If the economy roars back, Progressive want Biden to get credit (11-15-2024--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.

[00:00:28] You know me, I try to bring you some positivity sometimes. I mean, I try. I don't, I'm not successful most of the time, but I do try sometimes. So when I came across this, I figured you need to hear it. Because I don't know how many people keep up with Bill Ackman or Ackman. He's a billionaire hedge fund manager. And he is the founder and the chief executive officer of Pershing,

[00:00:58] SQUARE Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. He is also a prolific philanthropist. And he is one of the signatories. He has signed the giving pledge, which commits to give away at least half of his wealth by the end of his life to charitable causes. As of 2024, he is one of the largest donors to Planned Parenthood.

[00:01:28] Okay, so he's a longtime donor to the Democrat candidates and organizations. He endorsed former President Donald Trump, though, in 2024. He has expressed public support for Israel's actions and has demanded the publication of the names of all the Harvard students involved in signing a letter condemning statements from Israeli officials.

[00:01:51] Okay, so that's who this guy Bill Ackman is. He was one of the people who led the charge against the universities, I think his alma mater at Harvard, I want to say.

[00:02:06] He has given them a boatload of money and he led the charge after all of these tentafata encampments set up and that prompted him to vote for Trump.

[00:02:20] So here is what he said the other day on Twitter, formerly known as X.

[00:02:25] The business community is giddy with excitement about the Donald Trump administration.

[00:02:32] I am hearing this from everyone, including from people who didn't vote for Trump.

[00:02:38] Business confidence is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[00:02:42] Business leaders are becoming more confident about the country and the economy.

[00:02:46] This means they'll be making more investments in our future, which will drive the economy and the stock market, reducing the cost of capital and bolsting confidence further, catalyzing more investment and more growth in a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle.

[00:03:04] By the way, I have heard the, for lack of a better term, the culture war that we find ourselves in this Cold War.

[00:03:13] I have heard it also referred to as sort of like an anti, like the enemies of civilization, basically.

[00:03:24] Then there's an old joke, you know, what did communists use for light before candles?

[00:03:33] And the answer is a light bulb because that is the trajectory, right, of that system.

[00:03:42] And so you have people that are, you know, on the far left that are, and that's why I use the term leftists instead of liberals.

[00:03:51] I do think they are different.

[00:03:53] The problem is a lot of liberals, and I've quoted Dennis Prager, who, by the way, prayers for Dennis Prager.

[00:03:59] He apparently fell the other day and got really injured.

[00:04:06] So he's in the hospital, and he has like a bunch of back issues now.

[00:04:09] But Prager has talked about how conservatives vote their principles.

[00:04:15] Leftists vote their principles.

[00:04:18] But liberals do not.

[00:04:21] Liberals will vote for leftists because they are, he says, cowards.

[00:04:26] They don't want to be seen as being too close to those dirty, nasty, ew, Republicans, conservatives.

[00:04:34] And so they will throw their lots in with the leftists, even though the leftists espouse illiberal ideas.

[00:04:44] This goes back to Peter Boghossian's comments and his framing of the fight as cognitive liberty.

[00:04:54] The ability to have freedom in thought.

[00:04:58] You know, you don't get to force me to say what you want me to say.

[00:05:04] I get to think my own thoughts.

[00:05:06] I get to have my own opinions.

[00:05:08] You can't force me out of that freedom.

[00:05:13] And so that's where a lot of the left has gone.

[00:05:16] And you see some of this now manifesting as he was predicting that now, like, the cornered, trapped dog, wild dog is now going to become even more ferocious.

[00:05:27] Because now they've lost something.

[00:05:29] They're trapped.

[00:05:29] And they thought that they had this pathway.

[00:05:32] They thought they were about to, you know, see the revolution realized.

[00:05:36] And now they have lost.

[00:05:39] But they still maintain control, near total control over a lot of our cultural institutions.

[00:05:47] And it's going to take time and a lot of fighting to get them out.

[00:05:53] And it's going to take help from liberals.

[00:05:57] Because liberals share this value of cognitive liberty.

[00:06:01] Peter Boghossian is a liberal.

[00:06:02] The guy I played for you last hour, he's a liberal.

[00:06:07] So we need people who are liberal Democrats to stand up as they did in this election.

[00:06:15] Because there's no other explanation for what we saw there.

[00:06:18] Except people went into the voting booths.

[00:06:21] And while they may identify themselves as liberals, they voted for Trump and they voted for other Republicans.

[00:06:28] Because they see the crazy.

[00:06:31] They see it.

[00:06:33] And that's the only way to try to stop it.

[00:06:36] Because they're not strong enough or courageous enough or secure enough, you know, in their finances to challenge this stuff in their workplaces.

[00:06:46] To go against the grain if they work in higher education.

[00:06:49] And they're like, oh my gosh, like every single week we're doing these struggle session meetings on Zoom.

[00:06:55] Stuff like that.

[00:06:57] And in the business world, too.

[00:06:59] People don't want to lose their jobs.

[00:07:02] Business leaders are, you know, captured, held hostage by their woke employees.

[00:07:09] You know, I saw on Fox, I didn't listen or I haven't read the article, but I saw there was a crawl that went across the bottom of the screen.

[00:07:17] They were doing some interview and it said something like the L.A. Times.

[00:07:21] And it has a quote from the L.A. Times that says, you know, all voices should be heard.

[00:07:27] Something like that.

[00:07:28] So if that's an indication that you've got media companies that are now starting to recognize that they have to break this fever because it's inside their own institution and it's hurting them.

[00:07:41] Their companies are going to go out of business.

[00:07:44] Which is why it's comical to see all of these people that are like, that's it.

[00:07:48] I'm leaving Twitter or X, you know, whatever.

[00:07:52] They're like, I'm getting off the platform.

[00:07:55] Like, first off, this is not an airport.

[00:07:57] You do not need to announce your departure.

[00:07:59] Just go.

[00:08:01] All right.

[00:08:01] Just leave.

[00:08:02] But they also cite as their reason why is that it's just gotten too toxic.

[00:08:07] And the best one was Stephen King.

[00:08:11] The author.

[00:08:13] I grew up reading Stephen King.

[00:08:15] I loved Stephen King novels until I started wondering, like, why does everything happen in this one town?

[00:08:20] Like, if I lived in that town, I would leave, you know, like because all the bad stuff is happening in this one town.

[00:08:26] So anyway, but I've read so many of his books the early years.

[00:08:32] I quit reading.

[00:08:32] I think the last one I may have read was like Dolores Claiborne.

[00:08:36] So what has that been?

[00:08:37] 20 years?

[00:08:38] I haven't read anything since.

[00:08:40] But I used to love Stephen King novels.

[00:08:43] And then I saw him tweet.

[00:08:45] It's like, oh my gosh, this guy's unhinged.

[00:08:48] And all he ever does is tweet nasty political stuff against Trump and Republicans.

[00:08:57] And so he announces that he's leaving X.

[00:09:00] He says the atmosphere has just become too toxic.

[00:09:06] Mark Hemingway is a writer for, let me see here, senior writer at Real Clear Investigations.

[00:09:14] His wife is Molly Hemingway from The Federalist.

[00:09:17] Mark Hemingway said all Stephen King ever did was make blunt, edgy and stupid political pronouncements.

[00:09:25] And then he announces that X had become toxic.

[00:09:28] Maybe he should have tweeted more about books and his craft because people would have welcomed him with open arms and then still tolerated some disagreeable opinions.

[00:09:38] And I agree with Hemingway.

[00:09:42] If Stephen King had talked about how he has done what he has done and just dialed back on the nutballery, I think his experience might have been a little bit better.

[00:09:57] But then to turn around and say, oh, it's just gotten too toxic.

[00:10:00] Like, dude, have you read your own tweets?

[00:10:02] What you're putting out into the universe?

[00:10:05] Or the Twitterverse, as it were?

[00:10:07] You know, stories are powerful.

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[00:11:09] We've lost another one.

[00:11:12] Ladies and gentlemen, Gabrielle Union says she's leaving Twitter.

[00:11:19] Again, you don't need to tell me that.

[00:11:22] Just leave.

[00:11:23] Just go.

[00:11:23] I cannot stand this stuff.

[00:11:26] Histrionic personality disorder.

[00:11:27] Like, look at me, look at me, I'm leaving, but you can find me on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:11:32] All these different things.

[00:11:33] Like, just go.

[00:11:37] Like WRAL did.

[00:11:39] And they just stopped tweeting.

[00:11:40] You know?

[00:11:41] That's their protest.

[00:11:42] Like, okay.

[00:11:43] By the way, they are returning.

[00:11:48] Advertisers are returning to Twitter.

[00:11:50] They're going back to X.

[00:11:51] After their boycott over whatever.

[00:11:55] I don't even remember what they were boycotting for, but yeah.

[00:11:59] The advertiser, I saw a report, the advertiser, the biggest spenders, they're coming back onto Twitter.

[00:12:05] Because of course they are.

[00:12:06] You have a market that also buys your product.

[00:12:10] That's there.

[00:12:11] Right?

[00:12:11] Do you want to reach the market?

[00:12:17] Back to Bill Ackman's piece.

[00:12:19] Or his tweets that he sent out about business confidence.

[00:12:23] And he says, merger acquisition activity is about to explode as there is an enormous number of deals that have been deferred pending a more favorable regulatory environment for transactions.

[00:12:35] Mergers and acquisition, M&A, will drive efficiency, greater profitability, as well as growth.

[00:12:42] It will also enable the return of capital to investors who will seek to redeploy their profits and proceeds into new investment opportunities.

[00:12:53] Right?

[00:12:53] This is why when Tim Walls said he didn't even know what a venture capitalist does, that to me is disqualifying.

[00:13:01] You don't get to be vice president and not understand how any of this stuff works.

[00:13:06] I don't claim to be an expert, but I understand at a high level how this stuff works.

[00:13:13] He talks about the Department of, well, what is it, DOJ, the DOJ.

[00:13:23] DOJ and deregulation, right?

[00:13:25] So government efficiency will drive government efficiency and make America vastly better and lower risk place to do business efficiently and effectively.

[00:13:33] He says, I am also hearing about non-US companies that are desperate to immediately create a presence on American soil.

[00:13:43] They are afraid to be locked out of the most important economy in the world.

[00:13:48] They will build factories and make new investments here to avoid the risk of tariffs and because they don't have a better place to invest capital.

[00:13:58] China's economy is in trouble.

[00:14:01] Europe's is a mess.

[00:14:03] The U.S. has now become by far the best country for investment.

[00:14:09] Growth is about to explode.

[00:14:12] And for all of our sakes, I hope he is correct.

[00:14:16] That's Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, a liberal.

[00:14:19] All right, hey, real quick, if you would like to get your product or service in front of about 10,000 people multiple times a day,

[00:14:27] send me an email at Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com and ask me about advertising.

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[00:14:50] So Axios dot com had a story inside the House Democrats 11th hour plot to sabotage Trump's agenda.

[00:15:02] I know I am as shocked as you are.

[00:15:05] Look, I do the days of, you know, the minority party recognizing their defeat and allowing the majority party to work to enact their agenda.

[00:15:16] Those days are long gone.

[00:15:18] OK, that that does not occur anymore.

[00:15:20] It's constant fighting.

[00:15:22] Don't give them an inch.

[00:15:23] Don't allow them to do their stuff.

[00:15:25] You know, then then the majority party finds all sorts of clever ways and tricks to ram stuff through.

[00:15:30] That's where we are.

[00:15:31] It's where we've been.

[00:15:31] So I'm not I'm not expecting Democrats not to fight.

[00:15:35] OK.

[00:15:36] But.

[00:15:37] I am interested to know what their game plan is.

[00:15:40] So I read this piece by Andrew Sollender.

[00:15:46] And he says House Democrats are strategizing ways to put a damper on the Trump administration's sweeping plans while their party still retain some control in Washington.

[00:15:58] OK, so this is what they're going to try to do in the final weeks before the new Congress takes over and Trump is sworn in and all of that.

[00:16:07] And we have the the the ritual of the storming of the Capitol.

[00:16:11] Right.

[00:16:11] So after all I'm kidding.

[00:16:13] But after her.

[00:16:15] So after all that, then things will be fine.

[00:16:17] OK. So they're working right now, which, by the way, the way this is being reported is just Democrats strategizing to limit the damage and put a damper on his plans and that sort of stuff.

[00:16:31] When the Republicans in Raleigh are now like on Tuesday, I believe they're going to come in and they're going to try to override House Bill 10 that the governor had vetoed before they lose their super majority.

[00:16:42] This see, this is totally different.

[00:16:44] OK, totally different.

[00:16:47] And the reason why is because they're Republicans.

[00:16:51] See, they're not allowed to try to do that kind of stuff in their lame duck session, their final closing session.

[00:16:58] They're not allowed to do that.

[00:16:59] But Democrats, they are allowed to.

[00:17:01] OK, so that's the that's the rule.

[00:17:02] All right.

[00:17:03] The Axios piece goes on to say that the talks that the Democrats are having mainly involve members of the Progressive Caucus, the Black Political Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, the Asian Pacific American and Equality Caucuses.

[00:17:25] OK, I'm sorry.

[00:17:26] I thought this was actually a serious effort.

[00:17:29] Never mind.

[00:17:30] I know I'm kidding.

[00:17:31] But I mean, that's that's a couple caucuses.

[00:17:34] Cauci.

[00:17:35] Right.

[00:17:36] The outgoing Congressional Progressive Caucus chair, Pramila Jayapala, Democrat from Washington, said, quote,

[00:17:43] quote, a lot of things can be undone, but it can take longer to undo them and it will force a priority from them, from Trump on what he wants to focus on.

[00:17:55] So they're going to they're going to try to figure out any which way they can.

[00:17:59] To sort of entrench policies or programs or spending or whatever.

[00:18:05] So this way it takes longer for the Trump administration to try to unwind some stuff.

[00:18:13] And then they're going to have to prioritize because, again, they're not going to have.

[00:18:17] Remember, Donald Trump, and I said this during the primary before, you know, all of the indictments came down and his ratings went through the roof and people wanted him back.

[00:18:28] He's going to be a lame duck on day one.

[00:18:30] And so.

[00:18:33] Because of that.

[00:18:35] People are not going to be as willing to go along with everything, particularly the longer we go through his term.

[00:18:42] Also, you have the midterm election coming up in 2028.

[00:18:46] No, sorry, 26.

[00:18:49] And the historical trend is for the party in power in the White House to lose congressional seats.

[00:18:56] So a lot of these members of Congress are going to be trying to keep their seats.

[00:19:00] So they are going to be less willing to go along with more controversial measures because they're going to see it as a threat to their reelection.

[00:19:10] So you've got to try to do whatever it is you want to do very quickly within the first year to year and a half.

[00:19:17] Really the first year, though.

[00:19:18] That's when the most amount.

[00:19:20] That's why a lot of the stuff that you read about Joe Biden's mandates and executive orders and stuff, they all go back to 2021.

[00:19:28] Because when he first got in, it was this rapid fire.

[00:19:31] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, do all these things.

[00:19:33] And then, of course, you know, you wait three years and you suffer those consequences over those three years.

[00:19:41] Immigration being the sort of poster child for this.

[00:19:45] Congresswoman Jayapal said that one plan is to propose a raft of executive orders that Biden could sign to, quote, protect existing structures like shielding career civil servants and Justice Department officials.

[00:20:01] She also said lawmakers are working on getting funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, or as I call it, the Inflation Production Act.

[00:20:09] The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS Act as well to try to get as much of that funding out the door as quickly as possible.

[00:20:18] Democrat from Texas named Greg Kassar, who is likely to be the successor to Jayapal as the Progressive Caucus chair, said that lawmakers want to ensure that those funds start creating jobs before Trump finds some way to just send that money to his friends.

[00:20:37] OK, well, the second part of that is just stupid.

[00:20:40] But the first part, I think, is important because what is he acknowledging?

[00:20:45] That they want to start creating jobs.

[00:20:49] That's the point, right?

[00:20:50] And you may think, oh, he's talking about private sector jobs.

[00:20:53] Is he?

[00:20:54] Is he really, though?

[00:20:56] See, the more government dependent jobs you can create, the harder they are to unwind because now there's a political price to doing so.

[00:21:05] And lawmakers may be hesitant to to axe a large number of people because, look, we have to have enough people that are now going to be in power that are willing and recognize they will lose that power when they do these things.

[00:21:22] Because these things are going to have to be drastic.

[00:21:25] The changes, the cuts are going to have to be drastic.

[00:21:28] Are they going to do it?

[00:21:31] Or, you know, will the risk of losing their power be too great?

[00:21:35] And so they'll find a way and a reason not to.

[00:21:37] That's really my concern at this point.

[00:21:40] They plan also to lean on the Biden administration to fast track citizenship and residency paperwork for immigrants.

[00:21:49] But don't you call it amnesty.

[00:21:53] They're also trying to come up with some messaging strategies to bolster Joe Biden's legacy.

[00:21:59] Trump is going to inherit a good economy.

[00:22:02] So we want to help educate people about that reality.

[00:22:05] So they want credit.

[00:22:06] So when Trump comes in and the economy comes roaring back, they want Biden to get the credit for that.

[00:22:11] So they got to work on the messaging right now.

[00:22:16] So be warned.

[00:22:18] So one of the problems with all of these plans that Democrats are working up on how to stymie Trump,

[00:22:25] and they're trying to do a lot before they lose their majority status in the Senate,

[00:22:31] and obviously the White House, is to have Biden write a whole bunch of executive orders.

[00:22:36] Problem is he's running to some problems when he signs a bunch of these orders,

[00:22:41] and then they get sued, and then they go to court, and then they lose.

[00:22:44] So they're going to have to take that into account.

[00:22:47] And Democrats, according to Axios.com, are limited in what they can do legislatively during the lame duck session

[00:22:52] because, you know, they don't control the House.

[00:22:55] So that's a slight problem for them as well.

[00:22:58] But they are having meetings, okay?

[00:23:01] They're making plans here.

[00:23:03] Some Democrats are also sensitive to the perception that they are adopting the same tactics of the Republican state legislators,

[00:23:11] like in Wisconsin, who use their super majorities to kneecap incoming Democrat governors.

[00:23:15] All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:23:17] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:23:32] Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.