Chad Adams In For Pete Kaliner (03-10-2025--Hour3)

[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.

[00:00:31] Pete Kaliner out today. Should be back bright and early tomorrow here on the Same Bat Channel, Same Bat Time. Again, if you're old enough, you know what I just said. So looking forward. So next year, this is, this is, I'm not a big, I'm not a believer in fate. I'm not a believer in, you know, the supernatural influencing day-to-day life. I'm just not that way. I love Supernatural Lit. Love it. Absolutely read it and digest it.

[00:01:00] And appreciate it because I think it's a reflection of human psychology. But next year, it is interesting to note that next year will be the 250th anniversary, I think the quarter millennial. So the 250th anniversary of the country, that'll be a very big deal.

[00:01:20] The following, it also will be the year of the Olympics. So Donald Trump will be president during those times. I know it's going to make Democrats just crazy. Now, that may be helpful to the Republicans. If we're heading into a centennial of some sort, then it's going to be fascinating to see how that plays.

[00:01:39] If you're an America first agenda and you're very American oriented, you're going to be thrilled about that. I mean, and that could be very helpful. Again, it's interesting that the facts on the ground often steer people's thoughts or what they're thinking about, what they're reflecting on. I think next year, you know, just like in 1976, we're going to be very much interested in our country. I think we're going to be interested and reflecting what does it mean? What is what have we accomplished? What is what are we yet to accomplish?

[00:02:08] It's a kind of a reflection and look forward on what's going to happen? You know, have the Olympics. So we'll hopefully not just be celebrating the country, but celebrating our country's competitive nature. Now, let's take a moment and reflect on what the Democrats have found themselves getting. Again, I hate to be repetitive here. I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to lack creativity here.

[00:02:30] It is just a juxtaposition of what's valuable. One team is saying we really want to defend the borders from an invading force of people that we don't know that some of those people are trying to better their lives. Yes, some of those people mean to do us harm. If you're a terrorist organization, the best way to get into our country is find a way to get to Mexico, come across the border and get yourself organized and ready to perpetrate acts that hurt the country. Democrats do not do not acknowledge that last part.

[00:02:57] And furthermore, there are legal ways to get here. You heard a caller earlier on this very broadcast, clearly someone who got here legally. And if you want to see the most vehement anti-illegal perspective are the people who came here legally and fought tooth and nail to get here legally and establish themselves as citizens.

[00:03:20] I loved his comment when he said, I still love my food. I still love soccer, you know, but that's my culture. That's not my country. USA first. That's the attitude that people that have become citizens typically have. The left doesn't seem to care or understand that the fact that the American public sees the left is disconnected from border security is a problem for them.

[00:03:44] And through the Doge thing, you would think if I were a Democrat, and again, I'm unfortunately giving them free advice. If I were a Democrat, and I really believed in all of these big government things, one of the things I would like to assert, I would say, you know what? I'm glad that Doge is there. I'm glad that Musk and his team are doing this for us because that means that the dollars that we are taking from taxpayers and spending on these programs are helping the people that's intended to help.

[00:04:14] Do Democrats do that? Golden opportunity? Nope, they do not. Instead, Elon Musk is an oligarch that must be stopped. Elon Musk is enriching himself. Now, they can't provide any proof that he's enriching himself. So what are they? Here's what Democrats do. They attack the messenger. So Musk identifies waste, fraud, and abuse, and Democrats attack Musk. Not only that, but their crazies on the ground start attacking cars. They're attacking Teslas. Now, the transaction where someone bought a Tesla has already taken place.

[00:04:43] Remember, the darling of the left was Elon Musk producing these EVs, and the left thought it's going to save the planet. So now that transaction has taken place. Most of the people who own Teslas, not all of them, but many of them lean left. And so they attack the cars, and they're attacking the people that are in the cars. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's almost unfathomable that that's the way they're conducting themselves. They have the opportunity, again, to be pro-America.

[00:05:12] They could even say, you know what? We really, I don't know. I don't understand that. So you've got the Tesla situation. They're attacking cars. They're attacking, and they like this physical assault stuff, which is a very unfortunate place that we find ourselves in American history, where it's okay to try to kill a president. I don't know why that's okay. But as they're looking forward, you would think, even on the war, you would think that the left would say, hey, let's try to stop this war.

[00:05:41] Let's try to stop the killing of innocents. Let's find a way. Russia bad, Russia bad, Russia bad. Let's end the war. Instead, they're like, no end in sight. Billions of dollars spent. Is there any, is there any, if we spend this money, what's the outcome? Endless war? Or the Democrats of the 60s would not have been that way, I don't think. I mean, Lyndon Johnson, I guess, got us into, well, Kennedy got us into Vietnam. Johnson kept us there. Nixon brought us home? Weird.

[00:06:10] So I don't know. And again, if you're looking for who is the messenger for the Democrats at this point in time, I don't know who you would go to. It's certainly not Pelosi. It's not the octogenarians of Pelosi and almost octogenarian Schumer. It's not Adam Schiff. It's not Gavin Newsom, although I think he would like to be. They've got a virtue signal and find someone that's a, it's not going to be, you know, the Obama team. Obama's gone. It's not Team Clinton. It's so, I mean, there's a massive vacuum.

[00:06:39] There's no one to assume the mantle. I think Newsom is probably the closest to someone who can adopt, you know, try to transition into some of these issues, lean into them a little bit. But there have been several Democrats like Carville that said, we need to get away from this identity politics stuff. It's killing us. And it is. And then when you look at the collective group of Maxine Waters, by the way, Maxine, I've seen interviews with her lately. She's really, she's not well. Elizabeth Warren.

[00:07:09] I mean, it's, I mean, when the president of the United States calls you out in his address to Congress, right to her face, it was, and she was sitting there on her phone the whole time. Bernie. I mean, Bernie, if I play, and here's something interesting about Bernie. So Bernie made the news. He had about 4,000 people at a rally. The person that sang a song at the Bernie rally, I cannot play that song for you on air. It is about God raping someone.

[00:07:39] And it, I can't, I can't, even if I wanted to play you the song, it would get an FCC violation against the station. It would, it would have an X rating. Well, if songs could have an X rating, it would have it because it's very, very flagrant, very vulgar. And that was the Bernie Sanders song at the rally they played. I can't even play it for you on air. How do they think that that brings people to their cause?

[00:08:08] And how you can tell, how you can tell this is, that what I'm, that there is veracity, that you can verify what I'm telling you to be true, is that the Democrats at the state level are not grabbing hold and running with that. The Democrats in the state of North Carolina are not interested in any of this. And John, I tell you what, John, I've got to take a break here. And I apologize. You came in right here as a break. We're going to go to the break, come back. I want to get you in, in, in the queue there.

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[00:09:35] And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creativevideo.com. John, if you are there, let's go ahead and wrap. What's going on, man? Yeah, how you doing? I'm a lifelong Democrat. I keep an open mind on things. There are things I like about what Trump is doing and a lot of things I don't like. And I will agree that the Democrats are in disarray right now.

[00:10:02] But what I find most interesting is listening to your station a lot, is the last week virtually every host is mostly talking about the Democrats. And I have a theory about that. And my theory is that the Trump administration is a big cluster, you know what. The stock market is tanking. Tariffs are threatening a recession. His ratings are down.

[00:10:33] He's, you know, tariffs are on. Tariffs are off. I mean, it's been a disaster, frankly, which is really why you're mostly talking about the Democrats right now. And one thing I wanted to point out in particular about some of the hypocrisy about the attacks, and some of them are legitimate, but the whole thing, oh, they didn't stand during this, they didn't clap during that.

[00:10:55] Well, during Biden's last State of the Union, he said political violence has no place in this country, and not a single Republican stood up, not a single Republican clapped. So it goes both ways. But there were times during Biden, even Biden's speeches, where both sides stood up and clapped. Well, that may be true. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We haven't.

[00:11:23] But if you can't stand up and clap for political violence has no place in the country, then I'm sorry, that's a party that's morally bankrupt. But he talked about, but he also labeled white supremacy as the number one terrorist threat to the country. Well, it is, and that's what the FBI... It's not, it's not, it's not even close. Now, I'm not, I appreciate your perspective, but you said some things that I want to go to to get there. It's not a cluster.

[00:11:49] If you look, in fact, Economist YouGov poll that was released, these are the latest ones. Emerson had Trump favorable 46, unfavorable... These are the most recent RealClearPolitics. Anybody can go look at them. And that was 46-45. Economist YouGov poll, which is even more recent, is 47-52. So his numbers are not tanking. And I appreciate you trying to say they are, but they're not. I mean, that's just not a true statement.

[00:12:15] And when you look at the markets, yeah, tariffs, uncertainty with tariffs creates uncertainty in markets. Markets love certainty. But don't pretend that the past four years... Remember when inflation was transitory? It never was transitory. I mean, surely you didn't fall for the it's transitory thing. Did you? I don't know what you mean by it was transitory. Oh, it was just not, it wasn't a thing. It wasn't real. They were saying, oh, it's just... Of course it was real.

[00:12:43] It was real, but they denied it was real the whole time. It was real. After a pandemic that Trump ignored and created. How did he ignore it? In what way did he ignore it? In what way did it... Oh, he said it was going to go away in no time. But wasn't warp speed... Didn't warp speed, for those who love the... Warp speed took place under Trump, did it not? The pandemic was pretty much over by the time Biden took office. Yeah, he finally paid attention to it.

[00:13:11] And more people died under Biden than Trump, by the way. What's that? But more people died... Anyway, I'm not going to get into that because you have transitioned... The main point I'm making is this administration so far has been, other than the border crossing, which I'll give him credit for, other than that, it's been an abject disaster of going back and forth, hiring people, firing people, tariffs on, tariffs off. It's complete instability.

[00:13:39] It's a bunch of clown car billionaires and drunken fox host people. It's a joke. It's a joke of the government. Wait, that's fine. And soon enough, when we go into a recession, the poll numbers will change. And then you'll have to start to talk about what... Well, let's talk about some of these policies because I agree with you. I think there is... Well, I don't agree with everything you said. But what I am saying is we are definitely in a transition period. There's no doubt about that.

[00:14:08] This is one of the most rapid transitions we've ever seen in our lifetime. You haven't seen a president this active, Republican or Democrat. I mean, not Reagan, not Bush, not Clinton. They've been very active, hitting the ground running, whether you agree or not. I appreciate that we agree on the border. Plus, I think you want a secure border. What I'm hearing you say is you're getting... Of course, everyone wants a secure border. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody didn't. The previous administration did not. Remember they said they couldn't do anything without Congress?

[00:14:36] And they blamed Trump for stopping stuff at the border? And then we find in five or six weeks that... Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Right. We agree on that. But don't forget that you had an administration that said nothing could be done about it. So we were told that for four years. I don't know about that. Wait. You think the Biden administration did everything they could to secure the border? They... Yes? No, I'm saying I don't know if they said those words. But I'm sure they didn't... I'm agreeing they didn't have a good border policy. Okay.

[00:15:06] Move on. Now, so we do have a situation where Trump is very provocative. I went through... In fact, I went through Trump in Greenland, Trump in Ukraine, Trump in Gaza, Trump in NATO. I did talk about all of those issues. It wasn't just about Democrats. It's about the nature of those conversations. Correct? I wasn't listening while I did. Oh, you were? Okay. That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Absolutely fair. And I appreciate your perspective.

[00:15:31] I'm just talking about, in general, your hosts on your station are not really talking much about accomplishments. They're talking mostly about how bad the Democrats are. And I think that's because Trump has been a disaster so far other than the border. Let me agree with you in this way. And this is one thing I don't like. I'm concerned, and I open the show with this. My biggest concern with Democrats right now is their hatred of Trump overcomes their desire to debate issues.

[00:16:00] And I think that we saw that for the past four years, six years, eight years on MSNBC and CNN. The same criticism you would have of Fox and – you didn't include Newsmax, but I'll throw Newsmax in there. Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, National Review. I could throw a bunch of things on the right. The same criticism you would have of those organizations, which I agree are right-leaning, are the same criticism I think many people would have. You would agree that MSNBC and CNN by and large have been dominated by Trump hatred for the past eight, ten years.

[00:16:30] Yeah. Would you agree with – okay. So we agree. I would agree that both sides hate each other and do not want to cooperate with each other. And that's not productive for the country. I agree. I like John Fetterman. I think people need to be more like him. There needs to be opportunities to work together, absolutely. But that doesn't – Do you like Rand Paul? I mean, you mentioned Fetterman. Would you like someone like Rand Paul? I think Rand Paul's very clear. I think that libertarian is a pipe dream.

[00:16:56] I mean, if you could start the country over from scratch, maybe you could implement some of those policies. But for the most part, other than things like free speech, libertarianism is just – it's not a viable – But don't you think that social moderates are kind of libertarian? So fiscally conservative, socially moderate is – Yeah. I mean, I think if you don't want to just like eliminate the government completely,

[00:17:21] but you want to have a smaller government, then yes, I can agree with a libertarian position as being a viable one. Okay. So, again – Well, I agree with that Trump has pretty much been a disaster. Maybe you could explain that to some of your co-hosts. Well, I don't – because I don't think – I think we're in a transition. You're judging an entire administration on one month – one and a half months. True. It's early. It's early. We'll see.

[00:17:50] We'll see. At least you'll say we'll see. I don't think it's been a disaster yet. You've got a cabinet confirmation process that's been expedited in a way we haven't seen. You've got a lot of activity going on. I think you do would like – I said this earlier in the show. I think most people on the left would like a lot of doge because it would ultimately mean that the dollars that are being spent on these social programs that the left cares about would be spent more on the people who need it the most. You would agree? You're right.

[00:18:19] Well, and what's interesting is that clearly the protests or the calls or whatever are working because you'll notice that the Republicans are now using the talking point that the Democrats first use, which is not a cleaver, but a scalpel. And the Republicans are now using that. So because they're realizing, yeah, you can't fire people with the nuclear codes. John? When you say, I want to hire them back, they're going to say, F you, you know.

[00:18:45] John, I want to make sure you feel you were treated fairly and that we held the break for you, and I appreciate you calling in, okay? Yeah, thanks so much. Appreciate it, man. You got it. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain? And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion,

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[00:20:05] and make memories that'll last a lifetime. And I found, I love calls. It sounds like a trope, doesn't it? It sounds like some kind of repetitive, broken record. For those of you who know what records are. A broken CD. It's hard to believe that even saying broken CD is kind of dating you, isn't it? So many of you, 8-tracks, then you knew cassettes, then you knew, you know, you knew LP. LPs are making a comeback, though. I know people that are, you know, scrounging through little stores getting those things.

[00:20:33] But John's call, I find calls interesting. And I found John's call interesting because I, he is illustrative of the division that is more emotional than rational. And it's on both sides. I'm not castigating John, okay? I'm not picking on John. John took the time to make a phone call here to get his point across, and he's appreciated for doing so. And I think it is easy. One of the easy things, well, I wouldn't say easy.

[00:21:00] Being a talk show host, imagine trying to talk and be in a good mood for three hours every day or four, you know, in Winterville's case. Every day, you know, that's, there's a lot to it. There's a lot more work to being a host than you may think. Nonetheless, it is sometimes easy to just go other side bad. Those are bad people. They're bad. They're bad. They're, you know, I'm a policy guy. I was a former elected official. I've worked in think tanks. I've been a radio host.

[00:21:28] I've been very blessed in many endeavors in life, and I'm thankful for them. Business owner, you know, and been around these circles of power on both sides for a long time. Now, I've only been a Republican and conservative for all that time, but been around them. So, as I, as I listened to him, you can see the, the, the way he feels about Trump, the way many people on the right feel about someone like Adam Schiff or Nancy Pelosi. It's, it's, you know, he said it's just a train.

[00:21:56] I don't think he used the word train wreck, but he used a cluster is what he said. It's a cluster for the past month and a half. And I think it's very difficult to judge an entire administration in a month and a half. Now, if I were on the receiving end of what's happening in the stock market today, you absolutely could say that. I mean, the stock markets have been a very, very strange day to say the least. I mean, the Dow was off. I think, I don't know if it still is, but it was off about 900 points.

[00:22:21] I'll update that here in a second because all I have to do is pull it up and it'll give me the latest and greatest on that. So, yeah, the NASDAQ is down almost 4%. The Dow's off 926 over 2%. So, yeah, today the, I think Trump's news conference where he answered a lot of questions and did not put a cap on saying there's going to be a recession. And that unleashed the uncertainty.

[00:22:48] Having been an investment broker at one time, I can tell you uncertainty. I see there could be a fallacy there called appeal to authority, but uncertain markets don't like uncertainty. They don't know if there's going to be tariffs, how long they're going to be, how long it's going to last. But it doesn't like that. And so this is a bit volatile. Tariffs are used. Now, it's not good for them either. So it's not good for Mexico. It's not good for Canada. It's not good for anybody involved in this. You don't want to get in an escalating trade war.

[00:23:17] What you want is you want trade partners that are treating each other equitably. Now, the Canadians have had some massive tariffs on a lot of stuff that we've been selling for some time. This is an adjustment to that. There will be an adjustment period. I don't know how far this will go. Would it go all the way to recession? I think a lot of people in the market, I found several stories. And this is not from anybody that I think loves Trump by any stretch. But this is over at CNBC.

[00:23:43] A three-week market sell-off intensified on Monday with investors worried about tariff policy uncertainty, tipping the economy into a recession, something Trump did not rule out over the weekend. The Dow Jones dropped 864 points. It's now over 900. The S&P shed 2.8% NASDAQ, down about 4.3% more tech-heavy. Both the S&P and tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped their lowest level since September of last year.

[00:24:08] The NASDAQ was weighed down by declines in the Magnificent Seven cohort, Tesla, Alphabet, Meta, NVIDIA, all of those. But the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell nine basis points to four and a quarter, or a little less than four and a quarter. But when you think about this, you go on to the quotes about what people are saying. We are in the throes of a manufactured correction. I say manufactured because it's really based in response to the new administration's tariff programs, or at least the threats, and what kind of an impact that will have on the economy.

[00:24:37] Now with people talking about potential recession, I think it's just adding to concern, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for CFRA Research. Right now we're going through a typical pullback and probably will experience a correction, mild, before it's all completed, which actually would be good for the resetting of the dials on this ongoing bull market. There could be even more turbulence this week with a heavy dose of economic data. Data, by the way, that's been compiled prior to Trump taking office. It's going to be the result that we'll see.

[00:25:05] But again, this isn't panic, but it is one of those days that you're going to kind of remember. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information.

[00:25:36] 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 shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:26:02] 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. In the break, I was trying to figure out a way to fit the square peg in a round hole,

[00:26:24] and to say that I wish we could get away from the weapons of mass distraction, the politics of personal destruction. I don't foresee that happening. It's too cool and trendy and hip to kind of just attack an individual. I've been going after the Democrats collectively because I think they're very myopic in the way they want to ride this out. There is no way. And we saw this when George Bush took on Social Security to try to say, we have a problem with Social Security.

[00:26:54] We don't need to kick it down. He went on a national tour. I actually went to see him in Raleigh when he came in. And immediately, because he was trying to fix a known problem with Social Security, he was trying to fix that issue, his own party attacked him, and it shut down the discussion, and so there was no reform. Entitlement reform is the third rail of American politics.

[00:27:22] Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security. If you want to save it, they'll put a stake through your heart, and they'll throw your body in the rearview. They'll bury it. They'll cut you up in little bitty pieces and then wash you downstream and then find you and put you on a funeral pyre and burn you like a Viking funeral. That's how bad it is. You are politically toast if you touch those. No one has attempted. This is the closest we've ever come to fixing,

[00:27:47] and you cannot fix the problem of government insolvency and debt and deficit spending without touching those entitlements. Now, that doesn't mean you have to cut people's benefits. That doesn't mean you end them. The problem is if you try to improve them, you will be pilloried by the other side. Now, Dems will never touch it. There's not enough money you can put into any given government program that a Democrat would say, you know what? It's fully funded. We don't need to do it. And you can see that in teaching.

[00:28:17] So as education has gone downhill and money spent on per pupil has gone through the roof, there's never enough. You could never, Roy Cooper in eight years of being governor never ever said, you know what? I think those increases are enough. Whatever the Republicans said, he would just double and say, see, they're underfunding education. I would do, I would give more. And you can add that to any government program. Democrats typically, EPA needs more money. Education needs more money. I don't know. Infrastructure needs more money.

[00:28:47] Whatever it is, their answer is always, it's predictable as the wind. And I challenge any of you Democrats to point out otherwise. They don't. They don't see that there's a dollar amount at which they would say, you know what? It's doing great. In fact, it's doing so well we can cut it. Republicans' desire to cut it is mired with their courage to do so.

[00:29:10] So this is the first time in our lifetime that, well, you had Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich that work together to have a balanced budget. But it was still delaying the inevitable problems with entitlements. And Newt Gingrich would tell you that. Bill Clinton, in a moment of honesty, would if there wasn't a woman in the room. So looking at this, Trump is taking a through doge, is attempting something that nobody in our lifetime has done. We have to get the waste, fraud, and abuse out.

[00:29:39] We should get rid of programs that don't service the American public. You see that with the Department of Education being gone is a good step. How much of the environmental side can states stand? I think a lot. I think a lot of the federal stuff, you can do a lot less at the federal level. We can do almost everything less at the federal level. But at some point, we will have to discuss how to save those three entitlements. I don't know if a Democrat will be in office then. I don't know if a Republican will be in office then.

[00:30:06] I don't know if even this administration, which from a government-cutting standpoint is the most courageous we've seen in our lifetime, could do that. I don't know. But this uncertainty right now, I mean, in fact, if you want to look, there's plenty of Forbes and others that are saying, look, there are a lot of contraindicators. There are plenty of people that can raise their odds to a 20% that there'll be a recession this year. You can say that.

[00:30:32] You could also say that rising recession odds and the prospects of sharply negative economic growth sound like the sky is falling. But there's a lot of evidence to suggest the U.S. isn't on the doorstep of a downturn. There's plenty of it. And this is from Forbes. As recently as the summer of 23, Goldman's recession model signaled a more than 30% of chance of recession just before the U.S. ripped off seven consecutive quarters of more growth. So if we make it through, I think this is going to be a difficult transition period. No doubt in my mind.

[00:31:00] Will consumer confidence be shaken? Don't know. I mean, actually, I think it will be at some point. People are going to get a little scared because people don't like uncertainty. Nobody, nobody likes uncertainty. So the prospects that it could be rough in the short term. But I think the American public has been conditioned to say there's going to be some tough times ahead. But getting on the other side of that, there could be tremendous upside. Or as Trump would say, upside like we've never seen before, like the country's never seen the golden era, he says and promises.

[00:31:34] All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepcalendarshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.