Boston Parish Rebukes Bishop Over ICE Display, Hoosier Redistricting Flop, And Grandpa Rivers

Welcome back to the LOOPcast. Today, you got Tom and Josh. The LOOPcast is brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite morning newsletter. Of course, got a happy Friday show for you. Welcome everyone joining here live in the chat. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern Time. How are we feeling today, Josh?

Feeling fantastic. Feeling fantastic. Okay, so the stories we got today, actually, I had somebody email in about the Boston Parish situation, say, hey, the story is not over. I believe it is the pastor held a press conference saying, yeah, we're not taking it down, and we'd like to speak to the bishop. So, we have the update on that one. The second one, in my home state here in Indiana, redistricting effort has failed in the Senate, and so I'm looking forward to get Josh's.

Two cents on why it failed. It's the first one of all the redistricting fights to really flop here, so we got a little bit of behind the scenes of what this means for the state of play across the country. And then finally, there was a last-minute attempt to solve the Affordable Care Act subsidy problem. Both the Republicans and Democrats put forward proposals that failed. So, we're kind of back to square one, but got some insight from Tinfoil Tom on what's going on on the ground there.

Good news, Twilight Zone. Should just be kind of a chill Friday show. Thank you guys for joining, and if you want to help us out, go ahead and subscribe over on YouTube. We had a good episode of The Deep. If you're missing Erika today, great episode of The Deep. She put up yesterday about that viral $140,000 is the new poverty article, and how some people maybe missed the point. So, without further ado, Josh, ready to dive in?

Let's go. Let's do it. Okay, I saw this in the loop this morning. Let me share. Sure. We have that viral. So, for those who are curious what this was, it was a nativity display in a Boston parish, and in place of Jesus in the manger, it has, ICE was here, in big quotes. That is not all it had. It had a phone number. The Holy Family is safe in the sanctuary of our church. If you see ICE, please call Luce at 617-370-5023, promoting a local immigrant support hotline run by Lawyers for Civil Rights, Luce.

This roiled many people online for theological inaccuracy and the desecration of what should be sacred object. And the major display, and so the baseline of the story was that this was done by this parish in Boston by Reverend Stephen Josema. I guess he's called Father Steve. He's a pastor of the parish, and they got a message from the bishop, and so the bishop no longer is Sean O'Malley, in which I was looking into the background of this church. This isn't the first.

This isn't an isolated incident, let's say, for St. Susanna's over in Boston. They have a history of incorporating. Social justice themes into its outdoor nativity displays during Advent under the previous Archbishop, now Cardinal, Sean O'Malley, who was more tolerant of such activism. Past examples include 2018 baby Jesus depicted in a cage to protect family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, and in another year, the infant shown floating in plastic-polluted water to highlight climate change impacts on vulnerable populations. But new sheriff in town, Archbishop Richard Henning, after this...

Display went up and was going viral on social media. Henning took a firmer stance, and spokesperson said the display was divisive political messaging that misuses sacred objects, violating canonical norms. The Archdiocese emphasized that the parish neither sought nor received permission and demanded restoration of the manger for genuine opportunities for prayer and Catholic worship. Could you imagine? Well, that parish does believe in the gospel, just not of Jesus Christ.

Yeah, true. So, Henning does technically have the authority to remove Father Steve as pastor, suspend him, or even close or sell the parish property if defiance continues. He has a range of options, but I think what surprised everyone was, if you go to, of course, now Boston Globe is covering this, and the pastor did a press conference outside of the church, so I have a little bit of that here. Let's see if we can play this.

The scene at a Catholic church in Dedham will remain. The Archdiocese sending the parish a letter, calling it a divisive political display, and to remove the sign and return B.B. Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Joseph to the manger. We are waiting.

For an opportunity of dialogue and clarity with Bishop Henning before reaching any final decisions. Father Stephen, just so... What? Maybe, like, return a letter back to the Archbishop rather than holding a press conference. So, it maybe strikes me as slightly disingenuous to call a press conference in front of your church and then publicly announce that you'd like to talk to the bishop. Come on, now. If you're a priest and your bishop corrects you, hold a press conference to convince the local media that, you know, yeah, okay, sure.

So, I mean, where do you see this? Okay, so, but briefly, like, where do you actually see this going? Like, I'm trying to think of the last time. That obvious disobedience is happening. I do think the priest will eventually just, you know, because we're going to get close to Christmas.

And he'll put it back in, and he'll just say, well, I feel like, you know, we raised awareness, and we brought a lot of important, you know, news to this issue, but I understand the diocese's concerns, and, you know, so he'll be able to counter it as a win, and then he'll also just say, and, you know, I remind everyone just to make sure to call this number if you ever, you know, if you're in this country illegally and you want to thwart the authorities.

Well, it would be nice if instead of, I mean, like, look, I get the concern that a lot of, you know, Catholic charities have done. We are like, well, these are people, you know, we need to provide them with food and housing and that kind of stuff, but at this point, why don't we have our charities cooperate? With federal law enforcement officials, and get these people safely back to the country of their origin, rather than just having millions upon millions of people in this country illegally.

And the fact is, we've had now about 2 million people in this country this year alone, since Donald Trump took office, who have returned to their country of origin. And what that has done is had a direct effect on making housing more affordable.

Like, rents have gone down all across the country because there's more inventory. Suddenly, there's more rooms to rent. And it's going to have that effect. Finally, housing prices went down over the last month because that's that that usually takes a little bit longer, you know, a little bit more of a lag time.

And so, I mean, look, you know, again, not to take the defense of the boomers all the time. Maybe the biggest problem with the housing crisis was that we had, you know, 10 million people in our country illegally. But that's certainly.

And again, if these people were, if the illegal immigrants in this country were generating a ton of wealth, then we might be like, well, you know, it's a cost-benefit analysis. We have to see whether or not it would be worth kicking them out. But like, in my native state of Minnesota, you have 81% of the Somalians who are on government assistance. It's like, Yeah, that sounds like a terrible idea. That sounds like they're total moochers, and then they elect people like Ilhan Omar to the Congress to represent the city I was born in, and she is an absolute nutcase who hates the country.

It's like, if you hate our country so much, and you think Somalia is so wonderful, you could always go back. Yeah, it reminds me of the... Remember that story the New York Times said? I'll let you go to that story in just one second, but I just, I can't imagine. It's like, oh, Josh, you're so racist, you hate outside. No, I don't. I'm just like, I couldn't imagine if I moved to Korea and got elected into Korea, and I started bad-mouthing Korea.

I just couldn't, I couldn't fathom that. Well, Josh, you could have been the superintendent. I would just go home. Dude, the superintendent of that Iowa school district, or was it for the entire state of Iowa, I think, was an illegal... Des Moines. Des Moines. Crazy. The capital, yeah. So crazy. It's like, you know, they rag on our country so bad, and then they're like, well, if our country is so bad, then maybe we shouldn't have millions of people come into the country then, huh?

But it's like, oh, wait a minute. It's kind of like they're contradicting each other. Well, I think all of those are well-established, and I think back to that New York Times story of the illegal immigrant that bought a social security number for that guy in Minnesota and killed someone on accident, but still killed someone and then obviously messed with this guy's taxes like they thought that he was committing tax fraud because he was gaining income in different states.

You know, the most sympathetic sob story of all time, but at the same time, it's like he killed someone with someone else's name and was committing fraud across the board and made this guy's life miserable in Minnesota, who he did no wrong. Like, he was just a citizen, and a big part of that story that didn't get talked about enough was that it was local churches that were, like, aiding this guy, and people are saying, oh, my church or another church did similar displays or whatever.

I don't even, I guess I don't have issue with... Like, the church, churches in America doing charitable work to people who need it. And again, kind of regardless of the status, but it is a different thing entirely to be making politically charged messages with sacred images, kind of violating the entire point. Like, the entire point of Christianity, Catholicism, and a space to worship. Well, there are two things that are wrong. Right, there are two things that are wrong with this parish.

It is one thing, I had. I have an aunt, great aunt, actually, who was a Franciscan nun, and she was in the Arizona desert, and she would provide water and food to migrants that are entering the country illegally. I didn't have a problem with that. I mean, like, they're thirsty, they're hungry, give them what they need. She probably was okay with them living in the country anyway. I would not be, but that's one thing. It's another thing to say, oh, by the way, If ICE is coming after you, and you're here illegally, you should defy the authorities.

You should defy law enforcement, and we, as the parish, will help you. That's wrong. Right. That's totally wrong. And number two, the worst thing, as we said before from the top, that you would... We decide, as we are in Advent and approaching Christmas, it is more important to remove the Holy Family from the Nativity scene and replace it with political posturing. I am aghast at it. And again, this is what drives me so crazy. It is one thing when the lefties out there take our religion and shove it in our faces and wear it like a skin.

Just drives me crazy. Like, they wear it like a trophy, but it is one thing when our own parishes do it, so this is very disgusting. And, you know, we objected to this, and somebody online was like, wait a minute, CatholicVote is against Catholics voting and being involved in politics? It is like, yeah, no, what we are against is we are against removing the Holy Family from a nativity scene and replacing it with a political posturing, certainly one that would defy.

Yep. Okay, on to the redistricting fight. I went down in my home state at the Capitol. In Indianapolis, overnight. Indiana Senate rejects GOP-backed redistricting plan after weeks of debate. Now, there's multiple layers to this, because, you know, redistricting, gerrymandering, I think we need to start up with up top. Like, what is that? Why is it all happening now? So, Josh, if you could just give a brief explainer on why is this, what is redistricting? Why are we doing it now? And, yeah, why are we in this fight?

So, every 10 years, we have a census, which is why, by the way, Mary and Joseph went all the way to... You know, Bethlehem, right? The census, right? Right. We have censuses, too, in the United States. We do them every 10 years, and we count all the people that are in the states, and unfortunately, because of bad court decisions, we include illegal immigrants in those numbers, which is why California and New York have more representatives in Congress than other states, because they have illegals in their states.

Just a crime. But anyway... Every 10 years, we count the number of people in the country, and because we haven't changed the number of seats in the Congress, in the House, it used to go up every decade, but then in the 1910s, we stopped it at 435. 435, and we said no more. We cap it at 435, which is, I think, stupid, because what it means is that every one of our congressmen in the House represents larger and larger people, so now it is like 900,000 people for every congressman.

So then, we do the census every 10 years, then we figure out, okay, here is where the states have the populations, and then there is a formula that is used on how to give each state their representatives. Okay, so once that happens, like some states might lose a seat.

And then the population inside of a state might shift. People leave, other people come in. So, every 10 years, state lawmakers have to redraw the lines, because you might have fewer seats, you might have more seats. You might have a bunch of people move into the city, or maybe they move to the country. So, you have to draw these lines, and each of these districts have to have about the same number of people. I mean, it cannot be wildly off. In other words, pretty much all the same number.

And, you know, What happens then is these, you know, here is a little surprise for you. The drawing of these lines is not done with the purest of interests ever. What happens is politicians realize, wait a minute now, how we draw these lines will likely determine who wins.

The fact of the matter is, if you ask me to draw The nine districts in Indiana, I could easily give it to you so that the Republicans would easily win all nine seats. If you let the Democrats draw it. It would look really weird, because there's a ton of Democrats that live in Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, but you're like, this looks weird. It looks like the rays of a sun. And what they would do, you know, they could get it to maybe five Democratic seats and four Republicans.

It's really tough. But the whole point is, redistricting is where you're redrawing these congressional districts, and shocker among shockers, political parties will tend to draw these lines. In ways that are advantageous to their own party, okay? Now, some states have, you know, there might be a Democratic governor or Republican legislatures, they have to come up with some sort of compromise. Now, you're asking yourself, well, wait a minute, the census was like four or five years ago, why are they redrawing the lines now?

Well, New York decided to maximize things about two years ago, and they decided to redraw the lines, you know, even after they had done the census thing. Because they thought, well, we could redraw the lines, and we could try to make it advantageous for Democrats, because they had a very large majority in the New York legislature. And so, whoever has the majority gets to draw the lines.

Yeah, I mean, you know, they got to draw the lines somewhere. Now, some states have passed constitutional amendments, like California, which says We'll have a commission that will draw the lines, so that it's out of the hands of politicians, and it's not corrupted. Well, of course, that's a joke, because one of the Republicans in the commission in California was from Berkeley, and a lifelong supporter and donor to Planned Parenthood. Some Republican that person would be. But, again, what happened is, New York kind of started this wave about two years ago, and then Texas is like, We've got to answer this.

So, Texas redrawed their lines earlier this year, and by redrawing the lines, because there's about, what is there, like, there's, I think, 33 or 34 congressional seats in Texas. So, what they did is they redrawed the lines so that Republicans will almost surely win five more House seats just out of Texas because they redrew these lines.

Jasmine Crockett, she's super liberal out of Houston. They redrew her line, so now she's got no real chance of winning election again. That's why she's running for the Senate seat in Texas. Okay, so Texas does this. California responds. They said, we're going to scrap the commission for four years, and we're just going to draw the line that the legislatures want. We got to respond to Texas. So, they do that. They voted on that in November, and they approved it. So, now Democrats.

Are going to probably pick up like another three seats in California. So, you have got this game where states are kind of ratcheting it up, and so Republicans say in Indiana, we got to do it. We have, right now, it is 72 Republican advantage in Indiana, but we could easily draw this map, so it is 9-0, and we could pick up two more seats for the Republican Party.

And a bunch of, you see, now here is the thing. Indiana is like Kansas. There are several states like this where on paper, you look at it, and the Republican presidential candidate might win it by 15 points or something like that. The legislature is always Republican. The governor is almost always Republican. And you are like, oh, it is a really rock-ribbed, solid conservative state.

That's because of the Republicans in a state like that, even though 60% of the people are Republican, half of them are squishes. Kansas is huge on this, tons of squishes, and there's also tons of squishes, or rhinos, or whatever, in Indiana, okay?

When President Trump and Vice President Vance hammer the Republicans in Indiana, you've got to pass a redistricting thing. Redraw these lines so we can win. I mean, it's a very red state. Let's win. We could easily have nine Republicans instead of just seven. The State House says yes, and they voted to redraw the lines. And then it goes over to the state Senate, and the fight was going on for the last few weeks, and it was getting kind of ugly, and my friend told me that it was going to pass.

I said, I don't think so, but at the end, yesterday afternoon, Republicans in the state Senate rejected this opportunity to redistrict. I can't blame the Democrats on this one. Republicans in Indiana said, no, we don't want to change the lines midway through the decade. And, you know, I mean, look, the point that a lot of people have made is that Democrats in Illinois, and in New York, and California, and Virginia is going to start on this any minute now, and they just keep picking off these seats.

45% of the people in Illinois are Republican, and they only have two of the 17 seats. I mean, it's ridiculous. So, here's a way to kind of level the playing field. I think that doesn't mean it's done. I mean, it's done in Indiana.

But I suspect Republicans are going to double down and try to get something done, you know, in Kansas. They just, you know, Ohio happened a couple of months ago. They got a couple of seats out of that. So, it is not over.

Right, and so, okay, before we get to the really zoom out, because Indiana seems to be the first to really, was the first to resist, and I know that a lot of the people that defected and said we do not want to redraw, were citing, you know, small c conservative values. This is not what our We don't like the pressure from Washington. We want to operate kind of independently. And gerrymandering is pretty unseemly. I think people maybe kind of see this as a race to the bottom.

It's going to happen everywhere now. It's kind of political hardball. But it doesn't feel right kind of cutting it up. What would you say back to that? Because I know that Trump and J.D. are trying to play a national game here, obviously, with their presidential agenda on the national level. But do you really fault?

Say the Indiana people, their rationale for why they didn't do it. I do fault them, actually. Honestly, here's the thing. I mean, it would be like, so like in the NBA, right? I used to love watching the NBA in the 1980s, and I, you know, even into the 90s, Jordan was awesome, you know, all those guys. I haven't watched it in some time. I just, I prefer college basketball now, but. In the NBA, you know, it used to be there was a thing called traveling, and you were not allowed to travel.

I mean, you literally have to run down like seven or eight steps before the ref will call you. The Euro step. The Euro step came over. We got some international. So, obviously, at some point, it started where some of these guys started doing this, you know, where they just started traveling. It was obviously a travel, and they weren't getting called on it, and so then I would have to ask yourself to the other team, like, so.

Should we... Hold ourselves to the strict standard, and just allow the other team. The other team is going to be allowed to do this. The rule still exists on paper, but it is not being enforced, and so should we short-circuit ourselves when the other team is absolutely going for the throats?

To me, I would think that would be really stupid. The game has evolved. If we want to all come together in the NBA and say, we have got to change this, we have to have the refs and force traveling again. Then I am all for it, but until then, why would your team say, no, we are going to be strict, and we are going to signal how virtuous we are by saying, we are not going to travel.

To me, that just seems ridiculous. And also, just to ask you this question. What happens is you handcuff your team, and you make yourself that much harder to win, and you have to be at 60% to win instead of 51%. That drives me crazy, and it is not like the other side is like, oh, shucks. It is not like, this is not the 70s or 80s where it is like. You know, we have some Democrats, and we're still patriotic or whatever.

These people, I mean, look what they're doing. Well, Josh, before that, just on the principal point, because I like the analogy with traveling, but the people that decided that the census should include illegal immigrants. You know what I mean? Like, how far back on principle do you want to go? That was clearly a political move to pick up momentum and gain wins. So, why aren't we going back to that and angry about that? Like, you're playing— I am angry about that.

Exactly. But for the people that are like, I'm so principled, you know, I don't want to play hardball, they've already lost on principle like three, four times before, so it's like— But there's nothing—there's no—there's little remedy. So, let's say Indiana said, we don't like how illegal immigration has— Well, what that means is that there are certain states like Michigan, my state of Michigan, lost a congressional seat last time. It was probably because states like California and New York received a seat because of illegal immigration.

So, what is the remedy? I mean, like, you know, like, we need to fix this on a federal level, you know, but what you can do on the state level is you can draw the lines. And the whole point is, you know, Indiana is like, well, we are going to do part, you know, the 7-2 map is certainly...

Beneficial to Republicans in Indiana, the existing one. The question is, should they maximize it to 9-0, which is what I think they should do, because, again, that is what they are doing in Illinois. That is what they are doing in New York. If we want to come together, if only there was a place where all the different states could send lawmakers and they could hash out some sort of agreement on how to... Equitably make sure that no state has an unfair advantage on gerrymandering.

If we had some sort of a Congress full of representatives from all the different states, and we could say, let us not do it like this way anymore. But until then, I think Republicans in Indiana were foolish. Apparently, there is a backroom deal. That was what Steve Bannon was saying. Yeah, so I was reading the tea leaves on a lot of this. I guess Mitch Daniels, the former Indiana governor, Purdue president, was fielding calls and telling people behind the scenes, like, Hey, well, and not Ms.

Daniels was feeling those calls, but another member was saying, hey, we'll fund your campaigns for re-election if you vote no. So, saying one thing, I think it was Rod Bray was saying. Well, there's on both sides. And whatever, yeah. Conservatives are promising to defeat the Republicans. Well, Trump Jr. just said, I'm going to come down to primary everyone in Indiana that doesn't vote for this. No, of course. So, there's that, but then there was apparently a rumor of a secret deal.

That somebody brokered with the Governor Westmore of Maryland saying that they weren't going to try to maximize their map by picking up an extra Democratic seat in Maryland. If you guys, if you Republicans in Indiana, you know, give up on Trump's plans to change the map in Indiana, we won't change the map in Maryland. I don't know if that's true or not. Just a rumor, so. Interesting. Yeah, there's a lot of rumors swirling around. I can't believe this speech didn't work.

I'm not sure if you saw this from Senate Majority Leader Chris Cardin, Indiana. Here, I'll play it for you. Something to think about. Some will say these maps are political. Let me be clear. You're damn right they are. Political policy is political. Safe streets are political.

Look at Indianapolis. Affordable electricity is political. A drug-free Indiana is political. Peace in the Middle East is political. I dealt with it firsthand. If drawing a map that secures two more seats for the Republican Party means that we continue to see overdose deaths drop by 20 percent, Then I'll draw that map every single day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Amen, brother. If drawing a map means that we'll continue to see a 93% drop in illegal immigration, then I'll sign it with a smile on my face. We're not here to be neutral arbiters of decline. We're here to be active agents of American greatness.

That was a bar. Not here to be neutral arbiters of the client. Woo! I can't believe that didn't work. How'd that one not work? So. Yeah, I'm trying to even, like, rap. Okay. The fight goes on. We'll see. The fight goes on.

You know, my biggest problem is that for, you know, Democrats would ratchet it up, and they did gerrymandering to the extreme in these states like, you know, Illinois, and now California, and, you know, Republicans are like, oh, I don't know if we should do this.

Let me zoom out real quick. Six states have new maps in place. California, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, and Utah. In the maximalist scenario, each party picks up every seat that has tilted in their favor. Republicans are currently plus three from the 2024 baseline. California and Texas wash each other out. Utah's court ordered redraw that nets Democrats one seat, cancels out the GOP pickup in North Carolina, leaving the GOP with two seats out. Anyway, so this is going to become a state-by-state thing.

Right, exactly. There's way more coming on this, but can I just ask a broader point, maybe a philosophical question? I feel like we all laugh about it here. We're almost just depressed laughing about it. Congress hasn't really done anything. I would really be... That's an important reminder. Can someone tell me, like, what's the point of all of this if Congress isn't actually doing anything for me, Tom, 27, two kids, lives in Indiana, you know, can't afford housing, going to get crushed by the ACA, you know, job market tough, AI.

Like, I feel like Congress just has not done anything, so why do I even care if, oh, there's like three more in my team that gets in if they're not doing anything anyway? It feels like it's all coming from the executive.

The problem is, the Democratic Party has gone completely psycho, and then you've got a good 15-20% of the Republicans, minimum, who are just like rhinos. And right now, you need 60% of the Senate to get through any real legislation. I mean, the Lake and Riley Act was actually meaningful, good legislation that got passed because Democrats were like, we're worried about losing too many of these elections. And so, you can do it, but it's just really hard. And so, we got to do it.

But like, the Democrats got that supermajority under Obama. And what did they do with their supermajority? Did they fix immigration? No. Do they try to make housing affordable? No. They went for the jugular. They went for government control of healthcare, and the fact of the matter is, there is only so much we could do to disentangle Obamacare, and this drives me crazy. They are ranting and they are raving right now. We have got to extend these ACA tax credits to help with the Affordable Care Act.

If your legislation, your signature legislation of the 21st century, The Affordable Care Act. If it didn't actually make things affordable, why do you need, if it made things affordable, why would you need subsidies to keep it going? Like, remember our insurance premiums were going to go down $2,000 a year? Yeah, but Josh, you're not making a convincing argument for why we should want more. Why should we ever want a supermajority in Congress if they, when you do get it, they do something really terrible?

Well, the Democrats did something super terrible. The problem is they got that supermajority and they put in policies that were terrible, and now for us, the disentanglement, we've elected a Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican President, but Democrats filibuster everything so we can't. You basically need a supermajority to get any meaningful legislation done, unfortunately. You need 60 votes in the Senate. And so, all you can really do is executive orders. And thankfully, so you're saying Congress hasn't done anything. I mean, it's not going to do anything for a long time, because this is the system we have in place.

And the question is whether or not the Democrats are able to get that stuff done through legislation. But we can't unwind all of it with executive orders or court orders. Like, it's just really hard. And so, unless we get rid of the filibuster, and there's dangers to getting rid of the filibuster, I would not get rid of the filibuster right now, because I know Trump's talked about that. Like, we can't get anything done. Like, look, you have 53 senators, 53 Republicans in the Senate.

Okay, that is kind of a slow majority. Remember, you have got John Custis out of Utah, who replaced Mitt Romney as the total rhino out of Utah. Then you have got those Alaska and Maine Republican women who are pretty liberal. You think you are going to get meaningful legislation passed in the Senate with 53 Republicans? Dude, you need like 55, 56 before you really do anything, if you got rid of the filibuster. You get rid of the filibuster now, you are not going to pass anything anyway.

Two years later, Democrats roll in and they start passing the legislation like crazy. So, they've identified the real fight as redrawing all the maps to try to reach the supermajority status for their preferred side. No, no, no. Redrawing the maps isn't for the supermajority. It's to try to prevent the Republicans from losing the House, because the Democrats have benefited from having additional blue seats in deep blue states because of illegal immigration is allowed to count for the maps, and because they've had a maximalist strategy on redistricting for many years that we're only catching up to right now.

You know, and it is garbage, you know, so like, and they had the racial districts for 60 years. Yeah, right. The Supreme Court ends that with a decision, hopefully in February, southern states like Tennessee and Louisiana and Mississippi are going to redistrict in a heartbeat. They are not going to be. They're not going to be wusses like Indiana Republicans. They're going to, Tennessee, you know, you're going to, the Republicans will pick up another seat there. They'll pick up two in Louisiana or whatever it is.

Okay, so I'm catching on. So, you get more seats in the House, but then you still have the same problem in the Senate. The Senate is still a problem. I mean, it's obviously not redistricting at that point, but the problem with the Senate is, you know, again, this is what, like, I saw something yesterday online. After the Republicans in Indiana went totally squished and failed to pass this. I'm done. I've had it. Politics is over. I'm like, really? Really? You're over?

You're done? Because a couple of senators, because a couple of rhinos in the Illinois State Senate have. Showing their weak spines. You're done with politics. You're giving up on everything. I would just love for that person to go back in time and go tell General Washington at Valley Forge, I'm done. I'm done. I've had it. Go tell Ben Franklin after he hammered out a constitution. Like, you know, oh, what have you done? What have you wrought? He's like, a republic if you can keep it.

Oh, but, you know, a couple of squishy rhinos, like, listen. Like, this country was forged through blood, sweat, toil, and tears. You cannot give up so easily when a bunch of people act like rhino squishes. And I can't, to tell the younger generation, let me tell you, like, I'm not like Mr. Old Man Unk here, but the fact of the matter is, the story of the Republican Party for many years was rhinos, you know? I mean, like, I mean, Jiminy Crickets, we've had problems with rhinos forever.

Like, good Republicans you could count on that would actually fight back and try to do meaningful legislation. People rag on me because Nixon wasn't perfect, but Nixon fought back. Ronald Reagan fought back. They were fighters. You know, George W. Bush, I mean, I never trust the Bush family. I mean, the whole Bush is, give me a break. So, we had the Bush family, we had McCain, we had Romney. These guys are managing the decline. These guys are the Washington Generals basketball team losing to the Globetrotters every time.

Even when they win, they lose. It is just a joke. Trump was like, let us actually meaningfully try to make a difference. I just saw a map yesterday. I do not have a handy with it. All the different states and the percentage increase that people are paying for electricity.

And it was like, you know, it's like a heat map, you know, and California... Because the AI stuff? Or no? Not just because... I mean, you can tell me whatever the reasons were, but the cost of the electricity, right?

Why is it, you know, why is it going up double digits in states like California and New York, and why is it, you know, still going up, but like not nearly that fast in the whole rest of the country? It's like, look at the map and tell me which party, you know, is a problem for energy affordability. It's the Democrats. The Democrats have made healthcare unaffordable. They made energy unaffordable. They made cars unaffordable. They made houses unaffordable. They've been doing it.

They've been making our lives miserable. And it's, you know, like, again. Does this make me a sycophant? Does this make me an absolute cheerleader for the Republican Party? Ah, no. The Republican Party makes lots of mistakes, but the Democratic Party has gone full-on psycho, you know? I wish we had two parties that would fight to make energy affordable, that would try to fight to protect unborn children, that would protect our children from being taught. You know, radical sex ideology crap in schools, but right, you know, and a party that would say, what can we do to actually make health insurance more affordable so more people can get it, rather than just do a buyout?

Because the Obamacare that was just a buyout for the health insurance companies, they said, health insurance companies, we want to throw a bunch of sick people into the system. Yeah, let's hold on that, because I have that for C-block, but...

Listen, there's this theory out there that the solution to this is to elect representatives based on a lottery system. Hear me out. The lottery for president, lottery for vice, lottery for everything, lottery for the people that represent you, because they don't want to be there. It's like, what's the worst thing that could happen? We get bad representatives.

Well, what did William F. Buckley say? I would rather be governed by the first 400 people on the Boston telephone directory than the current Congress. I know. I mean, I get it. That sounds like a crazy idea. Someone did do experiments on this. It is a fascinating thought, but when it gets bad, I'm like, why not just draw a lottery? Like, imagine your bus driver now has to go be the governor of Indiana, and she's like, I just want to get out of here, dude.

I just want to go back home. But what if we had a House of Representatives that was... Actually, not 435, but it had 2,500 members. Yes, this is your marquee theory, that we just need more representatives. Yes, you would have it more representative of the actual people, and you'd know who your representative was.

It would be harder to buy people off. True, true. More accountability. You'd see them in the grocery store and stuff, hopefully. Okay, good news. Josh, you're up first. Okay, so this good news has some negative tinge on it, because I am not perfect. I am always kind of... You do always do this, yeah. But I want to give major kudos to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a good Catholic man, by the way, great family, who has... Did you see the pull-ups in the airport?

He is ripping pull-ups in the airport. He is amazing. I mean, he is in great shape. He is in good shape, yeah. He won competitions on log rolling. Really? Oh, yeah, dude. The guy is awesome. That is cool. Yeah, I mean... Where's the flannel and everything? It's just perfect, you know? That's chill.

Handsome devil, too. Gosh. Beautiful family. Was he on, like, though, was it Wife Swap or something like that? He was on... No, no, no. He was on MTV Road Rules or whatever it is. Something like that. Yeah, he was on some... It was not on Wife Swap. Okay. Rachel called me up. What was that? I knew he was on some type of reality TV. Sorry about that. Go ahead.

No, but anyway, so, under his direction at the Department of Transportation, they have removed 9,500 truck drivers off of our roads because they fail to speak English. Can you believe this? 9,500 truck drivers driving semi-trucks across the country didn't even know English. They weren't proficient in English. How did they know? Did he just go around and, like, call them up to be like, hey?

They've administered proficiency tests to the people who are with driver's license, commercial driver's license, and if they fail to pass the test, they get pulled. That's, I mean, just think about that. The Biden administration, with Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, was perfectly okay. That means at least 10,000. If they pull 9,500, that means there's more. 10,000 people driving semi-trucks.

Now, listen. I love the semi-trucks. They transport a lot of cargo. They make things affordable, but they are big things. And, by the way, people who cut them off, you're an idiot. Never cut off a truck. I always give, my uncle's a truck driver. I always give him plenty of room. They do an important job. I'm supporting the truck driver. Yeah, but they shouldn't be in the left lane. I hate when two of them get in the same, they're trying to pass.

Yes, yes, yes. Go ahead, go ahead. But, thank you, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, for your work on this. The Department of Transportation and ICE is trying to do what they can to get illegals from... The idea that we have people in our country here illegally who are driving semi-trucks. Any business that hired any one of these people should be burned to the ground. Not truly burned, but an SEC should shut them down or whatever. So, all this work that ICE is doing and the Department of Transportation is doing is good.

Unfortunately... Mexican illegal immigrant Juan Hernandez Santos, 40 years old, he lost control of a semi-truck, and he jackknifed into traffic, causing a six-car pileup in Washington state, including a school bus. Thankfully, there were no children in the school bus. This happened just last week. Sent four people to the hospital. Now, ICE had actually lodged a detainer against Santos, but local authorities in the democratically controlled Washington state let him go. I am absolutely terrified.

That the Democratic Party loves votes so much. Let's have illegals in this country, have them make children, babies, get part of the system, collect welfare, and they'll vote Democrat for the rest of their life. They care more about getting votes than your safety.

And this is not an isolated incident. I could go on, chapter and verse, how many accidents we've caused over the last few months because of illegal aliens driving semi-trucks. Now, my brother, this was 20 years, 25 years ago, was driving, and he got into a car accident. Someone rear-ended his car. That guy turned out to be illegal. He took off. There's no getting insurance from that. And I'm like, that was just a car. It was just a guy was driving like a sedan.

And my brother, it hurt my brother's back for a long time. Yeah. But it's like, if that would have been a semi-truck, I might not have my brother. And there are people who are burying family members because we have, the Biden administration allowed illegal immigrants to come to this country and allowed them to drive semi-trucks. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sean Duffy and the Trump administration for doing something about it, and if there's any of those people out there who are saying, Trump isn't doing enough and all this other stuff, and he's disappointing me, listen, sometimes the problem in politics is you do something very successful, and then you rest on your laurels.

Everything's fine. I'm appreciative. We can make it better. We can make it better, sure, but job well done. That is good news for the Department of Transportation. Thank you, Secretary Duffy. Shout out to Sean Duffy. Legend. Okay, mine is actually just pure good news. Listen, anything is possible. Grandfather Philip Rivers is back in the NFL. He signed with the Colts.

Speaking of, shout out to Indiana. First off, shout out to Phillip Rivers. Shout out to his family. Good Catholic man. Good Catholic man. I went to college with his sister, Anna, because he came from a big family, and he's got a huge family. He's got a bunch of kids, and legendary trash talker. His trash talk was always clean, but I love the compilations of him trash talking back in the day when he was playing for the Chargers. Yeah, here's a classic.

Him embracing the group of nuns he invited to the game. Nice. I even saw that the Colts tweeted Latin. What? Yeah. Come on, man. They tweeted, is it Nuke Chappie? I forgot how to, I don't know how to pronounce that one. C-O-E-P-I, all the Latin heads are going to get on me for that one. Nuke Chappie. What is, should we do a quick translation? Do you know what it means?

I mean, yeah. Let's see. We're going to get a quick grok translation, or maybe the chat can give me a translation on that one. Now I begin. Now I begin. Dude, that goes hard. So, anyway, I'm rooting for Philip Rivers.

Nothing is impossible, but my favorite thing I saw about this was... It is a motto. The chat tells me, but Venerable Bruno Lantieri, Jose Maria Escriva, and Philip Rivers himself uses those. There you go. Yeah, he was, so he was with the Colts, and then he was coaching his son in high school back in Alabama, and then he got the call because, sad, Indiana Jones, Daniel Jones tore his ACL, I think, ruptured his ACL, so they needed a quarterback to come up, and he got the call, nothing's impossible.

My favorite thing I saw in this is that somewhere Tom Brady is looking at a football helmet, like the goblin, green goblin mask, like calling him to come back to the league. So, anyway, I'm just, I'm a Phil, I like Phil Rivers. I hope the best. I'm like, I'm actually curious if he's going to play. I'm sure he is. If, because they have Riley, the kid from Notre Dame is the backup right now. Riley, I forget his last name. And he was asked in the locker room, like, do you think you'll play on Sunday?

He's like, I honestly don't know. It's up to the coach. I got a 44-year-old grandpa coming in to help him out. The meetings have been spectacular. So, rooting for, rooting for Phillip. Good guy. That's how old he is. Could you imagine suiting up for the Vikings?

So, basically, good news, anything is possible. If he can come back and play in the NFL, get the Colts some wins here. He's got to play some good defenses, too, so pray for him. Pray for his body holds up, because he might be taking some hits.

Okay, speaking of health care, the ACA plans fail. So, I was talking to Tim Foyle-Ton on this one. The backstory is that... We had the expiration of the Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, originally enacted as a COVID-19 relief measure in 2021 under President Biden. These premium tax credits, which cap insurance costs for individuals and families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, about $60,000 for an individual, or $124,800 for a family of four in 2025.

So, they didn't get extended as of right now, and premiums are projected to surge dramatically. The average subsidized enrollee's annual out-of-pocket costs could rise 114%. From 888 in 2025 to 1,904 in 2026, that's per the Kaiser Family Foundation. Everyone's feeling this. If you looked on the marketplace yourself, you're looking at either moving down to a bronze plan if you're on silver, or just looking to not get covered at all, go on some type of a hell share.

It's brutal. Now, of course, we kind of talked about, Josh, you talked about how the ACA was essentially designed to fail, and maybe a precursor to some type of socialized healthcare for all medicine, because it is so bad. It was kind of a Trojan horse to that. There was two proposals put forward. They were each other in dueling votes, December 11th. Designed to fail. Designed to fail. Both required 60 votes for a cloture. Both fell short as expected. The Democrats proposed just a three-year extension of the ACA subsidies, and then Republicans put forward something that would put money directly towards a healthcare savings account, saying that big insurance companies are just profiting off of the current system and we'd have to change slightly.

Both failed pretty unceremoniously. It wasn't even close. We have this huge problem in front of us. I don't know if there's really going to be a solution here, back to Congress not being able to. To do much. Josh, where do you see this going? Political football obviously impacts Americans all over the country. Not a good look. I mean, I think, you know, Republicans look at it like the short-term pain.

That people will pay on sticker price. We'll make them more cost-conscious. They'll get less, you know, luxurious plans, you know, and they'll pay more for it, and Americans will then clamor for changes to health care because the current dynamics are any changes we want to try to make, Democrats completely, you know, shut down and won't allow it to happen. So, we need these price pressures, you know, to kind of return the market forces that people go, this is too expensive. And the Republicans are like, we tried.

We tried to pass some bills that would make some help here. Yeah, but Democrats are going to say the same thing. They said, we tried to pass the extension on the subsidies, and it's probably not. Yeah, but I mean, it's now just, it sounds like it's talk, and then when people actually start paying the higher prices and feeling the pain, and the Republicans say, this is directly what the problem is, you know, the so-called Affordable Care Act. So, it's going to be, I think this is going to be a continual fight.

We will see how it shakes out, but the problem is we do not have healthcare anymore. We thought we had healthcare up until Obamacare started, and since then, we just said we are going to dump tons of sick people into a pool. And, you know, it just gets more and more expensive, and people are like, this is not affordable. And again, you force everyone to get these plans, you know, more insurance than they even need. Like, can I just, can my insurance please not cover sterilizations and abortifacients and contraception and all this other stuff that I have no interest in?

Hello? Nope, you got to cover it all because Obamacare. I mean, it's just, it's absolutely asinine. So, you know. Again, it was because they transformed. We have house insurance, car insurance, and there is health insurance, but health insurance is no longer like the other two. Now, it is a means for redistributing income, and basically, you kind of made this bizarre hybrid where it is semi-socialist insurance, and it is like, I just want health insurance.

For my family, based on my situation and calculate what it is like, you know, it is like, oh, but no, but Obamacare is like, how about we jack up the rates and make sure we provide a ton of health care for a lot of other people who cannot afford it, and then you, so what it has done is it has totally sacked and hurt the middle class. And again, the problem with this is, We do need to look systemically at welfare, healthcare, and everything, because the fact of the matter is, the difference between the people who get free healthcare, they get free food stamps and all this other kind of stuff, why would they ever leave?

Why would they leave and get a job? To have, you know, 30% of their income soaked up. You know what I mean? Like, on the margin. That is the state of play, by the way. If you make $40K or under, there's no incentive for you to get above that, and then if you do get above that, then you're punished. Why would you leave food stamps and healthcare unless there's some sort of shame in being a well-bodied person doing it? But that shame's gone.

So, why would you not collect welfare and free housing and free everything? Get an entry-level job where you are making $17 an hour, and the government taxes you and all this stuff, and you are like, now I have to pay for my rent, and I have to pay for my everything. Again, the problem was, you know, like, well, we don't want people to starve, but we want to help people get into homes and all this other kind of stuff. No matter anything that you do to help people who are truly in need, you got to make sure you construct it in such a way so that as they decide to enter the workforce and earn income, they're not shedding so much stuff.

They're like, well, wait a minute now. Why would I go out and work, you know? A bunch of hours, and the marginal increase in my net wealth is like two bucks an hour. Then it's stupid. Let's see, we can even sideline this conversation. The last episode of The Deep we did was on that viral piece about the 140,000 poverty line.

And, of course, what was annoying about that was that was used as the hook, and he essentially used the... The math and the philosophy that was used to calculate the poverty line statistic, it was either in the 60s or 70s. And he just applied that same math to what's going on now. And if you were to use that math, you would get $140,000 or somewhere in that ballpark. And everyone was like, everyone just freaked out about that. Like, is that actually poor?

No, it's not actually poor. It's missing the entire point. The problem is between $40,000 and $100,000, we have this valley of death, as it's known, where you're actually disincentivized. You broke the fundamental promise of the American dream. If you work harder, you're going to be rewarded for that work. And you'll be able to move ahead, but what happens is we have such a strong social safety net that if you are making $40,000 and you move up to, say, $60,000, you're losing benefits.

You lose SNAP, you lose free healthcare, you lose a childcare subsidy, and the further up that ladder you move towards $100,000, you lose all of those, so you just end up in a wash anyway. So, it disincentivizes people to actually work harder, make more money. The other thing is recalculate that so that... As you are earning more dollars, you are earning much more than you are having to give away, so that people go, I want to go work, because right now, they are not wanting to work.

In fact, I would love a system where we said, actually, charity should be done by local organizations, because, I mean, government has screwed this up. Government has terribly screwed this up. And the fact is... We had a system where, you know, like billionaires are so interested in philanthropy. So, Mrs. Jeff Bezos now, Mackenzie, you know, Scott, whatever her name is now, she's got billions of dollars. She has nothing to do with. Like, why don't you help the poor people that are living in the streets of Seattle?

You know, why don't you do that? Like, all these captains of industry that have so much more money coming out of their ears, you could do a better job of providing housing, food for people. The government is just designed to screw it up, and it sucks, but if it is private philanthropy, the people who give those millions of dollars for this charity or that charity, they usually ask questions like, okay, show me that this is actually going to work, but politicians are different.

They do not care. They said, I voted for a bill that is going to help people. Lottery system. Lottery system. And it is like there is no accountability. But, Josh, I mean... Maybe say the main problem is, like, that is one of them. If our current system does not encourage people to get married, to have children, to own a house, and to advance in industry in their career, we are not going to have a country very soon. We're not going to have enough kids to replace ourselves.

The incentives to work and to innovate are going to disappear, and you can blame whatever you want. Like, whatever you want. I think people too often blame the... The people that are poor or disadvantaged or whatever, because they're in the same system of incentives that everyone else is. So, it's not that they're inherently lazy, it's that they look at the calculus and say, well, this doesn't benefit me at all, and I'm not going to do it. And that's bad. And then there's also, you know, we don't have a capital gains tax right now.

We have people that make billions and billions of dollars that basically pay nothing in taxes because they make all their money through stocks. That's an issue to me, too. So, there's multiple solutions to this, but the reality is, if we're not ordering all of that towards what I just said, what? It's not zero. Capital gains taxes, some rates are zero, but others are 15% and 20%. Right. We incentivize very, very wealthy people. We've talked about that before, though, how we could switch so that I would like to have labor taxed lower and capital taxed higher.

I mean, I've been... I don't think anyone would mount a serious argument that capital doesn't have many advantages over labor right now. I don't think you would. No, I... At least in the tax code, certainly not. I've said this, yeah. So, I just... Yeah, I think... The problem is that we don't have an ideal that we're working towards because we haven't stated said ideal, and I think it would be very simple if you stated it like I stated it, and then tax policy would follow, then business policy would follow.

Think about how stressful it is right now for someone that wants to have another child, or a child in general. It's like a luxury good, or you would only do it because you religiously are convicted to do so, because look at the insurance situation. If you don't have good business insurance, Like, you're about to go up 100%, and having a child is expensive. So, it's like, unless we really start to reorder, we're going to have a huge problem. I look at places like China.

I look at places that are just not going to replace themselves, and that, I think, is the real tragedy, but I honestly don't even know the way through this. Our Congress is not helping. Let's run to Twilight Zone now. Josh, you're up first.

All right. So, Ezra Klein is this lefty, he's a lefty writer, now he's got a podcast on, with the New York Times. And I just, fundamentally, it's like, people, Again, it's almost like, be better at lying. I mean, they lied your face so amazing. It's like, what do the kids call it? Gaslighting? Like, make you feel like you're the one that's insane and crazy when they are? This is what Ezra Klein tweeted out. This is literally what he said.

True. Watch the clip. You can hold on the clip, but let us read what he says above first. This is Ezra Klein. He had interviewed Governor Gavin Newsom of California, and to introduce this clip, this is what Ezra Klein says. Trump often lies about Democrats giving health care to undocumented immigrants.

Next sentence, Ezra Klein says, in California, Newsom actually did it and defends it. Okay, so that means Trump isn't lying. I mean, the leader of the largest state in the entire union gives money in budgets he signs. He gives money to illegal aliens to purchase health care. And by the way, that health care is subsidized by federal tax dollars. So, it does matter. We do pay money to California so they can give.

Free health care to illegal immigrants. So, Trump is not lying. I mean, it just drives me crazy. Trump lies about this. Oh, by the way, we actually do do it in California, and isn't it great? Do you know, are you aware of the cycle, right?

Yes. The circle is like, it's not happening, then it goes to, it is happening, and then, or it's not happening, it should happen. And it's totally happening, and it's good that it's happening, is the full circle. Yes, it does drive me crazy, yes. It's not happening. It's a right-wing conspiracy. It might be happening. It is happening, and it's good. And it's good that it's happening, yeah.

So, again, this is what I'm trying to say, like... How can we have a politics in this country when one half of the political establishment, the Democrats, are completely psycho? Like, just this, I mean, every episode we talk about, I don't want this to be the case. I don't want it to be like, Trump's lying about this, it doesn't happen. Oh, by the way, it does happen.

How do you get away? Then, that they would have 10,000 people driving illegals, driving semi-trucks, and they do not even speak English. This is the Democratic Party. Then, our law enforcement officials were actually trying to track down this illegal alien. Oh, no, no, Democrats are like, no, no, no, no, no, we are not going to cooperate with you, so that he can get in a car accident with six cars. That is the Democratic Party. You know, am I, again, I say this a million times.

I was going to say, because I could follow up with a lot of lies that have been fed this year from the Republican Party. Am I a cheerleader for the Republican Party? No, but I'm not ever going to vote for a party that allows 10,000 people to drive semi-trucks who are illegal aliens who don't speak English, and I'm certainly, I mean, again, do Republicans, you know, fib, stretch the truth? Yes, of course, but this one was so on the nose.

Yeah, that was pretty bad. Okay, mine is, you know, every alumni, I'm sure, hopes to get highlighted by their, you know, college, their alma mater of some kind. So, the Daily Pennsylvanian, did you read this, Josh? This is absolutely insane. Pure Twilight Zone material. Pure. This is one of my favorites I've seen in a long time. So, it's year in review, four Penn alumni who stepped into the national spotlight in 2025. And for the listeners at home, just take a second to think, what famous people, you know, is it going to be someone that invented something?

Maybe they got the cure to something. They're doing charitable work. Yeah, scientific. Yeah, right. Like someone from Penn, you know, they're pretty smart over there. Maybe a World Series champion or something? Yeah, maybe something. Okay, so here are the four.

We have Donald J. Trump. President of the United States. President of the United States. Elon Musk. Luigi Mangione. Both of those are actually kind of legit, actually. Yep, Luigi Mangione. Wait, wait, wait. Hey, you guys just kind of slide past that one. Wait, wait, wait. Luigi who?

And the other one cracked me up, too. Charlie Javis, or Javis, I'm not sure how to pronounce. But the 2013 Wharton graduate, Charlie Javis, was sentenced to just over seven years in federal prison after being found guilty on all charges of fraud and conspiracy. And JP Morgan chases $175 million acquisition of her startup, Frank. Frank, a for-profit financial aid assistant program, was founded by Javis in 2016 to help students navigate the federal financial aid application program and negotiate with colleges to receive more in financial aid.

Got sued. Turned out, she lied about how many active users she had. There was only 300,000. I am deeply sorry. I am asking with all my heart for forgiveness. Now, she is in jail for seven years. What a rap sheet from Pennsylvania. Well, the University of Pennsylvania is bragging about her and Luigi Emanuele, the guy who murdered a healthcare executive. To be fair, all that it says is year in review for Penn alumni who stepped into the national spotlight. So, they did.

To be fair, Luigi did. He killed someone, but he's in the spotlight. Trump, spotlight. So, they, whatever they got cooking at Penn, they got characters over there. Say what you want. Again, this is sort of like the tabloid view. All publicity is good publicity, no matter what. Yeah. What happened is the Democrats are mad that they said, oh, could you put Trump on there? Whereas, you know, normal people are like, why would you put a murderer on there and a crook?

Well, Josh, are you familiar with the Forbes 30 under 30 pipeline to prison theory? Oh, boy. So, pretty much anyone that makes it on Forbes 30 Under 30, like a staggering percentage of them end up in prison. Like, I think Sam Bankman freed Forbes 30 Under 30. He's in prison.

The Elizabeth Holmes lady, the Theranos scandal, she's in prison. Basically, if you end up on Forbes 30 Under 30, there's a pretty good chance that you're going to end up in prison at some point. The SEC is already looking into you.

Yeah, exactly right. There's some time to be provided. I was dying about this highlight. I was like, kind of fair, kind of fair. Not usually what gets highlighted in the alumni spotlight. I'm unfamiliar with the Daily Pennsylvanian. It says it was founded in 1885, so there's some history there.

Anyway, good show, guys. Got a good week of shows behind us. If you want to support us, CatholicVote.org slash champions, where you can do that. Thank you to all of our champions that support us, and then check out zeal.co, zeal.co. Check it out. Let us know what you think. It is going to be the new home for all things Loop, Loop 2.0, and check out Erika's episode of The Deep. Again, $140,000 in new poverty. Good episode there. Okay, so we're going to end in prayer today and send you guys off to a great weekend.

In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Dearest Lady of Guadalupe, fruitful Mother of Holiness, teach me your ways of gentleness and strength. Hear my prayer offered with deep-felt confidence to beg this favor, O Mary, conceived without sin.

I come to your throne of grace to share the fervent devotion of your faithful Mexican children who call you. Under the glorious Aztec title of Guadalupe, the virgin who crushed the serpent, Queen of Martyrs, whose immaculate heart was pierced by seven wounds of grief, help me to walk valiantly amid the sharp thorns thrown across my pathway. Queen of Apostles, aid me to win souls for the sacred heart of my Savior. I plead this through the merits of your merciful Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. St. Thomas Morris, St. Fidelis, our Lord of Guadalupe, pray for us. Good episode, guys. Stay warm, and we'll catch you ready to rock on Monday. Peace.