Umbrella Center: One stop for domestic violence survivors (10-30-2024--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] And I want to thank the Mecklenburg County District Attorney, Spencer Merriweather. He is in the studio with us here because all month long this has been Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And welcome to the program, sir.

[00:00:40] Pete, glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:41] Absolutely. So you came and spoke to our Neighborhood Association a couple of days ago, and you mentioned this Umbrella Center. This is not a place for umbrellas to be stored or sold or anything.

[00:00:55] And I thought it was interesting that people should know about this concept. So what exactly is the Umbrella Center?

[00:01:02] It's funny you started with the name because the name was actually come up with by survivors of domestic violence, child violence, and family violence.

[00:01:09] The idea is that in order to get your services met, in order to be able to get what you need before you get to court to protect yourself, you usually have to go to about 30 different service providers in order to have all that stuff met.

[00:01:21] That often can mean hours on the phone. That can mean a number of forms that you've got to fill out.

[00:01:25] And so the ability to do all those things in one place means that not only are those victims safe, not only are their families being taken care of as well,

[00:01:34] but the community is made more safe because folks aren't giving up because of the frustration that they have to go through by filling out all those forms and being on the phone all that time.

[00:01:43] So by having a one-stop shop for those services, it makes not only those families safer, but our community immensely more safe.

[00:01:50] Yeah, you mentioned that showing up for court is such a big part of this.

[00:01:55] I had an experience years ago, next-door neighbor, kid was whipping up on his girlfriend.

[00:02:03] Cops show up and she starts walking away.

[00:02:06] Right.

[00:02:06] And so I'm thinking she's not going to press charges and if they file charges, she's probably not going to testify.

[00:02:14] I think the national average is something like a person will be assaulted six times before they decide to call 911.

[00:02:21] That's not actually going to court.

[00:02:23] That's calling 911.

[00:02:25] Each one of those times, probably about half the time, a child is actually witnessing it.

[00:02:29] Every time a child witnesses something like that, they're suffering trauma.

[00:02:32] And you don't know how that trauma is going to play out.

[00:02:34] A lot of times it can make a person more susceptible to violence later on in their own life.

[00:02:39] And quite frankly, if you ran a poll of the people who are in custody right now on a lot of those who, you know, on a lot of similar type charges,

[00:02:47] a lot of them have actually witnessed that kind of trauma at an early age.

[00:02:51] So we can get out in front of that by whether it's someone getting the health care needs that they need within 24 hours of an assault,

[00:02:59] whether it is a meeting with social services, whether it's making sure that there is early engagement with law enforcement,

[00:03:05] as well as the DA's office.

[00:03:07] That means everybody's on the same team.

[00:03:09] It looks like we know what we're doing and we're getting our plan together and doing that on behalf of victims who really need it.

[00:03:15] You mentioned something also at the neighborhood event.

[00:03:18] And I'm guessing you do this, you go out into neighborhoods.

[00:03:21] And so that's something that other homeowners association, neighborhood associations can ask you to come to them.

[00:03:27] We got a website and a link.

[00:03:28] You go to charmecda.com.

[00:03:31] We've got a link there where if you want us to come out to your neighborhood, we'll do it.

[00:03:35] And you mentioned the class H felony for strangulation.

[00:03:40] And this was surprising to me.

[00:03:42] First thing is not choking, by the way.

[00:03:44] A lot of people call it choking.

[00:03:45] That choking is when you all of a sudden have your airway cut off because you choked on like a cough drop.

[00:03:50] That's not what's going on here.

[00:03:51] Strangulation is someone committing an intentional act to wrap their hands around you to take off your air supply, your blood supply.

[00:03:58] That's a crime.

[00:03:59] But in North Carolina, the punishment that you get for that is the same thing as the punishment you get for somebody breaking into your shed.

[00:04:08] That's ridiculous because basically someone is trying to take your air away.

[00:04:12] We know all the statistics tell us that the people who commit those acts have some of the most lethal sort of behavior types.

[00:04:23] Quite frankly, those are the people who ultimately will commit violence against law enforcement officers because they want to exert so much control over someone that when they are confronted with an authority figure, that they react very badly, sometimes even fatally.

[00:04:38] It's sort of like the connection I've heard drawn, you know, people who mutilate animals turning into serial killers.

[00:04:45] Like there's this almost, I don't want to say causation because I don't know if that's true, but there's like this connection.

[00:04:51] In the field, it's interesting you mentioned that because in the field, strangulation is what's referred to as a lethality factor.

[00:04:58] People who abuse animals, that also is a lethality factor.

[00:05:03] And what that means is it makes it more likely that you are going to commit a lethal act against another person.

[00:05:09] So if we can identify those things early, we have a chance to save not only one life, but a lot of lives.

[00:05:14] So is there any movement to get strangulation, the penalties, move it up?

[00:05:19] Because class H felony, move it up to a lower alphabet letter, but a higher offense.

[00:05:26] The same folks that have sort of created the model for a family justice center, which is what the Umbrella Center is, are sweeping the country to try to encourage more jurisdictions to both expand the definition of strangulation as well as to intensify the penalties that go along with it.

[00:05:43] When I say expand the definition of strangulation, there are a lot of ways to cut somebody's air off.

[00:05:47] You can put your hands around the neck.

[00:05:49] You can use an instrument.

[00:05:50] You also can suffocate people.

[00:05:52] There are some other states that actually say, hey, if you do that, we're going to find you guilty of this more serious crime that carries more serious penalties.

[00:06:01] In North Carolina, our definition of strangulation, you can't even find it in the law, and judges have to sort of administer that strictly.

[00:06:10] And so people can get away with a lot of stuff and not have it fit into the law of which we can hold them accountable.

[00:06:16] Huh.

[00:06:18] Yeah, I know I'm trying to think of like any kind of explanation for why that would be the case, you know, the law not keeping up with things or I guess a failure of imagination.

[00:06:27] And that's it.

[00:06:28] People aren't thinking about it.

[00:06:29] But I promise you I know who is thinking about it, and it's the people who have either witnessed this or experienced it themselves.

[00:06:34] Yeah.

[00:06:34] Well, I just remembered, what is it, the hurt people hurt people, right?

[00:06:39] That's exactly right.

[00:06:48] That's exactly right.

[00:06:48] Right now.

[00:06:49] So if anybody wants to take advantage of some of these resources, there is one that exists so far.

[00:06:55] You know, I mentioned all those parties that would be in the Umbrella Center.

[00:06:57] Some of those parties already exist in the Survivor Resource Center.

[00:07:00] If you come in the door because you've experienced one of these types of crimes, you will be met with a navigator.

[00:07:05] And when I say navigator is that person who is walking with you through every step of what it is that you need.

[00:07:12] The most important thing about this concept of both the Family Justice Center and Survivor Resource Center is that it's victim-led, victim-directed.

[00:07:19] Whatever that victim-survivor needs, that's what we will do.

[00:07:23] If you're not ready to talk to law enforcement yet, maybe we need to build trust up with you that, hey, we know what we're doing.

[00:07:28] We know how we're going to help you.

[00:07:30] And then that makes it more likely you call the cops.

[00:07:33] It makes it more likely that when the DA's office calls you that we can keep you safe and that we can make sure that someone's held accountable for doing what they did to you.

[00:07:41] You just said that the second time you said that, which is like that people trust that you know what you're doing.

[00:07:46] Right.

[00:07:46] Is that a problem right now?

[00:07:47] Well, right now, if people say that you don't get a call back, for instance, or if somebody responds to you and tells you, yeah, I can help you, but you got to go 20 minutes across town in order to get the help that you need.

[00:07:57] That survivor is more than likely to say, you know what, forget it.

[00:08:00] Like, I got to make sure I know where my kid's next meal is coming from.

[00:08:03] I got to make sure I know that this guy who's just beat the hell out of me doesn't try to cut off my bank account.

[00:08:09] They need help in a hurry.

[00:08:10] And so they need us to see us respond in a hurry.

[00:08:14] The Survivor Resource Center is already making that far more likely than it was before its existence.

[00:08:19] And just wait to see what we can do when we have an umbrella center.

[00:08:21] So how does that differ?

[00:08:23] And this is a new facility.

[00:08:24] Right.

[00:08:25] There's a campaign underway to raise money for it.

[00:08:27] You got all these different partners you can mention here as well.

[00:08:30] So how is it different?

[00:08:32] It expands the number of services that are there.

[00:08:35] Right now, my office, for instance, we're a couple blocks away, but we're not down the hall, which we will be in the Family Justice Center and the Umbrella Center.

[00:08:43] And having all of those groups right there to team up together to figure out how it is that we can help people is extremely important.

[00:08:52] You know, this model's been around for almost 30 years.

[00:08:56] And for some reason, in the 15th largest city in America, we don't have it.

[00:09:00] And that's a shame.

[00:09:01] But luckily, we're well on our way.

[00:09:04] This model has worked in other places.

[00:09:06] We believe that this model will work here.

[00:09:09] It has been amazing to see how all of these different folks that usually don't play well in the sandbox together, whether it's city or county or us, social services, law enforcement, everyone sees how wonderful this kind of programming is and how it can actually help survivors and help us do it as what we signed up to do, which is to really protect people and protect the larger community.

[00:09:33] So, organizations or any specific organizations you want to?

[00:09:37] Safe Alliance has been critical.

[00:09:40] Pat's Place, which is our regional child advocacy center, they have been wonderful.

[00:09:46] Atrium Health, because there are acute needs that victims have when they walk in the door, and they're going to have those needs met right there in the Umbrella Center.

[00:09:55] That's amazing to have those groups there.

[00:09:57] They have been such leaders.

[00:09:59] You don't need government actors like me necessarily leading it, but we will follow wherever they go, and we're happy to have been invited to the table.

[00:10:08] I will move probably about six to eight prosecutors from my office into that facility so that when they need my people, my people are there and ready to go.

[00:10:17] And they just work on domestic violence stuff?

[00:10:19] Domestic violence, adult sexual assault, child sexual assault, child violence, human trafficking.

[00:10:24] Basically, we call those special victims cases.

[00:10:27] Those are ones that have just a special needs as far as the way in which we're interacting with victims of crime.

[00:10:33] So, you know, it's very promising what will be at our disposal by being able to team up with these other partners in a facility like this.

[00:10:42] Anything else you want to add before we let you go that you think is important for people to know or interesting to know?

[00:10:47] Just want to thank you and thank the community for giving the kind of awareness this month to domestic violence.

[00:10:52] Quite frankly, this is the one that happens across a wall.

[00:10:55] People are often suffering in silence.

[00:10:58] So every time that we are being vigilant as a community to stand up for somebody else, we're making all of our lives so much safer.

[00:11:05] Yeah.

[00:11:06] The website, by the way, if you want to learn more about this Umbrella Center, it is UmbrellaCenter.org.

[00:11:12] UmbrellaCenter.org.

[00:11:13] Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriwe.

[00:11:15] Thanks for coming in.

[00:11:17] Appreciate it.

[00:11:17] Thanks for your time.

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[00:12:22] All right.

[00:12:22] Once again, thanks to Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather for coming in and talking about the Umbrella Center.

[00:12:29] And like I said, I was at a neighborhood meeting like, I don't know, a week or so ago.

[00:12:36] I forget.

[00:12:39] And he came and he spoke and he talked about, he mentioned the Umbrella Center, but he came to talk about crime and, you know, what the role of the district attorney's office is.

[00:12:49] And he kind of broke down, you know, some of the process and answered questions and that sort of thing.

[00:12:54] So as he said, if your local group wants him to come and talk with them, I think that's a really good thing to have him come do.

[00:13:01] And because there are a lot, there's, it's a, you know, it's a very confusing kind of a system for people that don't have any, you know, inside knowledge of it, either because they don't work in it.

[00:13:13] They don't interact with it in any way, right?

[00:13:16] They've never been on the wrong side of it.

[00:13:17] People who are in the system working in it or, you know, after arrests or whatever, people who are in it, they, you know, they get to learn how these things work.

[00:13:28] But for a lot of people who have no interaction with the criminal justice system, don't know how this stuff works and doesn't.

[00:13:38] Right. So there are all these different kinds of organizations and pressures and incentives, right?

[00:13:45] And I talk a lot about incentives and, you know, if you try to identify what is the thing that is motivating people, look for their incentive structure, that kind of thing.

[00:13:54] So when you learn more of the way that the operations are set up, you can learn about incentives and what is motivating different agencies or people in those agencies and that kind of thing.

[00:14:07] Along those lines, I saw there was a I don't know if you subscribe to this, but you should.

[00:14:12] It's business North Carolina business NC dot com is their website and they do a daily digest, an email that they blast out.

[00:14:20] And the other day they were at the Charlotte Rotary Club.

[00:14:25] And they had as their speaker, Andy Ellen, the longtime president of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association.

[00:14:32] And his topic was organized retail crime.

[00:14:38] And he said that it costs consumers about five hundred dollars a year in higher costs.

[00:14:47] So an extra five hundred dollars a year that we all pay because of, you know, quote unquote, loss prevention.

[00:14:52] Right. Retail theft.

[00:14:55] Organized retail crime.

[00:14:57] That's what we're talking about.

[00:14:58] Somebody walking in and stealing some candy bar.

[00:15:00] We're talking about the organized retail crime.

[00:15:03] He says that these operations are also tied to human trafficking.

[00:15:08] It's tied to fentanyl.

[00:15:10] It's tied to cartels.

[00:15:12] He says it's not kids shoplifting a pair of sunglasses.

[00:15:17] Right.

[00:15:18] These videos that we have seen with these groups that go in.

[00:15:21] A lot of that stuff is just the visible tip of the iceberg that you're seeing.

[00:15:27] That's part of a larger organization.

[00:15:30] They're going in, they're stealing a bunch of stuff and then they're selling it on the websites.

[00:15:36] And you have no idea that you're about to purchase stolen goods on Facebook Marketplace.

[00:15:42] Right.

[00:15:43] We've been getting the robo calls, the automated calls here into the studio as well.

[00:15:49] Yeah, I don't know.

[00:15:50] Like you would think that there would be a number, the number associated 704-570-1110.

[00:15:55] You would think that would be on some sort of do not call list.

[00:15:58] But here we are.

[00:16:00] Speaking of scams, users are falling victim to a sophisticated AI-based account takeover scam,

[00:16:10] which carefully impersonates Google staff over the course of several weeks.

[00:16:19] Actually, I need to make a note here.

[00:16:21] AI.

[00:16:22] Okay.

[00:16:24] Because I got to circle back to that.

[00:16:25] Like Pisaki.

[00:16:26] Okay.

[00:16:26] Sam Mitrovich, an IT consultant and tech blogger, wrote about this after he received a notification to approve a Gmail account recovery attempt.

[00:16:40] Right.

[00:16:41] So if like for some reason your account gets locked or something, you forget the password or whatever,

[00:16:48] and they send you the message that says, hey, recover your account, click on this link.

[00:16:55] Now, according to his blog, he wrote about, he denied this.

[00:17:00] He did not click on the link or anything.

[00:17:03] But then he got a call about 40 minutes after he got the email.

[00:17:09] And it showed the caller ID as Google Sydney.

[00:17:14] So he Googled Sydney.

[00:17:16] Take thinking that it was a, no, I'm just kidding.

[00:17:19] Sydney, Australia.

[00:17:20] Right.

[00:17:20] So the caller ID pops up as Google Sydney, but he also declines it.

[00:17:26] He doesn't take that call either.

[00:17:29] Using phony account recovery notifications is a classic trick used by cyber criminals carrying out phishing attacks.

[00:17:39] P-H-I-S-H.

[00:17:42] Phishing.

[00:17:42] Right.

[00:17:43] This is where they get you to click on something or get you to give them some information, reset a password, something like that.

[00:17:52] These types of ploys will generally lead customers to a fake login portal, which will then capture your login details, your credentials.

[00:18:01] The following week, Mitrovich received another notification to approve an account recovery

[00:18:08] and also another call from an Australian phone number 40 minutes later.

[00:18:14] This time, he decides to pick up.

[00:18:18] This is according to an article at PC Magazine, PCMag.com by Will McCurdy.

[00:18:25] He quotes Sam Mitrovich as saying,

[00:18:27] An American voice, very polite and professional, told the IT expert, Mitrovich, that there had been suspicious activity on his account.

[00:18:36] The caller said somebody illegally accessed his account and downloaded his account data over the course of a week,

[00:18:42] which reminded him of the previous incident.

[00:18:45] Okay.

[00:18:46] So this is this is a long con, a long scam.

[00:18:50] Okay.

[00:18:51] The caller.

[00:18:53] Was AI.

[00:18:55] It wasn't even a real person.

[00:18:58] And Mitrovich kind of sussed it out because the way that the voice was speaking there, he said the the spacing of the words and the pronunciation of different words was, quote, too perfect.

[00:19:15] Right.

[00:19:16] So if somebody calls like this.

[00:19:19] And.

[00:19:20] They got bad grammar and they're mispronouncing words and that sort of stuff, that is obviously evidence that it's a scam.

[00:19:29] But if they don't make those mistakes, that, too, is evidence that it's a scam.

[00:19:37] Wait a minute.

[00:19:39] Well, how are we?

[00:19:40] All right.

[00:19:41] So just don't answer the phone.

[00:19:42] I guess that's the that's the lesson.

[00:19:43] You don't open open nothing.

[00:19:45] You have all these emails, all these email accounts.

[00:19:48] Don't open any of them.

[00:19:50] Click nothing.

[00:19:52] By the way.

[00:19:55] I have successfully completed the phishing modules, the or the anti phishing modules that corporate sent to us.

[00:20:04] Have you done that yet?

[00:20:05] Have you guys done your have you done your trainings?

[00:20:08] I thought that was a phishing email.

[00:20:09] I haven't done any.

[00:20:10] It is a phishing email.

[00:20:12] I thought it was like a phisher's phishing email, not corporate.

[00:20:15] Oh, no.

[00:20:16] So it's real from the security center or whatever.

[00:20:19] Yeah.

[00:20:19] Yeah.

[00:20:19] That's real.

[00:20:20] Oh, and then you have to go.

[00:20:22] And I think you only have I think you got to do it by like November 1st.

[00:20:25] OK, right.

[00:20:26] And then you got to take their little.

[00:20:27] So you got to watch the videos.

[00:20:30] You got to watch the slide shows.

[00:20:32] And then you got to click on the bad links.

[00:20:37] Hmm.

[00:20:38] And then you get locked out of your account.

[00:20:41] I'm not sure.

[00:20:43] I'm not sure what the test is, but I feel like I passed.

[00:20:47] Probably did.

[00:20:50] There was one a couple of I guess it was like a year ago, because if you're in corporate

[00:20:55] world, you probably get these two where they they they pay some outside person or a security

[00:21:01] firm to come in and like try to trick you.

[00:21:04] And to to see who's going to click open your stuff, I don't know.

[00:21:10] And so I don't click anything.

[00:21:11] That's what I tell people, like you send me something with links.

[00:21:13] I don't click them.

[00:21:14] I don't I don't click links.

[00:21:16] And.

[00:21:18] So they sent something out like a year or so ago, remember this?

[00:21:21] And then.

[00:21:23] Like a day or two later, we get a follow up email and that says, hey, everybody, the

[00:21:30] the thing that we sent you is from us because they have apparently because I wrote them back.

[00:21:38] They sent me something.

[00:21:40] And I was like, I'm not clicking on your link.

[00:21:41] And I sent it back to them.

[00:21:43] I think this is a scam.

[00:21:44] And I sent it back.

[00:21:46] And like a day or two later, they they blasted out to everybody.

[00:21:49] OK, it's come to our attention that nobody is opening this thing.

[00:21:52] So please be advised.

[00:21:54] Open it.

[00:21:55] Because like, well, this is what happens.

[00:21:57] Nobody.

[00:21:57] Everyone's terrified of opening anything anymore.

[00:22:00] So.

[00:22:01] But get this.

[00:22:02] I was talking to my financial guy a couple of weeks back.

[00:22:06] And.

[00:22:09] He said, like, one of the safeguards he does, if you call him, if I were to call him and

[00:22:13] say, hey, I want you to move some money around or whatever.

[00:22:15] Whatever.

[00:22:17] He's he will say.

[00:22:20] OK, I've taken some notes.

[00:22:22] I'm going to give you a call now.

[00:22:23] I'm going to hang up with you right now and I'm going to call you back.

[00:22:27] Because apparently in the industry, there is a story that's going around like it's a true

[00:22:32] story, apparently, where some big time guy with a lot of money.

[00:22:38] Somebody posed as him.

[00:22:40] And they put together using his, you know, with A.I.

[00:22:45] And they fabricated like a zoom call with a financial advisor and they stole like 20 million

[00:22:52] dollars from this guy.

[00:22:54] And so now everyone's freaking out.

[00:22:56] Like, how do we even know that the client we're talking with is the real person?

[00:23:01] And so like there are a number of these different safeguards that they're putting into place because

[00:23:07] that's how sophisticated the scams are getting.

[00:23:11] Which is why I have gone back to gold.

[00:23:15] I just everything I pay in silver and gold.

[00:23:17] I carry all of my worldly possessions on me at all times.

[00:23:21] This way I can't be robbed.

[00:23:25] Email is Pete at the Pete calendar show dot com.

[00:23:29] And that is K.A.L.I.N.E.R.

[00:23:34] And on Twitter at Pete calendar.

[00:23:37] Dave says one of the reasons I voted early is because of the talk that they'll know I have

[00:23:42] voted, put the money somewhere else and leave me alone.

[00:23:45] So why am I still getting 20 political texts a day?

[00:23:49] So I don't know.

[00:23:50] I don't get any.

[00:23:52] Of course, I have a Google phone.

[00:23:56] That.

[00:23:57] They it screens all of that stuff out.

[00:24:00] I don't get any political texts.

[00:24:01] I do get like I do get a warning when a phone call is coming in and it'll say, you know,

[00:24:07] political call or suspicious call or suspected spam, that kind of thing.

[00:24:13] But yeah, like I've got some folder in my text message thing where like everything goes there.

[00:24:19] I don't see any political texts.

[00:24:22] So that might be a phone setting.

[00:24:23] But yeah, like they depending on where you're getting it from.

[00:24:27] I mean, if you're getting it from the outside political action committees.

[00:24:31] They just bought your name off of a list and they're just going to keep they're going to

[00:24:34] keep spamming because they're not they're not monitoring.

[00:24:37] But like if you go vote like I voted Monday or Tuesday, whatever was.

[00:24:42] And I guess Monday.

[00:24:45] That they will now see that I voted and they is they being the campaigns and the the political

[00:24:52] parties. So they're not going to be hitting you up anymore.

[00:24:58] However, if you've got some super PAC that bought your name off of a list from those parties,

[00:25:03] they're not monitoring for who's voting itself.

[00:25:06] So some of that they're going to keep like if you don't if you bought Donald Trump's gold

[00:25:11] sneakers, I suspect they're going to keep hitting you up.

[00:25:16] Let me go over to Chris.

[00:25:17] Hello, Chris.

[00:25:19] Hey, skinny.

[00:25:20] What's up?

[00:25:20] Hey, man.

[00:25:21] How are you?

[00:25:22] I'm doing better than I deserve.

[00:25:24] I hear you.

[00:25:26] So I hear you talk about the Google and I'm trying to hack into your email and find out

[00:25:29] who you've been talking to and stuff like that.

[00:25:31] But a warning to and I know some people have a lot of accounts linked to their Google.

[00:25:35] I'm not trying to make light of it.

[00:25:37] But when you're a member of the Kraken exchange or a member of the Coinbase exchange, you will

[00:25:44] get legitimate emails from them saying things like, if you're me who just sits on his crypto

[00:25:50] and never touches it, it's been a year since you've signed into your account.

[00:25:53] Please sign in and check security.

[00:25:56] And it's a legitimate email from them.

[00:25:59] But I've also gotten emails from them that look legitimate, says Coinbase, even in the

[00:26:04] browser.

[00:26:06] It's just almost the same exact web address.

[00:26:09] It's not, you know, a bunch of weird hieroglyphics.

[00:26:13] It looks like Coinbase, but then you look closer and it's not at Coinbase.com.

[00:26:18] And I have come all the way into almost hitting enter and giving up all of my hundreds of dollars.

[00:26:27] Yeah.

[00:26:28] So like sometimes they'll do that.

[00:26:29] They'll change one letter.

[00:26:30] Or like one of the ones that they'll do is they'll change what an L into a capital I or

[00:26:40] something like that.

[00:26:41] And so it looks like the I, like if you're using aerial font.

[00:26:45] Right.

[00:26:45] Or they'll use a foreign alphabet character in the address or the URL or whatever.

[00:26:55] And so it looks like an English letter, but it actually isn't.

[00:26:59] Yeah.

[00:26:59] They can get really tricky with that stuff.

[00:27:01] Yeah.

[00:27:02] Yeah.

[00:27:02] No, that's good info.

[00:27:03] Chris.

[00:27:04] Yeah.

[00:27:04] No, I appreciate it.

[00:27:05] One last thing.

[00:27:06] Yeah.

[00:27:08] What do you think about what?

[00:27:09] Have you been talking about the fact that Republicans for the first time in the state's

[00:27:13] mystery are leading early voting?

[00:27:15] No, I didn't.

[00:27:16] I didn't do the like two hours on it yesterday.

[00:27:20] Okay.

[00:27:20] I didn't miss this on the show.

[00:27:21] Oh, that's hurtful.

[00:27:22] But anywhere in the media.

[00:27:23] Oh my gosh.

[00:27:24] That hurts so much.

[00:27:25] You can get the podcast.

[00:27:26] Thank you, sir.

[00:27:27] No, no.

[00:27:27] Yeah, no, we did it.

[00:27:28] Yeah, we do.

[00:27:29] All right.

[00:27:29] I appreciate it.

[00:27:30] Thanks, man.

[00:27:31] Yeah, man.

[00:27:31] Yeah, we did two hours on it yesterday.

[00:27:33] We went over like the early voting numbers and the historic nature of it and what the strategists

[00:27:40] Paul Shoemaker and Morgan Jackson are seeing and how they're analyzing the data on this

[00:27:46] stuff.

[00:27:47] In fact, what yesterday, I believe it was, the latest round of numbers.

[00:27:53] By the way, you can go to a website called votetracker.com, I think is the website that's

[00:27:57] from the John Locke Foundation.

[00:27:59] And they do, they're doing updates on this stuff every single day.

[00:28:04] And what was it?

[00:28:06] Oh, that unaffiliateds now outnumber Democrats in early voting.

[00:28:16] And that hasn't ever happened.

[00:28:17] Republicans are at number one.

[00:28:19] And number two, by just the sheer number, right?

[00:28:23] The sheer number of people that have voted with those party registrations.

[00:28:27] Republicans, number one.

[00:28:29] Unaffiliateds, number two.

[00:28:30] Democrats, number three.

[00:28:32] They are not, they're not turning out.

[00:28:35] Democrats are not turning out.

[00:28:40] So, I mean, make of that what you will.

[00:28:42] Maybe they'll all show up.

[00:28:43] But historically, Democrats tend to swamp the early vote early.

[00:28:48] First week of the campaign, first week of early voting.

[00:28:51] And then Republicans do a little bit of catch up in that second week.

[00:28:54] And then Republicans like to vote on Election Day.

[00:28:58] But there are also a lot of Democrats that also vote on Election Day, too.

[00:29:01] So it's not one.

[00:29:04] But these are numbers that we haven't seen.

[00:29:06] And these are patterns we have never seen either.

[00:29:08] All right.

[00:29:09] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:29:10] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:29:12] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise

[00:29:16] on the podcast.

[00:29:17] So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here.

[00:29:20] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:29:25] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:29:27] And don't break anything while I'm gone.