What a difference a week makes (01-27-2025--Hour3)

[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] We had to call our Steve, but I didn't have time to get to him beforehand. And I don't know if he dropped off or our phones are dropping people. So I apologize if it's our phone system. Not sure what's going on. But Alan is on the line and now joins the program. Hello, Alan. Welcome to the show. Hey, how are you doing? Hey, I'm good. What's going on? Well, I would like to project a nomination to the listeners of a nomination for mayor.

[00:00:56] Okay. For which city? Well, it'll be for WBT. We need to nominate Pete Allender for mayor of Realville. We need to make this happen. Well, there's only one mayor of Realville, and that was Rush Limbaugh. So I would accept a nomination for alderman, though. I could be alderman.

[00:01:24] Yeah, well, Rush has been gone. And I think he would gladly hand that gavel off to you, you know, because... Well, I appreciate the kind words. I would never presume to know that, but I appreciate the sentiment. And look, Rush Limbaugh formed a lot of the way I do the show, the way he tried to have fun doing the show.

[00:01:51] Because, like, I remember the early days especially. It was just funny. There were a lot of things that were funny, the bits that he did and all of that. But, and so I try to, you know, I try to be humorous. But, you know, he definitely influenced my trajectory. And I would not have this job right now, but for him, just working in AM radio for as long as I have, this medium was dead before him. Okay. Well, maybe Sheriff.

[00:02:18] Oh, there you go. Yeah. And then I would cooperate with ICE. All right. I hear you. All right, Alan, I appreciate the call, buddy. Thank you. All right. All right, take it easy. I will go ahead and get to a couple of these messages. So I made a comment in the last hour. And I wrote an op-ed about this. It was over at The Blaze before the election. And this is how I came to decide to vote for Donald Trump.

[00:02:47] He is the only major party candidate that I have ever voted for for president, ever. And I did that because my view of the media, the role of the media, is rooted in the Constitution. Right? The press is responsible for educating the citizens so we can self-govern.

[00:03:11] And if you have media, you have press that fails to do so, then that actually harms the democracy, if you will. And I know what I'm going to get with a Donald Trump presidency and a Kamala Harris presidency with regards to the media coverage. I knew what I was going to get.

[00:03:34] I was going to get over-examination, overreach, misconstruing motivation, all of that stuff with Donald Trump. Absolutely. But I also knew I wasn't going to get anything with Harris. I was not going to get anything except cover-ups and glamour pieces, hagiographies. I was not going to get any kind of accountability for a Harris administration.

[00:04:03] And so when presented with those two options, I didn't know any other way to punish the media for the way they've been behaving during the Biden presidency with the cover-up. I said it the other day, last week. To me, it's the biggest scandal in American political history. The cover-up of Joe Biden. It is up there with the cover-up of Woodrow Wilson. Right? It's worse than the FDR cover-up.

[00:04:33] At least at that point, we were in a war, you know? And there were people that knew. They just didn't take his picture. They'd have him sitting down or whatever. But when you have a president, and that was just a physical infirmity. If Joe Biden's infirmity was only physical, it wouldn't be that bad. But he had mental decline, mental cognitive decline.

[00:04:57] And you had a media apparatus that protected him by not telling the people about it as he was going to seek another term. That is scandalous. And at that point, it's like, okay, you cannot be trusted at all. You have to be punished somehow. So I know you're not going to do this for a Democrat president, so I'm going to give you the Republican. And it's Trump, and I know you're going to, quote, hold him accountable.

[00:05:27] You're going to go after him. And I'm going to disagree with the way you do so, sure. But with a Trump executive overreach and a Harris executive overreach, only one scenario protects the people more than the other. And that is a Trump executive. If Trump overreaches, I know the media is going to go after him. If Harris does, I know they won't. And that's the danger. That's the actual danger to democracy.

[00:05:57] So Joseph asked me that he didn't get the logic behind that argument. So I think I fleshed it out there. And it is of concern when I see Trump doing executive orders. I have been on the record for years. I do not like these executive orders of any kind. I don't like them when they start trying to write law, just like I don't like it when courts try to write law. We have a branch of government to do that.

[00:06:24] Now, just because those lawmakers have decided they want, you know, to do TikTok videos instead of legislate, that doesn't mean that that power goes over to the executive or to the judicial branches. You don't get to write laws. So and this is not an indictment on everything. All the executive orders Trump has done. Some of them, I think, are perfectly fine. And some of them, I understand what he's doing is to try to force the issue into the courts to get the rulings.

[00:06:54] And what was it on the birthright citizenship issue? We covered that in depth last week. You know, the pros and cons of those arguments and the history of it. But the Congress, somebody introduced a bill to end birthright citizenship. And that is the appropriate mechanism to go through. And so if his executive order induces this kind of response, then OK.

[00:07:23] But, you know, like Biden wiping away debt for student loans, you don't get to do that. You don't get to do that. And the media treated it as if it was completely within the boundaries of the norms. And it was not. It is not. So. Like, that's where that is. So that's how I got to that. Got to that decision.

[00:07:49] And then who is this from Thomas, who says the modern big media speaking truth to power. Really? This sounds pretty hollow right now. I guess the reporters you are reporting on are doing just that. But I guess they don't have to stipulate who, what, when, where, why and the important how in a timely fashion. But, yeah, and the same thing occurs when these reporters get embedded into campaigns.

[00:08:12] And they they they omit details and stories that they learn during the campaign. That the public should know about before casting a vote for or against that person. But the reporters sit on it so then they could write the book afterwards and get people to write or to buy their books. Right. So they're covering up stories that the public should know in order to make money.

[00:08:42] I find that to be. Completely inappropriate, highly unethical. And this is sort of par for the course now in our modern media landscape. Thomas goes on to say, finally, I guess it depends on who you are speaking the truth to and about truth about conservatives. Yes. Truth about liberals in the swamp. No. Yeah. I think that was the that was what those reporters were were outlining is that when it came to certain stories about the Biden family.

[00:09:10] Politico from came from up on high. As one reporter said, like this was the mandate that came down. Do not talk about the Hunter Biden laptop. Do not tweet about it. Don't write about it. Don't talk about it. Yeah. So they acted as a Praetorian guard for the Bidens. Completely scandalous. 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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[00:10:35] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. And we do have a call here. This is from John. Hello, John. Many Johns today. Yes, John. Hey, Pete. Yeah. What's up? Hey, how's it going? I'm Johnny B. Hey, just wanted to say, I know you were kind of ragging on the legacy media covering up for Biden.

[00:11:04] I think they were actually covering up for the Politburo. I don't think we've had... That's fair. No, that's fair. We've seen how sentient president in. We've been a country being run by committee with nobody able to say, yeah, this is my decision, etc. And like you said earlier with Trump, you know, no president's going to know everything that's going on everywhere. But he does a heck of a lot more than Biden ever did.

[00:11:30] And, yeah, it was a bunch of radical left progressive committee members that have been running our country for the last two and a half, three years. And look where it's gotten us. Yeah. I mean, and look, I mean, say what you want about Barack Obama and his policies, but nobody had any doubt that he was in command. That he, like, if there was an executive order signed, that that was his signature. He read it. He understood it. This was something he wanted to do.

[00:11:53] But we played the clip from House Speaker Mike Johnson, where he talked about going in to meet with Biden, talking about liquid natural gas ban. And Biden said, no, no, I just signed it in order to study it. He didn't even know what he had signed. So, yeah, like this is the problem is that, yeah, Joe Biden was not in command. And then the next natural question is, well, who was and who was putting stuff in front of him? Who was drafting it? Why were these things being done?

[00:12:21] And, yeah, so the media covering up for the cognitive decline of Joe Biden necessitates the follow-up stories of who's actually doing this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, you know, and I know everybody's upset about the J6 pardons, but here's the deal. You know, with Biden pardoning the J6 committee, I do think he's left open the door for people to go look at who was responsible for keeping his condition away from the public.

[00:12:49] To me, that's probably more dangerous than any of those other events. Well, if you have a president that's not in command. Yeah, if you go back last week and pull the podcast, we covered the story in depth that was written up by the New York Times. And they did actually two stories, one with Schumer and talking about how like the Democrats in the Senate, they knew like they they were pressuring Chuck Schumer before Joe Biden bailed.

[00:13:17] Right. But they were like, we need we need he's not talking to us. We don't have confidence in him. We don't think he's leading and all like the Democrats in the Senate knew what was up. And the other New York Times story talked about the six people that were the closest around Joe Biden. And they were the ones that were managing the affairs. They were the ones that were in charge. And it includes Jill Biden. It includes Donnellan.

[00:13:45] I remember Mike Donnellan, I think is his name. I think Hunter Biden was in there. So like he had these six people around him. And they were the ones that managed it. And they were the ones that that blocked access. Wow. Yeah. And that's why I say it's it's a huge scandal. And I'm hoping, you know, some media outlet now can write the story because he's out and Harris is out. And so now maybe somebody will write the story that they should have written three years ago. But we'll see. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. John, I appreciate the call, man.

[00:14:16] All right. Thanks. Yeah. You too. So I said at the beginning, what a difference a week makes. And I'm going to throw something out there. All right. If you are a friend of mine or let's say, OK, if you are my neighbor and we have an agreement that, you know, I won't throw a bunch of garbage in your yard.

[00:14:43] And you won't throw a bunch of your trash into my yard. Right. And so we have this agreement. And most of the time, you don't even have to kind of articulate this. It's just understood. Like you share a property line on the lawn and, you know, I'll mow my side. You mow your side. And every now and again, I may, you know, do a little weed whacking to help out on your side or whatever. But it's an amicable arrangement where we both kind of benefit.

[00:15:10] Now, if I throw my trash over into your yard and you say, Pete, take that garbage and move it back onto your property. And then I say no. And then when you scoop up all the garbage and you try to you try to bring it back onto my property, I I prevent you from coming back on my property.

[00:15:33] You have now or I in this situation, I have now changed the nature of this relationship. So if we are being neighborly or we are being friendly. Secondly, I would not do that to you in the first place.

[00:15:47] And if you attempt to clean up the mess and give the trash back to me for me to dispose of properly, then and I refuse, then the nature of our relationship is fundamentally altered. And that is what has occurred with the U.S. relationship with Colombia. Right.

[00:16:10] And so, Colombia, you don't get to have a bunch of your people come to a friendly country such as America. We are friendly with Colombia. You don't get to have a bunch of your people come. And then we were like, hey, these are criminals. We've arrested them. They weren't supposed to be in our country. We're giving them back to you. And if Colombia says no, well, now we are in a different relationship. And that's what happened over the weekend.

[00:16:39] But I eventually took the I did take the trash back. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season. But tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing. And then somebody says, hey, dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to. But I just haven't gotten around to it.

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[00:17:36] Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Create a Video. Conveniently located in Mint Hill right off I-485 and online at createavideo.com. So over the weekend, bit of a dust up, if you will, with Colombia. Here's how CNN billed it. Colombia backs down on accepting deportees on military planes after Trump's tariffs threats.

[00:18:05] So Colombia backs down. Here is how Euronews, the European Broadcasting Union, here's how they said it. The U.S. backs down on tariffs after Colombia agrees to deportation flights. So note the different framing. CNN says Colombia backs down, but Euronews says the U.S. backs down.

[00:18:31] But the U.S. is backing down after Colombia agrees to do what the U.S. said. So is that the U.S. backing down there? Euronews? Now, the German government, they put out what they call their news compact, and they said, USA and Colombia settle tariff dispute. Is that what it was? Was it a tariff dispute? I don't think it was a tariff dispute.

[00:18:58] I think it was a dispute over whether or not Colombia would allow the repatriation, the return of its own citizens. Right? So here's CNN. Colombia has walked back from the brink of a damaging trade war with the United States, reaching an agreement on accepting deported migrants being returned on military planes

[00:19:25] after a flurry of threats from President Donald Trump that included steep tariffs. By the way, I think that this focus on the use of the military planes, I think this is their excuse. I think they're using this as an excuse. They're like, if it was on a commercial flight, I mean, first class travel, we would have been totally fine with it. No, you would not. Okay? No, you would not.

[00:19:52] If you are a friendly country with us and you're enjoying the trade benefits of being a friendly country with us, then you should not be sending people to our country illegally. And most importantly, if we catch some of these criminals that have come from your country and have come to our country and we are like, we don't want these people, take them back, you don't get to say no.

[00:20:21] And you darn sure don't get to say, well, it's because they're traveling by military plane. No, it doesn't matter. They're yours. These are your citizens. You take them back. So Colombia said that it wasn't going to take them back. On the military planes, they would not allow the military planes to enter Colombia. And that's when Trump said, well, then we'll slap you with a bunch of tariffs. And then Colombia is like, oh, yeah, we'll slap you with some tariffs, too. And then Trump is like, well, the tariffs just got 10 feet taller. And then they're like, okay, fine.

[00:20:51] We'll take them back. That's what happened. And one of the things that I find notable in this entire drama as it played out was that there seems to be very little recognition that a trade war or tariff battle between the United States and Colombia would hurt Colombia as well.

[00:21:19] Like, I understand how tariffs work. I am not of the opinion that tariffs hold harmless the people of the country that implements them. Right. We slap a bunch of tariffs on Colombia. That means the price of their goods coming into our markets is going to be more expensive. I recognize that. No solutions, only tradeoffs. Right. So I recognize that. As a negotiating tactic.

[00:21:46] I understand what Trump was doing because that's what he does with a lot of countries. Right. He's going to punish you and he's going to assert. Maybe not dominance, per se, but like. Equality, because if we had a bunch of people that were in Colombia and they were like, hey, take your people back, we would not refuse them. We would take them back. So therefore, you should take yours back. That's what neighbors do. That's what friend friendly countries do.

[00:22:16] And if you're not going to do that, well, now you're not a friendly country to us anymore. You are changing. You are altering the terms of the relationship. OK, so we shall alter our terms as well. And when the Colombian president tried to out Trump Trump, he learned what basically every other Republican has already learned. You can. There's only one Trump. OK, there's only one.

[00:22:43] And doing a tariff battle with the United States is going to harm a lot of people in your country. Is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it worth it? And Colombia decided, I think logically so, it is not. It is not worth it to penalize all of your law abiding citizens.

[00:23:09] In order to protect the the travel accommodations of criminals, that's not a good tradeoff. And that's what the Colombian government came to recognize. But I know the lack of of this information. Now, CNN, to its credit, they did have a quote here from economic and foreign policy analysts also urged Colombia to avoid a diplomatic feud with the U.S.

[00:23:37] The Colombian Council on International Relations, which is a think tank of former foreign ministers and analysts, warned that commercial retaliation would only harm Colombia and warned the country's government to preserve its relationship with Washington. Right. Why would they risk it? Why would they risk it? And CNN, while it does mention this in this at the very end of their three page story.

[00:24:04] The focus in our media generally has been about the impact on the price of coffee and flowers in America. Like, do you want your coffee to go up a dollar? Well, like to me, there's more of a fundamental principle here, which is that a friendly country is refusing to take back their own citizens from us. So, yeah, I'll just I'll buy coffee from some other region.

[00:24:34] But then again, I don't place like a high value in the in the the the origination of my coffee. I don't go out looking specifically for Colombian coffee. I hear it's a good coffee. I've had Colombian coffee. I've enjoyed that Colombian coffee. But I have also had coffee from other parts of the world, I suspect. And it's just fine, too. I mean, I'm it's just a caffeine delivery mechanism for me. OK, that's it.

[00:25:03] It's like a good cup of coffee is good. And if I have to pay an extra dollar, I will do so. If it means that criminals get sent back to the countries that they are from when they came here illegally. So to me, that seems like a good deal. Now, your mileage may vary. Maybe you're not a coffee drinker, in which case, then it shouldn't even really affect you. Right. But I buy a lot of flowers. That was the other one that they were talking. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:33] It would hurt the people in those industries in your home country. And if you are the government looking out for Colombia first, then you should say this is going to hurt more people. And then you take these criminals back and then maybe I don't know, just free advice. You probably should lock them up because they're criminals. And that would be a bad thing for your country also to let the criminals just run wild in your country, which might actually be why you allowed them to come to ours. Hmm. Interesting. All right.

[00:26:02] 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 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.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:26:30] 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 Blindspot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:26:59] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Got a tweet here. It's a Pete tweet. From It's All a Distraction, who says, why wouldn't Colombia want to take back their people? I mean, according to the mainstream media, they're adding value to our country. Right. That's a very good question.

[00:27:28] Oh, and by the way, just a heads up for all of you lefties that are making these arguments about who's going to pick our crops. That's really racist. You should stop making that. What? Never mind. Keep making that argument. You guys just. Yeah. Keep going. You guys just keep doing that. By the way, CNN's Harry Enten. He's the guy that stands in front of the big digital board and he circles stuff and does numbers and stuff on the big board, you know, and he anyway.

[00:27:56] He had some polling that he was going over, I guess, yesterday or today. This was based on polling comparison back in April of 2017. So the initial months of the first Trump presidency versus today. OK, so he's got two sets of data. And the question is, which party do you trust more on immigration? And four years ago or no. Yeah.

[00:28:25] 2017, April 2017, eight years ago, seven years ago, eight years ago. Democrats enjoyed an 11 point margin over Republicans when asked which party is trusted more on immigration. Democrats were up 11 points, a plus 11. OK, now Republicans are up plus 22.

[00:28:52] That is a 33 percentage point swing. And he sent out his his, you know, his video of him going over these numbers. And he says that the GOP has turned an 11 point deficit on who Americans trust on immigration in Trump's first term at roughly the same point as now into a 22 point lead. Now.

[00:29:17] So the GOP turned an 11 point deficit into a 22 point. Lead. And I would submit humbly. So. That was really the Democrats that did that. I don't know if that was a whole Republicans that did that. I think Democrats have. I think they should get all of the credit for blowing a 33 percentage point swing, you know.

[00:29:43] Because the Republicans have been pretty they've been pretty consistent on this issue for the last eight years. And Democrats have been in charge. And I think they really deserve the credit for this. Yeah. So. Oh, and then there was this clip. This was from a Fox News report. This is a guy who got busted as part of the immigration sweeps. And he is from Haiti. I'm not going back to Haiti.

[00:30:11] One of those threats is this illegal alien from Haiti. I says he's a gang member with 17 criminal convictions in recent years. You feel me? Yo, Biden forever, bro. Thank Obama for everything that he did for me, bro. So bleep Trump. Biden forever, bro. And thank Obama for everything he did for me.

[00:30:35] Again, again, I don't think Republicans deserve all the credit for the 33 percentage point swing. OK. Also, another example of what a difference a week makes. This from the UK Telegraph. Iran has ordered its proxy forces across the Middle East. So this would be. Well, basically all of the worst actors.

[00:31:06] Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. How come they don't get the. How come they don't get the sound? Houthis. Anyway, Iran has ordered its proxy forces across the Middle East to exercise caution as the Islamic Republic fears an existential threat following Donald Trump's return to the White House.

[00:31:29] Officials have told commanders of Iran backed militias to avoid provocative actions that could escalate regional tensions. Quote. Forces and allies in the region have been instructed to act with caution as the regime feels an existential threat with Trump's return, said one senior Iranian official. Quote.

[00:31:55] In Iraq and Yemen, forces have been told not to target any American assets. And if they do, they are explicitly warned against using Iranian weapons. Americans. They have been told to keep defensive positions for a while and to avoid any actions that might provoke the Americans.

[00:32:24] I saw somebody analyze this. I apologize for not having their name at the ready, but they said, like, here's the difference. Like. The way things would normally go, whether it was Columbia or whatever, would be like, oh, my gosh, Columbia doesn't want to take the flights. Oh, my gosh, we got to have a meeting. All right. Get all these agencies together. OK, draft a report. Come up with some options. And the interagency reports take like a couple of weeks and then they come up with some options and then it goes up the chain. Then they're like, oh, make some changes. We get some other options. They swap out options.

[00:32:54] Then goes back for more review. Goes to a different agency. They make changes. And after like a month, two months or something, it finally gets presented to the president. It's like the worst of all the options and it doesn't actually do anything. And that's the difference now with Trump is Trump is just like. Slap a tariff on you. Well, slap a tariff on you. OK, well, I'll slap a bigger tariff on you. OK, fine. We'll take the military jets. Fine. Like that's.

[00:33:23] It's it's there is a different mindset in the business world versus the, quote, public sector. It's just a different mindset. There's almost like this analysis paralysis that takes root in these government agencies. And in business, it's like, oh, here's an obstacle. Here's a problem. OK, fix it. Move on. Move on. What a difference a week makes. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support.

[00:33:52] 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 Calendar show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.