Ukraine Peace Deal In Sight? MTG's Surprising Resignation, And Candace Owens Hit?

And we're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast. It's Tom, Erika, and Josh. The LOOPcast brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite morning newsletter. Good Monday morning to everyone in the chat. We have Thanksgiving coming up this week. It's going to be great.

Josh, you have Thanksgiving aficionado. What qualifies you as the Thanksgiving aficionado of this show? I am a big, long-time advocate of Thanksgiving, and I have to say, there was a movement about six or seven years ago to open up retail stores like Target and Walmart on Thanksgiving, and I had no problem being that guy shaming my friends who thought about going and did go shopping on Thanksgiving Day. Like, no, this is a very important day. It is secularly sacred, right? It is a feast day for our country.

Dude, you can't force people to work on a day like this. If they have to, like a nurse or something like that, that's a different story, but it's a great day. It is a fantastic day. I love Thanksgiving Day. I don't want it smashed. I love Christmas, dude. I love that it's a long time, and I don't have a problem with Christmas songs in Advent, but on the other side of Thanksgiving, bro, let's let Thanksgiving cook. Amen. Yeah, I think that was my saddest thing.

We got out of Halloween today. Pray for Candace Owens. Whoa, we're already in the chat. They liked the title there. All right, listen. It's in my twilight zone. It's in my twilight zone. Okay, so summary of today's show. We'll get into that really quick. First, up top, we look like there's a potential peace plan for Ukraine on the horizon. Now, Josh is really not interested in foreign policy for some reason and was really complaining big time that we're covering it. Erika is a great foreign policy analyst for this show.

It is interesting. It is the big war of our time right now in terms of death toll. If we could get some progress on that, that's great. There's been a lot of interesting movement on that front. Josh, hold your tongue. Second, we have Trump corner. So, Trump had his infamous meeting with Mamdani. What did he call him? The little communist? Yeah. Not what I expected. Not what I expected in the slightest. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down. We're going to talk about implications on what that means for Congress, what that means for her future ambitions.

It was pretty surprising to me. Going to cover that. And then also, we had some really tragic events happen in Nigeria over the weekend. And President Trump has spoken really strongly on that, so consider that the Trump corner for today. Then we have good news and Twilight Zone. As I said, Candace Owens in the Twilight Zone. I mean, 38 million views on her post. You have to talk about it. People were talking about it at a wedding table I was at, people that are not really that online, so I was like, okay, it is time to talk.

First, I heard of it 10 minutes ago. Great, Josh. Pretty much. Happy to educate you on what is going on. Before we get into that today, though, the reason we do today's show is Ave Maria. Mutual funds. Thank you to Ave Maria Mutual Funds for sponsoring today's show. So, now more than ever, Catholics want to align their investments with their moral beliefs, and a great way to do that is by investing in the pro-life, pro-family mutual funds from Ave Maria. The professionals at Ave Maria have a morally responsible investment philosophy that's aligned with Catholic teaching.

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Okay, moving on to the top story today. What's going on on the war front, Erika? Yeah, it's been a long three and a half years, if you can believe it. We're coming up on the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine this February, and Trump, part of his platform in his campaigning was, we are going to find a way to bring peace in Ukraine. He said on day one, it turns out Putin wasn't really going to go for that, and it's been a long process.

So, coming off the heels of the... Israeli-Gaza deal. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff got together on an airplane. Apparently, they were in a luxury plane on a flight somewhere, and they were like, you know what, let's just find another 20 points for Ukraine-Russia. At the same time, about the same time they were on that airplane, before I get into the plan.

Two weeks ago, Ukraine's chief anti-corruption agency released findings of an investigation into an energy scandal that implicated close allies of President Zelensky. These top energy officials were accused of misappropriating foreign aid. So, all the money we've been sending turns out they've been taking up to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars from contracts primarily with the United States meant to protect critical energy infrastructure from Russian attacks. And spending it on things like...

Big apartments, luxury vehicles, big parties, all the good stuff in life. So, quick context on this story. I think this is especially frustrating for Ukrainians because it had to do with squeezing the energy companies, and there's been rolling blackouts across Ukraine. So, it's like, hey, we can't get power, but not only can we not get power, the people who are in charge of our government right now are extorting energy companies so that they can make some extra money. And this was done out of Zelensky's big apartment.

I think they call it the beast. And so he, I think at this point, he's kind of claiming, I'm not sure. They can't, like, prove his involvement, but it's one of his good friends operating out of his apartment, extorting energy cups. Like, there's no way that he didn't know completely this was happening. So I think that, I read this, and it's potentially, as soon as I saw it, I was like, okay, Trump is probably going to use this, too, because the corruption, I mean, Ukraine's what?

Historically, one of the most corrupt countries out there. I feel like everyone kind of knew about it until Mitch McConnell was like, no, we need to give them a blank check all the time. So, corruption isn't new when it comes to Ukraine. A hundred percent. Simon Schuster wrote at The Atlantic this weekend. He had a great, great article on this and called it Zelensky's blind spot. But yeah, this hit at the worst time, and it allows the international community, particularly President Trump, to pressure Zelensky into making some Painful compromises is the way he put it in peace talks.

So, what kind of compromises are we talking about? What did Witkoff come up with? So, this was the 28-point peace plan. And some of the highlights were that Ukraine would agree to give up some of its eastern territory that Russia has already appropriated for itself, invaded and taken over. It would renounce its efforts at acquiring a NATO membership, which you remember has been a huge push from Zelensky, amnesty for Russian war crime suspects, and in return, Ukraine would receive strong U.S.-European security guarantees.

After NATO's Article 5, which we've also covered on the show, there would be a timeline for implementation, as much like with Gaza, and third-party monitors would be included in that timeline. So, this plan was put forward. It was accepted by the Russian delegation at the end of last week, and then this weekend, Marco Rubio flew to Geneva to meet with Ukrainian delegates and Western observers. They'll come up to play in a few seconds. So, we had Rubio, Kushner, Witkoff, the Ukrainian delegation, and Western observers.

Coming out of that, Rubio was really hopeful. He said it was meaningful progress, and that there would be a revised draft that would address core Ukrainian strategic concerns. Zelensky's team... Began pushing a counterproposal, wanted to use the talks to reclaim public trust and enthusiasm for Zelensky by saying, oh my gosh, look, America wants us to just roll over and give Russia what they want. We're not. We're standing strong for Ukraine, and they're kind of hoping to recover from the scandal by pushing back on the Trump plan.

So, Zelensky used his weekend speech to reject the Trump plan, calling for dignity and sovereignty to remain uncompromised. They're going to fight to the death and all that. This frustrated Trump, who put out one of his incredible truth social auctions, this was, I am not even going to read the whole thing, but he was not pleased, to say the least. The war between Russia and Ukraine is a violent and terrible one with strong and proper U.S. and Ukrainian leadership would never have happened.

Never happened. In it, he goes on and on, and basically he says, Zelensky is ungrateful. He needs to show gratitude. Europe is buying oil from Russia. The U.S. alone is going to save the day, and yeah, on and on. You know it's getting serious when it just goes to all caps in the back half. It goes to all caps for about eight lines. Back half, all caps. That's how you know he's mad. He doesn't even say thank you for your attention to this matter, which I know he really does.

Yeah, that's how you know he's really mad. Not even thanking anyone. There. I believe, what, do we have a Thanksgiving deadline for acceptance? Yeah, so Trump says we have a Thanksgiving deadline. Thursday seems like a reasonable time. The Europeans came back just as we were going to press here. The Europeans came back with their suggestion, because the EU was not happy with this either. Because they were kind of cut out of this agreement, right? They were. They were totally cut out, and Rubio wanted to go straight to Ukraine, straight to Russia, and the EU has now inserted itself and basically just said that what we want is Ukraine gets NATO membership is up to NATO.

There will be no territorial concessions. There will be a ceasefire. There will be no cap on Ukrainian military. There will be EU membership, and there will be reconstruction paid for entirely by Russia. To which one says, on what planet is Russia going to come to the table on that? Erika, do you know the meme where it's like everyone is in a circle talking, and then there's one person outside of the circle, and they're like, hey, this, and then someone pops out of the circle and just gives a big thumbs up and then goes back to doing whatever they were doing before?

That's how I feel about this. Yeah, that's kind of the EU. They're the ones standing outside the circle. Right. Thanks, EU, for your two cents, but America's going to have to solve this. Yeah, we shall see. It would be a great thing to have some movement on this, some kind of peace. I think the reality is Ukraine at this point is losing the war in the sense that without significant amping up from the United States in terms of aid, we had Zelensky requesting the Tomahawk missiles.

The nuclear warhead capabilities from Trump a couple of weeks ago, without that kind of continued support and amping up support, they're not going to recover 100% territory. Ceasefires have failed for the most part to continue, and so it seems like this is some real politic going on with Kushner and Witkoff. They're just recognizing the reality that Russia's going to get something out of this, whether you like it or not. They are going to get some territory, or it's just going to continue, and in terms of deaths, civilian casualties, Ukraine has by far borne the brunt of the conflict.

In raw numbers, Russia has lost more men, but when you compare the size of the countries and the fact that it has all been fought, almost primarily, on Ukrainian home territory, the loss of infrastructure, like you said, the loss of energy access, it's...

It seems like from Trump's point of view, it's time to end this now. Yeah, Trump's point of view, my point of view, all of our point of view. I think it's hard to square the fact that there is so much corruption because then, of course... It feels like it just benefits people to be in continuous war. I don't even think this is a newer novel take, but it feels like it especially applies in the Ukraine situation, in the Russia situation, as it has in many other wars.

So, if Trump comes through on this promise and actually ends something, give him the Nobel Peace Prize, whatever he wants. He ran on this. This is where he should end up. We'll see. So, good movement there. Josh. Are you still awake, Josh? Yeah, you're awake. I saw you're actually active in the chat today during this section.

Well, I mean, what is there to say? I mean, like, you know, wishing and hoping and praying, you know, whatever. Let's hope something happens, but until it does, I don't know. What's the point of talking about it? I don't know. We'll see you on Thanksgiving.

Yeah. What would you like to talk about? Do you want to start with the Mamdani meeting, or would you like to talk about... I think the Mamdani meeting was very fascinating. Yeah. Let me start with the clip that got shared around before I get into a little bit of the behind-the-scenes context. This one was by far the most shared clip. I call the president a fascist.

And your answer was, both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views. Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist? I've spoken about... That's okay, you can just say yes. It's easier than explaining it. I don't mind.

I haven't watched that yet. Absolute alpha move by Trump. Christ. Oh, my gosh. This is why he's the president. Like, you have to go through the phony baloney BS. Yeah, just like, just say it. That's okay, buddy. Okay, so I watched the full half hour.

And so, it was a half-hour press conference. They had a meeting behind closed doors before, and it was with, I believe, his chief of staff, Trump's chief of staff, a few other people, and they came out of it, and it seems like everyone is saying it was really productive. Like, they avoided the things they disagreed on, they talked about the things that they did agree on, and that the focus was affordability for New York City. I think many people have made this observation, but Trump really has something for winners.

And this seems like another case of that. Like, he's kind of fascinated with Zora Mabdoni. He won. He was a nobody, 1%, you know, not an entity at all, a rapper from Uganda, and he's now the mayor of the biggest city in the country. And he took out big people, like Eric Adams, Mario Cuomo, you know, like, just, you know, he destroyed them all. And so, you know.

Something to be said there. Trump likes to, you know, it's an opportunity for him to brag about, hey, I did the same. I took on everyone in both parties, and I made it big. So, you know, it's an effort to, like, ultimately, like, that's why, for example...

I mean, that is why, like, when he picked our good friend Brian Birch to be ambassador to Vatican, like, why? Like, because it was an opportunity to say, I did so great with the Catholics, this guy. Again, I mean, Donald Trump likes to talk about himself. It is not the other way around. Well, they have been compared to each other. So, Mamdani has been called the Trump of the left because of the way that he came up to power, and he's a showman.

And I love, too, because Mamdani, the video that kicked off his success was 10 days after Trump was elected last November. He went out into the streets of New York, and he just started interviewing Trump voters from New York City. And he's like, why did you vote for Trump? Why did you vote for Trump? And they all gave him affordability, groceries. Housing, child care, which that video, they gave him his platform. That was Mamdani's platform, the whole campaign, and I think Trump sees that.

He recognizes that, and now what's Trump doing? He's leaning into the affordability the last few weeks. He's like, I'll raise you one. He's like, we'll do affordability. We're going to do health care. It's fun to watch, I have to say.

It's pretty fun. I feel like this is a rare... You know what? Does everyone win? I almost feel like Trump gained more from this. Strangely. Definitely. Yeah. Oh, he gets to sit at the big desk with the little boy next to him and be like, you go ahead, buddy. You just say it. Right, and then he went on all the MSNBC national news stuff, but I don't think Mamdani needed more national press, at least not in that way. I feel like he already was critical mass.

People talked about him all the time. So, if anything, Trump needed the affordability advantage. And you got it. Yep. Good, and it's good, because Republicans need to get on this issue. I mean, I think that's part of the reason why, right now, they're trying to talk about doing stuff on healthcare, which there's some problems there. I do have that. I mean, at least the aspiration for Republican lawmakers is to say, how can we make things more affordable? Because right now, A lot of people are getting squeezed.

You know, the ultra-rich, they have money that doesn't matter, and the poor all get subsidies, but everyone in the middle. It's feeling the squeeze. Yeah, I appreciate the segue there, Josh, because Tom McCluskey was sending this around internally, our DC guy, and a big takeaway from this Gallup poll on healthcare for Americans, this is, quote, nearly half of U.S. adults, 47%, are worried that they won't be able to afford necessary healthcare in the coming year. The highest level of concern recorded since WestHealth and Gallup began tracking this measure in 2021.

One in five Americans, also a record high, report that they or someone in their household couldn't pay for prescription medications in the last three months. These are merely two of countless healthcare hurdles Americans face. I've received emails here at the LOOPcast account of people saying, oh my gosh, my premium is going up an outrageous 300%, 400%. I will not be able to afford it at this rate, at least at its current coverage. This is what all Americans are concerned about going into.

I mean, it's the open enrollment period. People are looking at their options. No surprise. So, Trump has put forth, it looks like, MSNOW. It's funny to see the MSNOW website. No longer MSNBC, MSNOW. I guess they had an exclusive on this of Trump's proposed framework to fix Obamacare subsidies.

It looks like really early stages, so I'm not sure how much we know on what this will be, but a couple of details on this would seek to terminate what one of the White House officials referred to as the surprise premium hikes generated by ACA. The plan would also eliminate zero premium subsidies currently offered in the ACA intending to stop ghost beneficiaries. A frequent Republican concern about the alleged fraudulent policy receipts by requiring a small minimum payment as a means to verify eligibility to receive benefits.

So, some really practical things in here. I'm curious to see if this gets through Congress. The one thing that Tom McCluskey noted as a problem is that it does not include Hyde slash Hyde Plus, meaning money would go to pay for abortions and gender dysphoria surgeries. If successful, it would be the first time Republicans would vote for extending Obamacare. And for extending the abortion coverage. So, not great on that front, but I think it's positive at least we're advancing some type of solution.

Like, it's being talked about, it's being worked on. I think that definitely feels good. Yes. It would be great if we could just, I mean, again, it's worth remembering. Democrats blew up. Healthcare. The reason why everyone is feeling this much pain on healthcare premiums and the insurance rates going up through the roof is because of Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. Republicans warn, this is going to be a problem. Don't do this. We try to stop it.

Yeah, I mean, I appreciate that it's necessary to say, but at this point, we're at a breaking point, so something needs to be solved. So, whether or not... Well, again, the only reason I say that, Tom, is so people can understand, like... Hey, maybe trust the people who warned you not to do this in the first place to fix it. That's kind of what I'm getting at. Sure. I appreciate that, too, but again, it's almost saying, oh, it only goes back to 2021.

It almost is kind of besides the point here. Yes, I understand who caused the problem, but unless Congress actually works on actual solutions, it's just kind of like, well, we told you, we told you, we told you, as we all slide into communist healthcare or bad healthcare, nothing works. So, I think it's smart on Trump to at least advance something. And Congress needs to do its job. Speaking of Congress, I wanted to hit this really quick, because I know we have a lot of topics to cover today.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has released a statement. She is stepping down. I believe her date she said she's going to step down is January 5th. I already saw some people in the chat talking about how this timing corresponds with when she would be able to draw a pension.

She'll get a minor pension. It's not going to be a massive one. Right, and I appreciate that, but can we stop and think about it? You only need to be in Congress for five years to get a pension?

Yeah, I mean, obviously, I don't think there should be any pensions. My dad taught for 30 and gets a pension. Like, you can't get a pension until you teach for 30 years. What are you talking about here? That's insane. First off, that was my first what? Five years? But don't you owe them so much? No one in the private sector gets pensions anymore. Everyone in the private sector has shifted to 401ks or whatever because you don't want to be on the books for somebody who is no longer working for the company anymore.

And so, we should shift that to all federal employees, by the way. Hello. Completely. I mean, like, no, no pensions, you know. Here, we'll throw some cash into your 401k or whatever. I love it. And then you do your own thing. Term limits and no pension. Josh, can I get into her reasons? Age, all right. Age maximum. Maximum age. There we go. Okay, but I still think term limits. Let me get into her reasons before, and then I want to hear, Josh, what you actually think is going on, okay?

So, her reasons. Number one, Epstein files pushback. Relentlessly call for declassifying documents. In her announcement, she said, standing up for American women who were raped at 14 should not result in me being attacked. Trump viewed this as disloyalty, especially amid his own past Epstein ties. Trump viewed once Trump's staunchest defender, Green, felt excommunicated after her attacks. She accusing him of ignoring her calls, prioritizing smears, lies, attacks, and name-calling over fixing real problems crushing Americans, broader GOP frustrations, criticized Congress's broken, citing failures on border security, inflation, and healthcare.

Her post-resignation ex-thread urged humility and focus on the American people's problems that both political parties created. And I think she had some stuff about foreign government interference, Israel, etc. She was frustrated about. Josh, what do you think is really going on here? Why did she resign at this time? It's pretty bold. I do think, you know, the aggressive pushback that Donald Trump did against...

MTG over the Epstein file, like was just hoping that he could rouse up his online supporters to attack her and then she'd cry uncle, wave the white flag and not vote to release the Epstein files. That's what he was going for. That's what he was hoping to get accomplished. And then ultimately, when the new representative got sworn in out of southern Arizona, making it that the you know, the votes were there and he couldn't stop it. Then, you know, he's like, whatever, okay, vote for it.

And then it goes through, sailing through. But, you know, MTG had been a very, very, I mean, she's not even my favorite, okay? She can be kind of a little wacky at times, but I like her, how she votes. But the point is, she's probably thinking to herself, well, I've been.

Trump's biggest fan and biggest cheerleader for five years, and then on the Epstein thing, this is going to be the thing that he's going to just jump ugly on me. And you get this thing where sometimes leaders are like, wait a minute now, you need to be completely loyal to me 100% on everything. I don't get that.

But you know that's how Trump operates, though. Yeah, just like George W. Bush operated, just like Barack Obama operated. These presidents feel like they're kings, and they feel like, you owe it to me, everything they've done. How about I take care of myself, and you go pound sand?

But the thing is, I would like to say, the talk of Donald Trump being a lame duck is obviously proven wrong. He's not a lame duck. I mean, by definition, he can't run for re-election. Therefore, he's technically a lame duck, but he is not lame. Like, the fact that he attacked Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the strongest, his strongest supporters, and she realized, I'm quitting, rather than having to deal with, you know, online MAGA attacking her all the time. Well, he also said he'd primary her.

Yeah, so that, obviously, he's not, you know, he has considerable power, is my point. Like, this idea that he's just a lame duck, there's talk of him, Trump not having that much power anymore, and people are already looking towards 2028. Like, yeah, dude, that's not obviously, that's obviously not true, because he, you know, he got her to quit within days. But you don't think, you don't think the Epstein file release is any indication that he's lost his grip on the party?

No, I mean, the fact that she felt the need, you know, like, I can't even, it's not even worth continuing. But do you, so you actually think it is, it's just, I'm just giving up. I'm just, this is too much for me, I don't want to handle it. You don't think she has any future aspirations, or she's trying to realign? She might, but I mean, like, think about this. What, like, with a razor-thin four-seat majority, and, you know, given what happened in New Jersey and Virginia earlier this month.

What are the odds that the Democrats take the House next year? Very high. So, punch out now. You are going to be in the minority next year anyway. Go do something else for a while, and let it go down with the ship, and then she can say, I warned you, so she can be the prophet.

I actually think there are some whispers, though, that there are other people in Congress who are thinking about maybe they will quit before the end of their term. I would not be surprised. Is that a common thing? That feels kind of common. It has only become a thing in recent, you know, within the last 10 years, where people quit their term early. I am really not a fan. I mean, especially on the House side. It is only a two-year term. Yeah, right.

Right. Like, suck it up, Buttercup. Yeah. Yeah. Put you in there. I know. I voted to put you in there. I voted for you to represent me not. Do your job. Right. That's the one thing that rubs me wrong. And you need a new election. Members of the House have to be elected, so it's not like you can have the governor put someone in there until later. No, that's not allowed. It's the House. You have to be elected to serve in the House.

And so, then you need a special election, and there is a primary, and all that kind of stuff. So, that seat will be empty for seven months, which is like 40% of the term. I mean, this drives me kind of crazy on this kind of stuff. I wish there was another way of making this work faster. If this continues to happen, we are going to have to do something where we have snap elections, or conventions, or something like that, where we can fill a seat within 40 days, or something like that, because this is just stupid.

Yeah. So, anyway, I mean, I don't know. I'm sure she does have broader political ambit, as my guess. It's hard, because she's the kind of person, like, what are the odds that she would be able to win a Senate race? I just don't see it. Like, what, is she going to run for president? I guess, just to throw bombs? Yeah, she'll lose.

I consider her running for Senate. Yeah, well, I mean, and losing in the primary, so why wouldn't she run for president and throw a bunch of grenades? I don't know. I mean, I don't think, I don't ascribe, like, a lot of negative feelings towards her. I feel like she's like, I was loyal to you. Again, I'm not even a fan. Like, I mean, I'm not against her, but I'm not. Well, her voting record was stellar, in my opinion. Her voting record was stellar.

I don't disagree with that. But my point is, you know, it's not like I'm crying that she's gone. Like, I'm saying, I'm giving her much more the benefit of the doubt than I'm seeing a lot of people online who are just like, oh, I'm MAGA, and she turned on us. No. That's not what I get at all. Yeah.

Any thoughts, Erika? Not really when it comes to MTG, but I do hope that the good people of Georgia can fill that seat with someone great at the next election. Her whole apology tour that she did on The View and everything, again, if it was sincere, good for her, I guess, but I don't know. She's one of these politicians who also has this massive online following, so she's kind of like a celebrity politician. For a while. For a while, she's got over a million people following her, so we'll see what she does.

I feel like she might kind of lay low. She's going to lay low until Trump is out of the office, and then maybe she'll try again, but honestly, girl, just take the pension, enjoy the rest of your life, serve someone in your local community. You could do so much good. I think her father was sick or something like that. I can't remember the full thing. I think she had people in her family she was taking care of, so I always feel bad for that, but I think the one thing that Josh brought up.

You mentioned, I think someone in the chat was like, oh, well, her fans are MAGA people. She's leaving MAGA. I think there's, by day, becoming more and more disaffected MAGA people that signed up for MAGA and feel like we're not getting it. If Trump really does blow the next two, three years, her stock rises incredibly. Because you said, she comes out as the prophet. Said, I saw it. He betrayed us on Israel. He betrayed us on H-1Bs. He betrayed us on inflation.

And so, I think she actually does become a serious candidate if Trump goes down in flames. Now, I mean, your prediction would be Trump is not going down in flames. He's going to be just fine for three years. It should be hard to bet against him.

I think things are going to be a lot better on the economic front. Maybe not enough in terms to dramatically turn the midterm elections around. Maybe, we will see, but I think it is important to remember during Reagan's first term, he did a lot of things on economic policy. There were considerable shifts, and he was working with Volcker at the Fed, and they really took the... The towel of inflation and wring it out, and 1982 was a rough little recession year, and the midterms, the focus got baked.

But then by 83, it was like, oh, things are actually kind of looking pretty good. And by 84, it was just the economy was galloping like a stallion. You know, that is the hope, is that the changes that Trump is making on this, you know, can make a difference. We will see.

Yeah. I hope so. Cool. Let us run Good News Now. Erika, you're up first. This was just sweet. Hey, it's Thanksgiving week. I love Thanksgiving week, and I love Secretary Sean Duffy, and I just wanted to run this a little bit of his home for the holidays from the FAA. A little PSA. A little PSA for y'all. There you go. Yeah, we got to get everyone in the festive mood. That's right.

Oh, dang. We are going to get dinged on that. I will just play it. No. Okay. So, here we go. Sorry, Frank Sinatra. It is Frank Sinatra. Imagine Come Fly With Me in your head. Yeah, and then you have like footage from the 1960s, footage from the 1950s even. There we go. People at airlines, they are dressed up. They have little pillbox hats on. The kids have like… It might be narrating it now. Yeah, here you go. Let's see.

...civility, but today... Whoa! Stop! It's in the aircraft. There's Erika. That's me. Oh, my gosh. There's Tom. There's me. But manners don't stop at the gate. That's right. Manners don't stop at the gate. Ah, Reagan. Things aren't what they used to be. Some would call it the golden age of travel.

Let's bring civility and manners back. Ask yourself, are you helping a pregnant woman put her bag in the overhead bin? Good question. Are you dressing with respect? Are you keeping control of your children? Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants and your pilots? Are you saying please and thank you in general? I love it. The golden age of travel begins with you.

Did you even say thank you? By the way, it's funny. I'll oftentimes dress up when I do air travel, and if I'll put on a sport coat or whatever, like you're wearing today, and it's amazing. People just assume I'm a congressman. Yeah.

Like, sure, I can upgrade that seat for you. Like, sure, yeah, that's great. I have to say, the most egregious in that video, it wasn't the fights. It was the bare feet over the seat. Oh, that's gross. I would fight someone if they put their bare feet, and that touched me, over the seat. It's over. I would throw hands. You can't be doing that. The dogs can't be out barking like that.

So, because for the audio listeners that are probably really confused right now, it was a video put out by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The beginning was, like, old-timey. Flying before you had to take your shoes off before there was the TSA, and now... You don't have to do it anymore, anyway. You don't have to do it anymore. Which we're back to not taking our shoes off, and now it's bare feet, above your seat, fighting.

I actually witnessed... No, I didn't witness. I got on a plane in Fort Lauderdale back when I was in college, and I... Left and landed, and all of a sudden, someone sent me a massive brawl in the same terminal I had left right before the brawl. Oh my gosh. I mean, it's real. It's a real idea. Well, I looked it up because I wanted to know, okay, is this really such a big problem, or is this just living on TikTok, right?

But I looked it up. So, since 2019, the FAA reports in-flight outbursts, that includes anything from disruptive behavior, like the bare feet up on the seat, to outright violence that we saw in the video, it's increased 400%. That's crazy. You know why? Because we had COVID, and everyone went a little nuts. It's because we can't smoke on planes anymore. No, that's not it.

They don't give you meals anymore. They just give you little pretzels, and people are mad about it. And now we have the transportation secretary saying, did you say please and thank you? In general, are you in control of your children? Did you ask the pregnant lady? You know people are probably mad about that, too, right? Like, people saw that video and are like, don't tell me what to do. Why is Sean Duffy telling me I should be? I'm like, throw that bomb, Sean Duffy.

You throw that. I mean, this is the thing. It's like, have we forgot that we belong to each other? Yes, ultimately. Have you forgot that we live in a society? Never forget. You know, it is a lack of solidarity, and we would hope that in a year dedicated to reviving patriotic spirit next year, our 250th anniversary, that we could try to enkindle more brotherhood amongst all of us, and that is on all of us to try to make that better, but importing millions of people, having a wide open border, having You know, the emergency COVID, hundreds of thousands of extra people on H-1B visas to undercut wages of real Americans, all that was like, you know, nails on a chalkboard for the kind of solidarity that we need as a country.

So, yeah, I mean, like, all the, you know, does that mean that is why we have outbursts at the airport? No, I am not saying that like a direct link. But that is the kind of stuff that does break down society, you know? So. Here is one thing, if you want to toss this, not a may I meet you. I would not recommend doing that. Actually, my brother-in-law did say he is going to try that. We will see. We did that, yeah.

Just hit someone in the morning with a good morning. If you are just out, and someone is walking by you in your office complex, say good morning. It is the best. They always say it, but they look surprised, and they say it back, and you feel a little good after. You wish someone a good morning. Simple. That is my Sean Duffy moment of the show. Especially in an elevator.

I love it. Just put it forward. Josh, do you have a commercial for me? I think I can show it. Well, I am sure they like it when people show it. Right, exactly. You would think. Commercial? Toyota commercial?

I guess so. of glory driven since i was a child you tell your life is a game but it ain't a game to me the lights are calling my name yeah i got the energy to put it all on the line That's awesome.

When we're free to move, anything is possible. I love it. Josh, you're so festive this week. I love it. Pretty life-affirming there from Toyota. Beautiful. Actually, if anyone... I know someone, one of my good friends had club feet when he was 80, so literally feet facing the wrong way, and then had to surgically move them the right way, and then walked around in casts for a lot of his early life. And he also has cleft lip, too, which anyone knows cleft lip.

You're missing, like, bone at the top of your mouth. Yeah. And we're just talking about how cool it is to live in a time. It's like, if I was born like that over, you know, 50 years ago, 100 years ago, like, I probably wouldn't be alive.

And then also, if you were born in Roman times, you'd have been thrown over a cliff. Oh, you would have just been thrown out with the trash, right? Yeah, right. You would have been on a cliff, and, like, I'm—and he's like— I mean, he's my best friend. Like, he's super jacked, lives a great life, totally beat a ton of odds, and so it's just cool. Like, when you see stuff like that, it's just a reminder. Like, wow, just grateful to live when I live, for sure.

Thank you for that, Josh. Mine, someone brought it up in the chat already. We have Location Madness on X, so you can now see the location. You can see the location of accounts that they post, some rather large accounts, too. And so, I haven't gone through all of them. I was just scrolling through this morning. Some of them are funny, but what has been happening is people have been screenshotting and then Photoshopping where people are from, so I'm not sure how many of them are real or fake.

So, again, we are rapidly hurtling towards a time where you just cannot trust anything you see, and one of the funniest takes I heard on that reality is that Someone is like, I've just basically decided I'm going to believe anything anyone tells me or anything I see. So, AI video of rabbits jumping on a trampoline? Yeah, awesome. I believe it. And that is kind of a beautifully naive to go through the world at this point. Kind of better than driving yourself crazy in some ways.

But we have an account at American, joined in 2007, account based in South Asia. It is a bald eagle with an American flag behind it, and it has been posting from South Asia. So, basically, India. Sure, yeah. I think they do have specific India. There's been, like, a lot of MAGA accounts that are actually in Pakistan.

Bangladesh, Romania. Oh, man. Oh, boy. I can't believe everything you see online. Yep. And it was like the location get-in over on, and then everyone's like photoshopping each other, accusing each other of being from different states. I mean, it is.

But you can go to my profile, at Joshua Mercer, and you will find out that I am, in fact, from the United States. In the United States of America, we're real. That's some real well-done, slick self-promotion, Josh. Great job. Got people over to your profile.

Someone's got to do it. Someone's got to do it. Okay, Twilight Zone. Josh, you were first. I don't even remember what I did. Okay, yeah, this is a horrible story. I mean, I think you guys heard about this, you know, in Chicago, about this man, Lawrence Reed, who was arrested 70 times. 70 times he was arrested.

And he went on, he was on the subway platform, and he got into some sort of fight or whatever with Bethany McGee, who is a 26-year-old woman who now has 60% burns on her body. Oh, my gosh. The judge said, you know, this is like back in, what was this, back in August, August 22nd, you know, the prosecutor was trying to keep him in jail or whatever, and she says, I can't keep everyone in jail because the state's attorney wants me to.

That's Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez. And so, because she refused to keep a man like this in jail, he was allowed to go freely, and she set a woman on fire. How could you be arrested 70 times? I just don't even know how that's possible. It was the CTA, right? It was the CTA burning, lit the person on fire. I remember seeing that. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, about a year ago.

Well, it is not even a year ago. It was relatively recent, because there is one in New York City that was. Well, Josh, we used to have something, and it has gotten kind of a bad rap at this point, psych wards or mental institutions, asylums. We had one, actually, in Indianapolis, and then, literally, it closed down, and they just let everyone onto the street. That is the ACLU. They released it, everyone on the street, and those people are now...

Homeless or going crazy? I mean, because they clearly need psychiatric care. So, I don't know what happened there. Yeah, the ACLU argued that it was a violation of their individual freedom, like, because individual freedom is, in the ACLU minds, was paramount, and therefore, you had to liberate these people. You couldn't institutionalize them, but sometimes people for their own good and their own protection, you need to institutionalize them because they do need.

Additional care and help, and to let him roam free is bad news. Yeah, suggested by the time he was arrested 70 times. I mean, if you're arrested 70 times, you probably need to be in a psych ward. Or prison, or six feet under.

Yeah. Seriously. Yeah, stuff. Were all the arrests in Chicago, Josh, do you know? Is that part of the... I'm sorry? Were all of the arrests in Chicago? I don't know if all of them are Chicago or not, but I mean, the state's attorney had all the evidence on this guy, you know, and the judge was like, yeah, whatever. This doesn't matter. So, I mean, again, this is, you know, Democratic strongholds do not care about your safety at all. So, I mean...

It absolutely bothers me. What is the solution? I mean, this guy had been arrested several times for arson. It is not like he was getting parking tickets. What is the solution for these judges, Josh? Well, this is why we had a crime wave in the 70s and in the 1980s, right? And so, what happened is Congress started passing mandatory sentences, like three strikes and you are out, California. That is what they did. Like, you get three felonies, boom, see you later, you are in jail.

And so, like, they would do these mandatory minimums precisely because judges would just let people go with the most minimal sentencing. And that is why, like, Joe Biden wanted to show he was a new Democrat. That is why he was bragged about his work on the 1994 crime bill. And then, of course, as progressive policies in the party went super left, Democrats ran away from that. I mean, that was one thing he did I actually kind of agreed with.

That was the Bill Clinton crime bill in the 90s? Yeah. Okay. Maybe it is time to get back to that. I mean, you know, again, this is what happens. Everyone likes to think that they are compassionate and they are virtuous by showing that, ah, I am not going to be a jerk. They like to showcase.

Their virtue, and say, I'm going to be nice, I'm going to believe in the ability for people to amend their lives, and then they go out and set a girl on fire on the subway train. Yeah, like if we can't even get that one put away, like someone who lights them. So, it kind of connects to the air travel video, Josh.

It's almost like when people were doing air travel back in the day, this wasn't happening. There weren't people roaming around that light people on fire. I mean, do you think that you, what would happen if any of those people in the airplane video were acting obnoxious and had done that on a flight to Singapore?

I think they have caning. They do. I mean, do you think anyone, do you allow that stuff? Do you think they allow that in Tokyo? Now, I am not saying that we have to necessarily adopt all their policies, but like, you know, we need to bring back, I mean, we have just allowed.

Well, Josh, unfortunately, I don't see a solution. Singapore is a uniform country. It's the same thing with Japan. In Japan, they don't even have human rights. You will get beat up on the street by police, and they anticipate that you deserve it. In this country, we're afraid of being called racist if we implement the same standards across the board. Right, but we also have... That's what we need to stop doing. We have multiculturalism. I don't care if you call me a racist or a fascist.

You can't interrupt traffic. You can't... You know, getting a brawl on an airplane. We're going to pull you aside. If you throw paint on a painting, we'll take a club and knock you on the ground. But I guess I'm just maybe blackmailed on that ever happening, because that would require institutional trust in police, etc., because they're people that come from your culture, share your values, and largely, like with just how much immigration that America has had, we have... Competing factions at all times.

Like, none of this really surprises me, unfortunately. Right. We just kind of live in a personal responsibility in many ways, economically certainly, but then in terms of safety, too, community policing is just... You have to, we all kind of live in these little enclaves. The country is so big. Part of that is a problem, not a problem, a challenge, is America is very large, and there's 50 states, and they all have different ideas of what this means, but, you know, in a place that had so much immigration, like, think about Minneapolis.

They were lying about autism to get money to send back to pirates. That doesn't happen in Singapore. It doesn't happen in Japan. Yeah, temporary protective status and returning, hopefully, a lot of these Somalis homes. Well, hopefully, that'll make things better, because...

Right. Clearly, there is a tension there with, say, someone that might have been in Minneapolis 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and then who is there now, and how you interact. I was literally born in Minneapolis almost 50 years ago. But not 150 years ago.

It is tough. It is a tough challenge. Yeah. Erika. All right. I am going to keep us down a little bit, guys. So, I am going to turn to Nigeria just briefly. I know we mentioned at the top of the show we were going to address this. So, last week, if you had not heard, there were 38 people abducted from Kwara State. Most of them were returned over the weekend, which is amazing. But then, in Niger State, just at the end of the week after we did the show… We had reports that there were over 250 students and teachers were kidnapped.

I believe the final count was 310 children aged, I believe, 5 through 13, and then the teachers in their school. So, they were taken by Islamists. About 50 of them did escape within 24 hours and make their way back home to their parents, but there remain about 250 of them in captivity. And of course, it was a Christian community that was attacked. The children were taken.

And I mean, you hear this, and it's hard to even fathom. So, I went to Mass this weekend at a local parish because the kids were sick, and they have a school, and the school has about 250 kids in it. And I'm like, what would that be like if St. Bridget's in Cheshire just...

Every student just disappeared and was kidnapped for us. It's so hard for us to fathom. The response from the Trump administration was swift and firm. He continues to amp up his rhetoric, lashing out at the nation's government for doing nothing to stop the killing, said he's really angry about it on Friday at the end of the day, and he sent in War Secretary Pete Hegseth to talk to the Nigerian government and basically threatened to cut off all aid. If it doesn't do anything concrete to get these kids back, to stop the killing of Christians in these different...

States throughout the country. So, good to see that kind of language coming from the President of the United States. Of course, the Holy Father, Pope Leo, also made an impassioned plea for the return of these children as well during his Sunday address. So, pray for the Christians in Nigeria, pray for our new martyrs, and pray for peace and that the blood of the martyrs would be the seed of earth. Religious revival in Africa. Could you imagine if Pope Leo asked a bunch of 20-year-old men to go on a crusade to Nigeria?

I mean, it's been done before. I don't know if they would go. I don't know if they would go. Does that sound terrible? Not the guys in Italy, I don't think. The guys in Italy, I don't really, Josh. Not in Italy, I'm just saying around the world. I mean, like, come on. I know, but it's not that, I don't know. I think they were just different back then. They'd be like, all right, gang up. We're going to Turkey. Get your broadsword, sharpen it.

We're going to Africa. Yeah, no broadswords anymore. That's interesting to think about what that would even look like. Like, we're all going to Nigeria. The boys are going to Nigeria, saving some kids. That sounds sick. I'm not going to lie. It does sound cool. All right, it's the moment you've all been waiting for, especially Josh. All right, listen, listen. It's the twilight zone, okay? So, Candace Owens, lover, hater, anything in between. She is a lightning rod. She has total dominance over the mom demographic, I've noticed, just personally, anecdotally.

My official statement on Candace Owens is she is must-watch TV. I cannot look away. I have kept tabs. Are you serious? Yes, I cannot look away. You're not sure if it's true. My thought is it's like the Only Murders in the Building, if anyone's seen that show. They were doing a podcast to solve a crime. I watched that show because, yes, Lena Gomez is cute. Okay, there you go. Sure. That could be a reason. Okay, you got to sell us on this.

All right, so the reason I bring her up, because a lot of people talk about her, talk about her, talk about her, I'm like, okay, she's made a lot of claims, varying degrees of evidence provided, and this is kind of an interesting reality we live in now, where people promote their podcasts, or they do it in one way, good, because you have your own outlet to say what you want to say, and another way, kind of annoying, because they're like, big news coming on my podcast tonight, you got to go subscribe to see it.

It's like, okay, if it's really big enough, what's going on? She posts across all of her platforms, okay? I'm just going to read off what she said, and it's at 38 million views. I mean, people were talking about this at a wedding table I was at over the weekend. It's time to talk about it. Okay. Two days ago, I was contacted by a high-ranking employee of the French government. After determining this person's position and proximity to the French couple, I have deemed the information they gave me to be credible enough to share publicly in the event that something happens.

In short, this person claims that the McCrones have executed upon and paid for my assassination. Yes, you have read that correctly. More specifically, that the green light was given to a small team in national... Uh, Gendarmerie Intervention Group. I am told there is one Israeli that is on this assassination squad, and the plans were formalized. Again, this person provided concrete proof that they are well-placed within the French government apparatus. Further to this point, this person claims that Charlie Kirk's assassin trained with the French Legion 13th Brigade with multi-state involvement.

Journalist Xavier Broussard's life is also at risk. This is deadly serious. The head of state of France apparently wants us both dead and has authorized professional units to carry this out. The head of state of France apparently wants us both dead and has authorized professional I ask that every person retweet and share this. I do not know who in the American government can be trusted, since this source claims our leaders are aware, but I have more specific information, which is definitely verifiable, should they care to reach out to me, to the brave official in France who did this because they are so moved by the evil of Charlie's public execution to risk their own life.

May God bless you truly. Let all be revealed. Second post, I have informed the people of the federal government and the White House of the France and Israeli assassination plot, and I'm trying to provide full details, as well as the name of the assassins and international accounts in France and Canada, through which money was exchanged.

Beyond that, I have shared more information with the public regarding the Brigitte story I was investigating at the time of Trout's assassination. This is all available on my Instagram stories. Thank you all for reaching out and praying for my family.

So, backstory on that, she created this six-part documentary series about Brigitte Macron. Basically, she is convinced she is a man. Brigitte Macron has sued Candace Owens in America, which to me is insane. Like, throw all this aside, the fact that the head of a state would sue a podcaster in America in Nashville through the U.S. court system for, I believe, defamation.

Um, it's pretty nuts. She also claimed, Candace Owens claimed that Trump called her and told her to, uh, stop talking about, uh, the Macron's because they're offended, uh, in order to help stop the, uh, Russia, Ukraine, in order to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, which is insane. Uh, someone, so interestingly, the Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov. He also was arrested in France, basically detained in France over something to do with Telegram. I think the French government were claiming it was facilitating some type of illegal activity because Telegram is really encrypted.

So, they just detained him, didn't tell him what it was for, have held him for a long time, and Charlie Kirk himself called for 300% tariffs on France until the charges against him were dropped. He's saying he finds it plausible. There's another very large journalist who has said, I have verified what is going on within.

I mean, I looked up for a little bit of precedent, because I'm like, is there any precedent for a foreign head of state trying to take out media in another head of state? I think there is in World War II, but specifically for this French unit, there was something in 1985, Rainbow Warrior bombing.

Foreign French intelligence bombed the Greenpeace ship in New Zealand, killing one person. Two agents were caught and convicted. So, sure, there's stuff out there. She's provided no evidence and proof. I mean, she said she has it. She didn't put it out. I was trying to think strategically why you wouldn't put out evidence. Maybe it's a great podcast following. Again, I don't know. She's claiming. It's a big claim. That the leader of France's spouse is trying to get her killed.

Yes. Okay. No, paid for an assassination attempt, and she has proof of payment from the French state to assassinate her. Okay. So, my really cynical take here is that in both posts, she's like, retweet and share. 38 million retweets? I mean, that would be pretty good. And then it's like, visit my Instagram page for my story on Brigitte Mercotte. So, my super cynical take is...

I think this might just be a nothing burger that is to get clicks and likes and views. I hate to say that, but where's the evidence? Where is it? You got to bring it to the, you got to show it. One thing I will say. She did say that Charlie had changed his stance on Israel before he died, and that she had proof of that. Yeah, but a lot of people say that. Nope, but then she had proof. She had the group chat that was eventually verified, Charlie Kirk himself in text saying, I am ready to leave the pro-Israel clause, direct quote.

And then all the people that came out after were saying, no, he was pro-Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu came out. So, she tricked everyone in, basically, to coming out lying, and then she provided the proof, which was verified by TPUSA. So, that is why I am a little bit...

You know what I'm saying? I'm not ready to say. Yeah. I don't know. Like, again, I don't know. We need serious receipts, though, Candace. I mean, you're just not that believable. If this is close to true, if something comes out that there was a payment transfer from the PM, like, this is an international act of war.

Is it not? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What? Are you kidding me? You don't think the United States should be like... We're going to abandon our relationship with France that we've had for over 200 years because... Because they want to assassinate an American citizen? I don't believe that. I don't believe they want to assassinate an American citizen. Sorry. I said if. I said if there's proof. I mean, that's like... Show me the money. You've got to show me the money.

Has there been anything like that? I'm trying to think of any precedent of this ever. I can't think of anything. I don't know why. I mean, why are we bothering? What are the odds that the French? The president's wife paid to have Candace Owen killed. I mean, like, one in 100,000? One in 10 million? Like, the odds of this happening are so ludicrous. Are you kidding me? Like, no, like, what? She sued?

Or he, or I don't know. It's one thing to sue, and it's another thing, like, I want her murdered. What? I believe, again, I haven't gone through all the receipts. I think Candace is claiming that she was a part of the MKUltra trials, was Brigitte McCrone was. Can you just give me, okay, so what do you think it is? Why are all the moms, why are the moms at the wedding table talking about this? What is it about Candace Owens? Like, because I know how you're interested in that.

I'm happy to provide context on that, because our intelligence agencies are batting, like... Like, a hundred on telling the truth. Like, their entire, how they acted after the assassination is basically inexcusable in my mind. They've lied about, verifiably lied about multiple elements to this, and Candace, so Candace Owens wouldn't exist if we had a competent, transparent intelligence agency at the helm. We don't. So, it opens up the door to people that want to do citizen journalism that...

They now have the ability to say whatever they want and reach mass audiences, and so the appetite for truth is big. Now, whether you say she's telling the truth or not, I don't know. She has put a ton of personal skin in the game to the point where, I mean, I would not doubt that there's people that want to take her life.

The story is interesting. That's why I feel like people are disingenuous to say this isn't interesting at all. It's not a surprise that the French government's... You know, would want her killed? Yeah, right. That's what I'm saying. This is a crazy claim. That's why it's at, you know, 40 million views on X or whatever. Check the location of where it's from. Maybe this is a foreign government op. I don't know. This is the world we live in now.

I don't know. Guys, this is what I'm saying. I don't know. This is crazy. We'll see. Yep, we shall see. This is the Twilight Zone. I thought I could come to the trust tree of this show, and like everyone is talking about this. I know Josh gets mad when you talk about things that other people talk about, and you prefer to talk about other things, but guys, I mean, this is crazy. Guys, Pogo is going to monitor the situation. I don't know a single person.

Well, I guess I know one person now that listens to Candace Owens. I think she's been... She's such a crazy... Josh, but you print out electoral maps and read them, and you live in Petoskey. So, I wouldn't say you're like a... The one person I know that watches Candace Owens is in Petoskey, so whatever. Oh, okay, don't out them, because that's dangerous these days. Again, it's a lightning round. People get mad if you do or don't, but this is what people are talking about.

Again, at this point, no official proof has been provided, so I stand by that. But I take comfort. I take great comfort in the fact that you... Are on top of it, that you are monitoring the situation, and you will send up the flares. Yes, I'm constantly monitoring the situation. If nothing else, I am monitoring the situation. I constantly monitor the situation, always monitoring. I am at peace.

So, that's what I got for today. Guys, I had to talk about that in the trial zone. I just don't, I had to. So, don't get mad at me. I had to bring it up. Don't worry, I will. Yeah, Josh, I know I'm going to get an earful after this one. That being said, we have an interview with Holy Heroes, so if people have seen our ads with them, Erika, you had a delightful time with the head of Holy Heroes. I did.

I got to sit down with Claire. She is actually the daughter of the founders, and for those of you who have listened to Glory Stories with your kids, really great series of audio, kind of radio dramas of the saints' lives. She actually starred in a couple of them when she was a little child, so I got to talk to her about Holy Heroes. Great support, great products for Catholic parents. If you're not sure how to celebrate the seasons or Advent coming up on Sunday, my favorite season of the church year, they have some sweet Jesse tree items, but it was a good conversation with Claire, and we just talked about number one fear of parents is, my kids are going to leave the church, and what kind of support is there for you as a young parent to help make sure your kids love the faith, know their faith, and are full of joy.

Check that out. Awesome. So, it's going to be coming. I'm going to play it right after the show, but I can't think of a better thing to do right now than pray. Oh my gosh, we're getting to the end of the show. Just please pause, pray with us. Seriously, up your prayers, whatever you're doing, double it. It's time to pray. But before you do, I just want to give a special thank you to our champions. CatholicVote.org slash champions is the best way to support us, and our champions allow us to do everything we do.

So, thank you so much to those who are in the Champions Club, and leave us a review. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, you can subscribe there. We will be monitoring the situation for you. But let us pray. We have a prayer for the United States of America. We need it. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

We pray, O Lord, for the United States of America. We pray for our leaders, that they be inspired to lead according to your will. Most especially, we pray that every Catholic in America... We'll be inspired to live out the truths of our faith in public life, and that it will lead to the renewal of our church and country. St. Thomas More, pray for us. St. Fidelis, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. Amen. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen.

And now, Erika's conversation with Holy Heroes. We'll catch you guys on Wednesday for the next show. Peace. I am joined today by Clara Davison of holyheroes.com, one of my favorite go-to as a Catholic mom, like where I go to find stuff for my kids and teaching them the faith. And I can't wait to talk to you today, Clara, about Holy Heroes Mission and some of the great products that you have for us. Yay, I'm so excited to be here.

So, tell us a little bit about Holy Heroes and your founding. I know you're a family business, which is really cool, and what your role is in the church. So, my parents founded Holy Heroes back in 2008. They were homeschooling eight kids. It was a busy time, and they really wanted to found a company that would help bring the joy of the faith to families. I think there's a lot going on in the world, you know, especially I'm sure you are deep into it.

From the political side, there seems to be a lot of darkness and a lot of really heavy things that definitely need to be talked about, but there's also a lot of joy in our faith that sometimes Mrs. Out, because we feel like the whole world is falling apart, and everything's drowning, and what do we do? There's a time for that, and then there is a time to also dive into the joy of the faith, especially with young children, because they really want to be happy little people, and they want to hear about all the happy, joyful things.

So, that was really why my parents founded this. They also had eight kids of their own. They wanted to create things that would help with their family life, and now I am back. You know, went off, went to college, got married, lived some life, and then came back as the brand manager of Holy Heroes, and I really love being back, working for your, you know, family business that your parents founded. It's a dream in a lot of ways, because you get to carry on a family legacy that you really believe in.

That's great. Yeah, as a Holy Heroes customer myself, I love the fact that I'm supporting a small family-run business in the church. And yeah, I want to talk a little bit about, you know, you and I were discussing the number one fear that I hear from parents as I'm interviewing people all over the country and we're doing journalism, talking to people. The number one concern for parents is, how do I raise my kids Catholic and are increasingly anti-Catholic? Culture, and how do I keep them Catholic?

How do we raise them in such a way that they stay in the church? And you pointed out to me this 2023 study from Pew Research Center, I think, that had some surprising things to say about what we know about when kids leave the church.

Yeah, that was, I think, a really revolutionary study for a lot of parents to read, and the findings of it showed most people intellectually leave the faith between the ages of 11 and 13. So, they might still, you know, they're still in your home, they're still going to mass, they're still performing like they believe, but the first opportunity for most kids is college. They leave, and a lot of parents are standing back wondering what happened. While not realizing that this research highlighted, intellectually, they already had kind of stepped out of the church between the ages of 11 and 13.

So, we're finding more and more those first 10 years of life build a foundation for faith that is so important. You know, the time to really buy into your faith is not college. I think for some people, that's really when they discover important aspects of their faith that perhaps they weren't taught, and that's lovely when that happens in such a great opportunity. They are fantastic. organizations that really work to help kids in the college, you know, sphere, but if you can really drive home in the first 10 years the beauty and the truth of the faith, that is going to make a world of difference, because if they can just have that for the first 10 and 11 years, that will help them get through this period when most kids, when asked in their 20s and 30s, they will point to those years of 11 through 13 as when they really stepped out.

So, that Is something that we talk about a lot at Holy Heroes. How do we really insulate these 10 years and infuse them with the faith so that they don't leave between the ages of 11 and 13? And there are so many different ways you can do that. I mean, one way that I know we've both talked about is the lives of the saints. That was kind of one of the big motivators that we founded Holy Heroes for were the glory story audio dramas of the saints.

These are kind of The classics that most people know us for, glory stories. They're fantastic. Yeah, but we're working on our 20th volume right now, so there are a lot of saints, some of favorites, young and old. I can totally attest to that. So, my younger daughters right now, they're obsessed with Glory Stories. They're six and eight, so they're like the perfect age for this, but they'll be listening in the laundry room where the CD player is, and the teenagers will slowly start to make their way to the laundry room, and before I know it, all seven kids are like, Piled there, listening to John Paul II, or one of our favorites is St.

Clair. These are great ways to introduce your kids to the heroes of our faith. Another thing that we really dove into once we started realizing the key years of those 11 to 13-year-olds was the Very Young Catholic Project. So, the Very Young Catholic Project, the author, Emily, is traveling to every single time zone in the world, and she is visiting a country. Bringing a professional photographer with her to show what it is like to be a very young Catholic in that country today, because as much as you want to show your kids the history of the faith, the heroes of the faith, you also want to show them that there are active Catholics right now around the world living out their Catholic faith as just normal boys and girls in India, in Thailand, in Taiwan, in Argentina, in Mexico.

And the really fun thing is there are so many unique aspects that your individual country and culture play into your Catholicism. Like, this is a universal church, and we really want, and I know you guys talk about this a lot at CatholicVote, is preserving the culture of your country and showing that this is a really beautiful way that this can add instead of detract as something to take away from. So, I really love the Very Young Catholic Project. You get to go to so many different countries.

These are massive volumes, you know, a hundred pages. It shows what it is like to be just a normal family in that country. This is Ireland, so they have some really cool stuff. You talk a lot about the joy of the faith and having fun communicating with faith, and I think that brings us to one of our favorite products we have. It's like Catholic Spot It, right? What do we have here? Yes, the Catholic Name It Game. This is amazing.

This is a game that teaches kids 57 Catholic objects with three different ways to play, so I'll open it up. So, you can see all these different objects, and you're trying to match in different styles of game, and you learn as you play to recognize all these important symbols of the faith. So, every game also comes with a big handout, because a lot of parents said, you know, we don't know how to pronounce these. We don't even know what the names of these are, so it comes with a huge handout that shows every single object.

How to pronounce it, what it is. It's a super great way for kids to learn through play. This game was so popular that this year, as everyone was really excited about a new Pope, we created a Pope edition of the game. This is the same classic way to play, but with papal objects. So, we have another handout.

And it describes all the different papal objects that your kids are going to learn through this game, and it does include Pope Leo. Love it. You can go down there. Talk to me a little bit about supporting prayer, because you've talked about educating lives of the saints. We have a lot of that. You have around the world as a Catholic. We have the game, but we also have just how do I live out the liturgical year with my small children, my young children, and integrate that into our family life.

Trying to engage your kids in the Mass, and I'm talking little kids. You know, I have a four-and-a-half-year-old. So, young kids, one of the problems is if you have to explain the aid you brought. It's not that helpful, because now you're whispering, now they're asking questions, now you've kind of given them the freedom to ask questions, and it's not the necessarily appropriate moment. So, we've had many things fail, because we realized, okay, I'm gonna have to explain this, so this is not a mass aid anymore.

So, one of the really fun things we created was this Participating in Holy Mass Coloring Book. So, this is a large coloring book, and it is Walking through every part of the mass in picture form, your kids can color this if they're little, like mine. If you don't want to deal with crayons coming with you to mass, or if you have a more artistic child that's decorated the pew before, so they're now grounded from that, you can just bring this and look through it, and it goes through in picture form each step of the mass.

So, that is a really, really helpful thing. Another thing I will say, we have a free Sunday mass. Prep program. If you go to holyheroes.com, you'll find it. It's free to sign up for, and every week, you're going to get little emails that are going to include a video about the Sunday Gospel. It's just the real words of Scripture, the Gospel they are going to hear at Mass, acted out by my siblings and I when we were young, Legos, felts, all these fun things.

It's a great way for your child to hear the Gospel before they go to Mass, so then they can see it. And then, of course, there's some fun printables along with it. Yeah, definitely. So, everyone should go to Holy Heroes. And check out, you do have free resources on there. If you do want to make a purchase, which I would highly recommend, you can also use our promo code, LOOPcast, and that will get you 10% off anything in the store. So, talk to me about the rosary, because I think this is a little intimidating for families.

One of the really hard things is you realize you're not just teaching your child to say the rosary, you want them to actually pray the rosary. And I remember I was... It took me a while to actually realize that. It's great if you're saying it, but you're supposed to be meditating on it, and that is a tough thing to explain to a small child. So, these are the, we call them the bead-by-bead rosary books, a little Catholic's first rosary book, and when we started publishing these, we had hundreds of moms give us feedback on them and what they wanted.

They wanted spiral-bound so it could lie flat, and I really didn't get it. I had a new baby, and I was like, why do people want this? I don't understand. There are so many rosary books, but what this book has is they have a picture for every single bead on the rosary, and if you follow along on the top, you follow the golden bead, and it takes you through in picture form.

All 10 Hail Marys, and it shows you how to meditate on the story. It tells the story of each mystery of the rosary, because that's really what we're trying to do in the rosary. You know, we're not just trying to have you memorize prayers and just recite them in a well-behaved way, though that is a bonus. We would actually like you to understand how to meditate on each mystery, and my four-and-a-half-year-old, she loves these books. She has a cousin who's three weeks older than her who...

Like, praise the glorious mysteries on her own, and she goes through the whole book, and she says, Hail Mary, and she understands how to follow the golden beads, so it's really an incredibly beautiful way to do that. So, Clara, this has been great, and I would encourage everyone to go to holyheroes.com and use our promo code, LOOPcast, for 10% off. I think one of the big things that parents just need to hear, I know I need to hear as a parent with a young child, is that this is easier than you think it is, and it's less complicated than you want to make it.

And the most important thing that you can do for your kids is really show them how joyful you are to be Catholic, and what a lovely, lovely opportunity it is for them to be able to experience Jesus and the Eucharist. Even if Mass is a little crazy, even if the Rosary doesn't look exactly how you'd want it to look, this is a great gift and privilege that we have, and I would love if Holy Heroes helped make it more possible for your family.