U.S. Helicopter Downed on Day 100 of Iran War, Karmelo Anthony Verdict, And Pope Leo In Spain

We're live. Welcome back to LOOPcast. It's Tom, Erika, and Josh. We have a fantastic show prepared for you today. Always happy to hang out with you guys for a couple hours on a Wednesday, working through some news. So, up top, we've just passed day 100 of the Iran war. I think they were tracking how many times we said we were close to a ceasefire. I think Trump said it in the 70s, a lot of times. Day 77 of the ceasefire, whatever that means.

Unfortunately, we had a U.S. helicopter downed. We got some information from the White House on it, and then just some updates in terms of... The calls between Netanyahu and Trump, and we're just trying to work through all of it. Eric's got a great timeline for you, and then we're just going to provide you the facts there.

Up next, we have the verdict for the Carmelo Anthony trial. I actually went to the beginning. I got a good roundup of how this all started and why this has become such a cultural flashpoint, but then also we now have the verdict handed down and then a lot of reactions coming out, so a lot to discuss there as well. I believe we have some information there, too, on the Belfast.

Again, really intense on the racial front. We are going to try to do our best to work through that. And then, we also have... Disparate impact, ruling from SCOTUS, not getting enough attention, in our opinion. Justice Department. Justice Department. So, that is Josh's favorite thing to talk about today. We will get there, I promise. We have good news. We have Twilight Zone, and we also have Pope Leo's trip to Spain that has just been firing everyone up. I saw reports of a million people came out to see Pope Leo in Spain.

Yeah, we got high numbers. It is like jump on the second rock star levels here. Crazy. I am imagining, too, if he comes to the United States, oh my gosh, it is going to be rock star level. So, we'll see what's going on there, and then, of course, as I said, good news, Twilight Zone, but we've got a fantastic show. It's right before we head up to La Crosse, Wisconsin for our America 250 event. Really excited to be there to consecrate the United States, the Sacred Heart of Jesus with all the homies, Josh and Erika.

I'm excited to see you guys and some of you who are going to be there, and if you can't attend live, we have that. Live. Sorry. If you can't attend in person, we have a live stream for you. Celine, maybe you could throw that in there. Definitely worth a watch. We've got some great guests coming up. Josh is going to be dressed in the nines. Erika is going to be all. They say, Josh, we've got hair and makeup for you, right?

I mean, I've done makeup before. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. Before we get to that, I've got to talk to Charity Mobile. Thank you for sponsoring the podcast. My favorite sponsor is the first sponsor. Now more than ever, it's important to do business with companies that stand with you and your beliefs. Charity Mobile is a pro-life phone company that serves pro-life customers and supports pro-life, pro-family causes. They send 5% of your monthly plan price to your favorite charity, and they send millions of dollars to charities over the past 30 years.

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Switch to Charity Mobile and buy the way you believe. To get started, visit charitymobile.com and use promo code LOOPcast. That's charitymobile.com, promo code LOOPcast. Okay, here we throw it to Erika. Good luck. Getting through the timeline of all the different negotiations, and ceasefire, non-ceasefire, firing everywhere.

Yeah, I'm going to do my best here where we are. Things are definitely heating up in the Middle East again. Today, I'll just start with the most recent, and then I'm going to walk you back to June 7th, which was my birthday, by the way. It was a fantastic weekend. Happy birthday. But from President Trump this morning, we had this truth post. Is this truthing, perhaps? Iran's military is a complete... And total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn't even exist anymore.

They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle East is dead. They have taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them. Now, they will have to pay the price. President Donald J. Trump. So, from this, you would think that it was all over. In fact, it does not seem to be. It seems like we're still in the middle of this particular conflict. So, on June 7th, escalation really began.

Israel struck at Hezbollah targets up in Beirut. The current round of escalations. The current round of escalations, yeah. I mean, you laugh because it's so ridiculous. You have to. I mean, and people are, like, civilians are dying in Lebanon. Yes, I mean, I appreciate that. Yeah, so to say that we're in day 77 of a ceasefire, like Tom said, it's, what is it, Niall Ferguson's calling it Schrodinger's ceasefire. You don't know if it's actually. There are not. But anyway, so Israel killed two people in that strike, shattering a fragile ceasefire, which maybe didn't exist, but Iran immediately launches back about 10 ballistic missiles toward northern Israel.

So, it doesn't quite sound like their military is utterly destroyed or their navy defeated. There was limited damage on that. Israel, the IDF, claims that they intercepted all the missiles. But later that day, and then into June 8th, Israel continued to retaliate against Iran with strikes on military and infrastructure targets. President Trump was publicly, over the weekend, urging Netanyahu not to escalate. Axios also is reporting that they had a private call, which was much calmer than last week's call, when Trump called Netanyahu an effing idiot.

And the... President was fighting. Oh, I'm back. Welcome back. Are we back? Yeah. I mean, you know, IDF has a number on me, I guess. We're all good. We're working that renewed fighting. Don't worry, they got one for all of us.

Massage in my computer. To jeopardize ongoing negotiations. Obviously, there are elections coming up in Israel in a couple of weeks. Netanyahu is contested there, so people are speculating on, are these retaliations against Iran to show that he's not under the control of the United States? Is it to show that they stand on their own two feet? Not sure. We do have a map here from the New York Times to kind of sum up where all the strikes were happening over the weekend, so you could pull that up, Tom.

Yeah, I'm going to see what's going on here. Oh, my gosh. Basically, yes. This doesn't look like a ceasefire. No, we've got, yes, you can see attacks from Iran then escalated into Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait. So, there were strikes there. And then yesterday, things really amped up with news that Iran had shot down a U.S. Army Apache helicopter that was patrolling near the Strait of Hormuz.

Fortunately, both pilots survived. They were rescued within a couple of hours. But Trump then declared the United States must respond to the attack, and we did. We responded and struck some more military targets. Then, oh, this was actually kind of cool. Rescued and uninjured, too, by the way. Yeah, rescued uninjured, which is amazing. And the rescue was actually effective. This was the first of its kind operation.

They were rescued by a drone boat. This is called the Corsair, and it's a recent military... upgrade, I guess, to the motorboat because it's just driven remotely from somewhere in the Indian Ocean. And this boat comes and picks up the guys, gets them to a safe place, and then a helicopter comes in and picks them up. But that's kind of cool. Drone warfare, drone rescues. I guess this is the new era that we are in.

But anyway, back to the timeline. So, the Iran, sorry, the U.S. official says that Iranian and air defense and radar systems were among the targets. We have a map of the known strikes, and they are indeed just all grouped around the Strait of Hormuz, including some radio communications plants. Possibly, Iran is claiming that we struck a water facility as well. Like the desalination plants? Yeah, like a desalination plant. But then, of course, Iran says they're going to retaliate against the United States.

So, it's just this escalation and this feeling. Meanwhile, Trump also on Monday morning, 7 a.m. on the dot. I think it's been six Monday mornings in a row. Right before the opening bell, Trump comes out with a big post about how we have never been closer to a negotiated peace, a ceasefire, finalizing the ceasefire agreement. And, of course, the markets all went wild. Everyone was excited. Then the Apache helicopter went down yesterday. So, this is where we're at.

A lot of we don't know what we don't know here, a lot of not sure what information to trust, what information to accept as fact. The fog of war lies heavy on the Middle East. Erika Rumsfeld here. Erika Rumsfeld. I knew you would pick up on that reference, Tash. That one was for you. Yeah, I was trying to look into the helicopter, too, because there's been a couple really strange U.S. plane downings. So, for example, I'm going to say this with air quotes, but the rescue mission, quote-unquote, of planes down in Iran, which I don't feel like we've really gotten the true story on, but, you know, I guess I can't confirm it or not, or ever will.

But Michael Bay did get the rights to that story, or whatever story they're putting. I'm actually not exaggerating. The bombers in Iran, that's what I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, I mean, there's that one. There's a F-35 shot down in Kuwait. Then there's been a couple attacks that... People have said was from someone, but then the other side's not taking credit for, so, I mean, I think you're accurately saying fog of war, but I think to zoom out and, like, you have oil prices here, like, to zoom out here.

Yeah. You're mentioning that, you know, the escalation trap or what people warned about, like, I think we're all at the point now where it's pretty obvious this was not as advertised what it would be. You take out the Ayatollah, it'd be over. You roll through, opposition forces are going to rise up. None of that has happened. All the people that promised are wrong. We're in day 100. We're now getting into, like, political problems outside of people... One quick comment on that.

Okay, what are you going to say, Josh? Well, whether they even ever believed it, or they just said that, you know, knowing it was a lie, you know what I mean? But they have to say that. I mean, I don't even know if they... Which is dishonest. I mean, I'm not saying, of course.

Which is dishonest and deceiving. I mean, that's even kind of my problem. See, they're naive or they're dishonest. Right, the President of the United States, how he's unfortunately been adjudicating this, like, just from really, I mean, I'm paying attention, but I'm not an insider or anything.

It seems like every Monday, we get a thing coming out saying, we got a ceasefire right on the table. That also happens to be when markets open, and then you get market activity right before an announcement comes out. And the just kind of like art of war, confusing people, your own people, has just made me really lose, like, I just don't take anything Trump says seriously, unfortunately. And then, of course, that bleeds into the domestic, which was a bad byproduct. But as you mentioned, Erika, there's elections coming up in Israel in three months.

I've discovered this strain of Israelis that think that the United States owns Israel, which is hilarious, thinking that there's like a parallel world of Toms. In Israel, that's like, we're controlled by the other country. I'm not kidding. Like, they're mad, too. Kind of, you know, understandably, they have a seven-front war. They're bombing Lebanon and occupying a significant portion of Lebanon in which IDF soldiers are getting shot at and killed because they're trying to occupy seemingly, not strategic, but some type of religious significance, like the Crusades house, for example, and then posting it, and then IDF soldiers are going to get killed.

They're like... This doesn't make sense. We're frustrated here because we need to finish a job here in Iran, and we're not doing it, and then in the United States, Trump has elections coming up, and you have oil prices, but that's going to be a huge problem for midterms if prices continue to rise or they don't come down significantly to where they were before, and then you also look at, you know, this helicopter got downed. Thank goodness no Americans got killed, but we're looking at our bases all being touched in the Middle East by drones.

We don't have real significant progress or really great options, it looks like, to wind this thing down. And Iran's kind of sitting around being like, well, you can destroy our navy or whatever else. That wasn't really the main thing that we have going for us. It's the short-range and the medium-range missiles and drones that they clearly have a large supply of and the ability to fly and hit bases in the Middle East, whether they're American or, say, Kuwait or other people in the Middle East energy centers.

They can wait it out. Right, and I think that's what's really coming to the fore here in this dynamic, is that Iran, it is an asymmetrical sort of... Political pressure coming from the three big players here, Israel and the United States, have a much lower threshold of pain when it comes to domestic political pressures than Iran does. Because Iran has been running its government, its people like a war economy. To them, the people of Iran are expendable. They are not beholden to them, and back in January, they essentially decapitated.

The resistance with all of those protests. Remember, they arrested over 60,000, probably executed between 30,000 and 40,000 of Iranians who were most likely to resist. And so, they're the ones in whose interest it is to let this play out longer, and they can... They do have an end. I mean, at some point, the economy in Iran will be so bad that they will be brought to the negotiating table, but it is in their interest to prolong this as much as possible.

Okay, but, you know. We are talking 18 months. I do not think it is three months or six months. But elections are in three. The pretty obvious choreographed fight between Trump and Bibi seemed like an obvious way for Netanyahu to, as you say, Tom, kind of restore his standing a little bit right before the elections to show, I'm not beholden to the U.S. I tell him to shove off, and I can do what I want. You know, so you get some of these kind of things, some of these games that are played, and so people are like, oh gosh, that sounds like Netanyahu is a fighter for us.

I would also say, like, the pain at the pump has been pretty, you know, I get it, five dollar gas isn't good for anyone, although prices have declined about, you know, three and a half. 80% on the barrel, and I've noticed that at the pump, it's gone down, you know, where I'm at, 80 cents in the last three weeks. Yeah, same here.

So, you know, again, the question is, everyone just automatically assumes that Trump is going to fold because he's going to be worried about the political implications, but it's like, well... Chances are you're going to lose the House anyway. That's your thought, and actually, you might not lose it by much because they've done gerrymandering, and so, like, if the Democrats sweep every swing district, they'll win the House, but they'll have, like, Such a tiny majority of like five or six seats, not like 30 seats where they could do a lot of damage.

And so, they basically have the same razor-thin majority that Republicans have had in the House for the last two years. And it goes over to the Senate, where I think the Republicans will still hold ground. So, I just don't necessarily buy the idea that Trump can't wait it out. You know, like, well, he's not on the ballot, and it might cause some pain, and you might lose. You know, 15 seats in the House, but at the end of the day, okay, so Hakeem Jeffries is Speaker, and he has like a six-seat majority, and they might not even win on an impeachment vote.

I mean, that is kind of the calculation that has to be going here. Trump needs to be able to convince Iran that he just does not care. He is impervious to the political stuff. Now, J.D. Vance does care, and he will care with regards to 2028. But, in terms of the short term, this is probably the time to try to pull something like this off, is what they're thinking. Yeah, and that's an interesting political perspective, but a question for you.

That's me not defending it, of course. Of course, of course, because here's the other frustrating thing. We're all American, okay? I'm Team America. But, when I analyze these events, I want to look through a game theory perspective. You put yourself in the enemy's shoes, what they would be doing, what they would be thinking, in order to how to best strategically act, or just honestly assess the situation. So, let's just put that aside for a second. So, if I'm looking at this, Josh, a key to me accepting any kind of deal, if I'm the Iranians.

Is, like you mentioned, there's kind of this dog and pony show, Trump saying, you know, you're effing crazy to Netanyahu, stop. But then immediately after he says stop, they're bombing Lebanon again, southern Lebanon, in which they're occupying, like a sovereign country. And so, that suggests to me, if I'm the Iranians, well, a key thing to me being satisfied here is the United States' ability to rein in the regional partner, Israel. And it's not happening. No, it's not. It's not in the immediate short term, I agree.

It isn't right now. That's what I'm getting at. The greater play there here between Iran and the United States is this very big, you know, game of chicken. Like, who's going to blink? Yeah. And I just don't immediately think that it's obviously going to be one or the other. Like, to me, there's some people, oh, it's obviously Trump is... 5-D chess, and he's going to, well, no, you know, I mean, he might fold because the political winds become too, you know, hard to handle, but it's also, I mean, like, I know what you said, Erika, about Iran, like, oh, well, it's an oppressive regime, and they can just tell the people to go pound sand, like, too bad.

I mean, like, we have all the, you know, we struck out at the dissidents, you know, but then again, if, you know, inflation in that country, and You know, getting goods and services become untenable, then yes, actually, it could become a powder keg. I mean, you never know. I mean, so, again, I think the most honest answer is we assess the situation, we look at what is going on, but I am pretty skeptical.

Regardless of anyone saying, oh, this is obviously how this is going to play out. Yeah, no one knows. But can I offer the other side, Erika, briefly, to what you said about, you know, this could be a power keg and they could revolt or whatever. All the people that said that that would be the case have been wrong so far. And then if you think about it, the Iranians were attacked under the guise of negotiations the first time. Actually, both times, when we sent negotiators, then they attacked.

And they remember in the 50s when... The United States attempted a successful coup, which eventually led to the Ayatollah coming to power. Why would they trust, you know, if you do revolt in your own country to somewhat ally with these people, you know, why would you trust them to actually come back? To me, I see more of my back's against the wall. I'm completely cornered, and I'm desperate. I'm going to do whatever it takes to rally around the flag to keep these people out of my country.

We just have to wait them out. Like, in a similar way to... I don't know, would you consider Vietnam War like a loss for the United States? Certainly, yes. In the same way, if they can wait them out, if they can keep their missile and drone capacity, and then force an invasion, and then keep them there, as you looked through the Middle Eastern theater before, of like, we had to occupy cities, that we weren't really, you know, we didn't have the right tactics or loss appetite to take.

Like, that's the endgame to me. Well, I mean, I'm just saying that. There's... The end game, to me, is rather unknown, based on the circumstances on the ground. I guess I question those who have very strong feelings that it's obviously going to be A, or it's obviously going to be B.

I just feel like it's hard to discern. This game of, we're basically at war. Look through the crystal ball, Josh. Let me ask you that. I agree, because you can't make hard things, but look through the crystal ball. I think even the Oracle can't do this one. We have elections, as you said, midterm elections coming up. Do you see any possibility of boots on the ground war in Iran? Because that seems to be the only... If you escalate, you have to go there to win, to actually win.

You can't keep up this bombing thing. It's not going to work. That's why we keep going towards a ceasefire or a deal of some kind, because they've shown that they're able to weather it and strike back U.S. bases or regional partners or whatever else. I don't think Donald Trump does boots on the ground, and I challenge your assessment that you can't just keep this on again, off again, ceasefire, throw a few missiles thing. That seems kind of ridiculous to us to do that sort of, like, in perpetuity for, like, nine more months or something like that, but, like, honestly, that seems to me the second-likeliest outcome, you know?

What's the first? Well, the first is that there's finally both sides, you know, like, agree to some sort of, you know, it makes more sense to just kind of have some agreement that both sides can agree to. Like, that seems to me the most likely thing. And the other. And the second most likely outcome, like I say, is that we just keep this cat and mouse kind of like, I'm not going to invade your country, but I'm going to bomb you, you know, make your life miserable.

The third one, which is we just cut our losses, put our tail between the legs, and go home. I don't think it's going to happen. I also don't think a land invasion is going to happen. So, I think it's just kind of this wait and see game until somebody blinks, and we get an agreement that What will happen is, a lot of people in our country that don't like Trump will say, this agreement, Trump just gave them the straight of her muse, you know, but I don't know.

I just feel like we're going to keep going this route, like on again, off again, on again, off again, negotiate, is it on or not, until we finally get the deal, and even after that, we'll still wait for five or six or seven weeks before you're like, okay, it actually seems like it's actually sticking this time. I think that's the most likely outcome. I just don't, I mean, I do not see Trump putting troops on the ground. I agree, and I think, like, that's Trump sort of becoming just your typical American president in the post-Soviet era, because that's what we've all done.

Like, all of the presidents, they get into some kind of conflict or war in the Middle East or Afghanistan, and then it's just strung out on again, off again, with really no end game. Or if there is an end, like, there was an end to Afghanistan. But you know it's going to pop up again as soon as, like, another terrorist cell blows up a bomb somewhere, and they are traced back to Afghanistan. So, I think you're right, Josh. Well, let me just clarify.

No, no, I'd like to finish that off. Let's finish. Let Erika finish. Let Erika finish. Yeah, so no, I think that looking at the Iran war, not so much as this began on March 2nd or whatever, and it's going to end on Labor Day, or it's going to end on January 19th next year, but that... It's an episode in this ongoing, much longer, on-again, off-again entanglement that we have in the Middle East, and that even Trump is not extracting us from.

Which is extra frustrating because he promised to. No, I understand that, but I guess my question would be, you know, if you look at after Vietnam, you go from Reagan... Bush, Clinton, you know, Obama, all that kind of, and George W. Bush being that, I consider George W. Bush to be the anomaly, where he was like very hot war, boots on the ground, you know, for an extended period of time, as opposed to the Gulf War I, which was like a month, and you're done.

Eight weeks. You know, and like Clinton and Reagan had different, you know, interventions in foreign policy, whether it's Kosovo or, you know, Beirut or Grenada or whatever. But they weren't, you know, George W. Bush was like the one where it was like a hot war, two wars, long time, which that was the, both of those were like the first time that were like massively, this is not undercutting the people who served in the Gulf War I, I'm not trying to say that, but like Gulf War I was so surgical, and it was just extracting Iraq from Kuwait.

It was remarkably different. We got the monkey of Vietnam off our back. But like, if you look at other actions, I think that's what I'm trying to get at, like. With Trump, he's more, yes, Tom is correct to say he campaigned as if he was the exception to all the other presidents, and it now seems pretty clear he's not the exception. His first term was, but his second term is not, and all I'm saying is he's more along the lines of Reagan, Clinton, George Bush Sr.

than he is george bush jr do you know what i'm saying like george w hot war long time refusing casualties on the ground sacrifices must be made right yeah like you know yeah so he's definitely not that but he's more along the lines of traditional american president who uses our big missiles and and jets like which would you would you consider any of those presidents to be particularly popular their foreign policy in regards to bombing other countries coups Extending the empire.

I know you're making that distinction, but to me, they're all kind of the same. Well, there is a big distinction. The United States, our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan was a disaster. It is categorically worse than the other ones. Now, like Reagan bombing Libya in 86, American people liked it.

Right. You know, the Gulf War I, American people gave 90% approval to Bush Sr. You know, I mean, everyone assumed he was going to win re-election, so big Democrats didn't even bother running. You know, Cuomo was like, I'm not going to do it. You know, and then Clinton comes along, I'll run. I didn't like Kosovo and some of the things that Clinton did, but it certainly didn't hurt him.

You know, in a massive way. So, like, when it comes to foreign policy stuff, again, I tried to extract what I personally think about it, and just to say, what will the American people do? Think about this. The American people have tended to give a lot of leeway to the President of the United States when it comes to this kind of stuff, because they're like, well, maybe they know something we don't know. And I'm not saying that that's the correct assessment.

I'm just saying that that's the natural perspective that American people have when it comes to this stuff. But they soured significantly. George W. Bush on Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Iraq, where it just felt like, are you just the biggest idiot in the world, and why won't you fire Rumsfeld? People just can't believe it. And Donald Trump destroyed the Republican Party, that entire field, because he's like, you guys are idiots for supporting this stupid war.

And so, I get why a lot of people in 2024 were like, yeah, I like Trump because he was totally not in favor of war in his first term, and I'm worried that we're going to get a war if we elect Campbell Harris, and yet Trump wins and we get a war. I'm just saying, I also do not support this war, but it is not the same kind of category of, you know.

The debacle that Iran was, Iraq was, and then, like, Vietnam. It's in a different category. Still a war, still very serious, but not boots on the ground and that kind of stuff. But you mentioned public perception, and I would say the significant part about this action is it is particularly unpopular, like, uniquely unpopular. As you said, leeway was given before. Now we're at anywhere from 60 to 70 percent of Americans.

We disapprove of this war at this point. Republicans, it gets a little bit better, but it is getting worse by the day, because, of course, the longer this goes on. And the difference to me would be the case was never made, and it was unique betrayal of campaign promises in a way that, say, Bush never did or Clinton never did.

That would explain it to me. And then also, we have the social media now. So, we look at what we did. It was like, well, we did blow up a girls' school. You gave me three reasons. For which, why American people would disapprove of it, and I think you missed the number one. Go for it. Well, the price of gas. Yeah. That matters more than those three. But, I mean, I'm just saying, like, you know, when you talk about approval, like, with numbers, like, you know, what did Mark Twain say?

There's, you know, lies, damn lies, and statistics. That was Disraeli. Oh, well, very well. Thank you. And the point, though, I try to make is that, like, there's different things for which you can judge, you know, approval or disapproval for an action.

And in this case, I do agree, it is largely unpopular. I mean, 60-70% approval. What is the intensity level of it? That is an important question. We will have to see. I have long said this, and the war has been going on longer than I want, but if you do get resolution, At some point, and all it was is that we had these miserably high gas prices for a long time, and that is mostly the extent of it, making people like, okay, well, glad that is over, and they are not going to vote against people because of that for years and years to come, is all I am trying to say.

Whether that is fair or not, I just… Yeah, maybe I am different. Yeah, I can say, personally, I hang this on the administration and all the people that lied, and yeah, that will impact how I vote in the midterms. Oh, you certainly won't vote for him for president again. There you go.

That's true, unless he runs for a third one, which he talks about. Hey, how about governor of California? What if that? Options there. Okay, but before we get into B-Block here, again, Zeal for America 250. Selene, if you want to throw the live stream in there, it's going to be awesome. Great speakers. Cardinal Burke, Kelsey Reinhart, Michael Knowles, it's going to be a... Good old time. It is going to be inspiring. It is going to be prayerful. It is going to be awesome.

So, if you want to go ahead, throw the link in there, CatholicVote.org slash america250, and you can join the live stream, hang out with us. It is going to be great. So, on to the B block now. So, let us get into, before we get into the Carmelo Anthony, because that is really where a lot is popping off on social media, we get this kind of quiet, disparate impact ruling from the Department of Justice.

Now, Josh, you are going to have to do a little legwork here. Why is this important, and why did it not get the attention it deserves? Yeah, I mean, so what is disparate impact, right? And why did the Department of Justice just declare it unconstitutional? I think most Americans assumed that the purpose of the Civil Rights Act was to ensure that, you know, employers hired workers based on merit, not skin color or religion or something else.

But over time, the left used the mechanics of the bureaucracy to impose a new definition of fairness. They claimed that if a certain population, be it blacks or Hispanics, were statistically underrepresented in a field, that there was disparate impact, and there needed to be an intervention to combat sort of latent or hidden racism.

Now, this started in the federal workforce and government contractors, then it moved on to university admissions, and then finally into the entire economy. So, what the Justice Department did, their Office of Legal Counsel, they came forward with a ruling that said disparate impact is unconstitutional. And Senator Eric Schmidt, one of my favorite senators, he's also served as the former Attorney General of Missouri, he explained it really well. He said... For decades, disparate impact let our managerial elite treat neutral standards as suspect if they produce the wrong racial numbers.

It banned things like background checks, aptitude tests, knowledge exams, hiring screens, and merit-based selection. That regime is over, Senator Schmidt said. Amen. The ruling by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is huge. It states that the current EEOC Title VII guidelines are unconstitutional because they're based on disparate outcomes alone, and they pressure employers into race-based decision-making when it comes to hiring.

For those Americans who hate discrimination and truly believe in hiring people based on merit, this ruling by the Justice Department is fantastic, but a ruling by the Justice Department can quickly be undone by a future presidential administration. Nevertheless, this ruling clearly took inspiration.

From the recent Supreme Court ruling against using race only as a criteria to craft congressional districts, Justice Alito explicitly stated in that ruling that the existence of a disparate impact is not grounds for racial discrimination, and that the use of it for racial discrimination is unconstitutional. As someone else noted, there are no women in the NFL.

And there are hardly any white men anymore in the NBA. That impact is very disparate, but is it discrimination? No. Of course, there is an entire industry of trial lawyers and left-wing nonprofit groups that have used disparate impact to feed off private industry like vultures. I just can't help but think, what are these poor lawyers going to do now? Oh. I guess they'll have to chase ambulances. Well, can I ask you? So, it says that it rules that the Title VII guidelines from the EEOC are unconstitutional.

So, what happens now? Does that mean immediately it's just out and it reverts back to some previous form that I'm unaware of? So, the EEOC will have to respond and update those guidelines in lieu of what this is, because basically what happens with an administration, you have the Justice Department, and it issues guidelines on certain policies. So, this is their Office of Legal Counsel issuing a guidance on what is discrimination and what is not discrimination. They are saying, if you have different outcomes, You know, if suddenly, for some reason, like only 5% of electricians are Black, that doesn't necessarily mean that there's widespread racism.

You should investigate, and you can investigate and look, but just because there's a different outcome doesn't mean it's racism. Like, boy, more loggers are men than women. Maybe it's not sexism. Maybe it's just because, you know, guys are more willing to climb up 100 feet and then use chainsaws to cut down a tree.

So, what this now means is that the EEOC is going to have to update their guidelines in lieu of this new ruling by the Justice Department, which is fantastic news. Okay. Well, on the subject of standards, now, I guess I'll just say up top, we have the Zeal News article, Texas teen convicted of murder, sentenced to 35 years for fatal stabbing at high school track meet. This is the case of Carmelo Anthony. And I think, like, the more that I just dig into all the details on this, like, I'm just profoundly sad.

Really just a tragedy. Young man, Austin Metcalf, lost his life, you know, murdered in cold blood. This Carmelo Anthony kid now is going to go to jail, presumably, for the rest of his life or a long time. He got sentenced this morning to 30. Five years. He's eligible for parole after 15, but for a long period of time, for his, you know, youth in it. I can go into the basic facts, I guess, just among all, just really sad and pray for the reposed soul of Austin Metcalf.

So, Carmelo Anthony and Austin Metcalf were both 17-year-old students at Frisco, Texas. Anthony attended Centennial High School. Metcalf attended Memorial High School. They were rivals. Also, an important part of the story, too. This is a very wealthy district, wealthy district, wealthy high schools. Actually, Carmelo Anthony, his family is from a gated community, so this isn't like, I think another element to this, why this is really picking up traction is this is not like an inner city, a place where violence is regular.

This was a high school track meet in which, you know, typically very safe, like if you've ever been to a track meet before at a high school, you know, this type of stuff typically doesn't happen. So, they were at a track meet when rain pushed students under team tents. Anthony went under Memorial High School's tent. That would be the other team's tent where Metcalf and teammates were gathered. Witnesses said Memorial students asked Anthony to leave. The dispute escalated. Metcalf pushed Anthony.

Anthony pulled a knife from his bagged backpack and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest. Metcalf died after the wound pierced his heart. Anthony was arrested on the scene. Police testimony and body cam evidence. ...included Anthony saying variations of, I did it, and he put his hands on me, while also asking whether what happened could be considered self-defense.

And interesting, too, I went to a lot of this case, a lot of witnesses were asked on the stand what was going on. And important note, four of the six students that gave testimony were black. It's an important fact due to this case garnering so much attention due to race.

All of the students testified that Carmelo was the aggressor while Austin tried to keep the peace. Even stating to Carmelo that he didn't want to fight, students also testified that they all asked Carmelo to leave over 15 times, but Carmelo refused to leave. The defense was claiming self-defense. I'll get a little bit more into the case, but yeah, we get this becoming a national story because, of course, Carmelo Anthony is black and Metcalf is white, and there was a controversial give-send-go that was started when it became clear that He admitted to the stabbing.

There was going to be a trial, but the family started a give, send, go. I will finish the details on it. The give, send, go was explicitly saying this is not just going to go to defense funds. This could fund other things like relocation fees or whatever else. So, there was a lot of controversy about how the funds were going to be used. It garnered over $600,000, and this is for someone that had already in public admitted that he stabbed this kid, and a lot of the details were coming out.

So, of course. You know, both families said that they got threats, harassment, doxing. All of it became super racialized. I saw, you know, a lot of people were bringing up O.J. Simpson. I guess what's unusual in this case was it was so clear-cut from the beginning, and of course, we're going to get this high, supercharged trial. I do think I did more research into this. A lot of the racializing was actually done on the outside by a representative. I believe her name was Stone.

Dominique, a representative for the family, really started racializing it, but the lawyers in the courtroom did not involve race as a part of the case at all. They didn't claim racism. They were fighting over the jury, so an interesting element was the jury selection. They were claiming had no black jurors among the 12, so the defense had a problem with that. However, it wasn't as if all 12 were white. The other people had, it included Hispanics, Asians. It wasn't just like an all-white thing.

It is in Frisco, Texas, and so there's an argument over that, although the judge allowed it to stand, so they had the jurors. I believe they took three hours to discern their judgment, and they came forward with a guilty verdict. There was an argument that they could have brought forth like a, I think the technical term is passion, so sudden passion, Texas doctrine.

If jurors had unanimously found that Anthony killed under sudden passion arising from adequate provocation, the sentencing range could have been dropped to two to 20 years. Prosecutors argued that sudden passion did not apply. The jury rejected that mitigation and sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison after roughly two and a half hours, as I said, deliberation. Another quick controversy, just to get the full scope of the case, they dropped Bond from $1 million to $250 million. He was released under restrictive conditions, including house arrest-type supervision.

This is another flashpoint, because supporters argued he had no prior record and deserved presumption of innocence. Critics saw the release as too lenient, giving a fatal stabbing. Also, there's footage up and down of this. I don't think, because they were under a tent, but you get the body cam footage afterwards. You get cell phone footage outside of it.

Everyone was pretty aware of what's going on, and of course, everyone deserves their day in court. But I think... This, I think, above anything else, there was someone, Marianne Martinez, was reporting from inside of the courtroom, and you get Austin Metcalf's dad. So, that's the facts of just what happened. And then, of course, this gets picked up everywhere as, like, the new O.J. Simpson, which is just, you can get into the psychology of that, but it's just hard to even fathom this is where we are as a country instead of just treating this, you know, colorblind.

Oh, it's not hard for me. Yeah, unfortunately. I remember O.J. Here's the statement from the dad. And Austin Metcalf's dad, Jeff, just unloaded on Carmelo Anthony. We were robbed. Don't look down. Carmelo Anthony couldn't look in the eyes of the family, the brother. This was the dad. We were robbed of all these things. I said from day one, this was never about race. Please don't politicize it. But what did you choose to do? Both. It's about right and wrong. We're all humans.

We all bleed the same color. You're free to make choices that you want, but you're not free from those consequences. You will face those consequences starting today. People think that grief is sadness, but it's not. It's rage, pure, unfiltered rage. You failed your parents, you failed yourself, and you failed society. You don't belong in this community. You're going to prison. You can't even look me in the eyes right now, but you can stab my effing son in the heart.

And I did look into, like, when this got racialized, because I did see in the courtroom it wasn't, which is good news, but the spokesperson, Dominique Alexander, after the indictment publicly addressed racists, bigots, and those filled with hate targeting Carmelo, he and the family held press conferences highlighting racism, hate, white supremacy, and attacks on the family. Post-verdict sentencing, he described an all-white jury convicting a black teen as evidence that black lives do not matter and that the system is a travesty.

And, of course, I have all kinds of footage of what was going on outside of the— What do you want us to do? What do you want us to do at this point? What? I'm lost for words. I don't know what to do. I got five boys. I don't know what—I ain't got nothing to tell them no more. You can't walk away no more.

Rest in peace, Trayvon Martin. So, this is a black woman screaming to the cameras in light of the verdict, and she's wondering what she could do, and I agree with Congressman Tim Burchett, who said, well, you could start by telling your boys not to stab somebody in the heart.

That would seem to be an obvious thing. I mean, there's no desire by, I mean, okay, there's no desire by white people to make this a racist thing at all. Like, we just think a 17-year-old student stabs a 17-year-old student in the heart, and he dies. Totally unprovoked. That's a tragedy. That's horrible. Why would we want to bring race into this at all? And again, they keep getting in there. All-white jury. As you said, Tom, not all-white jury. It was a jury that included many different minorities, just didn't have black jurors on it.

Precisely because we're concerned, probably, that the prosecution was that, you know, if anyone would be looking at it. Through, I mean, this is the thing. It's a confession, basically, is that, yeah, you're going to get a different one from black. There are 300 million Americans in this country. Is there going to be some people who are racist against blacks who are going to jump out of social media and say horrible things to these people? Of course. That being said. 99% of white people in this country would prefer the case to be decided purely on the merits of the case.

If the kid was innocent because of passion or self-defense, or if he gets off a lighter sentence because of, as you said, the passion, we might grumble, but as long as justice is served. It's not white Americans who are elevating and entering race into this question, and when race is elevated by a lot of bad actors, how should we respond? Should we pretend like...

I mean, our first response is usually lamenting that, like, please, please, please do not make it about that. Please, if the kid is guilty or innocent, let's find out, let's let the facts rule the case. You know, but no, there are bad actors who want it to be based on race. They want to foment hatred, and that is horrible, but if they do, we have to respond. With logic, with truth, obviously also with grace and understanding, but ultimately, justice needs to prevail.

Exactly, and I think that the rule of law, what concerned me most watching this and seeing reactions online, obviously online is not real life, but in this case, it seems to be reflecting something real in this country, that the concern that there was even a question of what the outcome of the trial would be. Obviously, everyone's innocent until proven guilty, but given the facts of the case, given the confession, the concern that this could go... Any other way than what it did is this growing suspicion, founded in evidence, I think, that there is a two-tiered justice system that's kind of creeping in to American courts and American, where we adjudicate law and lawsuits and legal system, and that is, to me, so frightening because right now, I was looking into this, so in terms of racial identity, Black Americans Have the highest, the strongest sense of racial identity and racial solidarity.

So, I think it's like they did a study about a year ago where they asked Americans, like, how important is your race to you? And it's like 70% of Black Americans say, it is very important to me. But if you ask Asians or Hispanics, it goes down a little bit to like 50-50. And then you ask white Americans, and it's more like in the high 30s percent. To say that being white is important, or very important. And even that seems a little high to me, because, like, what does that even mean?

Like, we more think of ourselves as, oh, my ancestors came from Italy or France or Croatia. Some of those could be negative. Some of those 30% could be negative. And so, yeah, and often it's like, it's because I'm guilty, and I have privilege, right? So, but what happens when you keep leaning into this, and there are plenty of white liberals who are happy to racialize stuff like this, too. And they're happy to take on that guilt and that saying, oh, my gosh, it must be true.

They convicted Carmelo Anthony because he's black and we're so horrible. That will, in the end, end up creating white solidarity, and you don't want to see that. We want to be going towards, I mean, Martin Luther King had his foibles, and I am always happy to remind people he is not St. Martin Luther King Jr., but His vision of an America where my children are judged on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We have to get back to that, and the fastest way to do that is...

Well, it's a Christian ideal. It's a Christian principle. It doesn't have to be Martin Luther King. That's a Christian principle. Yeah, it absolutely is. And if this was two white guys at this, you know... Texas sporting event, and the one white kid killed the other white kid, the kid would be convicted, and it wouldn't be national news. Right, we need justice to be won. Oh my gosh, that's terrible. And to go back to O.J. Simpson, if O.J. Simpson was white and he killed a white wife, it would be like, you know.

What are the facts? Is he guilty or not? If he was a football player, let's say, you know, a pro football player, it would be national news because he's a football player, but no one would think anything of it. Oh, okay. And he would get a guilty verdict.

You know, if O.J. Simpson was like John Simpson, a white dude, and a pro bowler, he would have been found guilty. I mean, I absolutely believe that. Yeah, there's a lot. I mean, there's so much here. Eric, you mentioned that sign about, was it the study about your racial...

Your racial identity, it was like racial solidarity. So, I think, unfortunately, an unfortunate reality is that that question wouldn't have even crossed someone's mind not long ago in the United States, let alone, like, if you were to ask that question in Japan, you know, they'd be like, they'd look at you like you're crazy. Well, everyone here is Japanese. We have a homogeneous population. In America, we had a homogeneous population. You know, you could say that's good, you could say that's bad.

I'm here to entertain all arguments, but the reality is, is because we had such an influx of immigration, and now we have this multiculturalism where we live in like kind of a quasi-Balkanized situation, yeah, we have minority groups that are very tribal and will protect their own interests. I mean, this is the classic case. You look at what's going on outside of this. There's still money pouring into this give, send, go. All of it laden with language of... These are the oppressors.

These are white supremacists. It really doesn't matter. The facts don't matter. It's about an ethnic tribalism in this case, which is truly unfortunate because it doesn't live up to the Christian principle that everyone's created equal, and then the American principle that we all kind of agreed upon and are working towards. There's people within the country that don't work towards that spirit. It really doesn't matter. It's like a harsh thing to swallow. The other thing, too, is a lot of these arguments that I hear is like, Well, this is all socioeconomic, and, you know, once you improve the living situation of someone of a minority race, then these things go away.

Well, he lived in a gated community and had wealthy parents, or now cash again, presumably. It never goes away, because this isn't about, like, more stuff. This is grievance politics, right? Right. This is, like, a grievance culture that has been inculcated, and I would say, you know, when the civil rights movement was happening, and many of the asks in the civil rights movement were absolutely...

necessary given what was going on in american communities particularly in the deep south kukak's clan you think of you know segregation and that was a necessary movement disenfranchisement for sure but what happened there was instead of instead of saying we again martin luther king's This original vision, later on he gets into the beloved community and goes a little Marxist, for sure, but it goes beyond that, and it's like, okay, once we get these rights encoded in law, and we have the law protecting us, then it's going to go farther, and now it's gone all the way to reparations, and it's gone all the way to encoding tribalism, identity politics, grievance culture, and that's so far beyond, like you said, Tom, American values.

That it is going to end up tearing apart the country if we can't come to some kind of, and again, I think this, yeah, it will. Well, like Tom said, it's the Christian concept, the golden rule. I mean, like, treat others as you'd like to be treated. Like, that's, to the extent that that, what the civil rights push was, you know, they wrapped themselves around in that, and everyone was cool with it, and then it moves to disparate impact, and then suddenly you get division again, and then you get grievance politics, and all this other kind of stuff.

I mean, it would be horrifying. If anybody was, you know, accused of a crime, of a murder, like, that would be, like, the scariest thing you can imagine, right? Like, you know, I'm innocent, I didn't kill this person, but then if it's a, you know, you're a white guy, and it's a, you know, you're accused of killing a black guy, and your jury is in Detroit, or Houston, like, yeah, I would be even more terrified. You kind of have to have this sit down, unfortunately.

I actually saw an interesting video about this, but... You go back to the situation, and as you mentioned, we now have too many case examples, I think back to Daniel Penny, of you now are afraid to do the right thing, to be a good man, because of circumstances like this. And the reality is... As a Catholic, as a Christian, I do believe everyone is created in the likeness and image of God and has equal dignity under God. That being said, I'm not going to be liberally naive and to think that different cultures produce different people.

And so, if I'm in this situation, and there's a classic example of someone's blasting a loudspeaker on a train or on some type of public service. And the unfortunate thing about it is... If you confront them for presenting some antisocial behavior, it is almost welcome. It is almost like, well, I dare you to do something about it. If you do something about it, I am going to hurt you, or I am going to get you in a situation where you have to act, and then I am going to go to the justice system, and the justice system is going to favor me because of my race.

That is just the reality of the situation. Absolutely. The other thing, too, is on a personal level, if you are going to track me like this, I am going to sit down with my son and have this conversation one day, unfortunately, because this is the reality of America where we are. You know, you always, you're one decision away, you're one impulsive decision away from throwing away whatever momentum or goodwill that you have by acting impulsively based off of emotion or based off of ego in a way that gets yourself in a situation like this that could take your life or could send you to jail.

That's just the reality. The second is, is if you project your own impulse control onto other people in that you think everyone here has raised the same has the same impulse control, has the same Christian principles, and you interject yourself in a situation assuming that you get in a situation like this. So unfortunately, it's like, what I have to sit down with my son and say is, Listen, you never want to become what people accuse you of being, in this case, being a racist or a bigot or something like that, and letting these false smears anger you to the point of turning you into someone that truly is discriminatory, but you can't be naive, and you can only control yourself, and you've got to be smart about the positions you put yourself in, and we live in a litigious culture now that is so multicultural where you understand that this tribalism exists, and if you interject yourself in a situation like that, it better be because someone's going to die.

Because if it's kind of just for fun, like you push someone out, not for fun, in this case, like, removing someone from a tent when a guy's hand is in a bag is like, unfortunately, day and age, like, yep, could be a knife in there, could be a gun in there, and you have no idea how this is going to turn out, and that is the true tragedy, is that, you know, a young man lost his life, and now it becomes this big racial parade.

You're such a good dad, Tom, and let's, um... Also, a conversation that we've had to have with our kids as well. But the whole fact that you're even thinking in that direction, it just speaks to the lowest common denominator phenomenon, right? Where for years, my whole upbringing, it was Black mothers going on and saying, I have to tell my Black sons not to confront cops, to put their hands on this. And there's this anti-Black thing, and it's that. And black children are so frightened because they live in this racist society, and now I'm hearing the same thing coming from friends who are not black, and it's because the whole society, like you said, not just litigious, but also there's a legit concern about violence because of the color of your skin or because of where you are, how you appear socioeconomically or how you speak.

I think that there's this sense that we're kind of fraying at the edges when it comes to racism, and things are getting worse rather than better in all aspects of American society, but also in terms of the racism and the tribalism. But I think what you're saying about how do you live in a society that's going in that direction, it's by not being that way. It's by living the Christian life and the Christian faith and teaching your kids.

Yeah, to be realist, but also to that conviction that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, that no matter where we come from or who we are, we're all called to something greater. I don't know. I'm kind of floundering here because it is so unsettling. The fact that both of you just said this, like you haven't had this kind of talk with your children about this, is fascinating because, of course, during Trayvon Martin.

And that tragedy back in 2012, there was a lot of talk about the talk. Where Black people were informing white people, don't you understand, we have a talk that we have to tell our kids about how the way police officers are, and how you need to do this and do that. And we were browbeaten and guilted as whites, like, don't you understand what we have to deal with? And it's like, and that's the whole idea behind Black Lives Matter. And I've always, you know, I actually posted on this on Facebook, and I said, look, I get it.

There is a distinction. If I, as a white guy, am driving through Chicago or Detroit or something like this, I know the odds of me being pulled over are less than if I were a black man, and I can appreciate that reality and understand that, and understand that we have to look into systemic racism and all that other kind of stuff, but the fact that you guys both said the talk for your own children is kind of fascinating because In 2012, John Derbyshire said this exact thing.

He wrote an article about how he has to have a talk with his own children, and he talked about this, and it was very politically incorrect, what he did. And it just shows you how things have changed, I think, somewhat positive in the last 14 years. Because he's like, listen, there are antisocial behaviors that are allowed amongst different populations, and there is racial animus in this country. And he goes, black on white racial animus is very bad, and they will treat you, even though you're half Asian, his children.

They're going to treat you like whites. As if you're white, huh? Yeah, and it's going to be a bad, and he wrote this thing. He's like, avoid concentrations of Blacks that are not known to you personally. Stay out of heavily Black neighborhoods. You know, if planning a trip to an amusement park, find out, you know, if there's likely to be tons of Blacks on that, there on that date. And, you know, you're just saying, like, common sense stuff that is super politically incorrect, and National Review fired him, and it was a massive outcry.

How dare this guy say, he's like, he was just saying, I'm calling a spade a spade, because we have an establishment culture. We have a... A corporate media-influenced culture that is excusing certain minority populations to having antisocial behavior because of the past injustices that they suffered, which we lament the injustice that they suffered, but to allow antisocial behavior.

You know, because of that, is doing them no favor. You are not doing anyone a favor by excusing antisocial behavior because of perceived... Oh, it's white savior syndrome. It's so condescending, right? It is condescending. It's horrible. Like, the way out of this is to stop doing racism, period. To stop treating, you know, to be evil. Like, we need hearts converted.

But we're not going to get there by, you know, saying, oh, well, whatever, you know, and like you say, like. Because every once in a while, you get these people on social media saying, gosh, wouldn't it be nice? Look at Japan. They have high-speed trains. They have so much social, you know, they're not a car-based culture. They have the best subway systems in the world. Or the obsession with Scandinavia.

Well, no, that's kind of, that bubble's breaking a little bit. Japan seems pretty good for them. Yeah, it's popping up. Understood, but for the previous 25, 35, 40 years, why was it so successful? Because... They wouldn't allow antisocial behavior. They were a common culture, and it doesn't have to be only the same genetic race, obviously, that... is usually helpful, but you can have a multicultural society so long as you don't allow one group to practice antisocial behavior. You need to maintain colorblindness and rule of law and merit-based decision-making.

That's what it's all got to be about. 100%. Yeah, I just think for the, so we lived through like an insane period of time. Actually, my entire upbringing basically contains some flavor of anti-white education. Which is insane. It is really insane, but it is the truth. And then all of that, while simultaneously, like, have you listened to a rap song in the last 10 years? This kind of...

It's like wizardry, basically. This kind of wand waving, this fake world created has just totally bursted, I think, from a white kid that is my age, or even younger, to where it's like, we've lived through and we see, and to be intentionally dishonest to someone that we love, or to change my decision making that would endanger myself, or potentially wrap me up in the justice system forever, it's a really sad and lamentable reality, but it is reality. And, like, no amount of, like, liberal, you know, wand-waving is going to keep me from that type of honesty, unfortunately, to my own children and how I conduct myself.

It's really sad. There's two things that have kind of fueled this kind of thing over the last few decades. One is, you know... Having this disparate, you know, income, disparate impact rulings where people are browbeated into, you know, making sure that the racial scores are perfect or whatever, and when this first came through, the Civil Rights Act, liberal senator from Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey, said, it's not going to be quotas. If it's got quotas, I'll eat my hat. Well, he's dead now, but I hope the hat tasted delicious, because this is baloney.

And then the second thing is, actually, I've got to give credit to John Tillman. He's more of a libertarian guy. He's from Illinois, and he made the observation that a sort of hidden, beautiful thing about the racial gerrymandering DEI districts that are being thrown out, a good reason why that's... That is going to be thrown out is, look, these districts, when you mark them up in Chicago, they're still going to be liberal. I mean, it's not like it's, you're not going to elect suddenly, you know, right-wing Republicans out of Chicago.

Right, it's like three-to-one Democrats or Republicans in Chicago. Yeah, I mean, it's still blue central. But these districts are going to be now, instead of like 85% Black and this one 85% Latino, you're going to have districts that are going to be, yes, still based on Democrats, they're going to be Democrats, but it might be like... 30% Black, 30% Hispanic, 30% white liberals or whatever, and then you have the opportunity, like, you're not just, if you're running for office in this district, you're not just playing to just one racial group, and you have a tendency then of the politicians coming out of that area of being not pandering, and I think some of the racial pandering, you know, So, blacks have made the point that racial pandering has been bad for whites, you know, for decades.

Like, oh, you know, it's not great for us to show you either, so. I'm hoping that we're going to see some of these changes take effect, and we're going to kind of return to what we thought we were building towards, you know, colorblind society. It would be great. Yeah, it's funny. Fortunately, it depends on where you are in the country. It's funny because the disparate impact ruling there from the EEOC and then the Supreme Court case. From Justice, right? They really didn't, sorry, for the EEOC, from the Justice Department, that it really didn't get much coverage because obviously...

It's just not that sexy to try and think about, okay, Title VII regulations, what? It's really kind of hard, but it's such an instance of how these sort of behind-the-scenes, it's eat-your-spinach kind of stuff when it comes to the news. This actually touches upon things like enduring racism in our country that matter so much to us. It's going to have ripple effects for decades that people aren't going to even appreciate.

Which is why you don't do foreign policy interventionism that takes away from these kind of wins. It's just like a total... I guess why you have to win elections. But I also would say, yeah, it's why I elected Donald Trump. This is why. Getting rid of disparate impact. What do the kids say? Don't white, don't black pill. I forget what that is. Don't black pill too hard. That's a nice little treat. That's a nice little fun-sized Snickers bar from the Trump administration.

Okay, on to the good news. This is king size. All right. So, we're going to dig into the Pope's Spain trip, but I couldn't wait. There wasn't really a good place in that segment to show this one, but given everyone's probably heard by now that there was the YouTuber couple who were bragging about aborting their Down Syndrome baby and just like that. I think that's fake. I think that's fake. It could be fake. No, it's like, well, did they mean it?

But it's still disgusting. That doesn't matter. It's still disgusting to even joke about that. But this, so this clip. From the Pope's visit to Spain just sort of, like, healed my heart after all of that grossness. Here we go.

Do you need the audio, or is there... No, no. So, here, there's a little boy in a striped shirt, gives the Pope a painting. It appears to be a painting of the Pope, and a big hug, and then the boy turns around right at the end there, and he looks up. You see he's a Downs boy. He's got Downs, but he's so excited. Look at his face. It's like, I met the Pope, and everyone's cheering for him. That's good news. I love that.

Oh, my gosh. Kids and the Pope are just the best. My other good news, I mean, once in a while, we just, this is candy from the hill, we had a hearing on the hill for the SPLC, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Josh's favorite nonprofit in the United States. But this, the hearing was examining these...

There's allegations, pretty much facts, that they exaggerated domestic extremism threats, they've misled donors, by basically paying people to be Nazis and have Nazi rallies in the United States, among other things. So, like the FBI. But we get this line of questioning from Brandon Gill, and I just have to point out the irony that the head of the SPLC, his name is Mr. Fair, as in, like, fair and balanced.

I love it. I mean, that has a sense of humor. That is good. You put that up in a lab. You want the head of your organization to be Mr. Fair. That's right. That's right. Here he is, and here's one of my favorite congressmen, Brandon Gill, just asking him a simple question. Let's go. Your organization.

Said that restricting and banning abortion is a tool that the far right uses to maintain white supremacy. Do you believe that pro-lifers are white supremacists? I believe that reproductive liberty is... No, do you believe that pro-lifers are white supremacists?

I will tell you what I believe if you ask me. Is it yes or no? I can't answer that question, yes or no. I don't think that pro-lifers are white supremacists. Do you? What I think is that reproductive liberty is a right that every woman should enjoy. How many babies in the United States that are aborted are black?

About 40% of abortions nationwide are of black babies. Blacks represent about 13% of the population. Does that sound like something a white supremacist would oppose? What I would say, again, is that SPLC supports reproductive liberty. Calling somebody a white supremacist is a pretty serious charge, isn't it?

I mean, I would think you would be able to defend that if your organization says that. You clearly seem unable to. Mr. Gill, I'm not sure why you would think I'm unable to do anything. Because you're the president of the SPLC, which labels pro-lifers as racists. Well, well... Does your organization just hurl around epithets like that without any justification? Mr. Gill, what we do is... I'm giving you the opportunity to just... You're not giving me the opportunity. Mr. Chairman, what's he referring to, and can he let the witness answer the question?

Mr. Fitter. Mr. Fair, not so fair. So, the other person on this panel was Dr. Alveda King, who is the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., and a longtime stalwart pro-life activist, herself black, if we're counting. Do we need to count? But I wanted to just play her response to the same question.

Her name's not Mrs. Fair, though. No. This cannot be. It's King. What? Are pro-lifers white supremacists? Pro-lifers cannot be white supremacists. Pro-lifers believe in life from the womb to the tomb and beyond. Pro-lifers fight for every baby in the womb, regardless of skin color. We have been aborted as blacks in America disproportionately, and so the white supremacists are Planned Parenthood who admitted that they do have racist underpinning.

...with an agenda to reduce the black population by abortion. Mm-hmm. Preach. I mean, that was easy. Yep, that was pretty simple. Go, Brandon Gill. Speak the truth. Do you see what else Brandon Gill asked Mr. Frere about? Was it about the Grand Platner tattoo? Is your last name not applicable to your answers?

So, you know, like a Nazi symbol tattooed on a body, you would not be in support of someone who would have that, right? You're like, yeah, we would not. He, like, had to. He was like, darn it. Oh, my gosh. How do these people sleep at night? Dude, he just, well, I guess everyone's like, oh, he won the primary. It was like, well, Janet Mills dropped out. He got 70%. He was uncontested, essentially. I mean. Although I did see the polling on that, like, because he's got, of course, more scandals that drop.

Yeah. He got a higher percentage of the vote. Here's the thing. Here is the thing. I think it is actually a little bit. So, when people heard about the scandals, I think he was like sexting women when he was married, which is not great, and all his Reddit posts are terrible. It is seemingly like personal life kind of a disaster. And recently married. I mean, it is not like... Yeah, yeah, yeah. The white supports him. I dug into this a little bit, and after people heard about it, his support rose.

So, I think that, unfortunately, the Trump situation is now backfiring, because this was the same deal. It was like Trump had all these personal scandals and all the sex stuff, clearly on a personal level, not connections. Okay, in both circumstances.

His own team rallied. That doesn't necessarily mean that when you get to the general election, that they're better. For sure, for sure. But I'm saying the rally around the flag effect is now like, he's viewed as the outsider that's going to come after the institution. It's the same playbook as Trump.

Yeah, except for... It's unfortunate. I mean... It is a little bit different, because when it was happening with Trump, it was a very contested field. There was like 10 people in the Republican field, and to go up five points would mean you are suddenly in first place kind of a thing, as opposed to... Like, Plantner, yeah, so he, I mean, Janet Mills had effectively dropped out, suspended her campaign. He was 70% of the vote.

But his general election poll matchup against Collins, he's gone down five points since the scandal broke, because the independents are souring on him. So, we'll see. It might hold, who knows? Yeah, it'll be interesting to watch. But as, you know, we talked about this several weeks ago, before most of these scandals broke, and what did I say, I think? You were like, I don't know. He might win.

No, I think he will win, not despite because of the new attention he is getting, and I think that just speaks to how angry people are at this situation. I still think Collins will sit on another skull as she has and defeated her opponent. Your goaded favorite politician.

I don't like some of her views, but I respect the game. But I think it will be off the same logic, although the one thing everyone misses is this is Maine. Like, you actually literally can sit down with... Every voter in Maine. Most likely. There's just not that many people. And the other thing, too, there are certain states upon which, when you look at opinion polls that are not reliable, so some states are just harder to get accurate polling. Alaska is notoriously difficult.

Go, if you want to just Google this, go to the 20... 2020 Senate election in Maine, and look at the polling, because they'll show it to you for, like, real clear politics, and you can see that Sarah Gideon is leading in all the polls by, like, 6, 7, 13, 15 points over Susan Collins, and the last poll would be, I don't know, Election Day, where she wins by, like, 10. Susan Collins wins, so she was down in all of the polls forever.

And then she actually wins. And not even close. It wasn't like she was down by seven, eight points in every poll, and then wins in the squeaker. She won, like, by ten points. It was like, what is going on? Frozen chosen. I won't believe anything. Polling, I won't believe out of Maine on anything. It's all speculation. We're in primary season. Okay, Josh, what's your good news?

Well, hey, you know, it's not as cool as the Pope giving a hug to a really sweet, joyful... I'm just going to say this. I care a lot about, you know, the Utes, and so I want to share this good news. The city of Austin, Texas, embarked on a series of regulation reforms to try to increase housing. You know, it was like 1,300 steps to get a permit to build a new house. They, like, slashed a ton of that stuff. And what has happened?

Housing prices have dropped 17%, and rent has also declined 19% since 2022 in the city of Austin, Texas, which is growing in population. The city of Austin has been growing like weeds for decades. What happened? Policy changes, zoning reforms, streamlining of permits has given them a construction boom, increasing housing supply. That's what we need to do. It can be done. It's more affordable. It can be done. I'm not saying I agree with every last thing that they did in Austin, Texas, but some of the stuff was really, really good.

And as housing affordability worsened across the country over the last seven years, it improved in Austin, Texas. Do you have any of the specific regulations that were cut? I'm just curious. Yeah, so in the article, it goes into it, like, what they had mentioned was that it literally took, it was 1375, like, the number of permits that you needed to get done, and you're just sitting around waiting forever. To get permits done, and they, you know, streamlined it down. I don't know the exact number, but...

Yeah, because some of the stuff is just so common sense. Now, here's another thing. If you had, like, a house on a, like, an oversized lot, it was really difficult to try to break that up, but if you're like, I want to... I want to sell, you know, some of this to make it so that if it can fit three houses, let's fit three houses. Give more people an opportunity. So, certain areas historically made it very difficult. Like, California was very hard to do that.

Like, add more houses on it. If it was a triple lot, like, nope, it's staying a triple lot. You know, like, they just wouldn't, you know, they're so anti... You know, population growth policies that you have, these really restrictive zoning laws, you know, like, okay, can we change it so that the minimum required lot size is lower so that we can get another house there? Certain things like that. It kind of sounds...

You know, boring, you know, but some of this, you know, brass tacks, boring policy stuff is what you need. You need some of these things to change to make it so that, you know, it's more affordable to build houses quicker. Because here's what happens. Over time, Politicians come along, and they want to sound like they're heroes, and they want to make things safer, and say, we need to add this regulation to make housing safer, and people are like, yay! And every time they do one of these things, everyone applauds it, and then all of a sudden, you stop, and you're like, yeah, dude, it takes like three years to build a new house in the city now, and a new house is going to cost $500,000.

You're like, whoa, how did it get so expensive? Back in my day, it wasn't so expensive. Yeah, because we keep... Putting in regulations. Come on. All right, this is basically all I've wanted to talk about all episode. Yeah, Tom has been like just sitting on his head. I keep sending memes of this because it's so funny, but yes, the movie Cars will return to theaters in September to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Got me feeling old. You're going to bring your son, Tom. If anyone here has stopped, it's like they, they, the people in this video are like, this inspired me to be a race car driver. The movie cars. I, a good book recommendation called Creativity Inc. It's written by Ed Catmull.

He, I believe, is one of the founders of Pixar. And the story of Pixar is really fascinating. Not just about the technological innovation of the. of the animation, but of the storyboarding process, because all of the Pixar movies are super memorable, not because they're technically excellent, which they are, but because the stories are really meaningful, which I love.

John Lasseter was awesome for that. I saw so many funny memes about, like, the whole theater is going to be guys in their 20s, and I will be one of them. There's, like, people pushing toddlers out of the way to get to the theaters, like, different scenes are going to be going hard. And it's called Nostalgia Bait, and that's what we have coming with The Deep. Oh, my gosh. The next episode is going to be on nostalgia.

I love the scripts. I thought it was fantastic, so keep an eye out for it. But, fun story. About the movie Cars, fantastic message, but Pixar's creative team, led by John Laster, conducted extensive research along the historic Route 66, and in 2000, he took a cross-country road trip with his family, which sparked the story idea, and upon returning, he reached out to Route 66 historian and author Michael Wallace, and so he took the animation team, about 11 to 15 artists, on a road trip along the route, and they traveled in rented white Cadillacs, visited numerous towns and landmarks.

Met locals, documented architecture, signage, roadside culture, and absorbed stories from struggling communities. The team drew from real places like, is it Seligman, Arizona? Seligman, I think. Seligman, thank you. Some of these are fun names to say. Tukamakari, New Mexico, Galena, Texas, and various other motels, cafes, and attractions. Radiator Springs is a composite of these bypass Route 66 towns that declined after interstates diverted traffic. And for anyone that has seen the movie, you know, I've seen it probably a hundred times because that's my son's favorite movie.

He loves all the Cars movies, but I grew up loving it as a kid, too. It actually kind of hit slow-key, like the emotion of the towns that were forgotten about, and then the object in the beginning for Lightning McQueen is he was just obsessed with winning, didn't care about his teammates, didn't care about anyone else but himself, and then he gets lost in this town and kind of discovers what Life is really about, as a car, apparently, all the cars universe.

Yeah, so I've never seen Cars, because when it came out in 2006, I was right in the beginning of my baby boom, and I had three girls, and so it just wasn't a thing in our family. When my son came along, finally, in 2013, it kind of passed by the Cars crazy, but maybe we're going to check it out. Oh my gosh, you get to experience Cars for the first time in theaters? In a theater, would that be cool? The opening scene of I Am Speed, and then the Sheryl Crow song hits.

Yeah, I think it's Sheryl Crow. It's so awesome. It still holds up today. Another cool thing, real quick, just for the Cars heads out there, that historian that he met and contacted voiced Sheriff, the character, in it, so he got to voice act, which was cool. Larry the Cable Guy has made her. And my son actually recognizes cars in real life based off of the cars, so we went to a car show. It's like, oh, there's Lizzie over there, and it was a Model T.

Which, fun fact, Model Ts were called, I believe, Tin Lizzies back in the day, so that is how she got her name. And then, the cars in the movie were actually based off of legendary race characters. So, I think the king, they call him Mr. The King, in the movie was, I think, Richard Petty. The light blue car, same car that he drove. So, I learned about the car at this point. Of course, the Lightning McQueen, that's after Steve McQueen, and he had that movie, The Chase, you know, where he was screaming super fast, the bullet or whatever, the car chasing scene, so.

Ka-chow. It's also the fact that, I mean, I like Larry the Cable Guy's kind of some blue collar stuff, some sort of blue language, but I find him super hilarious. And he was initially supposed to have like three or four lines in the movie, and he just.

He was so good, they kept writing more and more and more of him into the movie, because it was gold. I mean, the guy is so smart. My favorite thing, too, about the Cars universe is, so there's three Cars movies at this point. One came out, the third one came out kind of much later after the first two, and the first one is the beloved ones, the one everyone always thinks of. And then the second one, it's like a very simple, like, guy learns what life is about, overcomes, and, you know, it's not really about winning, but he...

...honors the legacy and learns about the small town, and that's what it's all about. And then the second one is an international spy drama in which there's a conspiracy by Big Oil to create a bad natural fuel that harms cars in public so that people will turn back to oil and they'll make a ton of money because they took over oil rigs. Like, truly the...and there's a car pope in it, which suggests cartholicism, which is sick. Okay. And so, and then people are like, what is going on with...

Cars 2. Cars are Roman. And then in the third one, they get back, it's like, okay, back to a race. But listen, Cars 2 got hate. I thought it was sick, actually. I actually think it's not appreciated as the art that it is, but yeah, I'll probably be among the 20-year-olds in theaters with my son. I'm so excited, guys. It's going to be so awesome. It's going to be so sick. Okay, what did you say? I've never watched it. Maybe I should.

You should come. We should do a little LOOPcast viewing of Cars and Theaters. Oh, we should all go. That would be super fun. Cars and Theaters. And then go read that book, Creativity Inc. It's really fantastic, and I love all of the early, like, not early, I mean, almost all Pixar movies have been bangers in the 2000s especially, like Toy Story, Bugs Life. Up, fantastic. And, yeah, their storyboarding process is included in there and why they're so. Oh, The Incredibles, also, I believe, written by a Catholic.

I'm pretty sure he's Catholic. And they wanted him to change elements about it. But he didn't because he's a family man himself. And the entire core of that he kept. He's like, I'm not going to change it. So, cool stories in there. And, yeah, that and like Disney wanted, you know, the original Toy Story, they wanted Woody to be like more, you know, like dark and like. You know, gritty and, you know, and no, we want this, it's a happy, joyful kid story, like a little sarcastic and, you know, selfish, but not like, you know.

And so, again, the guys at Pixar really knew how to tell a story, and they're phenomenal. I think they do great work. Okay. I know, I know. Now we're out of the good news. All right. This is kind of on my radar. I didn't really dig in, so I'm happy that you guys did. So, what is going on in Belfast? Yeah. So, last week, we covered this tragic story of 18-year-old Henry Novak in Southampton in England, who was stabbed to death last December by a young Sikh man.

And again, all kinds of two-tier policing going on. And it really brought to the... ...for this sort of post-George Floyd crazy police training that they're getting over in the UK, and as a result of that story and the police body cam footage being released in England, there started to be more racial unrest. Obviously, there's been lots of protests about mass migration and refugees and asylum seekers coming into the UK, including Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and... All these protests kind of came to a head.

So, there was a shocking knife attack. There have been multiple knife attacks in Belfast. This was on June 8th, and it turns out it was a Sudanese man. I'm not going to have you play the footage. Can't even do it. It's too bad. You can't. A Sudanese man. He's in his mid-30s, it looks like. He attacked a local Irishman in broad daylight, middle of the street. He was stabbing at his neck and face and eyes, and then he gets back on his...

And he starts trying to saw his head off. It was an attempt at beheading in the middle of the street. So, bystanders intervened, and I'll get into who that was in just a second, because it's the most Irish thing ever. It's the most Irish way to say it. It's the most Irish thing ever. This happened in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland. Ah, thank you. Yes, they will get mad if you say it's Ireland. It's not. It's Northern Ireland. Right. This is Northern Ireland, so it's part of the United Kingdom.

So, the victim is in critical condition. He is not yet stable, so please pray for him and his recovery. But the Irishman who fought off the perp. He is the most Irish thing ever. I don't know if you can pull up this picture of him. I can't even say his name. Now, we don't. Is he Northern Irish? Because they'll get mad if you call him that. He is Northern Irish, but you can call them Irishmen. That's fine. That's okay.

So, he's from Northern Ireland. My two mug to hear none from West Belfast helped fight off the knife men with a hurling stick, and I did watch the footage of that, and he literally takes an Irish hurling stick. He was returning home from practice, and he starts beating. The Sudanese man over the head with the hurling stick, another bystander also coming from hurling practice, ran in, kicked the knife away. So, a do-gooder who is probably now going to be sued for being racist or something.

But the attack really, let me talk about an already tense political climate. By June 9th, so yesterday, we had hundreds of people gathering all over Scotland, Northern Ireland, for anti-immigration demonstrations. We had native British, sorry, I shouldn't say that, native Scots and Irish going into migrant housing and actually evicting migrant families who were in there. It got completely out of control.

Some of them turned violent. You can see a lot of footage of buses and vehicles on fire. Someone made the point that, what was the point? Oh, then we have like, they're running around saying, rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves. And someone made the point that one of the fascinating things has been, so those of you who hear of Northern Ireland, you probably think of Sinn Féin, the Republican Guard, like all of the violence between Catholics and Protestants there. This is from, this is a story on UnHerd from a journalist who's actually in Belfast, and he said, The nightmare scenario for Sinn Féin here would have been Catholics rioting against immigrants.

That did not happen. Instead, working-class Catholics merely turned out to watch their Protestant neighbors riot in an anthropological detachment newly devoid of open contempt. This is great prose. I have never heard until now. Of working-class Catholics from devoutly Republican areas talking about the coming together of the orange and the green with anything other than derision. But at Ardoin Roundabout, one of North Belfast's most volatile sectarian interface areas, protesters from both communities shook hands and declared amity in scenes that were genuinely startling.

So, you have the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland coming together in these protests against forced mass migration into their communities. You can also, of course, predictably... Wow. Yeah, right? I mean, who would have thought? Can you understate... No, you cannot understate. These people hate each other. You cannot understate. The Irish were literally starved and killed and subjugated and their language taken away from them by these people. And then the Northern Ireland divide is not great. And now they're shaking hands over this.

That's just hilarious because in Star Trek The Next Generation, they talked about... In an episode that aired in 1990, they, of course, are in the future, right, Star Trek, and they referred to the Irish unification of 2024. They were just a couple years off. Oh, my goodness.

Prophetic. Star Trek heads. Who was Star Trek? There's another thing. I had to. So, this paired with, did you see the Albanians? No. The Albanians are rioting right now because Jared Kushner is trying to buy an island in the Mediterranean in Albania and completely retrofit it, bring energy there, whatever. They claim that they found it kind of swimming around there, and so the Kushners, big-time billionaires, are going to just buy it, and the president is friendly to Kushner. Listen, I grew up around some Albanians.

I understand you don't mess with Albanians. Their country is rioting. They've been rioting for days, and they firebombed the president's home. Like, burn it to the ground. Whoa. So, it is crazy. So, you pair this, the unrest in the UK, the unrest in Ireland, Northern Ireland now, and then also in Albania, it's like.

We, like, it's funny, like, you see this going down. Yeah, but you see this from here, and like, we certainly have our frustrations with sovereignty, immigration, all of that. I mean, to get to where they are at this point, like the amount of desperation they must have to be like, yeah, we got to go firebomb the president's house, like how bad things are, and how disrespected the will of the people and this forced migration, bad economic conditions are to where, well, I mean, that's, it's extreme.

Europe is certainly, you know, 10 to 15 years ahead of us in just about everything, right? So, you think of... In shutting down children's gender mutilation clinics, good, they're 10 years ahead of us because they already shut them all down after the Tavistock study, but in terms of the effects, suffering the effects of continual mass migration from cultures that are inimical to Western Christian culture, that they are, I mean, they're It's just shocking what's been going on there. I mean, the numbers in Northern Ireland, the foreign-born population roughly doubled over the last 20 years from 5% of the population to 10%.

And then asylum seekers, humanitarian programs, labor migration, unemployment is up because of this, housing crisis. So, it's everything we talk about here because of the Biden era mass migration that we suffered, but amplify it by, you know, by 10. Yeah, and again, it's a boiling pot, and I think it looks like it's exploding.

Yeah, it's just crazy. Keir Starmer might not be in charge very soon. Yeah, he's facing re-election, but, I mean, we'll see. Well, he might get, his party might just decide to, you know, bump him. You know, that would be the thing.

It would be well-deserved. He's one of the worst ever. Yeah, it's hard to, like... I've done a little bit of research into it, but to see African or outside military-aged men being dropped off in boats in such a small country, it's hard for us because, yeah, there's a shocking amount of migration, but even so, we're a massive country, and Texas is far away from me. So, it's a little bit hard to even put in perspective, but we're talking about...

Hundreds of military-age men that don't speak English or don't have any intention of integrating, and then getting taken in, given money, and then you're already in pretty bad economic conditions. It's like, you're just asking for this kind of representation from your elected representatives, then this is the only other means to... Make yourself hurt, unfortunately. Well, it's not only that. It's not just the showing up on the shores that is so frustrating and that has pushed us to this boiling point, I think, but it's also the fact that their government has been forcing this upon them.

I mean, we looked last week at the training manual for police in Great Britain, which literally says we have to have disparate impact. Like this, you have to treat foreign-born populations. and non-white races differently when you police than the way you treat. And then you watched a white boy bleed out because he's been stabbed because his attacker had said, oh, he did a racist thing to me, right? And so the police do that. He could carry a knife, and he can't.

It's a top-down imposition of this two-tier justice system. And not only that, in practice, in hiring, I mean, everything that our Department of Justice just walked back. is still going on there and has been going on there longer and with more intensity than here.

And again, white solidarity has not been a thing here in the United States. It's just all of the statistics point to white people just don't really care. But when you put those kinds of pressures from the bottom up with mass migration, top down from your ruling elite class, that you're bad. You're going to get white solidarity. That's what you're going to get. And again, so then they're like, ah, self-fulfilling prophecy. But like, specifically in the UK, we're talking millions upon millions, as you say.

Mass migration from foreign countries, and it's not like they're all coming from, like, Sweden. No. Or Portugal. You know what I mean? They're coming from countries where they do not believe in the ideals that we've established in Western civilization over the centuries. They completely don't. And so, you know, you run into these problems, and there was a debate that really popped off recently in the UK, the BBC Question Time or whatever, and you just can't get over this.

The idea of blaming our housing crisis on immigration is absolutely wild to me, actually. That says more about you, because you've got an extra 10, 20 million people coming to the country on the last... Do you think that if...

So, do you not think an extra 10 million people is going to have an effect on housing? Do you think that if we lock down our borders, we're going to solve the housing crisis? Is that going to solve it? The thing is, the more people you have in a country, the more houses you're going to need. I know it might sound... He's really good at explaining things like this, isn't he? He's really good at explaining... Oh, my God.

I'm embarrassed to be a woman. I thought we got rid of this face. You know what I mean? The United States is like, we had a referendum. We're like, all right, we're done. We're done with this girl boss. This is Kamala Harris looking me in the face, yeah.

You know, and again, it's just like, what has been the problem in the West over the last several decades? It's been the elevation of people in our managerial class that look exactly like that. And that looked, you know, for affirmation from the crowd to see what we should do, not like actually what has worked in the past. I'm not responding with an argument. No evidence, no fact, like nothing. Just, oh, you think that? It's feminine. It's like a traditional feminine way of communicating is building consensus with people around you instead of, you know, staking out on your own or making controversial arguments.

It just is what it is. Like, Erika, I love you. I think you're probably an anomaly in that regard. But what she did is what I would call the female. Shame technique, and it is rooted because women, by their nature, tend to be more consensus builders, and that is a gift that God gave to women, but it can be weaponized in bad ways, and this is exactly how it has been weaponized in a bad way. We've been seeing the ill effects of that over the last 30 years as we...

Cannot find the language to courageously stand up and say no to millions of people coming into these countries that do not share Western civilization values. I don't need them to all be Roman Catholic and conservative and da-da-da. No, I just need them to believe in Western civilization. You know, come on. Well, I'd like to pair that. In the game, not necessarily actual skin in the game and believe in our culture. I'd like to pair that with the foreign policy that's currently in charge of the country that bombs these countries and creates terrorists and moves asylum seekers.

You have to. I hate to say that, because that's where they're coming from. I mean, you can go back to that. It doesn't change. Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, all these places, they're seeking asylum because the United States and the West is militarily, yeah, it has to be both. That's one factor. And it is, I do believe that. What do you mean? It's one factor.

I do believe that our irresponsible foreign policy over the last several generations has created an environment for radical Islamic, you know, immigration to, you know, radical Islamic ideology to prosper and to grow. So, yes, I agree with, I concede your point. I just, I mean, I also think that... There is a very big problem with Islam in that they are very prone to this anyway, but, you know, because of their theology is, I think, very anti-human to anyone that's not in the club.

But yeah, you know. I mean, like, we dealt with these guys hundreds of years ago, the Barbary pirates, right? They would go around, and they would attack all the ships doing trade, and, you know, Jefferson had his emissary go to meet with them, and like, what are you doing? Why are you attacking our ships? Like, we're a new country. We've never had any history of colonialism and attacking Islamic countries, and why are you doing this? He goes, well, you're an infidel, and we're justified in doing it, and President Jefferson's response to that was like, Okay, yeah, we are not playing that game, and he just declared war on these Barbary Pirates.

Problem solved, and other countries are like, oh, well, thank you. That is the kind of action I like, not the kind of stuff that we have been doing mostly recently. Preach. Yep. All right. See how we tied that all in a bow? It was beautiful. Beautiful, Josh. Full circle. Church corner, Erika, you teased it. What's going on with Pope Leo? I did, I did. The Pope has been in the middle of a six-day apostolic visit to Spain. First time a Pope has been there in 15 years, so they're all very excited.

And the, I mean, the footage is just amazing. Some of the event, these events were crazy. So, Corpus Christi, happy Corpus Christi to everyone. I hope you had a great procession in your little parish. Bet it wasn't as As big as the popes in Madrid, which drew 1.2 million people, by most estimates, were lining the streets to see the pope. Oh, here's just a beautiful... Check out those crusader capes. Is this the Order of Malta? The pageantry was just so medieval Spain.

I loved it. I'm totally here for it. And there's our beautiful Jesus Christ in the monstrance under the canopy. 1.2 million people lined the streets for the Corpus Christi mass and Eucharistic procession. Then he gave a historic address to the Spanish Parliament. This was the first time a Roman Catholic pontiff has addressed Spain's Parliament, and he spoke very boldly. Spain is one of the more secularized countries. It is right up there with France and Germany in many ways. Very low birth rate for many years.

The decline of marriage, decline of religiosity. And he spoke so boldly on human dignity, the importance of safeguarding religious freedom. He talked about Spain's history. He reminded them of all the way back to Ferdinand and Isabella. I mean, talk about the roots of a conviction of religious freedom and human dignity. He talked against abortion, protecting human life, peace. It was an amazing address. And they gave him a seven-minute standing ovation. You can see the footage here. And they just kept clapping.

And he leaned over to the handler. He's like, what do I do? And she's like, just leave. So, after seven minutes, he had to just leave the room. He just dipped out? Because they wouldn't stop clapping. That's so funny. And he addressed the issue of abortion. He didn't hide from it, and he did it in a way I think it was very amenable to the way modern people think. It helped maybe kind of go, ah, open their eyes a little bit.

I thought he did a great job. Very beautiful. He went to a youth rally. We had the Barcelona youth rally. I saw this, too. He got the keys to Madrid. About 40,000 kids. Oh, he got the keys to the city of Madrid. Someone was like, yes. That counts. Welcome back, people.

And hey, the trads are here for it, right, guys? I love you. So, youth rally, very beautiful. I showed you the Downs boy footage and my good news. And then this is my favorite. The Pope was put in the cockpit of the airplane, flying to his next stop at Barcelona.

He's just doing side quests at this point. This is awesome. Hey, even Pope Leo loves to be in the cockpit of a plane. He's flying to the escort, the fighter jet escorts around the plane. He's waving out the window.

That's great. That's awesome. It's such good footage. The Blue Angels got to get him in one of theirs. I know. Come on. Let's get him out here. Maybe Brian Birch could get him over to the US. Get him to the Blue Angels. It would just be perfect. That would be great. And then, of course, the visit culminates today. Even as we are speaking, the Pope is blessing the cross that's going to be put on the Tower of Jesus, which will be the official completion of the Sagrada Familia Basilica, which has been under construction for 140 years.

1844 years. Got interrupted by a few things. We had a world war. We had a Spanish Civil War. We had a World War II. So, got interrupted. The construction did. The death of the sculptor, Antonio Gaudi, who designed the Basilica. That is crazy. Now, a venerable, actually.

It is kind of crazy, though. It is. It is. Well, I was going to say that Pope Francis never visited Spain during his pontificate. I mean, like... Benedict went there three times. John Paul went there five times. Here is a video of it. I was going to say, it does look like Lego, and I found out they do sell a Lego version of this. That is like thousands of pieces. Yes. Lego released this last week. It is the largest Lego construction set ever, even bigger than the Notre Dame Cathedral.

The best part about it, though, is that it is not finished. You have to wait a few more years before you can get it. No. They won't send you the final piece until tomorrow. This thing is crazy. A hundred years later, you get the final piece.

Yeah. It's hard to even, like, okay, so look at these. You know how tall these are. These are skyscraper builders, and it's not even at the, this is barely at the base of this thing. Yeah, it is. That is amazing how big that is. I cannot wait to go to Barcelona. I really want to see this in person.

Barth-alona? You got to say it in Spanish. Barth-alona. Yeah, my first Spanish teacher was from Spain. I have English heritage. I will say it how I like. Barth-alona. Think of the mile. Abitha. Okay, great news. Josh Schwadzone, what do you got?

Well, look, you know, I have long been... Critical of the Republican Party for all their shortcomings. I try to be open and honest about it, but that also means let's talk about the current state of the Democratic Party. It's absolutely evil and insane. I mean, they call Republicans Hitler, and then they nominate a guy in Maine for Senate who's had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for 20 years. That's crazy. Twilight Zone.

Now, Democrats might have thought that 2024 was their low point. Perhaps it is not. Oh. From the News Service notice, we learn a new analysis of party registration trends from the House Republicans' political arm shows that since the last presidential election, Democrats have continued to bleed voters in more than two dozen key House districts.

Consider battleground seats this year. Wait a second. This is an analysis by the, what does NRCC stand for? It's by the Republicans. Okay. We're not trying to... I was going to say, wait a second. Okay, so this is done by Republicans. Yes. Keep that in mind. The analysis is, what the analysis has shown is that Republicans have made gains with registered voters in these battleground districts that... Is going to determine who will win the House, and which party will win the House.

Now, I know you're saying a little shade on that, but the fact is, we're talking about voter registration stuff. So, they're the ones compilating the data, but anyone can verify it. It's party ID. In most states, you register...

You know, in a political party. Now, some states don't require that. I live in a state where you vote in political primaries, but you don't register as a political party. But in states where you register, it's like, well, this, it's not like a, you know, Democrats will do political polls, and you're like, well, you know, you did the poll, so how can I trust that you're... Getting a real random sample of Americans, right? The reason why this is different is this is public data.

Like, you know, we track this stuff. It's all in the public, you know, record. Like, the people in Pennsylvania, how are Democrats doing on party registration? How are Republicans doing? And so, when you look across the country in those states where You register by party. Republicans are doing better in critical battleground House seats. Does that mean they're going to win? It doesn't necessarily mean they're going to retain the House, but it is an indicator that is a positive indicator in a year you would consider normally to be a Democratic-leading year.

So, Democrats are facing their own problems. Here's a question, Josh. So, this is based on an increase in registration as primaries have started. As Republican identification in the states that have it. Yeah, so what they're finding- Could this also mean that people are frustrated and want to vote for an insurgent candidate in Republican primaries, in the case of, say, Thomas Madison, Kentucky, and are not going to vote for the eventual Republican that represents Lindsey Graham in South Carolina? Good example.

Is that possible? Um, not, I mean, not really. I mean, there's, there might be some of that noise. I mean, you could say Texas, obviously, but then, you know, the vast majority of corner voters are probably going to also vote for Ken Paxton in the general. Yeah. So, in general, you know, again, when you look at all the different, you know, indicators on who do we think is likely to win the House of Representatives, it's still the Democrats with the advantage, because it's a presidential midterm election.

Because the polling, when they do generic ballot question, like, when you vote for Congress, are you probably going to vote for a Republican or a Democrat? And those numbers, over time, tend to be a little too slanted towards Democrats. So, in other words, the final result is usually Two points better for Republicans than the polling indicates, but the polling right now still would show, yeah, Democrats are probably going to win the House, okay? I'm just saying that this is another indicator where you look at hard data, party registration trends, how people, when they register to vote, and Democrats should be doing better.

Yeah. It's a good year for them. Gas was like near five bucks a gallon, you know, unpopular war, and why is it that Democrats are still sputtering? It's because they ask Americans, and Harry Ensign was on CNN, we were just talking about this the other day, asking the Americans, you know, and in polling, what do you think about, you know, what do you think about the Democrats? And the American people are like, yeah, they stink. We don't like the brand. We think they just care about trans and kids.

They're not really into solving problems. And so, the Democratic, you know... Republicans face headwinds with $5 gas with this foreign war that is unpopular. Yes, no doubt, and they could lose easily the House. I get that, but I am just saying the Democratic Party, they are fumbling and stumbling, and they should be cleaning the Republicans' clocks just based on what the American people think and the high price of gas and affordability, but they are not able to deliver as much because people are like, I do not know, dude.

You kind of creep me out. There's not a single white guy in the Democratic Party that doesn't feel like a weirdo. It's either James Talrico, who feels kind of creepy weird, or Graham Plantner, who is obviously creepy weird. The Democratic Party has a masculine problem. They don't understand what it means to be masculine, and it's because everyone in their party From, like, you know, 2019 to 2022, they really were attacking white men at every turn, even when they had a white man as the standard bearer of their party, you know, and so you just get these weirdos.

It's just kind of crazy. Didn't Tallarico have, was it like relationship with staffers stuff come out? There's a lot of rumors of that stuff coming out. I'm waiting on that. But it was with women. So, opposition, Tom, are you surprised? No, you know, I'm the resident conspiracy theorist. It's going to drop something a little bit. I'm like, is it, I think it could be. The rumors are that he's gay. Well, that, exactly. Well, pretty obviously, by his mannerisms. So, that's why I'm like, is he the first candidate to kind of place sex scandals with the opposite sex, with the intention of.

Convincing people that he actually is not gay. Yes. Which is odd, because the Democrats say you should celebrate being gay. Listen, we're in the twilight zone. We're in the twilight zone. I had to throw it out there. No, I know, but Cory Booker, he's a black senator from New Jersey. He would be dating Rosario Dawson, you know, the actress, and everyone's like, I thought you were gay. Dude, he's got a weird... He had, like, a weird engagement, too. It was like...

Yes. Yeah. You know, the rumor is, you know, gays call it a beard, where a gay man will date a girl intentionally... It is pride, but Josh is explaining... I'm gonna do it. Wasn't this one of the plot lines in For All Mankind?

I don't care. Oh, wait. Sorry. For the record, what is a beard, Josh? It is five months. It's where a gay man will pretend to be in a relationship with a woman to get people off the scent that he's, you know, a closet gay.

Right? You're right. But aren't we supposed to be proud that we're gay? But unfortunately, well, that's kind of the thing with the Republicans is there's plenty of them in there. Like, for anyone that's ever talked to anyone in D.C., there's plenty of that going on. It's not just a Democrat thing, unfortunately. It's a D.C. thing, probably. I don't know what is going on in D.C., but... Thanks for that, Judge. All right. All right. On to the next. Oh, yeah, this one was crazy, too.

Dude, what is going on with Mike Lee and the Mormons, Erika? I think you're better getting into this. So, Mormonpalooza here, last, over the weekend, everything just hit the fan, because on Friday, June 5th, the Pentagon, they released a new list of religions that servicemen can check off. So, the boxes, the classifications of religions. This was not the Pentagon saying. These are approved religions, or the Pentagon saying, like, you're the only religion. They were just, this is how they communicate with the chaplains, so the chaplains know, like, how many in each unit are this.

So, they put out a new list, and they had, it was mightily revised from 211 possibilities down to 31. They eliminated Wiccan, Pagan, Asatru, like the singing tree religion of the shamans, of the indigenous something. A lot of the fake stuff. All the stuff. All the stuff. But the big controversy, of course, was that they classified all these different Christians. So, we have agnostic, Baha'i faith, Buddhism. Then we hit the Christians. We have Christian Assemblies of God, Christian Baptist, Christian Catholic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all the way down.

And then we get the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not classified as one of the Christian denominations. And, oh my, I learned that lots of people I follow on Twitter are Mormon. Yep. Glenn Beck came out. I can't get any closer to this. Senator Mike Lee came out. Mike Lee was on the warpath. I've never seen him tweet so much.

I can't really see there, but basically, it has Christian, Christian, Christian, Christian, Christian, and then it has someone next to it, and then the one right after, dude, they gave it to Seventh-day Adventists. Next, you have to open up the image in a different tab, otherwise it goes crazy. Well, I did, but I'm just trying to resize it. So, bottom line is, by yesterday, the Pentagon had re-released, actually by Monday, they had re-released the list, and they just took the Christian designation off.

They're like, okay, we're not going to step our foot in this. We're just going to have Baptist, Assemblies of God, Catholic, Church of Jesus Christ. We're not going to say who's a Christian and who's not a Christian, which I did appreciate. Because they had said Jehovah's Witnesses were Christian, and that's just like another one you want to step in, don't want to step in. So, this is good. Like, don't classify people. Just put in the name of the church or the denomination that they belong to, and they can duke it out whether or not they're Christian.

So, you're not going to take the bait? Oh, no, I'm going to take the bait. Oh, take the bait, okay. I'm going to take that bait. Take the bait. But the questions still remain. Where's my popcorn? Are Mormons Christian? Yep. No. So, the argument coming from Mike Lee and the Twitter argument, and it can get much deeper than this, there's more nuance to it, but it's that, well, we worship Jesus Christ, so therefore we are Christians.

But just worshiping Jesus is not the only fundamental Christian doctrine that would bring you into the fold of, yes, I'm a Christian. A really important one, guys, we just celebrated this Sunday, two Sundays ago, is the Holy Trinity.

Mormons do not believe in the Holy Trinity. Even the divinity of Christ, kind of up for grabs there. And the key, and I think, Josh, you brought this up on Twitter at one point, but when you look at baptisms, right? The Catholic Church is going to accept baptisms from Baptists, most Baptists, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, because they baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus instructs us to do in the Gospels, right?

But if you are a Mormon converting to Catholicism, you will have to be baptized for the first time, because your Mormon baptism Was not in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you were not a member of the church. You were not a Christian until that moment. Instead of?

I think it's just, I baptize you in the name of Jesus. Let's see. So, is Trinitarian theology, so like, I'm looking at Christian scientist, Seventh-day Adventist. Yep, they should not have been classified. Jehovah's Witnesses, like, is Trinitarian theology required to be? I mean, okay, let's just say, I'm Catholic, I believe there's one true holy Catholic church. That's part of my creed. So, like, let's just set that aside for a second, but we're really going to get into the weeds here. Trinitarian theology.

The real quick thing here is, yeah, that Trinitarian is a requirement. Therefore, Mormons do not believe in Trinitarian. They are not Christian. Now, some of those other Christian sects you mentioned might be. If the Catholic Church thinks you are a member of a certain religious group or whatever, and that you want to become a Catholic, does the Church require you to be baptized?

Or not? Or do they recognize your previous baptism as valid? That, to me, is the biggest distinction of whether or not you should be considered in the greater kind of Christian category. And Mormons, as Erika just said, the Catholic Church does not consider it valid, the Mormon baptism. It's like, nope. So, if you want to become Catholic, we'd love that. Come on board, and we will baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Because I don't know what's in the water in Utah, but I love Mormons. They're, like, the nicest people. They're amazing allies for, I mean— Yeah, like, they're great. I got nothing against— They're fighting the same battle, right? And similarly, and this is where, like— Super nice people. I get on the—this is on the defense for sincere religious believers. Even if I disagree with your theology and your religion, like, I kind of have a special place. Like, I don't— I do not really want to go out of my way to mock you or denigrate you, because I disagree with your beliefs.

I have respect, I think, for sincere religious belief, Muslim, Jewish, Mormon, etc. That being said, I do think it is important to, when the time comes, to have to understand your own theology and have an honest conversation about what you believe. I mean, I say the Apostolic Creed every time, the Nicene Creed. That is what I believe. So, to be able to distinguish it in a respectful manner, I think is... It's probably the goal, like, in regards to all of this, because, and it's just a weird outburst from Mike Lee, though.

Well, I mean, it's like, it's regrettable that they get offended by it, but we mean no insult. It's like, you know, you have a lot of great things to offer. There's a lot of good people who are Mormon, but, like, you do not believe, you know, in the Trinity. Sorry. Yeah, and people will say things. I think it's hard for, like, the broader American public to understand why this is such a... Big deal, because as a country, we've sort of adopted this attitude that we're all like spiritual, but not religious.

And so, like, I mean, you're all so spiritual, though, and you all talk, you have the same words like Jesus, and you talk about the Father, and you talk about, you know, you all have so many children or whatever, because the Mormons are reproducing about the rate of practicing Catholics. So, I think that it's hard for Americans to grasp the fact that it does matter what the religion said, the religio, like how you stand before God. Doctrine matters. What you believe matters, and like you said, Josh, it's not casting any shade on Mormons to just be like, look, you don't believe the things that Christians believe, you know, and you add on all this weird stuff, and what the heck was going on with Joseph Smith?

Yeah, does anyone want a good trip? Go take a look at Joseph Smith, especially towards the end. That is some of the craziest literature I've ever read. Him getting shot in the face by his own people in prison, in an Illinois prison. Is crazy, like in terms of just, I don't think people, do people know about this? Like, I could believe it. And then they kind of like did a nice sleight of hand where they're like, no, Brigham Young was our guy.

And then we all fled to the, and actually, to be fair, I believe there was a time where it was like open season on Mormons in Illinois. Like, it was legal to actually harm them. They were terribly persecuted. Yeah, so like, it's just a crazy drama. I got a hot take on that. Yeah, what's your hot take?

I mean, do I consider the persecution to be justified and warranted? Not necessarily, but again, like, if I lived in a town, you know, 150 years ago, and there's like a thousand people in the town, and in come 50 Mormons, and they want to have 170 wives, like, yeah, that's a problem. No, the bigger problem was they tried to create a sovereign country within Illinois. I believe they were like... They tried to do it in Michigan. Yeah, like, they're like... This is not the United States.

This is whatever, you know, we're sovereign from the law of the United States. It's like, that's crazy, brother. Like, I don't care what... There's a Mormon that moved to Beaver Island, you know, 30 miles west of me off the water of Lake Michigan. They tried to declare it a sovereign country. It's like, yeah, no, bro. Sorry. That's not how it works. I'm not a fan of, like, baptizing other people's dead relatives, either. Just not... I mean, I don't think it does anything, but, like, guys, like...

It's kind of insulting, too. Yeah. Utah is sick, though, and the Mormons are very hospitable. I have been. That's true, but their voting has gone soft. They're trending left. Politically, if that bothers you. Although, didn't Jackson Dart, wait, is Jackson Dart?

Mormon, I think he opened up for Trump, and everyone's giving him a hard time. They're just like beautiful blonde giants. I don't know where they could be. I joke about that at Hillsdale. I can tell all the Mormons are gorgeous. Yes, it's crazy. I don't know what's in the water.

Wow. Speaking of the children. Oh, you are not going to do this, Tom. Oh, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it, and again, we've- We are stepping in it today. Listen, Josh, Josh, explain what a beard is. Listen, some are saying it's Pride Month. I think that's lost a lot of steam. So, I'm trying to find a way to make this tasteful. I don't think it's possible. HelloFresh, if anyone's seen this. If you have kids in the car, turn it off.

Kids in the car, got to turn it off. I'll read the statement. This is on their public Instagram, a pride message, HelloFresh, their food delivery company. We know eating isn't always the top priority for this month. We respect that, but for those of you who are prepping, we have an extensive lineup of high-fiber recipes available. Happy Pride.

I didn't understand this at first. I didn't understand it. So, that's the thing. In some ways, I'm appreciative because the great fourth rail, third rail, whatever, of sexual activists. Um, is that you have to speak in euphemism, and then you have to basically religiously support, uh, deviant sexual arrangements as if they're equal to natural marriage. And so, you often get the euphemisms, but you don't get the honesty. And this is disgusting, because it's a description of how to engage in sodomy.

In a public commercial for a public-facing company as like a, you know, a big celebration or thank you to this community. And, you know, as soon as you look under the hood of like what this actually is, it kind of falls apart. And I'll just say, first off, humility requires. You know, a rigorous examination of our own lives and our own consciences, and I have my own patterns of sin, and that's why I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and salvation through him and the Sacrament of Confession.

And I also appreciate organizations like Courage International that really do a good job of, like, reaching out to people with same-sex attractions. And the reality is, is that people that do gravitate towards or get in this world often are abused or did not have good childhoods or, you know, through some form of... Transgression ended up stuck in this, either by psychological attraction, some type of breaking there. That being said, this commercial is explicit.

To think about encouraging someone that you love to live this kind of lifestyle, you're setting them up for a life of infertility, STDs, higher rates of depression, higher suicide rates, and eventually wearing a diaper, to be too explicit here, because that's what sodomy... It encourages. I think back to how crazy it was that they're trying to use Magic Johnson as like, oh, well, anyone can get it now. And it's like, well, no. Most of it is you're going to get through needles or sodomy.

And the Bible is very explicit about this, that it is a sin. And of course, it darkens the intellect and comes with all kinds of the things that sin brings. And so, I just would never give this advice to Anyone, like, because I love them and I want what's best for them, I would never encourage someone to engage in this type of activity because of the obvious physical manifestations, let alone psychological, let alone all the other problems that come with it, because I love them, not because I hate them or I'm bigoted or anything else.

And so, I guess, thank you to HelloFresh. I mean, it's disgusting. It should be taken down. But, you know, I saw this Gallup poll going around, interestingly. So, per Gallup, independent support for the morality of gay and lesbian relationships is down 10% since 2021. This is, regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, please tell me whether you personally believe that, in general, it is morally acceptable or morally wrong, gay or lesbian relationships, and we just get a huge fall.

But peek around 2020. From GOP, then independence, and then Democrats, of course, is split by party affiliation, but just in general, the general trend is down, and you're like, well, why would that be? We just had the most open period where, you know, supposedly, you could be able to flourish in these type of arrangements where it's encouraged by the states, encouraged by private corporations. You got, like, the HRC, you have all these organizations, like, punishing people for even, like, slightly speaking up against this.

This should be the time where everyone's like, this is awesome. And then, I just think, rightfully so, people realize, like, Okay, we hate that this is in our face. It's, on its face, disgusting, the act itself, and it leads to long-term problems. Right. So, I don't like it being thrown in my face, and I don't care what type of sexual arrangement it is. This type of profanity, being in everyone's face all the time, and you having to accept it and encourage it, think libraries, drag shows, public displays of deviancy, is disgusting, because it is naturally disgusting.

Everyone recognizes that. So, that point suggests that... And I appreciate Joshua T. Charles' good follow on Twitter. I think has a good rap on this to maybe make it more tasteful than I'm at it, but because it's obvious, sodomy is unnatural, destructive to the soul and anatomically and disgusting, and the more its nature is openly discussed, the more it becomes rightly reviled. Of course, we love those who struggle with same-sex attraction and sins such as these. I am prone to my own set of sinful behavior, about which I must be ever vigilant and repent if I fall.

Those who would flatter me otherwise don't love me. In truth, they hate me. So, I will never hate my brothers and sisters who struggle with such sins by supporting them in them. Those who engage in sodomy-related sins are in the exact same boat as me, sinners in need of repentance. To embrace pride in such behaviors, in truth, to hate sinners and not love them, is to consign their souls to Satan. True love says to that, no.

Preach it. Amen. So, I'm glad it hasn't been as in your face, but this was pretty nasty. So, yeah, if you got HelloFresh, that's a thumbs down. Go find another food provider. I can't believe they would even put that out in public. It's so disgusting. Well, and I think the percentage that you speak to why it's changing is because there was a view amongst many Republican voters the hope that, hey...

You know, during the Obama years, if we could just like, you know, okay, let's try to forget about the social issues, and let's just agree to, you know, try to solve problems and find better solutions, and we'll just kind of like shove these social issues aside, whatever, fine. And what we found out is like, no, actually.

You know, how do you have common ground and agreement and work with, you know, the different sides when, you know, they cheer when Charlie Kirk gets murdered? You know, like, I mean, it's just like, culture matters. And that's the thing I think all the stories we're talking about today speak to. Culture matters. Having like a Mitt Romney bean counter view of politics, where we're just hoping, you know, aspirations, and we can solve these problems like a bunch of calculators. No. No.

It's not. The culture war is not a giant distraction. It's the point. Preach it. And that's why, you know, I really... I appreciate that the kind of cultural fever pitch was broken, and we don't have that coming from messaging from the White House. I have other frustrations. But in terms of the vice, like the putting forth of new vices by this administration in terms of gambling, in terms of weed and psychoactive drugs, in terms of pornography, like, I think that if we want to go the right direction, those are the next.

What stages to attack, because as you mentioned, it is culture. Mifepristone would be a good one, too. Mifepristone, how could you even get to the point where we have a public ad for food suggesting preparation for sodomy? Even, like, to come on someone's mind, and I think, like, so much of this, and I just know, because people get exposed to pornography at such a young age, and then they get conditioned through what we just saw, with, like, the drag queen story hours, conditioned in media, conditioned through the library, conditioned through their education system, like the sexual education system in public schools.

Like, unless you're actively educating your own children on the natural realities of this. It's just you're thrown to the wolves of, as you said, culture if you give them unlimited access to the internet, if you just let their teachers teach them. I mean, how many times did you see, like, a teacher transition a kid or withhold something like that from parents? All under the guise of they felt that they were doing the right thing. Like, this was, like, a moral necessity to do this to your own children.

It's like, I haven't forgotten. Like, it feels like the fever's broken, but I certainly haven't forgotten. This needs to be shut down and replaced by courageous ministers who will speak about weed. And gambling and pornography, you know, like address these issues. We need to talk about this stuff. The flock needs to hear from you and hear what the church has to say on these important issues that cut to the heart of what it means to and how we live with each other.

Word. All right, we're going to end with Daily Prayer for America 250, the last one we will say here live before we say it in person. It's going to be great. So, in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.

O sacred heart of Jesus, king of heaven and earth, I place today my nation, the United States of America, into your heart pierced for love of us. On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I acknowledge that true liberty is your gift, and that our lasting homeland is the eternal kingdom of God. Under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, and through the intercession of her Immaculate Heart, bless my homeland anew, purify her from sin, and guide our leaders in truth, justice, and peace, so that she may safeguard all human life, respect the integrity of marriage and the family, and honor the practice of religion.

Reign in my home and in my nation, draw every heart into communion with you, that your truth, love, justice, mercy, and peace may triumph in America. And throughout the world. Amen. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, I love you. Go to Luke Bay. Pray for us.

Great show, gang. Catch you guys live in Wisconsin. Well, first, we got the deep, which is going to be great on Thursday. We'll catch you guys live in Wisconsin. Peace.