America Bombs Iran's Nuclear Facilities: What Comes Next?

Welcome back to the LOOPcast. It is Tom, Erika, and Josh with you today. The Loop, of course, is brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite morning newsletter. Us, along with all of you, witnessed, we took military action against Iran. The United States, in Operation Midnight Hammer, targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities. President Trump addressed the nation Saturday. I was watching that live. I've done my best to really gather as much as we know here, as much as the administration has told us.

If you're looking for a podcast that's going to be championing war, rah-rah, you know, booting their ass type stuff, it's not going to be here. This is a very somber event for me personally. But we do want to give a good analysis of what we know now, square that with Catholic social teaching, what Pope Leo is saying about it, what Catholics in the administration are saying about it, and then get to some good news. Pope Leo had a great Corpus Christi procession over the weekend to really bring us up a little bit.

So, this is going to be a little bit of a somber episode. Hopefully, we want to provide a good service to you, all LOOPcast listeners here. But before we get into that, Erika, we are able to do the show because of our sponsor, Homeschool Connection. We have a wonderful sponsor, HomeschoolConnections.com. If you are looking for a Catholic education that you can trust right from the comfort of your own home, check them out. Award-winning HomeschoolConnections.com. There's a QR code right here on the screen.

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Awesome. Yeah. Anything, Josh, before we dive in here? I think we're ready. All right, let's do it. So, I have directly from the Department of Defense an image that they were showing of the operation here. I can zoom in a little bit.

So, first off, I just, genuine appreciation for our military service members, the bravery to carry this out. So, Operation Midnight Hammer, this is according to Air Force General Dan Raisin-Kane. He gave a statement to the press. It's a little bit long, so I'm going to make it a little bit more succinct here. So, it was executed by the U.S. forces with the strategic aim of neutralizing hostile air defenses and key military infrastructure.

In Iran, at three main targets, Fordow, Nance, and Isfahan, within a 72-hour window, the operation mobilized 42 American aircraft, including B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, F-22 Raptors, and F-15E Strike Eagles, all operating under strict, low visibility, and minimal communication conditions to maintain the element of surprise and minimize detection.

B-2 bombers departed Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri at 7.30 p.m. local on June 19th, 2025. The aircraft deployed a combination of precision-guided munitions, notably small-diameter bombs, joint direct attack munitions, and AGM-158 JSSM cruise missiles. The weapons were specifically chosen for their ability to strike fortified or hidden targets with minimal collateral damage. Each strike package ...was coordinated with satellite and drone surveillance to confirm target accuracy and battle damage assessments. Primary targets included surface-to-air missile sites, radar installations, and command-and-control bunkers. Ammunition depots spread across 18 confirmed strategic sites.

Campaign also focused on disabling mobile air defense units believed to be part of a larger integrated enemy network. Initial outcomes of the operation suggest a 95% target neutralization rate. And this is based off satellite imagery and ISR intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Confirming the destruction or significant impairment of all primary objectives, no U.S. aircraft were lost. Although one F-22 reported minor damage from an anti-aircraft fire, there are unconfirmed reports of limited civilian displacement near two sites. In closing remarks, General Kane emphasized the operation's success in restoring aerial superiority, crippling the enemy's early warning capabilities, and setting conditions for potential follow-on operations.

And then, just for perspective here, they were nuclear enrichment sites, especially Fordow. They were underground, under cement in the mountains, so we used these kind of bunker busting, they're being called online, missiles to get deep, to destroy it, and limit their ability to enrich uranium. I think it's important to note as well, I have this graph here, Erika, and you can get into this a little bit, but the reason we were over here, and Trump has been very clear, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

We are not allowing nuclear enrichment past a certain point, and there was an IAEP report that was very concerning, and the reason why we got involved, according to President Trump's administration. But go ahead, Eric, on that. I was just going to say, too, just hats off to our military men and women. I was looking at a diagram of the target that they had to hit at Fordow, and essentially what they had to do was drop these mops, these massive, massive bombs.

They're like tons and tons each, 500 million bucks a pop, but they had to drop them down a chute the size of a washing machine from way up in the air. The accuracy with which they were able to do that, and again, with this minimal communications, they had to refuel mid-flight three times, I think, for each of the B-2s, and it was basically the plot of Top Gun Maverick. It was exactly the plot of Top Gun Maverick, actually. Yeah, so we're going to get into the reactions.

It was one about Hollywood propaganda preparing us, not just the real world, but there was nuclear enrichment sites from kind of an unidentified enemy that we had to drop bunker-busting missiles in. To destroy and get out of there. So, yeah, people have noticed this online, and it's true. It was the exact plot. Yep, pretty much. So, hat tip. Yeah, but go ahead, Erika, or Josh. Well, I was just going to say, all of us are being careful to say, like, whether or not we support or defend or oppose this action, in no ways are we saying we're against our men and women serving in our country's uniform for our country.

So, just making sure everyone understands that gets lost in a lot of this confusion. People get cranky or whatever. It's like... Look, many members of my family have served the nation in uniform, and whether or not you support or defend an action, that remains the case. We are going to always defend our soldiers, our airmen, our Marines, and our pilots. Yep. Absolutely.

So, but the reason we were over there, there is this concern about uranium enrichment. Iran increased its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium since February 2025. And you can see this graph of as it is climbing, starting May 2024, it really increased right up to May 2025, and April 12th is when these negotiations began over nuclear regulations.

So, there is information out there, and again, I feel like what is hard with all of this is it is hard to know who to believe, who not to believe. Clearly, the Trump administration felt that there was a credible threat for Iran to be able to obtain, I think they were saying, up to 10 nuclear weapons based on the IAEP report, which is nerve-wracking. And I will say, I went back through his old, because, of course, there's a lot of people, there's a robust anti-war debate now on the right, which I'm actually really grateful for, because at least I didn't feel like it existed before.

Go ahead, Josh. Well, that graph you showed, I thought it would be helpful for our audience to understand. I mean, like, the one before, I'm sorry. Yes, exactly. Because this is from the AIEA, right? The International AIEA Act. Yeah, right. I always trip over so many acronyms, but the idea here is, you know. It was, once you enrich uranium to at least 60%, then you're getting closer to where you would need to have it enriched for its weapons grade, which is like 90% or whatever.

So, there are countries that have uranium that use it for nuclear energy, but that's not enriched at like 60% or higher. That's when you do it for weapons. So, that's why that's key, what they're getting at with that, you know, and it's an international body investigating. It's not just the United States making some sort of claim, and so that Iran has increased its stockpile of 60% in rich uranium by 133.8 kilograms. That was the point that Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, got into it with Maggie Brennan on Face the Nation or whatever, because it's like, look, I mean, this You don't even have to argue with me on this.

This is like, are you kidding me? Like, there's no reason why Iran would have anything enriched at this percentage. For any other reason, right? Exactly. Right. That gets into, so actually where we are now. I mean, we're not really going to be able to, that's why.

It's so funny being online in X. People shoot out reactions immediately as if they know exactly what's going on. No one does. And we are making our calculations based off of satellite for underground nuclear facilities. So, Iran's saying, we moved everything out of Fordow. This didn't do anything to us. We're getting reports saying, oh, no, it was really effective. So, no one really knows at this point. One thing that is absolutely true now is we have entered this war with Iran.

And the administration is coming forward now as to what their objectives are for that, but we've passed the pale. And there's people now within the factions on the right that are saying, you know, This is terrible. We should not be involved. This is catastrophic. This is going to lead to another Middle East war, none of which have been successful, I would say, for the countries or for America or security in the Middle East. And so, I think it's worth getting into the position of the Trump administration at this point.

As you mentioned, they kind of went on the press tour, right? Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance went out, all of them pretty united on the fact that this was not an attack on Iran. So, this is from Marco Rubio. It was not an attack on Iran. It was not an attack on the Iranian people. This wasn't a regime change move. This was designed to degrade and or destroy three nuclear sites related to nuclear weaponization ambitions. J.D. Vance, America is not at war with Iran, but at war with Iran's nuclear program.

The president has clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the worst weapons of mass destruction of them all is nuclear. I empathize with Americans who are exhausted by years-long U.S. involvement in the Middle East, but the difference is that now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America's national security objectives. So, this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing. Now, I will say, as of this morning, this is how fast stuff evolves.

We have a truth from President Trump. Here you go. It's not politically correct to use the term regime change, but if the current Iranian regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn't there be a regime change? MIGA, make Iran great again.

I'm curious, Josh, your thoughts on this? I think it's easy for him to take a win here and say, look, we got rid of the nukes, but we're not doing a regime change. Clearly, that's the hotline issue everyone's mad about. He stepped right into it. So, I'm frustrated as someone who's pretty anti-war. I don't know if you have any thoughts. Well, Vice President Vance's point about it's not an attack on the Iranian people or even their government makes sense because there was no, I mean, certainly we're glad that there's no civilian targets that were, civilian areas that were targeted.

And it wasn't like we bombed like The Iranian Ayatollah's palace, or something like that, or whatever. We are taking out these nuclear facilities. That is what we are doing. That does not mean we are crippling the Iranian regime. That action alone is not enough to say, oh, it is obvious that the United States is trying to do a regime change. Now, Trump's tweet there, again, he does this.

I love our President of the United States in some ways. Some ways, I don't really care for him, and he can just be like an internet S-poster, as it's called, if you know what I mean by the word S. I do. And the thing is, what he's trying to get at, you know, like, if someone said, well, wait a minute, now you're, are you calling?

For regime change, because, you know, he's the most powerful person on the planet, so he should be careful with the words he's saying here. And he probably would respond, no, I'm not saying, I'm saying it'd be good for the people in Iran to change their regime if they won't get their act together. But he didn't say that, so it leaves people going kind of a little crazy. Not helpful. Erika, I mean, at minimum, not helpful at most. Yeah, again, like... Yes, this is what I do not like about the way that President Trump conducts his communications with the American people.

It does feel like he just did a one-off, and it was supremely unhelpful. Up until this point, I was like, this is a model of a very limited in scope strike for a very specific target. Obviously, we do not know the extent. I am not a consequentialist when it comes to... Just worth, morality, but like, was the risk worth it? You know, the risk of unsettling the region, we won't really know until we have more information on the results. But then to come out with something, just even whispering of regime change, it just, it's not helpful.

It's like throwing TNT into the fishbowl or something. I just, it's just not helpful. Yeah, I mean, this is maybe where I, you know. What I will say on all of this, I think the benefit of this show is that we live very normal lives and talk to very normal people, and I've had many red-blooded 27-year-old American males talking to me about their thoughts on this, and I was surprised at the range of them as well. I'd say probably most of them very anti.

In my view, walks like a duck, looks like a duck. If you bomb a foreign country, it doesn't matter if there are nuclear programs. We bombed Iran. That's not a question that we bombed them. Right, so we've entered the war. And I think that is what frustrates a lot of people.

We have attacked a country. Untrue. We have attacked a country. Yep. I am not denying that. The question is, again, there are different scales of military activity. If it is a one and done, then it is more along the lines of what Trump did in his first term.

You know, is it going to be a protracted war against Iran? Are we going to start sending troops in there? Like the word, so like, I mean, I'm not denying, it's not like they played patty cake, patty cake here. It was a military strike. It was military action. That does not mean it's going to be a 2003 Iraq or, you know, 2001 or 2010.

Yeah, and I think when we say something like, now we've entered the war, I think that that's actually an unhelpful way of speaking about it, because it's not a declared war. It could be a one-and-done strike like Soleimani. We just don't know what is going to portend. What I think, where my allergic reaction to the regime change thing happens, is that that, to me, sounds like escalation towards actual... War, because we're coming off of Iraq, we're coming off of Libya, we're coming off of Syria, and J.D.

Vance did a nod to that. He's like, look, for the last 25 years, Americans have seen terrible attempts to stabilize the Middle East, and every time we try and stabilize the Middle East, what ends up happening? Well, Christians get slaughtered, for one, and two, it never works. It doesn't actually last.

And then his line about, what did he say? I think we skipped over it in the quote that we did from J.D. Vance, but he was like, well, the difference is we had dumb presidents then, and now we have a smart president, which sounds flippant, but at the same time, it's kind of the principle of do you trust Trump? Not to escalate this and not to fall down that rabbit hole. Well, I would say one thing about that. We'll have to see.

I don't know. We have had a situation where we've had political leaders, for the most part, too stubborn to correct themselves and understand they made a mistake. George W. Bush was writ large on this. Like, the guy screwed things up, and he's just like, well, whatever. He never admitted it. Yeah, and just keep going. You know, like, whereas Trump has made some major mistakes.

Not just on foreign policy, but domestic policy, like what he did on the immigration thing. It was like, oh, suddenly, if you own rich hotels and meatpacking factories, I am not going to care about immigration enforcement. And everyone is like, what are you talking about, dude? This is not what you elected for. And so, he did an about-face. So, he does these things where he just I mean, it's kind of chaotic, but in other words, like, if he started to get more involvement, military involvement in Iran, I think the voices against it would rise, and I do think...

Not sure how much more involved we can get. We've completely... We could get a lot more involved, Pogo. Boots on the ground is the next step. Yeah, that would be, by definition, a lot more involved. We've supported Israel. We've supported Israel's war here. Not just boots on the ground, but, like, a lot more involved being we actually start, like, all of our aircraft... Like, we start daily raids into it. Our aircraft carriers are there. We're shooting civilian targets, like, you know, wars of attrition, and then boots on the ground.

Going after every one of their military bases. Exactly. Assassinations a la Mossad. I mean, we could be a lot more involved. Okay, but I'm just saying, like... Like, you're not framing it right, Tom. You're like... Okay, don't talk about framing with me. What do you mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been alive.

Look, you're being too dismissive. Of people who have been alive and paid attention for the last 20 years. Hold on a second. My point here is, you did not want the actions that we had taken already to happen, and you're almost flippantly saying, how can we not be more involved?

Brother, I'm not supporting the action that was done. I'm telling you, if you're foolish to think that there can't be more ways to amp this up, my goodness, has that not been enough? Fine, we're making semantic arguments here, but I don't even know. Let's get to the heart of it, right? I mean, I think the one thing that surprised me is I actually think most Americans, both sides of the aisle, actually are more in support of attacking Iran in some way than I am.

No question. I think it's... Yep. It's good for me to put myself in perspective of the broader American, and I think we do have a lot of work to be done because we have this polling Trump 2024 voters. 73% say Iran cannot be trusted to honor any diplomatic agreement. 72% support direct U.S. military action if necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. 83% support Israel's preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites. So, I mean, you can go on and on.

This is clearly very popular with the average Trump voter. There's a smaller part of the faction that is Not in favor of it. I'd probably be personally there, but to look at the broader American populace, and I think the point— That's what I was making, like, the LOOPcast last week, which is to say, you know, if you ask these same people, do you want boots on the ground, those numbers would be a lot lower. Right, exactly.

Yeah, and I was looking back into Soleimani, too, and, you know, Trump was saying there was a credible threat against U.S. military servicemen in the Middle East. He had to make the call. He took them out. There's evidence hasn't been provided that that was the case, but again, it's like, who do you trust here? Do you think the U.S. is going to put out the plans that were going to be going? You know what I mean? Like, there's all this up to future.

Well, right. I mean, part of that, like, for example, the thing you just stated, like, if they shared the intelligence that proved it, they might burn the source, you know? And you're right that we've had intelligence failures and lies on behalf of it. So, the fact that there's low trust on here is perfectly, completely understandable. I'm happy to get it. Right.

Yeah, but I guess the point that I'm making, because I think we're getting a little semantic here, is this kind of language of one and done. We're going to roll through Iraq in a weekend, or Afghanistan in a weekend. Libya is going to greet us as liberators once we take them out. Democracy will spread the region. The same, like John Bolton, Mark Levin, the same voices that hated Trump before because he ran in such an anti-war stance and he admitted the mistakes of the U.S.

foreign policy, they're all around. Lindsey Graham, they're all cheering the same way they did in all these other things, so I think if we're able to move forward effectively, we have to acknowledge a lot of the same circumstances are exactly the same here, and the question is, how much goodwill has Trump earned, and do you believe him, and that we're not going to start a prolonged conflict here, and no one really has the answer to that, but maybe my frustration with the discussion is the people that are concerned and frustrated.

Should be concerned and frustrated, and that needs to be acknowledged before we go anything further. And for all the Catholics in the audience as well, there's plenty of just war principles that were just violated recently, not by what the United States did with these attacks per se, but in recent conflicts and then in the Afghanistan war. So, I'm glad that this anti-war coalition has come up. I think the best argument against it is, so what would you do instead? Would you allow Iran to continue to enrich to a dangerous level, to take potshots at Iran?

Our base is in the Middle East, or at our regional allies. That's not a satisfactory answer to me personally, but I do think there's a way forward here for... Yeah, and I think a lot of people are drawing the analogy between, oh, it feels like 2003 all over again, but it's a very different world from 2001 to 2003, post-9-11. And for the reason, one of the primary reasons being what you just outlined, that in the post-9-11 world, there were a lot fewer voices.

There were a few, John Paul II being primary among them, being like, okay, maybe, you know. No. We need to stop. We need to slow down. This is a bad idea. But something that gives me hope in this situation. Is it likely this will be a one and done? Unlikely. Best case scenario, it's a one and done. Iran folds. They're like, oh my gosh, we'll never do nuclear weapons again. China's like, you're on your own. Russia's like, you're on your own.

That's like best case scenario. That never happens in human history. Very rarely, right? So, probably that won't be the case. But... It is a hopeful sign to me that, as you said, Pogo, now in 2025, there is a strong anti-war or caution in using military force voices going on in the administration. And witness the statements by Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance. There is clearly a desire for restraint. There is clearly a desire for limited, targeted... Ways of dealing with the hostile regime that perhaps were not there or powerful enough 25 years ago.

Two things that are coming here, by the way, because, again, this is, I'm not saying that the action was taken without understanding the gravity of it, but two things. We have the Strait of Hormuz is going to be closed, and that's 20% of the world's oil and gas supply travel through this strait. Yeah, but most of that is going to end up going to China, right? Right, it affects both sides. I get that, I get that. Cutting off the nose to spite the face.

It's going to affect both the United States. We could see gas prices rise here. It's going to affect Russia and China. That's if they're able to do it, though. If they're able to do it, for sure. I saw Marco Rubio said it would be, quote, suicidal if acted upon, but Iranians' parliament did vote for that to shut it down. Suicide is part of the religion, so. I mean, yeah, unfortunately, there's a history. And then, yeah, sleeper cells. So, Iran warned President Trump through intermediaries last week that if the U.S.

attacked its nuclear facilities. It would activate sleeper cell terrorists within the United States. In New York City, Eric Adams said the city was on heightened alert, potentially for lone wolf attacks and cyber attacks as well. So, no one knows the scope of that because we've had such a lax immigration policy. Well, then we got that bizarre statement from the Russian, it wasn't from Putin's office, but it was from the Russian head of military operations being like, there are multiple countries ready to give nuclear arms to Iran today.

And it was a very strange. Sort of thing. So, there is going to be a reaction. Iran has given no indication that it has any intention of laying down and dying on this. Yeah, China could bring them in. Russia could bring them in. China sounds restrained. Russia's tied up. Right. It's a developing situation, as they say. I saw a tweet on Twitter. It was like, I can't talk right now, babe. I'm, quote, monitoring the situation, and it's just a guy scrolling through Twitter.

Todd, I cannot. Change the diaper right now. I'm monitoring the situation. I'm monitoring the situation. Sorry, guys. No dinner tonight. Mom is monitoring the situation. Okay. And then Jesus is like, what's the point, Erika? Like, oh, yeah, make dinner for my kids. Yeah, let's get back to it. Okay, but before we get into that, we have another sponsor today, home title lock, Erika.

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Today, more than ever, humanity cries out and calls for peace. This is a cry that requires responsibility and reason, and it must not be drowned out by the din of weapons or the rhetoric that incites conflict. Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility. to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable chasm. There are no distant conflicts when human dignity is at stake. War does not solve problems. On the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal.

No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, or stolen futures. May diplomacy silence the weapons. May nations chart their futures with works of Peace not with violence and blood-stained conflicts. Beautiful. Very calming.

How do you feel about that, Josh? Well, I mean, in a sense, obviously, war does solve a problem. I mean, if you can, you know, again, but, you know, we did the Revolutionary War. We solved the problem. Like, we were being oppressed, so we got rid of it. But, like, what he's getting at is a very... That is a very underappreciated truth. So, we tend to think too much in the modern mind of war solving the problem, like, okay, now the war is over, fine, we did the thing, we won, we defeated the enemy.

He is getting at, like, yeah, I mean, the war continues in a sense for so much longer for those who are wounded in the war, the people who lost their loved ones. Right, and so we are not to take lightly, by any means, war, and that is what I think Pope Leo is good to highlight that, because I think that gets too lost too often. We think these massive governments that we have assembled, the United States federal government, our military is enormous, the European Union is big, and we just sort of think like, okay, well, this person is being a problem, let us just, you know.

Push Putin out of, you know, Ukraine. Oh, that'll be easy. Like, no, I mean, war is not, maybe a war in a certain situation is the only good outcome left, but it's not a good outcome. It still sucks. It costs so much in blood.

At toil and treasure. So, we just, you know, we have to take these things as the last recourse, but that doesn't mean we're pacifists. Obviously, there's the just war theory that Augustine gets into, like, but again, you're not, you know, as he says, you're not supposed to go to war just to increase your country's size, the conquest, or some sort of revenge thing. It's only to correct.

A grave public evil. Okay, so can we get into that for a second? Because people throw this around all the time. You know, just war theory, does this mean just war theory, especially in Catholic circles? So, Erika, if you want to get into that a little bit. Yeah, I can just give sort of the basic principles of just war theory, and I'll go with St. Augustine, and then later on as Catholic theology developed, we had the development of doctrine, not the change in doctrine, the development of doctrine.

A few other principles were added that all. I'll mention, but St. Augustine laid it out mostly in City of God, a couple other writings of his, but obviously just cause to go to war. There has to be a grave reason, and it can't be conquest, it can't be revenge like Josh said, but something, you know, defending against aggression, restoring peace, punishing wrongdoing. It has to be waged by a legitimate authority as well. So, you can't... Just vigilante starting wars, but you need to have a just governing body, a sovereign ruler who is responsible and accountable for the safety and peace of the peoples, and they have to have the right intention, with peace, of course, being the ultimate goal.

So, it is not waging war for the sake of oppression or lording it over other nations, but in order to restore. Peace for the common good of peoples. And then... So, those are like reasons for going to war, so justus ad bellum, but then you also have justus in bello, which is justice in the waging of war itself. So, it is absolutely incumbent to avoid unnecessary cruelty and treating captives and civilians with mercy, and this gets into what most Catholics think of, I think, when we, in the modern era, look at just war theory.

So, there has to be a probability of success, so you have to Be pretty sure that this last effort is going to be successful. It should not be initiated if it has no chance of achieving just aim proportionality. So, the damage caused by war must not exceed the good expected to result, and that's people argue over the atomic bomb, the use of the atomic bomb on that for sure. And also, it has to be the last resort, which Josh already mentioned.

All peaceful alternatives must have been exhausted, and this is absolutely the last measure to avoid a graver evil than the war itself. I appreciate this framework. Josh, do you think anyone cares about this? I hate to say it, but just real politic power. If Iran had the possibility, we'd be off the map.

I saw the jokes going around the internet, like, the world's about to find out why we have really bad healthcare in America, because we spend a trillion dollars on the best military in the world to have the strength to do things like this.

Where does this theory have its place in modern, especially modern warfare, so impersonal with drones and all kinds of things? Do you think this actually has a place today? I mean, I know it was a massive controversy during the Iraq War, because, you know, that was a big split. A lot of conservative Catholics were arguing that it was justified to go into war with Iraq, you know, and Pope John Paul II was, you know, trying to be the Voice of reason, warning people not to go.

It would be a massive displacement. And the thing is, Iran, you're talking to be like four times more difficult to try to do a regime change, no matter how you do it. So, I mean, just it boggles the mind that anyone would think, oh, this is just great. We have a terrible government in Iran. Let's just take it out.

But then what happens afterwards? Why is it always assumed if we get rid of this bad government, the next government will be... Better. Right. What if it's worse, which has been the story of the last five years? Yeah, just about every case in the Middle East has been worse, yeah, especially for Christians in the region. Yeah, and someone in the chat is asking, so how does this not meet those criteria, befuddled? And I think there's a lot of people out there saying, like, how can anyone possibly think that this situation meets those criteria, right?

And a lot of that, it comes down to the prudential application of... ...of the information that we have access to, to these principles. And the fact of the matter is that most people, most lay people, most ordinary citizens, we don't see 90% of what's going on in any of these cases. And our hope, our prayer as a democratic society is that we can elect representatives with whom we can entrust these prudential applications. Well, let me take a stab. Go for it.

You know, like I said, with the uranium, they're enriching it past 60%, so there's no peaceful reason why they would want to have this enriched at this level. It's in a ramp up to acquiring weapons. So, the question for me is, does it meet the just war criteria? I could very easily see that case. That doesn't necessarily mean that you would still go forward with this military action, but I can understand the rationale. The Iranian government has financed a lot of attacks on U.S.

service personnel in the region. Now, I wish that we had a whole lot less service personnel in the region to begin with. Me too. So, I get it, but to me, it is not a super easy cut and dry. I would rather not be involved in a war in the Middle East. I do not want to send my boys to fight. I do not care. I do not want to be involved, but I certainly get the idea that we do not want them having nukes.

If I sound conflicted, it's because I am a little conflicted. Yeah. Yeah. I hope that comes across with all of us, but I feel super torn, and I'm not sure exactly what to trust, and I'm trying to be a student of history, and it sure feels familiar, but yeah, I guess the best answer would be praying fast for the country.

Fasting and prayer. Praying fast for peace. Hope cooler heads prevail here. So, on to the good news now. Let's bring us up here. Erika, what you got? Okay. I love this clip coming off. I think this is the BBC, but an anchor over in the UK. You know, the UK had a really dark week last week. It was awful. It was like the worst. They legalized abortion up until and including during birth. They legalized euthanasia and got rid of any of the guardrails on that.

It was a really bad week. But there was a ray of hope. Well, there were two, actually. The first ray of hope was yesterday was the feast of St. Thomas More and John Fisher, two of my absolute all-time favorite saints, Thomas More being one of the patrons of Catholic Boat. And we also had this A surprising return to sanity from a news anchor. Just go ahead and roll the news. It's going to be a lovely day for lots of people.

Sam Harrison in Hampstead Heath. London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has released research which says that nearly 600 heat-related deaths are expected in the UK. Malcolm Mystery, who was involved in the research, says that the aged pregnant people, women, and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions. I love it. And for the audio, she has this lovely little eye roll when she's like, pregnant people. Women. It's so awesome. She's just reading, of course, the text that they write up, you know, in the news.

Yeah, the teleprompter. Yeah, the teleprompter. Someone typed it in, you know. At least this anchorwoman had the good sense to actually read what was really true, rather than use their euphemisms. There has been times where the anchors will just literally say, what is that on the screen? Which I remember out of Minneapolis, one. News anchor said, World War XI. Oh, my goodness. And they quickly realized they need to use the number two from now on.

Mistakes happen. Or just get a better educated news anchor. Well, it is tough. Sorry, as somebody who's not. It is, yeah. Oh, and someone's done live TV. No, no, not live TV. I'm just saying, I've read off stuff before to a live audience, and yeah, it happens.

Okay, Josh. Well, I don't know if it's, it's certainly probably not the first pope ever, and certainly, maybe not even the first pope of modern times, but certainly the first pope in quite some time to lead a Corpus Christi procession in Rome. Here is Pope Leo holding Jesus and walking through the streets of the Eternal City. I love it for a beautiful Corpus Christi procession.

I was involved in a Eucharistic procession as well, and although we did not have the Pope with us in Harbor Springs, we had Jesus, and so I feel like it was just as cool. But I'm pretty happy to have the head of the church walking in the streets with Jesus. That's awesome.

Yeah, there is a great video of him sort of like choking up. He is saying the last few prayers at the altar at the conclusion of the procession, and you can see him just wiping tears away from his eyes. Let me see if I can find this one. Oh, there you go. This one? Yeah, that one.

Beautiful. Love it. So much Latin going on in Rome now. This is awesome. Well, again, Latin is good to use, but if they'd all done Italian, too, I wouldn't have had it. I mean, again, the biggest thing is a reverence and respect and a love for the traditions of the church, and not to have just a disgust for it.

That some people might have had, you know. I feel like we need a tracker. He's had a couple moments like this. I think right when he came out on the balcony, where he just seems to be fully aware of the gravity of the role that he's occupied, and the job ahead of him.

I don't know, it feels very human. I keep seeing very, very human elements to Pope Leo, and maybe it's because he was American or something. More please. That is the kind of pastoral I like, not have a listening session.

Yeah, this is awesome. I love seeing all the Corpus Christi stuff. St. Mary's had the cool, I think we covered it last time, but they had the cool wood chip. Yeah, we had a great Eucharistic procession. I missed it because our baby has been very sick, so pray for him, poor little guy. But I was home with him, and Todd took the kids, and it was like 100 degrees, and the guys, like the altar servers are all vested, but they did it.

And I have to do a shout out to Father Ryan Lerner, our pastor. He's a runner, he's a marathoner athlete, and he carried this super heavy monster, fully vested for over a mile through the streets of New Haven. He was prepared. Yeah, he was like, I was born for this. I've been training for this moment my entire life. Great witness to the Yalies, you know what I'm saying? Wow, that's impressive. I need freezer packs inside.

Yeah. I do not do well in the heat. I was very impressed. All right. I feel like he doesn't either. I got mine here. So, mine's a little bit sad at the same time, but we have police credit staffers for stopping gunmen at Wayne County Church. They prevented a mass shooting. So, there's a suburban Detroit church on Sunday morning. Someone pulled up to a special vacation Bible school service, and he had vests on, two guns, and someone at, this is at Crosspoint Community Church.

Someone who was outside in their truck actually hit him. With their truck before they could get in, and a security officer actually took them out. So, really grateful that nothing worse happened here, and again, appreciate the bravery of the men who took action there. And, you know, can't think of anything worse, more violating than having that happen, especially at a vacation Bible school. So, the guy, I don't know, they're saying mental problems, you know, didn't have a criminal history before, but just really grateful.

I think the good news is that this was stopped and that there's bravery. But yeah, pray for everyone at that church. That's a really horrible thing to happen and grateful for men to step up and protect their flock.

Happy that was not worse. A little bit of a sad one, but happy at the same time. Happy sad. Okay. Did you... Oh, man, this is going to be a little bit sad again. Was it the Religious Freedom Week, Erika? Oh, gosh. Yeah, I mean, speaking of violence at churches. So, it is the United States Catholic Bishop's Religious Freedom Week. It's always kicked off by Thomas More and John Fisher Feast Day. So, a great time to remember the freedoms that we have.

And of course, over the weekend, though, we were sadly reminded of why. Religious freedoms and protections are so important. There was a massive bombing. Suicide bomber at an Orthodox church in Damascus, Syria. This was the first attack that was successful. There have been attempts, but this was the first attack on a Christian church since the Assad regime fell. So, we know so far that 25 people were killed while they were at Divine Liturgy. And again, suicide bombers who the Islamic State has taken responsibility, claimed glory, but you know what I mean.

It's just a terrible thing. So, just to remember our persecuted brothers and sisters all around the world, this is what destabilization results in always, everywhere, and it is definitely what we fear for the Middle East going forward. So, pray for them. Pray, pray, pray. I don't need to beat the drum, but... You know, the action in Syria. Well, there's real problems there, but that's what you get with interventionist foreign policy, unfortunately. It's gotten a lot worse for Christians there. As bad as Assad was, no one's saying, that's why it's so dumb.

Maybe what frustrates me about this whole conversation is that all the sides are mudslinging, saying that you're an anti-Semite, you're anti-this or whatever, and I'm like, I don't think anyone thinks that Assad is a good guy. Like, who would say, like, I think that Putin is a great guy. It all happened with the Russia stuff, too. Right. Man, this, you know, really great guy we're rooting for. I was like, no, no America would be rooting for him. In the same way, I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons.

I think like... It's always in debates on war where the pro-war side gets to be the most disingenuous. Oh, you love Assad. You love the Ayatollah. I'm like, what the... What? No. Go pound sand. I hate that. I just hate war.

Yeah, right. I hate war, and if you have to take action, do it solemnly, and don't cheer it on. I feel like it's a great path forward or something to be proud of taking life. I don't know. I feel like I've really appreciated talking to a lot of my military friends about this, because you come back and... People that come back and have to do things unspeakable stuff or have stuff happen to them, they're never the same. And that's why I get so fired up about this on this show, is I now see the sacrifice all around me from men who step up to defend us.

And, it's not a simple thing for family life after that, or even life. I mean, you look at the suicide rate of a lot of our service members. So, I take it really seriously. I don't like the mudslinging online. I like to get forward to solutions. And, yeah, I guess if you feel that there's been kind of some tension or that people are torn on the show, like, I feel very personally, you know, in my heart, super torn on this.

I hope our leaders move forward with their best interests at heart, best interests of the country and the world, really. Twilight Zone now. Josh, what do you got? This is only Twilight Zone because we were in a Twilight Zone for the last 30, 40 years, and we're entering into the normal zone.

A meatpacker in Nebraska has developed a, quote, novel pitch. To attract more American workers. Get this. Are you guys ready for this? Hold on. I'm ready. Hold on. Competitive Bay. What? So, predictable shift scheduling and better workplace ergonomics.

Oh, my gosh. So, we find out of a woman... It's the Wall Street Journal. Oh, my gosh. I know. It must have been painful for them to publish this article. They write about this. Angela Jones feels fortunate to have landed a job at the new meatpacking plant in the stagnant prairie town she's called home. She earns $24.50 an hour, far more than she made as a convenience store clerk. Custodian or construction flagger, and has health insurance for the first time in 20 years.

I mean, novel. What a concept! Oh, my gosh. Like, working at factories like this, meatpacking factories, used to be good, middle-class pay, and then we allowed millions of people to pour into our country illegally because we wanted to be compassionate, but really what it was was greedy people wanted to undercut the wages of hardworking people, and now we're seeing a return to normal. So, don't let people think, oh, you just hate people. Like, no. We have...

We've spent almost 250 years building this country, building this economy. It's not just a marketplace. We live here. We are a people. We have our customs and traditions, and we should take care of each other. And part of taking care of each other is not to allow millions of people to come into our country and flood the market and suppress wages. That's what taking care of people is. It's not compassionate to tell someone like, Angela Jones could have had this job.

10 years ago, 15 years ago, but she had to work in all these much lower-paying jobs. But finally, because of a new immigration policy, which is stop allowing illegals in our country, we're allowing a resurgence in middle-class jobs. That's why we're seeing these wages. So, you hear stuff like wages going up for blue-collar workers the most of any presidency in 50, 60 years. Like, oh, that sounds pretty good.

It's not just a statistic. So, thank you to even the Wall Street Journal recognizing that this is good news. Yeah, I think we, and we missed the whole conversation here, too, of like, what about all the home countries that these people come from to express ways for everyone here? Like, wouldn't we want to build the same thing in their countries and then interact properly, too? It's just, there's so many willful, I don't know if people are just willfully ignorant at this point, or maybe just emotionally manipulated or blackmailed in this conversation.

This is an obvious economic reality that actually pretty closely aligns with Catholic social teaching in Rerum Novarum. Right? Like, this is how unions work. This is like a club good. You can't have… Jobs available like this because there's no incentive for companies to create the competition and work against each other to attract talent workers if you just open the doors for everyone from anywhere that's willing to accept anything, work under conditions that are unsafe, they have no rights, no representation. That's just not how it works, unless we have a global government, I guess, which I'm very much against.

I don't like that at all. Very common sense. Right, but who's going to clean your toilets, Tom? Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe someone who actually gets a living wage. That would be. Total Catholic social teaching. I guess. I guess.

I guess. It's just a reminder. It's not compassionate to allow millions of people to come to the country illegally and suppress the wages and put a lot of good working people who are Americans. Out of work. Yeah. Not good. Not compassionate. All right, Erika, what do you got? Okay, well, I have kind of two parts here. So, first, New York City is going full-on socialist. We just had this new report dropped this morning in the polymarkets, and you might remember Mom Donnie, who we profiled last week, as this sort of like, oh my gosh, he might actually be challenging Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City.

That would be weird. Well, it turns out he now is. Rated at a 61.3% chance of winning the nomination for New York City mayor. He has surged beyond Andrew Cuomo, and I mean, if this actually happens, this would be totally insane. He is an avowed socialist. He wants to make everything free by having grocery stores run by the city, which I think we've tried before, and it doesn't go very well in countries like Russia, although it's not a big deal, but it's not a big deal.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. I don't know. Tucker Carlson thought it was amazing, but anyway. Buses. So, it's buses, child care. Yeah, free buses, free child care. Tapping anything that's rent-controlled, I think keeping it controlled, so like freezing housing prices. Freezing all housing prices and having the government give you your food directly through the grocery stores. You know, that's the thing. When I get in debates about education, I say, you know, just we can make sure that every kid gets it.

An education from K-12, that doesn't mean the government has to provide the actual schools. It's like saying the government wants to prevent anyone from starving. It doesn't mean it has to own the grocery stores. But this guy's like, yeah, let's do that.

You guys are laughing about this, but Cuomo is such a terrible... I cannot believe that he is even running, and he's getting big money. A lot of the landlord associations are giving him a ton of money, of course, because Mamdani is running on freezing caps. So, even though his solutions are bad, I'm not surprised about this, and I think government in New York City has been so bad. I mean, look at Eric Adams with the Turkish flights and everything like that, and then now you've got a choice between...

Then they're putting Cuomo up there, right. And, you know, someone who's fresh. Because even this guy, Mamdani, I think he was a rapper at one point. He was like a rapper in a different country. If you were born... If you were... I think if you were born in the country at a certain, you would have lived in this country longer than Mamdami has. Like he hasn't even really been in America very long. I think there's, you guys are laughing, but I think that there's so much discontent.

Will you laugh or cry? That this is going to happen. I have no doubt he's going to win. This would be an absolute disaster for New York City. I mean, the guy is like, he's preaching the global intifada on the weekends and he's like, oh yay, Khalil is back. And he is on every single level, it would be a disaster for the city. But. Yeah. A well-earned disaster. So, I'm not surprised, and I think it's going to happen. My prediction is, yeah, he'll probably win.

So bad. So, what happens when you have a communist government? This video came out over the weekend, and it is insane. This is what the social credit system looks like in China. So, am I glad Harris didn't win? Yeah, just play. People considered untrustworthy. A good score brings benefits, but people with low scores lose rights. That's your social credit. The cinema names and shames people considered untrustworthy.

Oh my gosh, wait, these are just people? Yeah, so if your social credit score drops to a certain level, they paste your face up there with all your information. But keep going. No, keep going. Her addresses across big screens.

It's a matter of principle. Those people have to be condemned. Those people aren't honest, so they have to pay the price. It's only right to pay your debts. You have to blacklist those that don't. The Supreme Court has created a blacklist for so-called bad citizens, those whose ratings have dropped to zero.

On it are companies, but also 23 million people to date. Among them is this journalist, Liu Hu. He got a little too close to uncovering corruption among high-profile party members. After being sued for defamation by the subject of a story he'd written, he was blacklisted. He only realized when he tried to buy a train ticket and was told he was banned from traveling.

That tells me I'm still on the blacklist. Punished because he's been branded untrustworthy by the state. Once you're blacklisted, you can no longer get a bank loan, start a business, buy an apartment, or even send your children to a private school.

Liu Hu is among a tiny minority of people who have dared to criticize the system, which some are calling a digital dictatorship. Some. I worry, because I think many people like me will be... And all of us will live with restrictions of one kind or another.

Yeah, and then it goes on. This was just a small clip, but then it goes on to show how the system works. So, in order to do something like buy gas, buy groceries, you have to put your ID into these scanning devices that then give out your social credit score before you can even put a credit card in or pay cash for something. And it had another woman a little later on in the story who she puts in her ID into a charging station for her electric vehicle.

And it says, you are entitled to like 30% of a charge because of your social credit score. So, you can't, it is absolutely bonkers. Just remember, though, this horrifies us, but Democrats are like, this would be awesome. This would be great. That's what they want. Isn't this what they're hyping Palantir up to be, though?

I'm just saying, like, these things are out on all sides of the aisle, and I don't want a future in which this exists anywhere near America. Yep. Oh, I hate that. I'm kind of glad I live in the rural areas now. Yeah, it's getting better and better to live out in those rural areas. I'm going to get myself a donkey so I can get to New Haven for mass. All right, I'll bring you guys up. Okay. So, the Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA champions.

For any sports watchers out there, there's all these great human moments, and I was dying at the center of Oklahoma City. His son was at the celebration of the game after. And I've never seen someone more asleep in a loud arena.

How do you get your son to be more into this? I don't know. I don't know why he's asleep right now, but I guess it's not loud enough, so I'm going to need to get a little louder real quick.

That baby is back. That baby is out. That's what kids do. They just shut down when it's noisy. It's like, no, I'm out. Over and out. It's like your dad just achieved the height of his professional career, and this three-year-old is just conked out in this arena. It's so loud in there. I mean, just look at how his dad's looking at him, too. He's like, oh, man, it just gets me in the feels. Love that. Congrats to the Thunder. They had a great season.

A little bit sad about the hometown Pacers, but sports is life. That is life. Sometimes it happens. Alright, gang. Good show today. If you want to help us out, go ahead and subscribe over on YouTube. Check out our sponsors, Homeschool Connections and Hometitle Lock. We have some good videos coming up for you. The White Sox video is up, so if you want to go see the full White Sox-Pope Leo collaboration, that is up on YouTube. That was a ton of fun.

Super fun. My kids loved it. Everyone should go watch that. That video was four booms. Four booms. Josh rated it on the boom meter. It was fun. You're a cool dad, Josh. A lot of optimism in America with the American Pope. But yeah, and then, so I see you on Spotify. Someone wanted to make sure we get video up on Spotify every time. Yes, I will make sure of that. Sorry, there's been some glitches in that department, but we'll make sure of that.

But we've got a great week of shows for you here. And of course, pray for us, and specifically, pray for the world, pray for our country, pray for our leadership. Pray for peace. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us, and we will see you guys on the next show, Wednesday. Peace.