Chad Adams Fills In For Pete Kaliner 12-26-24 Hour 2

[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 thepetekalinershow.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] One of the staggering aspects, when I was in elected office, it was amazing to me the number of organizations that would come with their hand out to government. So any given community has anywhere from, you know, even small communities have 10, 25 of them. But large communities like Charlotte would have 100, 150, 200. I don't even know how many Charlotte would have.

[00:00:48] But they would come, someone realized that they could go, it's a lot easier to convince three or four, whatever the majority of every given board is, to give you money than it is to convince the population at large. A lot less work.

[00:01:04] If I can go and get, you know, if your board is seven commissioners and I get four of them to say, yeah, I'll give you $50,000. That's a lot less work on my part. But what it means is that those commissioners or those council members feel, they feel good about giving your money to a group that you didn't give to.

[00:01:24] So then the other groups go, uh-huh. I can go and ask for government money. And they start going and asking. And yet, if you're a councilman or a county commissioner, you feel heartless or they will try to make you feel heartless for turning them down.

[00:01:40] Not the organizations necessarily, but your fellow board members or people of the opposite political party. Oh, Chad is so heartless. He doesn't care about those people.

[00:01:50] Now, never mind. I was involved in five or six of those organizations and was giving my time, effort, money, going out and knocking on doors and making calls and raising money and doing events. That was irrelevant.

[00:02:00] Now, what was important to them, my political enemies at the time, was that I didn't care about those organizations. I did.

[00:02:07] And I said it in commissioner chambers where I said it. I don't feel it's my right to take away money from people who earned it to give to an organization that they didn't choose to give it to.

[00:02:18] No matter how worthwhile the organization was, in many worthwhile organizations, that doesn't mean they should be entitled to taxpayer money.

[00:02:24] In fact, I argued, and it became true over time, which was that the more that these organizations go and get government money, the more removed they are from the community they are supposed to serve.

[00:02:38] Because when a group is out there trying to raise money and make a difference in a community, they're out there in the community trying to raise money and make a difference in the community.

[00:02:46] If they can go and rely on a government handout, they're not out there in the community asking for money as much.

[00:02:51] They get lazy and they die. They wither on the vine.

[00:02:54] They serve. The people they serve may get something from government, but that government gravy train is inconsistent.

[00:03:00] And the organization spends more time trying to get money from government than trying to get money from citizens.

[00:03:05] And then all of that wonderful, altruistic mindset of individuals that want to give money and feel like giving money, they're gone.

[00:03:14] So your donor base goes away and organizations die, which is why it's much better.

[00:03:20] It's much more heartfelt when it comes from individuals than from government.

[00:03:24] Government wasn't designed to have a heart.

[00:03:27] Government was designed to get out of the way.

[00:03:30] We forget that. It's easy to forget that.

[00:03:32] Now, on to more interesting times.

[00:03:38] There are many things you can like or not like about the president, but you can't say he's not masterful at that provoking thought.

[00:03:49] So when Trump talks about Canada or Mexico being annexed in the United States, people lose their minds and political fortunes are made and lost.

[00:03:58] Justin Trudeau may not be the prime minister of Canada.

[00:04:02] Trump suggested that Wayne Gretzky run for office because everyone loves Wayne Gretzky in Canada and he should run.

[00:04:07] Gretzky said, well, I don't want to run.

[00:04:09] And so Trump puts out there, hey, we should draft a petition in Canada and the Canadians should draft him.

[00:04:14] The Canadians should draft Wayne Gretzky to be prime minister.

[00:04:16] I think it's beautiful.

[00:04:18] But nothing has stirred commentary quite as much as the Greenland.

[00:04:22] He did this a few years ago when he was president.

[00:04:24] And now he's done it again, and he's talking now about the serious nature of Greenland with respect to America's interest.

[00:04:33] And I have said this is acting like it's going to be a military invasion is where people lose their minds.

[00:04:40] So I saw the story this morning.

[00:04:41] I thought this was just silly.

[00:04:42] But as Donald Trump tweets stuff out there, days after Donald Trump, again, this is at the Washington Times.

[00:04:48] It's all over the AP and other people have written it.

[00:04:51] Days after Donald Trump again expressed interest in acquiring Greenland, Denmark had said it would boost defenses on its Arctic territory.

[00:04:59] In what it insisted was a total coincidence, the Scandinavian country announced has investment of $1.5 billion in defenses of its vast possession bordering North America.

[00:05:09] The Danes will add two elite Navy sled dog teams.

[00:05:13] Now, if you're going to fend off a United States invasion, if that's really the goal, would you really send two elite Navy sled dog teams and two little patrol boats and two new long-range drones?

[00:05:27] So you've got two dog sled teams, two patrol boats, and two long-range drones that are going to defend Greenland against the United States.

[00:05:35] Now, imagine, if you will, that you are one of the guys in charge of the dog sled team.

[00:05:42] And your commanding officer comes to you and says, you know what?

[00:05:45] We're very concerned about those Americans.

[00:05:47] You will defend us.

[00:05:49] You will defend the country against America.

[00:05:51] You and your eight dogs.

[00:05:53] You would feel – how would you feel?

[00:05:56] Honey, I'm sorry.

[00:05:58] I have to go to Greenland.

[00:05:59] I've been called up.

[00:06:01] Donald Trump is going to invade Greenland, and me and the dogs, we're off.

[00:06:05] How many dog teams are going with you?

[00:06:08] Olaf.

[00:06:10] Well, just Fred down the street.

[00:06:12] Fred and I, we're going with the two dog sled teams.

[00:06:14] We're going to stop the Americans.

[00:06:16] It's like a dubbed bad sci-fi movie, isn't it?

[00:06:18] Two dog sled teams against the entirety of the U.S. military.

[00:06:21] I love how they said they beefed up their security forces.

[00:06:24] They're going to add two dog sled teams, two patrol boats, and two long-range drones.

[00:06:28] Now, the interesting thing to me about this, that's funny enough to me.

[00:06:32] The other funny thing is they haven't been paying their fair share of NATO.

[00:06:35] Now, if they were – we have a military base.

[00:06:37] There's 50,000 people in all of Greenland.

[00:06:38] We have a military base there.

[00:06:41] We are providing a lot of the defenses for Greenland, more so than almost the Danes are.

[00:06:45] And they're not even paying for their fair share of the defense of their own country in Europe through NATO.

[00:06:51] Where Trump says you're going to pay your fair share in ZO.

[00:06:53] Lest you think this has never been done before, and I'm not talking about the invasion,

[00:06:58] we negotiated a purchase and seeding of territory from the Danes before,

[00:07:02] and if you've ever been to the U.S. Virgin Islands, you're welcome.

[00:07:07] That happened.

[00:07:08] Same country, same people had autonomy over it.

[00:07:10] If you ever go to Aruba, the Danes kind of have that.

[00:07:13] It's kind of back and forth as to who's running things.

[00:07:16] But this isn't as violent and horrific as you may think.

[00:07:21] And when we come back from the break, I'll kind of go through this.

[00:07:24] Because we haven't acquired property in quite some time.

[00:07:26] I think the last was about 1917 when we got Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico from the Spanish.

[00:07:33] It happens.

[00:07:35] So this thing with Greenland is interesting.

[00:07:37] The thing with Canada is interesting.

[00:07:38] Imagine, if you will, that in a couple years that the Canadians decide we like this whole concept.

[00:07:44] Maybe Quebec goes.

[00:07:45] Quebec is its own thing with the French and let the French be the French.

[00:07:49] But let's see if we, what would it look like if there were five more states in Canada and another state was Greenland?

[00:07:56] 50,000 people's all.

[00:07:57] And if you put it up to the people from Greenland, they might say,

[00:08:00] We want to be part of the United States.

[00:08:01] We like that idea.

[00:08:02] They might say that.

[00:08:05] Probably, I don't know.

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[00:09:08] Chad Adams sitting in for Pete Callender here at News Talk 1110-993-WBT.

[00:09:13] 704-570-1110.

[00:09:16] That's the phone number should you want to desire to be a part of what we are doing here today.

[00:09:21] Always an honor and a pleasure and great staff.

[00:09:23] Right now, I do want to say, here at WBT, we are committed to amplifying community voices and providing hope and resources in the mental and behavioral health domain.

[00:09:31] In collaboration with the Mecklenburg County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, for the month of December, we are navigating the holidays with resilience.

[00:09:38] Providing us with the toolbox needed to navigate is Hope Haven Incorporated.

[00:09:41] Ms. Karen King, Senior Vice President.

[00:09:44] This program is presented by the Mecklenburg County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

[00:09:48] Visit mechabc.com for more information on their community outreach initiatives.

[00:09:53] Always making a difference, as we said earlier in the show.

[00:09:56] Now, Donald Trump had kind of – he is remarkable.

[00:10:03] And there's actually a video, if you go out there and look for it, you will find a video of how Trump kind of creates his tweets with – and he just says stuff off the cuff.

[00:10:16] And he says, yeah, put that out there.

[00:10:17] And he does.

[00:10:19] And so he, unlike Biden, who we know clearly doesn't write his tweets, and many other people who don't, he does.

[00:10:24] He does.

[00:10:25] And what makes it so unique is he's not going to his consultant saying, hey, what do the polls say about this?

[00:10:32] It's not like Josh Stein or like Governor Cooper who have to consult with someone to say, should I say that?

[00:10:38] Or they have a team that writes it.

[00:10:40] And in fact, it's so bad that if you go to Roy Cooper's Twitter feed, you will find that anything – they have to go out of their way to say something that comes from him has an R.C. at the end of it.

[00:10:52] Meaning that he actually did – the rest of them are not him, even though it's his name.

[00:10:57] But he's gone out of his way to make sure only these – and also a governor that has almost no email trail.

[00:11:05] Through his years of public service, one of the most secretive, one of the most non-open, non-transparent governors in the state's history.

[00:11:14] It's true, factually true.

[00:11:17] Just doesn't seem to care about that stuff.

[00:11:19] Because what he learned as a Democrat was that they use those weapons against Republicans all the time, so he doesn't want to have a trail.

[00:11:27] So he tells other people what he wants done.

[00:11:29] They do it.

[00:11:29] Then he has – the two most important words in politics are plausible deniability.

[00:11:33] And that has been the way in which Governor Cooper has operated his entire career.

[00:11:37] I didn't write that.

[00:11:38] I didn't say that.

[00:11:40] You have no proof that I wrote that or cared about that issue.

[00:11:42] Can't say that I did it.

[00:11:44] Unless it happened in front of a camera, it doesn't exist.

[00:11:48] Now, what I was going to say about Trump, the way he operates is that when he throws stuff out there and it becomes fodder for everybody to get in there, argue, haggle, throw stuff, get mean.

[00:12:04] And he just watches.

[00:12:05] Here's what happens.

[00:12:06] I'll throw it out there.

[00:12:07] Let's see what they do.

[00:12:08] He doesn't do it with any definitive.

[00:12:09] He said we should.

[00:12:10] We should do this.

[00:12:11] Make no mistake.

[00:12:12] Greenland is strategically important.

[00:12:14] He is correct in that.

[00:12:15] We should take it over.

[00:12:17] That doesn't mean he will, but if you were to listen to the mainstream, which is dying slowly in the death throes, they go out of their way and say, Trump's going to be a dictator on day one.

[00:12:26] He's going to invade Greenland.

[00:12:27] He's going to send Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg.

[00:12:29] He's going to invade.

[00:12:30] He's going to send the 82nd Airborne in.

[00:12:32] He's going to send the 101 from Kentucky.

[00:12:33] The Screaming Eagles are going to go land.

[00:12:35] They're going to take it over.

[00:12:36] Trump is a dictator.

[00:12:37] And none of that is true, of course.

[00:12:39] But that doesn't stop the Danes.

[00:12:42] The Dutch say, oh, we need to defend Greenland against the U.S.

[00:12:47] So we're going to put some dog sled teams out.

[00:12:49] Not a joke.

[00:12:49] They seriously said they're going to do that.

[00:12:51] Here's – this is from the dossier, and I like these kind of – they're almost like blogs.

[00:12:58] They're like Reddit files and stuff like that.

[00:13:01] They're actually legitimate people.

[00:13:02] This is a good one.

[00:13:03] The dossier is actually a publication.

[00:13:05] The – this is by Jordan Chattel.

[00:13:08] I'm going to say his name wrong, Chattel.

[00:13:10] And he wrote, the annexation of Greenland would be the first major U.S. acquisition in well over a century.

[00:13:15] It would positively shape President Trump's legacy.

[00:13:17] What I like about this column is it's giving you something to think about.

[00:13:21] It's not saying he will or won't do it, but what would it look like if he did?

[00:13:25] President-elect Trump made quite the buzz over the weekend when he expressed a strong interest in acquiring the Danish-controlled autonomous territory of Greenland,

[00:13:32] a land that is both immensely resource-rich and strategically a high priority to the interest of all major powers, including China.

[00:13:39] Whether you're studying abroad, dreaming – I'm sorry.

[00:13:42] In a post of Truth Social on Sunday, Trump announced the nomination of PayPal co-founder Ken Howery to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to Denmark, writing,

[00:13:50] quote,

[00:13:57] As we said, it's incredibly resource-rich with rare earth mineral deposits valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars,

[00:14:04] and its geopolitical position is incredibly significant to our interests vis-a-vis our great power rivals.

[00:14:09] Should Greenland fall under the Chinese umbrella, it would have a devastating national security implication for the U.S.

[00:14:16] Denmark's hyper-liberal political leadership has sought to preserve Greenland for Gaia, you know, the earth god,

[00:14:22] and Copenhagen has essentially cut the territory off from most human contact.

[00:14:26] Other than tourism, there are about 50,000 people who live there because they have bought into all the climate hoax stuff and DEI narratives.

[00:14:34] The current prime minister of Greenland, a socialist politician named Mute Egged – love those names, don't you?

[00:14:40] Mute. His name is Mute. M-U-T-E, Mute.

[00:14:43] Responded to the Trump Post declaring that Greenland is not for sale.

[00:14:47] I don't think Trump said it was for sale. He just said it was strategically important.

[00:14:51] Respectfully, Greenland is autonomous Danish territory, so its sale wouldn't really involve the locals,

[00:14:56] though it would be wise to accommodate their interest and get their consent.

[00:15:00] Don't be surprised if the Trump administration reaches out to Copenhagen and starts the very real process of negotiating over the future of Greenland.

[00:15:07] They can start by leveraging Denmark's failure to live up to the 2% defense spending as a NATO member.

[00:15:13] The United States already maintains one military base in Greenland, known as Potuffik Space Base,

[00:15:19] which supports critical missile warnings, missile defense, and space surveillance missions.

[00:15:24] It's been quite a long while, but the United States has annexed territories numerous times in its history that has shaped our country.

[00:15:32] Now, I want to give you this just in case you think when the media tells you,

[00:15:35] oh, it's as terrible as horrible. We have done it.

[00:15:37] The Louisiana Purchase was in 1803, 828,000 square miles from France, which doubled the size of the U.S.

[00:15:43] The annexation of Texas in 1845, we got that from Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War.

[00:15:49] The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848.

[00:15:52] We got 527,000 square miles added to the U.S., which included California, Nevada, Utah,

[00:15:57] most of Arizona, parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oklahoma.

[00:16:00] We had the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. We had the annexation of Hawaii in 1898.

[00:16:06] We had the Spanish-American War, which led to us acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain.

[00:16:12] The Philippines later became independent in 1946, but Puerto Rico and Guam are still U.S. territories.

[00:16:17] See, it's not American Samoa. After the Second Samoa Civil War, the U.S. formally annexed the eastern part of the islands,

[00:16:23] which became American Samoa.

[00:16:24] So it isn't unheard of, and it could be acquired, and it might be worth it.

[00:16:29] The Dutch may say, you know what?

[00:16:31] If the people of Greenland are cool with this, and it's financially good for our country,

[00:16:35] and financially good and strategically important to the U.S., hey, we're all in.

[00:16:40] All right. Hey, real quick.

[00:16:42] If you would like to get your product or service in front of about 10,000 people multiple times a day,

[00:16:47] send me an email at Pete at the PeteCalendarShow.com and ask me about advertising.

[00:16:52] It's super affordable.

[00:16:54] It's baked into this podcast forever, and podcasts have a higher conversion rate than other social media platforms,

[00:17:00] making it the best bang for your buck.

[00:17:02] Send me a message, Pete at the PeteCalendarShow.com, and I can show you how it works, run the numbers with you.

[00:17:07] Again, that's Pete at the PeteCalendarShow.com.

[00:17:12] I saw a funny one, a meme, because we will.

[00:17:15] I will not belabor the climate change.

[00:17:17] I think we're going to – the beauty of 2025, in my opinion, on this subject is I think we're going to have substantive discussions about climate.

[00:17:26] I think that we're finally going to break through this cult mentality and have some discussions about it.

[00:17:32] What does it mean?

[00:17:33] What are the implications?

[00:17:34] And this meme is – it's a meme, and it's the – like the Mayans taking someone to the top of the temple and cutting their heart out

[00:17:42] and throwing it down the temple steps, and it says government protecting us from climate change since 1350.

[00:17:48] Because that's what they were trying.

[00:17:49] If you think about it, all of those human sacrifices were about the government at the time, the rulers, wanting to make the crops work, rain,

[00:17:59] or too much rain to get rid of it, too little rain, add more.

[00:18:02] So it's about climate change.

[00:18:04] They were human sacrificing their way to climate change.

[00:18:07] And the people involved in this whole ordeal like John Kerry, that's the same thing they want.

[00:18:12] They'd love population control for climate change.

[00:18:14] If we just do this, we'll fix the climate.

[00:18:18] It's an existential threat to humanity.

[00:18:20] So if we have to sacrifice a few humans along the way, then we're okay.

[00:18:24] It's all good.

[00:18:26] And that's just kind of the way they see things, and it is unfortunate.

[00:18:33] But nonetheless, that's the way they see it.

[00:18:37] I would love for us to be able to do this.

[00:18:40] By the way, just about two hours ago, the president took off and left to St. Croix.

[00:18:45] He's been traveling.

[00:18:46] And the president who's taken more time off than any president in history, this is the guy.

[00:18:53] I mean, think about that.

[00:18:53] Franklin Delano Roosevelt had polio and was in a wheelchair, and he didn't take off as much time as this president.

[00:18:59] This president has been just lacking.

[00:19:02] He's not one of you.

[00:19:03] He's not one of us.

[00:19:04] Not even close to one of us.

[00:19:07] It's just the way it is.

[00:19:09] Even members of his own party are kind of wondering what the heck is going on with him.

[00:19:17] But who knows?

[00:19:19] Now, as we head to the top of the hour, this is kind of an uplifting story, a little bit.

[00:19:25] It was originally published back in 2018.

[00:19:29] But I think it's worthwhile as we reflect on our country and where we are, because a lot of what is great about this country is timeless.

[00:19:40] A lot of what is wonderful about its founding, about the recognition that others saw in it over time, that's timeless.

[00:19:48] And you have to believe the sacrifices made by countless millions over that period of time, we owe it to them to make it priceless and to preserve the priceless nature of being American.

[00:20:02] And this is originally published in the 20th.

[00:20:05] This is lawliberty.org.

[00:20:07] And it's originally published in December 24th of 2018.

[00:20:10] Miracle on 34th Street from 1947 is the finest cinematic exploration of the commercialization of Christmas.

[00:20:16] The central story is that Kris Kringle, a man who looks like and believes he is Santa Claus, is hired to play Santa Claus at Macy's.

[00:20:22] When it is revealed that he believes he is the real Santa Claus, he must defend his sanity in court.

[00:20:27] Rather than condemn commercialization, Miracle on 34th Street recognizes that Christmas and commercialism are like milk and cookies.

[00:20:34] You can't have one without the other.

[00:20:35] It pragmatically accepts commercialism as part of the celebration of Christmas in America.

[00:20:41] Gift giving requires a marketplace.

[00:20:44] Kris is not opposed to working for a department store, where the prime purpose of having children visit Santa is so that moms and dads will buy things while they're there.

[00:20:51] He's highly knowledgeable about the toy market.

[00:20:54] He knows where and for how much toys are sold.

[00:20:56] As if to drive the point home, Kris Kringle sings the nursery rhyme to market, to market, to Susan, young Natalie Wood, insofar as markets are where toys are bought and sold.

[00:21:07] Kringle accepts them as useful and legitimate part of Christmas.

[00:21:11] In Democracy in America, by the way, if you have someone under the age of like 18, find a way to get them to read Democracy in America.

[00:21:19] I know it's time.

[00:21:20] It's like trying to get them to read Shakespeare, which is also a worthwhile endeavor.

[00:21:25] Nobody understands human nature the way Shakespeare quite did.

[00:21:27] I think he's way ahead of most of psychiatric care by centuries.

[00:21:33] Democracy in America by de Tocqueville explains that the American morality is the doctrine of self-interest, rightly understood.

[00:21:39] Good. Enlightened selfishness.

[00:21:41] But it sounds like I'm Gordon Gekko, doesn't it?

[00:21:44] Greed is good.

[00:21:46] That's not what he says.

[00:21:47] Enlightened selfishness motivates Americans to be honest and self-restrained, for they know that these virtues are the surest way to get what one wants from others, by being honest and self-restrained.

[00:21:59] Americans, de Tocqueville observes, love to praise how their self-interest produces the common good.

[00:22:05] Nevertheless, de Tocqueville sees evidence of Americans giving themselves over to unreflective impulses of goodwill towards others.

[00:22:12] Americans are, he says, better than they say.

[00:22:14] They demonstrate through their actions, not their words, sincere, self-forgetting behavior.

[00:22:20] Miracle on 34th Street explores how calculated self-interest can ameliorate some of the worst tendencies of commercialism.

[00:22:27] Self-interest, rightly understood, does what de Tocqueville says.

[00:22:31] Self-interest also provides cover for characters stacked on more noble grounds.

[00:22:35] Characters make decisions that require loyalty and resolve that go beyond just self-interest.

[00:22:41] In the first half of the film, Chris inspires Macy's to adopt a policy that furthers its profits and the customer's interest.

[00:22:47] After the head of Macy's Toy Department gives Kringle a list of overstocked toys to suggest for children, Chris Kringle rips up the list.

[00:22:54] He objects on the grounds that a child should not be manipulated into asking for a toy that they don't want.

[00:23:00] The head of the toy department's mistake of ordering too many of the toys using the child's trust in Santa to do so violates that child's trust.

[00:23:07] Making the child happy is the job of Santa Claus, after all.

[00:23:11] And Kringle sees how self-interest can be better harnessed to produce a better outcome.

[00:23:15] When you go through this, this entire exercise as you're reading through these kind of pieces, what you realize is that in spite of what the left says about how horrible capitalism is and how horrible capitalistic enterprises are, they're not.

[00:23:33] They operate best when they are self-interested and that they are honest.

[00:23:38] Here's what I'm going to provide you, and yes, I'm going to make a profit on it.

[00:23:42] I'm telling you, every Apple iPhone sold, there's profit.

[00:23:45] When you see all these companies saying, hey, buy three lines, get one free, that's not as honest, is it?

[00:23:50] Because they're not free.

[00:23:51] They're not free.

[00:23:52] We're going to give you.

[00:23:53] No, you're not.

[00:23:53] You're not giving me.

[00:23:54] You're not.

[00:23:55] Add it up.

[00:23:56] And that's why I think there's a lot more distrust.

[00:23:58] Just gimmicky stuff.

[00:23:59] It's like when you go to a car dealership these days and you want to buy a car and you say, hey, I want to pay you cash for that car.

[00:24:06] And they're like, well, you actually save money if you get a lease and if you finance that lease.

[00:24:11] What do you mean I save money?

[00:24:13] Because there are kickbacks from the banks that want those interest loans and the financial institutions that want it.

[00:24:20] So in a way, they're providing you a benefit.

[00:24:23] But remember, back in the days of real honesty, if you paid cash for a car, okay, what's your best deal?

[00:24:29] Low ball offer on a cash car for a cash.

[00:24:31] But it's very different.

[00:24:32] It's much more gamey now, isn't it?

[00:24:36] The best image of the meaning of Christmas is in the movie, Miracle on 34th Street.

[00:24:42] Alfred's description of the Christmas look on the faces of kids.

[00:24:44] We see joy.

[00:24:45] We see hope in kids.

[00:24:47] And we adults are joyful and hopeful in turn.

[00:24:49] Christmas recognizes a community of the joyful and hopeful reflected in the faces of its members.

[00:24:54] In this way, Christmas prefigures the Christian hope to one day see the face of God.

[00:24:59] Alfred knows the goodness of Christmas by seeing it reflected in the face of children.

[00:25:04] And so what this article seeks to do, and I think it does a really good job of this,

[00:25:09] is it combines what de Tocqueville recognized about the greatness in America and Americans.

[00:25:16] Because we aren't Americans, are we?

[00:25:18] We're Americans.

[00:25:19] So we look at that.

[00:25:22] Miracle on 34th Street's happy resolution is driven by the self-interest of the judge,

[00:25:26] the prosecutor, the U.S. postal workers, and Mr. Gailey.

[00:25:29] Nevertheless, self-interest alone is insufficient to explain all the ways in which characters go out of their way for each other.

[00:25:35] Americans are, as de Tocqueville says, better than they say.

[00:25:38] But the doctrine lets Americans appear more self-sufficient than they really are as well.

[00:25:44] And that's the truth about America.

[00:25:46] We are a community, and we do better when we function as a community.

[00:25:51] We are – and selfishness is not – it sounds terrible.

[00:25:56] Capitalism sounds inherently selfish, but it ultimately benefits the most people.

[00:26:00] I do want to mention, this is an interesting kind of anniversary.

[00:26:04] As people are apt to claim that – I mean, there are people that try to say earthquakes are caused by climate change.

[00:26:13] I mean, the new movie, the new miniseries on Netflix called La Palma, which I spoke about the other day.

[00:26:19] At one point in the movie, they were trying to say that this massive volcanic explosion that rips an island apart and generates history's most largest tsunami

[00:26:30] was caused by climate change and more rains hitting that area causing erosion, which opened the earth to allow the volcano.

[00:26:38] Now, luckily, that theory got shot down, and I loved how it was one of the few instances where the scientist in – the main scientist in the series says,

[00:26:46] no, come back to me when you have some facts.

[00:26:48] Not this stuff that you were just regurgitating because you want to believe it.

[00:26:51] It was taught to you that isn't true.

[00:26:53] He pushed back against her in the movie, in the series.

[00:26:56] But it's a European thing, so maybe there's a chance.

[00:26:59] I think that's why I find some of the European and British series, even though they infuse a lot of that crap in there too.

[00:27:06] But anyway, my point being, it's good to reflect on actual tragedies because they're instructive and they're useful and they're not full of gobbledygook.

[00:27:19] I mean, when you listen about the wildfires in California, on the one hand, you're going to hear news media say, well, you know, because of climate change, the fires are hotter and they're worse.

[00:27:29] And on the other that you don't hear as much is forestry officials saying, hey, we've had years where we don't burn underbrush, where it does build up, the fires are hotter, and it's a lot of mismanagement of forestry practices.

[00:27:41] North Carolina has forest fires, but there's a lot of active forestry management in our state that is remarkable.

[00:27:48] There are regular burns, if you get down to the Green Swamp, you get down east, Alligator Reserve, those areas are, they do regular burns to get rid of a lot of the underbrush.

[00:27:56] And fires in many places are necessary to promote future growth.

[00:28:01] It's a part of nature.

[00:28:02] Forest fires have always been a part of nature.

[00:28:06] So worth knowing.

[00:28:08] But it's also instructive to look at actual disasters.

[00:28:11] 20 years, 20 years ago, it's hard to believe this because I remember it like it was yesterday, but there was a horrible earthquake.

[00:28:19] It was 9.1 over in the Indonesia, Banda Asay area of Indonesia, and I probably said that name wrong.

[00:28:27] But today, I mean, so there were people that gathered on Thursday visiting mass graves in Indonesia's Asay province.

[00:28:35] 20 years since that tsunami hit, one of history's worst natural disasters.

[00:28:39] And when we think of terms, and it's horrible what happened in North Carolina, you know, 100's dead.

[00:28:44] I don't know the actual count.

[00:28:45] I don't think we'll know the actual number of dead for a while, but we're getting there.

[00:28:49] But that, to put it in perspective, a couple hundred dead is absolutely a tragedy.

[00:28:54] Any death is due to an accident or a weather event or flood, fire, tornado, anything.

[00:29:02] That tsunami, after that 9.1 magnitude ginormous earthquake, 230,000 people were killed.

[00:29:15] That's a staggering number.

[00:29:17] From an American standpoint, due to the way our infrastructure is, the warnings we have, we have earthquake-prone areas on the west coast.

[00:29:25] Heck, we had a horrible earthquake in Charleston, South Carolina about 120, 30 years ago.

[00:29:30] So there's no part of our country that isn't prone, whether it's tornadic activity in the plains,

[00:29:36] whether it's horrific winter events that happen and tornadic outbreaks up there in the northeast.

[00:29:42] We have hurricanes, we have nor'easters, we have fires, we have our every, there isn't a place on the planet that isn't prone to having some kind of horrific, naturally occurring event.

[00:29:52] That does not mean it's man-made or man-caused.

[00:29:56] That's a little bit of hubris and a little bit of falsehood there.

[00:29:59] Now, the remarkable thing about what's happened since that time, that one grave that they're talking about, 14,000 unidentified and unclaimed tsunami victims are buried in that one grave.

[00:30:12] One grave, 14,000 people.

[00:30:15] More than 170,000 people died in Indonesia alone.

[00:30:19] Could you imagine if we had that kind of death toll?

[00:30:23] Let's hope we never do in any way.

[00:30:26] But looking at this, not but, in addition, looking at this, after this occurred, people from all over the world, especially the U.S., donated their time.

[00:30:38] They donated their money.

[00:30:39] They donated resources.

[00:30:42] International donors and organizations, they helped the region recover.

[00:30:46] Schools, hospitals, and essential infrastructure that were destroyed by the disaster have been reconstructed with enhanced strength and durability.

[00:30:54] So we learned, we adapt, ensuring better preparedness for future challenges.

[00:30:59] The tsunami also claimed the lives of over 8,000 people in Thailand, including many who remain missing.

[00:31:04] Nearly 400 bodies there remain unidentified and unclaimed.

[00:31:07] But early warning systems have now been installed in the coastal areas from Africa over to in the Asia area.

[00:31:12] So we learned from, we adapt.

[00:31:16] That's what we humans do so remarkably well.

[00:31:20] And we've done it here.

[00:31:22] I mean, you look at, we learned from those.

[00:31:24] I mean, when you had a Katrina happen, what I marveled at was those people live below sea level.

[00:31:31] You live below sea level.

[00:31:32] A hurricane's coming.

[00:31:34] You get out of there.

[00:31:35] You leave.

[00:31:36] To me, Katrina was not a natural disaster.

[00:31:40] It was a government-enhanced disaster.

[00:31:42] That was bad governance.

[00:31:44] That was horrific planning.

[00:31:46] That was utterly preventable.

[00:31:49] What happened in North Carolina, by and large, the amount of rain that fell in the short amount of time, there was very little.

[00:31:56] There was warning.

[00:31:56] But there was no way to know that how bad it was going to be in the mountains of North Carolina.

[00:32:01] Other than we do know that four, five, six, eight inches of rain can create problems.

[00:32:07] And they had 20, 25, 30, 40 inches of rain in many places.

[00:32:10] That is very little you can do a lot about.

[00:32:14] Missing 15 miles of an interstate, having roads completely washed out where you have to get into communities by mules and ATVs.

[00:32:22] Now, having said that, what I've seen people do, friends of mine that have gone up there to help, I've donated, many of my friends have.

[00:32:30] WBT has done a lot to help.

[00:32:33] That's what, to me, has been remarkable to watch.

[00:32:37] Not with the government.

[00:32:38] The government, the stories are so too numerous to even cover here about the lack of the way government has responded to this.

[00:32:47] There's been a lot of misinformation.

[00:32:49] There's been a lot of myth.

[00:32:50] There's been a lot of, I think, honest attempts by government officials to help, but some misguided ones as well.

[00:32:56] But we do know that I was very pleased at a town like Spruce Pine where people can come.

[00:33:02] They know how to get to a given place and get supplies.

[00:33:06] And now we're heading into winter.

[00:33:07] And let's just not forget about them.

[00:33:09] And what can we learn from that?

[00:33:11] What can we learn to make things more resilient?

[00:33:13] We can make them better.

[00:33:14] And that's what we should be doing.

[00:33:15] So as we head into 25, you can be sure about this with hurricanes.

[00:33:19] I always tell them I live down at the coast.

[00:33:21] It's not a matter of if we're going to have another hurricane.

[00:33:24] It's a matter of when.

[00:33:25] We've dodged so many bullets in the past 25 years, ever since 98, 97, 98, those horrible ones.

[00:33:31] We've had some, but nothing like we did with Floyd and Fran and those a long time ago.

[00:33:36] But it's going to happen again.

[00:33:38] And the beauty of this when I ride around down the coast is I've seen structural changes in the way things are built.

[00:33:44] I've seen people that have built even concrete houses.

[00:33:47] And these concrete houses withstand astounding forces of nature.

[00:33:52] But we know.

[00:33:54] And it'll happen again.

[00:33:55] And it doesn't mean I think we look for reasons to blame.

[00:33:59] So you look at, you say, well, it must have been because I drove that SUV that that storm was three miles an hour faster or more powerful than it was or would have been.

[00:34:10] And there's really no way to discern if that is true.

[00:34:14] Because you can have a year we were below activity overall.

[00:34:17] But when you have a horrible storm, it's easier to blame something than to say that's just the raw power of nature.

[00:34:26] It's hard for us to accept.

[00:34:29] If Yellowstone were to blow, if that caldera were to explode, there would be nothing that rivals it going back toward dinosaur times.

[00:34:39] There'd be nothing like it would make Pompeii look like a walk in the park.

[00:34:42] It would fundamentally alter this country forever.

[00:34:45] I don't even know what this country would look like after that.

[00:34:48] The northern hemisphere.

[00:34:49] It would be winter in July.

[00:34:52] And we wouldn't be able to blame climate change on that.

[00:34:55] But would people try to?

[00:34:56] I'm sure somebody would.

[00:34:58] John Kerry and Al Gore and the rest of the acolytes and bishops and priests in the Church of Climate Change would probably try to do that.

[00:35:05] But nature is just cruel.

[00:35:07] It's unrelenting.

[00:35:07] And you can't.

[00:35:08] The other thing, you don't blame God for these.

[00:35:10] You can't.

[00:35:11] I think God turned over the planet.

[00:35:12] This is me.

[00:35:13] And I'm going to irritate some people in the audience.

[00:35:15] You don't pray.

[00:35:16] If you pray for people not to get hurt in a hurricane, that's an admirable thing.

[00:35:20] But what if it turns and it hits other people?

[00:35:22] Did those people get, oh, this is just sacrilege what I'm saying.

[00:35:25] Is the planet is a wild and unforgiving place.

[00:35:30] All right.

[00:35:30] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:35:32] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:35:33] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:35:38] So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:35:42] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:35:47] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:35:49] And don't break anything while I'm gone.