In memory to all who made the ultimate sacrifice for us | Hour 3

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three 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 thepetecleanershow dot 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. So I mentioned earlier in the program that went down to the beach area, the coastal area, North Carolina for the Memorial Day weekend. I believe it was called Snead's Ferry near Topsail Island. And something really cool that the hotel did, the Hampton Inn, which is a subsidiary of Hilton Hotels, and I posted this up on Twitter, took a picture of it. They set up a table in the lobby, just a small little round table, and they had a chair there with the pow m i a, the black flag, you know, with the silhouette, you know, the pow flag, and they had that it's like sort of like a like a seat cover on the back of a chair that you are not forgotten flag and then it had a bible on the table, it had a plate, and then it had a letter there saying that you know, this is reserved in memory for all who have not come back. And it was very nice, and so I sent out a you know, a social media post to reward. You know, the hotel. I don't know if that was a corporate thing. I don't know if that was just a franchise thing that they did at that particular hotel, but I thought that was really cool that they did that. Another thing that I thought was really cool there was a post that was made on Twitter by a woman named Cherrelle Ann and she had put out a request on Twitter asking if anybody is going to visit Arlington National Cemetery for a Memorial Day, if they would stop by Alan Shaw's grave and just leave a photo for the family, take a picture of it, and you know, post it so she could see that and that would bring comfort to the family that could not make the trip to Arlington National Cemetery. She posted, then I believe it was this morning, she said. What happened next honestly caught me off guard by this afternoon. So I'm sorry. So Monday. Afternoon, dozens of Americans from all waters of life had made the walk to Section sixty to visit Staff Sergeant Allan W. Shaw. Veterans, families, complete strangers, people who had never met Alan but chose to honor him anyway. And actually one of them one of those people that went and left a she left a like a I'm gonna say, a coin, but it's like a round. I mean, it looks like a coin, but it's oversized, and it was the dn I Tulci Gabbert And she went and placed this coin. I don't know what they're called, but it has like the seal of the Director of National Intelligence and left it on top of the gravestone for one day, she said. On social media, people put aside the constant noise and negativity and came together for something bigger than themselves. My notifications filled. With photos, kind messages, prayers and stories from people honoring not just but so many of our fallen heroes. She says, I don't think people fully understand what moments like this mean two gold Star families. The fear is never just losing them, it's losing them slowly over time, as the world moves on and fewer people remember their name, but today showed me that Alan will never be forgotten. After years of watching social media reward some of the worst parts of humanity, today gave me a reminder that the good is still out there too. Thank you to every single person who stopped by to visit Alan today, said his name, shared his story, or took a moment to honor the fallen. This right here is the America that Alan knew and loved enough to fight and die for. And today y'all showed us all that it's still here and it's still worth fighting for. See. So there is there is still good. There are good people, and I know a lot of the times it doesn't seem like that, but I want to believe that there are more people like that than there are otherwise. National Review. In an editorial, they say, in the year of our nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, it's fitting to start with those who died to give it birth. The American Revolution, dragging on as it did for eight years, remains the costliest of all our wars in proportion to the population, a war much wider and more destructive per capita for Americans than even the second World War about one of every sixteen free American males of military age died for the nation's birth. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, so many, oh so much to so few. Because our nation has always been a community over space and time and not only an idea. We share our indebtedness to those who came before us and who went before their time. May we never forget them or that debt. Now. I know a lot of people, and I went down to the beach and I celebrated with friends and stuff. We had, you know, had a long weekend as well. But I always remember the name Gary Schubert, who was my dad's friend in Vietnam, who died died on not my birth date, but my birthday, several years before I was born. I was born on the day he died. His name is etched into the wall. So that's been a part of my life growing up. And like, I'll never forget that name. Never met him, met his parents a long time ago. They were from West Virginia. We went to visit them one time when we were real young, and you know, every year my folks would send them, my dad would send them flowers. And then one year he forgot and they were very worried, so they called to make sure that he was okay. He was, He had just gotten busy with life. But they told my mom that that's okay, and they were glad. They were glad that he had, you know, had been able to move on. But you never forget the names, John Riches, he writes at National Review as well. He says, for most Americans, Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer. Families travel, children play, we go shopping and swimming. It's the kind of scene the Zach Brown Band captured so well in the surprisingly touching lyrics of their song Chicken Fried. Most of the song is devoted to celebrating the simple pleasures of fried chicken and a cold beer on a Friday night, but the tone shifts in the song's final verse, where he says, I thank God for my life and for the ones that give their lives so we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love, and that expresses it perfectly. Right. Beneath the warmth of the holiday rests a sobering truth that the joys we experience exist because extraordinary men and women gave everything they had. And again, I believe that most people still understand this, even if the sacrifice is difficult to fully comprehend. So I never say Happy. Memorial Day, but I try to honor those who have sacrificed all. So I hope you spent some time over the weekend, maybe yesterday, just thinking about it. And if you didn't, If you forgot, that's okay. Maybe you didn't. Now you know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to un understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Yes, thank you. It is called a challenge coin. I don't know why I was blanking on. It's like, I know it's a coin, but I don't remember what the first word of that is is a challenge coin that Tulci Gabbard placed on the gravestone. I actually received a challenge I have one now, and that's why I was just blanking on the word. It's super frustrating. Does this mean I'm getting old? Well, I mean aside from the fact that I'm not dead yet, so that means I am getting older. I just cannot remember the words, but thank you. Challenge coin is the word for the coins, and apparently I was told on the text line here. Also that Pete Hegseth also paid a visit to the grave as well. Very cool. Also very cool at the Indianapolis five hundred. Did you see this video where you've got a couple of Blackhawk helicopters. They were from the thirty eighth Combat Aviation Brigade from the Indiana Army National Guard, and they did a flyover of the track, but it wasn't just like it wasn't like the jets that fly over and then you know it's like whoosh and they're gone. You know, these choppers, these things, they like hovered above the race cars. And so the Indianapolis five hundred, this is the open wheel racing right like the kind you see over in Europe, and you know that not like NASCAR, but open wheel anyway, So like the cars are running around the race track, you know, not like I think they were. It was maybe under caution or like they were acting like they came in to act as sort of like the pace car or something, and they flew over the race cars and did did laps around the track. Which like first off, like the sound you hear at a NASCAR race or an Indie race or even if you're down at the dirt track, like when those engines all fire up in that massive sound like who you know, and you hear that, you feel like there's like that feeling is unique, Okay, that sound is unique, just like two black hawk helicopters flying like an eye level, you know, one hundred feet in front of your face like that too, and then you put them together. It was pretty amazing. It was It was really cool to see that video, unless, of course, you're a miserable person who is not happy, unless they are miserable, or a I guess say like political strategist like Chris D. Jackson, who he found this to be offensive. He used the video as an opportunity to take a shot at conservatives. He said, I don't want to ever hear a conservative mention the term wasteful spending again. Ever, So, what so neither political party can ever do anything about wasteful spending. I mean, at least the Republicans talk about it. I'm not saying that they actually can curb it. I'm not saying they've done enough to rein it in, but at least they say the words. Now you're saying they can't even say the words. So now we got two major political parties that one of the two are going to be in charge, and neither one are ever going to talk about wasteful spending. Besides, who are you to tell me? Who are you to say that I can't say something. Chris D. Jackson, I don't ever want to hear conservatives mentioned the term wasteful spending, because flying two black Hawk helicopters over the track is apparently wasteful spending unless. You know something. About military aviation or really just aviation, which is that you have to fly. It's kind of sort of a requirement, like you have to you gotta keep flying as a pilot. You have to practice. They actually log your hours. Look, I'm not even a pilot, and I know that you have to take flights. You have to fly. You got a pilot. You gotta do tests and stuff. You gotta log all your hours. And if you don't have enough hours that you don't get to fly anymore. You gotta have the hours. You got to keep practicing. Buzz Patterson responded to this, and he said training hours, rookie training hours. He says, you're a way out. Oh sorry, you're a way out of your league here, like you always are. That fly by didn't cost you a cent. Now imagine the impact on a ten year old watching it, jumping up and down on waiving American flags. Then he tells his dad he wants to be a pilot. That is priceless. That's how dreams start. Bro quit Whizen on America. And he's exactly right. He's exactly right. Like I've said this before, when people were shocked, I forget what what was it. It was within the last year. Oh, I think it. Maybe it was the Maybe it was the Republican Convention. Yeah, it was because the Hulk Hogan was out there, remember, and they had all these people, right, and this unabashed love of America on full display, unapologetic, and people were having fun. And then you know, look, I get it. There's the partisan aspect to it all, which is like, oh, that's the Republicans, and so we gotta you know, we gotta we got a poo poo, their their celebration and their event. We got to you know, trash talk and whatever. And I get all of that. But something else was coming through during that convention, which was this patriotism on full display. And you know, just like with the like the the moon launch where we went around the Moon a couple of months ago, like it's okay to be proud of your country and the achievements of your fellow countrymen. It's okay. And Democrats who get all upset about this, like that this is entirely of your own making. I encourage you to have these outward displays of patriotism as well. You can do this too. Nobody is stopping you from doing this. You are totally free because it's America. You are totally free. Nobody's forcing you, right, because it's America. Nobody's forcing you to salute flag, to sing the Star Spangled banner, to put your hand over your heart. Right. No one is forcing you to have these displays or to commit these displays of patriotism. But it's pretty fun. It's enjoyable, and it creates camaraderie. You feel part of a community, dare I say, Right, instead of trying to restrict your community down to as few people as possible, you're actually part of a much larger community of like three hundred and fifty million people, and so you are free to engage in these displays yourself. I encourage you to do so. I actually feel like if more people did it, then I think we would be in a better spot because we would all recognize the things that kind of keep us together as this community, right, this love of country. And that's not to say that everything America or Americans has done has always been right and perfect. Not to say that, but we've been pretty good. I mean as far like when you judge us by comparison to every other civilization and every other country, right, we got a pretty good record. It's pretty solid. I'd like to think it's pretty solid as a nation. I mean, there's the whole you know, economic system and and packs Americana that has led to the largest reduction in human suffering and poverty rates globally. That's I mean, that's pretty good. Just like that data point A loans pretty good. That's us. That was us, the unleashing of all of this human potential by letting people pursue happiness, right by letting them start businesses, just getting out of the way of stuff and not trying to control everything all the time, and letting people, you know, experiment and let them create the next great thing that then helps people worldwide live an easier life. Like that, it's a pretty good record, I mean to me, so, yes, if you would like to perform some displays of patriotism, you will see too. It can be fun, it's pretty cool, and it you know, makes you part of this community over on the text line, Dick and Nancy and Statesville say Pete. Every year, a moment of silence takes place at three pm on Memorial Day to honor these heroes. Love your program, Thank you. I appreciate that. Jordan says, can't have me crying in the FedEx truck, Pete, it makes me get weird looks. Chicken Fried is fantastic, surprisingly poignant for a pop country song. I have no regrets to Jordan, and Richard says in concert, when Zach Brown plays that song, he always has a service member in full dress step up on the stage as that line is sung and hold a salute for the crowd. It's awesome. That sounds like it. Bob says, I. Grew into President Nixon's silent majority, and I'll always believe that we are forever vigilant for this republic. Regarding the black Hawk helicopters that flew over the Indianapolis five hundred, Beth's favorite Russ says, I would wager that the Indy five hundred cost way less and will produce significantly higher recruiting numbers than the stupid girl with the two moms going to find herself in the Army cartoon commercials during the previous administration. Yeah, probably, I saw somebody peg the cost. They were like, dude, it probably costs like twenty five hundred dollars in fuel because they got to fly anyway, right, The pilots have to get hours, they got to get training hours, so they have to fly anyway, So you would prefer they just fly around an empty field. Why not fly over here? Right? And it's like a dual mission because you're getting your training hours and you're doing something really cool that could also double as like a recruitment ad. Right, I mean, because you're already going to be in the sky, You're already going to be flying the choppers, So why not just fly over the Indianapolis five hundred and you know, maybe inspire some people to want to be pilots to fly black Hawk helicopters themselves. But also this idea, so first off, like the the idea that this is quote wasteful spending is incorrect. Okay, it's just false. It's not wasteful spending because again, the flights were already going to be flown on the only decision is where to fly them. So instead of flying over you know point a, they flew at point B. That's it no difference in spending, Okay. But also this idea that even if it were quote wasteful spending, right, even if it were that, the idea that, uh, that this is something that is unique to Donald Trump's administration or Pete Hegseth's Department of War, like this is so out of the. Norm, which, of course it's not. Anybody who has been to any major event has seen similar things. Heck, I remember living in Uptown one year and they did a flyover at Panther Stadium that was crazy, Like I. Didn't know there was a flyover coming, so it was kind of scary. It was the first game of the season, and like the whole building shook and I was like, what the heck is That went on to Twitter found out Oh, okay, it was a flyover. So this is not unique to Donald Trump. In fact, it's not even unique in the last five years. Right, you know who else used these Joe Biden. So I guess it's okay. See, if there's an expectation that Democrats are going to engage in wasteful spending, then it's okay when they engage in wasteful spending. But if you're talking against wasteful spending, then how dare you do the wasteful spending even though as I just outlined, it's not wasteful spending. See again, this guy is operating from an old paradigm. As I have said for many years now, right, the charge of hypocrisy carries no purchase any longer. It does not okay Democrats accusing Republicans of being hypocrites on something. It doesn't. It doesn't mean anything anymore because we know that you don't care about the hypocrisy. You only care about hypocrisy when it disadvantages you. And you use that because you know. That we are going to be like, oh man, I don't want to be a hypocrite, and so we'll change what we're doing so we won't do this thing because you're calling us a name, you know, And it's not just hypocrisy, it's everything. It's all the. Names that we have been called for all the years. And that's why you got Donald Trump. Military helicopters flew over NASCAR events multiple times during Joe Biden's presidency. According to the Grock ai over on Twitter, military flyovers, including helicopters, are a long standing tradition at NASCAR races, especially Memorial Day weekend events like the Coca Cola six hundred at Charlotte Motor Speedway to honor service members. The continued under Joe Biden, involving US Army, National Guard and other units. For example, twenty twenty two, the Coca Cola six hundred Charlotte Motor Speedway, US Army Fort Bragg UH sixty Blackhawk helicopters performed demonstrations and flyovers during pre race ceremonies, so, in other words, the exact same helicopters over a race the exact same weekend. Twenty twenty four, Coca Cola six hundred, once again in Charlotte, military helicopter flyovers were part of the opening ceremonies and Memorial Day tributes, consistent with the event's traditions, and again Blackhawk helicopters were part of that. Also, going back twenty twenty one through twenty four, Blackhawk and Apache operations at various racetracks for tributes, national anthem ceremonies, and or community recruiting events. These were standard patriotic displays, not unique to any administration. Fixed wing jet flyovers also occurred, but helicopters were featured prominently at several events, no major policy halted them during Biden's term. So this guy, this Democrat strategist, is out there complaining about a thing that has been going on for decades, which like tells me, dude, you need to get out more often. Maybe you need to go to a race, because whatever sporting events you're going to, if you haven't seen a flyover at any sporting event you've ever been to under any other administration like this is just you're just exposing your ignorance. Chris says. The same people who have a problem with the helicopters flying over Indianapolis don't have a problem with all the daycares in Minnesota. Four number, says. Oh, hang on add Form twenty five thirty five is the key. Any public event can apply for a flyover. You have to submit to the FAA to sign off, then to the Pentagon. Then you have to find a unit that can support the event. All flights are training hours. It's all about recruiting and recruiting opportunities. Chris says, Pete, stop justifying the cost to those Marxists. Spencer, the astro nerd says, I. Remember when the B twenty nine fee fee five five, I don't know, flew over my house. It was noisy. Yeah, those things are beasts. We had a couple of those flyover us when I was up in Asheville. Yeah, like knocking photo frames off the wall, kind of rattling beasts. So there was a tweet that I don't know if this person still has a job, probably, but a tweet that was sent out under the official account of the Democratic Party. And this is how the Democrats decided, or at least to whoever their social media in turn or former employees is or was. This is like they made up a graphic for it and everything, and the graphic says remembering the Americans who have died in Trump's war with Iran, and then it has all the photos and names of the thirteen service members who died at the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, and it says, today we honor the American heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in war with Iran. So this is this is an example. And I say it all the time, and I say it about people that have the Trump derangement syndrum, the TDS, they have it. You know so deep is their hatred for Trump that they cannot view anything outside of this Trump lens, or they have such a deep love for Trump that they can't view anything outside of that lens. Like everything does not have to be viewed through the lens of Trump. It's okay, Like it's okay to assess something on its individual merits outside of Trump. You don't have to make everything. And I know your job, if you still have it, was or is right to be a partisan in mouthpiece for your party. I get that, But on Memorial Day, it is disgusting and grotesque to utilize the deaths, to exploit the deaths of service members in order to take a shot at a guy who is president because. You don't like him. Right, You would never post this about any of the service members who died in combat under any other president during any other war. You would never do that. But because it's Trump, who, by the way, is not up for reelection, he can't hurt you anymore at the ballot box. This was so egregious that even Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat from Illinois, said, quote, it is incredibly distasteful to use our heroic dead for a political attack. On Memorial Day. I am a Democrat and I condemn this post by the DNC. They did delete it, but the Internet is forever, so you can delete it. They haven't spoken about it, they haven't apologized for it. But when you know you messed up. When Senator Duckworth, a veteran herself right, condemns you, condemns the post, you know you've gone too far. And maybe the gig that you've got posting that kind of stuff maybe isn't the right gig for you. You know. Now, I want to go back to this piece from John Riches at National Review. The headline on it is called life, Liberty, and fried Chicken, honoring the heroes who gave all for freedom, he says, you know, for Memorial Day, Americans are constantly told that we are hopelessly divided by politics, by culture, by class, by race, by religion, competing visions of the country itself. But generation after generation, Americans have fought together in defense of freedom, precisely the freedom to be with our friends and families, to enjoy our time together, and to relish the simple pleasures of a barbecue or a movie or a trip to the beach with those that we love, right, Because there's this idea and I saw it. I've seen it over the years i've been I've been a reporter for about a decade and then I've been a host for even longer. So I've seen a lot of these annual pieces, you know, that get written, and I get it, people that are always trying to find new angles on you know, annual stories. How do you make this a fresh story? And whatever? And there was this, and to some extent, I guess it probably still exists now where there's this idea that, like, you know, oh, you shouldn't be doing these things, you know, for your three day weekend, your celebration, your backyard barbecue and all of this stuff, like that's that's not what this day is for, right, And I get the sentiment. I totally understand the sentiment. But as John Riches points out in this piece, which I think is he's exactly correct, which is, but it kind of is, you know, because the people that we honor on Memorial Day, they did not give their lives for a tribal faction or a partisan movement, right. They died defending a constitutional republic and the freedoms that belong equally to every American, the right to speak freely, even if it's stupid stuff on Twitter, the right to worship without oppression, the right to raise our families in peace, and to pursue our own livelihoods and futures. Ultimately, he says, Memorial Day is not about death. It's about life. So when we gather with friends, we play with our kids, eat chicken, drink a cold beer, we're exercising the freedoms so many gave their lives to defend. That, in fact, is just what makes this nation worthy of such sacrifice. So, like a lot of things, it can be both things. It's not an either or. It can be both. It should be both right to enjoy the friends and the family, to enjoy the weekend, go someplace, see a part of the country, meet new people, do all of that stuff, but also recognize the sacrifice that others made so you can It can be both. It doesn't have to be an either or situation. Now that being said, some other news, uh, the bloodthirsty communist twitch streamer Hassan Piker got subpoenaed by the US Treasury over his trip to Cuba. And I saw somebody say that if the decade of Maga has. If it does nothing except get this guy in trouble, then it will have been worth it, all right. The subpoena relates to his participation in a humanitarian quote unquote aid trip to Cuba back in March. Remember this, we talked about it. He's one of roughly forty Americans now under federal investigation for their involvement in similar trips to the embargoed island, And on his stream Sunday, the cross eyed streamer acknowledged the situation directly and said, quote, it's not great. It's not great. Yeah, because he he joined Code Pink's Nuistra America Convoy, an international caravan that traveled to Havana. The convoy included six hundred and fifty delegates from thirty three countries and one hundred and twenty organizations, among them Code Pink co founder Medea Benjamin, Irish musicians Kneecap, the anti Jewish guys, the anti Semis, and various activists and journalists. Remember this was the big party and concert that they had where they sucked all the energy, literally the power out of the whole like area of Havana in order to pump it all to this concert, and then they all went and stayed in the luxury hotels and such, and they were like, I don't know why people think Cuba is so bad. These comedies. They know what they're doing. Meanwhile, everybody else is in the dark, you know, no food, no gas, they're all they're living under communism. You guys are just caviar communists, right, you're just tourists here. And then you're engaging in proper beganda to tell us how fantastic the commies are. And that's also you know, my, my, my giddiness and glee here that that's also. What being an American is also about. You gotta you do have to take some bit of you know, happiness from the suffering of comics. 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.