Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast.
Speaker 2: 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 vpteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the
subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your
smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for
your support. It is Monday and two o'clock and that
means we usually talk to Ap Dylon. She is a
reporter at the North State Journal n sjonline dot com.
You can also read her substack called more to the story, Ap,
how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, Pete, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: I am doing okay. So you wrote about on your
substack under the headline a nation mourns and you wrote
America has changed, It cannot and will not be the same.
So how has it changed and why will it not
be the same?
Speaker 3: Well, this felt different. The assassination Charlie Kirk just felt
different from any other event that I had witnessed in
my lifetime. And it just there was like something shifted,
like a like the tectonic plates underneath the Earth's crust,
like something just moved, and not in a good way.
I'm hopefully, hopefully this is going to calm things down,
but it doesn't seem to be going in that route.
Considering that what we're seeing online with nasty messages being
posted about his death, I think that what the positive
side of this is and that things won't be the same,
is that there's been a little bit of an awakening
going on. Turning point. USA has reported that they've had
tens of thousands of chapter new chapter requests filed with
them today for Vice President Vance set in for Charlie
Kirk for his radio show today. I was watching part
of that earlier, so there's things going in both directions,
but there was a fundamental shift there. I mean, it
dropped a clear divide between those who would cheer a
murder and those who would pray over one right.
Speaker 2: And I saw a clip I'm trying to see if
I can pull it up here Steven Miller with the administration.
Speaker 1: He tells JD.
Speaker 2: Vance that they are going to be going after the organizations.
And in the first hour I talked a little bit
about some of the reporting and some of the stuff
coming out of the government, the federal government saying that
they are investigating people in the social media discord, group
chats and such that appeared to have knowledge some of
them may have had knowledge of the plot, and so
now they're going to start trying to investigate them. But
Miller also talked about going after the funding networks. Uh,
these n g os, these nonprofits that have been uh,
you know, fomenting this kind of discord and chaos and
now assassination.
Speaker 3: Well, I hope they're also going to look at some
of these violent extremist networks too, like seven sixty four Colm, Uh,
murder murder people dot com. It was another one.
Speaker 2: I think the wait, their name is murder people dot com.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, it's a website that I believe.
The Antidefamation League has written several things about these are
These are groups and organizations that literally radicalized children and
teenagers and young adults into doing violent things. They use sexting,
they use blackmail, they use all kinds of different angles,
and they get through these kids to online apps. There's
been some complaints in some lawsuits dealing with Robox with
predatory behavior and these kinds of groups finding their victims
on platforms like that. Also, you know some other games
out there that we're children frequent and you know, it's
it's just prime for the picking. And they find a
kid who's just lonely and on there all the time,
and they groom them. So I really hope that they're
going to be taking a look at some of those things.
I've written a few of those things on my sub
stack about these things are called NPEs. So if folks
want to go over and take a look at that,
I have some I have one post about the seven
sixty floor cult which resulted in the arrest right here
in Chapel Hill in North Carolina not so long ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we talked about it. I think
we did talk about that that that particular group I
had not heard of, the murder people folks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of given away the game. That's that's not.
Speaker 3: Very to the information. Yeah, that's fun reading. I'll tell
you what. It was highly depressing. Yeah, and it makes
you really want to just, you know, take a look
at your kids web browser history like every day.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and I do wonder if if we will
see some sorts of leasing of this kind of stuff
either by the platforms themselves. I don't know how you
would go about doing that. They speak in code, so
you know, they learned the words that are going to
get them in trouble, and they just won't use those words.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, they use words like cheese, pizza, and weird
things like that to talk about, you know, ordering up
a child.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so like here's what like one of the
one of the people in this in this discord group
apparently or on a TikTok account rather said because the
assassin's name was Tyler or is Tyler? And I said
saw Tyler June thirty. And then right after Kirk was murdered,
we bleeping did it?
Speaker 1: Is what they said. And so people are.
Speaker 2: Trying to decipher what does this Saw Tyler June thirty mean? Well,
the gun that they recovered was a Mauser thirty six
bolt action rifle June thirty thirty six, And so like
are they giving out these code words and stuff as like, oh,
we're all in on this, you know, this great victory
of ours, which like I don't I said this last
hour and I've said it before since the assassination, which
is that they've made him. They've made Charlie Kirk more
powerful in death than in life. And the amount of
people now that are going out and watching videos of
Charlie Kirk and realizing, Oh, this guy's not saying anything
that's hateful.
Speaker 1: He's not.
Speaker 2: He's not engaged in violence. His speech is not violence.
And that's you know, one of the predicates I think
that the left has used this equation of speech equalling
violence in order to then justify violence against speech.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean he challenged their narratives, right, challenged
their ideologies, He challenged their basic platforms, and he rarely
lost one of those debates. He rarely you know, came
away with you know, a draw or a tie or
that sort of thing. I mean, he made his arguments,
and I'll tell you, I would challenge anyone to go
and watch his videos. You're not going to find him cursing, slandering,
or abusing any of the people that come up there.
Speaker 1: No, he doesn't.
Speaker 3: Maybe a little bit funny and put in a little
bit of humor here and there, but he's not he's not. No.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And he would he would silence the crowd when
they would get rowdy towards a speaker that you disagreed,
you went to the front of the line, and so
he like he that's those are the debates he wanted
to have. And like I've said for years, unchallenged ideas
are easy to hold. And what he did was challenge
ideas and well and.
Speaker 3: He did it in a in a space that would
pull pull on against him, right.
Speaker 2: And those and the people that occupied those spaces. The
college kids were told by their teachers and professors and
administrators that this is a quote safe space, and that
any language or words that might challenge your thoughts and
opinions that these are you know, triggering events, and we
got to give you a warning. And oh my gosh,
I don't feel safe. I can't stand here and listen
to a difference of opinion. It's like that's precisely what
you're supposed to do in college. Though that's why he
went there, so maybe we should.
Speaker 3: I found that website. It's the actual website is called
watch People Die.
Speaker 1: Oh that's how that's even better.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so sorry about that. I just pulled it
up while we were talking.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah again, Like I'm not I'm not sure you're going
to be able to to convince law enforcement or a
jury that you didn't like you didn't have some sort
of animus and an inspiration to violence with a name
like that, if they if they do track them down, yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, if they have if he's got ties to
certain certain discords, which apparently he did and made certain
comments within there, and other other individuals have been screenshots
of that. They've been posted it on x and places
of screenshots of this one particular discord forum with people
agreeing or seeming to have knowledge that this is going
to happen, you know, like watch out on September tenth, right,
you know something's going to happen, Like this wasn't his account,
This was other accounts, right.
Speaker 2: Other accounts that were following his transgender boyfriend. That, Yeah,
they were followers of the other one twig.
Speaker 3: Twigs or whatever. Yeah, it's a strange situation all the
way around. But I mean there's there's a common component
between all the tragedies that we've seen with the recent
shootings of the Catholic school recently. You know, there was
one the same day in Colorado, and all these are
you know, in somewhere the articles and somewhere in the
reporting it will say that these kids are radicalized online.
Speaker 2: Right, so yeah, left wing radicalization. Which I noticed that
there are a lot of people over the last few
days that have been trying their hard artists to lie
about the obvious motive involved here that like I saw
people trying to argue, like mainstream legacy media outlet people
trying to argue that like, we don't know what the
motive is. It appears it appears he came from a
Republican family, he was a he was a right winger,
and all of this, like and none of that is true.
And it almost makes me wonder, like, are you just
trying to pollute the environment? So nobody knows what the
truth actually is, right, because I think that, you.
Speaker 3: Know, it's the old adage. You know, a lie gets
us all the way around the world before the truth
gets its panton. Yeah, you know, he gets you know,
a million views that's completely inaccurate, and then you know,
the correction comes up and it gets like five views, yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, or yeah, or they put it up on there.
What's the couple of the outlets have done this where
they they promote the lie in the story on their
main account on Twitter, reaching millions of people, and then
their correction comes in the form of the pr account
for the news operation, and they've got like, you know,
ten thousand followers, so nobody sees the correction.
Speaker 1: It's just yeah, yeah, it's despicable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's you know why people should just, you know,
when all this information is coming out, take it with
a giant shaker of salt. Yeah, and you know, wait
for everything to drop, because you know, the assumptions the
news media is you know, zero for a million when
it gets you know, when things like this happen. Well,
and I yeah, first reporting.
Speaker 2: Right, and I always say that too, Like the initial
reports are always going to contain false information, right. People
are racing to report what they know and find out
stuff and they get duped or they promote lies and
they get bad reports. And so like the information in
the initial hours after our tragedy, you should never you
should never believe them until you get verification. And usually
that takes a couple of days. And that's part of
what journalism is. And so we should give we should
have patients as they you know, as investigators, investigated, reporters report.
We should give them the time and space to do that.
And now we have a clearer, fuller picture. And I
think we're going to get even a clearer picture what
after tomorrow when this guy makes his first appearance in court. Yeah,
and we're going to get some evidence presented by the prosecution,
I expect.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I have a feeling it's going to be
very watched. Yeah, we'll see what happens. There is a
there's a vigil here tonight in Raleigh for Charlie Kirk,
which I'll be covering for a North State journal. And
from what I understand, there's going to be one in
Charlotte on Wednesday, So that's in your stomping grounds.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: There's one in Monroe downtown Monroe. I've been told at
seven tonight as well.
Speaker 3: Yep. So we'll see. We'll see what said and who
turns out.
Speaker 2: Well, he may be interested to know this Argerie Keel
High School is doing an investigation to find out who
painted on the high school rock live like Kirk.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, I saw that. I actually responded to a
story that was posted about that, and I asked, you know,
so it's a unauthorized and I said, so was the
Black Lives Matter stuff in twenty twenty authorized?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Is every birthday message authorized, Like.
Speaker 3: I thought, just the most ridiculous thing I'd ever I
had seen. Yeah, so far, I mean talked about splitting hairs, right.
Speaker 2: I thought the whole point was to paint that rock,
so you don't paint other you know, property at the
school anyway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a freedom of expression rock. And you know
clearly there are students who felt strongly about it and
they went and did it. I mean, if this is
their way of reaving morning or give you a tribute,
then you know, let them get it out. You know,
you shouldn't call it unauthorized. What kind of adult does
that to children? I don't understand.
Speaker 1: We got to leave it there, Ap Dylan.
Speaker 2: You can read her work at North State Journal NSJ online,
and you can also subscribe to her sub stack. It
is called More to the Story, AP, Thanks so much
for your time. So when I was a kid, my
grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom
and my dad took care of him as he got worse.
Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much
support for caregivers and family. Things are different today because
of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's
Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome
people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty
five years. This cause means a lot to me. I
participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's and I'm
leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called
once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you
can join the team and walk with us. It's on
October eighteenth, that truest field. Sign up at alz dot
org slash Walk and then you can search for my
team name Pete's Pack. There's also a link at thepetepod
dot com. There's also a link in the description of
this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk
on October eleventh, and so you can make a team
and join that one too, or make a donation and
help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If
you do, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: There are a.
Speaker 2: Bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas. You can
go to alz dot org slash walk for all the
dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's.
Can you help us get there. Will you walk with
me for a different future, for families, for more time
for treatments. This is why we walk. I like what
Jeff has opted to do. Jeff is claiming on Twitter
that he painted the rjorie Kel rock. Jeff from South
Carolina says there's no need to investigate. It was him
and my response, I painted the rock, oh captain, my captain,
I painted the rock. So if rdrie Kel's principal wants
to investigate, investigation over, I painted the rock, you can
pint it on me.
Speaker 1: I did it. Jill's here says on Twitter. It's a
pete tweet.
Speaker 2: She says, based on the nonsense that's been going on
at rjorie Kel since it opened its doors, you would
think the principle would welcome an uplifting message on the rock.
The rock is in much of the administrators and educators
in our schools. All right, you hear me talk a
lot about incentives, right, Well, let's talk about incentive trips,
the kind that companies offer employees to fire them up
and reward their teams. If you own a business or
you work somewhere that offers these incentive trips, first.
Speaker 1: Off, good for you.
Speaker 2: But also there is a custom app that's a game
changer for these trips. It's called Incentive Tripkit. Private group messaging,
shared photos, you'r itinerary, travel details, all built into a single,
easy to use app. There's even a traveler locator, so
Carl from Accounting doesn't get left behind. The best part
about Incentive trip Kit it's totally private. No email captures,
no sign ups, no cringe ads. It's simple, clean and secure.
And when the trip is over, Incentive trip Kit turns
those highlights into a professional storytelling video.
Speaker 1: So think about it.
Speaker 2: When you launch next year's incentive trip campaign, that video
becomes your greatest motivator. Talk about a return on investment, right,
you got to check out Incentive trip Kit for your business.
Visit in incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve
even better returns ron in Rockhill he claims he painted
the rock at Audrie Kill High School. William He too
claims to have painted the rock. Well, maybe not painted it,
he says, but I provided the red, white blue paint.
Speaker 1: That was used.
Speaker 2: So put me on the investigation list as one involved.
If everybody claims to be the painter of the rock,
then I don't know who they can painted on, you know.
Speaker 1: Hmmmm.
Speaker 2: Jeff is lying he did not paint the rock.
Speaker 1: It was me.
Speaker 2: Corey from Matthews Chris says no, it was me. I
painted the rock, and he says, stop this nonsense. I
painted that rock, and then he adds and I won't
stop until every high school in Charlotte has long lived
Kirk on their rocks. Another Jeff, now claiming he did it.
Anonymous says I helped to paint the rock. At Ardrikel
Rodney claims no it was him. Kenny from Bessemer City
says no it was him, and Bob claims it was
actually Bigfoot that painted the rock. Maybe it's Corey Booker,
he of the Spartacus moment right to be the case
ap Dillon also wrote at her substack about the murder
of Irina Zarutzka, and she says the focus quickly became
Democrats soft on crime policies that allowed her assailant to
Carlos Brown, a man with a long criminal history and
clear mental health issues, to be allowed to roam the streets.
Former Governor Roy Cooper's Racial Justice Task Force, which he
set up following the George Floyd riots. The summer of
fiery but mostly peaceful riots was highlighted as a prime
example of Democrats soft on policies and contributed to Brown
being free. The General Assembly is now looking to introduce
a package of reforms aimed at making sure that what
happened to Zarutzka is not repeated. The key areas the
lawmakers say they want to handle when they come back
into session in a I think a week. They want
to end cashless bail, they want better vetting and training
of magistrates. They're going to look to reinstate the death penalty.
They're going to also look at laws on involuntary commitment,
and they want to look at the grants that have
been handed out to cash list bail activist groups in
the Charlotte area. Then there was this exchange that occurred
on real time with Bill Maher over the weekend. He
has on the program Tim Alberta from the Atlantic, and
he has Ben Shapiro and they talk about out the
light rail murder out of Charlotte and listen to.
Speaker 4: The wet the other horrible violence we saw this week.
And of course this is the kind of violence that
happens every day. Two lots of people of all racism
and so forth. This happens to be a white girl
on a train who was killed by a black man.
So people are making a lot out of that. But
this happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, to me is tailor
made for Republican victory because the mayor there in Charlotte.
Of course, she said prayers and thoughts go out to
the victim, and then she's not villainizing. Those who struggle
with their mental health are those who are unhoused. She
couldn't give, she couldn't resist giving a shout out to
the mentally deranged, homeless demographic. I'm just going to say,
the Democrats are going to lose another election if they
don't get it. You can say homeless and crazy. We
could say those words, and you can come out against
this fully. You know, why don't just do a land
acknowledgment before you say that. Sake? And this guy was
the guy whodit it had been arrested fourteen times. I mean,
this recidivism, this is Trump's next low lying fruit. I'm
sure because when you look at some of the stats
of people like in Washington, d C. They say five
hundred people are responsible for seventy percent of the gun violence.
What is the point of arresting people if they go
right back on the street. What is the point of
mass transit?
Speaker 1: Listen to the crowd safe on it right?
Speaker 5: You know, Traditionally, built democrats representing urban areas had taken
these sort of soft on crime policies in part because
they were afraid of alienating a core constituency, black voters.
What's interesting is that even as polling has shown clearly
that more and more black voters have advocated for tougher
policing policies, many of these Democratic politicians have remained very
reluctant to get tougher on crime. Why because they're afraid
of alienating a different demographic.
Speaker 1: It's so liberals in the subject, right, that's Tim Alberta,
and he's exactly right.
Speaker 2: They don't want to alienate the other core constituency, which
is the awfuls affluent white female liberals. And so you've
got the people who are actually suffering under the defund
the police movement, the soft on crime approach. The people
who are suffering under this are saying, we want more cops,
we want more policing, we want justice. And you've got
this other Darren Well. I will make reference to the
quote luxury beliefs of these liberal white women in the
suburbs that are like, no, we can't do that, that's
mean systemic racism. Are these are lefties and they're not
advocating for a core part of the Democrat constituency. They're
making their lives more difficult, more dangerous. And then Bill
Maher goes on, and then now you're going to hear
Ben Shapiro Chriman.
Speaker 4: It's so racist. It's kind of saying we think the
black people are the criminals.
Speaker 6: Some are not, most not most implicitly the argument that
we happen is soft on crime to how in order
so they get black votes like black people want crime.
It's racist, of course it is. Of course it's racist.
And the idea that you're going to leave people on
the street because they are crazy is so benighted. Honestly,
it's cruel to people who are severely mentally ill, truly,
like leaving a bunch of people a horse schizophrenic, homeless
schizophrenics on the street not taking their drugs is not
good for them, it's not good for society. And releasing
people back onto the streets after fourteen arrests, and then
you know what the mayor said, She said, you know,
we can't incarcerate our way out of this problem.
Speaker 7: Well, actually, actually you can't. It turns out that you
can certain part.
Speaker 3: Of this solution.
Speaker 2: The crowd reaction tells you everything you need to know
about the preference cascade. There has been a vibe shift,
not like Kamala Harris said, this is an actual one
the normies. The last week has been really clarifying. People
realize they're not alone in these opinions, and they have
become dare I say woke. They have awakened to the
people around them that have these radical beliefs and what
they will accept and justify and rationalize. And people are horrified.
Game on Week one starts now, and every touchdown brings
you closer to a payout. With Draft King Sports Book
and official sports betting partner of the NFL, this isn't
just football, it's first touchdown fireworks anytime, TD rushes live
bets that ride every momentum shift kings, every play is
your next shot to win. Will the Panthers win? Will
we even get a touchdown? New customers bet just five
dollars and get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly,
plus get over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket
from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your season starts now.
Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code pete
to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when
you place your first bet of five dollars or more,
plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from
YouTube and YouTube TV. But you got to use promo
code pete. In partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours.
Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler In New York
call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text
hope and why four six seven, three six nine. In Connecticut,
help is available for a problem gambling call eight eight
eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
CCPG dot org. Play responsibly on behalf of boothill, casino
and resort Kansas. Fees may apply in Illinois twenty one plus.
Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus
bets expire seven days after issue. Wins se Sportsbook dot
DraftKings dot com Slash promos NFL Sunday Ticket offer for
new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games
and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket
terms or at YouTube dot com slash Go Slash NFL
Sunday Tickets Slash terms Limited time offer. Let me jump
over and get Jim on the program.
Speaker 7: Hello Jim, Hey, Pete, how you doing today?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 7: Hey, just real quick, I'm enjoying listen to you during
my walk today, So thank you very much, certainly. And
I did not paint the rocks. Ah, got that out
of the way, all right, Pete, I wanted to talk
to you a little bit about the light rail. Try
to make it real quick here. My wife and I
period we're not regular periodically. Let's ride the light rail
and every time we're on there, we're look up and
now on the car we ask ourselves, you know, how
many of those people paid for their fare like we did,
and how many did And so we were in Vancouver
a couple of weeks ago and we decided to ride
their rail system from the airport to downtown and it
was amazing. So when you ride the rail system Vancouver,
you can't even get really, you walk up to the station,
but you can't get until you buy your ticket. And
then once you buy your ticket, you go up to
the barrier, you put your ticket on a pad there,
the gate swings open, you go through, and then it
swiftly and firmly closes behind you. Then my wife comes through,
and so then we ride the train uptown and when
we get off in downtown Vancouver. This is what really
shed the light for me, is when you're leaving the station,
you have to use your ticket again to open the
barrier to get out of the station. So what great
data is that for planning and scheduling. They know where
I bought my ticket, they know where I got on
the train, they know where I got off the train.
I mean, it's so good. And whose idea was it
ever to make our system an honor system. It's just crazy.
Speaker 2: Well, the original architects of the system, the Charlotte City leaders,
Metropolitan Transit Commission, and the original head of CATS Ron
tober Right, they they were the ones that built the
system the way it is, this open honor system.
Speaker 7: And I've never liked it. I've never felt good about it,
but going to Vancouver just really opened my eyes. So yeah,
that's what I wanted to say. And the second thing
is is they want more money to build a new line. Hey,
let's install some instill some integrity in our current line
or our current system before we go build a new
line somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a fair point, Jim. Yeah, I appreciate the call, buddy.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Good to hear from you. Enjoy the rest of your
walk too. Now, this is a it's a major problem,
and not only from the safety perspective, but also from
the revenue site. You're asking us to approve an increase
in our sales tax to fund an expansion of a
system that isn't collecting the full amount of money that
it should be collecting. That should offset some of the
need for us to pay for the sales tax, right,
and it just seems obvious to me. All Right, that'll
do it for this episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again,
thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.