Speaker 1: What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to
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your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much
for your support. If you've been here for the last hour,
thank you very much. I appreciate it. I did get
a bunch of messages here that I will endeavor to
get to. They're all over the place. They're on Twitter,
at Pete Calendar, they're an email Pete at the Pete
calendarshow dot com. And I did mention TikTok, so I
will pasaki back to the TikTok. But Pambondi went before
the Senate Judiciary Committee. They were asking questions and such
for the as part of the nomination process to be
Attorney General. I played a bunch of the audio in
the last hour, so if you want to go back
and catch that, pick up the podcast at the Petecalendarshow
dot com or the petepod dot com or WBT dot com.
It's on all of your podcasting platforms. Basically, Michael is
nominating me to be secretary of grammar well in the
in the case of fentanyl versus fentanyl, right, it's a
I think it's more of is it pronunciation?
Speaker 2: I guess that falls under grammar. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not always so good with the grammar either. He
does agree with me, though, he says his mom would
say Walmart and.
Speaker 2: Plask it plasket instead of plastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like library or supposedly not words, people not words.
He then asks, also, what would be the best cabinet position,
real or made up? For producer John Moore. I don't
know if I want to answer that, actually, Russ says.
Quote Dick Durbin says, dot dot dot is one of
the best shortcuts I have ever learned for what can
be ignored or totally discounted as partisan hackery when it
comes to Senate news. Also, it sounds like you're saying.
Mazie Herono's pauses indicate even she suspects the words coming
out of her mouth might not make sense. Indeed, indeed,
that may be what that indicates she's just so bad.
D L says that over on Blue Sky, a tweet
is a cloud. Is that what they call them clouds
really also produce. Steve went and looked up that Mazie
Herono has in fact visited the border and when he
told me that, I said, let me guess it was
to see the kids in the cages, and it was.
That's the only time Herono's gone down there was to
go do the photo op against Donald Trump. Tommy wants
to know who's going to replace that idiotic Press secretary
Caringe Jean Pierre.
Speaker 2: I don't know yet.
Speaker 1: I've not seen No, wait a minute, it's been a
couple of months, though. I feel like they did name somebody,
but I forget who it was. I forget all right,
So let me get to the TikTok. Full disclosure, I
have never signed up for TikTok. I would prefer that
the commis over in China not have a whole bunch
of my information or access to my camera, videos, photos, whatever.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: And part of the problem here is that when you're
a kid and you're posting what you think are just
these you know, dance videos or commentaries or something you
don't know how that stuff is going to get used
against you in twenty years, thirty years or something like that.
That's part of the concern that the Chinese Communist Party
that controls all of the businesses, especially the big ones
like byte Dance, which is the parent company of TikTok,
that they scrape the data and information out of these
programs and nobody ever reads the terms of service agreement
and so what you're agreeing to, you have no idea
before you download and use the app, and so they
may very well have access to all sorts of stuff
that they are an adversarial and that is a national
security threat. You may not agree like, you may not
like that, you may not agree with it, but that's
the assessment that is coming from the intel community, and
you may not believe that. That's fine, But they did
pass a law. It was bipartisan, It was signed into
law by a Democrat president that told byte Edance that
because of these national security implications, you have to divest.
So it's not a ban on TikTok, it is a
forcible divestment. They're saying you cannot be a foreign adversarial
nation and.
Speaker 2: Trade with US. AH I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: We can still totally trade with you, but we just
don't like this app. Okay, we don't like this app
because you're taking all of this information and China, I'm
not sure you're where this. You may be, but China
has a bit of a reputation for stealing a whole
bunch of stuff from people, particularly Us. They steal our technology.
They I mean I think they even stole their the
Fortune cookies from Japan. I mean, like they're just they
just steal a bunch of stuff. They're not innovators. They
are thieves, and they can replicate stuff. I remember reading
a story years ago about how there was some sort
of product that was ripped off by the Chinese. But
the product that they stole had a flaw, and I
forget if it was purposefully designed that way in order
to sort of catch them or something, but they replicated
the flaw in the product as well as the entire
product there isn't And this is what happens, by the way,
in these types of totalitarian states, is that everyone is
afraid to question anything, and so they don't ever stand
up and say, hey, I think I see a flaw
in this design because that might get you killed. Right,
you get your bank account shut down, they ship you
off to some weiger gooleg where you manufacture Nike sneakers
and iPhones or something. Never see the light of day again.
So the Supreme Court took this case because they got
the government is getting sued over the constitutionality of this law.
And the Supreme Court heard the case on Friday, and
according to the Associated Press, they're already calling it. They say,
which I never understand why people think they know how
these things are going to shake out. You have no
idea how this stuff is going to Just wait, you know,
just wait for the.
Speaker 2: For the ruling.
Speaker 1: But no, no, like the reporter has to let us
know what they think without saying, I think this is
where it's going to go.
Speaker 2: So they say the.
Speaker 1: Supreme Court seemed likely to uphold the law. Why because
of the questions that the that the justices were asking.
Speaker 2: But you're just interpreting that.
Speaker 1: You're just you're you're listening to the questions that are
being asked by specific members and then you're doing like
a whip count based on the questions. But that does
not indicate how the ruling is going to come down.
So just like your reporter, just wait for the thing
to happen and then report on the thing that happened.
You don't need to speculate what might happen, because you
know what else might happen. They could strike it down
to that might happen and you were wrong, right, Okay,
So most of the justices, they say, appeared to take
seriously the national security risks posed by the wildly popular
app whose parent company is based in China, which is
one way of putting it. Way of putting it that
they're based in China, right, they are based in China,
that is true. And China is a communist country. And
when you have a company like Byteedance and TikTok, the
government is all up in there. The government is part.
There is no difference between these companies and the government. Okay,
US government. The US government says Chinese authorities could force
the company to hand over sensitive data on its massive
American user base. No, communist Chinese would never do that.
Commis would never try.
Speaker 2: To owea it. Yeah, they would. They would totally do that.
Speaker 1: Or maybe they could influence the spread of information on
the platform through its proprietary algorithm. Certainly, the COMMIS wouldn't
know they would do that too, They would totally do
that as well. Of course they probably are doing it. Now,
why do you think all of the transgender stuff is
so prevalent on TikTok and the algorithm induces this stuff.
It's like it's like there's this willful blindness that we
are actually in a cold war against the Chinese. But
it's like people have been lulled into this full sense
of security because we trade with them, thanks a lot, Clinton,
but we trade they're you know, free favored nation trading status.
So because we trade with them, it's totally different than
previous adversarial relationships with communist countries. And it's not, in
my estimation, it's not we should not be dealing with
them as we are dealing with them, because the idea
was that by trading with them, we're going to like
show them the benefits of the free market and the
free society, and I fear the opposite has actually occur,
where we are now being more influenced by their culture
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that Chinese authorities could force the company to hand over TikTok,
could force TikTok to hand over sensitive data on American users,
or influence the spread of information on the platform through
its algorithm. TikTok says those concerns are overblown and the
law should be struck down because it violates the First Amendment,
which of course it does not.
Speaker 2: It doesn't.
Speaker 1: The law just says you have to divest TikTok. It
doesn't say people can't say stuff on TikTok. It says
you're a foreign power. You don't tell people how your
algorithm is disseminating this in information, and you're not giving
information on what you are turning over to the commis.
It's amazing that this even has to be said, right,
And look, I'm a free market guy. I am because
the free market is our natural state. The free market
is you, the free market is me, and so I
would prefer that companies be free to do what they
generally speaking want to do. Except I am a realist
and I recognize that there are other nations on this
planet that wish us harm, that would very much like
to murder all of us, to kill all of us.
Speaker 2: That is true.
Speaker 1: That is absolutely and we may want to deceive ourselves
into thinking it's not true, but it most certainly is true.
There are people, there are regimes, there are leaders, there
are regular joes that are all over this planet that
would like nothing more than to see every American wiped
off the face of the earth and this country destroyed. Okay,
that's literally the reason why the US federal government exists.
It is a recognition that we are to provide for
the common defense against other countries. Because what did Rush
Limball always say?
Speaker 2: The world is governed by the aggressive use of force.
Speaker 1: So we band together, we create a government so we
can repel that force and maybe use it to.
Speaker 2: Our own advantage every now and again.
Speaker 1: Now, but seriously, that's why, I mean, this is all
fundamental stuff. These are first order like when you're setting
up a government, this is why you do it. The
Oh and also, sorry I forgot to point out rule
number one about communists.
Speaker 2: They lie. Commies lie.
Speaker 1: So when TikTok says that the his concerns are overblown,
not that they are completely false, but just overblown. According
to the AP, I don't believe them. Why rule number one,
they lie. Communists lie. And here's a good indication that
they are lying. That they're not actually interested in running
a business per se, but that they are more interested
in running a foreign intel gathering operation against American citizens
and global citizens. Here's the giveaway. When presented with the
option as the law does, the law says, you can
divest this TikTok product from communist Chinese ownership under Byte
Dance parent company. You can divest or it's going to
be banned. And the company says, we would rather it
be we would rather it be closed down. We will
shut down this company rather than sell it off and
make billions of dollars for shareholders. That is not something
that an actual free market would do, right, a company
that's operating outside of the tentacles of a communist regime,
that's not something they would do. They would say, okay, well,
I mean they would have done a lot of things
differently up until this point, but here we are, and
when presented with that option, they would say, well, of course,
then we'll sell the company off. When the government says, hey,
you're a monopoly. You got to spin off that company.
What do American companies do? They spin off the company
rather than go out of business. But in communists China, no,
they would rather shut it all down. All right, I
hope you had a happy holiday season, But tell me
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and friends are gathered around, Maybe y'all are in the
living room, you're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then somebody says, hey,
did remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get
them trained inferred? 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 having gotten around
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a Video dot Com. Senator Marco Rubio nominee for a
Secretary of State. He was in his confirmation hearing today
as well and related to this topic of TikTok and
the forced divestment. Thanks to the passage of a law
that was bipartisan. Biden signed it into law. That's forcing
Byte Dance, the parent company, communist Chinese company, to sell
off TikTok or else it loses access to the American market.
Rubio had some comments today that I think are on
point for this particular topic.
Speaker 2: Take a listen.
Speaker 3: If we stay on the road we're on right now,
in less than ten years, virtually everything that matters to
us in life will depend on whether China will allow
us to have it or not. Everything from the blood
pressure medicine we take, to what movies we get to watch,
and everything in between, we will depend on China for it.
They have come to dominate the critical mineral industry supplies
throughout the world. Everywhere in the world. They've now established
critical mineral rights. Even those who want to see more
electric cars, no matter where you make them, those batteries
are almost entirely dependent on the ability of the Chinese
and the willingness of the Chinese Communist Party to produce
it and export it to you. So if we don't
change course, we are going to live in a world
where much of what matters to us on a daily basis,
from our security to our health, will be dependent on
whether the Chinese allows us to have it or not.
That's an unacceptable outcome.
Speaker 2: That's an unacceptable outcome.
Speaker 1: I agree with him, recognize the threat that China is,
and there are a lot of people I think that
have their heads in the sand on this.
Speaker 2: For whatever reason.
Speaker 1: The measure the law that bans TikTok, although it doesn't
the law doesn't actually ban TikTok.
Speaker 2: It says you have to divest it.
Speaker 1: So if people still want TikTok, then they need to
direct their correspondence to byte dance, which good luck with that.
The Communists are not exactly well known for suffering public
redress of grievances from the citizens. You know, the measures
set to take effect January nineteenth, the day before a
new term begins for President elect Donald Trump, who, by
the way, has just under fifteen million followers on TikTok
and he says he wants to save TikTok now. Congress
passed the measure, according to the Associated Press, as I mentioned,
with bipartisan support. This was back in April, so almost
a year ago. TikTok's lawyers challenged the law in court.
They have been joined by users and content creators who
say a band a band would upend their livelihoods.
Speaker 2: And I get that.
Speaker 1: I totally understand that TikTok came out and people were like, whoa,
this is a Chinese communist app. They're taking all this
information and people were like, I don't care. I'm making money.
And so now they have built a livelihood, They built brands,
they have these followings, which I'm sure are all totally
really people, not at all partisan algorithm that the Chinese
are using to boost your reach or anything like that.
But they say they're going to lose their livelihood, which
I don't know if that's necessarily true. I think if
you migrate over to a different platform, you probably would
enjoy the same kind of success, But I get the scariness.
Trust me, I have personal experience with this. I understand
the scariness of making that kind of a move. TikTok says,
the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.
Speaker 2: Right, it's hypothetical. Uh, you're just playing a what if game?
Like what if the communists want us all to perish?
I mean, what if?
Speaker 1: But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges
appointed by both Republicans and Democrats.
Speaker 2: Has upheld the law.
Speaker 1: The governments are humens where that the danger is real
and the law's biggest effect is on the parent company
of parent company called byte Dance, a foreign corporation, which,
by the way, as a foreign corporation, does not have
First Amendment guarantees. It's a foreign corporation. Trump took the
unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court
to put the law on hold so he could negotiate
a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office.
His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself
into national issues before he takes office. Well, honestly, though,
aren't we all kind of operating under the impression here
that Trump is the leader, right, It would be different
if Joe Biden we're still you know, young and full
of vim and vigor. But he's not, and he has
him in for a long time, and so the rest
of the world recognizes, like, okay, Trump's coming in, Joe
Biden's already out to lunch, and so might as well
just start dealing with him. I don't know about Trump
inserting himself, but then again, they're claiming credit for this
hostage release deal that Israel and Hamas just agreed to.
And by the way, why did Hamas just agree to that?
Because Joe Biden is out. He's leaving, And that was
the impediment because as long as Joe Biden was in office,
then they could just the Palestinian or the Hamas leadership
could just hold out, knowing that Joe Biden wouldn't lean
on them to get a deal done, whereas Trump would.
So the parent company by Dance, has previously said that
it has no plans to sell to divest TikTok, though
some investors are actually interested in buying it. One of
the names I heard floated Elon Musk that Elon they
like he apparently this is a real thing he could
very well go by like his seventeen thousandth company.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Trump met with TikTok CEO last month. Now, what are
people doing? What are the TikTokers doing? Well, they'll show
us right, they will not be impeded in their desire
to have the communist Chinese have all of the information
about them and from them. So they are now migrating
over to Red Note is what it's called. This is
an app from China called Red Note, and it has
seen a surge of between five hundred to seven hundred
thousand new users that joined over the last forty eight hours.
Slight issue. It's all in Mandarin, so there are people
they don't know what they're doing. Also, the users there,
these Chinese users have apparently been demanding a cat tax
on Americans that have migrated from TikTok. What's a cat tax?
Pete glad you asked? All right, if you're listening to
this show, you know I try to keep up with
all sorts of current events, and I know you do too,
And you've probably heard me say get your news from
multiple sources. Why, well, because it's how you detect media bias,
which is why I've been so impressed with ground News.
It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines
news from around the world in one place, so you
can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it
out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I
put the link in the podcast description too. I started
using ground News a few months ago and more recently
chose to work with them as an affiliate because it
lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom.
Speaker 2: The blind spot.
Speaker 1: Feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left
and the right.
Speaker 2: See for yourself.
Speaker 1: Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that
link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I
use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.
Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. The cat tax when people sign up for
this new or it's not new when people migrate from
TikTok over to another Chinese app called red Note. The
users of the red Note app based in China, which
is like a Chinese what I love this. It's called
by Reuter's a localized adaptation of Instagram, which means it
was ripped off.
Speaker 2: They stole Instagram.
Speaker 1: And they made and they just called it Chaoong Jong
and that is the name of it. I think Chaoong
Chong and translates to Red Note, which actually, yeah, really,
it actually translates more to Little Red Book, which was
Mao's book, right, the Little Red Books of the Chinese
communist leader. Right, he had all his little sayings in
it because he was oh so smart.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The cat tax is now being used against these TikTok
refugees they're calling themselves and they're putting that hashtag in
their bio. And so when they arrive on this Red
Note app, which is a Chinese ripoff of Instagram that's
located in China. Okay, this isn't even like a fake
American company kind of a thing. Users are demanding their
fellow users that migrate over when they find out they're American.
They're like, show us pictures of your cat. People are
they're being pressured into sharing photos of their cats. They're
calling it a cat tax on this app. Look, I
may post all sorts of pictures of a cat if
I had one I don't have any more, but.
Speaker 2: I would do that on my own.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to tell me to do it,
Pound sand Commie, I'm not giving you anything. I do
acknowledge I have a bit of an anti authority streaking me.
Speaker 2: All right. Here's Marco Rubio today.
Speaker 3: Another clip out of the triumphalism of the end of
the long Cold War emerged the Bipartisan Consensus. And this
consensus what that we had reached the end of history,
that all of the nations of the world would now
become members of the democratic, Western led community, that a
foreign policy that served the national interest could now be
replaced by one that served the liberal world order, and
that all mankind was now destined to abandon national sovereignty
and national identity and would instead become one human family
and citizens of the world. This wasn't just a fantasy,
we now know. It was a dangerous delusion. Here in
America and in many of the advanced economies across the world.
An almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at
the expense of our national economy trunk the middle class
left the working class and isis collapsed our industrial capacity
and has pushed critical supply chains into the hands of
adversaries and of rivals. An irrational zeal for a maximum
freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic
mass migration crisis here in America, but also around the world.
It's one that threatens the stability of societies and of governments.
Across the West, governments now censor and even prosecute domestic
political opponents. Meanwhile, radical jihadists openly march in the streets
and sadly drive vehicles into our people. While America far
too often continued to prioritize the global order above our
core national interests, other nations continue to act the way
countries have always acted and always will, in what they
perceive to be their best interest, and instead of folding
into the post Cold War global order, they have manipulated
it to serve their interests at the expense of hours.
The post war global order is not just obsolete, it
is now a weapon being used against us. And all
this has led to a moment in which we must
now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and
of generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive.
And in this room today, all.
Speaker 1: Right I completely agree. Oh my goodness, how unprofessional. I
forgot to mute my phone.
Speaker 2: Here's the other thing.
Speaker 1: When you use the little Red book app MOUs Modern incarnation,
people have reported immediately getting spammed with phone calls as
soon as they sign up and start posting on this
Chinese red note app, which should tell you something that
your information and you've given access to your phone, your microphone,
your photos, your camera, all of it.
Speaker 2: What are you people doing? Are used? Stupid or something? Yes,
that's the answering.
Speaker 1: All right, that'll do it for this episode.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the.
Speaker 1: 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 dpetecalnarshow dot com. Again, thank you so
much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.