The incentives for Blue city chaos (05-30-2024--Hour3)

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[00:00:29] So last hour talking about crime in Uptown Charlotte and this editorial that was written

[00:00:35] by the deputy opinion editor, Charlotte Observer.

[00:00:43] In my view, like she's so close to getting it, but getting it would mean an indictment

[00:00:49] on the unit party rule that we have in Charlotte Mecklenburg and the inability of, you know,

[00:00:59] Republicans are.

[00:01:00] All right.

[00:01:01] She mentioned it, so I'll go ahead and circle back to it.

[00:01:03] Let me do it.

[00:01:04] Hang on a second.

[00:01:05] Where did it go?

[00:01:06] Where did it go?

[00:01:07] Well, whatever.

[00:01:08] I lost the page.

[00:01:09] Oh, here it is.

[00:01:10] Put it on the bottom, the bottom of the stack of stuff.

[00:01:14] Here it is.

[00:01:15] She says at the end of her piece talking about sort of the people don't feel safe, not that

[00:01:20] people aren't safe because Uptown crime has gone down this quarter versus same time last

[00:01:26] year.

[00:01:27] It's a reduction, even though homicides are up.

[00:01:29] It's like 55 homicides as compared to like 30 something last year, like 34 or something

[00:01:34] last year at this time.

[00:01:37] But it's, you know, social media.

[00:01:39] It's the videos that people share.

[00:01:42] It's the tragic headlines.

[00:01:44] Notice those are always tragic headlines and never scaremongering headlines.

[00:01:47] Right.

[00:01:48] Because you're never the villain.

[00:01:50] You're always the victim or the hero.

[00:01:52] And is no more true than in media.

[00:01:55] And so they don't play any role sort of like this, the same approach that they take to politics.

[00:02:01] You know, like we're not involved in this political fight.

[00:02:04] We're not involved in the political arena when in fact they are.

[00:02:08] You are if you are a reporter, you're in the media and you're involved in politics coverage,

[00:02:14] then you are in the arena.

[00:02:16] Things that you cover and how you cover them impact the fight in the arena.

[00:02:24] OK, so don't pretend that that you are just like up in the stands.

[00:02:31] You're not like you're on the ground in the sand throwing weapons at various gladiators.

[00:02:38] OK.

[00:02:40] Unleashing I don't know why I went to the Roman gladiators, but it's just that's what

[00:02:44] I think in the arena.

[00:02:45] It could be wrestling as well.

[00:02:47] You're if you're a political reporter, you're like slide in the chair under the bottom rope.

[00:02:54] So your guy in the spandex can beat the other guy over the head with the chair.

[00:02:58] Right.

[00:02:59] You're not you're not an impartial observer, just like in the audience, just just writing

[00:03:04] about what's happening.

[00:03:05] Because when you write what's happening and then you broadcast what's happening, your

[00:03:09] account becomes part of the fight.

[00:03:12] They will literally take your words and use them against their opponents in campaign ads.

[00:03:19] See the first hour, by the way.

[00:03:22] Pull the podcast, the peak calendar show dot com subscribe.

[00:03:25] The podcast first hour all about what?

[00:03:28] Flags gate.

[00:03:30] Sam Alito's flags.

[00:03:33] That his wife hung up.

[00:03:34] He didn't even have anything to do with it.

[00:03:35] She ran these flags up and then the media comes in and say, we're going to attach meaning

[00:03:39] to these flags.

[00:03:41] We're going to tell you why this is important.

[00:03:43] Axios has actually built a model doing that very thing.

[00:03:46] We're to tell you why this story is important, why it matters.

[00:03:50] They're telling you what to think about it.

[00:03:52] So this way it informs your other, quote, critical thinking skills.

[00:03:57] She says at the end of this piece.

[00:04:01] Republican politicians accuse Democrat led cities of being soft on crime.

[00:04:07] Or more outrageously, opening the border to undocumented immigrants supposedly hell

[00:04:12] bent on terrorizing U.S. citizens.

[00:04:17] So first off, let me break this into the two halves.

[00:04:21] One is Democrat led city soft on crime.

[00:04:23] Let me start there.

[00:04:25] We are a Democrat led city.

[00:04:26] We are a Democrat led county.

[00:04:28] We have been that way for a long time here in Charlotte Mecklenburg, where when I lived

[00:04:32] in Asheville, same thing.

[00:04:34] Raleigh, same thing.

[00:04:36] Durham, same thing.

[00:04:38] New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.

[00:04:42] Do I need to go on?

[00:04:43] All of these dense urban cities are blue led.

[00:04:48] They are Democrat led.

[00:04:50] They are the drivers of crime.

[00:04:54] When you look at a state's crime statistical profile, the cities drive those rates.

[00:05:02] They drive the incidents.

[00:05:04] Now there are more people living in the city, so they're more densely populated.

[00:05:07] There are more.

[00:05:09] But that's the driver of the crime data.

[00:05:13] And so when you turn over the cities to the Democrats, as Charlotte has recently turned

[00:05:18] over, right?

[00:05:19] Look, when I first started here, when I was a reporter for WBT in 2000, I started, I covered

[00:05:29] city council county commission meetings and they were Republican majorities.

[00:05:33] It's only within the last, what, 15, 20 years that Charlotte has gone full blue.

[00:05:41] Completely dominated and controlled by Democrats, Republicans have no chance, which has raised

[00:05:46] the question in my mind, why do Republicans even bother to help build cities?

[00:05:53] What's the point?

[00:05:55] Why bother?

[00:05:56] What were the promises made to people about the world-class city of Charlotte, this shining

[00:06:01] city on the hill?

[00:06:03] The old WBT host, Keith Larson, he used to call Charlotte tidy town.

[00:06:08] He would mock Charlotte as tidy town, right?

[00:06:10] Because they wanted to control everything and make sure it was this tidy little city, nice

[00:06:14] and clean and everything else.

[00:06:16] Do you think people would prefer tidy town now?

[00:06:20] Right?

[00:06:21] Something approximating that now more than what we have?

[00:06:25] And I get it.

[00:06:26] I'm originally from New York.

[00:06:27] I understand, you know, cities are big and noisy and like people move to the city and

[00:06:33] they're like, I can't stand all this noise.

[00:06:34] Well, you shouldn't have moved to the city.

[00:06:36] Oh, there's congestion.

[00:06:37] Well, you shouldn't have moved to the city.

[00:06:39] You should not move to a city and not expect an urban environment.

[00:06:43] That being said, one of the core functions of any local government is, of all government

[00:06:48] is public safety, protection, security.

[00:06:51] That's the first thing that we've hired you guys to do.

[00:06:55] Otherwise, what are you even here for?

[00:06:57] I don't care about roads.

[00:06:59] I don't care about roads if my house is being burnt to the ground by some marauding band

[00:07:03] of bandits, right?

[00:07:08] Security first.

[00:07:09] And when you have a party, like if you have a city that's Republican controlled, their

[00:07:14] incentives because they want to get reelected, their incentive structure is different than

[00:07:18] Democrats incentive structure.

[00:07:21] Democrats incentives to win reelection in their primaries, which those that's where the

[00:07:26] elections are settled now in Charlotte, the primaries matter.

[00:07:30] The general not so much, right?

[00:07:33] We don't have a single Republican running for county commission at large.

[00:07:38] So the incentives for Democrats are to placate the most radical elements of their party because

[00:07:45] that's who votes in their primaries.

[00:07:48] Same can be said on the Republican side, but there aren't any in Charlotte and Mecklenburg.

[00:07:53] There aren't any.

[00:07:54] So what do Democrats do?

[00:07:57] They got to run to appeal and attract the appeal to and attract the, uh, the most radical

[00:08:03] elements, the leftists inside their party, which means what you end up with more left-wing

[00:08:09] candidates.

[00:08:10] And those are the ones that end up dictating what the policies of the city of Charlotte

[00:08:14] and Mecklenburg County are going to be.

[00:08:16] Okay.

[00:08:17] Then what?

[00:08:18] What does that mean?

[00:08:19] Well, the radicals, they do not have a vision of Charlotte that aligns with the vision of

[00:08:28] Charlotte that the city leaders and the people who built all of this, that they had over

[00:08:33] the last hundred years.

[00:08:34] They have a different view.

[00:08:36] They have a different idea of what Charlotte should be.

[00:08:41] And the most radical elements in the Democrat party are the destabilizers.

[00:08:45] These are radical Marxists.

[00:08:47] They are in it for tearing down, deconstructing the institutions and we're relying on them

[00:08:57] to set policy.

[00:08:58] We're relying on them to elect people to set policy.

[00:09:03] This is why places get bluer and bluer and bluer because people who want security, they

[00:09:08] want economic opportunity, they want a government left to leave them alone.

[00:09:13] This is why they leave.

[00:09:14] This, this pattern is constant.

[00:09:17] It happens all over the place.

[00:09:18] I tracked this 20 years ago in the newsroom, pulling all the census data for surrounding

[00:09:25] counties.

[00:09:26] You could see it happening back then.

[00:09:28] Republicans leaving, Democrats moving in and the city then turns and it never goes

[00:09:32] back Detroit, right?

[00:09:35] They never go back.

[00:09:36] They never start electing Republicans again.

[00:09:38] It's just always more of the same types of Democrats.

[00:09:42] Every now and again, some DA gets a little too soft on crime, lets out a few too many

[00:09:48] murderers and rapists and people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:09:53] Like I still do want to live.

[00:09:56] Let's just get rid of that one person.

[00:09:57] That's it.

[00:09:58] Just the one person.

[00:09:59] I don't want to abandon all of my philosophy, right?

[00:10:01] I don't want to abandon any of my priors.

[00:10:04] So I'm going to keep electing everybody else, but just that one person.

[00:10:07] I'm going to get rid of them.

[00:10:08] Just that one.

[00:10:09] Oh, thank goodness.

[00:10:10] Now we'll be safe again.

[00:10:11] Why are you stabbing me?

[00:10:13] When you start thinking in terms of incentive structures, and I admit I am new to this axiom

[00:10:21] or mode of thinking, like within the last six months or so, you start identifying like

[00:10:27] first and foremost, like for years I always ask, like what's the objective?

[00:10:31] What's your objective?

[00:10:32] I keep asking you, like, what's the goal?

[00:10:33] What's the objective?

[00:10:34] Right.

[00:10:35] And once you know what the objective is, then it's like, okay, that's a forward looking

[00:10:37] thing.

[00:10:38] That's a solutions oriented approach to stuff.

[00:10:41] So what's your objective?

[00:10:42] And I try to figure that out with people, you know, when talking to them, what are they

[00:10:47] saying to you, but what is their actual objective?

[00:10:50] Can you kind of tease that out or sometimes they'll tell you whatever it is, which by

[00:10:53] the way, one of my pieces of advice for anybody, you know, wanting to succeed in anything,

[00:10:59] it's have goals, have objectives, right?

[00:11:03] Write them down and tell other people.

[00:11:06] And you'd be amazed how quickly you will achieve those goals.

[00:11:09] Like for example, I would like people to give me a billion dollars, right there.

[00:11:13] I've said it and now just, I'm going to open up my email and I will see all of the, no,

[00:11:22] but it is true.

[00:11:23] Like it really is true.

[00:11:25] Like if you want to, if you have dreams, tell other people what it is that you want to do

[00:11:28] and you'd be amazed how often others can help you accomplish those dreams.

[00:11:32] But if you never tell them, then they never know to offer you the help to achieve what

[00:11:38] you want.

[00:11:39] When you start thinking in terms of incentives, what are their incentives?

[00:11:45] When Democrats are running cities, their incentives are to stay in power.

[00:11:49] The elected officials, right?

[00:11:50] There is to stay in power and you do that by winning primaries because the Republicans

[00:11:55] are now no longer a threat.

[00:11:56] So you don't even have to pretend to kind of go for the middle of the road because there's

[00:12:01] no way you're going to lose.

[00:12:02] All you got to do is clear your primary, which means you got to cater to the more moon baddie

[00:12:08] part of your base.

[00:12:10] And their philosophy does not make for safe cities.

[00:12:18] And I'm sorry if this is, you know, too obvious a point for editors at the Charlotte Observer

[00:12:25] to understand, but they don't.

[00:12:27] You guys, there need, there has to be some, think of it like restrictor plates at NASCAR,

[00:12:34] right?

[00:12:35] You got it.

[00:12:36] You got to have a governor.

[00:12:37] It's not like a North Carolina governor.

[00:12:38] I mean, I'm saying you got to have a governor on the excesses that the left will go to

[00:12:47] when they are unleashed, you know, and they don't have to worry about making a political

[00:12:52] argument against somebody who has a completely different philosophy on the role of government.

[00:12:59] This is why I keep asking, like if this is the nat, this is the natural trend and it's

[00:13:02] always going to be this way that as cities get bigger and bigger, Republicans get pushed

[00:13:06] out.

[00:13:07] What Republicans need to stop helping to build cities.

[00:13:10] Seriously, they just like, why even bother?

[00:13:13] Well, wait a minute.

[00:13:16] Hang on a second.

[00:13:17] Let me think this through.

[00:13:20] No, actually let's keep helping to build cities.

[00:13:23] Yes.

[00:13:24] Conservatives keep on helping to build cities as it puts all the Democrats in one spot away

[00:13:30] from I'm kidding.

[00:13:34] I, but not really, but I have, it's a joke.

[00:13:36] It's just the joke.

[00:13:37] One of the big problems we're having also are the burnouts or the hate donuts if they

[00:13:42] are done on the, uh, the gay pride, uh, painted intersections.

[00:13:46] Um, and so now WBTV reports that Charlotte Mecklenburg police after, uh, investigating

[00:13:54] the, uh, uh, the street takeovers, uh, they have, they've issued some citations.

[00:14:01] Boom, dropping the hammer.

[00:14:05] Got some, uh, massages in the, uh, in the old mailbag here.

[00:14:09] Uh, but to Pete at the Pete calendar show.com.

[00:14:15] This is from Alan in Gastonia.

[00:14:18] The progressive way of reducing crime is to just not make certain actions crime.

[00:14:23] There you go.

[00:14:24] Right?

[00:14:25] Just take the laws off the books, which by the way, if you're not going to enforce them,

[00:14:29] then what's the point of having them on the books, right?

[00:14:32] Just go and get rid of them.

[00:14:33] That's as good an idea as any.

[00:14:36] Um, Stuart says, I saw an article on Newsmax where San Francisco took down the appeal to

[00:14:42] heaven flag from its civic center Plaza due to association with the January 6th.

[00:14:47] They're a little late.

[00:14:48] Yes, that is true though.

[00:14:50] They've flown that flag for years and years, not continuously.

[00:14:55] They rotated through, but that, that flag has been there for a long time, but now it's

[00:15:01] a problem because they want to get Alito to recuse himself from cases.

[00:15:05] They're afraid they may not win at the U S Supreme court.

[00:15:11] Charlotte Mecklenburg police are investigating street takeovers in uptown and in no DA North

[00:15:17] Davidson area.

[00:15:18] Um, 36th street police advised that one vehicle was seized.

[00:15:24] Two traffic stops were made and seven citations were issued for violations, which included

[00:15:29] reckless driving, participating in a street takeover, spectating a street takeover, contributing

[00:15:34] to the delinquency of a minor, not having an operator's license and resisting or delaying

[00:15:39] obstructing blah, blah, blah.

[00:15:41] Authorities say that this occurred over the weekend Memorial day weekend.

[00:15:45] WBTV started investigating Charlotte street takeover arrests from 2023 to determine whether

[00:15:51] drivers accused of participating in these events were being prosecuted.

[00:15:56] See, cause that's the second part of this.

[00:15:58] You know, you can make the arrests and then they go in front of a magistrate or they go

[00:16:03] in front of a judge, usually a magistrate and the magistrate like they're there to impose

[00:16:11] a bond, which is designed to simply have them appear in court.

[00:16:15] That's right.

[00:16:16] You got a court date, you got to see a judge.

[00:16:20] And so I just need to make sure you're going to show up for that.

[00:16:22] And so I slap you with this, uh, with this bond.

[00:16:27] Now if you could make the bond, if you could pay it or you get, you know, bail bondsman

[00:16:30] to come along and um, and you know, put up the money and then you get out for 10% or

[00:16:36] whatever, like that's, that's after the fact.

[00:16:38] But what's happening is a lot of times people aren't even getting any bail.

[00:16:41] They're just free to go with just a note, you know, a promise to appear.

[00:16:47] CMPD has never released all of the names of people arrested and cited in connection

[00:16:54] with the street takeovers.

[00:16:56] Searching the publicly available names that, yeah, searching the publicly available names

[00:17:02] revealed mixed results in terms of prosecution, which only raises more questions about how

[00:17:08] the issue is being enforced.

[00:17:15] I'm pretty confident in my guests about how it's being enforced.

[00:17:19] What do you think?

[00:17:21] Like not much, probably like on a scale of zero to, you know, throw the book at them.

[00:17:27] I'm thinking it's like one now got a couple of issues here, obviously in any kind of,

[00:17:34] uh, trying of any case, you've got to have witnesses, you've got to have evidence and

[00:17:37] all of that.

[00:17:39] And when you, um, have a lot of crime going on, you got to schedule it.

[00:17:43] You got a lot, you got to have to have a lot of judges and courtrooms, court reporters,

[00:17:48] lawyers, public defenders, right?

[00:17:50] You got to have a lot of staff, a lot of resources.

[00:17:54] If I recall correctly, the court system in North Carolina still is a revenue generator

[00:17:58] for the state.

[00:17:59] Did you know that the state takes money out of the court system because of all of the money

[00:18:06] that is generated by it, that pays for itself.

[00:18:09] Like I would say all the money generated by the court system should stay in the court system.

[00:18:15] Dedicated revenue.

[00:18:16] That's what I would say.

[00:18:17] But what do I know?

[00:18:20] Zach Periales was the first person arrested under North Carolina's new street takeover

[00:18:25] law last December, but the district attorney's office confirms that Periales was found not

[00:18:30] guilty during a bench trial, which means no jury.

[00:18:35] That's the judge that made that call.

[00:18:37] Another takeover relate, they don't say what the judge, who the judge was.

[00:18:41] Another takeover related arrest was Emmanuel Oliver, but court records show that the DA's

[00:18:46] office dismissed that case saying that, quote, officers did not see that the defendant was

[00:18:52] the driver and it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:18:55] So they dropped that case.

[00:18:57] WBTV did find one case, one, a whole case that resulted in prison time.

[00:19:06] Ethan Copeland pleaded guilty to felony, flee to allude arrest.

[00:19:11] Okay, so that wasn't really even about the street takeover then.

[00:19:15] That was you running away.

[00:19:18] That was you fleeing.

[00:19:19] Okay, but that's where they got him on.

[00:19:22] Sort of like Al Capone, busted for the IRS stuff, you know?

[00:19:24] Okay, but they got him.

[00:19:26] He got sentenced to five to 15 months.

[00:19:31] I don't know if he served the five.

[00:19:33] I don't know if he served 15.

[00:19:35] Don't know.

[00:19:37] While CMPD releases public records showing who all has been arrested or cited and what

[00:19:42] cars have been seized, it's difficult to say how successful or not enforcement of the

[00:19:47] street takeovers has been.

[00:19:54] We're going to get new driver's licenses though.

[00:19:56] Yes!

[00:19:57] Man, that was so high on my list of things that I needed done.

[00:20:02] Oh man.

[00:20:03] Yeah, they're going to sound different when you drop them.

[00:20:07] I mean, like why haven't we done this before?

[00:20:12] Really?

[00:20:13] Like, holy cow.

[00:20:15] You didn't even know you needed this.

[00:20:19] Richard Stradling at the McClatchy Papers, News & Observer, when you get a new driver's

[00:20:24] license in North Carolina starting this summer, you may notice that it doesn't look like your

[00:20:29] old one or the one your friends and family are carrying or the one that you gave your

[00:20:34] underage...

[00:20:35] No, I'm kidding.

[00:20:37] It won't feel or sound the same either.

[00:20:39] The Division of Motor Vehicles has hired a new company to make license and ID cards,

[00:20:45] and with that change comes a new design and new material.

[00:20:49] The changes also bring about new security features that make the cards more difficult

[00:20:53] to fake or duplicate.

[00:20:57] The DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said, quote, our new licenses and IDs will be among the

[00:21:02] most secure identifying documents in the world, but we'll still issue them to non-citizens.

[00:21:07] The new cards...

[00:21:08] He didn't say that last part.

[00:21:09] I just threw that in.

[00:21:10] The new card should start showing up over the next month.

[00:21:13] License and ID cards already in circulation will remain good until their expiration date.

[00:21:18] When people renew, whether online or in person, you'll get the new design on your card.

[00:21:25] It's a polycarbonate plastic, everybody.

[00:21:28] Are you getting excited or what now?

[00:21:30] Right?

[00:21:32] It's gonna be stiffer.

[00:21:34] Oh.

[00:21:36] And it's gonna make a metallic sound when dropped.

[00:21:42] This way you will know if you drop your ID.

[00:21:46] Clink.

[00:21:48] Now, if you have it in a wallet, then it's not gonna make any difference whatsoever.

[00:21:52] But luckily, nobody carries those things.

[00:21:56] So, yeah.

[00:21:57] It's also gonna have raised and depressed lettering and patterns.

[00:22:03] So it's gonna be...

[00:22:04] It's not gonna be flat.

[00:22:05] It's not gonna be smooth.

[00:22:07] Once again, that might be a problem if you're putting them in a wallet or something, but

[00:22:10] nobody...

[00:22:11] No one uses wallets anymore.

[00:22:15] That's from the olden days.

[00:22:17] There's gonna be a picture on both sides.

[00:22:21] The card includes several images that evoke North Carolina, like dogwood flowers, Darius

[00:22:27] Rucker, the state flag, a marbled salamander, a lighthouse, and mountains.

[00:22:36] All that's gonna be on the front, except Darius Rucker.

[00:22:38] I just threw that in.

[00:22:39] That's not true.

[00:22:41] And then on the back, a colonial Spanish Mustang grazing along a beach.

[00:22:46] That's the wild horses.

[00:22:47] They can't drag you away.

[00:22:49] There's a Corolla, right?

[00:22:52] More than 50 security features are part of the card.

[00:22:56] If you are under the age of 21, it's gonna be oriented vertically.

[00:23:00] So in other words, like to look at it and to be able to read it, it's gonna be tall.

[00:23:04] And when you turn 21, then it flips over to its side.

[00:23:07] Because it makes sense as you get older, you kind of fall down more.

[00:23:10] So it's now horizontal.

[00:23:12] The switch to the new company, CBN Secure Technologies, Inc., should help reduce the

[00:23:17] time that people wait to receive their licenses in the mail.

[00:23:20] According to the DMV spokesperson, people have been waiting several weeks longer than

[00:23:24] normal to get their cards in the mail since a computer glitch in February allowed people

[00:23:28] to get a license online when by law they actually had to go in person.

[00:23:32] It resulted in a backlog.

[00:23:34] That glitch then created this massive backlog.

[00:23:37] CBN is gonna be starting from scratch, building it from the ground up.

[00:23:42] So I'm sure that will create zero backlogs on any of the DMV new licenses.

[00:23:48] By the way, I think I saw in this article too, they said, yeah, that your photo is going

[00:23:54] to be on the front, it's gonna be in black and white on the front.

[00:23:58] And then on the back, it'll have another photo of you and that'll be in color.

[00:24:05] Why?

[00:24:07] Why would you put the color photo on the back and the black and white on the front?

[00:24:10] I don't know.

[00:24:14] It's one of the many things about DMV that I've stopped asking why about.

[00:24:17] Okay, if you're listening to this podcast, you are obviously paying attention to the

[00:24:22] world around us.

[00:24:23] You also have really great taste, I might add.

[00:24:26] But if you haven't started getting prepared for various emergencies, I gotta ask, what

[00:24:30] are you waiting for?

[00:24:31] Please call my friends Bill and Jan at Carolina Readiness Supply, and they'll help get you

[00:24:36] started.

[00:24:37] If you have no idea how to start, they can help you.

[00:24:39] If you're an experienced prepper, they can help you too.

[00:24:41] Being prepared is just smart.

[00:24:44] We've already established that you're smart.

[00:24:45] I mean, you listen to this podcast after all.

[00:24:48] So let's put those smarts into action.

[00:24:50] Go to carolinareadiness.com.

[00:24:53] That's carolinareadiness.com or call them at 828-226-7239.

[00:24:59] Carolina Readiness Supply has 2,000 square feet of supplies as well as educational materials

[00:25:04] that you're gonna need for any kind of emergency.

[00:25:07] Veteran owned Carolina Readiness Supply, will you be ready when the lights go out?

[00:25:12] Jonathan asks, how in the world do you spell Richard the Weather Guy's last name?

[00:25:16] I have heard him probably hundreds of times and cannot even fathom a guess.

[00:25:21] Uh, Llewellyn?

[00:25:24] L-E-W-E-L-L-I-N-G, I believe.

[00:25:28] I think it's Llewellyn.

[00:25:29] I used to think it was Llewellyn, but I think it's Llewellyn.

[00:25:32] Richard Llewellyn?

[00:25:35] It does sound kind of hard to say.

[00:25:36] Anyway, um, I'm gonna tell you a story here about a guy in Ann Arbor.

[00:25:42] Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[00:25:43] I'm gonna play for you some audio.

[00:25:45] This is from the courtroom.

[00:25:48] It's all clean.

[00:25:49] It should be clean, but be ready with the dump button just in case.

[00:25:52] It should be fine.

[00:25:54] Judge Cedric Simpson, defendant Corey Harris.

[00:25:59] Okay?

[00:26:00] And uh, Corey Harris, the defendant, is appearing via Zoom.

[00:26:04] All right?

[00:26:06] He's appearing via Zoom.

[00:26:08] Assistant public defender Natalie Tate for Mr. Harris, who should be present via Zoom.

[00:26:12] Mr. Harris, are you driving?

[00:26:16] Um, actually I'm pulling into my doctor's office, actually.

[00:26:21] So, so I'll just give me one second.

[00:26:24] I'm parking right now.

[00:26:28] Okay.

[00:26:29] The judge just dropped his pen.

[00:26:38] You stationary?

[00:26:39] I'm pulling in right now at this second.

[00:26:43] Yes, I am.

[00:26:44] He's shaking his head.

[00:26:45] He's laughing.

[00:26:46] All right.

[00:26:47] What are we doing?

[00:26:48] Your Honor, we are respectfully requesting an adjournment in this matter, possibly for

[00:26:53] weeks if the court would allow.

[00:26:54] So maybe I don't understand something.

[00:26:57] This is a driver with a license suspended?

[00:26:59] That is correct, your Honor.

[00:27:01] And he was just driving and he didn't have a license.

[00:27:08] Oh.

[00:27:13] That's what the charge is, your Honor.

[00:27:17] Yes.

[00:27:18] No, I'm looking at his record.

[00:27:19] He doesn't have a license.

[00:27:21] He's suspended and he's just driving.

[00:27:24] That is correct, your Honor.

[00:27:36] I don't even know why he would do that.

[00:27:38] So defendant's bond is revoked in this matter.

[00:27:41] Defendant is to turn himself into the Washtenaw County Jail by 6 p.m. today.

[00:27:45] Failure to turn himself in will result in a bench warrant with no bond.

[00:27:49] So the guy is, the guy is in the car on the Zoom call and he's just got his mouth open.

[00:27:58] He just rolled his head back on.

[00:28:00] Oh my God.

[00:28:01] What kind of a moron are you?

[00:28:06] Oh my gosh.

[00:28:09] You're, you're, you're supposed to be in court on a charge of driving with a suspended license

[00:28:15] and you think best to make this court appearance while driving.

[00:28:23] I'm going to Zoom in while driving.

[00:28:26] The public defender asked for, you heard, asked for the case to be adjourned.

[00:28:33] But the judge, and you get the judges, he's going to be memed.

[00:28:37] This guy is going to be memed because he's just like, like he's, he's sitting, his eyes are just like wide open.

[00:28:43] His mouth is agape.

[00:28:45] At one point he drops his pencil and puts his head on his hand.

[00:28:49] Like what are we doing here?

[00:28:51] And he's just like, he's smiling, like shaking his hand, just incredulous at what's occurring.

[00:28:57] Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber.

[00:29:02] You totally redeem yourself.

[00:29:05] That's amazing.

[00:29:07] The judge revoked his bond order to turn himself in.

[00:29:11] His defense attorney told the local Fox affiliate that she quote, strives to live in a world where people are not jailed for nonviolent offenses.

[00:29:22] Well, Ann Arbor ain't it lady.

[00:29:28] So you might want to head on down the road to maybe Detroit or somewhere else.

[00:29:33] I don't know what to tell you about that.

[00:29:34] Good Lord.

[00:29:37] That's a candidate for my dumb assery of the year award.

[00:29:41] Absolutely.

[00:29:44] The Zone of Dumb Assery.

[00:29:49] Guy's name was Corey Harris.

[00:29:52] Latest entrant.

[00:29:53] Meanwhile, taking a page out of San Francisco's playbook, I think North Korea is sending balloons full of poop over to their neighbor.

[00:30:05] Yeah.

[00:30:06] Yes, also some trash toilet paper too.

[00:30:09] But poo mainly is the problem.

[00:30:12] Photographs showing white balloons bearing garbage bags full of trash and what appeared to be excrement were shared widely by South Korean media after the North warned this past weekend that it was actually going to do this very thing.

[00:30:28] So you can't say you weren't warned, South Korea.

[00:30:34] It showed border areas in mounds of waste paper and filth.

[00:30:41] Also, some North Korean propaganda leaflets, which I don't know about you, but what better way to attract people to your country than to rain poo on them in balloons?

[00:30:52] Right.

[00:30:53] Come over to our country.

[00:30:55] Look at all this poo.

[00:30:56] We've got so much of it.

[00:30:57] We're going to send it over to you in balloons.

[00:31:00] It was animal poo, they believe, by the way.

[00:31:03] It is said that it said that North Korea's actions, quote, clearly violate international laws and seriously threaten the safety of our people.

[00:31:11] Late Tuesday night, the Gyeonggi province issued a text message alert to residents saying refrain from outdoor activities and report any objects from North Korea to military bases when identified.

[00:31:25] Like what is the what's the alert warning on that one look like?

[00:31:29] You get the sounder going like be aware.

[00:31:32] Trash bags of poo are in the sky above you.

[00:31:37] South Korean activists, they kind of started this, though.

[00:31:40] I mean, they would send balloons over into North Korea with anti Kim Jong Un regime propaganda leaflets and money.

[00:31:48] They would drop money over onto the north.

[00:31:50] So it's kind of the same thing.

[00:31:52] Right.

[00:31:53] Same tactic.

[00:31:57] Tit for tat action will also be taken against frequent scattering of leaflets and other rubbish by the South Koreans.

[00:32:04] This is what the North Koreans said, that this is in retribution for you sending leaflets and money.

[00:32:09] We're giving you poop.

[00:32:11] That makes sense, I guess, to tyrannical dictators.

[00:32:15] All right.

[00:32:16] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:32:17] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:32:18] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:32:23] So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here.

[00:32:26] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepeatcalendarshow.com.

[00:32:31] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.