D.C. Insider Takes Us Inside The Shutdown, FDA approves New Abortion Drug, And Ice Cube Blessings

We're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast. It's Tom Erika and Essential Employee Tom. DC Insider, Tinfoil Tom. He's known by many names. Today, he's Essential Employee Tom. Thank you for taking the time to join the show. Be here. Glad I wasn't furloughed.

So, of course, the LOOPcast brought to you by The Loop. If you're not in, sign up. It's time. We have a great show for you today. I'm actually really excited to hear what's going on on the inside, Tom. Get some tidbits, some notes, what you think about the memes, maybe. What's going on in the White House, why no one is working, and traffic maybe is a little bit lighter. The second one, we had a pretty surprising announcement from the FDA that everyone was talking about last night on our internal Slack, and I'm looking for some more context from Erika on what's going on there.

And then we have good news. We have Twilight Zone. We might even get into a little bit of the Gaza Peace Plan. A lot of those timelines are going to start coming up, and we're going to share our thoughts, but it's going to be a great Friday show. We're going to keep it a little bit tight today. We've got a little bit of a timeline, so Erika, if you can get into why we can do the show today. Yes, so many thanks to our first sponsor, Nazareth Organics.

It is challenging to foster healthy and radiant skin in a world full of synthetic chemicals and toxins. Wouldn't it be nice to find nourishing ingredients in God's own creation, sourcing their ingredients from Israel to Italy to the ancient Zechstein seabed, Nazareth organics, handcrafts, facial moisturizers, sunscreens, diaper creams, and more, using pure and natural ingredients? If you're wondering why Tom Pagasic looks a little pale and ashen today, it's because he did not use his Nazareth organics this morning. No, Mom. Many of their balms are tallow-based, coming from a local Catholic farm.

Rich in fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acids that strengthen the skin, tallow has been used for centuries. One of their many bestsellers is a magnesium tallow blend that relaxes muscles for peaceful sleep. Tom could also use some of that. Many toddlers in this house. Safe for pregnancy and children, it makes for an awesome sleep aid for the whole family. The best part of this business, though, is that it is dedicated to the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. For a website, To packaging, every sustainably sourced product points back to the faith and the ultimate source of creation.

Visit nazareth-organics.com and use code LOOPcast for a 10% discount at checkout. Don't let dry and irritated skin keep you from finding peace. That's nazareth-organics.com, code LOOPcast. Listen, we even got my wife taunting me in the chat with my phthalo bomb somewhere. Mrs. Pogo is in the chat.

That's brutal. She's making fun of my skin right now, just using up all that bomb. She's asking you to actually lather up right this second, I believe. She's got more products in your bathroom, you or her. Yeah, I'll plead the fifth on that one, Tom. I'll plead the fifth. Well, you probably have a couple of brushes and combs in there too, right? You got to keep... Oh, and the hair gel, and trust me, I have a little corner, and then my wife has the rest of it.

Right, I would love to see tinfoil Tom's vanity mirror set up with the light bulbs, and you know, it's not easy looking that good, Tom. I get it. For sure, man. Alright. Well, Tom, speaking of getting ready, a lot of people are not getting ready in D.C. We have the government shutdown clock from the White House. Now, I actually have to ask, too, the social media from the White House has been quite active. Is that just love of the game, Tom?

Are they not getting paid for that? We see Democrats have shut down the government from the White House account. They're making it pretty clear who they think is to blame here. And if you scroll through, it's just all blue states. So, let's start first, Tom. What's the real story here on why the government shut down from your perspective? And we can go into a little bit of the memes after, but what's the real story?

I mean, you have to go way back to that Congress is just basically ineffective and has been for decades. They haven't passed bills in regular order since, I think, 1997, which I'm pretty sure is before you were born.

Pretty close. Not me. But, of course, because you were born like 10 years after that. Right. But more recently. Um, they missed a deadline. These deadlines come up every year, so the Republicans, with some Democrats, passed what is called a clean CR, and this, mostly, most times when a politician tells you this is a clean, continuing resolution, meaning we're taking all the money that we had before and we're just pushing it forward, most of the time when they say that, they're lying.

They're always attaching things to it. This one is actually a clean CR, one that was passed during Joe Biden's time. And one that Chuck Schumer voted for this past spring, but now the Democrats, mainly, I think, is Chuck Schumer. It is purely politics that the Democrats, just as sometimes conservatives would complain about Republicans, like, we want to see you at least fight.

The Democrats want to see the Democrats fight, except if this is them fighting, I mean, we might as well start playing taps now for the Democratic Party. Yeah. If you're in politics, and you can't know that you're going to be part of a meme at some point, I mean, you just don't have the maracas to be in politics.

All right, I got to ask while you wear the hat. I don't understand. How did that start, this sombrero meme? How did that start? I think it might have started back when he was doing stuff on the border, President Trump, and he just liked stuff like that. I mean, if you go even way back, wasn't it Cinco de Mayo, and he was in his office in New York City? Oh, one of my favorite pictures of all time. Eating his taco, yeah.

Loving Taco Bell. Thank you, Taco Bell. So, is it offensive? Yeah, but is it funny? I don't know. I don't know. So, okay, and then I have to ask Tom, too, because we spent time in the last episode, and there's kind of been some clips that have came out since. The sticking point of it being over healthcare, the left and the right have now kind of spun out there. Yes, this is over giving healthcare to illegal immigrants. The right has now said, No, it is not.

Or no, the right side it is, the left side it's not. Add me some clarity. Is there actually truth to that claim? Is this what it was shut down over? They're both right, if that's possible, and I want to give a shout out to not only CatholicVote, but Susan B. Anthony, Pro-Life America, this new group out there, Epic, Paragon Health, who were arguing for months that these subsidies, COVID subsidies that are set to end at the end of this year, are going to be a major problem.

Because they're full of fraud and abuse, they pay for abortions, pay for trans surgeries, however, your prices are going to go up. If these subsidies are taken out, and that's all. Republicans worry about getting reelected, so everybody knew this was going to be a major problem, possibly an embarrassment for Republicans. I would have conversations with Republican leadership, people I trust, and they're like, oh, no, no, it's not going to be a problem.

I was in a meeting last week where it started with leadership staff saying, oh, this isn't going to be a problem, and then 45 minutes of the meeting was about. It's about the non-problem, right? Right. So, it is about health care. The Democrats, I will concede one point, is one reason why they're saying we need to do it now, is because while the insurance rates won't go up until January, they go out like mid-November. Right. But that still gives us time, if they were to sign the current CR right now, that still gives them time to try to negotiate something.

I do not think it is something that should be negotiated, but I… Most of the Republican offices I talk to, they tell me, this is not going to be renewed. It shouldn't be renewed. It's horrible. It's horrible. Oh, by the way, it is going to be renewed.

Yeah. I think, for me, it drives me nuts that the insurance premium, the rate's going up so drastically. And I've seen a couple of projections, like this one person, this one woman on Twitter, she is paying $325 premium right now. And she did the calculation. She's looking at like $826 come January. That's something that could just... Totally bankrupt families, right? So, it is a huge issue that these subsidies are running out. What drives me absolutely bonkers is that the Republicans would take any of the responsibility for this when this is really just Obamacare coming home to roost, right?

We knew Obamacare would do this. Prices did go up. You can see all the graphs online. Everyone's reporting it. New York Times, CNN, you look at the graph. It is like a straight line. Up the hill, since Obamacare was passed, as far as premiums go for people, and the solution was, let us just keep throwing subsidies at it to make the prices come down artificially so people feel like it is not that bad, and now that the COVID subsidies are set to expire, they are left holding the bag, and something is going to break at some point.

And Erika brings up a great point, because when Obamacare first passed, it was passed with no Republican votes, all Democrats. And when these COVID subsidies were passed during COVID, again, it was passed all by Democrats, no Republicans joining in. Except now it is going to be the Republic, and that is just how I think. It is the party in power, right? Right.

The Democrats are probably very happy, and I do not want to make them sound callous or cruel, but they probably are looking forward to these things expiring, because then that will put them back in power. So… Where do we even begin here? If I could just crystallize what's going on. Obamacare was this promise that we're all going to get affordable, you can keep your provider, etc., etc. All it did was balloon rates, because any time you get the government involved, things get more expensive.

And then, in order to prevent it from ballooning further, we voted on subsidies, Democrats voted on subsidies, to give people more money to bring down the cost, which of course inflates our dollar. Now it's going to be more expensive, and the subsidy will be gone, and now it's going to be unbearably expensive. So, I don't even know, at this point, what's the solution? Just some type of radical reform to how we handle insurance? Because now it's become a political football, where it's not even about getting to the heart of said issue.

Is there even a way to get to the heart of this issue? It obviously affects everyone now at this point. Well, these subsidies pay for abortions and also pay for trans surgeries. Right. So, I don't know if there's a solution to that that the Democrats would go along with. A solution to the subsidies themselves, currently, like, if you're making $300,000 a year, you're eligible for these subsidies, and that's probably not fair. Right. Trying to balance it out and trying to... Wean people off of these subsidies might be the route to go.

Sorry, real quick clarification point. If you have group insurance through your employer, say you make $300K a year, this wouldn't even affect you anyway. This is all for people that get it through the healthcare marketplace and Obamacare. I believe so, except I do think the market plays off of each other. Okay. So, it would in some ways, even if indirectly. Well, it seems like another measure that we could take that would make a lot of sense would be to scrub the system, right, and to find people who are not eligible, who are still drawing down on the Medicare and Medicaid, to find people who aren't American citizens who shouldn't be drawing.

...from this to find fraud, people who are dead who are still on it, right? Because we know that the system is rife with duplicates and all this, and that the Biden administration, actually, my understanding is they removed some of the ways that we could actually make sure the money is going to Americans who need it most, if that's accurate. And that's part of this argument that, okay, the Democrats want to shut down the government so they can keep sending... Money, health care to illegal immigrants, and they just don't want to clean it up.

And it's funny how Democrats, many in the media, are saying, oh, that's not true. Yet, if you go to the legislation that they keep on voting on, except for three courageous Democrats. It has a specific section that repeals a part of the Big Beautiful Bill that stopped illegals from getting help. So, if it is not happening, why are you repealing people stopping it? Well, and Ro Khanna kind of let the cat out of the bag on CNN the other day, because he's being interviewed, and he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, that's a total lie, total lie.

We aren't sending money to illegal immigrants. I mean, at least 90% of the money is being given to Americans only, and the rest, and you're like, wait, but that leaves 10% of the money. Going to non-Americans, and then he apparently got a dressing down from his party for just Yeah, I mean, this is incredibly frustrating because, I mean, there's so much frustration over this mess that we have in terms of healthcare in America. So, I think you can do two things at the same time.

You can make sure that it only goes to people that All right, there's my removal on my back. It happens one time. It's always good to have a spare time. Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Tom. Yes, we have a spare time this time. We're good. With a sombrero. It's frustrating on multiple levels. You can remove people that you shouldn't be getting in the first place and make sure that's fraud proof. That's great. But at the same time, there needs to be some type of larger reform so that we can't get in a situation where all of a sudden your insurance premium is going to go up $500 and your coverage is subpar.

And it's, I don't know, the way that it all interacts is so frustrating. It just feels like. I mean, what's not productive is shutting down the government. It feels like nothing can get done. It's politically unpopular. It's not helpful to anyone to keep it moving, and I guess just because we have a tight show today, sorry to push it forward a little bit, but I know that, Tom, I don't know if you know Russ Vo personally. I know now it feels like people are kind of like cracking their knuckles to be like, okay, we can put the screws on.

A couple of things I've seen so far is I think Trump is freezing infrastructure money to go to the state of New York. And there's a couple other, the firings, mass firings have been talked about. So, how much truth is there to this Russ Vaux, you know, boogeyman, he can do all these things when the government is shut down, and that will really bring Democrats to the table? Is that actually true, or is that just kind of a messaging thing?

I don't think Russ will mind if I say, Russ is a friend, and I've known him for years, back in his days when he was at Heritage Action. He can be a scary dude, but he's a scary dude because he's so, so smart, and he thinks about these things.

He's the type of guy, like, when he tells a joke, you're scratching your head, like, was that a joke? But he's thought these things out, and that's why he's scary. And a number of us who are friends of his, and, like, when we talk and everything, part of us are just, like, jealous.

Russ is everything I just said, but he's also a very good guy. He's a good father to his kids. He is not Darth Vader, be it rehabilitated Darth Vader or previous Darth Vader. And for those who don't know, he's the director of Office of Management and Budget, correct? Russ is not Darth Vader. Right. I'm not quite sure how many nerds listen to the Luke cast. Yeah, yeah.

But he has thought this out, and if he's going after blue states first. That is politics. I am not really that concerned about that. Russ, knowing Russ, he looks at… Why is healthcare so expensive? Why is education so expensive? It's because the federal government has gotten too involved in all of these things, and it drives up prices. And Russ sees that, and Russ really is, like the organization he founded and then left to work with Center for Renewing America, and that really describes Russ.

Russ is interested in renewing America. Making it so that it's fair and balanced for all, and that his kids and his grandkids aren't going to be swimming in debt or be owned by the Chinese. That sounds fantastic. Admirable goals. Let's do it. Sorry to put you on the prediction block here, but do you think any major actions will come down from Russ during the shutdown, or will it just be posturing?

Russ is not really a posturer, so I do think some major ones, I think everything he does and everything he has done so far will end up in court. I think he's winning more than he's losing in a lot of these court battles, and a lot of it is going towards the end of the year to something called pocket rescissions.

Where the president just says, I am not going to spend any more on that, puts it back into the treasury. So, I think we will, especially if this goes on even more, we will see some action being taken, because that is what the president and Russ said they would do.

So, I think we would. What that action is going to be, I would love to know. Russ has a superstar team all around him, and they stick by each other, and they know when to say something and when not to. Okay.

Guess we'll have to wait and see. On to B Block here, Erika. I need some more info. So, if you just look at this headline here, shocking. FDA approves new abortion drug, and we got a big smile on the face of Bobby Kennedy here. Does he have a Zin in here, too? I just have to say, I just have to ask, do we have a sponsor for this segment? Oh, yeah. I believe we do. Yeah. We'll get into the Zin possible pouch in RFK's mouth.

That's your teaser. Zin is not the sponsor, just so we're clear. No, no. No, no, no, no, not. Thank you, Marcus, for not putting that on our docket, but we do have a really great organization, Home Title Lock. Did you know that American homeowners have over $32 trillion in equity, and criminals are targeting it with a growing scam the FBI calls house stealing? Scammers can transfer your title out of your name using a one-page document they file at the county. Then they can take out loans against it or even sell it behind your back.

And the scariest part? You won't find out about it until collection or foreclosure notices start arriving in your mailbox, leaving you with a financial and legal nightmare. Nobody needs that. The best way to protect your equity is with Home Title Locks, exclusive million-dollar triple lock protection. This service offers 24-7 monitoring, urgent alerts, and, if fraud should occur, their U.S.-based restoration team.

Whoa, I was going to cough. We'll spend up $1 million, up to $1 million, to fix the fraud and restore your title. So, when was the last time you checked on your title? Essential employee, Tom, I'm asking you. If you were like me before I started doing these ads, the answer is never, and that is exactly what the scammers are counting on. The good news is we have partnered with Home Title Lock to offer you all 60 days for just $1.

Click the link in the description below or over in the chat, and use our promo code LOOP60 to get 60 days for just $1, and you will also get a free title history report to ensure you're not already a victim, and make sure you check out that million-dollar triple lock protection details when you get there. Click the link below or in the chat. Promo code LOOP60.

Excellent. On to FDA, Zinn, and RFK Jr. I think this was surprising to a lot of people because it seemed like when he was going to get into office that he would do a review of this, not, say, authorize a new one. So, is there any… Subtext behind the scenes here. Josh Hawley tweet, this is shocking. FDA has just approved another chemical abortion drug when the evidence shows chemical abortion drugs are dangerous and even deadly for the mother, and of course, 100% lethal to the child.

What's going on here? Yeah, this is not good at all, and actually, Tom's going to have more insight into this for us, but yes, in fact, we have verified the US FDA has approved a generic version of that abortion drug, mifepristone. It was Quietly rubber-stamped, according to Daily Signal, by the agency in a letter on Tuesday with reports only surfacing of its approval yesterday. So, we didn't find out about this until yesterday. This was definitely a surprise because we had just had RFK telling us September 19th that the FDA was actually reviewing Mifepristone's safety, this following the Ethics and Public Policy Center's.

Cracker Jack report on the fact that the FDA, they approved this drug saying, oh, it's like 1% adverse effects on women, when in fact, insurance claims show us that over 10%, close to 11% of women who take this drug have ended up with some kind of adverse effect.

So, this was not great. We got a follow-up tweet from RFK himself last night saying that this approval was required by federal law when they showed that the generic form of Mifepristone actually is the same as the on-brand Mifepristone. I don't know. Tom, are you buying it? What's going on? I call it complete BS. On that, the FDA, especially if they're reviewing, because the process for misopristone, dating back to 1999, it was a European drug and being pushed by Hillary Clinton and politicizing the FDA.

Not that the FDA isn't politically handled to begin with, so it got proved under the Clintons right before they left office. And throughout the years, during the Obama years, and then, unfortunately, even during some of the Bush years and stuff. Things got taken away, like adverse reporting, because it used to be, I mean, with these drugs, it is not just death that we are afraid for the women. It is also internal bleeding and things along those lines that no longer had to be reported.

Right. And every step of the way is politicized. There has been an ongoing court case since the year 2000. Against the approval of Mr. Pristone, it would have been very easy for the FDA to just say, look, as long as this regime is going on, the last thing we want to do is flood the market with generic brand abortion drugs. Right. Because this same week also, there were a whole bunch of news reports. I don't know if it's Guttmacher, Planned Parenthood's research buddy or whatever.

It is. Put out that how what they call clinical abortions, but abortion, facility abortion, and in-person abortions are going down. But what they don't point out is that about 60 to 70 percent of abortions nowadays. That is not the full story, because about 60% or 70% of the abortion nowadays are done through the male and with the abortion pill, putting more women at risk and certainly killing babies and also opening up the door for what we have seen in a number of states now of women ingesting the pill.

Without knowing it, because of a boyfriend or a husband or something like that sneaking into their food. Well, and again, this double standard for anything related to reproductive medicine, especially abortion and this drug. If there was any other drug on the market that we had verifiable evidence...

From insurance companies and hospitals themselves, that 11% of people who took it were having adverse effects like hemorrhaging, infection, sepsis, or death. It would be pause. It would be like, okay, pause the market instead of saying, let's approve a generic form of it while we look into this, right?

Again, it's just an example, and Josh talks about this all the time, of how when it comes to abortion, they are not held to the same standard. The science doesn't matter because it's not science rules, it's abortion rules. I'm disappointed, to say the least. That's the mild British way of putting it.

This has to be rectified immediately, because more women are going to die. Not very Maha, if you ask me. No, like the opposite of Maha. Not at all, really. And if you talk to some of the Maha movement, I have not talked directly to RFK Jr., but the mean siblings and everybody like that, they're with us on the abortion pill, because they understand what it does, not only to the woman's body, but thanks to Students for Life, we know what it does to the environment as well, as we're flushing these pills, as well as the babies into the water.

So, it is a blow, and it really, to me, and I know it's early, except I think it could really affect President Trump's claim of being the most pro-life president in history. Absolutely. Because what he's doing is just opening the market up even more. The first thing NARAL and all the abortion groups have put out said, of course they had to do this, because it just proves how safe this drug is. Right. Just like handing them ammo. Yep.

Just handing them ammo. I mean, so yeah, we'll keep you updated on that. Yeah, literally. So, yeah, we'll keep you updated on that front, but we're moving to good news now. It's Friday. Let's bring it up. Let's bring it up. Okay, well, this is like a sad news, but with like really good news. I had this picture come across. Okay, so as everyone knows, Nigeria is, the Catholics in Nigeria, Christians in Nigeria, among the most persecuted on earth per capita. It is the front lines of Islamicism, but this picture came across this video from Agulonu Eustace.

I am sorry if I totally killed that. Thank you. But this is a first communion of Catholic children in Nigeria, and they're waiting to receive our Lord. I just, this is how we want to live, right? And yes, we're not expecting Boko Haram to break down our doors, but the beauty, and the tweet here that has this, it says, despite intense persecution and astounding Ninety-four percent of Nigerian Catholics attend Sunday Mass regularly, ranking the highest in the world. So, you have the most persecuted group of Catholics in the world are also the ones who attend Mass the most in the whole world.

That is a trend, for sure. You be that 94%. You be that 100%. You should be at Mass 100% of the time. How good is going to save the Catholic Church? Yes. Yeah. I'd retweet. I am right there. Retweet. All right, tinfoil Tom, we've got questions for you. I've seen your good news. We talked about the Southern Poverty Law Center, something I know you have a very personal experience with, and Cash Patel's FBI cutting all ties to the SPLC.

I heard that you worked, it was you, Kelsey, and someone else, Tommy, I think, here, actually briefed the FBI on something in regards to this. Could you tell me a little bit more about that? And it was a friendly audience, and as you mentioned, I have a few white whales in DC. Southern Poverty Law Center is certainly towards the top of it, in that they were responsible for guiding the young man who 12 years ago, came into my office when I was at FRC with the intent of killing everybody in the building, or at least 50 people, because he came in, his knapsack had three things in it.

It had 50 rounds of ammunition, 20 Chick-fil-A sandwiches to place in the mouths of those he shot and killed, and a map of where FRC was. That was from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Oh, my gosh. On their hate map, they gave the exact address where we were. Southern Poverty Law Center, as a result of that case, it was the first domestic terrorism case done in D.C., and SBLC was named in that case as being connected to domestic terrorism. But still, year after year, Both Republicans and Democrats would use the SPLC, either through contract or to give them legitimacy by partnering with them.

So, we gave this spiel, I think, to a very friendly office at DOJ. I am sure they probably knew what was going on at ADL at the time. Maybe this was already in the works, but I do think CatholicVote helped push that over the edge.

Because I think it is a very easy target for us to go after. With the Charlie Kirk shooting, because Charlie Kirk, of course, was involved. Well, you referenced ADL, too. They also cut ties with ADL, because they actually had Turning Point on their hate map. I think similar extremist hate map. So, they cut ties with both the ADL and the SPLC, which, great starts. And I also saw the founder of Wikipedia was talking about green-listed and black-listed sources. So, if you're from, say, Daily Signal, it can never be used as a source on Wikipedia, but they used SPLC.

And they use ADL. Yeah, the Federalist, Sean Davis, was ripping on that. He's been great on all the censorship stuff, but I guess people don't... I mean, Tom, you know it personally. Obviously, your life was directly threatened by SPLC, but the influence, the soft influence that the ADL and SPLC has enjoyed on law enforcement, especially at the federal level in our country, is kind of almost hard to even summarize. They're used as the definitive source of truth. For who is, yeah.

And it is not just there, banking. Banks can say they do not want to work with you because you are on this hate list. You are on the ADL list, right, yeah. And that has happened to a number of organizations. Some organizations, like at FRC, when I was at the Family Research Council, we live on our media hits. We do not live on them, except that is how we get our message out, is through media hits. We were blackballed by a number of media outlets because we were on this hate list.

Right next to the KKK, right? Right. And it's... It's just amazing how much influence this group had, and it was so obvious, because the Muslim Brotherhood isn't on their list. Antifa wasn't, I believe. Antifa isn't. Well, there's people, there's an attorney that was employed by the Southern Poverty Law Center that took part in a riot in Atlanta. In Atlanta, with Antifa.

What are we... What are we doing? At the same time, they were being sued by former employees for racism and feminism as well. I mean, you cannot make this up. Yeah, I mean, it's almost like you can't even make it up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, same with the ADL. I think they're like, like saying crisis king is like anti, you know, they, I know a lot of Jewish people that actually don't like the ADL because they're very left-leaning and they just make life horrible for people that are Jewish and like...

I don't know. It's frustrating that I saw people brought up that they have the connection, the FBI and the ADL are in the same building, and I know that there's a lot of stuff out there on it. I think as a first step, I mean, this is a great first step, and then also, I would like to see that replaced with some alternative sources so that people can actually have a good. Reference point to who is actually extreme and who isn't.

I don't think anyone should be in the hate speech business, but it's just been so one-sided for so long as to who holds the keys to whether or not you're as a part of polite society. So, are there even alternatives out there right now, Tom, to say SPLC and ADL? Well, graphic vote does have its tracker. We do. We have our tracker.

But it's really, I don't know if there are, and SPLC, I think, has been dirty from the beginning. ADL, I'd like to think at the beginning, really had good intentions, and the SPLC faked good intentions by going after KKK, and to do that. But then decided almost immediately to start going after groups that disagree with leftist ideology. ADL, it took them a little longer to get there. ADL has some pretty sketchy beginnings.

I won't get into that fully, but yeah, both. I know more about SPLC, so that's just a shame, and it is probably just the nature of the game that we might not. I don't think we'll ever have one that we can fully trust. Right. It's going to get consumed by either the right or the left. For sure. Fact-checking. Okay, good news. I just had a fun one. I don't know if anyone's a fan of the Red Clay Strays. I actually have heard some of their songs, but I didn't know too much about them personally.

I thought this was just a really nice moment here on the Rogan Podcast, so here we go. I think you've got to have your mindset correct, man. And for us, it is a God thing. If you are just chasing worldly things, I guess, and worried about me and how I am getting done wrong or how, you know, he is getting on my nerves, and that is what dictates your decisions, I can see, you know, you are going to walk away from that because people suck and people are always going to fail you at the end of the day.

But when you turn it into a, I am not doing this for me, I am doing this to fulfill my calling that God is giving me. And then it becomes a selfless thing. You know, he who is greatest among you, let him be your servant, is what just always pops in my head. So, it's like, if I want to make this thing work, how can I serve these guys? You know, when we'd have to share a hotel room, we would all five of us be like, I'll sleep on the floor.

No, you're good. You take the bed. I'll sleep on the floor. We'd have to fight over who gets the floor. You know what I mean? And then, once it becomes a selfless thing instead of a selfish thing, you're not, I don't know, and when everybody shares that mindset, we're all worried about one another, I don't really see how you could break up.

Well, that is very unusual, and that sounds fantastic, because that is kind of the opposite of most rock and roll bands. Like most rock and roll bands, it is all about, you know, the lead singer or the lead guitarist, and who is the most famous, who gets the most chicks, and who gets the most attention. Yeah, we don't care about any of that. So, where did this mindset start with you? How did you guys develop this mindset?

Is that how you grew up? I grew up that way. Yeah, my mother used to read us the Bible as children and stuff, so we always grew up knowing about Jesus and everything. So, that is pretty much what led me to make the leap, I guess. You know what I mean? I never had parents that were pushing me to go to college or pushing me to do something. They were just like, have a relationship with God. That is really the only thing that I got pushed by my parents.

I have always been blessed or cursed with kind of looking at all this as temporary, you know? What is the point in it kind of thing? You cannot take any of it with you, and there is nothing new under the sun. It is all chasing wind. What is the point in all this?

Wow. I'm going to go, like, buy their album. They're really good. All right. I'm pumped. I've never heard of them. Super unique, very artistic. He kind of looks like Elvis a little bit, too, with the hair. Yeah. I didn't know that.

It's like, some people would say it's country, some people would say it's folk. He's got, his sound sounds very vintage. Like, I don't know how to describe it. They have a very cool vibe about them. But I just loved hearing, like, and even from the parent perspective, too, I think it's so, I almost feel like there's just this ever-present pressure to, like, well, your kid has to go to the best college, right, or he's got to be on the best sports team or whatever, and that's what most people would say their parents push them towards.

I mean, what a cool, shout out to the mom for just being like, no, I want you to know God, like, and if you need a If anyone needs a projection on, you know, hopefully what I plan to do with my kids, it's like, that is the most important. I want them to know their faith. I want them to love their faith, be good and virtuous people before anything else. That's where the pressure will be. I think there's a lot of ways to do that using sports or education or whatever, but if it's not at service of that, it's...

It gets kind of empty at the end. What's the point? Right, what's the point of it all? He articulated that in a very, I think, sweet way from personal experience. And can I just get an AI of that voice and accent? Because I want it to talk to me all the time. That accent was awesome. Can I bottle it? Red clay strays. Go check them out. I really enjoy their music.

Okay, getting into, I promised this in the intro, here it comes. So, we have the, we're a little bit late on this, but there was a Gaza peace plan put forth by Trump, and there was 20, 20, 21 points. I tried to summarize as much as I can because we don't have complete time here, but I'll go through the quick, dang, did I not put this in the right place?

And I just want to point out, yes, this came down on Monday, but the reason we have waited this long is because we're hoping that Hamas would accept it by now, but we're just going to go ahead not knowing what the outcome will be from this plan. Yeah, and there's going to be updates on this. So, essentially, the first eight points are to demilitarize Gaza.

Essentially solve the problem of Hamas. I believe in the plan it was even offered potential amnesty if people were to step down, passage out. And then the next 12 was about setting up this, Erika described it as the League of Nations. I think my description was more the situation in, was it Iraq? When we had like the joint force there.

Neither worked out super great. I have high hopes. My biggest issue with it is that Tony Blair is somehow going to be involved, who I think, by all stretch of the imagination, one of the most corrupt politicians of all time, who's lied to America to get them involved and then continued to cash in going around the Middle East and whitewashing a lot of terrible behavior in the Middle East. So, we'll see what happens there. But where else are we?

Yeah, Erika, if you continue, I'm sorry. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so like the first eight points of it are the more predictable, like these are the good things, and the amazing thing about the plan, really, that stands out is that unlike the earlier plans, this involves the signing on of all major players in the Middle East, including like Syria and Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt got on board, Turkey, like this was... This was pretty incredible that you had so many people signing on to this, and it included things like the cessation of fighting, release of Israeli hostages, demilitarization, deradicalization, and reconstruction of Gaza, and after those first sort of eight points, then it got a little weird, like you were saying, they set up this sort of, like, we're going to have this international...

Trump's going to be like the president of a board that's going to involve all the stakeholders, I think. The president of the board, Palestinian Authority, and then also Tony Blair is going to chair this board. The PLA is involved, which is why they signed on as well. Basically, it isolated Hamas in a way that Hamas has not been isolated before. They have always been able to run to Qatar or to run to the PLA for assistance or shelter or something, and now they are very isolated, and truly the ball is in their court.

The chilling thing about the way that this was rolled out, of course, is that Benjamin met Netanyahu and Trump are at the White House, and Netanyahu says, we've agreed to this deal. If Hamas does not take this deal, and if they take it, but then they violate it, we will finish the job. And that's when we got this crazy tweet from the Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz.

And we just got to read the tweet. Yeah, we'll read the tweet. It's shocking. So. The IDF has completed in recent hours the capture of Netserim Axis up to the Gaza coast, effectively dividing Gaza between the north and the south. This tightens the encirclement around Gaza City, and anyone leaving it southward will be required to pass through the IDF's inspection checkpoints. This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself, facing the IDF's ongoing operations at full force.

Those who remain in Gaza will be considered terrorists and terror supporters. The IDF is prepared for all possibilities and is determined to continue on its operations until all hostages are returned and Hamas is disarmed on the path to ending the war. Potential issue with this is that Catholic leaders have said that they can't leave the church in Gaza, that they're taking care of people that are injured, cannot leave themselves.

Or specifically the missionaries of charity, so the Mother Teresa sisters who are still there, they've said they won't leave. Because they're there to serve the poorest of the poor, the people who cannot get out. So, basically, the IDF is implicating them as, you know, you will... Terrorists are terrorist supporters, which kind of reminds me of, like, the worst rhetoric of all this, back when the church in Gaza was bombed, the Catholic church, and there's a lot of people online saying that they're, you know, somehow complicit in terrorist supporters, even though they were housing all the people that were injured and Christians and still doing mass there.

So, I think... If I were to summarize, and there's even now, so the best advice I would give to try to navigate your way through this is actually go to Israeli media itself. Times of Israel, there's a lot of different options for you, because even, for example, Benjamin Netanyahu, right after meeting with Trump, he turned around and then gave an address in Arabic, and what he said in Arabic was actually different than what happened in English. So, it's hard to parse through it.

I think at this point, Like, any opportunity for peace. I know Pope Leo even praised this. It's just been such a... A crushing, devastating war. A lot of civilians have been killed. That's really disturbing to me personally, and I think a lot of people are just really at this point, like, it's time to wrap it up. There needs to be a final solution. This solution's been put forth. It's up to Hamas to accept this. I know it's been challenging, especially when Qatar was struck in Doha, when the Hamas negotiators were there.

Trump actually put a phone to Netanyahu's ear and said, I apologize for that, and he did. So, Middle Eastern diplomacy, really challenging. But I think, hope for this plan, I think a lot of people feel this way. I'm having a hard time, I guess, speaking about this issue in a way that, you know, at least from American, I guess maybe this is what I'd like to say about this, is really like, Any issue about Israel is not about the Jewish people as a whole.

So, like, the Jews, period, typically is thrown around. And sometimes I think on accident, sometimes I think on purpose, but the Jewish people are really divided on Israel currently, as are many non-Jews, as are many Catholics right now. And the last time I brought this up on the show, I had a lot of people really jumping down my throat for my really honest American take on what's going on. And from my perspective, it's really about actions of a foreign government in American interests.

And we need to be able to have that kind of honest, sane conversation about it. I'm already preempting all kinds of craziness coming when this plan comes down. So, one thing I think is not helping, and I would like to immediately call out, is censorship and dishonesty.

So, for example, Netanyahu went and had this to say right after the UN speech to American influencers that he gathered. And I'll just roll the clip here. Question, influencers. You said, you talked about the woke right. You said, I call it the woke right. That is a brilliant observation. The woke right, because these people, you know, they are not any different from the woke left. I mean, they are insane. But they are actually meeting on some of the things. And what we have to do is we have to secure that part.

Of our, the base of our support in the United States, that is being challenged systematically. A lot of this is done with money. Money of NGOs, vast. Money of governments, vaster. Okay? We have to fight back. How do we fight back? Our influencers. I think you should also talk to them if you have a chance. To that community, they're very important. And secondly, we're going to have to use the tools of battle. You know, the weapons change over time. You can't fight today with swords.

That doesn't work very well, okay? And you can't fight with cavalry. That doesn't work very well. And you have these new things, you know, like drones, things like that. I won't get into that, but we have to fight with the weapons that... Well, the other side is the applying to the battlefields in which we are engaged, and the most important ones are the social media. The most important purchase that is going on right now is class… Followers. Tiktok. Tiktok. Tiktok. Tiktok.

Number one. Number one. I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential. And the other one, what is the other one that is most important? X. X. Very good. And, you know, so we have to talk to Elon. He's not an enemy. He's a friend. We should talk to him. Now, if we can get those two things, we get a lot. And I could go on on other things, but that's not the point right now. We have to fight the fight.

If I could just immediately say, from an American perspective, a foreign leader. ...who is completely dependent on American tax dollars to exist, said that anyone who opposes my nation's interests as a Nazi, by referring to them as the Woke Reich, is not helpful, especially irresponsible considering you're the leader of Israel. And the only way...

From his perspective, is to wage this war on free speech, and TikTok, I thought, was supposed to be the scare was China, right? Like, China is going to get your information or whatever, and it has now been transferred in the hands of Larry Ellison, who is becoming a media monopoly overnight. He now owns American interest in there, and quickly, we have seen censorship on criticism of the nation of Israel in general. The fact also that we have these influencers are getting paid up to $7,000 per post directly from the budget.

Israel's $150 million foreign influence budget laundered kind of through different organizations, but eventually getting to these influencers who now get assembled here. It does not pass the smell test, and it feels almost exactly like what Democrats did the last cycle, where they're like, well, if we censor COVID and gender stuff and political speech and our political opponents, and we buy influencers to push our methods, that's going to work. And it didn't. And again, I have no issue with Israel.

The resignation, etc. When you do things like try to annex the West Bank or the settler stuff, when we see what's happening in Gaza, just online, paying people to come out and front that is pretty gross, especially when they're Americans taking this money. I mean, this is direct foreign influence of another country. So, I'm really trying to, as articulately as I can say, I think everyone sees this. And everyone knows what's going on, and it's not going to help your cause.

If anything, it's going to make it worse, and it's going to contribute to this, like, decrease in public visibility of Israel. So, as an American, I really hope for peace in that region. I don't like when foreign countries are running influence operations just brazenly, outspokenly, through other Americans. I think that's kind of gross, and I just would advise probably not to do that. I don't think it's going to work. I think it's going to make things a lot worse. Yeah, I think we can separate a couple of threads here, that just from the point of view of political expediency, Netanyahu, he's a smart player.

I mean, he's survived how many elections where it was that close, and then a war happens or something, and he makes it. He is a very shrewd politician, and in the question of expediency, it is important. For them, for Israel, they need the American public support, which has been shaken by how the war has played out, and part of that is controlling the narrative, and the two big players right now, especially with the younger generations, are social media. So, he's right.

That's accurate. It's also true that... We spend millions, if not billions of dollars, combating exactly these kinds of tactics from regimes like China, because as Americans, like you said, Tom, we recognize that we don't want foreign nations. Basically, like dictating to our young people how they are to think about these interests, and so... Yeah, and organically doing so, providing talking points, and it's... Right. Yeah, it's shocking that other people are not frustrated by this as an American. Right, so your sympathies can be with Israel, your sympathies can be with Palestine, they can be with, you know, it's all like this very confusing thing.

You can have different takes on this. But where I think we all should be in agreement is that if a foreign government is this tentacled into the influences on American youth and how to think about this, there is something wrong. They should be held to the same standard that we would hold a China. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, Tom, sorry, what do you have to say? Now, this is not an issue I've been following a lot, except I do think it's one we need to tread carefully also when we're talking about possibly, because you think the Ukraine doesn't use American influencers?

Yeah, I think that's disgusting, too. I think this blanket, yeah. If you're going to address it, it needs to be beyond Israel, and also it needs to address because... Maybe they, if they use their own money, which in these cases, it seems like they're not, when we're talking about free speech, they're allowed to do that.

So, and it goes back to the deeper issue on social media, which is, don't need to get into this, like the parental involvement and should kids be on this, etc. But, I mean, I'm the oldest person, I think, on this podcast. I might be older than the two of you combined.

No. There's been so many times that we've talked about peace in the Middle East, and it's just gone out of our grasp. Many people have won Nobel Peace Prizes in my lifetime for solving the Middle East problem. I was recounting this for Togo.

I watched Bill Clinton be like, piece of it, yeah, piece of it. Tony Blair's made a lot of money off of all of this, by the way. I mean, that's, yeah, it's just frustrating from our perspective. There's always going to be the grifters and things like that trying to take advantage. So, and unfortunately, there seems to be more of those nowadays than...

Well, no, they're just more exposed nowadays. Yeah, more exposed now, and I've been thinking about this a lot, even just talking with a lot of personal friends. They just feel an inability to even consume news, honestly, because it just feels like everything's going on all at once.

And then I think back, I'm like, well, if... Imagine if historic events that were really controversial now, like we've looked back on, were broadcasted live, and every single person in the country had the opportunity to shoot out their opinion on it, and then you also know that there's money behind the scenes to try to push this and that. I'm like, think back to the JFK assassination. Could you imagine what the country would have been like then if everyone had a cell phone in their pocket and that was live-streamed?

I feel like we went through a version of that with Charlie Kirk. And frankly, there's a lot of things that just don't pass the smell test on a lot of different issues. It's kind of hard. It feels like there's not a really honest way, excuse me, to discuss it online in a way that feels positive, so I appreciate being able to come on here and talk about it. I just think...

The Israel issue is not going to go away. The Middle East issue is not going to go away, and until we can find a way to talk about it in a very de-racialized, sane way of, like, we all want peace here, and these countries that are involved in various wars, I think Israel is on a seven-front war right now, if we can't resolve these in the Middle East, especially as the most powerful nation in the world, I think it speaks more about America and our leaders as to our inability to actually work towards Peace there.

Like, we clearly have the resources, we clearly have the influence, we have the military. If we're just constantly in 30-year wars, I think it says a lot more about us than it does about these other places. So, I really hope for the best here. I don't have a great feeling.

Yeah, I just feel kind of discouraged about all of it. I just wanted to address something in the chat there from Lori that, yeah, from this point of view, Hamas could end this war tomorrow because they have a deal in front of them. Everyone else has signed on. They return the hostages. They go through the steps. They agree to the peace plan, and the war ends.

That is, yes, like objectively, from a Western mindset, that is what could happen. The problem being that... When we in the West have typically come in with these big deals, with these deals, this one, yes, has a very Trumpian flavor. Previous ones have the League of Nations flavor, and this one does too. That kind of moral calculation isn't the way that moral calculations are made in other parts of the world, right? That is why this feels like such a mess, because we're looking at...

It's like when we have deals, quote unquote, with China as well. We have completely different... approaches to questions of power and statehood and borders and race and religion and how it all plays together. And so, it's not as simple as So, if X, then Y. That's never how this has happened or played out, and that's where the frustration comes, right? Yeah, I think 9-11 and Iraq are kind of the perfect start to all of this, is that we thought that, you know, at least what was pushed out by the neocons, George Bush, etc., was we would sweep through Iraq, they would greet us as liberators, we'd be able to set up liberal democracy there, and it would work.

And the people there absolutely despised us and hated it. And if you think about it for a couple seconds, it makes sense. We bombed all their cousins. Like, people there were like... You know, probably farming or whatever, and then all of a sudden planes roll through, and then they're told, hey, we're actually going to change your entire way of life in your system, and it's going to be way better for you. And then at the same time, you know, there was a lot of cynical interest in terms of oil and things like that.

That's why my base philosophy in all of this is the American age of empire is over. It should be over. We shouldn't be global police. We shouldn't be setting up governments for other people, and it's just unfortunately something we seem addicted to, like we can't get enough of it. And so, it seems frustrating to have this America first. Policy, when Trump has, in this term, and this is dividing the base at this point, flipped on Ukraine, seemingly flipped on Israel, and people say, oh, the Iran 12-day war was like modern miracle of Trump intervention.

I'm glad it didn't turn out to be a disaster. It absolutely could have. So, I think it's hard just personally having these frustrations and really desiring peace and then getting no way to get through it. I credit Our Lady of Fatimur more than I credit Trump for saving us from World War III. Yeah. Blessed Mother, it is the month of the rosary, and the Pope has asked us to pray the rosary every day for world peace, and because that, at this point, I'm like, yes, rosary, that's Lepanto number two, let's do it.

This is what we need. Yeah, absolutely. The Lord sometimes picks odd people to work through. It's very true. And just on two comments in the chat, one, I know you weren't addressing it to this, Tom, but everything is fake and gay. That is the question, isn't it?

He said it. I love it. And secondly, at least when I am talking grifters, and I think there are grifters who try to take advantage of the situation. I consider Tony Blair a grifter. Maybe he does care about the situation, but I think he is also looking for... No, he doesn't. I consider 23-year-old guys like Henry Sisson who take $7,000 a post just to say whatever because they want them. That is grifting. It is what we call war profiteering. I think Zelinsky is a grifter.

I don't think Jimmy Carter was a grifter when he was trying to solve the problems in the Middle East. I certainly don't think the Pope is a grifter, and I don't think the President is a grifter. I think they are trying to find peace in that area. Yeah, I think... And hopefully, I don't want to decide either way, hopefully not you isn't a grifter as well. But is the Pope a fan of ICE?

Oh, yeah, that'll get into it. So, there's the ice controversy. Now, we got to get into that, because everyone was like, you got to talk about the ice. I have to go, and I need to get this in. Erika, get into ice. Okay, so this is my twilight zone. All right, here's the picture. Here's the ice. I'm going to have you rewind it in just a second. So, what is going on here? Catholic Twitter exploded this week. I think we all have a little bit of Paka Mama hangover trauma going on.

We watched Pope Leo. Put his hand awkwardly on this giant blob of ice, fresh water, and bless it, sort of. I mean, he's praying over it, and then he walks back to his seat. And so, everyone's like, oh my gosh, he's worshiping water. What's going on? We had people suggesting that this is proof that the Antichrist sits on the throne of Peter. And I'm just here to say, like, Yes, I had issues this week, especially with the death penalty abortion seeming to equate those.

But guys, we can't just let our heads explode every time we are triggered by an image like this. So, what was actually going on here? Yeah. Let's get the facts. I'd like to know, because I, yeah. This was, I know, this was part of an international Catholic conference called Raising Hope for Climate Justice International Conference held at Castel Gandolfo this week. It's going on right now, October 1st through 3rd, and it's the 10th anniversary of our favorite encyclical, I am not being serious, JK, Laudato Si.

So, this event has been being planned for at least a year by this conference, the Laudato Si movement. So, it was first planned during Francis's pontificate as a global gathering on faith and ecology. Some people are going to say, well, he shouldn't have gone. Well, no. Leo is not going to decline this. He's going in the place of Francis to celebrate this encyclical, which we've spoken on many times. And as part of this, there's this little ritual that they had planned out where there's a big block of ice.

And they're singing a song. It's actually just the Latin St. Francis' prayer. Some people were like, oh my gosh, pagan incantations. No, they were just singing a really bad 1970s version of the prayer of St. Francis. It wasn't let it snow from Frozen? Ah, let it snow. Do you mean let it go? Or let it go. No, it wasn't, maybe. But here's my theory. I think the best explanation. My theory is that That Pope Leo got what we call liturgy bombed, and what that refers to is when a priest gets to a liturgy or a ritual, and he is told, you are going to be doing X, Y, Z, and then in the middle of it, while you are standing up there, something completely different happens.

And if you go back and play this tape again, you can see Leo. Roll the tape again. All right. Because watch Leo at the very beginning. Speaking of conspiracy theories, we're really getting into it now. No, this is not a conspiracy theory. This happens to priests all the time, and bishops, too. All right. Here we go. So, here we go. Watch Leo carefully. I would now like to invite you to stand for the blessing of the waters.

Leo looks around. He's like, wait, what? And the guy's like, okay, go over here and look at the ice. And he starts to walk to the ice, and then he looks back, and he's like, wait, really? And he's going to say, so I think this was a complete surprise to him. He was not prepped for it, but in the moment, he did the gracious thing and blessed the ice. Because we bless water all the time. We bless holy water. We bless animals.

We bless everything. We're Catholic. Science. That was just frozen holy water. Exactly. He just made frozen holy water. He's from Chicago. He's probably looking around. Big block of ice, where's my bourbon? Yeah. My grappa. Come on, guys. That's my theory. Because, no, this happens to priests all the time. But on your theory, sorry, sorry, because I know we have very limited time, and I want you to really get to it.

I think that there's been an attitude. We're so hurt, I think, by the last pope, and everyone just fighting all the time. Pakamama was a major problem. Totally. Major. Thinking about weighing, like, is this actually righteous anger, or am I now, like, so, you know, up in arms all the time that we're just nitpicking everything? Like, every conservative commentator was like, you should have been in Nigeria. This is so ridiculous. Climate change is ridiculous. So, like, do I have permission now?

Do we have permission now to just be like... How do we approach this? And I don't want to get back to where we were with Pope Francis. Yeah, I know. That was miserable as a Catholic. So, like, what's going on here? I didn't even want to talk about it, because you know what?

When there is an issue, like the death penalty is somehow the same as abortion, that kind of confusion, that's a real issue, right? And that is something I place squarely at the feet of Francis for the way that he put it into the Catechism and what went down after that. And now we have a lot to clean up from that, right? But we can't overreact to stuff that is not a big issue, so we have to look at it and be like, okay.

Was it bad optics? Was it just dumb? Was it cringe? 100%, this was just cringe, right? I think we have to do a gut check and say, okay, am I reacting because of what has happened in the past? Am I overreacting? And is this really like some pagan ritual that just came out?

Here, I was just bored by it. I'm like, okay, whatever. It's another cringe hangover from the 1980s, green carpeting, felt banners. We're going to, like, bless bunnies outside of mass on St. Francis Day. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger was there, like, waving something. Yeah, Arnold was in the eye there, waving like this. It was just dumb. Tom, you're smiling.

I did not know Arnold was there. He was. He even had a little scraggly beard going on. Very lumberjack. Very love the earth. Tom, can you give me some wisdom on this? Dude, I do not want to go back.

I think it's, I don't know, we don't have enough faith anymore, and I think that hurt the last time around, and you gotta, and this is something Peter Wolfgang told me for the last pope, and I think Peter might have lost it towards the end, except you gotta have trust in the Holy Spirit, that regardless of who sits in the throne of Peter, that doesn't change what we believe.

And what we think. And I'm still hopeful about this pope. I call it popeful. I think Erika is exactly right. I can remember one time I had to go to a social injustice and peace mass, and I won't say which bishop was overseeing it, except the procession included life-size puppets.

And I do know, and the bishop said the Mass, and did the Mass in the regular way, not using any puppets or anything like that. And I do know afterwards, the bishop said, never again. Yeah. It happened, except he went in the moment, and allowed it in the moment, except it was just like, he understood, so. And that's sometimes the calls our shepherds have to make.

Now, if next week, Pope Leo does a mass with puppets, and Elmo and Big Bird come out, I'm going to be a little concerned. Yeah, like if it becomes a pattern. Because everyone is pointing out the obvious, it is cringe.

Maybe, like, do we just have to live with the cringe people, basically, in the church? You know, they get their cringe corner, and then whatever, or, you know what I mean? Like, it is kind of a tough one. On this note, I have to go, because I have children calling me, and I love you all. You can all tell me I've gone off the wall and gone unorthodox in the chat. Yeah. I'll check back in. Send crusade emojis.

I'm fake and gay. All right, Tom. My last one, I know you've got to rock, too, right? Yeah. Okay. What were you going to say? Well, my Twilight Zone, now that Erika's gone, maybe it's easier for me to say it, because I know the most popular host on this show is Erika, and I don't want her to hear it.

She mentioned she was down in D.C. last week. I grew up in a family of eight kids. My wife grew up in a family of seven kids. You put a whole bunch of people in a room for more than 12 hours of that family. We all love each other, but we're going to kill each other. Yeah. I got to spend time with all of Erika's kids. One is nicer than the other, and to me, growing up in a similar family, it was a slow twilight zone, and then at a certain time at night, they got together and did the Novena, the CatholicVote is pushing right now.

So, I just got to tell people that I am still trying to find the flaws of Erika Ahern. I have not yet, but she is the most popular. Oh, man. I remember taking a D.C. trip with my siblings, and the same would not have been said about us. Oh, no. Probably in college. I think I was in college.

You could get my siblings together now, and an argument is going to break out. Oh, yeah. I mean, I got three brothers. You know how that goes. Everything just becomes competition or a wrestling match, so it's good times. It's very formative for me, but yeah, shout out, Erika. Also, if you want more Erika, we put together another deep for you guys last Thursday, so what the news? What to do when the news feels worse than ever. Go check that one out if you want more LOOPcast.

Sorry, we've got to cut it a little bit short today, but we're going to prepare a great show for you on Monday, and our daily prayer, if you want to help us out, CatholicVote.org slash champions is where you can do it.

And time to do the best. Thanks for taking the time today, man. Always a pleasure to be on. Sweet. All right. End in a prayer. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Grant me, O Lord, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. St. Thomas Morris, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. We will see you guys ready to rock on Monday. Peace.