Chad Adams Fills In For Pete Kaliner 12-24-24 Hour 1

[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, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] Chad Adams hosting, sitting in for Pete Kaliner, who's getting some well-deserved time off here on Newstalk 1110-993 WBT. Merry, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good afternoon. And we hope that we look from all of us here. We hope you are enjoying time with family, friends, whatever, you know, taking stock of the blessings we have and able to reflect on the reason for the season, so to speak.

[00:00:52] I say that because as we were – and it's so funny. Conservatives are generally happy people. We really are. We don't see the world through these jaded lenses that everybody's out to, you know, to be, you know, we're so woke that we can be uncomfortable and we're triggered. We're not that triggered.

[00:01:11] But I was triggered a little bit. I'll say this. As we were going live on the air, I was just curious, you know, infinitely curious. I think that's what we – I think it's what media needs to be is more curious.

[00:01:24] I think we as individuals, you should ask questions. And I don't mean asking your Alexa device or your Echo or your Siri. I think you should be inquisitive.

[00:01:32] I think it's the nature of who we should be is to be inquisitive. It's biblical. Even Thomas was a little inquisitive, wasn't he? He was doubtful, but he was inquisitive.

[00:01:40] Now, I looked through Governor Cooper's Twitter feed. I just went there. I probably knew I shouldn't have based on my biases. I went to his Twitter feed.

[00:01:52] So Governor Cooper at NC Governor, you can look at it online. So I'm kind of scrolling through. I'm like, today's Christmas Eve.

[00:01:59] I wonder if the governor has anything out there about Christmas. Nothing. Not a mention of Christmas.

[00:02:04] So I go back through because I know on every holiday for every cultural reference there is, the woke governor, whether it's, you know, he'll do it for Juneteenth.

[00:02:13] He'll do it. He did it for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. He did it for Hanukkah. He does it for Ramadan.

[00:02:19] He does it for every potential cultural reference except Christmas.

[00:02:25] He can't bring himself. He barely. And it's so even funnier.

[00:02:29] So I pulled up just for fun. So I pulled up. I said, he makes a reference to a Christmas tree, kind of.

[00:02:36] And so I pulled up the state capitol when the state capitol, NC State Capitol, they have their own Twitter feed.

[00:02:43] And they said, don't forget to join us. This was on December 12th. I'm just going back.

[00:02:47] Don't forget, join us at NC Governor for the state tree lighting tonight.

[00:02:52] Holiday starts at 530. Holiday music.

[00:02:55] What kind of holiday music? It's jolly good time for all.

[00:02:59] NC culture at NC culture.

[00:03:01] They cannot mention Christmas.

[00:03:04] And at a certain point, you know it's intentional.

[00:03:07] You know it's intent.

[00:03:10] You know that it's the projection.

[00:03:12] That's the problem our governor's always had.

[00:03:13] He's a projection of progressive ideology while acting like he's not.

[00:03:21] He was a Branch Covidian.

[00:03:23] He did the same. That's what he'll be remembered for.

[00:03:25] He was locking down and Mandy Cohen and separating people and closing down stuff.

[00:03:29] This has been a governor whose entirety of political career, you as a citizen, really can't associate with anything.

[00:03:36] I mean, I think Republicans can associate him with more things.

[00:03:38] He was able to convince the Republicans to expand Medicaid without going after waste, fraud and abuse.

[00:03:44] Billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.

[00:03:46] The Republicans in the House and Senate said, well, OK, with us, let's just expand Medicaid.

[00:03:51] Let's take more federal dollars that we don't have.

[00:03:54] And he's proud the governor's retweeted, you know, hey, we've got 600,000.

[00:03:58] It's like a running lottery count.

[00:03:59] You know, there's a billion dollars in the lottery.

[00:04:01] Well, there's 800,000 people in Medicaid.

[00:04:03] We're proud of the fact that 10 percent of North Carolinians are now been added to Medicaid that we can't afford.

[00:04:09] It's an entitlement.

[00:04:11] We just can't continue to.

[00:04:12] I love how we we act like, you know, Obamacare was just this wonderful thing, but we never it was supposed to be the Affordable Care Act and nothing about it's become more affordable.

[00:04:21] It from the end citizen standpoint, all this is much more affordable because it's being subsidized.

[00:04:26] Whenever you subsidize something, you think it's free.

[00:04:28] It's like a bond.

[00:04:29] Oh, bond.

[00:04:29] I'm all for bond.

[00:04:30] That's free government money, isn't it?

[00:04:32] Free government money, a bond.

[00:04:34] I want more parks, free government bond, free money.

[00:04:37] I want a new statue free.

[00:04:39] I want transit.

[00:04:40] I want it to be free.

[00:04:41] Everything's free.

[00:04:42] It's going to be bonded.

[00:04:43] It's going to be in its tax increment financing.

[00:04:44] It's free.

[00:04:46] No, no, it's not free.

[00:04:48] No, no, so you have to pay for it somehow.

[00:04:54] Whether you borrow it, you have to pay for it.

[00:04:56] But back to the governor, the governor will recognize everything in the world, every cultural reference.

[00:05:01] But right as of right now, NC governor does not have anything up about Christmas.

[00:05:07] 19 hours ago, he has one about the shooting in Greensboro.

[00:05:10] And two hours ago, actually 21 hours ago, he's got about people being healthier.

[00:05:17] There's just Medicaid expansion made it into the holiday season.

[00:05:21] Doesn't mention the holiday.

[00:05:23] Doesn't mention Christmas.

[00:05:23] There's just nothing.

[00:05:25] You can go.

[00:05:25] It's hurricane relief.

[00:05:26] It's typical government claptrap stuff.

[00:05:28] Not a mention of Christmas.

[00:05:30] But if it's Kwanzaa, it would be mentioned.

[00:05:32] If it's Thanksgiving, he'll at least mention that because that's an American holiday.

[00:05:35] But that's – and again, that's my rant a little bit about the nature of where we find ourselves is in this woke culture that you can recognize everybody but the Christians.

[00:05:46] And our governor kind of exemplifies that.

[00:05:50] That's the problem.

[00:05:52] And that's the problem.

[00:05:54] It's just – it is odd.

[00:05:58] And at a certain point, it's not odd.

[00:06:00] It's intentional.

[00:06:01] And that's the problem with all of this is that it's intentional.

[00:06:07] There's an intent to not recognize Christmas because it would bother someone inside.

[00:06:14] So I went out to Josh Stein's feed.

[00:06:17] See, now, I don't expect Josh Stein to – Stein is Jewish, highest-ranking Jewish official in North Carolina history.

[00:06:23] So you kind of would – the only thing I would see is he does have a hurricane, like a gingerbread contest house that he retweeted about the Supreme Court race.

[00:06:35] No mention of Christmas from Josh Stein.

[00:06:37] Now, you would think with Stein, because he's Jewish and Christmas isn't his holiday, that he would mention it because it would be a way to extend cultural awareness to Josh Stein.

[00:06:47] Right.

[00:06:48] So Governor Cooper, because he alleges he is a Christian, doesn't need to recognize Christmas for the rest of you.

[00:06:52] But he has to recognize your holiday if you have one.

[00:06:55] So whatever holiday you have, he has to recognize, but not his own.

[00:07:00] And so Josh, I guess, would probably not – would recognize Christmas because it's not – I can't keep track of the bouncing ball.

[00:07:06] The beauty of this is in 25, we're likely to see far less of this kind of behavior.

[00:07:11] I think the Democrats in North Carolina will still want to not recognize this kind of stuff.

[00:07:16] For some reason, they're much more inclined to recognize any kind of wokeness and avoid anything that has to do with the history of the country because history is very replete with why we should recognize these things.

[00:07:30] Anyway, I digress.

[00:07:31] Away from the many things I want to talk about today, and there are many.

[00:07:34] You want to get in on the conversation, it's 704-570-1110.

[00:07:37] Merry Christmas to you, 704-570-1110.

[00:07:41] And it's been a lot of fun.

[00:07:43] And I do – so today also is the day that Ron Paul – I'm sorry, Rand Paul, his son, the senator from Kentucky, releases his Festivus list.

[00:07:52] We will spend some time.

[00:07:54] The Festivus list, the kind of – if you remember the old Seinfeld show, Festivus was the airing of grievances.

[00:08:00] It was this – there's a poll.

[00:08:02] It's absolutely hysterical, one of the best episodes of Seinfeld.

[00:08:05] Well, Rand Paul took it and ran with it and now has created a political event every year at Christmas.

[00:08:12] For December 23rd, he releases the Festivus report on government waste.

[00:08:17] And it is hysterical but also very sad because it's illustrative of how wasteful our government – how out of touch our government is, whether it's in Republican or Democrat hands, how completely out of touch they are with your – when it's your money, they don't care.

[00:08:33] Which is why the election of Donald Trump and the appointing of his cabinet and this DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, is so critically important because we have more pork than a Smithfield operation.

[00:08:47] There is so much waste in our – and he documented over a trillion dollars in waste.

[00:08:55] A trillion.

[00:08:56] And, you know, rats with cocaine, pickleball courts, all sorts of stuff.

[00:09:02] Just – and we'll go through some of those just for your benefit.

[00:09:05] And some other – there's quite a number of stories out there that we will go through.

[00:09:10] I mentioned yesterday about the aging of Congress.

[00:09:15] There was kind of a little bit of a heartbreaking story that we'll bring to you about how a member of Congress has been gone for six months and no one really noticed.

[00:09:26] So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's.

[00:09:29] And before he died, my mom and my dad and all of us really helped take care of him as he got progressively worse.

[00:09:35] Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.

[00:09:40] Things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western North Carolina.

[00:09:46] It's a great organization with awesome people.

[00:09:49] They've got huge hearts.

[00:09:50] I've been a supporter for like 25 years.

[00:09:52] This cause means a lot to me.

[00:09:54] I participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's, and I am leading a Charlotte team this year.

[00:10:00] It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:10:01] You can sign up and join the team and walk with me.

[00:10:04] It's on October 19th at Truist Field in Uptown.

[00:10:08] Sign up at alz.org slash walk, and then just look for my team, Pete's Pack.

[00:10:13] And there's also a link in the podcast description here.

[00:10:15] Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia walk on October 5th, so make a team and join us.

[00:10:20] Or make a donation to help me hit my goal.

[00:10:22] I would really appreciate it.

[00:10:24] There are a bunch of other walks around the Carolinas, and you can go to alz.org for all of the dates and locations.

[00:10:32] We are closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's, and if you can help us get there, we would really appreciate it.

[00:10:39] Will you come walk with me for a different future, for families, for more time, for treatments?

[00:10:43] This is why I walk.

[00:10:45] Nice chill and music on a Christmas Eve.

[00:10:50] Just nice.

[00:10:50] I was kind of looking through weather maps.

[00:10:52] You know, that infinite child in me.

[00:10:55] You know, we all have it.

[00:10:56] I think Christmas allows us to tap into that a little bit.

[00:11:00] You know, I hope you always can.

[00:11:02] You know, children are to be admired.

[00:11:05] Children are to be to listen to in many ways.

[00:11:08] Not to run the world, of course, but who knows?

[00:11:11] Maybe smarter than some of the people that are in D.C. right now.

[00:11:14] But it's interesting to call back to it because you always, you know, in my mind, I grew up in a lot of places that would never have, you know, winter weather in the winter.

[00:11:21] I was in Puerto Rico as a kid, and you're not going to do that on the Texas-Mexican border.

[00:11:25] No, not going to happen there.

[00:11:26] But a little bit of North Carolina, and I'm looking here, and it's like, no, I have a picture of the snow map across the continental U.S., and there is very little snow on the ground anywhere across the south all the way over to Texas.

[00:11:40] It looks like a spot or two somewhere up in the mountain somewhere.

[00:11:43] Anyway, just threw that out there.

[00:11:45] Not to be negative, just to be aware.

[00:11:48] Now, going over, this is the sad story I referred to before we went to the break.

[00:11:53] I don't want to linger on it, but I asserted for some time that the members of Congress, by and large, once they get there, it's like rooting out a virus.

[00:12:03] They stay there forever, and I'm not being mean to your Congress individual or mine or anyone else.

[00:12:08] There's good people in Congress, believe it or not, but they stay.

[00:12:13] It's like a lifetime contract.

[00:12:14] It was never meant to be a lifetime contract, and yet we have several octogenarians up there.

[00:12:21] And here's the saddest one.

[00:12:23] This is – I had just talked about this issue yesterday, and then I read this story last night, and I wanted to mention it.

[00:12:29] And this is from Politico, actually.

[00:12:31] Congress has long been home to aging politicians facing serious health conditions,

[00:12:36] but the case of retiring Representative Kay Granger is the latest evidence that a new generation of Washington players are growing fed up with the tradition of shielding officials' infirmities from the world.

[00:12:46] And this is a little bit of a lot of people reporting by a conservative activist on Friday, 81-year-old Texas Republican – that's Kay Granger – who, until last April, chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee.

[00:12:59] That conservative activist kind of forced it to admit she's been struggling with dementia and residing in an assisted living facility despite continuing to hold office.

[00:13:11] So she's been in that facility for six months.

[00:13:16] She's been in an assisted living facility while an active member of Congress who was just chairing one of the most powerful committees in all of D.C.

[00:13:26] And she's been – that's a Republican.

[00:13:28] But, I mean, we can talk about Joe Biden so we can talk about Republicans.

[00:13:32] She should have resigned.

[00:13:33] Now, her family knew she had issues prior to being in the assisted living facility, but she continued to draw salary while not attending a single vote, not being present, not being a part of.

[00:13:45] You're supposed to represent – if you can't represent, resign.

[00:13:50] There almost ought to be an automatic some kind of way to – I mean, Mitch McConnell – there are so many that are just not – I mean, when we were watching the Dianne Feinstein, for those of you who remember her from the 90s, she was in the Senate forever.

[00:14:07] She was like 91.

[00:14:08] She was completely out of it, completely not mentally there, being propped up, wheeled around, and people were being told she's fine.

[00:14:14] She wasn't fine.

[00:14:15] She was a mess.

[00:14:18] Mitch McConnell's a mess.

[00:14:19] There's a bunch of them up there.

[00:14:22] It's like a retirement home for fat cats.

[00:14:24] It just – it was never supposed to be that way.

[00:14:28] And we've made a mockery of representation in this country by allowing it to get this far.

[00:14:36] It is absurd.

[00:14:37] It is obscene.

[00:14:39] And you wonder why D.C. – this is the funny thing.

[00:14:42] Government expenditures are about in the same condition that the members of Congress are.

[00:14:47] It's that bad.

[00:14:48] Some of them are in good shape.

[00:14:49] Some programs are well – some are in horrific shape.

[00:14:52] Should have been retired and put out to pasture a long time ago.

[00:14:55] But there's so much power vested in these people that the families and the staff and the special interest keep them.

[00:15:05] It's like a bad episode of Weekend at Bernie's.

[00:15:08] It's Weekend at Biden's.

[00:15:10] You know, you would think there would be a great parody movie of them propping Biden up and hooking a rope to his hand and having him wave his hand at the crowd.

[00:15:17] You would think.

[00:15:18] You would think.

[00:15:47] But it is sad.

[00:15:49] Texas Republicans said to CBS's Face of the Nation.

[00:15:51] The Granger episode caps off a year in which weaknesses that come with age play a major role in accelerating the ouster of senior officials, including Joe Biden's withdrawal from the campaign.

[00:16:03] More recent move by House Democrats to force out older members trying to hold on to top committee posts that set the stage for lawmakers to take a harder line, with the next Congress poised to include 10 senators and 24 House members older than the U.S. life expectancy of 77.5.

[00:16:21] 34 members of Congress will be older than U.S. life expectancy.

[00:16:26] Now, I'm not putting that out.

[00:16:28] I know some amazing folks that are in their 90s that mentally are still sharp and stuff like that.

[00:16:32] But maybe that I hate to suggest a cognitive test because I don't know that it's an age thing for those members of Congress.

[00:16:40] I wish there was an aptitude for corruption, a corruption aptitude test.

[00:16:44] That would be kind of cool.

[00:16:45] I doubt we'll see that.

[00:16:46] But wouldn't it be neat if there was some way that, yep, you're going to be a corrupt official?

[00:16:52] Sorry.

[00:16:52] Like a minority report type thing.

[00:16:54] Very sci-fi.

[00:16:55] Sorry.

[00:16:56] You can't be in Congress.

[00:16:57] You are like 99% likely to be a corrupt official.

[00:17:01] Take bribes.

[00:17:02] Get special favors.

[00:17:03] You're not there.

[00:17:04] Oh, your stock portfolio.

[00:17:05] You overperformed the market by 5,000%.

[00:17:08] Did you get some insider deals?

[00:17:10] Or would it be neat if they created a mutual fund based on members of Congress?

[00:17:15] So since they can trade stocks, whatever they have is the congressional mutual fund.

[00:17:21] And all of America can invest in it.

[00:17:23] So it's like we wouldn't know the insider trading.

[00:17:26] We would just invest based on the level of corruption they have that we assume they have.

[00:17:32] When the markets move, we move with Congress.

[00:17:36] That would be a way to get around it, wouldn't it?

[00:17:38] We just invest the way they were.

[00:17:40] So as we move into next year, that's going to be problematic.

[00:17:43] I think for some.

[00:17:44] I think the Mitch McConnell thing, you know, he says he wants to serve or run again.

[00:17:49] It's this.

[00:17:50] I don't know if it's arrogance.

[00:17:51] I don't know if it's dementia.

[00:17:52] I don't know what it is.

[00:17:53] But there have been moments where Mitch McConnell is standing there and you can see the lights dim and he's not there, at least from a mental standpoint.

[00:18:03] He's rigid.

[00:18:04] He's locked on.

[00:18:06] His staff have to hold him up.

[00:18:07] And he kind of comes to later.

[00:18:09] And if we're going to poke fun at Joe Biden, we need the two of the most powerful people up there, Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden, are checked out.

[00:18:19] Now, we now know for a fact that they've been checked out.

[00:18:22] We know from the reporting that Joe Biden's checked out.

[00:18:25] And we allowed, the Democrats allowed for someone to be put in the position of possibly being president without receiving a single vote while claiming that they're trying to save democracy.

[00:18:38] And the hypocrisy of that rings in a fascinating way.

[00:18:44] It rings at a level that you're just not, the arrogance and the hubris of it.

[00:18:48] Now, much more to go.

[00:18:49] The Festivus report we'll get to.

[00:18:50] Wanted to mention the age thing and the reporting on climate change.

[00:18:56] You know, the governments are being pushed to the rink.

[00:18:59] And it's not really that.

[00:19:00] It's bad governance.

[00:19:00] Much more to go here on the Pete Calendar Radio Show.

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[00:20:06] So I've tried not to be chagrined or chated myself.

[00:20:09] I'm an upbeat person.

[00:20:10] I'm generally optimistic.

[00:20:12] And here we are on Christmas Eve.

[00:20:13] It should be.

[00:20:14] It is a time of wonder.

[00:20:16] It's an amazing time.

[00:20:17] And I'm blessed.

[00:20:18] I'm very fortunate to have family and friends.

[00:20:21] And it should be an amazing Christmas in spite of, you know, we can reflect on things that we've lost, people we've lost in our lives, but also looking forward.

[00:20:28] It's a time of optimism.

[00:20:30] So the New York Times, and I'm not entirely sure why this piece.

[00:20:42] I don't know.

[00:20:43] The New York Times picks Christmas Eve.

[00:20:45] Well, actually, it wasn't Christmas Eve, but it's pretty close to Christmas Eve.

[00:20:47] Let's see when they publish this.

[00:20:48] Yeah, just a few days.

[00:20:50] On the 21st, Nicholas Kristof published a piece in the New York Times.

[00:20:54] So imagine, if you will, any legacy media writing a piece on the eve or around some sacred holiday, whether it be a Jewish holiday or a Muslim holiday,

[00:21:12] in which they assert that maybe the entirety of that faith shouldn't exist or is based on fraud or lie.

[00:21:27] They wouldn't.

[00:21:28] Can you imagine if they remember?

[00:21:29] Salman Rushdie wrote a fictional book called Satanic Verses in which Muslims put out a fight.

[00:21:35] Well, they authorized the killing of Salman Rushdie just for, and he has since been attacked, and I think he's missing the vision in one night.

[00:21:41] It was a horrible attack not too long ago, a knife attack.

[00:21:44] But imagine that mainstream media, the LA Times or the New York Times, whatever, these ABC, NBC, that right around the time a holiday was going to happen,

[00:21:56] that they wrote a piece that just under – they do it with Columbus a lot.

[00:21:59] But imagine that it was a religious thing, and they went after and attacked Islam and said all of the Koran is based on a lie.

[00:22:08] It's one thing to believe it.

[00:22:09] It's another to say it and run a story about it.

[00:22:11] They wouldn't.

[00:22:13] Would they not do it because they're afraid or because they're woke or both?

[00:22:17] I don't know.

[00:22:18] I think you could make the argument either way.

[00:22:19] But the New York Times decided to write a piece.

[00:22:22] Here's the title of the piece, A Conversation About the Virgin Birth That Maybe Wasn't.

[00:22:28] And what they're asserting is that on Christmas Eve, they've published – or not Christmas Eve.

[00:22:36] They published a few days ago with a lot of people saying Christmas Eve.

[00:22:38] They publish a piece debunking the virgin birth and making the argument that Mary either had an affair or was raped by a Roman soldier named Panthera.

[00:22:49] That's the argument that they made in this piece.

[00:22:52] It's on the doorsteps of the major Christian holiday, the second major Christian holiday.

[00:23:01] What really defines the holiday is the resurrection.

[00:23:05] Without the resurrection, there isn't Christianity.

[00:23:07] There is no faith.

[00:23:08] None of this would matter.

[00:23:09] Christmas wouldn't exist.

[00:23:10] Without the resurrection, Christmas is irrelevant.

[00:23:12] And obviously, through Constantine and I, we could sit here and talk all afternoon about how we ended up here with Christmas tree and Yule logs and merging pagan and Christian things and the winter solstice, all of that.

[00:23:24] But for Christians, it is a date that's been arrived at that we celebrate the birth of the Savior.

[00:23:30] That is the second defining part of Christianity.

[00:23:33] It's the birth, and then he becomes known, and then he dies and gets resurrected in Easter, so we get the season.

[00:23:40] But the fact that the New York Times would do this is rather interesting because, again, for those of you who have listened to me for some time, I talk about confirmation bias and that we all have some form of confirmation bias.

[00:23:54] And that the real challenge for all of us is to look at our bias and read taking that into account, to question our own bias.

[00:24:03] The New York Times, the LA Times, a lot of these more arrogant news sources, they never do question their own bias.

[00:24:10] Even as a conservative talk show, I do it all the time.

[00:24:12] We have callers that disagree completely with me.

[00:24:14] I respect that.

[00:24:15] We have usually a good-spirited discussion.

[00:24:18] They're welcome to be a part of the broadcast anytime.

[00:24:20] 704-570-1110.

[00:24:21] 570-1110 here on this wonderful Christmas Eve.

[00:24:24] But it was just interesting that that's the direction that New York Times, they could have published that piece the rest of the year.

[00:24:30] It would have probably been lot less.

[00:24:31] But they publish it in a tactical way that it can do the most damage at that moment in time.

[00:24:38] And that's the part that, you know, it's intentional.

[00:24:44] Governor Cooper can't mention Christmas.

[00:24:46] The New York Times publishes a piece undermining the entirety of Christmas, the virgin birth.

[00:24:50] You know, that's probably not true.

[00:24:52] And that's what passes for.

[00:24:54] And it's an opinion piece, but they picked that particular time to do that.

[00:25:01] So they're trying to undermine it.

[00:25:03] I don't want to spend too much time on giving it, but wanted to mention it to you.

[00:25:06] Now, but it does take us to an interesting point as we get to the next break.

[00:25:09] And that is that Americans have lost faith in the media.

[00:25:15] It's one of the things we shouldn't be here.

[00:25:19] It's a sad state of affairs that we are where we are.

[00:25:22] And there are people trying to say, you know, Americans have not lost trust.

[00:25:26] There's this guy, this lefty that said Americans have not lost trust in the media.

[00:25:29] Republicans have.

[00:25:30] But when you look at the rest of what he wrote, so it says, you know, only Republicans have lost trust in the media.

[00:25:35] And there's a graph he shows where it shows this Republicans over time losing faith in media.

[00:25:40] But when you look at the next chart, the guy doesn't mention in the report.

[00:25:44] The next chart says, well, if you look at Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated, they have all dropped in faith in the media.

[00:25:51] They have all lost faith in the media.

[00:25:53] And it's if you look at 1972, Republicans, about 68 percent of the 68 percent of folks in the Republican side felt very confident that the news was fair.

[00:26:08] And it was about 74 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents.

[00:26:14] They felt the media was fair, you know, was was not tremendously biased.

[00:26:19] But from 1972 all through the 80s, that started going down into the 90s, into the Clinton era.

[00:26:25] And then it starts getting kind of erratic.

[00:26:27] It goes up and down, up and down, up and down.

[00:26:28] But right around right after Trump gets elected, trust in media amongst Democrats has reached the highest point since they started keeping those numbers.

[00:26:38] So the media in 2016 heading into 2017, it went to almost 80 percent of Democrats felt the media was fair, good and fair.

[00:26:50] Now, and at the same time, Republicans dropped down to about 14 percent feeling it's fair.

[00:26:55] This massive disparity between Republicans and Democrats, the unaffiliated were about 42 percent thinking it was fair.

[00:27:01] So what's interesting is go through that for you, go through Trump, go through COVID and then go through Biden.

[00:27:09] And now Democrats have gone from almost 80 percent of them thinking the media was fair or good down to 54 percent.

[00:27:15] So that they know that they were lied to.

[00:27:17] Democrats are increasingly aware that they were completely lied to through Trump's first administration, increasing lied to through COVID, increasingly lied to through the Biden administration.

[00:27:26] Republicans now are at 12 percent.

[00:27:29] Twelve percent feel the media is good or fair.

[00:27:33] Twenty-seven percent of unaffiliated.

[00:27:34] So that's the nature of where our country is.

[00:27:37] It's a dangerous time because people are going to be picking where they get things from.

[00:27:40] They're going to be comparing.

[00:27:41] And unfortunately, a lot of loons and moonback crazy people will be recognized through that.

[00:27:47] But the media did this to itself.

[00:27:50] CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, all of them.

[00:27:55] They did this to themselves.

[00:27:57] And that leaves Americans not knowing who to trust.

[00:28:00] And then they take their confirmation bias and they start digesting news that only they agree with.

[00:28:05] So if you wonder why we're divided, there you go.

[00:28:08] Right now, I need to take a break.

[00:28:09] Chad Adams sitting in for Pete Callender here on Newstalk 1110-993-WBT, Christmas Eve 2024.

[00:28:14] Much more to go.

[00:28:15] We'll be back in just a few minutes.

[00:28:17] Stay tuned.

[00:28:18] All right.

[00:28:19] Holiday season approaches.

[00:28:20] And here's an idea.

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[00:28:45] Think artisanal foods, handcrafted beverages, unique home decor, skin care items.

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[00:29:04] The special holiday-themed boxes are available for order now until October 15th.

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[00:29:20] Just visit simplyncgoods.com slash pete and check them out.

[00:29:25] That's simplyncgoods.com slash pete.

[00:29:29] And thanks for being a part of Simply NC Goods' story.

[00:29:31] Christmas Eve 2024.

[00:29:32] Not very Christmassy music, is it?

[00:29:35] You didn't know this version.

[00:29:36] This is the Nirvana Christmas version.

[00:29:39] It's not really.

[00:29:40] Anyway, since 2020, thanks to your generosity, WBT and Moments of Hope Church have raised over $850,000

[00:29:48] to help feed the most vulnerable kids in the Charlotte region.

[00:29:52] This year, the need is even greater, and your donations are needed to benefit Hurricane Helene

[00:29:57] at Relief Work in Western North Carolina.

[00:29:59] Our goal is to raise $100,000, and every penny donated will be matched by Moments of Hope Church.

[00:30:05] Please consider a donation to cityofhopeclt.org today.

[00:30:10] That's cityofhopeclt.org.

[00:30:13] Thank you.

[00:30:14] So I wanted to mention that.

[00:30:16] As always, WBT doing amazing work partnering with folks in the community and trying to raise awareness.

[00:30:22] Isaac Herzog.

[00:30:23] I didn't finish sending this one out.

[00:30:26] I will in just a few moments for those of you who follow me on Twitter or X platform, Chad Adams Perspective.

[00:30:33] I've looked at Governor Cooper and Josh Stein's Christmas wishes.

[00:30:36] I mentioned that earlier in the broadcast.

[00:30:38] And so Isaac Herzog from the Middle East says, you know, to all our Christians, he's Jewish,

[00:30:42] to all our Christian sisters and brothers in Israel, the Middle East, and around the world,

[00:30:47] we wish you a happy Christmas, a new year filled with peace and prosperity and a festive period

[00:30:51] when we see our beloved hostages immediately return home.

[00:30:54] Around the world, the beautiful and festive Christmas tree in the village of Kafr Yosef in northern Israel,

[00:30:59] where we gather the regional council head, Assam Shadi, and leaders of Christian Muslim Jewish communities

[00:31:04] to try to unify the messages of peace.

[00:31:08] This is more, by the way, than anything that here we are in this country where we can celebrate all sorts of faith,

[00:31:17] than more than our Christian governor wished for Christmas,

[00:31:21] more than our governor-elect Josh Stein has wished for Christmas.

[00:31:24] And again, it sounds like I'm being very judgy here, not meaning to.

[00:31:27] It's an observation more than a judgment.

[00:31:29] I'm not passing judgment on either of those individuals.

[00:31:31] They have, I guess they have their reasons for why they don't want to wish you a Merry Christmas.

[00:31:36] I don't know, but I don't understand it.

[00:31:38] I don't understand why the state of North Carolina, when it puts a holiday tree up,

[00:31:41] can't mention it's a Christmas tree.

[00:31:44] It is intentional.

[00:31:45] It is not accidental.

[00:31:47] It is intentional.

[00:31:49] They are concerned about offending someone, and we need to get past that.

[00:31:54] Christians are not offended if you wish them a Merry Christmas.

[00:31:57] They're not.

[00:31:57] And the people that are offended by someone wishing you a Merry Christmas,

[00:32:00] they're the ones with the problem, not the other way around.

[00:32:03] So it is a rather odd thing.

[00:32:07] Now, I want to get to one story before we get to the top of the break,

[00:32:10] and then we'll get to the festive stuff, I promise.

[00:32:12] But this is worth knowing, because the left continues, like someone said yesterday,

[00:32:17] don't get the environmentalists cleaning up the southern border,

[00:32:21] because they'll turn it into climate change, and then it'll all go wackadoo.

[00:32:24] And they were absolutely right.

[00:32:25] I don't remember the caller's name, but they did that.

[00:32:28] But this was a story over at Vox, which is a decidedly left-leaning place.

[00:32:33] And I'm constantly – and do this.

[00:32:38] I tell you, while you're watching TV over the holidays, while you're watching different things,

[00:32:42] pay attention to the number of ways in which your entertainment pushes you,

[00:32:50] tries to push you left.

[00:32:53] I'll give you an example of this.

[00:32:54] So I'm watching a show on Netflix, four episodes.

[00:32:57] And I like a lot of British or European six-episode, four episodes.

[00:33:03] I don't like having to be invested for 10 years into a given show.

[00:33:05] I like something short, like a movie that runs long, and they just turn it into four episodes.

[00:33:09] So I was watching one called La Palma.

[00:33:11] It's on Netflix.

[00:33:12] You can see it.

[00:33:13] And it's a European disaster flick.

[00:33:16] You don't see many of those.

[00:33:17] Usually America's good.

[00:33:18] From the towering inferno on through 2012, any kind of cataclysmic movie,

[00:33:24] Americans just love disaster movies.

[00:33:26] We always have.

[00:33:27] And some of them are really trashy, and some of them are pretty good.

[00:33:30] So this one was pretty interesting.

[00:33:31] It's an island off the coast of Spain, La Palma, and Teneriff in these islands,

[00:33:35] and there's a volcanic thing, and it's a disaster, and there's going to be a tsunami,

[00:33:39] and then you've got characters.

[00:33:41] That in and of itself, it's well done.

[00:33:43] Part of it's very interesting.

[00:33:45] The tsunami side, the science mind is kind of interesting.

[00:33:48] But they have one family they kind of focus on in it that has a wife and a husband,

[00:33:53] then divorced, their daughter.

[00:33:56] So there's only one romantic interest in the story.

[00:33:59] It's a teenage girl.

[00:34:02] And in that story, the teenage girl is interested in another teenage girl,

[00:34:06] and it becomes a central part of the story.

[00:34:08] Not the story, but it becomes how people live or die in this disaster flick around that.

[00:34:13] There wasn't a need.

[00:34:15] So if you look at that, you would think that the vast propensity of young girls are interested in other girls.

[00:34:21] But it's not that they need not do that.

[00:34:24] It's that it distracts from the story when it seems more forced than natural, if that makes sense.

[00:34:31] And you see this.

[00:34:32] This has been a problem for Disney.

[00:34:34] It's been a problem for Paramount.

[00:34:37] It's been a problem for so many different, even Paramount, the ending of Yellowstone.

[00:34:41] Very, very PC.

[00:34:43] The way if you haven't, I'm not going to give it away, but a little bit of it is, you know,

[00:34:46] that when the Indians take over the Dunn Ranch and start kicking over tombstones and stuff like that for the family

[00:34:55] and desecrating that as if that's somehow payback or legit.

[00:35:00] That's the kind of, but you see it in subtle ways, this constant need to push you into a narrative

[00:35:08] and into a belief structure that is a creation.

[00:35:11] It's not necessarily natural, but it's a creation of the way they want the world to be.

[00:35:16] So this is the way the story goes over at Vox.

[00:35:19] 2024 is on track to become the hottest year since humans have been keeping track.

[00:35:22] By the way, humans have only been keeping track for about a little over 100 and some years.

[00:35:26] Beating out 2023.

[00:35:27] Hasn't done it yet, but we'll see.

[00:35:29] The extraordinary back-to-back.

[00:35:30] By the way, there's a lot more to this story than just saying it's the hottest year.

[00:35:34] The extraordinary back-to-back record breakers amplified disasters like heatwaves, hurricanes.

[00:35:38] They didn't do anything about hurricanes.

[00:35:40] Hurricanes were no worse.

[00:35:41] That's not true.

[00:35:42] But they say it, and then you, they throw it in there.

[00:35:44] It's an unnecessary thing.

[00:35:46] And torrential downpours around the world.

[00:35:48] We've always had torrential downpours around the world.

[00:35:50] Claiming thousands of lives and causing billions of damages.

[00:35:53] Also worth noting, disasters over the past several thousand years.

[00:35:56] Go look at them.

[00:35:58] Look it up on your own.

[00:35:58] Don't trust me.

[00:35:59] Go look it up on Wikipedia.

[00:36:00] You'll see that disasters killed hundreds of thousands of people at one time.

[00:36:05] They killed more people long ago than they do now, thankfully.

[00:36:09] And we have a lot more people than it could kill.

[00:36:11] But we have a lot more development along these coastal edges and in big cities.

[00:36:15] So when they say billions in damages, in constant dollars, I mean, Vesuvius destroying the city of Pompeii, you could say that was hundreds of billions or billions of dollars.

[00:36:25] Few countries have emerged unscathed over the past two years.

[00:36:28] But one place is known for its welcoming climate, was especially wounded.

[00:36:32] In 2023, Spain experienced a searing early season heat wave with temperatures topping 101 degrees Fahrenheit in the south of the country, followed by more severe heat across the country in July.

[00:36:43] Now, it's had that.

[00:36:45] And acting like this is all connected to what humans have done is always and it's never that humans slightly did it.

[00:36:54] It's the humans have done it in an extreme way.

[00:36:56] And it's an existential threat.

[00:36:58] Your children shouldn't have children.

[00:36:59] And the world is about to end.

[00:37:01] And thus, we have to act now to socialize the world.

[00:37:04] And it's the only way we fix it.

[00:37:05] And then you think to yourself, has government really fixed any problem it's ever tried to solve?

[00:37:08] It really has.

[00:37:09] Government's very bad at solving problems.

[00:37:12] But when you read the headline here, the headline, here's the way they headline.

[00:37:15] Climate change is pushing some governments to the breaking point.

[00:37:18] And I would say that's not true.

[00:37:20] Governments have just done a terrible job of governing.

[00:37:23] Spain isn't necessarily known to have the most efficient governments.

[00:37:26] In fact, it's kind of dicey with respect to how Barcelona is set up and Catalans.

[00:37:31] And it's just a bit of a train wreck over there.

[00:37:33] But climate change isn't pushing anything.

[00:37:35] If you want to see an example of climate changing very fast, it's weak.

[00:37:39] But the climate change people say, Chad, you're talking about the weather.

[00:37:42] It was horrible weather.

[00:37:43] When Napoleon marched on Moscow, you should see that chart.

[00:37:47] I'm not going to go into it in great detail.

[00:37:48] But when Napoleon marched on Moscow, it was so cold that he lost at 422,000 troops.

[00:37:56] I think he came back with about 12.

[00:37:57] He lost over 400,000 people in the march on Moscow because the Russians just pulled back.

[00:38:03] The winter killed his troops.

[00:38:05] This was just the early 1800s.

[00:38:07] So from that point in time to now, yeah, it's gotten a lot warmer.

[00:38:10] Why was it so bleeding cold then?

[00:38:12] You had a mini ice age then.

[00:38:14] It was horrible.

[00:38:15] Were we better when Greenland was green?

[00:38:17] Because Greenland was green at one time.

[00:38:20] Anyway, much more to go.

[00:38:21] We need to take a break right now.

[00:38:22] Kick things off.

[00:38:23] We're getting ready to head up Hour 2 of the Peak Calendar Radio Show here at News Talk 1110 993 WBT.

[00:38:29] 704-570-1110.

[00:38:30] 570-1110.

[00:38:31] Second hour.

[00:38:32] Getting ready to be underway.

[00:38:33] Stay tuned.

[00:38:36] All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:38:38] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:38:40] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise

[00:38:44] on the podcast.

[00:38:45] So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:38:48] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepeetcalendarshow.com.

[00:38:53] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.