Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon
to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you
want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,
my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,
go to vpekclendershow dot 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. I'm going to give you a quote here
from Walter Kern. He is the editor of County Highway
to Publication and the co host of America Week. His
co host, Walter Kern's co host is Matt Tayebi for
that podcast or YouTube show or whatever it is. Anyway,
Walter Kern quote, the anti prayer refrain is a talking point.
Clearly it is being recited verbatim all over the place.
In that sense, it is itself a sort of a prayer,
perhaps the worst one ever. It should be noted also
here that Jesus was praying as he was killed, and
he went on to have great influence. But I thought
this was very interesting in that it's a mantra that
the democrats and media. But I repeat myself, have been
using after school shootings. It's a slogan, but they say
it so many times that it is sort of a prayer.
Your thoughts and prayers don't mean anything. Thoughts and prayers
are not enough, And what that is meant to do
is to deflect the conversation and to accuse their political
enemies of not doing what they want done. And so
they have adopted this mantra, this prayer. As you hear
from Jen Pisaki, she of the Circling Back fame former
press secretary, she went on to the Twitter machine in
the wake of the school shooting up in Minneapolis and
she said, quote, prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does
not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel
safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring
these kids back enough with the thoughts and prayers. No, no,
I'm not going to listen to Jen Pisaki. I'm not
going to adhere to her demand that I stop thinking
about or praying for the families that were involved in
this horror. And by the way, not for nothing, the
families have asked for prayers and are grateful for those prayers.
Here a statement from Annunciation Catholic Schools Church in Minneapolis,
signed by the school principal, Matthew de Boor and the
church's pastor, Father Dennis Zerin. We are navigating an impossible
situation together at this time. No words can capture what
we have gone through, what we are going through, and
what we will go through in the coming days and weeks,
but we will navigate this together. Tragically, we lost two
of our beloved students before the scene was secured a
number of other children and parishioners were wounded, and they
are being treated at area hospitals. Some have been treated
and released. All staff are physically safe and accounted for.
Please lift up these families and these children in prayer
and surround them and each other with your love during
this cold time, in this time of darkness, let us
commit to being the light to our children, each other,
and our community. We will rebuild our future filled with
hope together. So they appreciate the prayers. They're asking for prayers.
This is what Christians do. They believe in prayer. Do
they believe prayer is going to stop the bullets like
Neo in the documentary The Matrix. No, they don't believe
that prayer is going to stop all of the bullets
from flying. Maybe it might work at some point, like
I can't believe I survived that, you know, it's a
miracle like that sort of thing. Maybe, But most Christians
don't say prayers for particularly other people after a tragedy
like this. They don't say prayers in order to like
go back in time change the terrible thing. It's a
prayer for comfort, it's a prayer for strength, for peace.
It's to show the other human being that you feel
for them and that you hope that they feel better soon,
not that they forget, not that the pain goes away,
but that you can go on living, that your life
doesn't end now as well. And honestly, how dare you
tell anybody that they can't say prayers, they can't think
about the victims' families. How dare you? Here's Guy Benson,
he was on Fox News last night. I believe he
had a great response to all of this.
Speaker 2: And in the face of senselessness and despair, prayer and
the presence of God can be a source of strength
and comfort when little else is available. And the thing is,
I understand that some people blow on the left think
that thoughts and prayers are not enough. But I don't
know anyone across the spectrum who's making that argument, right.
Who's saying thoughts prayers and that's it? Nobody, no one,
It's thoughts, prayers and action. The difference is we don't
necessarily agree on what the actions ought to be, what
would be constitutional, what would work. If we're talking about
gun control, for having uncomfortable conversations about the trans community,
whatever it might be, there will be divisiveness, there will
be disagreement. Politics will come in to play fine. I
understand that's part of what we do in a free society,
but the starting point could be should be prayers and
denigrating or demeaning that in any way I think is
just so counterproductive and deeply off putting to most Americans.
Speaker 1: Correct, absolutely correct. That's why I call it a deflection.
The Democrats are attempting in the media, butter it be myself.
They are attempting to deflect away from the underlying ideology
that was obvious and spelled out literally with all of
their leftist talking points on full display in the shooter's manifesto,
journals and videos that he posted was all laid bare,
and so there's this deflection, and so they are projecting
out this posture of do something, and you let this
happen because you won't do what I want done, And
so they are trying to use this emotional appeal at
an emotional time to advance an agenda. And it's grotesque
because Benson's exactly right the action part what you're demanding,
and you're saying, we need to skip over the thoughts
and prayers portion, but go right to the action. And
by the way, not have any debate on the action.
Just do what you want them to do. But we
don't agree on the actions because there was a whole
there's a whole bunch of stuff that could be done,
but you don't want to do what we want done,
and we don't want to do what you want done. See,
and so where do we go? What do we do?
Tulci Gabbard responded to Posaki. She said, those who criticized
like Pisaki and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Free or
Frey or Fry or whatever his name is, who criticized
prayers in the wake of the Minneapolis tragedy, are expressing
the same anti God sentiment that motivated the shooter. He
aimed his wrath at God by trying to stop people
with his bullets from praying to God. Now is the
time for us to come together and join hands in
prayer for the children who were killed, they're loved ones,
and those who survived this horrific shooting. There's a reason
people target children, right, They're innocent.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: It's the thing that hurts God the most, and that's
what they're trying to destroy. So, yes, evil exists, 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. The blind spot feature
shows you which stories get ignored by the less and
the right. See for yourself. 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. It is
that time of year again where we do the walk
to end Alzheimer's and we've got walks going on all
around the state of North Carolina. We got our first
walks coming up on September twenty seventh. That's a Saturday
Iredelle County and Lake Norman Walk. That's Saturday, September seventh.
It's going to be at Liberty Park in Mooresville. All right,
Liberty Park in Mooresville. If you want information, you want
to join the walk, you just want to make a donation,
you can go to alz dot org slash walk and
if you wouldn't mind, if you want to make a donation,
make a donation to my team, my walking team called
Pete's pac You do a just search on the alz
dot org website and it'll pop up Pete's pack. You
can make a donation. We're trying to get to our goal.
I meant to check on this. It's like five or
six thousand dollars, which we did last year. So I
think we hit five grand last year, and so I
think I upped it to six. I think I did that,
So please, please please make a donation to petspac at
alz dot org slash walk. And by the way, if
you want to join the team and be part of
the pack as all the cool people do, then you
can show up on October eighteenth and Charlotte and walk
with me and the rest of the pack. We'll all
walk together. So go to alz dot org slash walk.
Here's a message from Mammituded. I didn't make the name.
Very interested in what the parents had to do with
his mental health. Since the evident shows that a parent
aided in his underage name change. I hope that is explored,
but we probably won't hear much about that angle at all.
Didn't his mom work at the school she did? Was
it a cry for help towards her? Just speculating I
don't know she did. She did work at the school.
I think she was a secretary at the school that
the shooter attacked. He attended that school, graduating to K
through eight school. So he graduated from that school and
then went on to public high school. And she signed
off on the request with the state to legally change
his name as part of a transition, which he then
in his journals and his YouTube videos, he talks about
that he regretted that and he doesn't want to doesn't
want to be a girl, and he said he felt brainwashed.
The response from Democrats is expected, although they are almost
gleefully piggybacking onto the fact that the kids who were
murdered and attacked were praying in a church, and so
they're using this as some sort of a marketing hook
for their line of thoughts and prayers are not enough,
which they've been saying after school shootings and mass shootings.
They've been saying that for years, but with this case,
it's like, oh, get it, they were literally praying at
the time. Enough with your thoughts and prayers. I mean,
it's just it's antagonistic, it's unnecessarily antagonistic. They think this
is a they think it's a good hook. That's what's
really amazing about it. They think this is going to
work somehow. Let me get Liz on here. Hello, Liz,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Thank you. There's a lot going on in the media
and the perspective of this, And as I've been listening
to different reports across the last year and a half
about all kinds of topics, obviously, I think that what's
not happening in our culture is conversation. Right, Like, everybody's
got their opinion, and their opinion is what they're standing on,
and there's no conversation to evaluate the validity or the
practicality or even if it makes sense. And I think
if children, and I'm not necessarily children praying, but in
school had more diverse conversations about life and choices and
all that kind of thing, there being more permission to
be wrong and evaluate your perspective and maybe change your mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So well, yeah, I mean, and here's the thing.
You don't know your own position unless you know what
your opponent's position is. And as far as like a
debate or an argument, but to your point, you know,
a conversation is more than just throwing out your talking point.
I mean that's not a conversation, right, that's yes, that's pointless.
Speaker 4: Like the mayor in Chicago or wherever, that the one
guy and he's like, oh, I don't know if more cops,
you know, he's not going to even address whether or
not more police officers on their streets would be helpful.
That clips from CNN that Joe Fella. It's like, no, well,
you're not going to talk about it, so we're just
going to pretend like not talking about it is the answer, right,
And so that puts politicians in a like right now,
it seems to me like they all are in their
position and they can't move off their position to look
bad or be wrong, and so we've got the same
cycle just repeating.
Speaker 1: And well, yeah, so I think this is why I
am encouraged by the rise of the digital media content
because if you want to hear actual conversations with between
people that disagree on stuff, you know, you can go
to YouTube and see so you can find all sorts
of actual discussions and debates and conversations about important subjects
and controversial subjects. It's a good thing that's not happening
on your mainstream legacy media channels, Liz, I do appreciate
the call. Have a great weekend. Yeah, take care. No,
it's a great point. Well, I'll tell a story when
I come back. I'll tell a story about a conversation
I had that people didn't want me to have. Okay,
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 off, good for you, 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,
your 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. So think about it.
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 incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve even
better returns. Before the break, I mentioned a conversation that
people didn't want me to have. I will protect all
names and relationships to protect the innocent, but let's just
say there was a young person that is in college
now and is on the left, and her parents are
liberals as well, and any time any kind of political
topic would come up, there's the parents would always kind
of like, you know, shut it down. We're not talking politics, no, no, no, whatever.
So I can't ever have any conversation, and I don't
ever prompt the conversations. I'm not the kind of person
that when I'm out at an event or whatever. In
you know, real life, I'm moving through the world, and
I'm not the one that starts the conversations. But when
people find out what I do, they want to talk
with me about politics and philosophy, current events and stuff
like that. Like it's like if your family member was
a doctor, you know, like the doctor's not going to
start talking about their procedures that they're they were doing,
but you know, everybody else starts asking for diagnoses, you know,
so it's sort of like that. Well, recently I was
visiting and I had time with this with this young
college student and we engaged in like an hour long
conversation and there was some hovering from the parents to
make sure it all went okay whatever, But it was
just a conversation because she's not exposed to any alternative thoughts. Right,
the fish doesn't know it's wet, and so she has
the bumper sticker slogans committed to memory, right, that's been
drilled into her, and so she just wants to say
these things and she doesn't understand first of all, what
they mean in totality, but also more importantly, doesn't understand
what the counter argument is. And so I would just,
you know, not argue with her, but have a conversation
to the previous caller's point. And she's in college and
that's the first time that she was able to engage
in that kind of a conversation. She's surrounded by everybody
that's come through the same K twelve system, and they
are all agree. So I agree, I think there does
need to be more conversations like that message from Russ,
who says Sharon brought up an interview she saw with
a Columbine teacher about prayer. He was challenged about prayer
not saving lives that day, and he responded by saying
it absolutely worked. The shooter's plan was to set off
bombs and then pick off survivors as they came out
to kill every single person in the school. He believed
they failed because of prayer. Thoughts and prayers don't work
quote unquote is connected to the whole fish doesn't know
it's wet, as well as the unchallenged. Ideas are easy
to hold. When people say that they it shows that
they are in siloed circles amongst people who do not
have a serious faith. They think everybody has the same
skepticism or disdain for faith that they do, so they
think it's a winning slogan. I think you're exactly right.
So the Vice President JD. Vance says, it's shocking to me. Actually,
hang on, yeah, I got time. It's shocking to me
that left wing politicians attack the idea of prayer in
response to a tragedy. Literally, no one thinks prayer is
a substitute for action. We pray because our hearts are
broken and we believe God is listening. Right, So the
former Why House Press Secretary Jen Circle back Pisaki. She
was on MSNBC as she is now regularly with her show,
and she responds very emotionally here.
Speaker 3: And all they should be hoping to do is have
someone to sit with at lunch or someone to play
with on the playground, and they should be waiting to
hear an update when they get home. And that is
not what these parents of the school experience today. Sorry,
this is a tough one. Having her child killed while
they are sitting in a pube for a morning prayer
service is not what any parents should have to worry about.
And I have felt a mixture of anger and a
lot of anger and emotional exhaustion about this today is
I'm sure many of you have, because we have been
here so many times, so many times, and yet again,
like clockwork, half of the politicians in our country have
little more to offer than thoughts and prayers. That is
all they are offering us. All join all of us
in praying for the victims. Was Vice President Jannie Vance's
response today. That's what he said.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: Please join me in praying for everyone involved, Trump wrote,
we have seen this play out over and over again.
There is a shooting, then come the thoughts and prayers,
and then comes the attempt to shift the focus. This
is what always happens. You're going to start seeing narratives.
You're already seeing them. They're already out there about how
the shooter was trans. You're going to see narratives about
how the shooter appeared to be anti Trump and anti
Semitic and clearly was in the midst of a mental
health crisis, there's no question about that. But here's the thing.
There are trans people all over the world. They're anti
Semitic people, unfortunately, all over the world, and people filled
with plenty of political hate all over the world. And
mental health issues are not unique to the United States,
and yes, we should do more to address them, but
it's also an issue all over the world. But this
is the only country where shootings like this this would
happened this often. The United States not only has the
highest rate of gun violence of any country in the world,
it's become a leading cause of death for young people
and teen in this country. That should make everybody angry.
Weaponizing the shooter's identity is meant to distract from what matters.
That is what they are doing, trying to distract from
what matters. Here's what matters today' shooter bought the rifle, handgun,
and shotgun they used to do what they did today. Legally,
we live in a country with more guns than people,
where there are not universal background checks, they're not bands
on assault weapons, and it is far too easy to
buy a gun. It's the guns everyone, It's not really
a secret.
Speaker 1: Okay, So much wrong with her stayment. There so much
wrong this stat that the left has been using about
the leading cause of death among children. I've broken this
fake data down repeatedly since it came out. It has
to do with the way the CDC collects the information
and what they rule out, and what they rule in. Suicide,
for example, is included in that number. Also, eighteen year olds,
nineteen year olds are included in that number, and the
vast majority of it is gang violence. That's most of
it gang violence. But they use this kind of a shooting,
which is super rare, in order to advance what gun confiscation.
That's what they want. Which again, if this is what
you want, then you have to do two things. Number one,
you need to propose a constitutional amendment to repeal the
Second Amendment. That's first, because that's the law. So there
is a way to amend that, and you should go
ahead and start that process. Number one. Number two, you
need to tell me how you're going to get all
the guns, not most, not some, all of them. How
are you going to get them all? Are you going
to go kick indoors and take people's firearms? Because you
know what happens when you try to do that. Those
people that you're kicking the door in on they've got guns.
That's why you're there. They want their guns. They believe
it's their god given right to protect themselves from the
kinds of people that are kicking in their doors to
take their weapons. You're gonna have a whole lot more
gun deaths, a whole lot more, if not an outright
civil war. So i'd like to hear your plan. Two things.
Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to
a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina?
Just a quick drive up the mountain and cabins of
Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon.
Maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get
family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins
of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you
can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that
truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres
of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene
escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally
located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky
Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and
proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces,
air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi, grills, outdoor tables and
your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages,
two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms.
Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for
any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or
text eight two eight, three six seven seventy sixty eight
or check out all there is to offer at Cabins
of Aashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime.
Let me get to the text line here before I
play another SoundBite. Do do do you do?
Speaker 3: Do you? Uh?
Speaker 1: Wow? Okay, so I gotta scroll back up a little bit.
Speaker 3: Sorry.
Speaker 1: This is from ATO three, anonymous area code ATO three.
I don't like that we are retreating into our schools
with lock doors and cops. That's what the losing side
does in a battle or war. All of these shooters,
that's not necessarily true. All of these shooters are known
to have mental issues before they kill. Their parents should
be held responsible. This is from Tennessee in number The
answer is for people to get closer to God, to
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to be in the
Word and to pray, and to follow the Lord's command
to love each other in the same way that he
loves us. Steve from Charlotte, Evil is anything aside from
Christ's sacrifice, don says Pete. No one who believes in
God believe that thoughts and prayers are going to fix
the problem. I do propose, however, a different type of prayer,
and that's the prayer that the people that are mentally
ill are healed, and that would do more than any
other amount of gun control. That could exist. Perhaps that's
what the Democrats could be talking about, is praying for
those that have the hatred. Those mocking God's children are
hea then spawn in need of prayer, says Bob john
from Jersey says. The people who disdain prayer publicly are
just evangelical atheists who are every bit as tedious as
religious zelots. South Carolina Number says there is no gun crisis.
There is a crazy people walking around freely problem and
pet these these people who are mocking prayer and don't
believe in it or completely without hope in this world
or what comes next. Universal background checks is an insidious
buzz term aka backdoor registration. Nobody's a bigger fan of
gun confiscation than the cartels. If guns are banned, the
cartels will become the world's largest arms dealers. It will
more than replace the profits they lost when POTT was
legalized in half of America. All right, so let me
play for you. This is Caroline Levitt, the White House
Press secretary, responding to jen Psaki's comments.
Speaker 2: I have two questions for you.
Speaker 4: Are Democrats, including former White House presh Sary Jenzaki and
Minneapolis Jacob Ray attacked Prairie pushed to gun control in
the aftermath of yesterday's shooting. What's the White House's response
to their comments.
Speaker 5: Yes, I saw the comments of my predecessor, Miss Saki,
and frankly, I think they're incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to
the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this
country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe
that prayer works, and who believe that in a time
of morning like this, when beautiful young children were killed
while praying in a church, it's utterly disrespectful to deride
the power of prayer in this country, and it's disrespectful
to the millions of Americans of faith. And I would
encourage Miss Saki to pray for these families themselves, who
need it right now more than ever, and who.
Speaker 1: Have asked for them. They've asked for prayer. There is
a writer at Newsweek bought to ya Ungar Sargon, and
she was on Chris Cuomo's show. Yes, he has a
show on news Nation, and I thought she nails this perfectly.
Speaker 6: I think it's really important for people to understand why
people on the right got so upset by the Democrats response.
What happened was a person who seems to be a
trans person murdered praying Catholics, and the Democrat's response was
to rush to attack prayer and then defend the trans community.
So there was a reversal of the victim and the perpetrator, which,
by the way, was exactly what the shooter had written
on his guns. He wrote where is your God? And
that was what a lot of people on the right
heard when Democrat after Democrat after democrat came out and
said prayers are not enough. Those children were literally praying.
They associated the victims of this horrific act with their
political enemies and ran to the defense of who they
thought the killer was and the community they believed he
came from, so much so that they wouldn't even identify
him as trans because they didn't want to besmirch what
they view as a protected category. And this is unbelievably
hurtful and offensive and pathological Chris, especially in a moment
when a community is mourning.
Speaker 1: Bingo, she mentioned reverse victim and defender. That's the RVO
in the acronym darvo. You hear me talk about it often.
This is what narcissists use. Psychopaths sociopaths. They use this
as well as empathy. They use your empathy against you
to get what they want. They don't have empathy, they
cannot feel it. Use yours though, because that's what they do,
so darvo it's a manipulation tactic. It stands for deny attack,
reverse victim and offender. So when you are the perpetrator
of an abuse, sometimes institutions do this as well. You
use this pattern to shift blame, to avoid responsibility for
your own actions, and then to try to discredit the victim.
So the abuser first denies what they did, then they
will attack the person who is holding them accountable, and
then finally reverse the roles by portraying themselves as the
true victim and the original victim as the offender, reverse
victim and offender. Darvo I talked about this also with
the situation in Gaza. It's the same thing. This is
the same. Once you see this pattern, you can spot it,
immediately deny, attack, and then reverse victim and offender. Another
way to look at it is every accusation is a confession, right,
It's another way to look at it. When Jensaki is
up there saying that the Republicans half of the political
leadership that they're all trying to distract away from the
gun issue. Again. All Republicans are happy to have the
gun controlled debate. You know why because they are actually
skilled at that debate because they've been having it for
so long in trying to push back on all your
efforts to take the guns. They're happy to have the debate.
They just don't want to agree with your proposed solutions
because they disagree. All right, that'll do it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listening. I could not do
the show without your support and the support of the
businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like,
please support them too and tell them you heard it here.
You can also become a patron at my patreon on
page or go to thepetecalanarshow dot com. Again, thank you
so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.