NPR donation spike and a Blue Angels lawsuit (07-28-2025--Hour2)

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 of the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendarshow dot 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. So last hour, we got a text about some ridiculous topic that the NPR station was airing on one of their programs about democrats are going to try to grow facial hair in order to get people to vote for them. This is I guess also in addition to the cursing and getting themselves arrested. I guess it's not their policies, it's not their positions that people are rejecting. It's the lack of facial hair that turns people off, apparently, according to NPR. Speaking of NPR Stacy Matthews writing over at legal insurrection dot com. For decades, Republicans have argued that its supporters of NPR and PBS were so fond of keeping their purported news organizations operational, then they should have no problem forking over the donations needed to keep them going. As it turns out, that is what is happening. As I predicted this would happen, because of course it would. When you cut the government funding that has been propping up NPR and PBS, now your listeners don't have an excuse not to donate. This happened decades ago also when the funding levels were reduced and they said, oh my gosh, we're going to go out of business, we're going to go off air, and all of this, and in fact it led to an increase in listeners support. So the New York Times reports that in the aftermath of NPR and PBS losing their federal funding thanks to the GOP controlled Congress, donations from private citizens have exploded at unprecedented levels. The number of new donors has surged to over one hundred and twenty thousand in a roughly ninety day period. Here's the New York Times quote. Over the last three months, as the prospect of the cuts intensified, roughly one hundred twenty thousand new donors have contributed an estimated twenty million in annual revenue. That's according to Michael hayblic Hyplick. He Hippilick anyway, Michael as the president and chief executive of the Contributor Development Partnership. That's a firm that analyzes public media fundraising data. But that's an exciting workplace. Overall, donations committed to public media for the year or about seventy million dollars higher than they were last year now, and Stacey points out that these are not just one time donors. These are what they call sustaining members, so they you know, they're they're making donations over the course of the whole year, so they've signed up for like an auto draft thing. Now, all that being said, they're going to have to get a lot more donations if they're going to replace all the money that was cut, because they're going to need to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of like five hundred and fifty million dollars a year to make up for what they no longer will be getting from taxpayers. Sort of kind of proves the point that if there's a strong enough market for something, consumers will make it happen, and that neither PBS nor NPR need public funding to survive. She's exactly right. And you know that's not to say some outlets are gonna are are not going to be pinched, Yes they will. Some stations in some cities will I don't know, problem, maybe they go off air, maybe they have to cut back on their their staff. I saw I saw Tommy Tomlinson. He used to be in a columnist for the Charlotte Observer, and he was doing work over at w FAE, the public radio affiliate here, and they they let him go. But I don't know, like I don't know what the nature of his deal was, because he did. I think he did like a show, like a once a week show or something like that. I mean, look, they've got they have a news department over across the street over there, and their reporters do some really good work. They cover you know, government meetings and stuff. But there's a lot of I mean, there's a lot of staff in NPR stations. There's a lot of staff. And I make this joke all the time. You know, you listen to any of these programs that are coming from the National Network, which, by the way, the local affiliates have to pay for those. See and I've explained this relationship before, like Limbaugh's show was the only show that radio stations had to pay for because he could charge right because it was the tent pole in the ratings. You know, it's like everybody was under his his tent and everybody else gives you their their shows for free. And the idea there is that they sell advertising on their show, and they control most of that inventory, so they can then sell to national products and services and then the local affiliates that carry the program. We would get the program for free, but we would also get a couple of spots that we could sell. That's the model, and it's in television. It's radio obviously NPR and what's the other one, American Public Radio APR, I think, or American Public Media APM something like that. They create content usually out of like Chicago and New York, right, and then you have to you have to pay them for airing those programs. So like local hosts, they I think there's Mike Collins, right, I think he's the only one over there. I think that it's the only local show that's actually done versus us. We're live and local from five am until eight pm. Now, so you like there is a way to make that that radio model work. I'm sure Public Radio will figure it out at some point. And also they've got the McDonald's money. Joan Kroc. Ray Kroc, the the guy who stole McDonald's from the McDonald's brothers. I'll never forgive Michael Keaton for that. But you know when he when when he died, she got all of the wealth. And then when she died she donated like a billion dollars to uh, to public radio or something, so like, you guys, you guys got money. Okay, This story out of Seattle, the climate activists are very upset at the Blue Angels, the US Navy Blue Angels air show. They're very upset. They call it wasteful, burning a lot of you know, fuel and stuff just to fly around and try to make people love their country. How dare they? Seattle climate activists to protesting and upcoming US Navy Blue Angels air show, claiming the jets pollute the environment. Also, a woman in Seattle filed a lawsuit against against the Blue Angels, I guess the US Navy, claiming that the military jets killed her cat. Killed her cat. The cat was old and it was already kind of sickly. The Blue Angels the elite military flight demonstration team consisting of one hundred and forty active duty sailors and marines, now in their seventy ninth year. The squadron has been performing at Seattle Seafair Festival since nineteen seventy two. The Air Show Climate Action Coalition, that's what they're called, the Air Show Climate Action Coalition, the ACAC or the AKAK. They put up a billboard in Seattle this week declaring say no to Blue Angels. It's a very persuasive campaign, guys. I'm sure it's going to work. The coalition, made up of members from local climate groups as well as the radical global climate group Extinction Rebellion, is planning to march Oh that'll do it, and hold a rally on August second to protest the Blue Angels air Show that weekend. The billboard depicts people with hands over their ears and others raising their fists in protest of the jets, So it's like literally shaking your fist at the sky. That's the image that the Okay, they say the jets cause war trauma and pollution, war trauma. Just planes flying around produces war trauma. Okay, and then there's the cat all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot 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 dot ground, dot news, slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent 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 on Twitter at Pete Calener, where I have this massage from It's all a distraction who says the Blue Angels should fly crop dusters over Seattle and release a bunch of xanax. Those people need to chill. Ah. That would be funny. That would be funny. This is from Ann in rock Hill. Our local PBS is promoting donations and the spokesperson claimed that it was important to contribute to continue quote independent journalism. Yes, I have heard them say the same on our public radio station here too. Independent journalism. As you say, don't pee on my boots and tell me it's raining there I getting my money. No, that's yeah. I saw one clip. I think it was in Stacy Matthews piece. Actually I think she had a linked in her piece over at legal insurrection dot com and it was, you know, one of these because they're all doing their fund drives and stuff, and they have been leaning in on the whole you know, defunding thing and using it to drive more donations, you know, existential threat to you know, your favorite radio station, all of that and this this so this guy is doing this employee. I think it was out of like Denver and he's, you know, doing a like a video appealing to people to donate, and and the tweet says when they send this thing out the video, the tweet says something like join the resistance. Like what is that? The independent journalism joining the resistance? Right, or as I call it, the resistanans. This is from somebody on the text line Pete. I just want to know how are all the activists? How are all the activists getting to the protest by airplane? No, they're probably local. They probably just they probably take mass Yeah, probably mass transit or bicycles. Yes, they probably ride bicycles because they care more than you. So you got the Air Show Climate Action Coalition, which is sort of like an ad hoc activist group. I guess like they it's like they're just like pull. It's like an all star team. You know. You get all these existing eco warrior groups, and so you just collect some from each team and you put them together into this Air Show Climate Action Coalition so they can go protest the air show specifically. I don't know why you would need to do that, right, Like, why not just have all of the groups joined together and just be their own groups still? Because anyway they don't want the air show there. And then there was the cat. The Blue Angels are facing criticism and a lawsuit, apparently from a Seattle woman who blames the noisy air show for the death of her sickly, elderly cat. Lauren Ann Lombardy filed a lawsuit against Blue Angels officers in federal court last week, claiming that her beloved family member was terrorized by the Blue Angels. She called it quote state sanctioned acoustic torture. The lawsuit claims the noise. Look, if that's the case, then my dishwasher is acoustic torture because my cat seems completely terrified every time the cycles change or there's some noise difference inside that machine when it's running. The lawsuit claim maybe I could, maybe I could sue Whirlpool for acoustic torture. Okay, now I'm interested in this case. I'm gonna be following this now. The lawsuit claims the noise of the low flying fighter jets spurred panic attacks in the cat. How would you even know? How would you even know the cat's having a panic attack? Wouldn't it just look like the zumis right? Cat was? Okay? The cat was in critical condition due to her worsening congestive heart disease, and ultimately led to her euthanasia last year, last August. She also is accusing the Blue Angels of unconstitutionally blocking her profanity laced comments criticizing the US Navy squadron on its Instagram page. So now you have a constitutional right to curse on the Navy's Instagram page. That's what she's Okay, that's her argument. She is seeking a court order to unblock her account and to prohibit the Blue Angels from blocking any other accounts on the basis of viewpoints. Well, see, that's the thing. It's not really it's not based on a viewpoint. It's based on your potty mouth or potty fingers, which actually sounds grosser for some reason. But yeah, it would be based on your behavior, not your viewpoint. Your behavior is what they were blocking because you obviously cannot express yourself in a civil way. So anyway, all right, now, I don't care about this lawsuit anymore. I am not going to really sue Whirlpool. I'm not gonna because I like just my cat does not suffer from panic attacks that I know of. 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Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations, call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at cabins of Aashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. And he asks if NPR and PBS are still considered nonprofits, which I think they are, they would still be. If so, wouldn't tax considerations for donors still be considered public funding? Hmmm, because you can make a donation and then you know, take it as a as a write off or a deduction for charitable giving. But I don't know, because I think partly, like you know, liberals donate far less than conservatives do, and so I mean just in general, like that's the that's the thing. So I don't know if they're donating enough to actually get like just more than the standard deduction. So I don't know if that, I wouldn't count that as taxpayer funded. So China apparently a bunch of hackers launched a cyber attack as commis do. Three China linked hacking groups are among those responsible for a sweeping cyber attack against users of popular Microsoft server software that has already impacted dozens of organizations across the globe. This is from the Washington Post. Federal investigators believe multiple US government agencies are among the early victims of the ongoing cyber exploitation campaign, though the full scope is not yet clear. This is according to two US officials with knowledge of the matter. Microsoft confirmed in a blog post last week that three Chinese hacking groups are involved in the f One is called Violet Typhoon, another is called Linen Typhoon, and the other is called storm Dash twenty six oh three. I don't know what any of those names mean. I'm not clear. I assume Violet Typhoon and Linen Typhoon must be related or no is to the Chinese names. Do they put the surname at the front of the names anyway. At least two US federal agencies are among the roughly one hundred suspected victims of the hacks thus far. Both people were granted anonymity to discuss it. Blah blah blah. The attacks allowed hackers to extract cryptographic keys from servers run by Microsoft clients. Those keys, in turn, would let them install anything, including back doors that they could use to return only versions of share Point that are hosted by the customer, not those in the cloud are vulnerable. Right, So if you use share Point and you're using the cloud, apparently that's fine. That if you're hosting it, you're not fine. Microsoft issued effective patches for the last of the exposed versions. While installing the patches should prevent new intrusions, customers also need to change the machine's digital keys, apply anti malware software, and hunt for any breaches that have already occurred. That's all from the Washington post ed Morrissey at hotair dot com. He notes the irony, which is that Microsoft and Google have ben over backwards in their dealings with the tricoms to access their market, the China market. Both have long partnered with state linked firms to help China build out its cyber infrastructure, and in doing so also helped Xixinping build systems that censor and spy on its citizens, even with China's hackers using that infrastructure to target the US government. Since at least twenty fifteen, Google had been backing away from China for the last few years. They had bailed on the as at twenty ten they classed with China over censorship, but then they came back in around twenty seventeen twenty eighteen to offer a chi coom controlled search app as well as an AI project, but Google's employees protested and they forced an end to both of those projects after a public backlash. Yeah, to help the communists with their AI research and to control the search results. Right, because if you like, this is one of the tests. If you want to know if your search engine is compromised, or your social media platform, your AI assistant whatever, ask it about Tianaman Square, what happened to Tianaman Square and if the if the response is you know, not about the protest of the Chinese government, but instead bounces back as something else, or in some cases I've seen it says we are unable to process that request. That means the try cooms of control over your your platform, Morris. He goes on to say, we have had a decade now of cyber warfare aimed at our national security infrastructure by China. It has not stopped, nor will it ever stop, not even if we normalize trade and offer tariff free access to our markets. That's because Xijenping is not interested in profitable and friendly relations with US. He wants to destroy American power and seize control of global commerce on his own terms. This latest hack or a cyber attack should make this very clear to everyone. But then again, it should have been clear all along. I mean, they are Kamis, and rule number one with kamis they lie. I added that part, that's my rule. But it's true. The only question now is whether the corporate quizzlings in the West will realize it or whether they will continue to collaborate with China to the destruction of all others and the oppression of China's people. Meanwhile, Washington Post also reporting that Chinese authorities blocked a US based Wells Fargo banker from returning home and separately sentenced a Japanese executive to more than three years in prison for espionage. According to the Washington Post, the Wells Fargo executive, named Mao chen Yu, was not detained, but she has been ordered not to leave China. That's according to the bank. Wells Fargo has suspended travel by its executives to China. Many Japanese companies have already been limiting travel to China and have been withdrawing family members of managers stationed there. One of Ed Morrissey's colleagues David Strom at hot air dot com. He points out that China's modernization has been driven by its acceptance into the World Trade Organization back in two thousand and one, and for twenty five years, China has undergone increasing integration into the global economy. But politically it has only modernized in the sense that the technical tools it uses to implement totalitarian rule have become more sophisticated, and as it has grown in economic power, it has flexed its totalitarian muscle against foreigners doing business in China. Wells Fargo's a major player in China. Maybe they are gonna take a lesson from this. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. 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It's a peat mail from Richard who says, I live on Jonas Ridge. Two fighters fly low over my house about once a week or so on their way to topography flight training through Lynville Gorge. It can be extremely loud. That woman in Seattle needs to understand that that is the sound of freedom the Blue Angels, and Dave writes in and says, look in the dictionary under crazy Cat Lady, and that woman's picture will be there. It's probably right, That's probably right. The Department of Homeland Security is flooding the Zone in New York City with ice officers after the city council blocked federal law enforcement agencies from opening an office in the city jail. Tom Homan, the borders are made this announcement. The other day, he joined the Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noman other Trump administration officials to deliver this message. They went down to one World Trade Center after an off duty federal Customs officer was shot by an illegal alien in an attempted robbery the other weekend, Holman said, quote, you don't want to let us in the jails to arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail. You want to release him into the street, which makes it unsafe for the alien because anything can happen in an on street arrest. So what are we going to do. We're going to put more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy. So sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want, more agents in the community. This is the thing I do not understand why the demo don't get this right. When when you say we're a sanctuary city and we're not going to cooperate with ice, you're going to then get more of this activity. The alleged shooter entered the country illegally in twenty twenty three, during then President Joe Biden's tenure, when it was you know, Ali Ali Oxen free and he had been arrested and released and then arrested again, and then released, and then arrested again and then released and then arrested again for a fourth time. Four times this guy got arrested since twenty twenty three, she blamed Christy Nooman blamed the shooting on New York sanctuary city policies that limit the city's cooperation with immigration enforcement and Mayor Eric Adams for not changing the policies despite what people believe is a good relationship with the Trump administration. Now, Adams says like not my fault, much like our sheriff here is not my fault. This is the city council that did it. He said he wants to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration, but he blamed the left leaning city council for not letting him. He said he welcomes more ICE agents in the city if they're going to help the city go after quote, dangerous people like the alleged shooter, But he said that if it's going to be to go after everyday individuals who are trying to complete the path, who are trying to be a citizen. I don't think we should do that, Okay, So what does that mean, complete the path, trying to be a citizen. Well, if they're on the path to citizenship, then they would be allowed to be here, right, they'd be in that process, that naturalization process. Now, if you're just saying that they're on the path and that that just means that they're an illegal alien here. But they haven't, you know, murdered anybody, they haven't been arrested for anything. They're not dangerous, right, then you're okay with them. Keeping is that the path you're talking about? Is this the path, the pathway to citizenship or a pathway to amnesty? Have you heard this? Representative Maria Alvira Salazar, Republican out of Florida is sponsoring immigration legislation that they're calling it the Dignity Act, and it envisions a healthy budget for modernizing border infrastructure and funding for ICE. It requires companies to use the Everify system to ensure everybody hired has legal status. The legislation would immediately discourage illegal employers and laborers from seeking each other out. Those are good provisions, according to the editors at National review. However, those good provisions are fatally undermined in the rest of the bill. Taken as a whole, this latest attempt at comprehensive immigration reform is a cure worse than the disease. Supporters of the act claim the bill does not offer amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. By that, they mean it does not offer full citizenship. But the bill does offer a form of legal resident status to millions of illegal immigrants. This is the core of amnesty, a promise that the normal consequence of an infraction will be stopped and the object of the infraction, the ability to live in work in the US, is gained. Right. That's you don't suffer any of the negative. You get what you wanted. Passing this bill would be the first official step towards creating a permanent resident under class with a perpetually renewable legal status that falls short of citizenship. It is the kind of arrangement that the Republican Party was founded to oppose because it undermines free and fair competition in the labor market. Stop helping, Representative salaz Are, please, you're not helping. The American Republic does not want and is not fit for a racialized under class. Such an arrangement would be a powerful magnet for entering the country illegally. Come one, come all, lay low for seven years, then watch as your children and children's children live as American citizens. You yourself may qualify for a future legal status once our political class has established the precedent that dignity calls for nothing less. Yeah, it's just a matter of time, because then it's like, well, these people are being taken advantage of now, and so we need to just you know, they have none any crimes, and so we need to just give them full citizenship. In the twenty years that Congress has been trying to make a version of amnesty now plus enforcement sometime in the future, they've been trying to make this sound like a good deal. It never sounds like a good deal. The rest of the world has already moved on. Border infrastructure is hardening almost everywhere, according to studies of satellite images and the evidence from the border crossings of the world data set. Democratic publics want a system that is fair, that works for the long term interest, and they are forcing their governments to respond with measures of restriction and control. Stop helping Salazar 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 dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.