Seasonal Spotlight Update And More On The Brett Winterble Show

Tune in here to this Friday's edition of the Brett Winterble Show! 

Brett kicks off the program with The Hangover with Pete Kaliner talking about holiday chaos and the annual “Whamageddon” challenge, sparking a lively and hilarious debate over who holds the real power to avoid the infamous Wham! Christmas song. The two trade friendly jabs about trust, sabotage, and the trauma of being knocked out of the game on-air, all while urging listeners to stay vigilant and call the station if they fear Pete might “take them out.”

Their banter shifts into a sharp, comedic critique of cable news rebrands—especially the newly renamed “MS Now”—mocking the irony of changing a network’s name without changing any of its content. The conversation wraps with lighter fare, including Thanksgiving drama, fat cats, and new feline weight-loss implants, before Brett highlights the evening’s “Hancock’s Bikes for Kids” event, celebrating the station’s effort to brighten children’s lives with their very first bicycles.

We’re joined by Dan Rakowski from the Charlotte Knights to talk about the annual Hancock’s Bikes for Kids initiative and the team’s ongoing commitment to the Charlotte community. For more than a decade, the Knights have partnered in this holiday effort, delivering 31 brand-new bikes—one for each major league team plus the Knights—to children who will wake up on Christmas morning to an unforgettable surprise. Dan reflected on the joy a first bike brings, symbolizing freedom, adventure, and timeless childhood memories.

He also highlighted the Knights’ broader charitable work, including their 12 Days of Giving program and the popular Light the Knights Christmas and Holiday Festival, which transforms the ballpark into a festive winter experience complete with skating, tubing, music, and Santa. From supporting local hospitals and food pantries to creating family-friendly holiday traditions, the Knights continue to make a meaningful impact across the Charlotte region each year.

Listen here for all of this and more on The Brett Winterble Show!

For more from Brett Winterble check out his YouTube channel.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
There's talk eleven ten O nine to three WBT. This
is the hangover program for the duration of this segment
with me and Pete Cawander. Hello, Pete, it's good to do.
I feel like we we haven't seen him enough of
each other a little bit. It's just it's been a while.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
That's right, because it's been a couple of weeks because
you were on site at something and then yeah, skimming.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
And yeah, the whole, the whole, the whole shooting match.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
By the way, do you realize I understand you do
something with the Wayam song?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
No, No, I'm not. This isn't a.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Setupmagedon right, Okay, that was it again? Aged And so
you're the key here is that you're not supposed to
hear the.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Song if you try to avoid it as long as
you can. There there is no kind of like of
a prize or anything like that. There is, there's nothing
like that. But people have to self okay, administer and
you know, figure self report, self report, right.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
So the idea is that you try to get through
the whole Christmas season without hearing a song by Waam.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Correct, Well, just that one.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
So yes, So, because Brett joins my show, for the
final segment I do, and we call it pregaming.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
You realize you've entrusted me, yes, because.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Oh, you don't want to go down that road.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
What happened?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
What were What would happen if I were to have
played that song as a bump tune while you were
getting ready to come on, you.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Would have to be anchoring for the entire night. Because
everybody who's in the game with us, they did it
to us last week. Last year, we were massacred.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Steve, Sir Steven of Anthony, I call him super Steve,
super Steve, but Steve.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
One of the producers on the Marne and it wasn't
his It wasn't his.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Far I'm assuming it was not purposeful, okay, but they
came in with a bump. I'm driving down the road
in my car and the song is played as I'm
getting ready to talk to Bowen Beth. Oh, let me
tell you what kind of conversation.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
That was a little chippy.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
It wasn't chippy, it was it was it wasn't you
know what. They could take me out. They took me out.
They also took out about fifty five hundred other people. Yeah,
and they called and said you massacred fifty five hundred
people in the in the in the area.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
All right, let's I just wanted to know what the Hey,
you can play it.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
No, I'm not going to. I was just curious because
I had the idea to play it. Well, you know me,
I'm a I'm a contrarian.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Okay, time out.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm not going to do that to you. You know,
you know. I'm just pointing out. You have placed a
lot of trust in me, did you ever? I will
not abuse that trust.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Did you ever see the movie War Games? Yeah, where
they have the two keys and you have to turn
at the same time to fire the codes, fire fires
the missile. Big Nick, Big Nick is the other is
the other key holder.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
But he's my producer too.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Are you what we could do a bidding war? No,
I'm not looking.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
I'm not. He's not getting look at.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
He doesn't want to be part of this, doesn't want to.
I was just he is, he's part of the game.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
I was just I was just curious what would happen. Okay,
So here, that's it. That's all I wanted to know.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
But here, here, here's the thing. Seven oh four five
seven zero eleven, ten if you are the.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Text line driven by liberty viewing g GMC.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
And so here's the thing. If you are worried that
Pete is going to take you out, this is the
number to call seven O four five, seven zero eleven
ten between three and six, between three and six, not
between three and six, between twelve, twelve and six. Okay,
if you are worried that Pete is going to massacre you,

(04:04):
over wherem again seven oh four five seven eleven ten,
And what's that text line driven by liberty buck GMC.
It just sounds more powerful. It does sound really powerful.
So I don't have the pipes, ladies and gentlemen. Bret
Winterble has no power in this scenario.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
He is at my mercy. But I said, I'm not
going to do it. I was just curious what would happen.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
I will tell you what will happen.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
I will I will anger thousands of people.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Did you see how mad MSNBC is, ms is now
is now? Did you see how angry the people on
miss now are because of the what went on with
the with the boats and they couldn't really just get
on to that thing, and now they look really bad.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah, but they're angry all the time exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
That's the point. That's the just.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Always perpetually angry, and the boats is just the latest.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's just the latest. Have you seen there?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's oh gosh, yes, it's so ridiculous, the ads for
the boat for miss now, oh the mis now, isn't
it's it's impossible to watch Home of.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
The Free and Home of the Brave and Home of
the People or something.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
And no ratings.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's and I watch it.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
I watch it like in small increment.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeh, yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I want to know. I mean, what are you guys
talking about whatever? And it's it's just it's it's it's terrible.
It's yeah, it's terrible, terrible, to quote Charles Barkley exactly.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
I yeah, I don't. I don't know who they're trying
to fool with the rebrand.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, I know why they had to ditch the NBC
out of the name, so they have to rebrand. But
I don't understand who they're trying to fool that they're
now because they're showing me images of all the same people. Right,
there's no lineup changes correct, there's no course correction in philosophy,
so it's just we have a different name.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Well, good for you.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
They always rebrand it with like a new name. It's like,
you know, was this now this with all the same people?

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Are they owned by Microsoft?

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Still?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Why keep ms? It's remember they changed yet?

Speaker 1 (06:08):
No, there's a there's a there's a reason they haven't.
It's it's supposed to mean something.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Right, It's like my.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Something whatever news, which is so bulky like that is,
But why not just change the whole thing and just
make it not an acronym that's stupid and make it
something else, like, I.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Don't know, there's a lot of stuff you could You
could actually do it.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Plug that baby into AI and come up, yeah, like
what is a good name for a left wing non
watched cable channel and a I would spit something out.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
At you like losers desperation.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, you know, you would have desperation News.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
That would that's actually kind of an enticing thing to
look at, maybe like desperation News.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
And then when you tune in and you see Rachel
Mattout and and uh, what's his name, Laurence Lawrence, Donald Lawrence,
and you're like, oh my gosh, this is accurate branding.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
They are desperate.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
It's it really is. It is amazing to me that
they they don't want debate or discussion. They just they
sit around a table and they just they covet Yeah,
and and it's I mean that's.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
It's the view. Yes, it's the view.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
But with dudes and girls, no, there are Yeah, but
the view doesn't Yeah, the view they generally don't have.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Dudes they typically have.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Notice, it's called the view, not the views. Why is
it the Why is that because it's only one view?
That's that heads why they call it it's only one view?

Speaker 1 (07:35):
They don't they never change it up or anything. I
saw Stephen A Smith on there the other day and
he was yelling at Sunny Austin, good for him, and
then she yelled back at him, and then I I
I just couldn't watch anymore. Yeah, it's like an it's
like a terrible Thanksgiving argument at the table, and you're

(07:56):
just like, why aren't we trying to have turkey?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Did you have any arguments at your Thanksgiving?

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Absolutely not, we were we were of united mind. See.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
I was at a table, very large table, a lot
of people, a lot of different opinions, but like nobody
even talked about anything like that.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
We had we had a no politics, we had it. Yeah,
we had a a very small group of people. So
it was so there's there. There wasn't gonna be any
kind of drama, right and if there was, I was
going to throw a cat at him. No, that's I
have I have cats.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
I have a cat. Did you hear about the obesity.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Dru's with the obesity drug for the cat?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
The fat cat drug?

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Are they Is that for rich people only? No?

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Well, yeah, kind of, because it's like it's they say
it's going to be one hundred dollars a month, but
it's an implant.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
And it's you're putting an implant in your cat.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yes, And it releases the don't don't do this now,
don't don't do this now with the it releases a
drug into the cat, the GLP stuff, the GOVI, the
Miao jarro whatever, and it releases it into them. Because
you can't give a cat a shot every day. Okay, right,
I'm okay with that. You do the implant and to
release it's a six month release period. They're doing the

(09:03):
trials on like fifty fat cats and then they're gonna
they're hoping to go for FDA approval in twenty six
or twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
That's okay that you want to see your cats be healthy,
no doubt about it. I'm happy about what you just
told me because I thought for a minute there was gonna.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Be you know, daily shots, no stomach.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
I was thinking we were talking about the Brits again.
Oh no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
But breathing, Yeah, no, no, no of that, No no, no,
it's an implant.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
A cat butt breathing. I can't even imagine trying to.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
But I would imagine they'd put it under the scruff
of the neck, you know, where they have like less
nerves and stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
It's a good point.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, they probably implanted there and it supposedly it just
you know, releases this drug and then it cuts down
on their uh there because like my cat is very
food motivated, Like it's just nuts, a lot of mine.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
He wants to eat all the time.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well that yeah, that's a cat though.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
It is a cat thing.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
But this guy is like every everything you do to
him is a signal that you're getting ready to feed him.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
My cats are felt, Yeah, he's there. Felt.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Mine's like he's now pushing fifteen pounds.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well you got to you gotta do something all.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
Right, he might.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
He might. I might have to put him on the Mio.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
GOVI so very good. So everybody come out here tonight
five o'clock. We're starting. Uh it is Hancock's Bikes for Kids.
We've had such great response and we want to see you.
Pete's going to be here, all the all of the
all of the folks at the station are going to
be here, and you're going to change a life for
a kid, their first bike. They're they're they're going to

(10:33):
be so happy to see it. And it's just such
a special, meaningful thing. And I cannot, I cannot tell
Pete enough how much I admire the job he has
done so far in selling it.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Hey can it's true? You can? Yeah, you can tell me.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
I just did.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Okay, No, you can. You can't tell me enough.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
Okay, that's true.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
News Talk eleven ten nine three WBT. It's the Brett
Winer Bull Show. Thanks so much to Pete Gallaner for
making him spend time with me and having a good
conversation about all the stuff that's happening. I am I
am so dismayed at this whole pipe bomb thing. And

(11:30):
the reason why I'm dismayed by this pipe bomb thing.
I would have thought that this would be a much
bigger deal. Like it feels to me like it's just
fallen off. It's not the thing that you would expect
it to be. And I'm wondering when you think about
these sorts of things, right, like the idea of the
pipe bomber, pipe bomber, Brian Cole making stunning pro Trump

(11:57):
confessions to the Feds or whatever this is, you would
think that this would be a really big deal. But
then at the same time, here's what's so crazy. The
Venezuelan boats. They were sort of a big deal, but
not really a big deal except for the fact that
they wanted to impeach Donald Trump and arrest Pete Heckseeth.

(12:22):
But then we go back and we have to think
what happened going into Thanksgiving and the way that Elise
Slotkin and the ringleader of the folks in Mark Kelly,
telling people that they needed to make sure the media,

(12:45):
the media is the most important thing, not the service
to the country. This to me is very strange. It
feels like everything that they're throwing up is a piece
of cotton candy and it's raining, and it just dissolves
and at this stage of the game, maybe you have
a feeling about this seven h four or five, seven

(13:05):
h eleven ten. It feels to me like these people
are just playing a game that it's like a LARPing game.
It's like something where you pretend that you're really mad,
but you're really not mad, and we're just gonna just
throw more stuff up against the wall. And at the
same time they're trying to run the line on affordability.

(13:29):
They're trying to run the line on how are we
going to fix the insurance stuff so people can get
insured and can get protected and can get healthcare and
all that sort of stuff. But that doesn't seem to
have any kind of an imperative. There is no imperative
of that, other than when they do a news stand
up and they say, affordability is the name of the game,
and you know, that's why we have to do this policy,

(13:52):
that policy or the other policy. I am positively, positively
confused by what these people are doing. It doesn't it
doesn't make any sense to me, except for the fact
that they feel like they just have to sit back
and wait for something terrible to come. I mean, when

(14:15):
you when you look at this, when you kind of
put it all together. I don't think any of this
stuff is real. And you know what the tell was
gonna be. The tell of this was how people gravitated
to Luigi. Luigi is this sexy guy with big eyebrows

(14:41):
and and everybody is about him and all that sort
of stuff. That to me is so strange and is
so weird. Where we actually have the left, not even
the left, it's it's it's it's like the left and
the leaners. So you have the left and then you
have the leaners and the left being involved by saying, well,
we have to start killing people who are administering healthcare plans.

(15:05):
We have to go and do that. That should be
a shocking reletization here. That's what that should be. People
should be like, what the heck are you doing? You're
doing what you're supporting people killing people on the streets
of New York. What the pipe bump suspect? As you
heard from from Jake Tapper, the suspect was white, but

(15:29):
he's not white. It's and it's not about the race
of the of the person. But what it's about is
the truth. People do not want to speak the truth
on the left. It's an impossibility. I'm not trying to like,
you know, line them up or or or or make them,
uh you know, not not participate in the in the

(15:51):
systems and things like that. No, that's what they would
do to Republicans. But this is just bonkers. We have
this bonker's situation, CUA, and you sit there and you
get told time and time again that you're crazy, you're
an extremist, you're the wrong person, you're all that sort

(16:12):
of stuff right there. That is not that is not
the reality of what we're living in right now. To me,
it's crazy. Here, give me cut thirty six. Can I
have cut thirty six. I want to play this for
you because this is an important clip and you would
think this would be like a big story that people

(16:32):
would be talking about. This is cut number thirty six.
John Solomon on cleaning up the voter rolls Go.

Speaker 7 (16:40):
Twenty six states are about to be forced to clean
up their voter rolls and take off the non citizens
of the dead people the triple registrars. The twenty sixth
election could be fundamentally different for the Democrats because they
won't have dirty voter rolls.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
That is a hard meat.

Speaker 7 (16:55):
Dylan success story.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
That should be a big headline story. I think I
think that should be a big headline story. I don't know,
maybe maybe I'm maybe I'm wrong. Dan Rakowski is going
to be joining us here coming up very soon. Let
me grab this call from Bob. Bob, welcome to the program.

Speaker 5 (17:13):
Hey Brett Uh.

Speaker 8 (17:14):
First of all, Merry.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Christmas, Merry Christmas to you.

Speaker 8 (17:17):
Just want to make a quick comment. It's it's the
old lion deny thing and the way the media twists everything,
what to me, to me, the and you and I
had this conversation years ago. I think the scariest threat
to America is ignorance. It's it's sure people don't do
their homework, they don't realize what's going on, they don't

(17:38):
look behind the curtain.

Speaker 9 (17:39):
And and and it's it's.

Speaker 8 (17:40):
Nothing but a sleight of hand.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
You know.

Speaker 9 (17:42):
It's like the politicians basically are like, oh, look nothing
about my sleeve, right, you know, hey, look over here,
look over here.

Speaker 8 (17:49):
Don't don't pay attention to.

Speaker 9 (17:50):
What's really happening.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
Right.

Speaker 9 (17:51):
But it's kind of frightening, you know it is you
just want people to be to educate themselves a little more.
And and by the way, I'm a concern, but I'll
respect your opinion, but I want you to do your
homework at least know what you're talking about, which is
so hard these days because the media is you know,

(18:12):
it's not news anymore, it's our views.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
A lot that there's a lot of truth in that, Bob,
and I appreciate you calling. Thank you very much and
having Merry Christmas. News Talk eleven, ten ninety nine three WBT.
It is great to be with you here today as

(18:37):
we are getting ready for Hancock Spikes for Kids. And
I got to tell you I was listening earlier in
the morning, and I'm excited to have him on the program.
I'm always excited on the program when I get a
chance to talk to one of my favorite people here
in Dan Rakowski, and you know him from the Charlotte Knights.
It's good to be with you, Dan. How are you.

Speaker 5 (18:58):
I'm doing great for Friday, Bratt, I hope you.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Oh I am as well. Absolutely. Look, this is one
of my favorite days of the year when we get
to get together and do so much good for folks,
especially for these kids that are gonna wake up and
they're gonna see on Christmas morning.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
There's a bike, your thoughts about this and you're working
with this and and all that. Can you can you
lay it out for the audience?

Speaker 5 (19:26):
Sure? Well, you know it started really twelve years ago
when we opened the ballparking uptown Charlotte and I established
Charlotte Knice's Charities and just happened to be here the
promo about uh Haycock's bike for kids and got interested
in it, pick up the phone and made a couple
of calls and next thing I knew, this day or

(19:47):
whatever it is the first week in December wherever, they're
delivering thirty one bikes from Charlotte Knight's Charities. And we
got it thirty one because we've had this mantra of
being the thirty first most successful fall team in the
country thirty major league teams in US, and that's how
we wanted about it, and that's kind of how we
looked at it, and gosh, we've been doing it every year.

(20:08):
It was great to see John this morning and what
WBT does to promote this, to be able to allow
kids to get a brand new bike, and we put
helmlets with it, which is just what a wonderful thing
that you guys have done, and John has done, and
Wdbt's done to make somebody in a young person's Christmas
really special.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
And it really is because I'm sure you remember your
first bike. I remember my first bike when I was
a kid, and what that thing represented, what that bike
represented was freedom and opportunity and all that sort of stuff, right,
I mean, that's the thing, getting out there in the air,
filling your lungs and having a good time.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
Well it is.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
And you know, there's a lot of things that have
changed over the years with kids and technology and getting out,
but what I still continue to see in my neighborhood
is young kids out on a bicycle and that hasn't changed.
And I think that's really a great thing. And you
just you know, this is a great time of the
year to do this and just really excited to be

(21:07):
a part of it.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
And one of the great things that you, if people
have an opportunity to do it is to have the
child ride the bike and head over to UH to
the local baseball fields and uh get ready to play
some baseball. You know what I'm saying. That's just that's
the all American dream there, my friend.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
Well, it really is, and and You're right, we see it.
We see it often or on that as they said,
around the neighborhood. And that's what kids did and they
still do it.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
You know.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
One of the things that I always enjoy speaking with
you about is the heart you have for this community,
for the city, for for all of this. Uh. You
you your organization gives back a lot, does a lot.

Speaker 10 (21:46):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
We always get excited to get out there when the
in the spring and uh and spend time with you guys,
talk a little bit about some of the stuff that's
happening over at the nights and what we expect because
it's gonna before we know it. I hate to tell
you this, before we know it, we're going to be
spring training and it's going to be onto the season.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Well you know, don't We don't blink over here. We
turned these things around. We have events during the fall. Actually,
our charities are doing a program right in the middle
of it is called Twelve Days of Giveness, in which
we take twelve organizations, Lavine Children's Hospital, we did some
of the first responders on Monday night and Bags of
Hope up in Cornelius and food pantries and that's where

(22:28):
our organization both financially and volunteer of time around this
holiday time. So then we started that a couple of
years ago. And as people know or may not know,
we're right in the heart of our Like to Night's
Christmas Festival and holiday festival where you know, somebody decided
to put a hockey rink on a baseball field and
on the slide. That would be me. But it's just

(22:49):
been so incredibly successful ye and really a staple and
uptown Charlotte, and you know, if they haven't had a chance,
I know we're plugging that because it's it's something that's
really in joyable, very affordable for a family to come through.
Just really neat to see the kids walk through. And
we got the fake snow going and the Christmas music going,
and Santa Claus is there, and you see adults and

(23:12):
children run down a tube slide. It's just really a
special time. I love going out there and watching and
encourage people to do that. We'll do this first, go
and give away a bite yet night yep, and then
go over to like the Night's Festival and make an
evening of it.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Look at that that's perfect. It's a beautiful opportunity to
do it do it upright with the with the families
and the kids and everybody participating. It's a really beautiful
thing here, and it is so great to be able
to have this conversation with you. I do have to
ask you, though, well, if you were out there once
upon a time out on the ice, you know, maybe

(23:47):
maybe dreaming of being, you know, a hockey player instead
of maybe getting involved with baseball. I don't. I don't
know how it might have gone, but you know, I
think it would be great.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
Yeah. Well, well here's the thing. You know, by my accent, obviously,
I'm not from around here. I've been to Charlotte for
twenty years. So I grew up in the northeast and
we had a little pond in the back of my
house and we skated on it. But I chose to
play basketball indoors.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
Uh huh.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
In the moment that I got out of college, I
moved to the South because snow was just not something
that was in my DNA. So I won't you won't
see me out on that skating rink. I'll stand by
and watch. But no, that's that's not in my that's
not in my vocabulary, in my DNA.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
That's great. Look. I'm happy to have you there, Dad,
It's always great to talk to you. Where do people
go to find out more about what's going on at
the nights?

Speaker 5 (24:36):
Just go on the website Charlotte Knights dot com, click
on the tab that says light to Night's Festival. I'll
tell you all how to get tickets. You can get
them online. It's really simple. Parking is easy and convenient,
and I assure you'll have a really nice time. It's
grown into now. This is our sixth year and the
third year with all the full skating rink, and we've
had college hockey out there and youth hockey and it's

(24:58):
just just a wonderful time to get out there. So
we encourage you. You got plenty of time up until
Joe Jackson January fourth, or open so on the weekends
and come and check it out.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
What a blast. It's going to be so awesome. Thanks
so much for the contributions that you make and the
organization makes to the community, and we're going to have
a whole lot of happy kids, both in both locations.
And thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
Dan, you bet you Brett great talking to you.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
All the best to you howadays, Merry Christmas, Absolutely, Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays. You got it. That's Dan Rakowski and that
is a wonderful, wonderful organization and he is he is
at an absolute Prince News Talk eleven ten, ninety nine

(25:51):
to three WBT. It's great to be with you seven
h four or five seven oh eleven ten. As we
are getting ready for Hancock's Bikes for Kids, come on down,
come on down to the station and we're gonna be
beginning the fun and games and all this sort of
stuff that we're gonna be doing starting at five o'clock,
five o'clock and you can do a drive through, you
can you We're gonna unload the bikes for you, the helmets,

(26:14):
all that sort of stuff. It's a magical, magical thing
to see. And again I remember my first bike, and
I remember what that freedom feeling was that that I had.
I mean, obviously, you start with the training wheels and
then you you know, you work your way up. But
this is the thing that we need in the culture,

(26:35):
people being more active, people having fun, getting out there
talking to other people. Now I don't talk to strangers,
but you know, you're talking to people, You're talking to
other kids. That's that's an important thing for us to
to have. And you know, I know many many people
in this audience. You know remember where Hey, you would

(26:56):
you'd go out in the morning and it was time
to come home when the light went on, and or
you would go out to you'd go and eat your
dinner and then go back out for a couple hours
and then go back home in the summer. I mean,
it's just such a wonderful time. And it's an all
American sort of tradition. I mean, all American. It's just great.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
Stan.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Welcome to the program. What's saw in your mind today, sir?

Speaker 11 (27:18):
Yeah, I have a question for years, yes about NASCAR?

Speaker 1 (27:21):
About NASCAR?

Speaker 11 (27:22):
Okay, yes, twenty three XI in Front Red Motorsports XCI
is being owned by Michael Jordan and then the hammler
of the driver in NASCAR. To find that kind of odd,
but they're suing them, claiming their monopoly, that they basically
carve out starting spots to certain teams and that it
thwarts new people getting in in competition. And I was wondering,

(27:44):
like that, you follow NASCAR, what do you think about
this and how do you think this plays out?

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Well? I mean, they function differently than other organizations, right,
so there is a family basically that controls the way
this goes. And and and I think what, by and large,
I think you see a really good product that's out

(28:11):
there week after week. I don't. I don't think there's
there's a lot of stinkers that are out there. You
see competitive racing, You see people that are very excited
about that and all that that encompasses. Right, what I think.
I don't know the underlying arguments that are being made

(28:32):
because I haven't read the briefs or anything like that,
but I understand why they would want to make sure
that they have the ability to have regulation or things
like that, because what happens if you start getting really
bad drivers coming in. I don't think it would ever happen,

(28:54):
but people start coming in and they stink it up.
And you know, these are people who have and the
clients are the people who sponsor them. I mean when
I go out to the to the tracks around here,
I mean and and and trust me, I spend time
in the Northeast, and I spend time in the West coast.
And this is this is heaven. If you're a if

(29:15):
you're a person who wants to to look at, you know,
the sort of stuff that gets going around the tracks
around here. So they're going to get to call the
they're going to get to call the tune. And you know, I,
as I said, I think it's important to have a
high level of racing compelling. I think they've tried to

(29:37):
work hard to keep it compelling. I think they've tried
to do a number of other things to to bring
in the younger generations and people like that. So so
what do you think, I mean, do you do? You?
You know better than me? Uh Stan, I mean, what
what is your position on that?

Speaker 5 (29:51):
Well?

Speaker 11 (29:52):
You know, I will tell you two things. First of all,
I'm a believer in competition, Yeah, but I don't believe
it needed better competition. I mean, I look at the
football playoffs, for instance, how they've structured it so that
certain college conference championships, like their winners get into the
ones regardless, you know what I mean. Yes, and there's

(30:14):
a lot of schools that don't stand a chance. So
I'm not sure how. And then it goes across that's
across almost everything we do in this country. Now, I'm
not sure how you really fight that, but I will
say one thing about NASCAR and what keeps them going,
and there's people out there who like different sports and
people who haven't been to it. I will say this
until you probably agree with this. I've been to all fours.
I've been to kickoffs, tip offs where they drop the puck.

(30:37):
I've been to all of them. And I will tell
you when you go out to a racetrack and you
go to on that NASCAR event or even some of
the other Racing Series events, when they drop the green
flag and you see are thirty six cars and you're
sitting in the green stands in their concrete, but you
can actually feel the energy under under your feet and
they all gas it all at one time. I mean,
you can't know what people like about it until you've

(30:58):
actually gone out there and experience if there's no other.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Energy, absolutely not, absolutely it is. I have never been
to like a space shuttle, you know, uh launch or
you know a big rocket launch kind of a thing,
but I would imagine that it's got to feel a
lot like that. I mean, when you have that power,
and especially when they're when they're beginning, you know, when

(31:23):
they're starting out and they're going around and and then
they're building up speed and building up speed and building
up speed, and then they that that when that green
flag drops. I mean, it took us a lot because
we would have to hold our kids back from wanting
to go down to the fence right at the at
that moment, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, And and

(31:44):
and so it's it's like you got to kind of
time it and be like, Okay, I think the coast
is clear. Here, I go go stand there for a minute.
And then you got to get back here. And and
that's the thing. That's the that's the thing.

Speaker 11 (31:55):
And and you walk into those things. But if you
actually walk when you're there, you can save they are yes,
and then all of a sudden they're way over there
right in just a half seconds.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
And that's amazing. And everybody I know people who who
live in the Carolinas who have never gone to a
NASCAR race and they've been here for a while, and
I'm like, you gotta go. I mean, it's it's just
it's something to see. It's just something that's unbelievable. And uh,
you know, but Stan, I appreciate the call. You're always

(32:26):
a great a great light, and thank you for calling today,
take care you as well. Absolutely, that's a stand checking in. Okay.
I want to let you guys see, I'm trying not
to make people mad with like the cuts I have,
but I have to play some of these cuts. There
is an effort and this is something that like it

(32:47):
makes me grip my teeth. There is an effort by
Hillary Clinton to bring back to bring back censorship of
your thoughts. I'm gonna play that in the next hour.
I'm gonna play that in the beginning of this next
hour because I think that there is so much I'm

(33:14):
just saying. I think Hillary Quinton's gonna run for president again,
and I think she is going to try to leverage
the EU to get her money, to get her position
to do all this sort of stuff. I am thinking
increasingly that she is going to go and try to
make another run for the presidency. I know she's old, oldish,

(33:42):
but I think she is going to try to make
a run. I think she doesn't want to see any
twosome Newsom and I think she doesn't want to see
any of the others who are there, Kamala Harris, anybody
like that. I think she thinks she's the smartest person
in the world, and she wants to be the first
first female president of the United States by hook or

(34:04):
by crook? Your thoughts? Is it possible?

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Wait?

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Are we running for the hills? Seven oh four five
seven oh eleven ten, Snooze Talk eleven ten, nine nine
three WBT It is Hancocks Bikes for kids. It is Uh,
we're just we're just inside an hour away and we're
inside an hour away, uh for this, for this incredible,

(34:40):
incredible moment. I look forward to it every year.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
I wasn't able to go last year because I was
taking a group of people, uh to go, uh see
some sights, and so I missed it. I missed it,
And I gotta tell you, I missed that camaraderie that
we have. I mean, it's really a wonderful and I
love the charitable sort of feeling. I love all of

(35:05):
this stuff because it's it's what the folks like to say,
it's the it's the good stuff out there in our country.
And I am just so happy to be here. Seven
four five seven zero eleven ten. Everything is fair game.
If you want to reach out, you can hit us
up at the WBT text line driven by Liberty jew

(35:25):
buick GMC. You also can give us a call if
you want to opine, if you want to talk, if
you want to you know, take to have your take.
That's a good thing too. Hillary Quinton I was talking
about this in the last segment. Hillary Clinton is pushing
for censorship via the EU, and that's why I predicted
that she's going to maybe try to make a run

(35:47):
for one last time. This is cut number forty two
and this is a very important report. Now, now it's
not Hillary Clinton talking, it is John It is Jonathan
turn who is the lawyer that you see on Fox
all the time, and he's talking about what he just
saw Cut forty two.

Speaker 12 (36:08):
Free speech is in a free fall in Europe. There
are two anti free speech movements that have closed. One
is in Europe where it has laid waste to free
speech Germany, France, England free speech has been eviscerated and
also places like Canada. The US anti free speech movement
began in higher education than metastasized throughout the government. But

(36:30):
this is all reached our shores now. The Berlin World
Forum followed the remarks of Vice President Vance on free
speech and the EU was red hot. They gathered in Berlin,
and it was the most anti free speech Catherine I've
ever been part of. It was only two of us
from the free speech community, and they are committed. And

(36:53):
you know, Hillary Clinton was there and she really fueled
the anger. I mean, when Twitter was perchaed by Elon Musk,
she called on the EU to use the infamous Digital
Services Act, which is one of the most anti free
speech pieces of legislation in decades, and she called upon
the EU to use the DSA to force the censorship

(37:16):
of American citizens, force people like Musk to censor. This
extraordinary act by someone who was once a presidential candidate
in the United States. But they are committed to it.
And after the World Forum, they further globalized this effort
and they are threatening companies like x with ruinous fines

(37:37):
unless they resume censoring American citizens.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
So just for good measure or for bad measure, it's
worth noting what they just did. What they just did
is they find X or x Twitter or ex witter
or whatever they call it. And this is a this
is a big because they're going to try to bleed

(38:03):
companies dry. The EU find ex winter one hundred and
forty million dollars. They're stealing one hundred and forty million
dollars from these folks and this one person, and this
guy is the worst human being in the EU. Morgan McSweeney.

(38:25):
I talked about him yesterday. So here's what you need
to know. Morgan McSweeney sounds like a made up villain
in a movie. The name he brings up. He is
the one who is the architect of all of this.
He is the single most powerful, unelected and by my

(38:47):
count weirdo in the UK at the moment. He is
the top deputy of Keir Starmer, who is the Prime
Minister of the UK. I called him toble names throughout history.
This guy is a is a bad, bad dude. Now

(39:07):
all of this originated before Starmer was the Prime Minister.
But here's where it comes from. Actually, according to one
of the one of the great guys, Alex Marlowe over
at Brakebart, So he starts off and was trying to
use the government in ways to silence his main political

(39:28):
opposition from the left, Jeremy Corbin, who's a far left guy.
He's sort of a populist, but he's his ideas on
Israel are pretty bad and this is what the guy
was trying to do. So, now, not a great guy,
but he was trying to take out outlets that were

(39:49):
pro Jeremy Corbin. This is Steer Starmer. He said, well,
while we're at it, let's take out all the other
conservative outlets as well, meaning in the United States, meaning
in the United States. They want to try to do this,

(40:09):
and these are websites that you are intimately familiar with,
intimately familiar with. They focused on American outlets Breitbart News.
They were top of the list, they were number one
on the list, and they have wanted to censor Breitbart forever.

(40:32):
But when it comes to censorship, they're also trying to
shut down the Federalist. Maybe you've been and looked at
the Federalist. How about this zero Hedge. Zero Hedge is
a great outlet. A couple of others are included with
this as well. And so Trump Trump is going to

(40:56):
get targeted by the EU. Bring it, bring it, bring it,
bring it. I want to see this this guy McSweeney,
you can look him up. It just he looks like
he looks like he's Morgan McSweeney. Like if if I'd
said to you, look at look at this Morgan McSweeney,

(41:17):
you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's a Morgan McSweeney right there,
looks just like you'd expect, control freak, diminutive, angry. Who
does that sound like? Spoke German fifty seventy years ago.
This guy is a bad guy and he's trying to

(41:39):
stop Nigel Farage to get elected to the Prime ministership.
And there are rumblings that perhaps, maybe, maybe, who knows,
we don't know, that they may take him out. McSweeney
was orchestrating a massive anti speech campaign to silence American

(41:59):
outlets in the UK. Ladies and gentlemen, are you going
to be governed by some unelected bureaucrat a la fauci?
Are you gonna go along with this? I hope not. Hey,
guess what, we're just minutes away from Hancock's bikes for kids.
We certainly want you to come on down to the station.

(42:20):
It is incredible, it's a beautiful night. We're gonna have
such great times and it won't be the same without you.
News Talk eleven ten and I'm three WBT. It's the

(42:41):
Brett Winterbull Show. It's good to be with you, and
we are here with Hancock's Bikes for kids. And let
me tell you something, it's just incredible to see all
the stuff that is that is happening. We have people
coming through and and spending time. We have people who
are getting ready to do that as well. In fact,
I want to I want to shout out some Jim
who's the FedEx guy here at the radio station. He

(43:04):
pulled up just a little bit ago with his FedEx
truck and dropped off a bike. I mean, this is
everybody is involved. Everybody is doing really really great things.
And that's that's the spirit of giving, especially in this time.
You know, when you when you think about this, I
mean it's really really quite something. Let's go out to Robert. Robert,
welcome to the program.

Speaker 10 (43:25):
Hey, Britt, you bring it every night.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
Dog.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Oh and you deliver the goods too, I mean, no
doubt about it.

Speaker 10 (43:31):
I'll try. Uh, first of all, and probably most importantly,
what you all are doing there at WBT tonight for
the with the bike for the bikes for kids. That's
a great thing that's gonna that's gonna brighten so many
kids holidays. And just salute to you and your associates
and your station.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Uh, it's a it's a pleasure, my friend. And and
you know, we were really happy about being able to
deliver these to the to the great kids.

Speaker 10 (44:00):
Yes, sir, well done. Regarding this, uh, this push, this
renewed push for for censorship and Hillary Clinton over in
Great Britain, we talked about this Brett when before, before
Charlie Kirk was assassinated, we talked about the fact that
he had been over to Oxford, the very highbrow Halvey

(44:23):
Oxford campus and and had figured out immediately that the
brightest of the bright there we're being we're being that
they were almost pretty much in lockstep that that censorship
was a good thing. And that is so incredibly dangerous
and I hope people realize.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
That it is. And look, these are unelected, unuh you know,
unrestricted sort of folks who want to stop you from
saying certain things. And we know when you sit back
and you think about that, well, then how do we
decide how do we find out what is in vogue?
And then it is not in vogue?

Speaker 4 (45:00):
You know?

Speaker 1 (45:01):
I mean that that's the problem here.

Speaker 10 (45:04):
Insulting people trash talk, Lily, that's not that that should.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Not be illegal.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (45:11):
In fact, I would argue that that that it has
its place sometimes not not any not any kind of threats,
but but something that will get someone's attention right and
may and hopefully hopefully make them think.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah, you're right, you're right absolutely, And so that's that's
that's what we've got to kind of focus on here,
you know, Uh, we have to defend our our our
our faith, and we have to defend our ability to speak.
Just at the beginning of this week they were talking
and bragging about it over in London about that there

(45:45):
they don't need a trial by jury any longer. They're
just gonna have somebody who's in charge that's gonna send
you down the road and you'll be uh, you'll be
arrested and you'll be in jail. This is it goes
against eight hundred years of history and uh, it's it's
a despicable sort of thing.

Speaker 10 (46:01):
Yes. And by the way, Brett, you know, I mean
I'm a little bit I'm a little bit naive sometimes,
but I but I do recall, I mean, going back
a long way, Margaret Thatcher as being someone who who
was a big advocate of freedom in general, freedom of speech. Yes,
and then even with I don't know with someone like
Tony Blair. I don't recall him as being any kind

(46:25):
of radical leftist. Who would It would stifle speech. And
this trend is not good.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
It is not it is terrible. It is awful. Robert,
I always love talking to you man. Thanks so much,
and enjoy the weekend.

Speaker 10 (46:38):
Yes, sir, thank you very much.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
You got it.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Absolutely. Mike is next, Mike, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Grittin Todd hereabol How are you hey, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
How are you?

Speaker 4 (46:48):
I work on a German You were talking about Berlin
a little while ago, and I just got back. I
was there last week or uh not Thanksgiving because the
countries on the globe they don't have a national holiday
on the fourth Thursday of November for the purpose of
giving the gratitude as a national as a national practice.

(47:11):
But they did have a great friends giving courtesy of
my stepdaughter, which we were over there celebrating.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
That's great, that's great.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
Yeah. Have you been Have you been to Berlin? Yes?

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I have. I went to Berlin in nineteen ninety one.

Speaker 4 (47:27):
Yeah, it is this the first time I actually have
been in my almost seventy years now, and it is
an amazing city. I don't know what your impressions were.
But it is very very fun and very very very historic,
and there's so many things that have gone on in

(47:48):
that city, and I was reminded afresh of the dangers
of certain things with the acquiescence of of the people.
And the thing about Germans, at least the ones in Berlin,
is that they embrace their history, but they don't celebrate it,

(48:13):
meaning that they don't erase the past. They understand, right,
they understand that it is both futile and destructive actually
to try and just ignore what went on, and they
don't do that. They actually teach the Holocaust in schools, yes,
and they have a number of exhibits and memorials throughout Berlin.

(48:36):
It's not far, you know, it's not far away from
any visibility. But what you don't see is they're not
statues to Hitler. There's no Himmler Boulevard.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
Of course, not because we leveled the country. We leveled
it and we denazified and it's because the United States
of America is the greatest country in the world. And
the reality is we we went and it took the
opportunity to protect the United States of America and the
European countries and we shed blood, sweat and tears. We

(49:13):
rebuilt Berlin, and we rebuilt them in a more civilized
way than they were acting for the first, you know,
thirteen years with Adolf Hitler. And that's why I get
particularly chippy when people start, you know, making references to
Hitler and an American president. I would never say that
about any American president. And I think I'm really happy

(49:36):
that you got to see it straight up, close up
and wonderful. Here's talk eleven ten N nine three WBT

(50:11):
Brett Winterbull Show. Great to be with you. Seven oh
four five seven zero eleven ten seven O four five
seven zero eleven ten. Everything is fair game. We are
broadcasting here at the studio and we will be making
our way out to the public area at the termination
of this hour, and it is great to be with

(50:32):
you as we look at all this sort of stuff.
One of the things that I think we have to
have a conversation about is the idea that there is
no guarantee if in fact, you want to not ever
be offended at all. There's no promise of no offensive

(50:56):
things happening to you around you, any of that sort
of stuff. There is no guarantee in that regard, when
the United States of America was formed, we had very
specific aims no taxation without representation, the right to keep
and bear arms, and most importantly, the ability to worship God.

(51:25):
And unfortunately, progressives have been very very effective at moving
the goalposts. And a lot of times when you're talking
to people in that regard and you're sitting back and
you're saying, Okay, I believe that we should have a
much lower income tax, well, then you're going to get

(51:47):
a bunch of pushback, and then at some point you
are going to get called a nazi because you want
to reduce the tax burden. Yet yet the tax burden
only really came into account when you had the in
the eighteen hundreds and the early nineteenth nineteen hundreds, people

(52:12):
who were demanding that people who had too much money
should have to part with it and give it to
the government. Now, in your life, you work, many of
you people work. You understand what the deal is. You
get up, you go to work, you collect a paycheck,

(52:33):
you see how much money is taken out of your pocket.
And then and then you're told that you're greedy because
you earned money. Whether you're a billionaire, whether you're a
fifty thousand here, whether you're one hundred thousand, dore, whatever
it is, you're bad why because you earn money and

(52:56):
the only way to get right is to number one
register is a Democrat, and number two give it all
to the folks that the Democrats are telling you to
give them money to, period, full stop. That's it. I
don't understand. I don't understand why it's anybody's business how
much you have in your bank account. I don't understand it.

(53:18):
Mandami lives in uh what do they call it? The
Mundami lives in a place that is rent controlled. His
mommy and his daddy are both fabulously wealthy people like millionaires,
and he lives in public housing. He lives in that

(53:40):
kind of kind of situation. Isn't that weird? That's weird.
I want you to imagine this in your mind. I
want you to imagine this. You're standing on a corner
and a person comes up to you that you do
not know, and they say to you, how much money
do you earn? And let's say, for the sake of argument,

(54:04):
you decide, you know, I make it between this and this, Well,
you have to give me your money. You have to
give me money because I don't make as much money
and I want to make more money. I want more money.
You have to give it to me right now, or
there's gonna be a real problem. We're gonna have a revolution.
What would you do? Like you would laugh, you'd laugh

(54:24):
at somebody doing that. You would you would just like
look at them and say, what do you what's wrong
with you?

Speaker 3 (54:28):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (54:33):
How many people should you have to support on your paycheck?
Serious question? So how many people are you gonna support
with your paycheck? Like, let's say you make, uh, let's
say you make five thousand dollars a month. You gotta
you gotta give all that money to the people that

(54:54):
don't have the money. And it's tough. It's tough, h
tutsis uh for you?

Speaker 4 (54:59):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Because you're not going to have the ability to pay
your rent, or pay your guess bill, or pay for
groceries or anything like that. See, that's an absurd assertion
that you should take your money and give it to
a total stranger because he is demanding it of it.
Once upon a time, when there was no social safety

(55:21):
net in the United States, you had organizations that helped
people who were not able to sustain themselves. They were
called charities, But now the government has become the biggest
charity of all. Now here's the thing and the reason

(55:42):
why I bring this up very quickly to close the loop.
Everybody has the opportunity to contribute. Everybody has the opportunity
to make our country better. Everybody has the chance to
make children smile. And that is why I am so

(56:09):
excited about Hancock's Bikes for Kids, because we have got
an incredibly generous audience that is out there. They're going
to be coming by shortly, and they are going to
be doing something that has gone on thirty plus years,

(56:29):
making children happy, a good, good thing. So get ready,
if you're in line, if you're heading your way, we
cannot wait to see you, We cannot wait to hear
from you, we cannot wait to thank you. I'm so excited.

(57:05):
Within minutes of Hancock's Bikes for Kids kicking off, I mean,
this is gonna be such a great thing. It's actually
one of my favorite things that I've ever been involved with,
because you see the joy of the kids who are
riding with their parents coming through and donating the bikes.

(57:28):
But you also see the parents with these big smiles
on their faces, and the grandparents and the great grandparents
and people who come through and say hello again and
again and again. It's really an amazing thing. It is
a remarkable thing. And so we are just so grateful
to be able to spend this time with you and
all these great folks who are coming to make incredible,

(57:54):
incredible dreams come true for young people. They'll remember their
first bike for the rest of their life. And it's
really an incredible things. As we look at what we have, right,
it is interesting. And this is a very important comment.
I don't know. I don't have the guy's name, so

(58:16):
I'm gonna call him four six nine. He said taxes
came about only after the Spanish American War. At that point,
America incurred its first sizeable national debt, ergo, the modern
taxation system was born. Yes, that is absolutely true. And
one of the things when you go and look at

(58:39):
how we fund things and do all this kind of
kind of stuff, one of the remarkable parts of this
is how we just voluntarily give our money away. Oh no,
we don't. It's taken.

Speaker 4 (58:56):
See.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
I've always thought it would be wonderful if you got
to keep your paycheck like your paycheck. So like you're
let's say, hey, we're gonna pay you forty five thousand
dollars for this job. We're gonna pay you ninety thousand
dollars for this job. Now I understand you're gonna take
out for insurance, you're gonna take out for medical, dental, whatever.

(59:21):
But those are all things that you get to to allocate.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
Right.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
You can say, yeah, I'm gonna take the medical. No,
I'm not gonna take the medical. I'm not gonna take
the dental. I'm not gonna take the you know, HSA
or whatever that is. The government gets paid first. I
always wondered how they figured out the system of saying, hey,
let's do this, let's let's just let these people pay

(59:46):
us at the end of the year. And then everybody's like,
I got no money, I got no money. Do you know?
Does does anybody know who was part of that system
back in the day? Now, I'm talking back in the day.
He's a hero. He is now, it's not FDR, it's

(01:00:06):
not FDR. He's a he's he's a hero. Milton Friedman
was one of the original guys who said we're gonna
have we're gonna take a withholding. He came up with
the withholding. He said, yeah, all these people they spend
all their money and then at the end of the
year and they're supposed to pay the taxes. We can't

(01:00:28):
do that. Milton Friedman, the guy who was the latter
day saint of free markets, and he saw how they
he oh, yes, that's that's the truth. That is the truth.
You can you can google you that that is really true.
And so he you know, he understood very well. That's

(01:00:48):
why you used to see him all the time talking
to Thomas Soul, talking to Walter williams Uh, talking to
all these people about how all this stuff was supposed
to go, because how are you gonna get blood from
a stone. It's impossible. You can't get blood from a stone.
Don't try. You'll just have a hard time holding your hand.

(01:01:10):
And it's just it's just really rough. So they take
it first, and then what do they do when they
take your taxes first? What do they do?

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
Nick?

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
What do they do? You know what they do? You
know what they do? They get the money first, and
then you might get a refund, but you didn't get
interest on that money as the irs was holding the money.
It seems like an unfair kind of situation. Now again,
let me go back to this, Let me go back

(01:01:42):
to this. The people that are coming in, the children
who are receiving the greatness of what America is is
on display tonight with Hancocks bikes for kids because people
have decided of the generosity of their own heart, businesses, individuals,

(01:02:04):
groups of people. Really incredible. This is how it should work.
Where we are so filled with the spirit of the
Christmas season, of the holiday season, of all of the
great things that happen at this time. That is the magic.

(01:02:26):
Think about when you have to write the check to
the irs in April and you got to write a
big heavy check for you, Okay, you're mad, But when
you're ready to do something good for somebody else, you
have the feeling of the joy. You have the feeling
of the understanding that hey, we're changing lives one effort

(01:02:49):
after another. And think about over the thirty plus years
that we have had Hancock Spikes for kids, all of
those young little whipper snappers have grown up to be adults,
and so many of them have decided to pay it
forward and have said, listen, I remember when I got that.
I want to be a part of that. That is

(01:03:10):
what this is. This is the magic of the season,
and we are minutes away. I'm going to be out
there with Bo and Beth and so many great people
who are going to be coming by. Come on down,
bring a bike, bring a bike or two, bring a helmet,
Say hello. This is the happiest day of the year.

(01:03:33):
I'm Brett Whatterble. I approved this message. News Talk eleven,
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