmland inside our state. So there's a whole raft of bills. This is, I forgot to wish you happy, happy crossover week. That's what's happening this week at the legislature. They got the deadline coming up where all the bills from the House have to be filed and in, and all the bills

[00:21:05] in the Senate have to be filed and into the system, and then everything crosses over. So all the House bills go to the Senate and all the Senate bills go to the House and they put the deadline on there so this way you don't get, you know, people just constantly throwing new bills while they're trying to wrap up the session and they're doing the budget too. So, but the Farm Act is a regular thing. So they're always making changes to the farm policy. All right, so first off is the raw milk ban.

[00:21:34] Because of the bird flu threat, the new Farm Act proposes banning raw milk. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler is pushing for the change, saying raw milk has always been dangerous for people to drink, but needs to finally be banned now because of the evidence that it transmits bird flu. I did not know this, but then again, I do not drink raw milk. I know some people, I don't actually, well,

[00:22:03] I know one person who I think tried it for a little while, a couple years ago. I don't even know if she still drinks it. She's not dead, nor does she have bird flu, so maybe she stopped. I don't know. I was unaware that bird flu spread with the raw milk. But I guess it kind of makes sense. It's raw. Like that whole Louis Pasteur process, that, it seemed like a beneficial thing. So, raw milk, according to Will Duran

[00:22:33] at the WRAL TV station, raw milk is popular among some conservative social media influencers and politicians. However, including Trump's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., noted conservative. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Yeah. So, he's a fan of the raw milk? I did not know that. I do know he's not a conservative. I do know that.

[00:23:06] Also, the friend that I had that drank it was not a conservative either. So, I'm not aware that the raw milk thing is limited to conservatives or conservative social media influencers. I'm not saying there aren't some that are out there that are saying that. No doubt. I have no doubt there are. This is like the anti-vax stuff. When we would see these outbreaks of measles, mumps, or whatever, and it was always

[00:23:34] in like these crunchy granola communities or private schools. It wasn't like the anti-vax stuff from the right is a new thing. Like, this is pretty, as far as I can tell, it's been a pretty recent development. And I think it's mainly due to COVID and the disillusionment of a lot of people about, you know, the experts telling us what the science and data is all about. So,

[00:24:04] I'm, yeah, I'm not so sure about that line there in this story. But, Troxler acknowledged to his fellow Republicans in the legislature this week that the proposed ban could be pretty controversial even if it would protect public health. But nobody came and spoke against it or for it for that matter. So, maybe not. Like, how many people are actually drinking raw milk? Like, it hasn't even registered on my radar as like a fad.

[00:24:34] I just know it's like, I don't know, it's always been like gross. I don't know, I watched the documentary series, Boardwalk Empire, and some woman drank a bunch of raw milk in order to miscarry. So, like, ever since then I was like, nope, I don't want to miscarry. 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

[00:25:03] 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.ground.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

[00:25:32] shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% 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. Going over the Farm Bill and some of the farming-related

[00:26:00] legislation that is making its way through the legislature, the General Assembly, they want to, the Farm Act would, make it harder to sue pesticide companies for health harms, which Bill sponsor Senator Brent Jackson from Samson County, Republican, said is a direct response to the lawsuits over Roundup and its alleged links to cancer. Roundup's current manufacturer, Bayer, paid nearly $10 billion

[00:26:28] to settle Roundup lawsuits in 2020. I have not done a deep dive on any of this. I'm just giving you the headlines here, just giving you the info from WRAL. It would also, the bill also, increases penalties for people who steal crops or who skirt regulations for shellfish farming. It's a big problem. Require schools

[00:26:55] to grant excused absences for students who want to compete in equestrian events or attend livestock shows. One of the more contentious bills, House Bill 729, would repeal the property tax credits that are given to solar energy companies. Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler and other Republicans said too many farmers have been selling their land to solar companies. By the way, do you know what solar companies

[00:27:24] do to put up those solar farms? I mean, just complete environmental devastation. like, they will clear-cut acres, 20, 30, 40, 50 acres, and they just bulldoze it all flat and then burn all of the trees and stuff. For the earth, obviously. This threatens large farming corporations which typically, get this, do not own their own farms.

[00:27:54] Okay? They contract out to individual farmers around the state. So those farmers work their own land and then they have a contract with the farming corporation. But if a solar company comes in and gives them a bunch of money, then it's like, hey, we'll just put up these panels and now I'll get paid without doing all of the farming and it's a steady source of income. You don't have to worry about, you know, like, oh, we had a bad, you know, dry summer and so I lost

[00:28:24] the crops or whatever. The fewer farms there are though, the harder it will be for the big companies to find subcontractors to grow their products that could lead to higher prices, fewer goods, or both. Republican lawmakers are proposing to keep in place, here's the key, the tax credits for farmers but repeal the tax credits for solar companies. The solar industry, you might imagine, opposes this bill. And so do Democrats. They point out that if Republicans are really concerned

[00:28:54] about saving farmland, they would also repeal tax breaks given to homebuilders. Which, well, that is one way to get more homeless people. See, they say you got to make it less lucrative to turn the farms into new subdivisions. Democrats asked Wednesday if Republicans planned to also repeal the homebuilder tax credits as well as the solar tax credits.

[00:29:24] They were told that wasn't on the table. The homebuilder industry contributes substantial amounts of money to Republican politicians in North Carolina. And to be fair, they have contributed large sums of money to Democrats as well. They spread the money all around. Particularly when the party in power has a majority and they can pass bills so you want to donate to them so you can lobby them, get access to them and let them know, hey, this isn't a good thing. Hey,

[00:29:54] you should keep my tax breaks. So they're going to phase out the tax credit that the solar companies get for their assets for the panels that are on the farmland. And so the idea there is that without that subsidy, it will become less financially attractive for the solar companies to compete with the farming industry. Joel Olson, a solar developer,

[00:30:23] said the proposal will hurt rural counties' ability to fund schools, jails, and other parts of the local budgets since counties collect far higher property taxes on solar farms than on many other rural land uses, including agricultural farming. And finally, lab-grown meat, House Bill 134, would put stricter labeling rules on lab-grown meat. That passed 106 to 11. And is now sitting in the state senate. Last week,

[00:30:53] the House also pushed forward House Bill 135, which would ban public K-12 schools, community colleges, and public universities from purchasing any lab-grown meats in the future. So they don't want the lab-grown meats to be given to the kids. You shall eat the pink slime, but not the lab-grown meat. I'm just kidding. I don't think they serve, they don't serve the pink slime in our schools. I don't think. But that was a big story. Remember that?

[00:31:23] Oh, the pink slime? That was quite the scare. That was like, growing up, we thought we were all going to die of, like, drowning in quicksand. That was our big fear. It's just, I don't know, it's like a, it's a panic, and it just sweeps across the country, and for some reason, when we were kids, we all thought we were going to get, you know, sucked down into some sand pit. 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

[00:31:52] 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 thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone. Thank you.