Man With Hundreds of Explosives Arrested Outside D.C. Catholic Church before SCOTUS "Red Mass"

And we're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast. It's Tom and Erika. Josh, of course, is probably eating paella, getting sun from the Spanish coast. Well, I believe the update this morning was he has just hit the 100-kilometer mark. I don't know what that means. Yeah, maybe it means he's gone 100 kilometers, or he's like 100 kilometers from the end.

He's at 100 kilometers, so big props to Josh. Josh is going to come in with sweet calves that you can't see, because you can't see the lower half of our frame here, the woodcast. That's right. He's having a great time. Eric and I are holding it down. Warm welcome to everyone here in the chat. I see someone is from Baraboo, Wisconsin, which I've never heard of before, but shout out Baraboo, Wisconsin. Baraboo. Maybe it's Baraboo like caribou. That would be kind of cool.

If people have tuned in long enough, I just read a lot, and I don't talk it. Well, I do yap a lot. But I just read words, and then in my head, that's how it's pronounced, and then I pronounce words that I know incorrectly. My mom makes fun of me for it. It's bad. Anyway, the LOOPcast, brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite newsletter, and I think today's an especially good episode for this because the top story today, I just made it the entire title.

I cannot believe how... This story was just buried. I mean, this happened October 3rd, and there was a man outside of a D.C. church that was supposed to be the Red Ness Cathedral to bless SCOTUS on their upcoming term and to speak to everyone in D.C., and there was a man with hundreds of explosives out front and a manifesto, and we, I mean.

I couldn't believe that I hadn't even, I mean, we work at Catholic, but we're covering this kind of thing, and so we're going to get into all of that. We're going to get into the Supreme Court. It's going to be a good Supreme Court episode, taking on a case about conversion therapy, which is a word that I almost forgot about until now. So, SCOTUS is taking up the ban on that in Colorado. Erika has all the details there. But, of course, we have good news.

We have Twilight Zone. It's going to be a great episode. We're going to have fun. We're going to have a lot of fun today. I also have a special episode Friday I'm going to tease a little bit before. I got to talk to a nuclear engineer about his studies of the Shroud of Turin. I can't wait. I'm in the middle of editing it. I love a good Shroud of Turin. I love it. And it's not to say I was a Shroud hater, but I actually just think it's a marketing problem, because why not just call it the burial cloth of Jesus?

I think that would be like, oh, that makes sense. But you hear Shroud of Turin, like... What does that even mean? It could be like a dust cloud. Shroud literally is that. You just said the thing that a shroud is. Right, but Torrin, like, anyway, we'll get into all of it. It's going to be great. But before we do, first, we have Ave Maria Mutual Funds. First off, I really appreciate our sponsors. They make the show possible. Thank you to everyone for supporting the show, but the reason we could do it is because of people like Ave Maria Mutual Funds.

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Thank you, Charity Mobile, for sponsoring the show. Thank you, guys. All right, Erika, shall we dive in? Yeah, let's do it. What's up first? So, I would first like to credit Luke Rosiak. I used a lot of his reporting for two stories that are going to be in our A Block today, specifically this, and I'll share my screen for the visual here. He's a great investigative reporter. He does a lot of good things on Catholics as well. So, man with 200 explosives and leftist manifesto arrested outside Supreme Court event at church.

This is according to police. So, here's the gentleman who was arrested. I will get into a little bit of the background. So, this man's name is Louis Jerry. He is a 41-year-old from Arizona, New Jersey. He was apprehended outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Beautiful church, by the way. Yeah. I was stunned when I was in there. On October 5th, the same day, the church held its annual Red Mass, in which a cardinal prays for the high court as it embarks on a new term, and which is historically attended by justices, justices such as Amy Coney Barrett.

Uh, uh, Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, prominent Catholic, I think Alito probably too, but yes, it's, it's, it's kind of understood that Supreme Court justices attend. Uh, so a member of the Metropolitan Police Department's bomb squad, uh, found this man said that he needed to move because of a special event. He replied, I'm aware of that. Referring to the red mass police roast wrote and threatened to throw a bomb into the street as a demonstration. Adding, I have a hundred plus of them.

Oh. Police said they would remove him against his will, and he replied, several of your people are going to die from one of these. With a lighter in one hand, he handed them nine pieces of paper that amounted to a manifesto entitled, Written Negotiations for Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives. The manifesto reveals his significant animosity towards the Catholic Church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS, and ICE, ICE facilities, police wrote, indicating that the incident may be the latest in a string of left-wing domestic terrorism.

On Monday, reviewing the bombs more carefully, police filed an affidavit from a bomb tech saying that there were over 200 devices recovered from D1's tent. He was in a tent outside of the church. There was a strong smell of acetone emitting from some of the vials. Some of the liquid was determined to be nitromethane. The liquid appeared to be multiple chemicals mixed together, none in original containers. The devices appeared to be fully functional.

And this was October 3rd. Yeah. You're telling me. Today is the 8th. Yeah. Yeah, I was looking into the reporting on this, and it was just... Stunning, the way that this was buried. So, the Washington Post finally picked it up after the weekend and buried it. They made it a local news event. This was an intended hate crime to kill multiple people, including Supreme Court justices, at an event that they're known to attend. How is this not? This is like...

To me, this should be the top story on the front page. If J6 is going to dominate headlines for years, why is this not top interest? Are we just immune to it? Yeah, unfortunately, it's a continuation of a string of violence that has just kind of become normalized against Supreme Court justices, but fortunately, no justices attended the mass this year because of securities concerns. Right, because of the threat.

Which concerns, which appear to be justified. Yes. Last year, three justices, all conservative, attended. John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. In 2018, leftists were photographed protesting the mass with signs that said, Stop Kavanaugh. This is referring to the false smear peddled by Democrat senators that Kavanaugh was a gang rapist.

So, yeah, I was shocked by the unusually light reporting on this, and what's interesting, it kind of opened another can of worms, and a lot of people are saying that partially why someone would be this coordinated, this brazen, and feel comfortable with this kind of attack is because we've had unusually light sentencing on threats against SCOTUS. If you can remember, the Brett Kavanaugh would-be assassin showed up with a sawed-off shotgun and a manifesto as well, so there's an update on that, and again, I want to give Luke Rosiak a lot of...

Credit for his investigative reporting here. So, this came just a few days after we get this really unusually light sentence, and I really wanted to dig into this because I do remember seeing this on the news that someone had showed up that was attempting to kill Justice Kavanaugh when he was about to be confirmed.

So, some more details on this, which is really unusual. The man who planned to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022 in an attempt to change the court's balance of power was sentenced by a Joe Biden-appointed judge on Friday to 97 months in prison, granting the defendant's request for an eight-year sentence.

Judge Deborah Boardman, a Joe Biden appointee to Maryland federal court, acknowledged that there was a whopping 22-year difference between that and the minimum of 30 years called for. By federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors had asked for sentencing guidelines to be followed. So, the prosecutors were like, hey, you know, he threatened the Supreme Court justice, about to become Supreme Court justice, in order to change the balance of the court. I mean, pre-textbook, political assassination, political violence. Said, hey, it's just 30 years, right?

Like, 30 years is the standard. It's the standard. He had the weapons. He had the means to execute it. He was, like, at the doorstep. This is what you sentence him for. You don't even have to think about it, Judge. Yeah, and so the Department of Justice is, I mean, Pam Bonney's already been out. Like, we're going to appeal this. Like, this is insane. But I was curious, how did it get down to eight, and what was the strategy from the defendant's team to try to lower this sentence?

So, a little bit of detail. I went back into the case myself, and so Nicholas Roski is the name of the individual, traveled from California to Kavanaugh's Maryland home, armed with a cache of weapons after leaked documents showed that the court planned to rule against liberals on abortion, which we still don't know. Who leaked that document? Which is insane. This is the leaked document that Dobbs was going to be ruled on, and where the justice, I believe it had opinions in there, too.

Yeah, it had drafts. Yeah, draft opinions. Yep. And although he meticulously planned the assassination for months, according to him, he had a change of heart outside the conservative justice home and called the police to turn himself in. He had been detained in the three years since, so with time served and good behavior, Roski's sentence would mean he could be out for four years, but out four years after being sentenced on the charge to attempt. This is according to the new sentencing guideline of eight years.

Yep. So, I was thinking, okay, He turned himself in, you know, change of heart. Like, that's good. Maybe that is what they're trying to lean on to lower this 30-year sentence, but according to, I was looking back into the case, and again, shout out to Luke Rosiak on this. So, we have, the sentencing took more than seven hours, with much of the time dedicated to discussing how Roski's transgender identity meant he should get a lighter sentence. Well, here we go. Here we go.

More than an hour-long speech justifying the light sentence, Boardman said, Ms. Roski came out, and again, The judge kind of went back and forth the entire case, basically saying, I did it wrong. What should I do? I believe the prosecutors just said.

They just sidestepped it all together and it was like the person was being charged. Ms. Roski came out, and again, this is a direct quote, so this is a biological man who's transitioning to female. Ms. Roski came out to herself as transgender in 2020, but kept it secret. Ms. Roski's sister came out as gay two years prior, but Ms. Roski saw that their parents struggled to reconcile her sexuality with their religious beliefs. I am heartened that this terrible infraction has helped Roski family accept their daughter for who she is.

What? His mother, Colleen, told the judge on Friday, I have attended PFLAG meetings and learned about the LGBTQ plus community. I am committed to going on this journey with Sophie. This is the name change for Nicholas. She was frustrated with what was going on in the world, and we weren't a safe place to process it.

Boardman said any prison time is punishment for her. The length doesn't need to be particularly long. Unduly harsh conditions make a difference, too, the judge continued. She will be imprisoned in a male facility, even though she is a transgender prisoner pursuant to the executive order from the president. Before the executive order, this wasn't the case. Earlier in this hearing, Boardman latched out at prosecutors and President Donald Trump, saying, So, wait, if I understand correctly, the reason for the lenient sentence of eight years is really, it's really President Trump's fault, because if he hadn't said that biological males who identify as females have to be housed in male prisons, the judge would not have been as Lenient?

Because it's going to be so hard for a male to be in a male prison? What? I'm so turned around. So, it's really Trump's fault. Right, but the strategy of the... The defendants' team was, let's make this about a coming out story that struggled with identity, this and that. They actually went through the digital footprint of this individual, and I mean, some of it I can't even talk about, but Roski has been posting on Reddit before the shooting, and...

I think I have from Luke here. He is one of a string of violent trans-identifying individuals who are obsessed with video games and leftist politics. In one, he said that he was a trans gamer girl seeking friend, and in another, he was, and I can't even really say the sentence, he was into some really extreme sexual fantasies that he was very public about. Like the boyfriend of Tyler Robinson, who allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk, Roski was apparently a furry, and on May 20, 2022, he asked Reddit users, the Roe v.

Wade leak has brought a lot of attention to the Supreme Court. And what it is capable of. If going into the future, the Supreme Court retains the same members, what is a realistic expectation for the future? On the other hand, if a conservative judge were replaced by a liberal judge, thus changing which party has the majority, what would change? And then finally, he posted in Reddit's forensics forum, claiming to be a novelist, quote, writing a killer who is obsessed with not leaving evidence.

What methods could they use? Unbelievable. I mean, there's so much going on here. It's hard to even begin to tease it apart, but basically, you have this guy, this very disturbed individual who has turned himself in. He doesn't have a leg to stand on. Like, he's already written the confession and everything. It's like, how do I mitigate this? Well, if I plead as a woman, if I decide I'm a woman, then I'll get less of a cent. Is that like, that was the That was the strategy of the attorneys.

Of the attorneys, for sure. And then you have this legitimately disturbed guy, and he says it right here. With Kavanaugh, with replacing Kavanaugh, the idea was if we can assassinate Barrett or Kavanaugh or Alito before the decision drops, we could change the tide with Dobbs. That was because Joe Biden was in the White House at the time, so you knew anyone who replaced them would be, you know. The thing with the attempt on the Red Mass, had those justices been there, and had this perpetrator been able to explode those devices and kill justices, Trump's in the White House now, so the idea is they would be replaced by.

So, that was just... That didn't even have this level of strategy going on behind it. It was just pure lashing out and pure hatred. I mean, we talked a lot about the uptick in leftist violence and how, and the permissiveness of the culture of rhetoric of labeling everyone fascist, of labeling everyone like Orange Hitler.

Yeah. That, that, that... It gives a permission to people who are on these margins of Discord and Reddit and living these miserable lives to act out, to actually act out violently. We saw it in Boston, too. Last night, there were riots in Boston of Palestinian protesters. They were celebrating October 7th and the two-year anniversary of the slaughter of Jews, and they're out there protesting. I mean, police were put in the hospital. Yeah, it's out of control. I mean, I can... This is completely out of control.

If I could zoom out here for a second. Do it. We... So, the reason why we're so shocked that they're not following just the general guideline on this is because we have, I know what the government is capable of. I saw them detain J6 people that were just walking around outside the Capitol. We had sentences of 22 years. 22 years. 22 years. Right. So, that's kind of the thing that's so funny. It's like, well, we try to do that for everyone.

No, you don't. I saw what you were capable of, and I know what our judiciary is capable of. I mean, we're basically in a situation where we have, like, judicial overthrow. Of what the president is trying to do, and yeah, he's forcing the issue for sure, but I think for good reason. We have people, so two things. On the ground level, we have institutionalized mental illness in a way that is clearly dangerous to society. This person, Noel Roski, is, I mean, by their own digital footprint, clearly mentally ill, doing things that are damaging to themselves, living a bizarre online life that has nothing but despair at the end of that tunnel, and we have one of the most depressed generations.

Coming up, after we have supposed all this material wealth, right? And part of the problem is because we've changed a lot of the medical dogma to try to accommodate to people who are clearly mentally ill. That's number one. Number two is, like you said, we have people clearly painting a target, right? Like, we had people tracking Kavanaugh's locations. People were protesting outside of his home, which was a norm that was basically smashed with Kavanaugh. Apparently, now that's acceptable behavior. Like, we just keep pushing the line further and further and further and further and further and further, and we've now pushed it even further by lightening a sentence for showing up threatening to assassinate a Supreme Court justice.

And I saw the judge in this case even said, well, the judge isn't political. As if somehow that would make this any worse. Like, we live in an assassination culture right now, and we have been riling up people who are clearly mentally ill and not helping them and giving them the help that they need because we're not giving them truth or charity, right? So, it's just this ultimate powder keg. This guy shows up outside of mass knowing Supreme Court justices are going to be there, and this is the precedent set that somehow this is, you know, you're not going to be treated the way that you should be treated.

Like, for the common good, you need to be put away for a long time. To send a signal to the country of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable. Like, we are really flirting with so many dangerous things right now in terms of this assassination culture. It's like two things, we got a huge powder keg, here we are. I mean, it's just obvious. Well, in another instance of it, we covered this on Monday, but there have been more developments in the Jay Jones case, who's the Democratic Attorney General candidate for the state of Virginia, who fantasized about, you know, shooting one of his Republican colleagues twice in the head with bullets, and then...

Watching his colleague's children die in their mother's arms in order to, like, change his political opinion or something. Yep. And not only that, but we found out yesterday that he's been, that prior to this, he'd been tweeting about, we need to, like, get rid of police officers. We need to kill police officers because they're enforcing these laws. I mean, attorney, he still is running for attorney general, the top law enforcement officer. In one of the biggest states on the East Coast, it's insane to me that his rhetoric, the assassination culture, people are going to be like, okay, well, Rocky was crazy, Louis Jerry, this 41-year-old in front of St.

Matthew's Cathedral, they're all crazy, these are one-offs, they're not connected. But your party is running a guy who fantasizes about killing the children of his political opponents, who fantasizes about killing police officers, and you're like, well, he's not crazy, but it's also like, we all do that. Who among us has not regretted a tweet that they put out? It's that permissiveness and allowance. Look, this all to me was...

Set in motion by the Luigi Mangione thing. Like, it's a slippery slope, of course, and I was really just shocked at how many people were comfortable publicly saying support of assassinating anyone, let alone, like a CEO is kind of like, feeling people like, oh, well, that's not as bad, you know, that's not like, as if somehow.

Like, that was okay, and there was a really big portion of the population that was like, yep, cheering it on, this is really good, this is what is necessary for change. I mean, you even, we watched that interview Ross had with Hassan Piker, who is like the biggest snake oil salesman of all time, like confronted with, I'm surprised Ross.

He did a good job with it, but I've never seen someone kind of slide around, well, I didn't mean that. Well, it was metaphorical when talking about murdering people, murdering people for change to be necessary. How many examples do we need in history? I mean, I guess history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Yes, we have real revolutionaries amidst us that are very comfortable with political violence to enact change. They think it's a part of the formula, and when you say turn the temperature down, it's like these people actually don't want to.

They want radical change. And then they're happy to kind of convince stooges to go do the heavy work, right? And the stooges being people that are clearly mentally ill, and we don't have solutions for it to decide right now because we can't be honest with them. It really is.

Well, we can't be honest with them, and we can't even follow our own sentencing guidelines for them, right? We just, this is unserious, yeah, this is an unserious judge who's able, because of Again, because the judiciary system, she has no accountability at this point, and if anyone were to hold her accountable to these sentences and guidelines, thank God Pam Bondi is going to go after this, because it's ridiculous.

But if we were to hold her accountable, it would be like, oh my gosh, Trump is prosecuting judges. What next? That would be the whole narrative, is that he's the one crossing. Somehow, it's Trump who's crossing these lines and checks and balances and disregarding the separation of power. when you're like, well, what is she doing? It's classic abuser psychology. I'm going to get to it with the Chicago stuff, but all the same arguments are being made right now. It's like, we completely abandoned rule of law, and somehow it's your fault for agitating.

If you were to ask me right now, and if Josh was on the show, I'm sure he'd have strong thoughts, but is this going to get better? I don't know. I unfortunately don't know. It's a really uphill battle, and if I wasn't religious, if I wasn't Catholic, I would be pretty blackmailed on all of this, because I know this isn't our home, and I know there's a real spiritual evil going on in the country, and I do believe in the power of prayer and in our community.

You know, on an institutional level, it's going to get nasty. I think it's going to get nasty before it gets better, unfortunately. Yeah, I agree with you. I was listening to the editors over at National Review, and I think Rich Lowry posed to the guys, he was like, so, you know, on a scale of one to ten, how optimistic are you that this is going to get better? Like, Pam Bondi's going to come in and, like, save the day and get rule of law back and fair application of sentencing guidelines.

And I was... I was surprised at how bleak all of them put it. I think the top score was a six among all of those guys. I am not far behind them. My hope is in the name of the Lord. I love seeing the Charlie Kirk effect, the signs that Gen Z is returning to the face.

In droves that were unanticipated, that the rise of the non seems to have stopped. But that's a that is a spiritual and cultural hope. And I think generations from now that could redound into institutional reform. But I think you're right that we've we got to buckle down here. We got to buckle down and be clear eyed and not despairing, but But realistic and pragmatic about what we're going to be facing the next few years. Yeah.

So, pragmatism is key, and I don't think what you're saying is unrelated. Like, in a world full of chaos and things that don't make sense, I think there's a lot of people that feel very politically homeless right now. You brought up Pam Bondi. Like, they are clearly not being honest to us about the Epstein files, and that was kind of the big backbreaker, I think, of everyone that's like, oh, they're going to clean up the DOJ. And then, of course, you get the Charlie Kirk stuff, and they're like a little sketchy on that, in my opinion, too.

So, I think there's a lot of people that now feel like, oh, I'm homeless. Like, I don't even... Yeah, I had a really cool conversation last night, actually. I went out and had dinner with, I love Todd with the kids. Thank you, Todd. Shout out to the man. But I went out with a friend who'd reached out to me, and we've been friends a very long time. She calls me her homeschooling friend, and I call her my non-homeschooling friend. And, you know, she is considered more left of center when it comes to the church and all that.

Although, at this point, I'm like, you're not even left. But we had a good conversation just about all of these questions, and she made the point. I asked her, I said, well, do you feel politically homeless? And she's like, absolutely. I feel totally politically homeless at this point. And she said, you know, going into the election last fall, I was looking at the options, like what could happen either way. And she's like, well, if Harris is elected, it's going to call for one kind of Christian witness.

But if Trump's elected, it's going to call for another kind of Christian witness. The bottom line is, that is the story of being Catholic in the world, in the polis, and active politically. It's no matter who's in power, we don't put our trust in princes and principalities.

Yeah, so I thought you made a good point there. Yeah, okay. I always love dinner conversations with Erika. I know, right? That's fun. Before we get into the next section. We have home title lock. One of my favorites. Here we go. Did you know that American homeowners have over $32 trillion in equity? As Donald Trump would say, that's a lot of cash, that's a lot of money. And criminals are targeting it with a growing scam the FBI calls, appropriately, house stealing.

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For just $1, and you will also get a free title history report to ensure you're not already a victim. Make sure you check out the million-dollar triple lock protection details when you get there. Click the link below and promo code LOOP60. Thank you, Home Title Lock. Awesome. And I see a lot of people in the chat talking about praying rosaries right now. Yes. And I will be the first to say on the show, it has been the most transformational daily spiritual practice of my entire life.

And I almost am ashamed it took me so long. Start praying one on a daily basis, because maybe my life was too good, or I was distracted, or whatever. Picked it up over the last year. I cannot emphasize enough. If you haven't picked one up in a little while, pick one up now. Now's the time. I really don't know how I'd do the show, how I would be a father, how I would navigate professional world, how I would navigate news without a concrete spiritual practice like praying the rosary.

So, if you haven't in a while, now's the time. I'll be the first to say. Yeah, and it's really cool how many influencers are saying things online right now. Like, I've been prompted to say the whole rosary again every day. Like, Daniel Bean just put it out. Matt Fradd was talking about it. And same with our family, too. Like, Todd just took some, like, spiritual fatherhood on and was like, we're going to start doing the whole thing now. And as a family with many children, we had been doing a decade for most of our married life because, you know.

Good for you. But Todd, he, like, took the reins. He's like, we got to start doing this. And, yeah, it's been amazing. We'll hopefully get more Todd shoutouts. We'll add for the rosary. Is our lady sponsoring this episode? Because I'm here for it. I hope so. I sure hope so. Okay, Erika, get me into this. So, first off, I think the headline when I saw it about conversion therapy, I'm like, oh, the most evil practice of all time. I mean, the way that it was branded was like, this is terrible.

So, first off, what is conversion therapy, and why is the Supreme Court taking up something regarding it? Yeah, I'm actually going to do it backwards. I'm going to take up the Supreme Court case, and then I'm going to use that to explain. Because, like you, I have a very bad taste in my mouth when I hear that. It turns out... It's because my whole adult life, it's been talked down. So, the Supreme Court, because they hadn't been blown up in St.

Matthew's Cathedral, heard oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar. Licensed counselor Kaylee Chiles from Colorado is contesting her state's law that bans conversion therapy. This law goes back to 2019, and it bans conversion therapy for minors. Broadly, it forbids all counselors from seeking to change or reduce same-sex attraction. Or gender dysphoria. So, that's the really important key here. It's going to come back.

Chiles is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, our good friends at the ADF. Shout out. I mean, they're involved in all the best stuff. They're the best. I'm like, okay, yeah. They're just the best. Yeah, and we've both interviewed people from them, really awesome people.

She says that the law violates her First Amendment free speech rights. Now, Colorado came back at her, and they're saying that the ban is not about free speech. It's about professional conduct to protect LGBTQ plus IA youth. From practices deemed harmful by the medical establishment and ineffective. And in fact, yes, back in the Obama years, we had the APA, the AMA, the psych, all of the major institutions saying conversion therapy is harmful.

And professional conduct, of course, is a legal category that states can regulate. It's not protected by the First Amendment. Oral arguments were a trip yesterday. I got to listen to some of them. Those of you who have watched for a while, you know I love watching this stuff.

They indicate, of course, a majority of the justices think the Colorado law is actually in violation of the First Amendment. And this could be a massive ruling, because right now we have 20 states that ban conversion therapy along the same lines as Colorado. So, this would have widespread implications.

A little play-by-play, Justice Sotomayor, one of my favorites, suggested that there's no imminent threat. So, chiles. The counselor doesn't have standing because no one's actually going after her. And Colorado says, well, we have this law, but we're not going to enforce it. Obviously, Chile is actually under active investigation by the state right now. So, that went out the window. Justice Jackson suggested that maybe the First Amendment is about conveying messages, and this isn't conveying messages. So, messages, it was very, I mean, that poor woman, I just.

Yeah, someone needs to teach her about the First Amendment. Yeah. But Barrett and Gorsuch were very solid, very good, very targeted asking about strict scrutiny, First Amendment protecting professionals, and talking about how what Colorado has actually done with this law is dictate what speech professionals are allowed to make. So, it's actually saying that you can only say these certain things if you are this person. particular type of medical practitioner, you're not allowed to say these other things. Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the historical basis for regulating mental health professional speech separately from medicine, and Alito did my favorite moment of the day.

He asked the Colorado lawyer, he was like, wouldn't you say that ideology has influenced medicine and medical laws in the past? And the Colorado lawyer's like, well, I guess it's possible. And then Alito went on to list all of these cases.

Sterilizing people with developmental disabilities, institutionalizing people with Down syndrome, and emphasizing that the First Amendment plays a really important role in protecting dissenting voices from the medical establishment, which eventually those voices allow for actual science to be applied to the question. The Colorado State Attorney would not acknowledge the points that Alito was making.

Again, nothing like the most radicalizing event of my life and probably ever will be COVID, right? Yeah. Because I distinctly remember that dissenting voices turned out to be completely correct on everything. Yeah. And it turns out that when it comes to so-called gender affirming care, dissenting voices are really important right now. Yeah. They also noted that Colorado's law is asymmetrical because it permits counseling. It permits counselors. Talk therapists to affirm gender dysphoria and say, you're right, you're in the wrong body, without parental consent, but it bars counselors who are seeking to help children who want to realign with their biological sex from encouraging them to do so.

So, it's a very asymmetrical law. Okay, so it looks like the ruling is going to go in favor of free speech, First Amendment rights, because we have amazing justices. But this brought up the question, okay, how did we get to this point? What is conversion therapy? And should it even be allowed, right?

So, I did some research into conversion therapy, and we're talking about, I'm going to frame it as an issue of concept creep in psychology. Coupled with the classic bait-and-switch attack. So, what happened is the Colorado law includes measures as extreme as electric shock and removing parts of the brain, right? You think of like the, you know, cutting out the front of the line. We did use to lobotomize people. I don't think for being gay, but that used to be actually standard medical science.

So, this law, like, includes extreme measures like that that actually are, like, physically harmful. Yeah. And talk therapy, where a child experiences... Gender dysphoria is like helped to align their feelings again with their body. So, it's a very broad category, and the concept creep is that throughout the Obama administration years as the campaign to be 100% affirming, quote unquote, of any kind of sexuality, any kind of gender identity, they just kept adding in practices. Which is genius, by the way, because now if you support it, you support lobotomizing people, right?

Exactly. You are a fascist, and it's just that. The bait-and-switch of identifying this as like, okay, pray the gay away is how they would have said it in the 90s when I was growing up. Like, okay, you're attracted to other men, we're just going to like pray over you and convert you and maybe shock you and eventually you'll like women, which is sort of crazy, right? But then they added in also children who think that they're in the wrong body into the same category, which of course gets the LGB.

Community all up in arms, because you added in the T. So, it is very, very classic. Efforts to ban it started under Obama. They start redefining these terms. The AMA condemned conversion therapy, and in 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics, when it came to children, published a policy arguing that conversion therapy to, quote, change a youth's gender expression or identity is not only unsuccessful, but also deleterious. So, here is where the other concept creep came in. They redefined harm to be physical, irreversible harm to a child's body to just be anything that was emotionally uncomfortable to the child.

Basically, what it was then used by the AAP, so American Academy of Pediatrics, this statement asserted that anything other than affirming gender identity was dangerous to trans youth, meaning emotionally maybe harmful or uncomfortable, that not socially transitioning a child or pushing back on the idea that transitioning would lead to greater happiness was akin to abuse. So, they also redefine abuse now. The term conversion therapy had then Was then deployed to remove all checks and balances on gender-affirming care. Since then, since 2018, the field exploded, and of course, is now a billion-dollar industry globally.

So, it was kind of amazing to walk back through what I would call now the demonization of conversion therapy, this expansion of terms, expansion of meaning, until you could get to the bottom of it. Disavow anything that would go against the LGBTQ accepted agenda in medicine. Sorry, can I stop you for a second? Because I was just reading through Father James Martin's response on this, which we'll get to. But so was the term conversion therapy not even coined by people doing the work of like?

Providing therapy to people that are, it was coined by opposition, so. It's hard to say. I was actually looking into that because you start to see it, you see it pop up during the Obama years as a negative term, right, as a negative thing. It was hard to say when it started to be used at all, so it could have been that in the 90s when we're talking about like pray the gay away, that it was like, okay, we're going to do therapy that's going to help convert.

Or change your sexual attraction or your, you know, your predilections when it comes to sex. When it became a term of, a bad term, like something to be taken out and legally forbidden, then that was definitely during the Obama years. Okay. And before we get into Father James Martin's response to this. Yeah.

Courage ministries, like if there's anyone in our audience right now that's really struggling with this, because I think what's unfortunate in all of this is this still is an area where people actually need really good, solid pastoral advice on a heartbreaking issue. If you are dealing with same-sex attraction for whatever reason, or gender dysphoria, all these things, that's what I think makes me so angry about Father James Martin, is he knows what he's doing. And he's actually leading people away from what should be good pastoral care in a sane society.

So, Courage Ministries, go check them out. They're fantastic. I think the, was it the new bishop in Oregon? Was Thomas something? I forget his name. Yeah, Sample. Yeah. Worked with them. So, maybe just to, like, even wrap this entire conversation with, like, these are debates about the First Amendment here. But at its core, like, on the human level, this is something that. People need really good South Pastoral advice that will lead them towards human flourishing and a good relationship in the church community, or just in society in general.

So, yeah. And parents need to be able to... Request help for their struggling children, which is what the Colorado law basically forbids, that even if you're a parent and your child had, say there was some horrible abuse incident, a lot of kids who experience gender dysphoria, or even same-sex attraction later in life, have some kind of abuse in their childhood. What the Colorado law is saying is, if your child comes out of some traumatic experience like that, and they are now just confused about their bodies and what they mean, and they're uncomfortable in their bodies.

Parents are not allowed to seek help that would help heal that wound, because now it's only forward. Like, we are going to glorify their victimhood, we're going to tell them they're now identified permanently with their victimhood, and if you as a parent want to help them heal, you're actually abusing your child. That's the evil of these laws in Colorado and in the 19 other states that have these laws in place. So, it's, and the work of organizations like Courage, Courage is aimed at adult populations, so we're not talking about kids, but the principle remains.

Absolutely. Yeah. And even, okay, so even to wrap this all back up, because the guy, Noah, who, like, I didn't even read his public Reddit activity, because it's so, like, depraved, and like, honestly, my, like, heart breaks a little bit for people that, so, like, could you imagine in this situation? Where, you know, your child falls into something like this, or maybe you yourself fall into something like this, and, like, you are alone, isolated, depressed, doing things that harm your body, harm your spirit, harm your will.

I mean, like, the stuff that he was saying was, like, it's almost hard for me to imagine how you could possibly get to that place of such levels of extreme sexual abuse to yourself or to others. Right. But people are there. Like, there's really...

What would I say, like, predatory forces out there that are pushing you towards this, as this is somehow a liberation for you or yourself, you know? That is the flip side of the Colorado law, is that it silences all voices that say, you know what, there is healing for this, and it props up. So, if someone like Rothke, as a child, his parents did bring him to a therapist, the only therapists who would be legally practicing in Colorado would be the ones who are going to pathologize his everyday experience.

...who are going to say, you are a victim, you are this way, there is no healing, and you're going to continue down this road. It's inevitable, so let's just affirm you all the way down until you're out there assassinating Supreme Court justices. That's what the law is doing on the aggressive, predatory side that you're describing.

Yeah. So, hopefully, this is the end of it. All. But yes, Father James Martin then comes out with this unbelievable, well, actually, it's completely believable. It's completely believable, yeah. But these are the voices that you're hearing from America Magazine and Outreach. He says, a few thoughts about the SCOTUS arguments today. Of course, conversion therapy should be banned. And this, of course, it is so sloppy, because I think everyone can agree that we shouldn't be electrocuting people or lobotomizing people because they're confused sexually.

But he's lumping it in with this woman who has never done any of those things, who just sits and talks to kids and their parents. To begin with, he says, it's been rejected by almost every reputable psychiatric and psychological organization. Again, All the same people who are telling us that gender-affirming care is reversible, that Lupron is fine to give to kids, that, oh, the COVID vaccine completely prevented the spread of the disease.

So, he's just... It's a sidestep, yeah. It's like COVID never happened for him. And then he just goes on and on about, you know, I've worked with people who said conversion therapy is bad, and so this show... Yeah. Yeah, I also get frustrated too with, sorry, am I weird again? So, he said, for straight people who don't think it's a good idea or even not a bad idea, sorry, for straight people who think it's a good idea or even not a bad idea, I often say, do you think there's any amount of therapy that can make you gay?

Yes. Absolutely, I think that if you were to show something, especially the children. It's called grooming. Right, it's called grooming. It happens all the time. And yes, if you had aggressive therapists that wanted to push you in a certain direction and emotionally manipulate you into making actions like that, yes, I've seen it. There's documented examples. Yes, why do you think, Father James Martin, 40% of students at Brown University identify as gender nonconforming? Do you think that's natural? God made 40% of the kids at Brown that way?

It's totally, it's heads I win, tails you lose, right? Because at one point, they're saying, you know, oh, I remember back in the day, I don't even think this is really a core argument anymore. It's like, oh, you were born that way, right? Like, that was even like Lady Gaga had that song, like, born this way, whatever, born this way, born this way. And everyone's like, oh, well, you can't say anything because people were born this way. But of course, now you get the manifestation of this extreme LGBTQI ideology where they said, no, no, no, actually, you can, no one's given anything at birth.

You can change. You can go that way. You can come back. You can be a man. You can be a woman. It is all up to you, and it can change all the time. I am defying gravity. So, it is like you can't have it both ways, and then if you are like, oh, well, conversion therapy, maybe an element of that would be proper counseling to have someone to be comfortable in their own body, or maybe to have like positive sexuality and rediscover what that means, like in the confines of natural law and what God prescribes for you.

No, no, no, because they were born that way, right? But it is like you can't have it both ways. They are trying to have it both ways. I think it is… It's fundamentally destructive to the human person and predatory, because we have good organizations coming out, and they get attacked on all these same grounds, by the way, for, again, prescribing God's natural plan for man and woman in a way that you would be unified and procreative, and it's just so sad.

I guess it just really makes me angry, because I see how predatory and vindictive. There's a whole cottage industry on this now. And I just don't think it makes anyone happier. I don't think it makes anyone, it's not good for anyone, it's not happy for anyone at the end of the day. So, yeah, that's, anyway. Erika, good news now. Bring me up. Oh, we need some good news, and I actually found good news in the Middle East. I mean, of all places.

I was so excited about this. This is actually great news. I didn't even know about this. It came up in the Catholic thing, which is one of my favorite reads. Go subscribe. Catholic University of Erbil in Iraq. I haven't checked in on Iraq in a while. So, this school was founded in 2015, and that is, for context, that's the year after ISIS took Mosul.

So, Iraq is falling apart, and some guys are like, let's start a Catholic university in northern Iraq when ISIS is running around. It could come into the town at any moment. So, the Catholic university in Erbil has blossomed. It's gone from 11 students to over 760, much of it thanks to generous scholarships, and it's become a symbol of resilience, rebuilding in this region. It's offering education, but also peace building and this sort of like coexistence. Culture.

Not in the bad sense, but in the good sense that they actually need in northern Iraq, because it's open to students of all faiths. So, you have Christians in there, Catholics, Muslims, and Yazidi, and it's described as a vibrant, multi-religious campus in a country that is too often divided by faith, and graduates are already making their mark in Iraq. They're renewing the country in hospitals, NGOs, business, civic life, and bringing with them the values of service, reconciliation, and hope. For a better future.

That's awesome. I loved this story because this is exactly what we want. This is how countries are renewed. It's not by the CIA going in and doing regime change or something. It's by the people there having the resources that they need to found their own institutions and renew their culture. So, great success story. Shout out to Erbil, Iraq. Catholics do what Catholics do best. They start schools. They... They educate, they allow people to flourish. It is. Well, I didn't know this, but Celine, our producer, she was telling me, Franciscan University of Steubenville, I knew this, this Franciscan University has a program in Reveal, so students can go there and teach.

Yeah, yeah, I had friends who did that. It was insane, yeah. Yeah, so cool. We had to encourage on these people, too, like. Yeah. I have so much respect for, I knew some Franciscan people that went over there and taught and profoundly changed their perspective and understood the real risks of what goes on in the Middle East. I mean, it is, yeah, a lot of courage, a lot of respect. Speaking of good universities, so.

Shout out to Ave Maria University. We received very generous care packages from the university, so Erika, you will have some on the way. Oh, I love care packages. I got a fantastic note from someone at Ave Maria, a very sweet handwritten letter about them being proud of me as an alumni, that I always have a home there. You should be. It was an awesome care package. I just, good news was, I love my university. I met my wife there. I deepened my faith there.

I was challenged intellectually there. So, I just have to give a huge shout out to Ave Maria University, I think. I don't have enough good things to say about them, and they really made me feel appreciated. They sent a great package, so if you're still looking at schools, maybe you want to transfer the next coming semester, I will always put up Ave Maria. It's a great option. So, thank you so much to Ave Maria. I'll be wearing some sweet merch, hopefully, coming up here soon.

Just super sweet. Made me feel really appreciated. The second note I have on that, actually, it's not university, but I'm a sucker for a good... Uh, like, airplane meat story, or conversation. Like, I've actually had many very, like, interesting, awesome stories, and sometimes on an airplane, you don't want to talk. I get that. But then sometimes you find people really chatty, and you're like, oh, you got a rosary in your hand. What's going on? I haven't been to church in all these years.

Like, I just have great conversations. One of the cutest stories I've seen in a long time. Adorable. This guy, Travis Hunter, he is a two-way star on the Jaguars, Jacksonville Jaguars. Huge win against the Chiefs at home, but he invited someone that he was on the plane with, just like a random plane, invited him to a game. So, this is him hugging a woman that he sat next to on a plane, and her name is Sandy Hawkins Combs, and he shared a flight with her back in May.

And this is just like, you never know who you impact type story. This is from the lady. I had the most wonderful flight home from Denver. I met the nicest young man who sat next to me. He offered to put my bag in the overhead compartment and help me with my tray. He was always polite, saying yes ma'am or no ma'am. Anyone would be proud to have him as a son or grandson. So polite.

People walking by were saying, congratulations, great job, or even taking pictures. I turned and asked him, who am I sitting next to? I looked at his Jaguar pants, smiled, and asked, are you an athlete? He smiled and said, yes, I'm Travis. I was drafted by the Jags. I already told my sons I want his jersey. He's so humble and down to earth and would never have guessed he was a professional athlete. Jacksonville Jags, you did good. I will be buying tickets.

United Airline, thank you for the seat assignment. You got a little picture of them smiling at the bottom. And then here he comes right after the game. Big smile, gives her a hug. Flew her out, got her a ticket. They're on the sideline here. That's so classy. Come on now. I love it. That just warms my heart.

This is the best. This is why you always be nice to people you're with on planes. You never know, they could be a great professional athlete. You might get invited out to the sideline. He's always got a big smile. I love Travis Hunter's energy. I just thought that was a nice little story. That's a great story. Good pick. Man, yeah, I have so much more I want to say here, but... Thank you so much.

We're going to have to start Twitch streaming. I just found out what Twitch streaming was, and I'm like, we could do that. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. I don't know. I don't know about that.

Okay, I'll run into this quick because it reached the level of the Pope again, and now we get to talk about the Pope. So, number one, great news, border crossings have reached the lowest level since 1970. And again, I actually feel like the immigration conversation is one of these things where you get the loudest people dominating the conversation. I think most people agree what was happening from 2020 to 2024, unless you're a politician that benefits from it, was just insane. I mean, 180...

People from 180 different countries coming to the southern border on a dangerous journey where often they were sexually assaulted or murdered, tragically, just to get in the country where we let them in and gave them cell phone money, sometimes more money than American citizens, and wreaking havoc, of course, because it's just terribly managed and a lot of child trafficking happened. It's horrible. Are you watching the footage of 10,000 to 12,000 people per day at the peak of the Biden administration?

It is stunning now to see that. That was happening every day. Yeah, every day. It was hard to even believe it was real, but it was. And so, I would say, I got to give major credit to the Trump administration. They have came through on that promise, and I think that is a great win for the safety of everyone, including immigrants and Americans. So, I am really happy about that.

Now, we get Chicago and the National Guard deployment. So, again, this is building up to Pope Leo commenting on this, but so here are the numbers. I am just going to give you the quick information because we are getting into the twilight zone. 300 from Illinois. This is National Guard troop numbers. National Guard troop numbers. 300 from Illinois. This is federalized under Title 10 authority. Plus 200 to 400 from Texas. This was initially state activated. So, in total, 500 to 700.

Potentially expandable at this point. We're sent to Chicago. They were staging at Owlwood Army Reserve Center, deployment to Chicago area ICE facilities, e.g. Broadview, for perimeter security. Troops are unarmed for arrests, but equipped with riot gear, and their mission is 60 days initial, extendable, focused on safeguarding federal officials during raids.

Why would we have to safeguard federal officials during raids? You would think that people would be cooperating. Not true. So, Operation Midway Blitz, as it's called, federal campaign, ramped up ICE and CBP raids in Chicago suburbs like Broadview. Starting in late September, protests have erupted outside of ICE facilities with reports of tear gas use against demonstrators, journalists, and even Chicago police. Part of that is because Chicago police is not cooperating with ICE. So, we've had massive riots. We've had massive groups threatening ICE agents.

It's really contentious. So, you get a shooting incident, October 4, 2025. A woman was shot by a CBP agent during a vehicle ramming attack on federal vehicles in Brighton Park. DHS described it as a defensive fire against an armed subject, but it fueled accusations of excessive force and intensified protests. So, anyway, it is getting frisky out there. If we are getting into ramming federal vehicles and shooting, not great. So, Mayor Johnson...

He issued an executive order restricting Chicago PD from assisting federal agents, and I have the clip on that. He is starting these ice-free zones, I guess, is what's going on, so here's that. Today, we are signing an executive order aimed at reining in this out-of-control administration.

The order establishes ice-free zones. That means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids. And today, we are signing an executive order. Seems not legal. No. And then here's J.B. Pritzker on it. Let's see what he's got to say. Pritzker for president. Frankly, let me just say that the secretary doesn't know what she's talking about. She frankly says that people are clapping. They're not. They're booing her on the street, and they're booing ICE and CBP.

They're marching, CBP marching on a beautiful Sunday in Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, they're raiding neighborhoods where, instead of going after the bad guys, they're just picking up people who are brown and black and then checking their credentials. Are you a U.S. citizen? I don't know about you, but I don't carry around papers that say I'm a U.S. citizen. So, you can imagine people are getting detained, they're getting arrested, U.S. citizens. And they did this, of course, when they raided a building in the middle of the night in South Shore.

There were 130 people that were emptied out of this building. They were going after a few gang members, and instead, they broke windows, they broke down doors, they ransacked the place, and there were people that were held, I mean, elderly people and children zip-tied. Elderly people held for three hours at a time. They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago. If they're not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the president said, So, quick response from the administration on that.

We have, last week, federal law enforcement conducted a targeted operation at a Chicago apartment building that resulted in the arrest of multiple terrorists, Tren de Aragua gang members, and violent criminals, and then children were never zip-tied. This is a shameful and disgusting lie.

And he really brushed back that pretty quick. He said, oh, they're going after a few gang members. Or a multiple-trending Aragua. Now, listen, I'll be the first to say, like, people in the chat are talking about, like, yes, they've detained people who, unfortunately, are not.

Not illegal. I think also the smear that they're just rounding up brown and black people is outrageous as well from Pritzker. Anytime that there is a situation where excessive force is used or someone is detained unlawfully or whatever, yes, I think we can all agree we'd be against that. We want it to be remedied, and we need the administration to be upfront about that. That being said, that being said.

You brushed over pretty quickly that there was foreign gang members in this apartment complex, and that they have found many convicted rapists, so they are going after the worst of the worst, and for the last four years, you let these people in, and now, we're using language like Brandon Johnson, that sneaky sounds a little, you know, secessionist, like, in what world do we live in where you could say, Black people don't have rights in the state of Arizona, and federal government do something about it, basically.

Like, yeah, we're not going to give them rights now. That wouldn't hold up for a second. So, I'm just, there's a lot going on here that. It doesn't pass the smell test, in my opinion. To be casual about secession at a time like this is really problematic to me. So, Erika, I'm sorry. You had some thoughts on that? No, 100%. I was just going to agree with you. I think that for Pritzker and Johnson to come out, and also the head of the Chicago PD, for them to come out and be like, okay, there's been these instances where ICE agents abused their power.

Have those happened? Yes. Should we end those? Yes. We need to... Make sure that those aren't happening. But for them to be like, so the solution is for there to be ice-free zones, where these trend airwag or game members, by implication, can just run free, and they know that no one's going to come after them. I mean, if I'm a citizen on the street in Chicago, and I'm told, oh, you live in an ice-free zone now? Like, you live in a police-free zone now?

Like, Chaz, what is this? Like, are we, we're just going to say, well, there will be no law enforcement, because... There are instances where law enforcement is not carried out to the letter of the law or perfectly. That is not the solution, but I know that this isn't about actually being rational, too, so I don't want to get too into, like, oh, well. Because J.B. is running for president, obviously, and he's choosing his presidential ambitions over actually protecting the citizens of Illinois or Chicago.

Yeah. It's disgusting. Well, and Brandon Johnson, who knows what he's doing, but he's just. He's doing. He doesn't care. He's just doing it. Didn't he have, like, a room of gifts? Like, basically a room of bribes that they described, and he's like, nope, still staying in. Yeah, no, I just took some presents from my people, you know? So, what I will say, what I will say. On a philosophical note, if you do not enforce the laws in your state, it is the loss.

We talk about subsidiarity all the time. Trump will do it for you, and he will make you look bad politically because they're like, oh, Trump's forcing the issue. These people had gang members living next to them. How safe are you?

You forced the issue. You forced the issue. Illegal gang members next to you, and you're allowing that because you're not enforcing the law. Actually, you're working against the federal government to do that. Anyway, it's contentious. It's dangerous. I, for sure, have my thoughts on it. It has now reached Pope Leo, and I will play his response on this for Catholics everywhere.

Holy Father, President Trump has sent 400 National Guard troops to your city, Chicago. Yes. I prefer not to comment at this time about choices made, political choices within the United States. Yes. Yes. Who got to him? Yes. The learning curve from the Durban debacle was steep and excellent. So, this is low-key my third good news, because I'm actually happy about the Durban thing. Because I think it was a great welcome to the league moment from the Pope to be like, I'm sure he saw the backlash, Durbin didn't get the award, the bishops all rally, and then they get to feel good about that, scandal not caused, and Pope Leo learns of these, like, media moments and how they reach the country he's talking about, and he is a very methodical thinker.

And for whatever, people love throwing out different clips on him as though he's somehow, like, this radical left free open borders person, and then the right will throw out a clip. He's like, nations have the obligation to enforce their border. And, like, people, it just, I love that he's just, okay, I don't know the full context. I'm going to look into it. And then when I do it with full context, and I feel like it's necessary to make a statement on the political operation of a country, I will.

And so now people don't get to run with it, the secular media doesn't get to run with it. So I think this is actually really good news in a lot of ways, because yes, it's a super complicated, contentious political issue going on in America.

That as a nation, we need to litigate out in the court of public opinion, but also within our own laws. We're borderline talking about insurrection here with these sanctuary cities, ICE policies, thwarting the government. So, it's just like to insert yourself in that, not knowing everything, and not having a full perspective, and not having written out, I think isn't super positive for anyone. So, I was really happy that we got that. Yeah, and I liked it, too, because it's also going to train the reporters to actually ask him questions that He has expertise on and insight into, so it's going to train the reporters as well when they're accosting him outside of things.

Yeah, the media. The media is not your friend. No, the media is not your friend. No, don't do off the cuff. Okay, Erika. Let's learn. All right. Yeah, this was crazy. Twilight Zone. No shockers here, but yeah, we once again have confirmation that we really hit stassi levels under the Biden-Harris administration. Turns out Jack Smith, while in the course of investigating Donald Trump's reaction and supposed crimes surrounding the 2020 election, decided it would be fine to tap the phones and track the locations.

Of nine U.S. senators, I'll let you guess, Pogo, what political party those U.S. senators were part of. I'm sure it was AOC, right? Yeah, AOC was totally, she wishes she was a senator. She's going for it. So, this was Senator Chuck Grassley released this week, FBI documents revealing that the Justice Department, again, under Jack Smith's direction, analyzed the phone records and locations of eight other, including himself, Republican senators and one House member. Let's look at the dates. January 4th through 7th, 2021, during the, quote, Arctic Frost investigation into election interference.

This included Republican lawmakers Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson, Marsha Blackburn, Cynthia Loomis, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, and Senator Mike Lee, our friend, along with Congressman Trent Kelly. So, in addition to the senators, we had that. Yeah, I loved Mike Johnson's response, like just looking back at the years, what was the bullet that we dodged? And he said, well, to put it all in context. The Mar-a-Lago raid occurs August of 2022. Jack Smith announced the indictments against President Trump August 2023, and then two months later, because he knows he doesn't have what he needs, he's like, ah, I have the man, but I need to find the crime.

I know. I will go back and track the locations and cell phone usage of these senators, so they cast the net even wider. It was a fishing expedition against members of the House and Senate, and again. We need to keep it in the forefront of our minds, what the Biden administration was up to, because all this talk about, you know, the death to democracy, threats to our democracy, what they were actually talking about is threats to our bureaucracy and our stassy KGB level surveillance of our political opponents.

That's exactly what was going on. And I love MSNBC comes out with a whitewashing campaign this morning, and they're like, This, everyone's like, far right-wing media is going bonkers over this. They're overreacting. They're the worst. Republicans pounce. Here's a direct quote. This was just a routine gathering of records. Of course.

After the fact, to determine who Trump was talking to when it came to the 2020 election. No, this was fishing for evidence when you knew you didn't have any for the, what, how many, 92 indictments that you were bringing against him. Unbelievable. Just a little update. It's just a good reminder that Democrats got exactly who they deserved, and Donald Trump. Exactly who they deserved, and every time they're mad about him skirting presidential authority, it's like, oh, what's he doing? Oh, exactly what you did.

I'm sorry. Yeah. Two years ago. Yeah. Oh, he's putting James Comey, like, James Comey's gonna get indicted? Oh my gosh, how could you persecute? Yeah. It's like, we were alive. Yes. I am not a fan of smashing norms. I'm against smashing norms. I am against revolution in general, because it's always really, really, really bad for the most vulnerable people among us. Like, who always ends up dying? The sick, and the poor, and the children. But norms is kind of like the conversion therapy argument.

It's like, norms shift depending on who gets to take advantage of them, right? Because what was the norm before all the Supreme Court justices started getting threatened at their homes all the time? It's like, oh, well. You know, like, this is the new norm. This is the new norm. The norms thing really annoys me, because everyone's like, oh, defend the norms, defend the norms. Like, the norms have benefited one party, and then when they decided it no longer benefits them, they switch.

So, Trump is just like an ultra-honest version of what... Democrats and liberals were doing before. Yeah, exactly. So, it's like, I just appreciate the honesty now at this point. It's like, hey, I think this is garbage, and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to do something about it. And then, ah, the norms! It's like, the norms have been there for 20 years. Yeah, the only norms I'm going to lay down and die over are the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.

Like, other than that, norms come and go. Right, it's like, was America any less America when we had religious tests for office on a state level? Like, people would argue against that. Yeah, I mean. You know what I mean? Like, this whole thing about norms is just, I feel like it's very disingenuous and not effective anymore because we have someone in office that actually does what he wants.

Okay. Who we got, Tom? I'm excited for you. Everyone in the chat, buckle up, because here comes Tom. Who is Katie Porter? Katie Porter is currently the leading Democrat candidate for governor of California in 2026. Now, maybe not anymore after this. I will say this was almost reminiscent of any time Kamala Harris decided that she wanted to do an interview, which had gotten very rare. And the second, if you like a good laugh, go read through her memoir. It is hysterical and bizarre, just like her campaign, but this is a little reminiscent of, like, you're watching her do an interview, and you're like, is she going to blow up?

Is this going to be edited weird? Who knows? So, we might have a little bit of that back. I'm going to share this video of Katie Porter getting interviewed. California, Democrat. California, she's getting asked very standard questions that other candidates running for governor of California, the fifth largest economy. In, I think, is it the world? World. I think it's the world who would be in charge of that. So, here's Carrie Porter, how she performed during this contentious interview. What do you say to the 40% of California voters who you'll need in order to win who voted for Trump?

How would I need them in order to win? Well, unless you think you're going to get 60% of the vote. You think you'll get 60%? Everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you. That's what you're saying. In a general election, yes. If it is me versus a Republican, I think that I will win the people who did not vote for Trump. What if it's you versus another Democrat? I don't intend that to be the case.

So, how do you not intend that to be the case? Are you going to ask them not to run? No, no. I'm saying I'm going to build the support. I have the support already in terms of name recognition, and so I'm going to do the very best I can to make sure that we get through this primary in a really strong position. But let me be clear with you. I represented Orange County. I represented a purple area. I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before.

That's not something every candidate in this race can say. If you're from a deep blue area, if you're from L.A. or you're from Oakland. You don't have an experience. But you just said you don't need those Trump voters. But you asked me if I needed them to win.

I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question? The question is the same thing I ask everybody, that this is being called the empowering voters to stop Trump's power grab. Every other candidate has answered this question. This is not argumentative. And I said I support it. So, and the question is, what do you say to the 40% of voters who voted for Trump? Oh, I'm happy to say that. It's the do you need them to win part that I don't understand.

I'm happy to answer the question as you have it written, and I'll answer it. And we've also asked the other candidates, do you think you need any of those 40% of California voters to win? And you're saying, no, you don't. No, I'm saying, I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that... Well, to those voters. Okay, so you... I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you.

You're not going to do the interview with us? No, not like this, I'm not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask. Every other candidate has answered our follow-ups. I don't care. I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation in which you ask me about every issue on this list. And if every question, you're going to make up a follow-up question, then we're never going to get there.

Ms. Porter. And we're just going to circle around. I am an investigative reporter. I have never had to do this before, ever. You've never had to have a conversation with an interview? To end an interview. Okay, but every other candidate has done this. What part of, I'm me, I'm running for governor because I'm a leader, so I am going to make... So you're not going to answer questions from reporters? Okay, why don't we go through, I will continue to ask follow-up questions because that's my job as a journalist, but I will go through and ask these, and if you don't want to answer, you don't want to answer.

So, nearly every legislative... I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don't want this all on camera. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you. Because I am 12. I would love to continue to ask these questions so that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels about every one of these issues that they care about. And redistricting is a massive issue. We're going to do an entire story just... I just...

It's like 6th grade, I believe. It's tough. It's about the level, maybe 7th grade. Again, kind of sick. Kind of sick we're getting these again. Like, I remember watching the CBS interview. Yeah. That's tough. And I was like, okay, Katie Porter, like, where have I heard that name before? Where have I heard that name before? Oh, yes. 2012, she was appointed by Attorney General Kamala Harris to be the state's independent monitor of banks. At the time, she became a member of the House of Representatives in 2018, lost a bid for the Senate in 2024 to Adam Schiff.

So, this isn't the first time. So, unfortunately, she's been accused of having a toxic workspace environment. I don't know if this projects any of that. Sounds familiar. In her congressional office, including berating staffers, using racist language, and fostering a culture of fear, a former staffer claimed Porter ridiculed employees for reporting sexual harassment, mocked individuals whose parents died from COVID-19, and publicly dressed down a communications director over a minor setup error during a Facebook Live event. But, Tom, Tom, this was... She only did those things because she wanted to have a positive experience.

Well, and she's a leader. And she's a leader. Right. Right. She's a leader. Her office had a 65% staff turnover rate, four times the congressional average, multiple anonymous accounts describing her as a rage-filled boss who lost her temper during fundraising calls, reduced staff to tears. Are we describing Kamala Harris here? Because this is like the same. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's another one. So, funny, I have more on the lost Adam Schiff.

She accused Adam Schiff of rigging the election. She's an election denier. Therefore, making her an election denier, and she has since apologized for those comments. This is insane. Yeah, I mean, this is like Twilight Zone stuff. She also, and we know, you know, unfortunately, 2013 divorce from ex-husband Matthew Hoffman.

Court documents detailed accusation of abuse. Hoffman alleged Porter threw a pot of boiling mashed potatoes on his head in 2006, scalding his scalp, requiring medical attention. Also claims she shattered a glass coffee pot. Cutting him with shards, engaged in verbal tirades, calling him names like Don Bitt, and then effing evil.

Now, all of those things, bad. I mean, all those things, unhappy experience, maybe I would say. So, this is usually when something like that happens, you're like, okay, there were signs. Here is, I almost forgot about this one. This is why I remember it, because I remember, I think I tweeted about it a while back. Here's her in an interview on the issues.

Yes. Not great. This might be the worst of all. So, on election night, I was with, I went to pick up my daughter from water polo practice, and she's 12, and she got in the car, and she was crying, and I said, did someone punch you? Like, water polo is a rough sport. I was like, did someone hit you? Did the coach yell at you? What happened? And she said, Mom, Trump won. Trump's going to win, and what if I get raped, and I need to have an abortion?

This is from a 12-year-old, my 12-year-old daughter, and so it was really a reminder of how scary this time is for people and how important it is for Democrats to have strategies, both at the state level and the federal level, to make sure that we can continue to protect people's rights. We have some like personality disorder going on here.

I'm concerned a genuine psychopath might become the next governor. And that would be to follow up Gavin Newsom. No 12-year-old knows about that. You put that in her head. Yeah. And it's disgusting. Why would you fearmonger your 12-year-old like this? She doesn't know what she's saying. Why would a 12-year-old even know about rape? This, to me, out of all of it, yes, you can be, not yes, you're abusive on record with all these people. You were violent with your husband, apparently.

And you blew up in this interview being really nasty, and that's kind of the iceberg of all this. If you're doing this to your children, and this is somehow an ideology that you want to put forward to a 12-year-old, that's disgusting. You should not be in public office. No! Are you kidding me? This is like the Wakanda forever thing. This is like the Jay Jones thing in Virginia, where you're like, okay, if someone is saying he fantasizes about putting bullets in his political opposition's head and watching...

His opposition's children die in their mother's arms. That should disqualify you from office. This kind of behavior from someone should disqualify her from office. A sane political party would get themselves together in their leadership and be like, she might not be our best candidate. This might not be the person to put all our eggs behind, or whatever you want to say, whatever the metaphor is. 2026, lead candidate right now. Go check the polls. I don't know who would replace. But, I mean, this person genuinely scares me.

Yeah, there's some, like, some sort of disorders going on. There's something going on. I'm not mentally healthy. Yeah, it's like, and it's funny, I mean, like, how combative was Trump with reporters? And yet never, never reached the level.

You know what I mean? Like, at the end, they kind of laugh. Like, oh, okay, this is kind of Trump. You know, he's just able to go in these situations or whatever. I'm like, that was, I thought she might shoot this person. That was bad. You know, is she trying to be Trumpian, or is she just so convinced that, like, the media is so in her back pocket, she can treat this female reporter. Oh, Erika, I almost forgot. I forgot. She went on Bill Maher and Piers Morgan and was, like, talking about the girls and women's, sorry, boys and women's sports issue.

And she's like, well, this is actually all about Riley Gaines making it all about herself. Like, she's a charlatan and doesn't whatever, and Piers Morgan's like, well, actually, the guy who won the race won by 50 seconds and was a man in the pool. Like, I don't understand how that's... And then Bill Maher dumped on her, and she's kind of sitting there like... Yeah. I was like, oh my gosh. Rough, man. I don't know. The other guys have been putting up some real stinkers lately with Jay Jones and Katie Porter.

So, I will be following Katie Porter with renewed interest to see what else comes of this, because I really do enjoy the good contentious interview. And with Twilight Zone material for Pogo. Okay. We need prayer. We need prayer. We need prayer. We need prayer for this episode, of course. Again, coming this week. So... So, Thursday, we're going to have another great episode of The Deep, actually. Oh, man, I'm so excited. Mississippi Miracle. Mississippi Miracle. Guys, this is a really fun one, and it was, like, uplifting for a chance.

So, I was pumped about this script. So, tomorrow, 4 p.m. Eastern, Mississippi Miracle is going to drop. Make sure you share it and watch it. It's great. Great news. And then Friday, so Josh is... Josh is watching. Gallivanting around Spain, having a great time. 100 kilometers. Putting on 10,000 kilometers or whatever he's doing.

So, he'll be out. Eric will be out. So, I have this great interview with... His name is Bob Rucker. He is the only person on the planet conducting nuclear tests on the Shroud of Turin, and he was one of the most delightful. I mean, the guy was just, I could have done three hours with him. I did an hour and a half, and that wasn't even enough. That's great that you did nuclear tests on the Shroud of Turin. Yeah, no, it wasn't even enough.

I mean, this guy, yeah, his theory, he had a great view on science. He had a great view on his theories. Thanks for talking about this. When it comes to the resurrection, I mean, it was awesome. So, hey, that is coming Friday. I will premiere it, so you guys can enjoy it together and hang out in the comment section, but yes, that is coming. It is going to be awesome, so get ready for that, but we will end in prayer today.

Today, we have Our Lady of Good Remedy, and I was told to slow down in the prayer. Thank you. Thank you. I need to slow down in the prayer. It is the most important part, of course. And pray your rosary. Amen. So, I will start with the prayer here. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen.

Our Lady of good remedy, source of unfailing help, grant that we may draw from thy treasury of graces in our time of need. Touch the heart of sinners, that they may seek reconciliation and forgiveness. Bring comfort to the afflicted and the lonely.

Help the poor and the hopeless, aid the sick and the suffering. May they be healed in body and strengthened in spirit to endure their sufferings with patient resignation and Christian fortitude. Dear Lady of Good Remedy, source of unfailing help, the compassionate heart knows a remedy for every affliction and misery we encounter in life. Help me with thy prayers and intercession to find a remedy for my problems and needs, especially for the Loopcasters.

Dear Lady of Good Remedy, be ever present to me, and through thy intercession, may I enjoy health of body and peace of mind, grow stronger in the faith, and the love of thy Son, Jesus. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of Good Remedy, that we may deepen our dedication to thy Son and make the world alive with his Spirit. Amen. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. And we'll catch you guys on Friday with that interview. We've got Deep on Thursday, and then back live on Monday. Peace.