The threat of AI and the robot John Thune | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the Pete calendar show.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. Last hour, I went over this piece, um, He's got to look up his name again. Breville Lepore. He's French. He's a tech entrepreneur, the founder of Argyle AI. And I'm not going to go back over his piece. If you want to, you can go back and get the podcast. It's thepeatpod.com where I go over his case for why Democrats fear AI and why they are right to. Okay. And he outlines that our system right now is one of bureaucratic power and bureaucratic power is built on three pillars, scarcity, which is manufactured. It's not real. It's we have the, the sectors of our economy that have the most government intervention creates the scarcity, right? Then there, so that's one pillar, the creation, the manufacturing of scarcity and, Then there's narrative is another pillar, and money, specifically about inflation and the printing of more money, which then, of course, makes things cost more, especially in the areas where the government is heavily involved because they control those sectors. Those prices keep going up, but in sectors where you have competition, those prices come down. The classic example, before. When we were debating Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, as it's called, right? When we were debating that 15 years ago, the counter example, the counterfactual to Obamacare was LASIK. I mean, when LASIK was first invented and came around, it was really expensive. Like I want to say it was like five grand and it was not covered under insurance, right? It was a cosmetic procedure only. So you had to come out of pocket to pay for the LASIK. And by the time Obamacare was being debated before they rammed it through, the price of LASIK had been cratering for years and it continued to do so. Why? Why? because it is outside of the insurance regime, right? It's a quote unquote cosmetic procedure. And so if you have this technology and nobody wants to spend, you know, five grand per eye or whatever it was, you're going to have a very limited pool of customers. However, The early adopters, as with any new technology, the early adopters, they pay more because they want to. They want to be an early adopter. They're intrigued by it. They want to try it out. They're willing to take the risks. They have the disposable income. They can do that. That's why when, you know, flat screen TVs first came out, those things were thousands and thousands of dollars. And over the course of 20 years, the price of these things have dropped like 98%. Like, you can get massive televisions for a couple hundred dollars now. It's crazy. And they're better. That's what competition does, and that's what happens when the government isn't acting as a tollbooth operator in your. Industry, right? And so that's what— I' ve got. To pull his name again. What's his name? Le Pogon. That's what he documents in this piece that I went over last hour. All right, so I have some messages I want to get to related to this topic. And then I want to get to the robot that is John Thune. But Tommy says, the left creates things to spend millions on and then spend trillions to fix when they then call an issue, which they then call an issue. This is the old line about the cure being developed in the same lab as. the virus, right? It's like you, you created this problem and now you're going to sell me the, the solution, you know? Uh, Tommy goes on to a site, a big oil. They loved, uh, the left loved it in the eighties when they got millions in campaign funds, big insurance. Uh, they let them create and write the affordable care act, but now they hate insurance, global warming. They spend billions in foreign countries to expand business there without restrictions. Uh, but here they cripple our businesses. The list is long of problems the left created and now ask us to fix while continuing to fund the same problems in other countries like China and AI. John says, I'm a tech manager at one of the top five banks in the US. We are cutting jobs around 20 to 30% over the next two years because of AI savings, which is fantastic. I respect the technology. It's incredible, and I love it, and I use it day to day. But please tell me how people are going to be able to afford anything when they are laid off and they have no income. I, for one, will not be banking at my bank after I get laid off because of AI. Who's going to buy the services when no one has a job? Okay, so this is the Doomer view, and I'm not, I'm not like, I'm not trying to name call or anything, but this is the doom and gloom, the doomerism kind of like, no one's going to have a job. These are the same things that people said about literally every innovation that has come down the pike. There are always people that are going to lose their jobs whenever anything comes along that is a better replacement for the existing method. This is the proverbial buggy whip maker example, right? When the automobile came along and everybody was buying cars and they were ditching the horse and buggy, what became of the buggy whip maker? The local guy that would make the little whips that you would whip the horses, right, while you're driving your horse and buggy. You don't need those anymore, well, except still in Amish country. But outside of that, like, not a big demand for buggy whips anymore. Do we have fewer jobs? We just don't have those jobs. Right? The jobs, I mean, think about trying to tell somebody in 1980 what a website is, let alone that there would be people who are employed building them, making them, right? What I'm saying is that the future jobs, we don't even know what those will be. But there's always something else that then pops up because of the new innovations. People figure out, like, this is something that we need to utilize here and we need people to do it. It's a tool. AI is a tool. And it's going to drive down prices because now, as you're saying, if you're going to cut 20% of the workforce, that means you don't have to pay 20% of your workforce, which means savings to customers via prices. Right? So that's what le programme, that's what he's talking about, the deflationary impact of AI. it's going to drive down prices. And that's one of the reasons why one of the pillars of power that he cites for the bureaucratic class is money, specifically inflation, the printing of the money, right? This is, and so the deflationary impact that AI has on all of these different technologies and sectors, that's going to change stuff. And that's a threat to the, uh, to the bureaucratic class. Let's see here. This is 571 says, I'm going to qualify what I say. I graduated from UNCC in 2002 with a degree in computer science, a focus in cognitive science, AI concepts. Now I know my knowledge is old as my actual experience is software development and information security. AI is not the be all end all. I agree. I see it as the internet bubble that burst in the early 2000s. AI will not replace everything. It won't replace software development by humans. AI vibe coding makes more bugs than a human statistically. Now, that's not to say it's not useful. I've used a. Local LLM to help me, but it has to be verified by a human for sanity and to ensure there aren't any game-breaking bugs, security purposes. Now I see AI being useful, but just like the Internet, it will take time to find where it actually is versus business people with zero experience in information tech who think they are making money for shareholders. Yeah, this is the thing. We don't know what this is going to look like as it gets built out. And I do agree. I think there's going to be a pop in a bubble. There's a lot of money getting thrown at a lot of this innovation right now, and some of that's going to get burned up. But that's the normal cycle in all of these new types of products and technology. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. Take your old photos, slides, films, and tapes to create a video in Mint Hill. There, they'll turn those memories into the story of your lives, memories from past family events captured forever to pass down to future generations. 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My fellow Americans have given me the stink eye as I say that the difference between the USA and the USSR is that we have not recognized the communist influence here, at least not until recently. Okay, that is... That's absurd. Roger, please. If you think that's the only difference between the Soviet Union and America... is that we. Haven't recognized the communist influence here. That is a. Gross and absurd oversimplification. You're focusing on only one thing. I'm not denying communist influence. Marxism has been on the march for a century here, no doubt about it. I've talked about it. I fight against it. Speak out against it. I highlight it. However, There's a lot of other things that we got going for us in America that the Soviets never did. There are a lot of differences. 803 number says, radar detectors were made in the same factory as the radar guns. Yeah, that's a good analogy. Jim says, When government officials declare a vote for a temporary ban or moratorium of 90 days or six months or one year in order to provide time to study an issue, you only need to strike the word study and replace it with extort to understand what's going on. Whether in my corporate life or in my personal life, I can research, talk. To experts, etc. and make an informed decision on even the most critical issues within about a week. But politicians need longer to optimize extortion from big data. We will have data centers, but the politicians want to get their cut first, thus the temporary moratoriums. Well, so a couple different dynamics playing out at the same time, right? You've got, there are people inside the Marxist base in the Democrat Party that are anti-data center, period. So they're using the moratoria as a way to stop the building and they see it as the first step. The long-term goal is to not have any more data centers built ever again. That's what they would like to see because they are anti-West. And anything that empowers the West, this is why they also fight against nuclear energy. It's why they fight against fossil fuels. This is why they oppose all of these technological advancements, things that help America succeed because they are anti-West, because they're Marxists, or maybe they're Marxists because they're anti-West. I don't know. Chicken and egg, whatever. It doesn't matter. That's their goal. You then have people who are just afraid of new technology, they don't understand it, and so they want to stop it because they're frightened by it. They're frightened by all of the posts that they see on social media, and a lot of that social media campaigning is being funded by geopolitical rivals like Russia and China, Pakistan, India, a lot of bot farms and such, right? You also have like OpenAI. These guys are out there predicting doom and gloom Because they're trying to get the government, I went over this a few weeks ago, maybe months ago, they're wanting the government to basically turn them into a government utility. So this way, now they become critical infrastructure, and if they ever run losses, they'll be subsidized. And they will lock out any other competition. So them talking about, oh, we could wipe out all of humanity and all of this, a lot of that stuff is being done because they're getting ready to go. They're IPO. They're going public on the stock market, and they're trying to make themselves seem really, really powerful. But also they want the government to basically give them a monopoly. So to your point, yes, the extortion, like that's the idea, is you create this racket with a government seal of approval. And this way, everybody outside of that monopoly, they get shut out, they can't innovate, and then the bureaucratic class gets to continue its control. That's the idea. That's what La Pogon was also talking about in that piece that I read last hour. All right, real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real. It's in your name. And 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. All right, so. From AI to robots, a.k.a. John Thune, Scott McKay over at The Spectator, The American Spectator, asked a very, I think, reasonable question. Why is there no accountability for John Thune? The Senate Majority Leader, John Thune. Like, what's up with that? Right? He vowed that Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we have done. What would that be? Dude, read the room, man. He posted... I actually... I thought I pulled this. Do I have his? It's in the stack of stuff some place. I have a lot of election related stuff that's still, that I never got to. But he wrote this big post on X and he defended the GOP record and he cites tax cuts as part of the one big beautiful bill, border security, judicial confirmations and economic policies that that he says benefited American families. Okay. Well, yeah, I'm not so sure about that, Senator. Scott McKay says, while Thune was touting his utterly meager achievements as the Senate Majority Leader before losing that job amid what looks like a nine-seat turnover, meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson was resigning. He says there isn't any justice in Mike Johnson returning to the back bench in the House and Thune sticking around to misrule the GOP Senate caucus after what happened last week. Thune was the problem on Capitol Hill over the last two years, McKay says. Johnson actually did his job. Now, you could disagree with that, but that's what Scott McKay says. He's like, if anything, there's a better case for Johnson to stay as the House minority leader versus Thunstein, right? If you had to pick one of those two guys to stay and the other to go from a leadership post, who would you pick? I know that's a false choice. I get it. He's like, I want them both gone. Fine. But right now, Thune's like, no, I'm going to stay as the leader. And Johnson's stepping aside. Which, if anything, it should be the reverse. He says, let's understand the House actually passed hundreds of bills on countless subjects. Most of them codifying President Trump's executive orders, only to watch Thune's Senate do nothing to send them to Trump's desk. Most of these bills Thune would let die either in committee or in a Democrat filibuster. Some 50 such bills sit at the table in the Senate with no action whatsoever, tone-deaf does not even begin to describe this reaction by Thune, his statement. There was apparently, there's a joke in DC that, well, back before Mitch McConnell was able, like back when he was like still walking around, the joke was that if Mitch McConnell were to ever stop too suddenly, that Thune would break his nose against McConnell's tailbone. And that's really the only explanation that makes sense as to how this guy got as far as he has. I don't understand. McKay says Thune spends all of his time bragging about how many judges his caucus has managed to confirm. He does not tell you that right now he's leaving 135 nominees on the table for the next Senate to confirm, something that obviously will not happen. Well, he has plans for a quite perfunctory lame duck session. He did not pass the SAVE Act, for example, mainly because he didn't want to. And by the way, he's going to prove that to be the case by not moving the SAVE Act during the lame duck session, right? Him not doing it now, because what was the argument? What was the argument against the SAVE Act? Oh, well, we can't do it because it'll jeopardize some of the more moderate Republicans, like Susan Collins. Well, we don't have to worry about that anymore. Right? So why not Push through the things that you said would jeopardize the people who have now lost their seats. Why not go ahead and do that? Unless, of course, you never actually wanted to do it and you were just saying it was because of Susan Collins. It's a bait and switch that the Washington Republican Party has pulled on its voters over and over and over again, he says. John Thune is the head coach of the Washington Generals. People may not get that reference. The Washington generals were the fake team that the Harlem Globetrotters would play every time and beat, right? They were the patsies. Punchbowl News says the GOP Senate caucus does not have any appetite for a debate over Thune's future as the GOP Senate leader. The vote, or what passes for one, is supposed to happen next week. According to Ron Johnson and Mike Lee, there won't even be an after-action meeting about Tuesday's election debacle. So they're going to just put Thune in. I don't understand why you would have this election until next year. Like, why would you do it now? Why don't you wait until the next session starts? I mean, I guess they didn't pick up any new senators. Everybody that's there is still going to be there next time or they're, you know, they've lost and they won't be there, but there's not going to be any new people, I guess. I don't know. He says, spend all the time you want blaming Donald Trump for the midterm disaster, but don't spend all of your time there because in the aftermath of it, you really should ask your Republican senator, if you still have one, very rudely, why he or she is interested in being led by this guy, John Thune, after the results or lack thereof that he has produced. Now, regarding the judicial nominations, the Article 3 project, they are urging people to contact their senators, their Republican senators, while you still have one, demanding that they confirm a bunch of Trump nominees to the bench before the end of this lame duck session. I'll give you details in a minute. Stanley says most of the bills you're talking about on top of not getting them out of committees in the Senate are 80, 20 issues in favor of passage by the American public. No wonder they lost control of both houses of Congress. Um, yeah. So one of the other things though, that is, uh, on the Senate's table is, a bunch of judges, confirmations. On January 3rd, this is from the Article 3 project, on January 3rd, Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate. The Republican majority, before that happens, must confirm every one of President Trump's pending judicial nominees. That means all 23 of them. Four nominees for the Federal Courts of Appeals. and 19 for the federal district courts. Every nominee left on the table is a seat being handed over to Chuck Schumer, if he's actually the Senate leader. Make no mistake about what Schumer will do with the gavel. He will block every confirmation to the Court of Appeals, and he will likely block appointments to the district courts as well. And these are not minor posts. The Supreme Court grants review in only about 1% of all cases, so the appellate courts have the final word in nearly every case. Whoever sits on these courts will decide what the law means for millions of Americans for decades to come. Chuck Grassley, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has done his part and scheduled two November hearings for an expanded slate of nominees. Now, other Republican senators have to do their jobs. They need to show up for every committee vote. Tom Tillis, looking at you. They have to move the full slate out of the Judiciary Committee and confirm every nominee on the Senate floor. No absences, no delays, no excuses, Tillis. Democrats have already shown us how this works. So just in case Republicans do try to do this, if they succumb to the pressure of Republican constituents and they do actually try to move these nominees and they start, you're going to start hearing Democrats screaming murder, right? But they did this. They did this in 24. Their, their lame duck session. Then the judiciary chairman was Dick Durbin. He and Chuck Schumer ran through judges right up until just before Christmas and And they didn't apologize. They didn't slow down. They used every day they had. Republicans owe the American people at least as much fight. The voters gave Trump a mandate to restore the rule of law, and that mandate, they say, does not expire on January 3rd just because the Senate is about to change hands. So they are urging everyone to call your senators. Tell them to confirm all 23... of Trump's judicial nominees before January 3rd. Not most of them, not some of them, all of them. And so, here's the phone number for Tom Tillis. The D.C. office. I'm not giving out his cell phone. I don't even think I have it. But 202-224-6342. Again, 202-224-6342. For Ted Budd, 202-224-3154. He's got district offices as well, none in Charlotte, though. Tillis has none in Charlotte either. Interesting. Also, Ed Whelan from National Review talking about judicial nominations. what the Democrat takeover of the Senate means. Number one, Trump will not be able to appoint any justices or judges during his final two years. If a number two, if a Republican is elected president in 28, that president will not be able to appoint any justices or judges until Republicans regain the Senate. Given the deep hole that might not happen until 2033. He says, I'd be extremely surprised if any justice announces resignation now for the end of term, in the hope of a lame duck confirmation successor. Among other things, it's highly doubtful that Republicans would have the votes to confirm. Um, he says, John Cornyn, Tom Tillis, and Bill Cassidy are not going to be eager to do any, do Trump any favors. And there are other senators who would be leery of anyone. Trump would be eager to push through Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida points out, um, It's very unlikely Republicans are going to recapture Congress in 28. They might not have a shot at Senate control until 2033. The chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas, Clarence Thomas, or Sam Alito, is basically now zero. The chance of confirming a worthy successor during a hypothetical GOP administration from 2029 to 2033, also probably zero. And the Republicans probably won't be able to recapture enough seats in 2028. Now, maybe they do. But this is what people need to understand is that there's about a month when you need to ram through all of these judicial appointments because you're probably not going to get another shot at doing it for another five years. Call your senators. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.