JD Vance Headlines March For Life, DOJ Arrests MN Church Invaders, And USA Tennis

And we're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast. It's Tom, Erika, and Josh. The LOOPcast is brought to you by The Loop, every Catholic American's favorite morning newsletter. Good morning, everyone. Happy March for Life. Maybe you're tuned into this after you attend the March for Life. Shout out to everyone there. Really, one of my favorite, I feel like it was almost like a Catholic rite of passage to load up the bus from wherever you are across the country and head over. I've been to many marches myself.

And, you know, most Most marches, people are kind of marching for themselves, and this is one of the rarest, most unique. People are marching for people that don't even, haven't even existed yet. So, just a beautiful... Beautiful time of year. I love the March for Life. I love the Catholic involvement in it, and so shout out to everyone there. I got some emails from people that are attending asking if we'll be there. Unfortunately, we're not. Tim Foyle-Thomas is on the ground, and we have Margaret from our organization is there.

So, CatholicVote is represented, but yeah, just a beautiful time. I have a lot of great memories. I would sacrifice and make the trip, but it's so wonderfully warm here. Negative one, I didn't want to leave. Hot take up top, I'm so annoyed with the cold people, okay? People are like, we're going to get like a couple inches of snow in Indiana, and people are raiding shelves, they're freaking out. But you're not worried, you're Han Solo, you've been to the cold, huh?

Tom went with the Star Wars theme for Friday. I like looked, I swear, I get dressed in the morning, I look down, I'm like, oh, I see myself on the camera, I'm like, oh, people are going to be for sure. Yeah. I look like so-and-so. What with Han Solo today. Hey, if I could do it, I'd try it, but. He's ready for the ice storm. What's that creature that Han Solo climbed inside of for the ice storm? Oh, that's a good call.

A Tauntaun, yeah. Thank you, the Tauntaun. I thought you were a resident nerd on the outside. Resident nerd on the show. Thank you, Josh. It was Luke he put in there, not him. That's right. That's not himself. Okay. Okay. All right, that's not what we're here to do. That's not what we're here to do. We have a great show prepared for you guys today. We're going to be covering three things, and I actually want to make sure we've been really getting late on some of these episodes.

We've got to trim it a little bit, because J.D. Vance is headlining the March for Life. Yeah, Josh. He will be addressing the crowd. So, around then. I'm not sure if he'll be on time. So, we're going to talk March for Life. We're going to talk some moves by the administration, and then this ever-going debate about the pro-life movement. Where are we going? Are we succeeding? Should we be giving? Are we a cheap date, some people have suggested?

But, obviously, near and dear to our hearts here at Catholic Boats. We're going to be talking a little bit about that. We have some updates about Minnesota. In particular, I sent Josh a meme. Pam Bondi did something. It was directly after the FBI attacked our stream. There were handcuffs involved. Handcuffs involved. We're going to talk about who got arrested, what they got arrested for, how they're going to be charged. An interesting situation with the boy Don Lamon. So, we'll cover that, and then there is something going around with ice and child.

So, if you've seen that headline, we're going to address all angles of said headline, and then give greater context as we try to do on the show. And then, finally, we've got a great email from the inbox, LOOPcast.CatholicVote.org, that we actually want to address on the show. So, we'll be talking about that one. We have good news. We have Twilight Zone. We talk USA Tennis. It's going to be a great show.

Thank you for joining us. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, live, 11 a.m. Eastern is when we do it. Welcome, everyone, in the chat. Stay warm. So, let us get into it now. Starting up top, we got an address from Pope Leo. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You mentioned Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m., but next week, we actually have a bonus LOOPcast Live episode on Tuesday.

Mm-hmm. And on Tuesday, Tom, Josh, and Erika will be live at 11 a.m. Wait, yes. 11 a.m. Eastern. Yeah. To announce something. Something. And all I can say is it has to do with the fact that I now have an orange loot mug. And Tom has his orange. So, stay tuned. Check us out. We're going to be here at 11 a.m. on Tuesday next week as well. It's a very packed week. My orange. I just had to tease that. Yes. Dishwasher.

Josh also has one. We're getting a little more with you. It's being sanitized. Basically, if you're excited, if you would like more, if you've ever thought to yourself, I listen to Tom and Josh and Erika three times a week, and I somehow want more of Tom, Josh, and Erika, maybe in different formats, it's coming. It's coming. Tuesday, 11 a.m. It's going to be great. Tune in. All right. Back to the March for Life. I just had to do the deed there.

All right. All right. On to March for Life to all of our fellow compatriots on the ground in D.C. Actually, a shout out. Her name is Monique. She actually invited me for a run if I was out in Virginia.

Wow. Very sweet of you. Very sweet. You would kill me. I'm not in running shape right now, but very sweet offer. I usually am out in D.C. for the March for Life. For this year, we got other stuff going on, so it was not. But Pope Leo sent a message to the March for Life participants. Very nice. I believe, actually, kind of getting back to tradition, I think Pope John Paul II and Benedict always sent a message to the March for Life.

I think we got one from Pope Francis, and now we are Is that correct? One time. One time, yeah. So, we're getting back into form here. Very nice from Pope Leo. I'll just read up top. I send warm greetings to those of you participating in the March for Life. I likewise express heartfelt appreciation and assure you of my spiritual closeness as you gather for this eloquent public witness to affirm that the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right.

Beautiful. May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children. By advocating for them, please know that you are fulfilling the Lord's command to serve him and the least of our brothers and sisters. Beautiful. That is from the Vatican. Love you, Papa. Thank you, Pope Leo. Awesome. So, there's a Democratic activist named Chris Jolly Hill, who ran for Congress a few years ago out of Tennessee, supports legal abortion, and his whole effort online in the last year with his project called Letters from Leo, his blog page, is to hammer Republicans all the time, day in and day out, and say, Pope Leo is awesome, and Republicans suck, and anything opportunity he gets, oh my gosh, historic, three cardinals are rebuking the Trump administration over That is unbelievable.

So, then Pope Leo writes this wonderful address and message on the March for Life, and here we are, like, 24 hours later, crickets from Chris Jolly Hill, who tweets every 10 minutes on stuff. Just like anything from Rome that you can possibly twist. It literally is watching a democratic strategist. Just suck the sap out of anything that happens in the Catholic world, and then to position it in a way that is favorable to Democrats that are obviously the most anti-life party, maybe of all time, currently, as it sits.

I hope that that changes, but that's what we're dealing with right now. That's actually kind of like what we're here to talk about. I mean, so we get a couple really positive. So, first off, shout out to everyone on the ground. The speech is coming after. All of this is rolling out, so we don't have like a ton of footage to show you on that. But the administration rolled out a few, you know, I'm really happy with, you know, the debate's out about whether it's enough or not, whatever.

I'm just going to read the policy changes and then kind of go from there. So, first we have the Trump administration ends federal funding for aborted fetal tissue research. That's straight from the NIH. And according to a 2019 Congressional Research Service report, most fetal tissue used in NIH-supported studies came from elective abortions rather than miscarriages or stillbirths. So, under the new policy, which takes effect immediately, NIH funding will be barred for research using human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions. The prohibition applies to all NIH-backed work, including internal agency research and external grants and contracts.

It overrides previous guidelines that allowed such work. Under certain conditions, and this is straight from Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH director, the change reflects both ethical concerns and advances in biomedical technology that reduce the need for fetal tissue in research. The change aims to redirect resources toward alternative methods like organoids, tissue chips, computational biology, and other cutting-edge platforms that do not involve the remains of aborted babies. Crazy that we were using that barbaric practice before. And here's from our good friend Tom McCluskey out there in D.C.

on the ground marching. A few years ago, abortion giant Planned Parenthood and their co-conspirators were caught selling baby parts scavenged from abortions. What you might not have known is that the federal government contributed to this atrocity by funding such research. The Trump administration deserves high praise for recognizing every human being deserves dignity, born and unborn, in life and death.

This is where we start to understand, like, again, a horror, and how did it ever happen that this ever happened? And then, as soon as we find out, okay, shut this down. But then you start to understand between this and the daycare center fraud in You know, Minneapolis with the Somalians, that the Democratic Party looks at your taxpayer money as a fire hose, and they just spray their voters and get as much cash as they can from your wallet to do, it doesn't matter how reprehensible, it's like, hey, should we use taxpayer money to experiment on baby body parts from elective abortion?

It's like, what? Sure. No! But it's just an excuse for them to get money. To everyone they care about. Let's get money to Planned Parenthood. Let's get money to Democratic voters, you know, who are Somalians in Minneapolis. It's all to take your money and reward their voters.

Reward your friends, punish your enemies. It's classic politics, yeah. Yeah, and massive shout out to pro-life hero here, David Daleiden, whose work exposing this trafficking at the Planned Parenthoods out in California and around the country. Ultimately. I mean, he suffered. I mean, Kamala Harris sent goons into his home to take all his stuff, and the fact that she is not in the White House right now, and he's up there on the stage and celebrating this change from the NIH. Again, we stand on the shoulders of giants when it comes to the pro-life movement, so shout out to David.

Yeah, he's the man. Okay, next one. Trump's SBA, Small Business Association. Launches a review of $88 million in COVID loans to Planned Parenthood. So, a little bit technical on this one, but I think kind of explaining what we were dealing with with the Biden administration.

So, the SBA sent letters to 38 affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, PPFA, as I'll refer to them going forward, demanding documentation to show they were eligible for loans issued through the PPP program after the outbreak of COVID-19. Essentially, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the review will examine whether Planned Parenthood affiliates misrepresented their size or their relationship with PPFA to qualify for the loans, which were intended for small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. At the height of the pandemic, affiliates of Planned Parenthood took $88 million in taxpayer dollars to fund their abortion on demand agenda, and the Biden administration made sure they got nearly every cent forgiven.

Even after the first Trump administration protested, And for those wondering, the loans were given out, and then most, actually the vast majority of them, were just forgiven by the Biden administration. So, it was essentially a grant. So, let us just stop and think about this for a second. You are using the technical levers of the government, in this case, the Small Business Association, which the PPP program just rife with fraud. I mean, it was actually one of the, I believe, inspirations for Doge.

It was unbelievable how much fraud was happening. And so, they just looked at that. And they're going to check now if these Planned Parenthoods, because they're obviously a part of a much larger association, I believe PPFA is like 12,000 employees, they're misrepresenting that they were a small business so they could get this money, and then before anyone could even look into it, Biden was just like, okay, we'll forgive that loan. Let's move on. And so, it's a grant. What was given to them was a grant.

It was basically like, here you go. We like what you do. Here's money. We're going to forgive it. Bang. That's where we're moving on. So, now we're looking back and trying to see if Okay, were you committing fraud in this case? And if so, we're going to punish the fraud. I mean, it's very straightforward. Again, can't believe this wasn't done before, but it really gives you a good picture of what we were dealing with over the Biden administration. It was like, any possible way we could funnel money to kill children, we're going to do it.

We can find that way. Crazy. Well, and again, that is egregious, and it just speaks to the fact that, again, the Democratic Party under the Biden administration. Joe Biden did criminal acts day in and day out, six ways to Sunday. I'm aghast at it. I always said that Woodrow Wilson was the worst president of the United States, but I mean, Joe Biden really, I mean, it's insane, just the tally of stuff, and all of it is just completely indefensible. Joe Biden should have been...

He's impeached and convicted and removed from office for just what he did on the southern border, but it's like, if that were the only thing, but there's not. There's, like, hundreds more every time he turned. Right, he's not isolated.

Like, it would be like if an alien force from another planet came in and they said they want to kill you. Like, making him the leader, would that have been any worse? Like, it's insane. Yeah. And final note, before we get into a little bit more of the broader pro-life conversation, the State Department is finalizing a broad expansion of the pro-life Mexico City policy. So, for those that don't know what the Mexico City policy was, it was actually established by Ronald Reagan in 1984.

It prevented U.S. taxpayer dollars from supporting organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas since its creation. Here we go. The policy has been repeatedly rescinded by the Democratic Party and reinstated by Republican administrations. Former President Joe Biden revoked this policy during his first week in office, and Trump reinstated it in January 2025. So, the expansion would be that foreign and U.S.-based NGOs receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars would have to certify that they do not provide or promote abortion, advocate for gender ideology, or support DEI initiatives deemed unlawful.

The updated policy would apply to all non-military U.S. foreign assistants, totaling more than $30 billion annually. NGOs, for those listening, are non-governmental organizations, so Planned Parenthood International, whatever, all these different aid groups. I mean, Planned Parenthood is not an aid group. They just kill babies, but other organizations, and you have to make sure that they're not doing that. I think, do you say, I know you said DEI, do you say gender surgery stuff, too? Yeah. That's awesome. Gender identity, yeah.

Yeah. So, okay, now that I've laid down the policies, I almost get frustrated, and I think people are doing it out of goodwill. I think maybe we just have a difference in opinion of strategy. I think I agree with a lot of people criticizing Trump administration on many things, but I actually just went back to be like, I just almost needed to just go find data for confirming how I felt during the Biden administration of like every day we prepare the show, and it was another insane thing going on.

So, just for people to Set the baseline of what we were dealing with before. So, you rescinded the Mexico City policy, this global gag rule, so you issued a presidential memorandum revoking the policy, barred U.S. foreign aid to organizations to provide or promote abortions abroad, this restored funding to these international NGOs focused on reproductive health. So, we're talking about a lot of these NGOs, their entire function was actually just, what would they call it, like population control? I mean, it essentially was sterilizing people abroad, which is insane.

But that was the status, and all of our tax money was going over that. I mean, Denmark even did it for people in Greenland. Yes. Saw that. He reversed Title X family funding planning rules. We talked about this in the show many times, but Title X funded clinics.

They refer patients for abortions or co-locating with abortion providers. This aimed to restore access to what they call comprehensive family planning services. Again, this is just so that there can be more abortions. Right. He restored funding to the United Nations Population Fund. I mean, talk about dystopian, but their entire program, again, a global reproductive health program, as they called it. It was sterilizing people all over the world. Maybe mixed in with something so that you can kind of defend it, but most of it was focused on contraception, abortion, etc.

The one that really stuck out to me was this Executive Order 14-076. This is protecting access to reproductive health care services. This was right after the Dobbs decision. Again, who gets credit for that? Trump administration. Trump himself, actually, issued post-dods to safeguard access, abortion, contraception, and emergency care. It established an interagency task force on reproductive health care access. Again, what is that? It's how can we get as much abortion as possible, literally coordinating across government agencies, directed the HHS to protect medication, abortion, and patient privacy, and promoted public education, quote-unquote, on reproductive rights.

And then you get securing access to reproductive and other healthcare services. Again, this built on top of another executive order. It directed HHS to expand access via Medicaid for patients traveling across state lines for care, quote unquote, to go get abortions, because after Dobbs, what happened? You had some states.

Put on restrictions against abortion, and so the federal government was looking into ways how they could creatively facilitate people traveling across state lines to go get elective abortions. Right. Really, I mean, this is what we were dealing with. And it goes on and on. Right, this is crazy. Yeah, and I mean, there were comments about, like, the administration and J.D. Vance, you know, he's going to the March for Life, and maybe we shouldn't watch him give a speech or something.

Because, what was the line? It was like... There is no difference between the Trump administration and what we had under Biden, and I understand the impulse. I understand the impulse. Let Erika finish. And we do have a lot of work to do, and in fact, I've been watching the speeches. Ryan Anderson gave a great speech at some of these. There's all these events before the March for Life. You can go and watch people from different organizations talk about the state of the pro-life movement.

He gave a fantastic speech about the need to really push on the abortion pill regime now, the methadone. Completely agree. And Lila Rose, she made some great points at the same event, talking about how the FDA tomorrow, right, with a stroke of the pen, the FDA... Could reinstate at least some safeguards for women who are being pressured into taking this. So, there has to be an in-person doctor visit, that you have to have an ultrasound, that there has to be follow-up, etc., before you prescribe these drugs.

So, is there work to be done? Absolutely. But I think what Tom is pointing out here is that it is clear that the Biden administration was an administration of death, especially when it came to the unborn and vulnerable women here. And what we have now...

Well, it's not perfect. I will take it. I will take it over what we had. And, yeah, so that's just... Yeah, so, I mean, the critiques advance. I mean, like, so, you know, Alexandra, the Sanctus, I forgot her. Mar, which I have to say on the record, like, I really like her. I like her personally. I actually know her. I agree with her on many things, but... Basically, if I could summarize and ask you, Josh, people are saying the pro-life movement should not act like a cheap date because the next frontier is medication abortions, which the Trump administration has not done enough to move the needle on.

Therefore, by having J.D. Vance headline the March for Life, it's almost like you haven't done enough, and so we're just saying we'll take table scraps like some of these changes that they've rolled out this week, and we shouldn't accept that. We should demand higher. And then some have gone so far to say you can't call yourself the most pro-life administration in history because you haven't done anything for us lately, is essentially, I think, at least how I read it. I can only say how I've read what's been going on online.

So, Josh, how would you answer people like Alexandra and other people? Again, I like a lot of these people. How would you answer that critique? Well, I agree with Erika, for example. What Ryan Anderson said, he had a pretty good speech, and one of the things he said, just a first step on the abortion drug that the Trump administration could do is just rescind the rule that Biden had, where you didn't have to actually go into a physical office with a doctor to get the pill or whatever.

That would eliminate a lot of this. Funny business where you're sending pills into, you know, states that are pro-life, like Texas, they don't allow it. So, that would be a demonstrative, easy thing to do without, like, completely getting rid of everything right away, because the Trump administration is a little worried about the political backlash. So, I understand, like, that would be like a substantive thing that could be done. Now, here's the thing. I don't think any, I guess I just wish.

Everyone would take each other a little bit more respectfully on this. To me, I don't see a lot of pro-lifers who are in the camp of Trump can do no wrong, and I love everything about him, and on this issue, he's immaculate. I don't see that. Maybe there's one or two Twitter guys that are like that, but for the most part, no one really is. They're like, yeah, he's done a lot. Trump has done a lot of good things. We wish he would do more.

Well, we are not going to attack him relentlessly day in and day out. That seems to be my position. I know a lot of people agree with it. And so, when Alexander says, well, maybe you should not have invited J.D. Vance to the March for Life, my thought is, I mean, I understand it, but think of it from this perspective.

The March for Life has invited even Democrats. They invited Bill Clinton. They invited Barack Obama. They want to bring people to their event. It does not mean that they let them off the hook and will never criticize them ever. I do not understand this, but the idea is that it is better to have someone meet with you and be there with you and rally the troops. Listen, he has got to face the voters. I want him trying to curry favor with pro-lifers, and the pro-lifers say, thank you for coming and thank you for saying that, but it is still not enough.

I want more. I don't find a problem with that. So, in other words, I don't have a problem. So, a lot of times, people who are critiquing the administration for not being pro-life enough think that CatholicVote and me are the problem. We're not the problem, brother. So, when Peter Laughlin over at the Washington Examiner was attacking CatholicVote basically by name, and Brian Birch and all this stuff, like, oh, you're just doing it to close up the administration. You're just doing this to curry favor, to get plum appointments.

It's like, You're so full of gas. Like, no, that's not what's going on. Like, we have criticized him. We have run articles about why IVF is immoral, like, about every four weeks for the last three years. Like, we've just perpetually done this. We can take a look through our catalog.

Trump announced it during the campaign that he was going to be for this at the time. Both publicly and privately, we said, hey, by the way, we are against this. We are going to publicly say we're against this. We are going to fight this when you get elected. We're going to try to stop it. We're going to try to roll it back as much as we can. But the fact of the matter is, the other person is, like, a thousand times worse.

That doesn't mean we're okay with it. Like, I just don't understand this argument. Yeah, Josh, can I ask you? I'm just sorry. I got to ask you another question, because to give him some charity, even if I disagree with him on that specific attack, I think there are people legitimately concerned that there's going to become a point, say, specifically the midterms or whatever, where the pro-life movement doesn't have any more leverage, and that they could potentially be left in the dust.

Or, if you say, award J.D. Vance, whatever metaphorically they're saying they're awarding him by having him at the martial arts, we can argue about, but kind of crowning him now, when we could be betrayed in two years, makes the pro-life movement look like a cheap date. It makes them look willing to go for scraps or whatever. What would you say to that? How would you navigate the fact that you might get betrayed? Like, we're putting a crown on his head, and we're saying, you can do no wrong, and whatever you do from this point forward, we'll just...

Say yes to, because we love you so much. It's a bunch of horse manure. The fact of the matter is, and I even have friends of mine who are like, oh, after the midterms, he's not going to care about the pro-life issue at all. It's like, okay, you guys don't understand. We still have elections for a reason. After the midterms are over, what happens?

Everyone is going to start announcing that they are running for president. Immediately happens after this. And J.D. Vance is going to tell Trump, don't cut me off at the legs, bro. I want to be president. You can't betray the pro-lifers, because then they are going to come after me. So, that is actually, I have made this point before with regards to the Bush-Cheney administration.

It sounds, again, one of those things in politics people don't understand. It sounded so noble at the beginning, like, oh, it's kind of cool that George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney as his running mate, as vice president, because he has no aspirations to be president. He'll just do whatever he wants, and whatever is good for the country. It's like, actually, hold on a second. That means he doesn't care about the voters, and if voters go, wait a minute, don't do that.

He had a lot of aspirations. We had the worst lame duck president. In our history, because both— The president, George W. Bush, and his vice president did not care about the voters in the last two years. And what happened? I don't know. The economy sucked, and the war went off the rails. It was terrible. So, having J.D. Vance with political ambitions, wanting to win voters in the second term, is going to be actually a positive influence, because he's going to be like, look, dude, you can't do this to me, bro.

We've got to keep moving forward. We can't abandon the pro-life voters. Anything from you, Erika? I'm with Josh 100% on that one. I'm just going to let him cook. Well, that's like, it just drives me crazy. Wait, Josh, listen. There are arguments that Alexandra and some of these people are making, you know, and I'm like, go for it. But we're really giving it to the administration. I'm like, yes, please, go ahead, do so. I think it's fine.

Good cop, bad cop. And you be the guys that say, you've got to do more, you've got to do more. And then. Tom and I will go to the administration and say, hey, they're really getting angry out there. How about you do a few of these things? That would probably make them happier. And they're like, oh, okay. Click, click, click, click. Heck yeah, a little one-two regret. Clickety-click, yep. Like, who cares? But the idea is, I don't go out there, and Alexandra didn't attack us.

Peter Laffin did. I don't go attack Peter if he's got a different philosophy. Go for it, brother, go for it. But if you come at me, well, I'm going to strike you. Best not miss. That's what they say. Right, that's right. Awesome. Okay, got to keep it tight today. Let's go on now to Minnesota. We have some updates. They're involved. Erika, take me through it. All right, we have mugshots, too. So, we actually have had now three arrests this week. So, Pam Bondi did something, and we arrested three of the rioters who entered the church in Minneapolis last Sunday.

So, we had the arrest, the one that you see on the screen there, that's Nikima, the leader of the PAC. Can we actually go to Chantel? So, we have, this is Chantel Louisa Allen, and then we also have the man, William Kelly, you'll see on the screen there. William Kelly, by the way, is a pro. I mean, he's from, I think he's from Arizona. What's going on here? He actually, he was in front of Heritage for most of the last, basically since Project 2025 dropped.

So, he's been outside of Heritage shouting filth, and now he went over to Minneapolis to shout more filth. I actually, I tried to find a clip of him. That did not have the F-bomb. I found one, so you can just play that. There's actually one.

Yeah, well, you know what? I mean, all three of these people have been involved in a long time. I mean, Nekima, Levy Armstrong, same deal. Like, she was a BLM activist, so. Yeah, so here we have dear William. So, you know, Pam Bondi, you want to come and arrest me? You want to come and give me charges? So be it. And for all the people getting, you know, giving me death threats, threatening my life, kill me. Go ahead, kill me. Because you know what?

As Fred Hampton said, you can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution. I mean. That's sort of a flavor. No, we don't want you dead, bro. We just want you behind bars. Yeah, I just want you behind bars. I'm yelling at children in church. So, they have been charged under the FACE Act. They are being charged with conspiracy. Chantel and William Kelly are being charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, which is a federal crime. That's under USC 248 for their involvement.

Nakima has an additional charge under 241, conspiracy against rights, which... That particular statute makes it a federal crime for two or more people to conspire to injure, threaten, or intimidate anyone in the U.S. in their free exercise of rights secured by the Constitution or laws.

Isn't that the Klan Act? I believe it is. Oh, I didn't go look. Is that one the Klan Act? I think it is. I think it's the Klan Act. I love it. Yeah, so it was famously used in cases like the Mississippi burning murders. And it doesn't require an overt act to be committed, just an agreement to conspire to violate the rights. So, they are now out on bail. The judge let them out on bail. They were not determined to be flight risks.

But, yeah, they are looking. Pam Bondi says they're going to go for prison time, as did J.D. Vance in his speech in Minnesota yesterday, calling for prison time for these people, which is absolutely what should happen. Wow. The bell of the ball. We actually, well, I'm glad that these people were arrested at a minimum, I have to say. Credit to the administration for going after them. The man calling himself the chronicler of the situation, Don Lamont. Sure. So, the DOJ sought similar charges against Don Lamont for conspiracy to interfere with religious exercise, so he was actually going to be charged with the same statute, the Ku Klux Klan Act there, as an akima.

But... U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas L. Meeko rejected it and said he found no probable cause since Don Lamont's role seems to be, quote, purely reportorial. He was just there as a reporter. You can watch the footage and determine for yourself if he was there just as a reporter. Yeah, let's have a trial. That's right. Exactly, yeah.

A little bit of shakity. I honestly believe that. Well, it would be so easy to see cooperation, too, if they subpoena his tax. Exactly. So, emails, texts. Let's get some subpoenas going. Find some probable cause. The judge concluded there was no probable cause. The judge's wife happens to be one Caitlin Miko, who is the Assistant Attorney General for the state of Minnesota. She works directly with Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was featured prominently on Wednesday's program, if you remember. Erika, can I ask?

Yes, sir. Please. Please, Tom. Has there been any instance, let's just do a generous range, in the last 100 years where a magistrate judge has not signed off when the federal government wanted to go after someone? What is even the precedent of, like, has this ever happened? This just seems so odd to me. You need some judge somewhere to sign off on the fact that you want to go investigate someone?

Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of glad that that's in place. I would like there to be a little bit of checks and balances on prosecution from the state, but in this case, it seems that the judge's interpretation of the, I mean, Don had him, he filmed the whole thing. You can watch over an hour of footage of him before the invasion of the church, during, and then after the invasion of the church, chasing parishioners around the parking lot. telling them that they were wrong and that they should have been more friendly with these protesters.

It's anything but reporting. The judge interpreted that as not probable cause. He was just there chronicling. So precedent. I mean, is there some funny business going on? Probably. The judge is probably influenced by the fact that his wife works directly with Keith Ellison. I mean, that is one possibility, because the wife works for the State Attorney General's Office, possibly. That might explain why.

Approximately 1% of times a federal judge rejects a request for an arrest like that. Less than 1%. So, yeah, I mean... Yeah, we got a number. Yeah. But we did have a brave and bold statement from the mayor of Minneapolis. Oh, wait, he finally chimed in. Interesting. He decided to chime in, and he is there to defend the good people of Minneapolis.

So glad we're finally getting his thoughts on chasing peaceful churchgoers out of their church. Yes, invading Christians in the act of worshiping Jesus. He said, This is a gross abuse of power, but he's not going after the protesters. No. The federal government is picking and choosing who to investigate, going after protesters and not the person who shot and killed one of our neighbors.

I am calling for Nikima to be released immediately. He had nothing to say about the fact that peaceful Christians were worshiping, and they were totally invaded and intimidated. Children were crying. No, he's standing up for Nikima. Awesome. Interestingly, too, there is an ongoing investigation into the shooting of Renee Good. It's just being conducted by... Well, that's inconvenient. I know. That is total inconvenient truth, as we might like to say. So, other good news with Minnesota, Trump sent in the J.D. He sent in J.D.

Vance, who flew over there and met with local officials, law enforcement, community leaders, but probably not Nakima because she was in jail. Before delivering public remarks, urging state and city leaders to, quote, lower the temperature and cooperate with ICE. Lower the temperature? It is already negative 10 in Minneapolis. Negative 10. He got off the plane. He is like, I thought I was going to prison and send me to Greenland, you know.

Should we roll a clip? Yeah, let us do a clip. This was a great speech. The United States of America, and you don't see the same level of chaos in Minneapolis, the natural conclusion is that it's not what ICE is doing in Minneapolis, it's what Minneapolis authorities are doing to prevent ICE from doing their jobs, and that's exactly what's happening.

Let me give you just a couple of very real-world examples of some of the problems that we face. So, let us say you have a sex offender. We have arrested a number of sex offender illegal aliens in Minneapolis just in the last couple of months, but that person, because they are an illegal alien, we do not know where they live. We do not know their address. If local authorities were cooperating with us, it would be easier to send an ICE agent to the person's house to arrest them, to have local law enforcement protecting our immigration officers.

They throw the sex offender in the back of a car, deport that person, throw him in jail, whatever, and then they go home safely. Whatever. What's happening instead is that the Minneapolis authorities are refusing to tell us where that sex offender lives. Why are they protecting sex offenders? That's anybody's guess, but it's crazy.

Meanwhile, the local police are being told by the mayor, don't help them. So, if there are protests, and there are people trying to not just protest. But interfere with what ICE is doing, we don't have the support of local law enforcement to keep the peace. So, when I talk about lowering the temperature, those are the two things that we want those local authorities to do. Okay. So, here is something I would like to say about this. Everything he is saying is good and he is making his great case.

He is still by far the very best on the conservative side at giving press conferences. So, he's at a rally, though, and he's not really getting into the rally speech stuff, which is fine. Actually, right now, we need a lot of really good, substantive arguments, and so when he later did the press conference with reporters, he handled that question of the five-year-old. Oh, yeah. Okay, wait, can we set that up before we get in? Because everyone's seeing it everywhere. Erika, could you give us some background?

Well, I was just going to say, two seconds before that. But when he gets to becoming running for president, he's going to have to work on rally kind of stuff, or maybe just campaign in a different manner. Not that he's going to campaign the same way as Trump, but I'm just happy that he's got the substance. Oh, that's not the question, no. Certainly.

Okay, so the five-year-old child, so this photograph has been making the rounds all over. It totally blew up, and the line from the Washington Post is, you know, ICE detains four children, one of them five years old, and you have this adorable little kid with his school backpack, five-year-old boy, little bunny hat on, and looking, like, nervous in the snow, and your mother's heart just breaks looking at this photograph of the child. And the line is, ICE arrests a five-year-old, and J.D.

Vance, like you said, Josh, he addressed this really, really well when the reporter threw it at him. At the press conference. So, what actually happened here? So, on January 20th, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest one Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who is an illegal alien from Ecuador, who had been released into the United States by the Biden administration. But the family story is that he had used the CBP One app, which, you remember, the Biden administration made it easier for people to just claim asylum.

And then be released immediately into the country as long as they logged in on this app. So, he'd used that in 2023, I believe, to come across with his son, who at the time was two or three years old. He's on the app.

So, in the midst of this arrest, the agents approached Adrian, who then fled on foot, leaving his five-year-old in the snow in the freezing sub-zero temperatures. Some of the ice officers ran after the father and apprehended him. One of the ice officers remained with the child in the snow so that he wasn't left alone on a sidewalk. And then you can see footage of them bringing the child to the vehicle in which the father has already been detained. So, they're actually in that photo of the child there with the thing on.

He's getting into a car, and his dad's in the car. That's actually not the whole story, too. Continue. They attempted to, the alleged mother of the child was in the house. Right. And they don't know, because again, it gets back to what J.D. Vance said, they don't know anything because the local authorities aren't cooperating. The alleged mother was in the house. They tried to bring the child to the alleged mother and say, stay with her, take custody of the child, and she refused.

And she refused to take the child. And so, she refused to take the child, and so now Ice has a child, and. You know, like, the concern was the child, obviously. It's a five-year-old out in the snow. It's kind of crazy that you would think that that wouldn't be anything but the priority, and it was. So, you know, who knows what the situation was, whether that's his mother, whether that's a girlfriend, something, no one knows. I mean, what a, I mean.

So many things going on here. Of course, she could be scared. She could be whatever. Who knows why she's in this position, but again, the assertion that somehow ICE is just snatching up kids, and should we go back to the coyote situation at the border? I don't know. You see Kamala Harris talking about it. You see Hillary Clinton talking about it. Hillary Clinton wishes rich.

Forgive me, but, like, you're just taking advantage of this because it's an emotionally charged photo. You have no concern for the actual facts of what's going on here. It's a propaganda war. And it's like, oh, you care about kids now. You care about kids now. I mean, how many videos did I watch of coyotes literally launching kids over the border under barbed wire in which their parents are not even there? I mean, and then all the children's let into the country during the 20 to 2024 time, coyotes taking them, child labor, child sex trafficking.

I mean, it's... 300,000 kids, I think. How do you have a debate on immigration when people know the truth and are willing to lie because they know it will help them and their side? So, the senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, the congresswoman, Angie Craig, who's my brother's congresswoman, just absolutely lying right to your face. Like, how could they detain a five-year-old? It's like, dude, the dad left. He fled the cops and left the kid out in the snow. So, Homeland Security is actually babysitting this child.

In fact, they're babysitting more children than the Somalian daycare centers, frankly. Like, what is going on here? You guys are so... It's downright shameful in how you lie. How can we have a debate on this? It's like it's insane. Yeah, and I think J.D. Vance did a great job in his response, because he corrected, he said he acknowledged the viral photo, he acknowledged the feelings that it evoked. He said, look, I have a five-year-old son as well, and it broke my heart to see that, and I was like, how could we do this?

Then he corrected it with the facts of that specific case, but then he made a broader point, and he said, what did you want them to do? Well, I'll tell you what you actually wanted them to do. You don't want them to arrest anyone. You don't want them to enforce our immigration law. That's what this is actually about, is you want to say something like, if you're here and you have a kid, the law doesn't apply to you. And how is that good for society?

That's just going to inspire more anchor babies. It's going to inspire the footage that Tom just had up of coyotes trafficking small children across the border. So, that they can then be claimed by adults who want to stay here. And as long as you have a kid, we won't come after you. And J.D. Vance, I thought, did a great job of responding to the specific case and then tying it to this bigger question of how do we protect our borders? How do we enforce our laws?

Yeah. The, and I will say, too, not enough people heard these stories or really understood, like, what was going on in the southern border, intentionally because there was, like, a propaganda war over, like, how big is the problem, can we conceal it, but many of the CBP agents at the southern border actually really admirably, like, took care, like, took in many of these kids. Like, could you imagine a situation in which, like, all of a sudden you're at the border, you're trying to do your job, enforce our border.

And just children are being dropped off by people that don't know them. Like 11, I saw like 11-year-olds, six-year-olds, like I can't even imagine like what you would do with that. And they were taking them in, trying to protect them, trying to house them, trying to feed them. And like the position that they were intentionally put in by our politicians that refused to enforce the law and actually encouraged people, paid money through NGOs to get people to come in a mad dash to our border in a disorderly way that encouraged, of course, all of this abuse.

First off, the CBP agents really deserve a lot of praise, let alone being attacked, and then in this case, the ICE agents, who are trying to take care of a child in the cold. You know, deserves some praise, too, I think. And people would say, like, oh, well, he shouldn't have been in that position because they chased the guy away, and the guy ran while he was being chased. Well, again, what do you expect people to do? And then it always gets back to that Ross interview.

Like, if you want to talk to someone about this, the first place to start is, like, okay, is there any limiting principle on immigration enforcement, yes or no? Either yes, there is some limiting principle, and then, like, let's agree on where that is. What you're going to find with many of the people making these arguments, there is no limiting principle on abortion, not abortion, well, abortion. I was trying to have a logical debate and saying, okay, we might have a difference of preferences, but where can we agree on something?

Where can we find some sort of thing? And I'm just saying, we're in a period of rampant irrationality on the left. Like, why would they have any incentive to actually use non-contradiction principles, logic, that kind of stuff? They have a... There's a billion-dollar propaganda industry behind them and supporting everything that they do, and so they have no incentive, and that's what I'm saying. I'm glad, I mean, honestly, you can make the case that Donald Trump's election was a game-changer saver for the republic, and I don't doubt that.

But Elon Musk acquiring X so that we can actually get information out there, who I still call Twitter, is also a game changer. And it's like, you know, like Mike Liddell, the pillow guy, he's thinking about running for governor of Minnesota. Dude, do me a favor, brother. Let Lisa DeMuth run for governor, okay? Why don't you buy the Star Tribune? Like, all these media outlets come up for sale. Like, buy it. And so, like, just stop it with this propaganda stuff.

Like, we've got to fight back. We need more voices in media. That's why, for example, The Loop is fighting back. I mean, 500,000 people get this email every day. They thank us so much for it because they're like, I'm so sick and tired of getting my news and information, all the basic facts, completely filtered to support the Democratic Party agenda. Like, no. And we'll call it like it is. I mean, like, if it was, you know, sometimes ICE makes a mistake, like on the last episode, we talked about that fellow who was a U.S.

citizen that was brought in and detained, and we said, yeah, that was a mistake, and guess what? ICE said it was a mistake, too. Like, I mean, it's like if these things happen, but they're at a 99% success rate, so thank you very much. I'm very proud of ICE and the job that they've done.

Yes, and then, okay, for my good news, I will keep it quick. Unsurprisingly, we were completely correct about Greenland. Again, I don't know why people don't understand how Trump works at this point, but here's the truth. Based upon a very productive meeting that I had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutt, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic region. This solution, if consummated, funny word there. Will be a great one for the United States of America and all NATO nations.

Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st. Additional discussions are being held concerning the Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland. Further information will be made available as discussions progress. VP J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and various others as needed will be responsible for the negotiations.

They report directly to me. Thank you for this attention to this matter. Seriously, I'm like, we could have saved like two, like an entire outrage cycle over the news and hysterical productions. Like, this is so obvious that this is what was going to happen. It just popped the balloon, and everyone like moved on to the next thing that they're going to be outraged about this morning. So, they're like, oh, well, that was a big fat nothing. Let's pat ourselves on the back.

Great job. The second thing I will do for my good news, it's good news. I have an abundance of humility. I'm a big man. I can, you know, acknowledge when I was incorrect. I thought it was going to get flack for different opinions that I had on the podcast. What people were most upset about, and rightfully so, the LSU Tigers were the last undefeated college team to win a national championship. The stat that I was intending to read was that Indiana University is the first college football program to win 16 games, 16-0.

The last 16-0 college team was the Yale Bulldogs in 1894. That is what I meant. I got accusations of not knowing ball for that. It is possible that that is true. I just have to set the record straight. I was wrong. Congratulations to the last one. Go Tigers. Whatever I got to say.

That was beautiful, Tom. I believe they were 15-0, yeah, because they added the extra game now, so it is 16-0. So, that is what I got to say. Good news now. Erika, what do you got? Okay, continuing the sports theme here. We have the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament. I don't know what it's called, tennis mat, but anyway, we had some amazing American players show up in Brisbane, Australia to paddle the ball back and forth or whatever they do, and this one in particular was, she sat down, they have the reporters, they're all asking them questions about their game and their training and their aspirations, and one reporter I asked tennis star Amanda Anisimova, not about her tennis, but how do you feel playing under the American flag right now?

Just got to run the clip on this one. He should have known that Ova, at the end of the name, was not going to get him the response he hoped for. Yeah, it turns out her parents fled Soviet Russia. So, yeah, let's see what Amanda has to say. Hi, Amanda. Congratulations on the win. I've been asking a lot of the American players just how it feels to play under the American flag right now, and I'm curious how you feel.

Yeah, I mean, I was born in America, so I'm always proud to represent my country, and a lot of us are doing really well, and it's great to see a lot of great athletes on the women's side, on the men's side. So, yeah, I feel like we're all doing a great job representing ourselves.

Sorry, do you mind if I follow up? Sure. Sorry, just to clarify a little, I mean, sort of in the context of the last year of everything that's been happening in the U.S., does that complicate that feeling at all? What? I don't think that's relevant.

Yeah, there's major, like, city-city vibes there. Was that John Hammond? Oh, I just want to freaking... I never think you do. It makes me so mad. First off, the guy's not even American, he's Canadian. Yeah, this is Canadian journalist Owen Lewis, who basically spends every tennis tournament running around asking all the American players if they hate Donald Trump, and questions like, are you really proud of the American flag you're wearing? And they're like, yeah, but this is his job, and he's Canadian.

It's so perfect. Can this be my Twilight Zone, too? He asked the same question to every American athlete, and even for the ones that I know that I don't agree with, they did a good job. They didn't even totally take the bait. They were kind of like, well, we're kind of in the middle of a tennis tournament. I've made my views clear. Damn, this is a Wendy's. This guy's relatable here, the boy Tyler.

Hi, Taylor. Congrats on the win. You know, I'm asking all the American players this, and there's a lot happening back home in the U.S., and kind of has been for a lot of the last year, and I'm just kind of wondering how you're feeling about all of it.

I mean, I'm not sure what we're, like, specifically talking about, but there is a lot going on in... In the U.S., and I don't know, I feel like whatever I say here is going to get put in a headline, and it's going to get taken out of context, so I'd really rather not do something that's going to cause a big distraction for me in the middle of the tournament.

Thank you, guys. I love it. This guy's like, why am I... He's like, I can't even. He tells the truth, and it's like, why should I placate you, journalist looking for a headline, looking to start a food fight?

You know, like, it's a distraction from what I'm trying to do as an athlete. Yeah, that's exactly how I respond when my, like, eight-year-old asks me for the 18th time, if it's movie time yet. Whatever I say is going to be clipped and taken out of context.

So, shout out to our athletes, man, especially that girl. Seriously, like, they fled the Soviet Union and raised her in Florida. I don't think you're barking up the wrong tree, buddy. I never understand this. It said something to him, like, yeah, I'm happy not to be in a communist hellhole. Like, you think you want to put me in? Seriously? What the hell? But the Olympics are coming up. The Winter Olympics are coming up. And I already saw something hilarious. It was like, Winter Olympics walkouts.

And it was like, the United States, everyone was like, yay. And then Greenland walked out. And it's like, instead of Greenland, it said the United States of America over that one, too. It was like, yay. It was like, then Canada walked out, and Canada was America. Funny, but seriously, the whole point we're sending you is to represent the United States of America. It's to represent all of us, and we've spent a lot of money, and you've dedicated a lot of time to be excellent in your athletic pursuits.

And in that way, you know, be grateful to the country that sent you. I never understood these athletes that go and then trash the country that sent them and trained them, raised them, gave them what they have, even if you're in Russia. Like, I would kind of be mad if you're, like, Russian, you come out, you just come out, and you trash Russia. That doesn't make sense to me either. I wouldn't even want that for you. Like, just be convicted and grateful and represent all of us, make us proud.

It's an awesome thing. Like, it should just be treated as an awesome thing. And fire these stupid journalists that go, instead of asking about the excellence of your sports, you're trying to get these clickbait headlines of someone that has nothing to do with what you've got going on right there. Like, she could have been even more forceful. That just makes me so, that's like a very specific thing that makes me so mad. So, take notes. United States AdWords. Okay, so I have a segue off that, because this one liberal on Twitter has got like 30,000 followers.

His name is Meacham. I don't know who he is, really. But he was talking about Greenland, not about this tennis thing, but it tracks, because he says, And part of my French, I'm going to quote him, he says, I don't understand why the people of Greenland don't want our shitty coffee, tacky strip malls, and crushing medical debt. What's wrong with them? He's mocking Americans who want Greenland. And I just have to give credit to my friend Tim Carney, who says, when you support mass immigration, but also hate America, it sends an interesting message to those who love America.

And it really does. Yep. It really does. Noted. And J.D. Vance loves America, and he loves the true Minnesota, so I wanted to at least, if you could click that photo and show our YouTube audience, this was where he eventually held a press conference, and see if you can notice something a little bit different about this photograph before he got there and spoke. Can you see it there in the chat? I got it. What do you notice about that? I know the answer, because...

I was watching Tim Walls give a talk the other day with a different Minnesota flag behind him. That's right. That's the original Minnesota flag, not the one that looks like a province of Somalia. Exactly. Thank you, J.D. Vance. Thank you, J.D. Vance. As a native Minnesotan. Details matter. We're one step closer to renaming the Commanders to the Redskins. I love it. I love it.

In fact, I wonder if we should change my Vikings to the Somali Pirates. Never. My good news, I would say, is that you have to think about it. The Biden administration was horrible and reprehensible. We had high inflation. The economy was lackluster. The first quarter of when Donald Trump was in office, the economy went down like 0.2%, just like a tiny amount, and everyone in the mainstream media was like, oh, here we come, recession. They could not help but cheer for it.

They wanted a recession. They wanted the economy to go into the crapper because Donald Trump was president, but you know what happened? Ruh-roh. The economy last quarter went up by 4.4%, shattering the expectations of everyone else. So, this is massive good news for anyone who actually wants. An economy that helps the American people. And I credit to Donald J. Trump, who's managed to do so with actually relatively low inflation. It was lower than it had been expected. So, it looks like things are moving in the right direction.

A lot of panicums, I have to tell you. If we can continue this, 4%, 3.5%, whatever, for the next couple of quarters. Hey, maybe the 26th midterm elections won't be so bad after all. All right, and then I'm going to have to steal another good news because this was so cute. Secretary Sean Duffy, massive family.

Here's the tweet. I'll just read it off. I'm so proud to be a part of the most pro-life administration in U.S. history and work for a president who fully supports the most important human rights march in America, the annual March for Life. Thank you, POTUS, for defending life in the womb and for reminding every child, as you did before Congress last year, that God made you perfectly. 90% of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted. Our youngest daughter, Valentina, has Down Syndrome.

She is the best thing that has ever happened to our family, an angel on earth. God bless our pro-life marchers. Who brave the cold to fight for our most vulnerable and voiceless citizens, the unborn and those of special needs. And I always love this picture in particular.

Valentine Trump at the table. It's the best. Talk about massive upgrade at the Secretary of Transportation, someone that trafficked their children versus pro-life Sean Duffy. I was literally on a plane with the previous Secretary of Transportation just a few days ago. It's like, ah, every time this guy.

Yeah, you guys kind of intertwined paths. You and Pete. And this time, I got bumped to first class, so he was actually sitting a few rows behind me for once. Well, Josh. You didn't give him a piece of your mind?

Nobody asked. You didn't play take it to ride with him? I did not. I was tempted. I almost did. We'll see what happens next time. Yeah, because, okay, it's impossible for me to keep this show short, but this is a good question. We can answer it.

Tom, Erika, Josh, first, thank you for what you do and your approach to current events. I appreciate hearing you break down important news stories from a Catholic perspective and in context and nuance, especially since headlines are often very misleading, and I don't have time to investigate everything. Yours is the only political podcast that was due regularly, and I also appreciate the deep.

Shut up. Secondly. After hearing your brief discussion on George Washington in the last episode, I was wondering if you could all put together a reading list for the average American Catholic to learn more about our great nation's history, especially during this 250th anniversary year. I love history, and I try to find history sources that aren't coming from a modernist slash revisionist perspective. I am also sensitive to the fact that much of history scholarship I grew up with is tinged with anti-Catholic bias.

I have some audible credits just waiting to be used. On one or several of your recommendations, if you have already done this and I missed it, please direct me to that. I don't think we have. Sorry for the long email. Heading off to Saturday morning confession. Beast. Thank you again, and may God bless your work. Adam. Thank you for the question, Adam. That's awesome. Oh, do we have books? Josh is like raiding his bookshelf in the background there.

Well, I mean, I would recommend this book. American Cicero by my good friend Brad Berzer. He is a professor of history at Hillsdale College. He wrote this book, American Cicero, about the great Catholic founding father, Charles Carroll. And so, it is going to give you a lot of stuff on this. And Charles Carroll had the background. He was able to, because you have to think about it, at the time of the founding, with the Declaration of Independence and then a decade or so later when they are working on the Constitution.

You know, there's a lot of people who are like, how do we talk about the rights of men, you know, in a way that doesn't talk about the divine right of kings? And it's like, hey, look, the Catholic tradition is going to have a lot of stuff that we can use on, so you can bring in the philosophers like Montesquieu and some of these others that talk about this. So, again, I would just highly recommend this book. He also wrote a short article.

There are 10 things to know about the American founding from a Catholic perspective that every Catholic should know about, and I think we have the link to that. We can put it in the chat. So, I would just recommend those as a starter, but people thought, like the American founding, because Charles Carroll put so much on the line, so much money, and he was such a strong advocate, people thought he would be like one of the four or five founders that everyone would remember, and he's just largely forgotten about.

So, I give my credit to Brad. Try to increase his notoriety and talk about his legacy. What do you got, Erika? Yeah, I've got one for the kids and one for the grown-ups, so really great. Tan Press, Tan Books, they have a series called The Story of Civilization, and we use this in our homeschool, but we also just listen to the CDs for fun, so it's a series of audio CDs and a guy named Philip Campbell. They're probably geared towards middle school age, but honestly, the older kids listen as well.

I enjoy listening to them. But they have one unit that's all on American history, and it's from a Catholic perspective. So, that's really great. Good audio. You can just play it in the car, and if you have kids around, really, really great for them as well. It's a mix of lecture and dramatization. It's a little radio show kind of action going on. Highly recommend, A Story of Civilization. And then, if you want to go back to the colonial era, there is a great book called Continental Ambitions, The Catholic Colonial Experience.

Yeah, Roman Catholics in North America. So, this is by a man named Kevin Starr, and it goes through the three major Catholic influences on our continent. So, he actually talks about the Spanish Empire, the French, and recusant England. And so, all of those Catholic threads that really were what brought us to, well, two Catholic threads and one non-Catholic thread that really brought us up to the founding of the United States of America. So, it's pretty fast-paced.

Pretty painful to read, but highly recommend Continental Ambitions, Roman Catholics. Wait, why would you say painful? I mean, history is painful, Tom. It isn't perfect. We don't always acquit ourselves quite so well on the stage of history. Oh, painful as in, I thought you were saying painful as in it's going to be like a dense read.

Oh, no. You were saying painful as in there was mistakes made along the way. Yeah, it takes a lot of humility to read. Wait, we weren't perfect? Right. Shocker. Headline. Breaking news. What? Human nature? Brutal. What everyone should just have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Catholic daily. Okay, can I set this up? The American Catholic Daily Reader. I've personally read Fantastic, and what I especially appreciate about it, well, first off, it was written by Brian Burge, but then what I especially appreciate about it is- And Emily Stimson Chapman.

And Emily Stimson Chapman. It puts you on to, I actually genuinely did not know, so it's daily, and it's a short, I believe it's only like a page or a couple pages for each. Yeah, one page, three days a page. Exactly. It's perfect for breastfeeding, can I just say that? It's a great, you can just, yeah, you can read it daily, but then if there's one thing in it that really piques your interest- Then you can go on and be like, okay, I really want to get in depth on this specific part of, like, the Catholic influence on America, and then you can go do the research.

So, I feel like I had that experience. I was like, oh, dang, I picked out a couple pages where I was like, didn't even know this was a thing. Let's go on and find some stuff. So, yeah. So, like, today, January 23rd, it talks about Georgetown University and the legacy of that. Now, of course, the legacy lately has been not so great. Yeah. And then, you know... They had the best intentions. February 3rd is Four Chaplains Day. It is a great story.

That is one of my favorites. Which is also on the eve of the Nativity of the Oracle, so that is kind of cool. Anyway, if you become a member of CatholicVote, we can get you this... American Catholic Daily Reader, become a champion, give $10 a month, and we'll send you the book for free. I mean, this is awesome. What more can you ask for? And I like the fact that, Tom, you said a lot of history. One page a day, you can do it.

And you feel like you know more about the country. It's like you read it, I get to hold on to a little nugget, and then I get to pull out that nugget to impress my friends, to make them think that I know more about history than I probably do. So, selfishly. Oh, your humility is showing again, Tom. It's just really overflowing in today's episode. Highly recommended by this part-time high school teacher.

You teach high school? I do. Are you serious? Yes. What do you teach? History? I teach history. No way. Are you serious? Yes. You actually do? I do. I teach one class. I mean, obviously, I'm pretty darn busy with Kelly Booth, so I can't do more than one class, but I love it. I've done this podcast with you for years now. I do not. How long have you been doing this? Is this a recent endeavor? Just since August. Okay, there you go.

Okay, you're going to make me feel bad for a second. Okay, that's sick. I would sign up for the Josh Mercer history course. Well, and if you can't, you get the Daily Reader, and you see it for Constitution 101 with Hillsdale. There are things you can do to up your game here. All right, there you go. Okay, Twadzone now. Josh, what do you got?

All right, well, hold on. I just had to put all my books down here now. Where are we at here? Hold on, kids. Okay, so, you know, all about this stuff in Minnesota, the congresswoman from Minneapolis, Ilhan Omar, smugly talked this week about how much she cherishes the United States Constitution.

Here's her tweet. You ready for this? Yep. She's talking about this. She says, I know the Constitution doesn't mean much to some people, but it does to me and so many others. If you allow this to stand and don't fight against it, you will be complicit when it's used against you.

And she's referring to immigration officers who do not, couldn't enter a home without a judge's warrant. So, I mean, what a patriot, huh? She sounds like she loves the Constitution so much. Oh, wow. If only, you know, she maybe deleted her entire social media account before she posted a tweet like that, because, of course, what did she say back in 2019 about Columbus Day? Yep. She said, to say other colonists discovered this country is also false. They massacred and dehumanized indigenous communities that had already built a way of life on these lands.

This is the cruel reality we must accept to begin repairing the harm done. So, I'm supposed to believe these cruel, racist, genocidal... Masochists who founded this country, you cherish them so much in their document, the Constitution. Almost like you're completely, totally full of crap. Yeah, that's a no-doubt. Give me a break.

Didn't she marry her brother? Yeah, she did. She married her brother so he could come over here legally, quote-unquote. Unbelievable. You know, I have to give credit to Jesse Kelly, though. He says, you know, Ilhan Omar is actually doing, in a way, a public service, because she's embodying just about everything that's wrong with our current system. Because she, you know, there are problems even with legal immigration. Someone has come to this country, destitute, poor, became rich. So, by becoming an elected congresswoman, her network has skyrocketed to millions.

She does it all while completely crapping on her host country at every turn. She is the embodiment of everything that's just reprehensible about some of these people. I just, I, you know, it's like, oh, do you hate her, Josh? Like, she hates me. That's the problem. She hates me. She hates you. There's a collision course of Minnesota people right now.

I was born in Minneapolis. I like it when we can welcome people to this country who love it, but why do we continue to bring in people from countries that lack basic... They can't build anything. What? I'd rather... Hey, we can help build roads in your country. How about that? And the people who hate this country, I just, I can't, she's just the worst. I can't imagine if I decided I was going to immigrate to. You know, to Germany or China, and get elected into office, and then turn around and just crap on everyone in their country and say how horrible the country is.

Like, then just leave. Well, Josh, no, you can illegally immigrate here and become a superintendent in Iowa. Ah. Not just that, but somebody was so frustrated. He posted on Reddit how he got his application for naturalization was denied because he, oh, uh.

Illegally registered to vote. So, the thing that never happens just seems to keep happening again and again and again. Crazy. All right, Eric, what do you got? Crazy. I'm really loving the Blue Lives Matter account on Twitter these days. And Blue Lives Matter is a pretty loose organization, but they've organized more over the last 10, 12 years, usually in response to Black Lives Matter. But they posted this the other day about their activities in Minnesota. They said, we're not saying that Blue Lives Matter was behind feeding false information to far left.

Anti-ice protesters. We're not saying we had teams comprised of hundreds of off-duty cops and veterans volunteer to run decoy operations so far-left activists thought they were conducting ice raids. We're not saying they were. In fact, they were just driving around in what appeared to be unmarked vehicles with tinted windows, drinking coffee, and listening to Guns N' Roses while being chased down and surrounded by protesters. What we are saying is that if this Did happen. It sure worked remarkably well in nine different states, allowing actual raids to successfully take place unimpeded and helping support the capture of hundreds of criminals.

Combat veterans, off-duty officers, and patriotic Americans have had enough of the radical left and are being activated across this country to back up our law enforcement. They're smarter, more skilled, more driven, better trained than the left. And I actually enjoy sitting in a deer stand for days on end, just waiting.

ISDHS, we've got your back. Blue Lives Matter. In other words, the cops. These guys are pro-cop. I love it. By the way, the administration is doing similar stuff. Ooh, are they sending decoy ice agents around? Yeah, I mean, there's no idea. They have Commander Bovino going around to different spots in Minneapolis, and all the leftist activists just go bananas and scream and yell and throw food at him. Following him around. And, of course, the whole porpoise is while they're doing that and yelling at him, he's got his aides, you know, raiding places, other places.

Yeah, a similar thing happened with J.D. Vance's visit yesterday. Somehow, the Vance team leaked. To the Ice Watch protesters, where J.D. Vance would be staying at the hotel, and so this massive crowd of like 80 kids from the university show up, and they've got trombones and drums, and they spend the whole night just blasting into the hotel, being like, oh, we got J.D. Vance. He didn't sleep a wink last night, and none of them realized that J.D. Vance had actually been wheels up and was back in D.C.

by like 11 p.m. last night. He slept in his own bed. I do feel bad for the other people in the hotel, but... Oh, yeah, good point. I didn't even think about that. Might be red-pilling a little bit. All right, my final one.

I just can't stop laughing. Just Polymarket just cracks me up. It's like, it makes me sad, but it also cracks me up, and so I'm like at the laugh, not cry element of it. There's currently a, someone's like, does anyone else have the Greenland Seahawks Israel parlay? So, here's the, you know, the summary of that and everything.

You can bet, will the U.S. acquire part of Greenland in 2026? Right now, it's at yes. Will the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl in 2026? Yes. Israel strikes Iran by January 31st, 2026. You can bet on that currently.

And someone asked, does anyone have the Greenland Seahawks? The idea is if you do three of the bets, all of them, you get an exponentially higher payout or something. There you go. Oh, my gosh. You going for it, Tom? I don't bet on that as much, although. No, I don't have the parlay. I did buy some silver a few weeks ago, and now it's over $100 an ounce. That is not financial advice. Nice. For legal purposes. Your podcast does not give financial advice.

I do not. I'm just happy. No. Like, there's no advantage for people to do anything bad there when you're betting on someone bombing a foreign country. Yeah, that's very unseemly. Yeah, the blessings of liberty, as some say. Okay, before the prayer today, again, we kind of teased in the beginning, the LOOPcast will be going live on Tuesday, unusual time, because we have a big announcement.

So, join us live on Tuesday at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. There may or may not be a special guest. We've got big things coming, okay? Thank you for all of your support. It's the only reason we could do something like this, and with some of these initiatives, you know, some of the initiatives dependent on support, I'll say for me personally, so I have some exciting things to announce myself, but then also as an organization, we are having a major, let's just say, evolution in offerings.

So, if you'd like to be there, and you have questions about said evolution in offerings, Tuesday at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on YouTube is where we can do that. So, hopefully, we see you guys there, and we will be answering your questions. It is going to be great. It is going to be a good time. It is not going to be super long. I think it will be like a half hour, probably, is my guess, but, and before, we had a great episode of The Deep.

We have already had a lot of people saying, man, that described my experience completely. We are talking about automation, and someone asked us- I am pregnant in the chat. No, I am not. You did kind of make it. You were like, I have a big personal announcement, and everyone was like... No, no, no, no, no, no. I am not pregnant. I can confirm that. Yes, yes. Tom can't get pregnant. Wow. The chat. This is going to be tough keeping the chat in check for this announcement, because we've already thought it was pricey.

No, I'm not. I love Catholics. They're like, Tom, what? Yeah, no, that's actually a good point. Like, with Catholics, it's like, anytime you hear an announcement, it's like, oh, man, awesome. Is it a baby? Okay, but yes, episode of The Deep. The AI was supposed to fix customer services and made it 100 times worse. I thought it was very good. Go check it out. That was a fun one to work on. Shout out to Simon who edited that. Okay, we end in daily prayer, and God bless everyone at the march.

We're with you guys. We're praying for you guys. Awesome. So, and prayer to St. Joseph and the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. O blessed Joseph, faithful guardian of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, protector of thy chaste spouse, the Virgin Mother of God, I choose thee this day to be my special patron and advocate, and I firmly resolve to honor thee all the days of my life. Therefore, I humbly beseech thee to receive me as thy client, to instruct me in every doubt, to comfort me in every affliction, to obtain for me and for all the knowledge and love of...

The heart of Jesus, and finally, to defend and protect me at the hour of my death. Amen. St. Thomas Morris, St. Fidelis, Our Lady Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Pray for an end to abortion. Shout out to everyone at the march. Hopefully, you guys get all home safe, and yeah, we'll catch you guys on Monday, and then, of course, Tuesday for the announcement. Peace.