Justice looks (D)ifferent for the privileged (04-23-2025--Hour1)

[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.

[00:00:29] All right, I want to start with two pieces of, well, one piece of breaking news and then another piece of almost breaking news. That's why they're pieces, because it's already broken. But Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois after more than 28 years in the U.S. Senate, Dick Durbin announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election, opening up a competitive Democratic primary in a reliably blue state.

[00:00:56] Durbin is the fourth Democratic senator to announce their retirement this year following Senators Gene Shaheen, Gary Peters, and Tina Smith. Durbin is 80 years old, sharp as a tack, running rings around his 20-year-old staffers, I am told. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1997 and is the longest serving party whip in Senate history.

[00:01:24] He has been a strong advocate for pathways to citizenship for immigrants and regulation for the tobacco industry. Imagine if that's how, after, what, 40 years or so, sorry, 28 years in the U.S. Senate, that that's how they sum up your career. That you were an advocate for amnesty and an opponent of tobacco.

[00:01:55] That's what you get in your political gravestone. Ah, well, I mean, they can't all be home runs, I guess. Okay, so, um, so Dick Durbin retiring after, uh, this is his, he won't run for re-election. I don't see where, when is he up? When is his, I don't know if he would, I don't know if his seat is up in 26.

[00:02:20] It very well might be. I, I assume it, I assume it will be. Um, because this would be about the time that you would make that kind of an announcement for a 2026 re-election campaign.

[00:02:31] So he's out, also out, Klaus Schwab, the Q-tip-sounding founder of the, uh, World Economic Forum, best known for looking like a Bond villain and for hosting an annual meeting of political business and other elites in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos. He is retiring as chairman more than a half century after creating the Geneva-based think tank.

[00:02:58] The Forum quoted Schwab, who is 87, in a statement as saying that he was stepping down with immediate effect. former Nestle chairman and CEO Peter Braybeck Ledmate was unanimously selected as interim chairman for, uh, by the Forum's board at a special meeting that was held on Sunday.

[00:03:24] A search committee has been set up to choose the permanent successor. So why is he stepping down? Well, the World Economic Forum apparently launched an investigation into him, uh, after a whistleblower letter alleged financial and ethical misconduct by the longtime leader and his wife.

[00:03:46] The anonymous letter was sent last week to the Forum's board and raised concerns about the Forum's governance and workplace culture, including allegations that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with the World Economic Forum's resources without proper oversight.

[00:04:03] It included allegations that Klaus asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf and that he used WEF funds to pay for private in-room massages at hotels. Well, I mean, managing all of the resources of the world is a difficult thing. You got to have a way to unwind, you know?

[00:04:32] It also alleged that his wife, Hilde, a former World Economic Forum employee, scheduled token WEF-funded meetings in order to justify luxury holiday travel at the organization's expense. Um, in recent days, Schwab argued against any investigation, telling board members that he denied the unsubstantiated allegations and that he would challenge them in a lawsuit.

[00:04:58] Now, David Strom at HotAir.com says he doubts this investigation is really about defending the corporate till from being raided. Schwab is 87. And in recent years, the rise of his public profile, including the Bond villain wardrobe and the creepy German accent, have seemingly made him irresistible to the glitterati, but repulsive to the masses, who see the WEF as the central nervous system of globalism.

[00:05:24] He said the allegations are probably true, but also ridiculous. Far be it from me to defend Schwab in any way, he says, but the whole point of the globalist agenda is to create a world where the technocratic elite gets to live the high life at the expense of everybody else. Like, what? He's just living his truth. He's living his brand here, people.

[00:05:48] Does anybody seriously believe the forum's board gives a wit about massages or luxury vacations? They do the same thing, I'm sure. So, still, I don't know. Like, here's the thing. Not a fan of Klaus Schwab. I, too, recognize him as the Bond villain that he obviously is.

[00:06:14] However, he so fits the part, you know, that I'm worried that the next guy that gets in there is going to be as bad or worse as Schwab. But he's going to be more palatable, you know? He's going to be a little bit more of an acceptable figure. He's not going to have the creepy accent like the guy did in Lethal Weapon 2, right? Diplomatic immunity. He's not going to be, he's not going to sound like that.

[00:06:41] He's not going to, he's not going to be, you know, old and withered, bald head, looking like the Emperor in Star Wars, wearing that kind of weird Star Trek outfit at the podium. It's like, I just, we're going to look back and we're going to say, we miss Schwab. Because he made opposition to the WEF so much easier. So much easier. All righty.

[00:07:06] Meanwhile, up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a progressive district attorney has declined to charge Tim, oh sorry, not Tim Walls, but a Tim Walls-led Minnesota. Anyway, no, the guy's name is Dylan Bryan Adams. Didn't he sing that song, I Would Do Anything For You, in the Robin Hood movie? I'm just kidding. No, no, no, he's blood on the tracks.

[00:07:36] This progressive DA has declined to charge a state employee named Dylan Bryan Adams, caught on video, multiple video tapes, causing $20,000 worth of damage to Tesla vehicles. And the local police chief, not happy, ripping the DA. This is Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty.

[00:08:05] Instead of filing or seeking the criminal charges, they offered him a deal. And he'll get to do diversion. And she says this is so this way the victims of the vandalism will be able to get repaid. But the police chief is like, no, we did the investigation. These are felony charges. And we were not consulted.

[00:08:33] And like, if you got any problems with this, contact the DA's office because we're pretty ticked off about it. 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 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.

[00:09:02] 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.

[00:09:29] 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. OK, so I'm seeing. Hang on. I'm seeing from legal insurrection. Durbin, Senator Dick Durbin, will end his term January 2026.

[00:10:00] So he's going to let the governor of Illinois appoint his replacement so they so that they get a leg up on the 2026 campaign. What is it with Democrats trying to rig elections, guys? What are you doing? This is what got Blagojevich thrown in jail, right? Because Obama did the same thing when he ran for president. Blagojevich was then like auctioning off the Senate seat. So corrupt.

[00:10:27] Just finish the rest of your term and let somebody else run for office like normal. Why do you got to step aside in January in order to give somebody like an, you know, an inside track to to the incumbency? It's just this is why I call them the Democrat Party, not the Democratic Party, because they just behave in undemocratic ways. They try to just constantly rig this stuff, put their thumbs on the scales in order to try to influence outcomes.

[00:10:56] It's almost like they don't actually trust the people to decide in the Democrat primary itself. These are your own people. These are your own voters. All right. Anyway, so up in Minnesota.

[00:11:11] The Hennepin County DA, Mary Moriarty, will seek diversion rather than criminal charges against Dylan Brian Adams, who was caught on tape keying and vandalizing various Tesla vehicles, stripping the paint and such and making markings all over them as he walked his dog around the city.

[00:11:34] The police chief, Brian O'Hara, said at the time of the incident that the damage in each case was the equivalent of a felony. The chief said in a scathing statement that Moriarty's decision not to bring charges is frustrating for his officers and the public. The Minneapolis Police Department did its job, he says.

[00:11:56] It identified and investigated a crime trend, identified and arrested a suspect, and presented a case file to the Hennepin County Attorney Office for consideration of charges. This case impacted at least six different victims and totaled over $20,000 in damages. Any frustration related to the charging decision of the Hennepin County Attorney should be directed solely at her office.

[00:12:23] Our investigators are always frustrated when the cases they poured their hearts into are declined. In my experience, the victims in these cases often feel the same way. Yeah. And he is exactly correct. He is exactly correct. Hang on a second. I'm looking for the other article that... Oh, here it is. This is LegalInsurrection.com. Fantastic website, by the way.

[00:12:52] Dylan Adams, a fiscal policy analyst for Minnesota's Department of Human Services. So he's a state employee. This guy's a state employee at the health department. 33 years old. Arrested for allegedly causing $20,000 worth of damage to at least six Tesla vehicles in downtown Minneapolis. According to the report, potential criminal charges remain on the table if he were to engage in similar behavior in the future.

[00:13:22] A spokesperson for Hennepin County District Attorney. Spokesman by the name of Daniel Borger-Poeping. Borger-Poeping. Borger-Paping. Okay, that's a really long last name. Like, just put a hyphen in the middle of that or something. Whatever. Our main priorities are to secure restitution for the victims and hold Mr. Adams accountable.

[00:13:50] As a result, we will file for pre-charge diversion to best facilitate both of those goals. So diversion. So pre-charge, which means they're not going to charge him. So he will have a clean record. This is an approach taken in many property crime cases and helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution, as well as reducing the likelihood of repeat offenses. Criminal prosecution remains a possibility should unlawful behavior continue.

[00:14:18] The attorney for Adams said, My client is very remorseful for his actions and is beginning the process of making sure the victims are made whole financially. We are grateful for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office exercise of prosecutorial discretion and apologize to the victims and law enforcement. Elizabeth Stauffer, writing at Legal Insurrection, says Adams should be grateful. He is only remorseful because he was caught and publicly humiliated.

[00:14:49] This should be no surprise, though. First, Hennepin County DA Mary Moriarty, Soros-backed attorney, developed a reputation for leniency, at least for those with the right political affiliations. Even the progressive attorney general of the state, Keith Ellison, clashed with her over her soft on crime approach during her first year in office. The New York Post lists the examples.

[00:15:17] Her first week in office, she dropped the charges against a 35-year-old man accused of raping a teenage girl. In another high-profile case, she was taken off a case of murdered 23-year-old Zariah McKeever after the progressive prosecutor offered slaps on the wrist for the teenage defendants. Just days before Adams, by the way, went on this vandalism spree against the Teslas, you'll recall his boss, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz,

[00:15:46] publicly vilified Elon Musk during a town hall in Youngstown, Ohio, and he said, quote, what we should demonize is people like Elon Musk. I've been saying this for a few years now. The Democrats have a violence problem inside their ranks. The leftist violence fetish must be addressed. And lest you think that I have a blind eye to what's happening on the right, stay tuned. I will get to that later in the program.

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[00:17:57] There is no word yet on whether the U.S. Department of Justice will investigate this or bring charges or anything. Pam Bondi's office hasn't said anything about that. But she has in the past said that they are investigating these acts against Tesla vehicles and dealerships as domestic terrorism. So, we shall see. Next,

[00:18:24] Have you heard of a guy named Nicholas Decker? He is a George Mason University economics PhD student. And he is a leftist. And in his profile, he calls for more open borders. Now, is what he says. Among other things. He wants to spend more money on drugs as well. I'm not sure if that's like the illicit kinds or

[00:18:54] or like government funding or whatever. But, either way, he made a bit of news the other day when he wrote on his blog a piece called When Must We Kill Them? When Must We Kill Them? is the headline. And he starts off, much like the Declaration of Independence, listing the offenses, in his mind at least. But he starts off,

[00:19:22] I won't read the whole list of his grievances because they're hyperbolic, catastrophizing, and imagined transgressions. But, he starts off by saying, Evil has come to America. The present administration is engaged in barbarism. So, you get the flavor of what follows from there. You think that what we're seeing is barbarism. I would invite you to look up the slaughtering that is occurring

[00:19:50] in African nations by Muslims against Christians. I believe there were 200 slaughtered during the Holy Week. Islam means peace. Okay. What remains for us to decide, after he lists all the parade of horribles, he says, what remains for us to decide is when we fight. And considering the grip strength of Gen Zs, I like my chances, by the way, if the present administration wills it,

[00:20:19] it could sweep away the courts. It could sweep away democracy. And it could sweep away freedom. Protest is useful only insofar as it can affect action. Our words might sway the hearts of men, but not of beasts. Note the dehumanization. It's always a vital part to any kind of a revolution. You have to break down people's psyche

[00:20:49] if you're going to get them to go murder people. That's one of the deals. I remember talking to the historian, Dr. Bill Forsten, also the author of One Second After. He was actually on the other day with Vince Coakley. And I've known Bill for years. He lives in western North Carolina. I used to have him on the show regularly when I worked up in Asheville. And I would have him on. I've had him on here

[00:21:18] on the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Because that's really, he's known for the books that he wrote, but he is a historian. He teaches history. And the Civil War is a big part of his focus. And I remember one of the things that we talked about at one point was how when, after the battle was over and they were pulling, they were retrieving the arms, all of the rifles.

[00:21:47] And they found so many of the rifles had, because, you know, have you ever seen in the movies where you got like, you got to, you know, you take your teeth and you rip open the gunpowder pouch and you pour it down the barrel and then you got to put the wad down and you got to stuff that thing down and you put the, you know, put the pellet in, the bullet, whatever. And then you fire. So there was like this whole process you had to do just to fire a single shot, right? And what they found in the rifles afterwards,

[00:22:17] the whole barrel was just filled with just the wads that were just stuffed down. Because they would pick the, because they would run, they would be trying to go through the mechanism and then they just wouldn't shoot the gun. It takes a lot to get people to engage in warfare and dehumanization is one of the tools that you'd use against your enemy. Otherwise, it's difficult to look at them and pull the trigger.

[00:22:47] So, I see this kind of language as, shall I adopt a word from the left, problematic. He says, if the present administration chooses this course, then the questions of the day can be settled not with legislation, but with blood and iron. In short, we must decide when we must kill them. None of us wish for war, of course not, but if the present administration wishes to destroy the nation,

[00:23:16] I would accept war rather than see it perish. Why? I thought it's systemically, institutionally racist and beyond redemption. What are you doing? Wouldn't you want it to be torn asunder? He then says to his reader, I hope that you would choose the same. But what to do? The rot of the present administration runs deeper than one man. The sacrifice of a hero is insufficient to save our nation, and a gust of wind

[00:23:45] on a summer day would not have saved us. What's he talking about there? The attempted assassination of Donald Trump. But for a gust of wind, his brains would have been splattered all on the podium, right? For let us make no mistake, he says, the problem is not one man, but a whole class of people. If one head is cut off, another would take its place. So it's not just one guy.

[00:24:16] It's the entire administration. It's everybody that's, I guess, in government at the federal level. It's every MAGA supporter. No? Like, that's what he's saying. This is the imagery he is conjuring up for his reader. By the way, spoiler alert, he got a visit from the Secret Service about this. All right, so spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings,

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[00:25:46] at George Mason University goes by the name of Nicholas Decker. Self-described liberal, calls for open borders and the murder of Donald Trump and all of his supporters in a blog post, which he made under his own name. So in this post, he says, violence only makes sense as part of coordinated strategy. This is why protests

[00:26:16] are important, not as a way of changing the present administration's actions, but as a way to coordinate a group. There may come a time when we shall have no guarantee of freedom but the one which we make for ourselves. If it comes, I tell you that there is no greater honor than he who lays down his life for his friends. Until then, though, we must wait. And when is that time, you ask? Well, your threshold may differ from mine,

[00:26:45] but you must have one. If the present administration should cancel elections, if it should engage in fraud in the electoral process, if it should suppress the speech of its opponents, so far everything he's listed is like Biden, right? Canceled elections, check. Engage in fraud in the electoral process, check. Suppress the speech of its opponents, check. Oh, jail its political adversaries, check. Ignore the will of Congress, check. Check. If it should directly

[00:27:15] spurn the orders of the court, check. All of these are reasons for revolution. Well, by your own standard, then, dumbass, we would already be in a shooting war. Because if those are your standards, then you can't be shocked if other people were to adopt your standards. And those standards would have been met under the previous administration. The other team gets a turn at bat. I just always feel the need to point that out to people who advocate

[00:27:44] this sort of dumbassery. It may be best to stave off and wait for elections to throw out this scourge, but if it should threaten the ability to remove it, we shall have no choice. See, you made me beat you. Don't you understand? I didn't want to attack you, but you left me no choice. We will have to do the right thing. Oh, there it is, the moral superiority, right? I am better. I am morally superior.

[00:28:13] I occupy the ethical high ground here, and so I will be doing the right thing, but we will have to prepare ourselves to die. I hope that we should conduct ourselves with such courage that it will be our finest hour. I expect that we shall do our duty. This is yet another example of the cosplay, right? Cosplay, costume, play, right? I think is what that stands for. Cosplay is,

[00:28:45] well, have you ever seen like a Star Trek convention or a Comic-Con or something like that where people dress up in the costumes of superheroes or characters from movies and the like? That's cosplay, and that's what this kid is doing. He's cosplaying as a violent revolutionary, and that's being charitable, okay? If I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, I don't actually think he's going to do this, which he apparently

[00:29:13] admitted to the Secret Service when they paid him a visit. He concluded by saying that this evil will not pass without blood, sweat, toil, and tears, so harden your hearts and be prepared to die. Like I said, hyperbolic, catastrophizing, and imagined transgressions. So after this dumbassery became

[00:29:43] known, after he published it and some people saw it and then went viral for its, you know, particularly acute form of dumbassery, George Mason University put out a statement saying that it is aware of a recent essay published online by one of its students that has created concern. Upon learning of the essay, George Mason University police referred the matter to state and federal law enforcement for evaluation of criminal behavior. George Mason condemns this and all encouragements of

[00:30:13] violence. This is not the Mason way. By the way, this guy also called for no civilian ownership of guns. So, I'm not exactly sure how you engage in the violent revolution if you don't have firearms to do it. So he's anti-second amendment, but pro-revolution violent revolution. Again, not sure how he goes

[00:30:43] about doing that. I had like some just some practical questions on that front. So, then this from the daily dot dot com. A PhD student studying economics at George Mason University was visited by the Secret Service after publishing a viral essay that questioned when it would be time to kill the Trump administration and all of his allies, of course. I throw that part in there and daily dot when they wrote about this and I believe they

[00:31:12] are like a tech kind of website, but they put the word kill in scare quotes and I'm not sure why because he literally uses the word right. The headline is when must we kill them? So, I'm not sure why you would put the word kill as if it's like some I don't know metaphorical replacement word that you're using or oh he was just he wasn't using

[00:31:42] it literally it was a figurative use of the word kill when he said we have to kill them all and then explained how you would have to kill them all and that they would be dead. Right. So, anyway he is quoted from I guess this he posted I don't know if this was on Twitter but he said Secret Service came by and we had a lovely chat. Discussion touched on many points with an amicable resolution of differences.

[00:32:12] Conduct is fully legal he wrote. That post racked up three million views by the way. After posting that authorities agreed that his writing was protected under the First Amendment because abstract calls for violence are protected. These are abstract calls. He's not saying hey go hit this person at this time and place or whatever. So it's more of just a generalized call to murder people you see. Right wingers

[00:32:41] though responded here's a good one I pulled that they told you it's legal to role play on the internet once you admitted that you didn't mean the things you said. Right. And that that is the key here. He's like I'm just saying if it ever got to something it's all hypothetical it wasn't a direct call for violence I wasn't saying people need to go out and murder anybody not right now I'm just saying if any of these things were to happen whatever whatever in other words what

[00:33:11] he's saying is I lied right. He's saying I lied about it. This isn't a direct call for violence even though he did I read you the part where he said your threshold may be different than mine. Everyone's threshold will vary. Right and I've talked about this for several years now it was a research paper done back in the 60s after the riots all over the country talking about the cascade effect of why people pick up the

[00:33:41] rocks and bottles and engage in the destruction of their own cities communities and the I think it was a sociologist had hypothesized there that everybody has their own threshold their own number he called it where you know if I saw 10 people throwing rocks through windows and if 10 is my number then I would join them and that creates that cascade where the more people's numbers get hit the more people start engaging in the behavior and

[00:34:11] most people have numbers that are way higher than the instigators of the initial violence and that's what he's talking about there whether he knows it or not now the network contagion research institute at Rutgers University did a report assassination culture how burning Teslas and killing billionaires became a meme aesthetic for political violence and what they found was support for violence is part of a broader assassination culture

[00:34:40] underpinned by psychological and ideological factors political violence targeting Trump and Musk is becoming increasingly normalized they wrote so this is a problem on the left following the attempted assassination of Trump tolerance and even advocacy for political violence appears to have surged especially among politically left leaning segments of the population this pattern builds on a broader

[00:35:09] trend that NCRI identified in two December 2024 reports that analyzed how viral social media narratives were legitimizing political violence particularly in the aftermath of the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO the reports found widespread justification for lethal violence including assassination among younger highly online and ideologically left aligned users users or losers

[00:35:39] oh no I'm sorry users that's right 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 the Pete calendar show dot com again thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone on