Democrats now support tax dollars for religious groups! (02-05-2025--Hour2)

[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] A post here by Indian Bronson on Twitter. I think this captures it well. What's happening in America is roughly equivalent to the yearbook committee and theater kid types getting rocked by a football team chess club alliance.

[00:00:48] I would say, I would say maybe not the chess club, but the math club maybe, or the computer club, something like that. Do they still do computer club? I don't know. Not all schools probably have computer clubs or chess clubs for that matter, I guess. But yeah.

[00:01:05] So USAID, there is a reason that's perfectly explained. There's a completely rational explanation, logical explanation here for why Democrats and media are squealing like stuck pigs over the release and or the takeover of the USAID.

[00:01:26] And now the release of all of this information. Yeah. It's because they've been using it as their personal piggy bank. That's, that's the obvious explanation here, people. That's it. And Chuck Schumer, you know, leading the charge as he does when there's nobody else to do it. It's pretty, it's pretty sad. I'll play you that in a minute. If I heard it, you have to also. Okay. That's the rule. And let me go over here and talk to Jeff. Hello, Jeff. Welcome to the program.

[00:01:55] Hi, Pete. Thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir. And thanks for giving some time to this. And I have to say that I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, that religious organizations seem to be on the list for receiving USAID aid money. Well, I would point out that those are simply religious fronts. They're not really religious.

[00:02:20] They use the religion as a front to do the work of neo-Marxists. Okay. Well, looking over the list, unfortunately, yeah, I found my church organization on there. Uh-huh. Which one was that? They're not a front. Pardon? Which one was that? Well, I just won't say, but they're on it. Is it Catholic Charities?

[00:02:51] No. Oh, okay. Because I think they were on it, too. No, no. Okay. No, no, no. It's totally different from the Catholic Church. But, you know, I always thought that for the demon rats, that was a total no-no. You know, you had to have separation of church and state. Mm-hmm. Right. Well, and...

[00:03:09] Right. So, the thing about Marxists, they lie. So, they're not for a separation of church and state, like they claim to be when conservatives, you know, express religious views or something. It's just a... It's a rhetorical weapon. We know this, and we've known it for decades, because they constantly use the pulpit to whip votes for themselves in particularly black churches.

[00:03:38] This happens all the time. Right, candidates? I mean, remember Hillary Clinton? I ain't always, no ways tired, or whatever it was that she did, you know, with the black dialect adopted. They've been doing this for a long time. So, this is not a principled stand. It's something that they just say in order to get you to stop doing the thing that may limit their ability to gain more power or control. Right, right.

[00:04:05] Well, you know, I hope this leads the taxpayers to look at the list and find out if their organizations are on there. If they are, then they need to be pinging the leadership of these organizations, which I claim to do. Mm-hmm. I'm going to start asking some questions about the leaders in my organization and find out, you know, just what's going on here and who said you could do this.

[00:04:28] What? So, all right, so your organization, your church, or an affiliated organization, I don't know, is it, well, I'll ask, is it the church, or is it like an organization that's affiliated with the church? Um, well, I'm not sure about the nomenclature that's on the list. Okay.

[00:04:48] But the way it looks, it looks like it has come out of the church hierarchy, either at the state level or at the federal level, at the national level. Okay. So, and it's a grant or it's funding coming from USAID to the church itself, and does it say what the money is supposed to be used for?

[00:05:12] Um, well, some of it, well, um, some of it was definitely, um, um, immigration relocation services. Uh, some of it was billed as health services. Um, so there's a whole lot there to look at, and, you know, the list is so long, I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to, uh, parse this all out.

[00:05:37] But, uh, the taxpayers, like I say, they need to be looking at this and say, who, right, who's on the list? And if you're part of that, then you need to be asking some questions. Yeah. Why have you been taking money from the federal government? Well, from the taxpayers. Right. From the taxpayers in order to do certain work that maybe your congregation might not be cool with. You know, this has been a problem for, and I mentioned Catholic charities.

[00:06:04] There are a lot of Catholics that are not cool with, uh, what the Catholic charities organization has been doing. They're essentially participating in a human trafficking operation. And by, by, you know, by quote, helping illegal aliens come across the border and they're, and they're, they're with them from the beginning of the journey all the way through. And then putting them into housing, giving them money and stuff. And like that is, so in my view, that is a front.

[00:06:33] That is a, it's a front by Marxists to use the, the religious organization in order to say, we are a nonprofit. We're a charity. We're a church charity. So therefore, we're a non-government organization, an NGO, and this is what we're doing as, as part of our humanitarian outreach or something, our charitable works. And what you're doing is actually destabilizing the country. And you're helping people violate law.

[00:07:03] And that's, again, that's not something that a lot of Catholics are happy with. And Catholic Charities made a bunch of money off of this program at a USAID. And I'm sure that part of this money is probably going to fund the salaries and the costs for running these offices. Absolutely. That are supposedly providing this. So, you know, I don't know what kind of transparency there's going to be in my organization, but I'm going to find out. Yeah, good luck with that. And this is one of the problems.

[00:07:32] Yeah, it's one of the problems USAID has been has had for a while and has been called out for a while, for years, in that they are not transparent. And that's why we're getting now a look at all of this stuff, because now we're seeing what they've been doing. And they have refused congressional oversight for years. And I suspect this is why. Jeff, I appreciate the call, sir. Good luck to you on your on your investigation.

[00:07:57] Elon Musk tweeted out that fraud in the federal government, he says, is probably closer to 10 percent of disbursements. So that would put it at something like seven hundred billion dollars per year. Outright waste, he says, is like another 15 percent. So we're looking at like a trillion dollars annually. Anybody who works in government knows this, he said. He also posted a video, which was an old video from back in October.

[00:08:26] And I actually played this video on or the audio from it on the program at the time. And he reposted it again today. There's certainly a lot of work for a department of government efficiency. And there will be immense opposition, obviously, to making government more efficient from entrenched interests that currently benefit from, you know, sucking away vast amounts of taxpayer money. They will not like the fact that they're not getting it anymore. They will fight tooth and nail.

[00:08:56] So but it's got to be done. And like I said, we're going to aim to reduce government spending, get government out of people's lives as much as possible and restore freedom and liberty. That's the mission. That's the mission. And here's the thing that the kicker on all of this is that and this has always been the case. And there's a psychology behind it. I've covered it years ago.

[00:09:24] So the people that advocate for the creation of new government programs and services to, quote unquote, help people, you would think they would be they would be the biggest hawks watching over. The expenditures. You would think that they would care the most about rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, because. Because.

[00:09:53] If you are truly motivated to, quote, help people with these government programs and services, any wasted dollar, any stolen dollar is a dollar that's not helping the people that you claim motivated you to do the thing you did by implementing the policy. But it always seems like once you get the policy in place or the agency in place and the spigot turned on, then it's like, don't you dare assail them. Don't you look at their stuff? Why is that?

[00:10:22] There's a psychology, as I said, it's because they actually get the endorphin hit. They. They. They get off on the knowledge that people see them. Taking a position of helping others. That's what they're that's the juice they're trying to get from the squeeze. That's what they like. It's a psychological thing. They they like the fact that people look at them and say, oh, look at that. They did this really good thing.

[00:10:51] And that makes them feel good. And it doesn't matter if the thing actually works. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing. And then somebody says, hey, dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

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[00:11:49] Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Create a Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. Think of the difference regarding Jeff's call there about, you know, religious organizations that have been getting government funds through these grants.

[00:12:13] Think of the difference in the way Democrats and media, but I repeat myself, have attacked school vouchers that go to religious schools. Right? And they constantly complain about separation of church and state, tax dollars for church organizations and all that. This is an outrage that we are all supposed to care about when it comes to the school vouchers.

[00:12:36] But when it comes to shepherding people hundreds or thousands of miles across our border and then setting them up when they get into America, that's okay. We can give, yeah, take tax dollars and give that to church organizations. That's okay. Right? There is not a consistent standard. That's the point here. Doc, welcome to the program. Hello, Doc. Yeah, appreciate you taking my call.

[00:13:06] I have two comments for you that I'd like to address. One is the fact that it seems like every time the United States goes to war with somebody, we always go back and rebuild their countries better than it was before. In regards to Gaza, they want to kill the Jews and the Americans.

[00:13:28] I think Trump should leave that place alone, leave it desolated as it is, and let it be a memorial to all other people that want to attack Israel or the United States. Hey, this is what's going to happen to you. We have no business over there. Leave the thing alone. So you're not interested in seeing a Gaza Lago built along the coastline there? No, sir.

[00:13:57] I think the whole place should be left alone, leave it desolated. And we don't need to rebuild nothing. If they want to do some rebuilding, let's rebuild these homes in North Carolina and highways and the houses out in California that were burnt. Use our money for our people. If you look at the book of Timothy, it says an individual that does not take care of his own is no better than an infidel.

[00:14:25] So let's take care of the American people. My second issue is schools. If our schools... Yeah, I'm almost out of time, Doc, so make the point quickly. If our school system is so bad, why are we teaching other countries, these kids coming over here and influencing ours in colleges? I know it's a money thing from the colleges. Thank you for your time. All right, man. Yeah, Doc, I appreciate it. No, it's a good question.

[00:14:49] Because yesterday we covered the Helene recovery efforts and the budget proposal, right, for that recovery. And what's the total peg debt? It's like $60 billion to rebuild Western North Carolina. $60 billion. You know what USAID gets? $40 billion every single year. So to Doc's point, seems like there's some money there. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events.

[00:15:19] And I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news.com. I put the link in the podcast description too.

[00:15:46] 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.com. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:16:12] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Eric Daugherty reports he's assistant news director for Florida Voice News. And he reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi orders the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities and orders prosecution of any jurisdiction impeding immigration enforcement.

[00:16:42] So there is that. Outrage shall ensue over that. By the way, part of the shock and awe strategy that we are seeing here from the White House is that not only does it sort of splinter the opposition that doesn't know where to direct their fire, you know, and target something with, you know, and focus all their energy on this one thing.

[00:17:08] It is also a dismantling of the power of the narrative crafters in the legacy media because much in the same way, you know, the main legacy outlets, New York Times, Washington Post, right? The major networks, CNN, right? They would take a story and that would drive all the coverage on a particular day.

[00:17:31] But when there is so many different things, it's now splintering it all apart and they don't have time to respond before the next thing comes out. So they don't get their narratives crafted and calcified in a timely fashion. I don't know if that's by design, but it is definitely one of the results.

[00:17:52] Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst told Newsmax that members of the USAID, Agency for International Development, have obstructed and even threatened her efforts to oversee how it distributes money. Funds, she said, often do not go toward their initially intended purposes.

[00:18:14] This alleged redirection of funds prompted Ernst to question USAID about its operational practices, a move she said was met with resistance and even threats. She said her concerns escalated to the point where she, alongside Republican Texas Representative Mike McCall, initiated a formal investigation into USAID's activities.

[00:18:37] Quote, we know in the example of Ukraine, and this is why I was very focused on, is the humanitarian aid wasn't getting distributed to humanitarian aid contractors. Instead, oh, by the way, did you see the Ukrainian guy Zelensky? He did some interview, I forget with whom, and he said how, like, they haven't seen like 70, 75% of the stuff that they were promised.

[00:19:03] So all those aid packages that Biden pushed out the door, like, we have, he's like, we haven't seen the vast majority of that. So where is that gone? Good question. Instead, she says, the money was being sent to the United Nations, where we have absolutely no idea where that money is going from that point forward.

[00:19:24] So we tried to call the question on USAID, and again, they threatened us, they stonewalled us until I was able to join forces with Mike McCall and denounce a formal investigation of the agency. And then even they slow walked providing any data to us. So once again, like the Mott and Bailey tactic is being employed.

[00:19:48] Mott and Bailey tactic, or the fallacy as it's referred to, although the guy who created it named it that, he says it's not a fallacy. But it equates a controversial claim with an easily defensible one. So the Mott, the easily defensible one, is we give humanitarian aid. We give wheat and peanut paste and stuff to starving children, right? Oh, well, that's a good thing. Everybody supports that. That's not bad.

[00:20:17] Easily defendable position. The Bailey, which is the controversial one, is the Peruvian transgender comic books, right? Or the transgender operas in Guatemala, right? Like, that's more controversial. You're pushing this stuff through the USAID. You're using taxpayer dollars to fund this stuff. And those are just the ones that we're aware of. By the way, before I forget again, Data Republican.

[00:20:44] If you are on Twitter, formerly known as X, you want to follow or at least look at the tweets by this account. Data Republican. Data Republican. And she's got a website.

[00:21:02] So she has gone through and created a search engine to help you track nonprofit leadership and then follow the USAID grants that flow through the agency. She's been building this for, like, the last week or so. And, like, I've been following her. And she's talked about how, like, she's running into some problems. But anyway, so, like, she was showing us, like, early development. And now it's done.

[00:21:31] And so you can search by principal officers, right? So you can find nonprofits that are connected to maybe somebody's specific name. You can look up the EIN, you know, the tax number or, yeah, the identifiable number, right? Their tax number. The nonprofit name, you can look that up. And then once you find that with the EIN or the nonprofit name, you can find all of the officers.

[00:21:57] So you can follow the money trail and trace how the money gets sent from the USAID grant process and how it flows into the NGOs. Like the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, Global Communities, Internews Network. Oh, yeah. USAID was involved in this combating disinformation garbage.

[00:22:25] The Consortium for Elections, PACT, Incorporated, Institute of International Education, East-West Management Institute, Church World Service, Incorporated. All right? So you can find through this website, through this search tool, you can find the organizations. Again, it's datarepublican.com is her website. The data all comes from IRS Form 990s.

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[00:24:08] Or check out all there is to offer at CabinsOfAsheville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I've just been plugging in Catholic Charities, Diocese of Charlotte. Oh, that's interesting. Look at all that money. So President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, the Doge, Chair Elon Musk, initiated the dismantling of USAID with plans to merge its functions into the State Department,

[00:24:37] Musk said in an early Monday teleconference, if you will, on X. They call it spaces. It's basically like a conference call. He said that Trump had decided to close USAID. The Trump administration directed the agency staff to telecommute with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stepping in as the acting director and criticizing the agency's operations as akin to a global charity.

[00:25:06] Trump, this is by the way from the Daily Caller News Foundation, Trump, during a news conference on Monday at the Oval Office, said USAID merger with the State Department should have been done a long time ago. He said, quote, they went crazy during the Biden administration. They went totally crazy with what they were doing and the money they were giving to people that shouldn't be getting it. The Trump administration put on leave, on administrative leave,

[00:25:33] almost all USAID employees starting on Friday as it evaluates the agency's role and how it distributes taxpayer dollars. By the way, for the lefties that are saying he can't do this, he is the leader of the executive branch. If the executive branch top administrator cannot put people on leave to assess whether or not these things are being, the programs and services are being administered as per the law,

[00:26:03] then who's in charge? Like you don't get to have a standalone agency that you run that is taxpayer funded with no oversight or accountability. That's not the way the system works. And you guys on the left have made it your mission to accumulate power in the executive branch. I've been yelling and screaming against this. And I got to say, Donald Trump has pleasantly surprised me with this effort because this has been,

[00:26:31] it's why I was a Rand Paul supporter back in 2016, because Rand Paul was the only one talking about trying to rip apart some of the consolidation of power inside the executive branch. And I understand Trump is using that power now. He is wielding it, but he is doing so in order to what? To strip away the quote unquote deep state, the administrative state, the managerial class.

[00:26:59] The amount of people, Liz Cheney came out of USAID, if that tells you anything, right? It is essentially a money laundering operation for a particular kind of person, family, right? The connected nepo babies and such. It is a shadow government, all indications. And it's not just that, by the way. It is also the cover for CIA operations overseas.

[00:27:28] Stuff the CIA used to do on its own. All got offloaded, not all, but a lot of it got offloaded. And there are examples that we know of. Okay, remember this. 2011, remember this story? That we were using vaccination efforts in Pakistan. Sorry, Pakistan. That we were using vaccination efforts in poor Pakistani villages and stuff

[00:27:55] as a way to get their biometrics. Remember that? Yeah, we were going through and administering vaccines and stuff while at the same time collecting DNA, basically, in order to try to what? To find Osama bin Laden and create databases and stuff. That was USAID, but it was CIA. Right?

[00:28:20] So, like, they foment color revolutions in other countries. Right? They look for coalitions that they can build to then weaponize against sitting governments, democratically elected governments, for whatever reason they choose. And I'm sorry, but, like, that is, and there's a guy named Mike Benz. I was watching some of his stuff yesterday and this morning. Former State Department guy. He's like, this creates massive diplomatic problems for the State Department.

[00:28:51] They'll never trust us again. We say we're going to go in and we're going to help them do something. We're going to help you fight this or we're going to help you get healthy or combat some flu or something. And meanwhile, they know these stories and they're like, well, what else are you doing while you're here? Now they view us with suspicion. Now they think all of the humanitarian efforts are actually subterfuge. That is, they're just cover operations for something the CIA is trying to do. That may not be to the benefit

[00:29:20] of the people that you're supposedly helping. So if the purpose of USAID is soft power diplomacy, you are undermining the very purpose of the institution itself, of the agency itself. The thing that you say you're doing is undermined by what you are doing. It's just stupid. But that's what happens when these agencies collect a whole bunch of money. You could say, ostensibly created for good purposes

[00:29:49] way back in the 60s. And no, this was to combat the Soviet aggression and now it's to combat Chinese and Russian aggression. Okay. If that's the point, but $40 billion budget, that does not go unnoticed by people who are looking to grift. And that's both parties, by the way. Both parties. 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

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