Terrible ideas and raging grannies are mad (08-04-2025--Hour3)

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 dpeakclendershow 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. We are joined by Ap Dylon. She is a reporter at the North State Journal. You can read her work there at nsjonline dot com. Also, she is the publisher of a substack newsletter called More to the Story and Ap welcome. How are you hey? How you doing? I am doing all right? I think so. Since we last spoke, we've gotten now our two heavy hitters in the Republican and Democrat primaries for the US Senate race here in North Carolina, completely unexpect Roy Cooper and then completely unexpectedly Michael Wattley. But it does not look like unlike in Cooper's case, where the only Democrat that was running against him. I think we did talk about this race last week. Wiley Nickel he dropped out. He says he's not going to run now. I don't think the same is going to happen in the GOP primary. Yeah, you got no. I don't think that's going to be an issue there. I think that the folks who have already filed to run are probably going to stay on there and continue with the primary, because that's that's just how Republicans role. That is kind of how that is how Republican's role. Indeed, so we've already started seeing he wrote about some of the comments made by Wattley linking Cooper to the radical Democrats. The ads dropped almost I think the day Cooper announced, and uh we saw it this weekend, and I did my part. I retweeted the old video of my good friend Ray marching in solidarity with the mascless protesters in the streets around the governor's mansion. And my prediction is that ad is going to or that clip is going to be featured in quite a few ads, I would suspect, and hopefully maybe some you know, national media outlets, if they get a chance to interview Cooper, maybe they'll ask him about the double standard there. Well, we tried in twenty twenty. Well you tried it. Journal was one of a couple outlets who were shut out of asking questions during the COVID briefings. So well, it turns out this time around. Yeah no, that's yeah, for real, like people who aren't aware. AP and I talked about this at the time. They the Cooper administration implemented a software program that they could they could segregate reporters into different groups basically, and if you got stuck in the you know, don't ask, don't call on this reporter group, then you never got through on the conference call to ask the questions during the COVID briefings, and only the software. That's true. That's true. It didn't matter if we were the very first one logged into the call and had registered that we wanted to ask a question or not. We were basically cut out of asking any questions. And the same three or four outlets got the questions every single time. And I think we got maybe one question in all of the COVID briefings that happened for what were good six months. Yeah, so that was an issue. Well, I hope it was a good one, because you only get one right for six months exactly all right, So what else over at your sub stack? You've got a piece about all of the recent resolutions, and I don't know, I'm not sure if we got around to discussing the anti Israel resolutions that the North Carolina Democrat Party Executive Committee adopted and discussed, But there were a bunch of other resolutions that they did, and the list is it's pretty crazy, some of these things that really finger on the pulse, I would say, of the of the current electorate vibe, like restoring DEI, ending cash bail, ending youth curfew laws, opposing the unrestricted carrie of concealed deadly weapons. Oh my favorite though, was the support of a democratic truth squad of all elected officials asap. What was that about. Yeah, they basically wanted a democratic elected officials of Washington and in North Carolina to push back against the administration, you know, like a rapid response kind of thing. So it kind of reminded me of, you know, back in the Albomides when he had his you know, his little truth truth squad thing where he wanted neighbors to be dropping a dime on each other. So that was just one of them. There was another resolution that these are all unpassed resolutions. By the way, another one that was unpassed was in support of Kilmara Brigo Garcia, you know, the the Maryland. Band marylynd Man. Yeah, there were also a local opposition to like Senate Bill fifty and House Bill five. There was one in particular that was unpassed, and it was opposition a resolution opposing the Lake and Riley Act. And I think most folks know who Lake and Riley is, the nursing student who's murdered very brutally by a illegal alien in Georgia. Became a pivot point during the twenty four election cycle. Yeah, and Joe Biden was responded when was a Marjorie Taylor green screened? Say her name Lake and Riley, and then Biden was like, Lincoln Riley, Oh jesus, yep. Yeah, yeah, that was kind of a mess. So, yeah, they were opposing that resolution that that act that was actually signed in the law by President Trump. So it was interesting that was a I'm a gentleman, He's not really a gentleman, but the illegal alien who had murdered her was had been in the country several times illegally and deported a couple of times I believe had committed crimes in other states before eventually murdering her in Athens, Georgia or near Athens, Georgia. They had a couple other ones in there that were interesting too, I think the ban and removal of Elon Musk from power in the federal government and the reinstatement of usaiit. Oh my god, yeah, those are not going to happen now. Also, raising North Carolina's minimum wage to eighteen dollars an hour was another one. What could go wrong? Yeah? What could go wrong? And then there was another here you write about ending the natural Citizens Clause of the US Constitution, which, in its current form, the Constitution bars foreign born citizens from being able to be elected president. So Democrats are just like right out there, They're like, hey, you know, what would be a great idea allowing people who are not born here to lead a country? What again, what could go wrong? This is like this a laundry list of all the worst ideas. And I'm frankly shocked that the Democrats did not approve of all of these or any of these. And you did mention that on the anti Israel votes. What was it? Cooper and Governor josh Stein, they did not support they they you say, they disavowed at least one of the anti Israel resolutions. So I was a little bit. More broad he was he was not a fan of It seemed like he was talking about them collectively. However, when Cooper was asked General Daan Peter Reach's he had an article up that I linked to and he basically was asked about the anti Israel resolutions, and Cooper really only said, I don't I don't agree with any with the resolution that you know Israel. Israel's a partner of ours, any important an ally of ours, So I don't agree with that. And it seemed like he was just talking about the one that was baring weapons and in support and material military oh that It didn't look like he sed this about all of them, but just that one. Well, that's the first time we've seen something of like a foreign policy related statement from him, which is going to be important in a Senate run. So that also could open him up for some you know, leftist to run against him in a primary. That's like so you know, captured by the Palestinian cause they're like, I can't let this guy get in. I need you know, we need to run somebody else. I'm just wishing there, but let me see. And then you had another piece at your Substack newsletter called more to the story. This was and I'd seen their press releases actually ahead of time out of York County, South Carolina. Case people didn't know, which would be very easy to not know because the protests were not really well attended. There was a rage against the regime, get it, rage against the machine, rage against the machine. Anyway, they did a bunch of these protests around North Carolina and not too well attended. Yeah, not really. I think Raleigh might have been the biggest one in the state, and they had maybe two or three hundred people there, maybe three hundred, I would say. Looking at some of the some of the photos that were out there, a local news outlet found it, you know, interesting enough that they had to put their chopper up so that they could see what was happening on the ground. They hadn't done that with many of the other protests, but they did it with this one and happened to catch the finale of the protest, which was going out onto the Halleck fact Small and creating a human chain by holding hands all the way around the edges of the mall. Well, there had to be at least two or three hundred people there to do that. But yeah, that was one of the most well attended ones. There was one down down near Charlotte where it looked like about six people showed up to a Circle K gas station and waved flags, including someone dressed up as a statue of liberty. Yeah, yeah, and what else was there? Some of the signs that showed up at this one, they were obviously ignoring all the sign warnings from the last one. You've got several of them using foul language. So readers beware if they see this article on my subject. If you scroll down, you'll see the image of a man dressed up in a catch up outfit wearing a sign that says Trump F's children so lovely. Very persuasive argument. I was on the fence until I saw the image, and then it completely swayed me. Now, yep, exactly. Also, it appeared that it was mostly you know, middle aged to elderly folks that came out to these protests. I didn't see a lot of young people at these, and a lot of the signs at the Raleigh one at least were created and given out by Common Cause. You can see their logo right on the signage Black Voters Matter. We the people defending democracy this kind of thing. So they along with Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic and fifty one fifty and the Deeter Mediation Foundation and Raleigh Boots on the Ground, those are the folks who are sort of organizing this, along with a group called People for Democracy, which really didn't identify itself very well. My favorite part was your reference to the Moral Monday official unofficial band the Raging Grannies, which they used to be called the Green Granny's I believe, And then they did their rebrand and they call themselves the Raging Grannies Now, and they they kicked it off with a song probably just like they rewrote the lyrics to some popular song from the like the nineteen sixties, because that's usually what they do. And the name of this song was part of my language. But it says, now you've pissed off Grandma, which do they not know their name is Raging Grannies Now, because that wouldn't you just be in a perpetual state of powedness like to like I don't think I don't think it's again a compelling or persuasive message there from these these women who just sang really really bad, barely written songs. Yeah. I mean it was all par for the course. Some of the other protests around around the state. You know, there were a few of them here and there. I think there was one in Heywood County which looked like it had maybe twenty or so people at it wasn't it wasn't very widely intended, and so looking at national ones, they were a little bit bigger in some of the big city some of the bigger urban centers, but the most of them, those are the ones that got focused on because the rest of them, you know, there really wasn't that much going on. Did you see the one the next one we could look forward to its Labor Day. Yeah, they're going to do it again Labor Day. Yeah. Did you see the one up in what I think it was Oaklaw was in Oklahoma City, or maybe it was in Michigan, I forget where They set up tens and they had watermelons there and they gave people edgehammer so they could bash the tents and like they give him bats or bash the watermelons. Yeah, that kind of reminds me of that the performance art comedian what was his. Name, Gallagher? Yes, Gallagher, yeah, right, except they didn't even give anybody like the trash bags to cover themselves in, so you you go whacking away at this melon and then you're covered in melon guts for the rest of the day. Like that's oh yeah, I'm sure that. Didn't think it through. Yeah, I did not think it through, all right, Ap Dylan from the North State Journal NSJ online dot com and subscribe to her substack newsletter. It's called More to the Story Banks Ap. Thanks Pepe, all right, take care, 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. Here's a Pete tweet from Timoteo, who says, Pete, I was invited to participate in a counter protest of the rage against the regime, but decided to go get tacos instead. That's probably the best decision there. Ben Shapiro calls this, He calls us the omni cause, which is a great name for it. You hear me say, the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution, right. And what Ben is getting at with his phrase the omni cause is the same thing, which is that you have all of these these different causes that are at sometimes diametrically opposed to each other on a certain issue, and they all band together though for their omni cause, and the omni cause is the tearing down of institutions in the Western civilization. That's the point. And you know, they all you know, it's kind of like the car. The dog that catches the car doesn't know what to do with it when he gets it. Because if you were to actually destroy, which is easier than building, obviously it's easier to destroy all of this stuff. So once you do that, though, what do you want to put in its place? Well, then all of these factions they would then splinter apart, you know, because then you would have to actually fight for the power, and they're all about power dynamics, and that's where all of these communist revolutions always fall apart. And then you end up with the most vicious strong man that takes over the one who is willing to do what the others won't. They assert that power, They then control all of the others and they wipe out all of their enemies. That's the antithesis of Western civilization, which is the protection of the individual right that we all are endowed with, inalienable rights endowed by our creator, not from the government equal protection under the law, like these are the fundamental structures that underpin our society. So I did get the press release from This was out of York County, South Carolina, right across the border from Charlotte. And they messed upon their dates, which may actually explain why they didn't have such great turnout because they said Thursday, August one, but August first wasn't Thursday, so they messed up on the dates. So anyway, they had a gathering first in downtown rock Hill in coordination with what they were calling was going to be a general strike Thursday. They were calling for national anti ICE sick Out. I think they actually meant Friday, August first, and what they demand they were going to go, then they're going to write postcards, and then they were going to march to Representative Ralph Norman's office, demanding abolition of ICE and end to deportations, defund immigration enforcement and local police cooperation with ICE, and legal status and permanent protections for all undocumented people. So amnesty. That's what their first march was going to be. And then was the Rage against the Regime, where they had similar demands reject MAGA authoritarianism, fund schools, healthcare, housing, not billionaires all of that. So that was the rage against the regime. But again I think they may have had low turnout because they got the dates wrong on their press release. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. 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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 Ashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. On the previous topic, got a message from John A Pete mail Pete at the Pete Kalander Show dot com. John says was the person wearing that statue of liberty costume part of the rage against the regime protest? Or was it one of those liberty tax signed spinners that just happen to be standing near the protest. I always feel bad for those people every year I see them out there in those costumes. I did see the video. They did not have a sign that they were spinning. They had an American flag they were waving around. They were obviously part of the protest. They were not there advertising liberty tax services. Also, it's not tax season, so I'm just using my context clues on that one. All right, let's go over and speak to John. Hello, John, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you doing? Pete? Hey, I'm good. What's up? Okay? I just thought I should call wdt UH to try and save people from being scammed by a very frightening and legitimate looking text. Okay this this came in yesterday on my phone. Don't the link? No, no, no, okay, So okay, it's got it's got a very well done layout. It has a blue and white logo. North Carolina Department of Transportation with the seal. North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. Final notice enforcement penelties began on August the fifth. Your traffic violation remains unpaid. If not paid by the fourth, the following consequences will follow as outlined the North Carolina Code one five C DASH one six point zero zero three violation documented in the DMV system. Your registration will be suspended, thirty day suspension of your license. Your debt will be forwarded. The collections plus a thirty five percent commission, possible legal action and negative impact on your credit. Pay immediately at this link. So something told me this was a scam. It is and so there because the NCDOT will never text. You that, of course not. And so I went over. I just throve over to the sheriff's office. I live in Union County. I went and said, listen, I got this from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. What's going to happen to me? And the lady immediately recognized it was a scam. So I thought, I cannot be the only retired person in North Carolina that has received this threatening message. I understand that communicating threats, there's there are laws against that. I think those are physical Yeah, I think those are physical threats. Yeah, yes, so what I I just figured I give a call to BET because y'all get a lot of people listening. Indeed, I personally enjoy it. I enjoy your your shows. I listened on a regular basis. Uh, and I'm happy that you're on because they can't listen to Rush anymore. Oh that's very kind. Yeah. But yeah, so I will tell you. Yeah, the ncd MV has sent out an alert. They sent this out June. I want to say, early June a surge in fraudulent text message scams targeting residents, So not just retirees, but everybody. I got one of these a couple of months ago. The scams falsely claimed to request payment for fees, fines, or tolls. That's one I got was a toll you yeah, you got to pay your tolls or whatever. And I was like that, it's not how that works. They just auto drafted, So you're not going to get You're not going to get that kind of a message on your text exactly. And so you are urged to report any suspicious texts as spam, delete them immediately. Do not click on any links. See I always tell people this, like you can write me in an email or on the text line or something, but if you put a link in there, and I know people do it, they're like, oh, this is a good story, you should look into this whatever. I'm not going to ever click the links ever. Yeah yeah, yeah, So like you can tell me, like there was a story the title was this, and it was at you know, NBC. Go look it up and then I'll go look it up myself. But yeah, people just never click the links ever from anybody. Right, right, So I just thought you guys would probably have a big reach. And Okay, you've already been on this, so you know it's a scam and people are probably falling for it. Sure, that's why they're doing it. And now with AI available to help them craft the scripts and make things look legitimate, it's going to be it's gonna become a lot easier. The one I've been getting recently is I get these random emails that Okay, hey, you know your meeting has been booked, and then there's like a calendar you know, there's like a calendar RSVP box there. They want you to click yes or no, and it's like, I don't even know this person, I don't know this website and you look at their email and it's like a whole bunch of numbers and letters and stuff like obviously scam. Uh So that was Yeah, that was one. That That's one that I'm getting a lot, and so yeah, always report it. You can do that in the text message on your phone. There should be like a way to report it as phishing because that's what they're doing, right. Yeah, so I will. I'll look at my menu see if I can forward it too. But I don't forward it, just report it, block it. Yeah, if you report it, and then that should block it as well and deleted out of your are you using an Android or an Apple. It's an Android. Yeah, so there should be you know, the three dots that open up the menus. There should be. Yeah, there should be like the three dots or something that you'll be able to tap on that and then you can you can report fishing. Okay, Well, I enjoy your show. Exser I know I personally know some people affiliated with WBT. The Reverend David Chadwick married me and my wife a number of years ago. We're still legal. Oh well, good, all right, congratulations. How long has that been? Oh goodness, thirty five years almost. Congratulations. Good for you. Well, you have a great you have a great afternoon YouTube. Enjoy you and enjoy your evening. All right, you too. Take care. I appreciate the heads up on that. In fact, there's a I got this the other day from the US Department of Justice. The FBI Charlotte Field Office, and the US Attorney's Offices for the Eastern, Middle, and Western districts of North Carolina are warning the public about a jury duty scam involving fake federal arrest warrants. The scammers will call or send emails claiming that you miss jury duty, and then there's a federal warrant for your arrest. To add credibility to their claims, the fraudsters either text or email a fake arrest warrant with the names of actual North Carolina federal law enforcement officers, prosecutors, or judges. The victims are told to pay a fine via a virtual currency machine or kiosk to avoid jail time. That's a huge red flag. The government is not going to tell you to go to a bitcoin machine at the circle k all right. I don't know if circle k actually has those machines, but like, you do not pay all fines in bitcoin. Scammers often direct victims to make virtual currency payments, which are more difficult to trace and easily moved to other wallets that are controlled by the fraudsters. Also, they may manipulate or spoof the call a ID information to make it appear that the call is from a legitimate source, like a courthouse or a government agency. I actually had a bank do this to me. It was a legit bank call, but they were like, so can you confirm your name and address? And I said, no, you can confirm it you're my bank. 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. They help us process the meaning of life and art. 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. From the WBT text line, Melanie says, I got that same scam text supposed to be from NCDMV and I noticed it was sent from a foreign country number. And that's a good good eagle eye there, Melanie, thank you for sharing. And Mike W says scam texts can also be forwarded to seventy seven twenty six. I did not know that you can forward them to seventy seven to twenty six. U. This is a good but I don't know who wrote this. It's a seven oh four number who says NC Motor Vehicle Code is chapter twenty, which that was when John was reading that scam text and excited the statute. I was going to stop him, but he was rolling, you know, and so I was like, just forget about it. But that would have been like one of the first things I do if I was actually worried about it, is I would go and look up the General Statute because it's a defining piece of information and if I can, if I can look that up and say, like, what exactly are they accusing me of being guilty of? Then I look at the General Statute and it doesn't actually show anything. Then it's like, oh, okay, this is a scam. Another seven oh four number said they got the jury duty scam. So yeah, we'll all we are all going to get them, and you know, we're all going to get taken in by probably one of them in our lives. So hopefully it's not a terrible one and hopefully you're only out a couple of bucks or something. But it can be devastating, It can be very very bit Let me see here, oh, let me get to this story. This is from Corey Vallancourt, journalist up at the Smoky Mountain News in western North Carolina. A blistering letter signed by four Democratic candidates for Congress in North Carolina is eleventh Congressional district. This is where Oh my gosh, why am I drawing a blank on his name? It's in the story. I'm drawing a blank on his name, Chuck Edwards. This was the Madison Cawthorne seat. Chuck Edwards then primaried him, and so he's the Republican. He owns the seat. You got a bunch of Democrats. They keep thinking they can flip this seat. Democrats do. So they got a bunch of Democrats running in the primary up there, and they had they had one of their they had a meeting in the eleventh Congressional District and they only invited one of the candidates to speak. A guy by the name of Jamie Ager, son of John Ager, who's a state representative. They own, I think one of the farms up there that's very well known, and so he was allowed to be the keynote speaker at the NC eleven Democratic gala, and these other candidates said, that's deeply unfair and fundamentally at odds with core party values. They wrote this letter saying, we the undersigned Democratic candidates for Congress, right to express our collective and unequivocal disgust. And this is why I call it the Democrat Party, because they don't behave democratically. You know. The letter was signed by candidates Mo Davis. Oh my gosh, Mo Davis. Mo Davis, this was the guy that's got the violence fetish. This is the guy that was running against Madison Cawthorn Lo those years ago. This would have been twenty twenty, and nobody had thought to ever researched or look at his tweets. Now I had seen his tweets, but I went through his Twitter timeline and I found the most horrible things he was saying about Republican voters, one of them which I read to him when I was allowed to ask questions at at a moderated debate, and I read to him his tweets and the one, the worst one, was that we should step on their necks and grind them into the ground until you can hear the snap of their necks. Like That's how he talked about Republican voters. And so my question was like, why would Republican constituents think that you would be a good representative for them? And his answer was, well, you know, you're in the media like I was at the time, because he was a talking head pundit guy for MSNBC for a bit. And I was like, no, I don't talk about people that way. That's you're talking. You're you're encouraging and describing violence towards your political adversaries. These are your fellow Americans. Just because you disagree with them doesn't mean that they deserve to have violence enacted upon them. But yeah, and also, if they're so upset about the way this played out in NC eleven, wait until they hear what their own party did in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty four in the presidential primaries. Oh boy, 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 thepetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.