The Michael Knowles Show


Ep. 1104 - Kanye Schools Republicans On Being Conservative


Summary

The gaffe-prone Biden administration gave Americans a potential glimpse into the future this week when the president gave a joint press conference with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and allowed him to speak from a lectern bearing the presidential seal.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The gaffe-prone Biden administration gave Americans a potential glimpse into the future
00:00:05.800 this week when the president gave a joint press conference with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
00:00:10.580 and allowed DeSantis to speak from a lectern bearing the presidential seal.
00:00:16.420 When I first saw the photos of President DeSantis going viral, my first thought was
00:00:21.540 that some poor schlub on the White House advance team was probably having a very,
00:00:26.400 very unpleasant afternoon, probably getting chewed out by Biden's chief of staff for the gaffe that
00:00:32.860 framed DeSantis as a potential future president. But then something even stranger happened.
00:00:39.160 Biden complimented DeSantis. What the governor's done is pretty remarkable, Biden said. I think
00:00:46.340 he's done a good job. We worked hand in glove. We have very different political philosophies,
00:00:51.100 but we've worked hand in glove. Now, DeSantis has done a terrific job on hurricane preparation and
00:00:57.400 recovery. So I am sure in part Biden just wants to associate himself with that success. If you can't
00:01:03.360 beat him, join him. But that does not explain why Biden would be so effusive in his praise.
00:01:10.200 Certainly was not because Biden is sincere or gives credit where credit is due. This is the same guy
00:01:15.620 who told black voters that milquetoast Mitt Romney wanted to put them back in chains. Joe Biden is a mean,
00:01:23.900 nasty partisan. So why is he being so nice to DeSantis? The lectern might have been an accident.
00:01:32.100 The public praise suggests to me a strategy. Seems to me Biden and his team, at least his team,
00:01:40.020 I don't know if Biden makes any of these decisions himself, but at least the team has made a conscious
00:01:45.680 decision to build up Ron DeSantis. And it makes perfect sense. DeSantis is currently the biggest
00:01:51.540 threat to Joe Biden's biggest threat, who is Donald Trump. As Democrat policies plunge America into
00:01:58.780 poverty, chaos, and possibly even World War III, the best shot the Democrats have at retaining power
00:02:05.160 is to divide the Republicans. And again, I'm not saying anything about Trump or DeSantis in a general
00:02:11.360 election. I'm just saying, you look at the polls, Trump is at the top of the heap by a long shot.
00:02:16.080 DeSantis is the number two guy. So the best way the Democrats can divide Republicans is to egg on a
00:02:22.060 Trump-DeSantis shooting match as early as possible. You're already seeing some sniping around the
00:02:27.900 periphery. As Democrats get more desperate, expect surprisingly kind words for the governor of
00:02:34.140 Florida. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show.
00:02:43.620 Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment yesterday is from Frank S., who says,
00:02:47.340 with the holidays coming up, it's important you know how to talk to conspiracy theorists in your
00:02:51.620 family. First, look them in the eye. Second, shake their hand. Third, apologize profusely. So true.
00:03:01.480 So true, man. Because all those people who have been derided as horrible conspiracy theorists,
00:03:07.900 cranks with tinfoil hats, they have a much better record than pretty much all the political experts
00:03:13.680 and eggheads and scientists and all the rest of it. So yes, you should. When you are speaking with
00:03:19.180 your family this holiday season, and there's that crazy uncle, that crazy right-wing uncle at your table,
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00:04:42.020 What a news day yesterday. I've been on the road. I've been traveling like crazy. I was in Las Vegas
00:04:48.900 yesterday with Senator Cruz. We've got a big announcement on verdict coming up, so you're
00:04:53.360 going to want to check that out. It's an announcement that I've kind of been foreshadowing
00:04:56.320 for a little while, but it's an announcement. Nevertheless, you should go check out.
00:04:59.640 So I was in Vegas. My head was kind of out of the news. And then I'm getting on the airplane to
00:05:03.120 come back to Nashville last night. And I see, well, I see a lot of big stories, but the most important
00:05:07.900 one, as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Yeezy, Kanye West, goes on Tucker Carlson. It's an extremely
00:05:15.480 wide-ranging interview. We can't get to all of it. But he, Kanye West, makes an incredibly,
00:05:23.480 a beautiful, actually eloquent and precise argument for life and even just beyond life and the abortion
00:05:32.880 issue for a whole view of politics. Take a listen. So you just came from Paris Fashion Week. You just
00:05:39.900 landed. And you have a lanyard still on from it. And there's a photograph on it. What is that?
00:05:45.040 It's a photograph of a baby's ultrasound. Why is that? And you designed that?
00:05:50.400 Yes. Why? What does that mean?
00:05:52.720 It just represents life. I'm pro-life.
00:05:56.120 Boy, so you wear it on a badge. What kind of response do you get? Amen. I agree.
00:06:00.600 I don't care about people's responses. I care about the fact that there's more
00:06:04.200 black babies being aborted than born in New York City at this point. That 50% of black death
00:06:12.100 in America is abortion. So I really don't care about people's responses. I perform for an audience of
00:06:19.020 one, and that's God. Wow. Wow. His pro-life message, superb. And it's more important that Kanye West,
00:06:30.540 this major cultural figure, maybe the most important cultural figure of our era.
00:06:35.780 I say this as someone, don't listen to a ton of pop music or hip hop or anything like that. But
00:06:39.920 the guy was just transformative within his own genre and industry. And he's sort of transcended
00:06:45.360 his genre and industry. And he's just a force of nature in the culture. So it's very important that
00:06:50.720 he says that. But that last line, oh my gosh, it just shows you Kanye's political insight and
00:06:59.920 spiritual insight for that matter. He says, I don't care what other people say. I perform for
00:07:03.640 an audience of one, and that's God. Wow. That's it. Write that down. Put that, write that down on the
00:07:10.140 back of your hand so that you can just look at that anytime you get confused in politics or your
00:07:14.220 personal life or anything else. A lot of people will tell you, they'll give you the opposite
00:07:19.160 version, the kind of inverse of that maxim. They'll say, I don't care what other people think.
00:07:26.520 I perform for an audience of one, and that's me. I don't care what other people think. I'm just going
00:07:30.620 to do what I want to do. I'm going to live my truth. I'm going to be authentic to myself.
00:07:34.740 But that's dumb. That's stupid. You're just as fallen and corrupted and broken as anybody else.
00:07:39.720 Kanye says, no, no, no. You don't live for the crowds. That's dumb. And you don't live just for
00:07:46.360 yourself. You're performing for an audience of one, and that's God. God, the essence of being.
00:07:51.200 Truth, goodness, and beauty. That's what you're living for, baby. That's it.
00:07:54.940 Your creator, your maker, the omnipotent king of the universe who holds all of our lives in his hands
00:08:01.680 and on whom we rely for every breath that we breathe. That's who you're performing for.
00:08:09.000 Everything else is just crap. You could win a zillion cars and a ton of money and big houses.
00:08:15.860 You could become, I don't know, governor of a state, president of the United States.
00:08:19.920 None of that matters if you're not living a life of sanctity, if you're not moving towards
00:08:23.760 sanctification and holiness. Because ultimately, you're going to turn to worm food, and you're
00:08:27.500 going to take a dirt nap. So the only audience that it matters that you're performing for is God,
00:08:32.180 and Kanye West gets it. And I feel totally freaking vindicated. Because I have been
00:08:39.260 very pro-Kanye for many years now. And I made the point, I looked it up on Twitter,
00:08:45.440 I made the point a couple of years ago, two or three years ago. I said, Kanye West has greater
00:08:50.660 political insight than the vast majority of elected politicians and journalists and certainly
00:08:56.800 all those people at the New York Times. And he does, it's true. Kanye West has more political
00:09:03.720 insight and is doing more political good, not just than the majority of politicians,
00:09:08.260 but than the majority of elected Republicans, than the majority of conservatives.
00:09:12.520 And at the time, when Kanye West first started making these kinds of conservative noises,
00:09:17.460 started to suggest he might be bucking the trends here on some of these left-wing matters.
00:09:24.040 There were a lot of, a lot of the people liked it, but a lot of the kind of professional
00:09:29.180 conservative types, you know, the beltway types, they said, uh-oh, we don't like this. He's not one
00:09:33.880 of us. You know, Kanye West, he never even had an internship on Capitol Hill. You know, Kanye West,
00:09:38.460 he doesn't even wear tweed to think tanks. And so he's not, I don't know, I think we ought to keep
00:09:43.300 this guy at arm's length. And I said, no, this guy is getting it. Yeah, maybe he's saying some things
00:09:47.600 that are a little weird here and there. He's kind of coming into it now. He's figuring out what he
00:09:50.900 thinks. But the guy's heart is in the right place and his vision is in the right place. He's looking
00:09:56.000 at the right thing and he's trying to figure it out now. Actually, some of this began with Candace
00:10:01.020 Owens. You remember, Kanye tweeted out something to the effect of, I love the way Candace's mind
00:10:06.160 works. Or I like the way Candace Owens thinks or something like that. And so I think she played a
00:10:11.280 role there. There were other people who played a role. Kanye just the other day tweeted out the
00:10:15.120 trailer to Candace's movie. So we here at Daily Wire Plus have this movie coming out,
00:10:21.780 The Greatest Lie Ever Sold. It's the story, the real amazing story of George Floyd and the BLM
00:10:29.400 movement that came out of George Floyd. And I've gotten to see the cuts of it. Obviously,
00:10:33.400 it hasn't come out yet. It's going to be available exclusively at Daily Wire Plus. So if you're not a
00:10:37.700 member, sign up now. But it gives you a perspective that you just haven't seen anywhere. You haven't
00:10:43.120 seen it in the left-wing media, obviously. You probably haven't seen it in the right-wing media.
00:10:47.300 And it's a perspective I think really only Candace Owens can give, which is why we love that we have
00:10:52.920 her here at Daily Wire. But that's the kind of message that cuts through all of the noise.
00:10:57.820 And Kanye saw that. Now, Kanye is just totally expanding the political imagination, much more so
00:11:06.260 than your average egghead at a think tank, much more so than your average Beltway staffer,
00:11:12.620 a professional Republican on Capitol Hill or at the RNC or something like that.
00:11:18.340 Kanye, by the way, he's not only shifting people away from the left toward the right,
00:11:22.520 he's also helping clarify what the right should think. Because for a long time, the right said,
00:11:26.500 you know, enough of that God talk. Enough of those cultural issues. You got to stay away from
00:11:30.280 that. Let's just talk about tax cuts. And it was so dumb. And all we ever did was lose back when the
00:11:34.060 Republicans talked like that. And Kanye West is saying, no, no, uh-uh. We're going to stand up for life.
00:11:40.040 We're going to stand up for our culture. We're going to say white lives matter because we're
00:11:43.600 going to- Why did Kanye say white lives matter? He said, because BLM's a scam and everybody knows
00:11:47.680 it. And now it's over and you're welcome. Those are his exact words, okay? We're going to do that.
00:11:52.180 And we're going to stand up for the most important thing of all. We're going to say,
00:11:55.580 we are going to orient our country back toward God. We're going to orient our individual vision
00:11:59.800 back toward God and our country back toward God. That's what we did. That's how the country started.
00:12:03.880 That's what made the country great. We turned our eyes away from God. That's why the country looks
00:12:07.520 like crap right now. And if we want to fix it, if we want to make America great again,
00:12:10.840 we've got to put our eyes back where they belong and have our actions follow that vision. 100%
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00:12:55.820 The other huge news story that came out yesterday is that, talk about opposites,
00:13:02.080 you know, talk about contrasts. So you've got Kanye West saying, defend life, be good,
00:13:07.140 pursue virtue. Sure, I'm a fallen man, I've made all sorts of mistakes, but come on,
00:13:10.940 we've got to just go do the right thing, look toward God, perform for an audience of one.
00:13:14.420 And then what do you have Joe Biden doing? Joe Biden lets drug dealers out of prison.
00:13:17.820 That's his big announcement. Take a listen.
00:13:19.640 As I said when I ran for president, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana.
00:13:25.960 It's already legal in many states. And criminal records for marijuana possession have led to
00:13:31.120 needless barriers to employment, to housing, to educational opportunities. And that's before
00:13:36.360 you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences. While white and black
00:13:41.080 and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, black and brown people are arrested,
00:13:45.820 prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionately higher rates. So today, I'm taking three steps
00:13:51.660 to end this failed approach. First, I'm announcing a pardon for all prior federal offenses for the
00:13:59.840 simple possession of marijuana. Second, I'm calling on all governors to do the same for state
00:14:05.080 marijuana possession offenses. Third, the federal government currently classifies marijuana as a
00:14:09.960 schedule one substance, the same as heroin and LSD and more serious than fentanyl. It makes no sense.
00:14:16.300 So I'm asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate
00:14:21.220 a process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Too many lives have been upended
00:14:26.400 because of our failed approach to marijuana. It's time that we right these wrongs.
00:14:31.080 It's time that we right these wrongs. We're going to let the people out of prison for simple
00:14:36.480 possession. Now, you're going to say, Michael, Michael, you just said that Biden's letting drug
00:14:40.860 dealers out of prison. But that's not what Biden said. Biden said he's just letting the people out
00:14:45.440 who are in jail for simple possession. Right. That's what he said. The problem is, statistically
00:14:52.520 speaking, pretty much nobody is in jail for simple possession. There are some people who are a small
00:15:00.260 number of people who are in jail ostensibly for simple possession. But most of the time,
00:15:08.640 vast majority of the time, they're not really in jail for simple possession. They've taken plea deals
00:15:13.800 because the people had amounts of marijuana that they could sell. Even if they only had small amounts,
00:15:21.280 they were selling. These are drug dealers. These are traffickers. These are people involved in the
00:15:24.580 drug trade. And then they go in, and especially because we've liberalized all of our drug laws,
00:15:30.260 these weak prosecutors go in, and they plead it down. And they say, okay, we're not going to get
00:15:34.360 you for trafficking. We're not going to get you for peddling poison to kids. We're just going to say
00:15:38.100 it was simple possession, but you're going to go to jail for that. So in practice, there's a really
00:15:42.380 good survey on this by the Hudson Institute that came out a few years ago. Go check it out on the
00:15:46.820 Hudson Institute website. In practice, what this means is Joe Biden is going to be letting drug dealers
00:15:53.000 out of prison. Okay. And again, the number of people who are in federal prisons for drug offense
00:16:00.580 is very, very small compared to the state prisons. But why is Biden doing this? Why is Biden letting
00:16:06.580 drug dealers in practice out of prison during the worst drug crisis in American history,
00:16:14.340 where the drug crisis is so bad that the life expectancy of the United States is actually
00:16:20.220 decreasing because of overdoses and suicides and deaths of despair. But a big part of that is
00:16:25.460 overdoses. Why? It's a classic Democrat strategy. Let the criminals out of prison. It's a classic
00:16:32.100 left-wing strategy. They've been doing it since the French Revolution. You let the criminals out of
00:16:36.720 prison. You expand vice. You expand political chaos, and that will allow you to take more power.
00:16:45.620 Biden also knows, going into the midterm elections, he's got nothing. The economy is in the gutter.
00:16:51.160 The energy prices, which had spiked to all-time highs in some places. And then they had started
00:16:57.880 to come down a little. So Biden initially said, it's not my fault that energy prices are high up,
00:17:02.480 even though it was his fault, largely. Then they started to go down a little. He said, it's all
00:17:06.320 thanks to me that the energy prices are starting to come down a little tiny bit. But now they're going
00:17:10.240 back up again. Now they've reached record highs again. You look in California, they've never seen
00:17:14.100 prices like this. All of a sudden, Biden says, it's not my fault again. Biden has drained the
00:17:18.280 strategic petroleum reserve. It has not been this low in many decades. And he's done that to try to
00:17:23.700 bring the prices down. And that still hasn't really succeeded. And so now he's increased the amount
00:17:28.160 that he's releasing out of the strategic petroleum reserve, which is really imperiling national
00:17:32.160 security. But that still doesn't get him across the finish line. Then you've got the fact that we
00:17:36.220 are in a recession. The Biden administration doesn't want to admit it, but we are in a recession.
00:17:39.600 Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. We're in a recession, folks. And you've got the
00:17:45.160 first major war in Europe since World War II, now threatening nuclear war. And not only is Russia
00:17:51.160 saber rattling, but the West is openly talking about potential nuclear war. So just things are
00:17:55.680 terrible. You look at the social issues right now. What is Biden running on? He's running on
00:18:00.240 killing more babies, which is not really helping the Democrats, not nearly as much as they thought it
00:18:05.180 would. And they're running on transing the kids, deeply, deeply unpopular. It's just,
00:18:08.500 I mean, we could be here all day if we talked about every issue that they're losing on. And so
00:18:12.020 the nearest thing that Biden can do, the easiest thing that he can do to try to gin up his base
00:18:17.500 is to free some criminals, you know, his base, and to lie about a public policy issue.
00:18:24.700 Say these poor people, they're just, it's just some poor kid who was trying one joint for the first time
00:18:30.420 and he was probably black and he was nabbed by racist cops and given a life sentence in prison.
00:18:36.060 None of that ever happened. What the people Biden's talking about are drug dealers, nasty,
00:18:41.100 rotten people who are poisoning your kids and killing Americans. He's going to let them out
00:18:45.020 of prison and he thinks it's going to help him. And I just don't think it will. I think it's wrong
00:18:49.860 to do. And I just don't think it's going to help him that much. Speaking of political stunts,
00:18:54.060 in this case, more, I think more successful political stunts, a concerned mother, Kimothy Rakes,
00:19:00.240 not Kimothy. That's sort of the amalgam. That's the androgynous name of Kimberly and Timothy. No,
00:19:07.200 Kimberly Rakes, the founder of a parental rights group at Iowa Mama Bears, just showed up to a
00:19:14.260 school board meeting at Ankeny High School. And she referred to this insane incident that occurred
00:19:24.300 at the school where the Gay Straight Alliance Club, the sort of LGBT propaganda club at the high
00:19:30.140 school, invited drag queen performers to perform for the kids for their end of year meeting. And so
00:19:36.180 Kimberly Rakes shows up wearing the outfit that the drag queen wore. Take a listen.
00:19:42.940 Does this outfit make you turn your head? Does this outfit seem appropriate for anybody here to see?
00:19:53.920 Because if this makes your head turn, if this pisses you off, then it's stripped. Because this guy
00:19:59.380 walked into our school doing the exact same thing. Kimberly, can you dress the workplaces?
00:20:05.400 This is what the man dressed like in front of our kids. So this makes your head spin.
00:20:12.300 This pisses you off in any way, shape, or form. It should. Because I'm embarrassed to stand here
00:20:18.020 in the outfit that I am in today, but I have a point to prove, and that is that this outfit should
00:20:23.340 not be ever accepted in our schools anyway. Ma'am, please, please put that out for that. That's
00:20:30.400 obscene. That's pornographic. That belongs in a strip club. Right. Right. That's true. So why can't,
00:20:39.440 why is it wrong for a mother at the school, so someone who's in the school community,
00:20:46.620 a woman to show up wearing women's clothing that's kind of scandalous and risque? That's
00:20:53.360 unacceptable. Ma'am, sit down. Please change. Put some clothes on. But when a dude, like a big,
00:21:00.160 fat, pervert dude who has no connection to people at the school shows up wearing the exact same
00:21:05.840 women's clothing, that's wonderful. That needs to be celebrated. That's so great.
00:21:09.920 Why is it that transgender people or drag queens or any of these confused men,
00:21:15.220 why is it that they get to do whatever the hell they want, and that is wonderful and celebrated?
00:21:22.400 Why is that? That doesn't make any sense at all.
00:21:25.900 And the woman, I thought she made a beautiful point. And even for us, I think even we've become
00:21:33.080 kind of desensitized to it. Oh, there are those weird drag queens again. Well, it's like the joke
00:21:36.980 in Family Guy, where there's the transvestite sitting in a bar, and the bartender comes up and
00:21:41.600 says, ma'am, you can't look at pornography, download pornography at this bar. And he, dressed up as a
00:21:48.080 woman, says, oh, no, no, I'm transgender. And the bartender says, oh, okay, then you can do whatever you
00:21:52.680 want. Why is that? But you see the woman, and you're like, whoa, man, that's way too sexual to
00:21:59.620 be around kids. That's totally inappropriate. Right, it is. How much more inappropriate is it
00:22:05.120 for some weirdo dude to show up and prey on little kids like this? Of course. Anyone, any adult who had
00:22:11.640 any foreknowledge of the drag queen event needs to be fired from the school for sure. And then this
00:22:17.580 club, the Gay Straight Alliance, certainly needs to be disbanded at this high school, if not at other
00:22:23.120 high schools as well. And we just can't, we need to take a much harder stand on this, because the
00:22:28.940 radical LGBT activists are never going to stop until we are all wearing the rainbow flag. You know,
00:22:35.640 the corporate media agenda means that the news is presented in a very biased way. You know it,
00:22:42.780 I know it, we all know it. Well, fortunately, there is a way to get the most important news of
00:22:47.360 the day without their narrative. And that is by listening to one of the top news podcasts,
00:22:51.740 Morning Wire. New episodes are available every morning, seven days a week. They cover stories
00:22:56.000 that other media outlets will not touch. Starting this Sunday, October 9th, and every Sunday until
00:23:00.840 the midterm elections, you can also tune into Election Wire for in-depth coverage, candidate interviews,
00:23:06.440 and more. It's the most important midterm election in recent history. Stay informed,
00:23:10.220 you will find Morning Wire and Election Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Daily Wire Plus,
00:23:15.060 or wherever you listen to podcasts. The radical LGBT activists are not going to stop until you
00:23:25.580 and everybody else are waving the rainbow flag. Mark my words. How do I know this? Because of poor
00:23:32.980 Jack Phillips. You know Jack Phillips. His case, his cases have made it to courts around the country,
00:23:39.680 all the way up to the highest court in the land. Jack Phillips has appeared on this show. He's the
00:23:44.280 owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop. He is a really nice, soft-spoken, earnest Christian guy who was asked
00:23:53.160 to create cakes specifically for a gay wedding, quote unquote. And he said, oh, I'm sorry, I can't
00:24:00.780 participate in a gay wedding because I'm Christian. And so, you know, you can go to, there's a gay cake
00:24:06.580 shop down the street. The owners are super pro gay stuff. And so, it's no big deal. You just go down
00:24:12.300 there. It'll be fine. And what happened? The radical LGBT activists sued this guy and tried to destroy
00:24:17.460 his business. And fortunately, he was able to win that case. But he wasn't saying, I won't serve
00:24:25.200 customers who have eccentric sexual views. I won't serve gay guys who come in to buy a cake. But he said,
00:24:30.180 I can't make a cake specifically for your gay wedding. I can't, you can't force me to use my art,
00:24:37.100 my craft, to participate in a ceremony that I consider to be sinful and contrary to my religious
00:24:43.560 views. There are plenty of other cake shops that will do that. Why are you guys so focused on making
00:24:49.480 me kneel down and worship at your altar? And why are you so interested in making me violate my Christian
00:24:59.080 views when there are so many other options for you? Because it's not about the cake and it's not
00:25:03.480 about the wedding. It's about making the Christians get down and do what they're told, right? That's
00:25:10.680 what this is really about. And the way you know this for certain is that after Jack Phillips took
00:25:16.540 huge financial loss, really hurt his business, but he prevails in court. Well, he's in court again
00:25:22.360 because the activists are going after him again. Because after his Supreme Court victory,
00:25:26.420 he gets a call from a woman, quote unquote, it's really a man named Autumn Scardina,
00:25:33.180 who calls Phillips and requests a birthday cake that had blue frosting on the outside
00:25:38.520 and pink frosting on the inside to celebrate his gender transition. And he says,
00:25:45.380 obvious, here we go again. You know that this wasn't about the cake. There are plenty of other cake
00:25:50.940 shops, but this radical trans activist calls this guy to say, oh, we didn't beat you last time.
00:25:55.100 We're going to beat you this time. Make, celebrate my sexual delusion. Celebrate it. Do it. Do it now,
00:26:03.000 bigot. You're going to do it, you stupid Christian. We're going to make you do it. We're going to use
00:26:06.920 the force of the law. And so he's in court again. I hope he wins. I don't know. It's totally up in the
00:26:12.380 air, this poor man. At first, before I met Jack Phillips, I thought, is this guy just, is he a
00:26:17.540 political activist who's really just trying to put himself in these situations? And he's not. He's
00:26:23.320 just a soft-spoken, nice baker who keeps getting targeted by these vicious people, these vicious
00:26:31.640 LGBT activists who obviously hate Christians and don't want to allow Christians to practice their
00:26:37.520 religion. And just, they're so confident in their sexual identity that they demand that every last
00:26:45.520 person in this country affirm their way of life and their delusions. That's how confident they are.
00:26:52.700 That if even one person even thinks like, I actually don't think you're really maybe
00:26:57.100 totally a woman. If even one person thinks that, that's an existential threat. We've got to bring
00:27:03.940 Jack Phillips to his knees. They're not going to stop. And so everyone's going to try to find some
00:27:09.100 middle ground like, oh, well, you know, actually let's just support. We can redefine marriage in this
00:27:13.240 way, but not in this way. And let's just go halfway. And look, I'll refer to Caitlyn Jenner as Caitlyn,
00:27:18.240 because you can change your name, but I don't know if I'm willing to, I don't, only at a certain age
00:27:22.520 are you willing. No, guys, guys, it's not, there's no, there's no middle ground here on questions of
00:27:29.560 ultimate truth and ontology and on just basic questions of being and human nature. You've got
00:27:37.620 to just pick a side and stand for the truth. Kanye can do it. Why can't you? Why can't you?
00:27:43.100 Because you think, oh, well, we'll meet halfway. Okay. I'll bet. What if I bake a cupcake? I'm not
00:27:47.800 going to bake a full cake, but a cup. No, that's just not. Either Christians get to practice their
00:27:52.920 religion or they don't. Either men are not women or men can be women. These are, there's no middle
00:27:58.660 ground here. Okay. You've got to just pick a side and have courage and just take a lesson from Yeezy.
00:28:03.800 Okay. Speaking of attacks on, on conservative businesses, this is not just a handful of
00:28:11.400 activists who are attacking businesses. We're talking about some of the largest asset managers,
00:28:15.740 the largest investing companies in the entire world are now using a specific platform called ESG,
00:28:24.420 but, but other tactics as well to force conservative businesses to go woke.
00:28:29.300 And one of the biggest offenders of this is BlackRock. BlackRock, huge, huge fund manager,
00:28:36.600 right? This is, you figure there's BlackRock, there's Vanguard, there's State Street. Those
00:28:43.180 are kind of the three really big ones. And so how are they able to do this? They're able to do this
00:28:47.080 because pretty much everyone invests their money with them. Retail investors, university pensions,
00:28:52.100 state pension funds. And so there's great news. Now, Louisiana has said, the Louisiana state treasurer,
00:29:01.100 John Schroeder has said that Louisiana will divest nearly $800 million in funds from the asset management
00:29:09.880 company, BlackRock, specifically because of ESG. They say, Louisiana says, not only is this not in keeping
00:29:16.420 with our values, but this is just not right for the people of Louisiana because BlackRock is putting
00:29:23.540 their own radical left political agenda above making money in some cases. And so whatever it
00:29:29.100 takes, whatever argument it takes, good. We need the states, we need the good conservative state
00:29:32.900 treasurers to pull their money out of these funds because these attacks are not going to stop
00:29:38.520 just because we're complaining about them. They're going to stop when we get leverage and political
00:29:42.360 power and wield that political power. Now, finally, we have arrived at my favorite time of the week
00:29:48.780 when I get to hear from all of you in the mailbag. Our mailbag is sponsored by Pure Talk. Go to
00:29:52.760 puretalk.com, select a plan, enter promo code NOLS to get 50% off your first month. Let's take it away
00:29:57.700 with the voice mailbag. Hey, Michael, my name is Kate. I am happily married with two young girls
00:30:04.640 and we are devout Christians who also love celebrating Halloween. So that brings me to my question.
00:30:12.360 Uh, my sister-in-law has recently started texting me, my husband, the rest of the family,
00:30:19.160 these articles and memes claiming that Halloween is evil. And even though we celebrate Halloween at
00:30:27.420 the church fall fest, instead of trick-or-treating, she's saying that, quote, it's okay to do evil
00:30:33.440 things if it's at church. Um, and that we're teaching our kids that fitting in is more important
00:30:39.440 than holiness. Um, I mean, my little girls want to be princesses this year. I don't,
00:30:46.240 I don't see much evil in that, but I also, you know, as a Christian, I want to lead by example.
00:30:52.440 Um, so what are your thoughts on this? Let me know. Halloween is not evil. You can do evil things
00:31:00.800 on Halloween, just like you can do evil things on any day of the week, but Halloween is not evil.
00:31:04.400 Halloween is the, the night before all saints day. That's what it means. Halloween. Uh, we get in
00:31:11.200 English because English has, uh, Latin roots and German roots. Uh, you get the word, uh, like the
00:31:19.260 word for holiness comes from sanctus in Latin, uh, you know, sanctity, sanctification. And we also get
00:31:25.560 hallo from the German, but there, it's the same thing. It just means holiness. And, uh, because all
00:31:30.180 saints day has been celebrated for a very, very long time, many centuries here in the West, uh,
00:31:34.700 the night, the evening before all saints day is Halloween. Uh, some, some people will claim that
00:31:40.520 Halloween is a pagan tradition. Uh, this is not true. I mean, in as much as you hear these arguments
00:31:47.820 all the time, people will claim that Christmas is actually based on a pagan holiday. That is also not
00:31:51.720 true. I've done a few, uh, shows about this. Uh, that's made up actually the pagan holiday that
00:31:58.040 they say it is based on. It very, very likely came out after Christmas as a response to Christmas.
00:32:03.480 And there's no, there's certainly no evidence that it predates Christmas. Uh, and the reason
00:32:07.880 that Christmas is celebrated on the day that it is has to do with understandings of when the
00:32:12.720 annunciation was the conception of Christ and the length of a divine life. And anyway, it's a little
00:32:18.080 bit of a tangent, but we can go into it at some point. Um, so, uh, that's not true. It's based,
00:32:22.300 it's based on all saints day, but furthermore, even if it were true, that is, I don't see what
00:32:29.280 the problem is. If you can baptize pagan holidays and I'm not saying that's what's going on here,
00:32:34.280 but even if that were true, that that's sort of a good thing. So if there were some kind of fall
00:32:37.820 festival, a pagan fall festival, and then the Christians came in and said, actually, this is
00:32:42.200 going to be all saints day now. That's, that's a great thing. That's a wonderful thing to do.
00:32:45.840 Uh, in terms of what happens on Halloween, what happens? You give kids candy. That's a nice
00:32:49.780 thing to do. You go around and see your neighbors and you know, you wear fun costumes sometimes as
00:32:54.420 saints, sometimes as a princess or whatever. That seems fine. And you carve jack-o'-lanterns.
00:32:58.440 That seems fine. And so, yeah, I don't recommend that, you know, you all dress up as the devil and
00:33:02.620 start, you know, sinning left and right and, you know, having kind of satanic rituals. But if you're
00:33:08.740 just celebrating Halloween as the way that you're describing, that sounds wonderful. Next question.
00:33:13.720 Hey, Michael, shout out to Pure Talk and love the show. My question is regarding kids and
00:33:19.020 smartphones. What do I do when my kids reach that age where all of their friends have smartphones
00:33:25.680 and access to the internet, unfiltered, TikTok, softcore, Instagram porn, um, and goodness knows
00:33:34.920 what is going to be available to them in, let's say, eight to 10 years. Um, you know, do I just
00:33:41.640 shelter them completely, not give them one, although I'm sure they'll be able to access it via their
00:33:46.740 friends? Or do I give in and let them have that access, but monitor it heavily? Uh, or
00:33:54.400 do I stick with old school phones for contact for those extracurricular activities? I mean,
00:33:59.440 what are parents supposed to do in this day and age? Thanks, Michael.
00:34:05.240 Old school phone. Do not give your kid a smartphone. Do not hear me now. All who have ears to hear,
00:34:10.880 let them hear. Do not give your kid this portal to hell. That would be insane. That would be
00:34:17.400 completely insane. Now, my kids are not old enough yet that I've had to deal with this issue. I know
00:34:21.940 it's hard. You know, you want the kid to fit in. You don't want the kid to seem like a weirdo you
00:34:25.480 want, right? You want your kid to be cool or whatever. I'm just telling you all the, all the kids
00:34:30.200 that I know, of all the kids that I know, of my friends' kids, family members' kids,
00:34:35.620 as a rule, the ones who have smartphones have way more problems. And the kids, the little perfect,
00:34:43.600 wonderful kids that I know, they don't. Of course, of course not. So yeah, don't do that. This is a
00:34:50.640 simple, do not, whatever you do, I'm trying to shake you through the screen. Do not give your kids
00:34:55.380 a smartphone. All right, next question. Hi, Michael. The other day I was talking to this older man
00:35:05.080 who said that he had worked in the oil industry for all his life. He just recently retired from it.
00:35:17.020 And he had said that he's now an independent voter because Republicans control the gas prices.
00:35:26.500 And so when Republicans get into office, they lower it. And when Democrats get into office,
00:35:34.900 they raise it. And so he just doesn't trust either side is what he said. And I was just curious if
00:35:44.080 you had any opinions or knowledge about this. Do you think maybe the Republicans are not the good
00:35:52.340 guys, that they're actually just kind of tricking all of us into thinking they're the good guys and
00:35:57.540 we're all just kind of ignorant to it? Thank you. There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of
00:36:04.460 and angry at Republicans. But raising the gas prices is not one of them. That is not how gas
00:36:11.340 prices work. So the little kernel of truth in what your friend said is that I do strongly suspect that
00:36:18.080 Republicans are disproportionately represented in the oil and gas industry, especially compared to
00:36:24.500 every other industry, which is basically dominated by Democrats. So yeah, that's true. There are a lot
00:36:28.860 of good old Texas Republicans who are involved in the oil and gas industry. But no, the way that it
00:36:35.120 works is not that the oil companies just kind of get together and decide in a smoke-filled room what
00:36:40.480 the price of gas is going to be, and then that's reflected at all of the pumps. That's not the way it
00:36:44.720 works. Also because the oil and gas industry is a global market. And so what determines the price of
00:36:50.500 oil and gas is much less the whims and caprices of a few guys down in Texas. It's much more what's
00:36:57.360 going on in Saudi Arabia. It's much more what's going on throughout the oil-rich Middle East. It's
00:37:02.920 much more what's going on in the war in Ukraine. And if you want to blame one event for the rise in
00:37:09.140 energy prices, that would be the war in Ukraine. And who bears responsibility for the war in Ukraine?
00:37:13.680 I think, obviously, Vladimir Putin's the one who invaded Ukraine. But I think if you're going to blame
00:37:17.620 someone stateside, it would have to be Joe Biden. And that's not just my opinion because I'm a
00:37:22.560 Republican partisan or a conservative or something like that. That's what Vladimir Zelensky said.
00:37:26.560 That's what the president of Ukraine said. He said that if Joe Biden lifts these sanctions
00:37:30.980 off of certain Russian assets, that is going to allow Russia to invade. And then Joe Biden actually
00:37:37.420 invited Russia to invade Ukraine when he said if there's just a minor incursion into the east of
00:37:41.180 Ukraine, that won't be a really big deal. So he is the one who did that. And I think he is directly
00:37:46.300 responsible for these oil prices going up. Of course. It's not the Republicans. I think your
00:37:51.260 friend is somewhat diluted in that regard. Plenty of other good reasons to criticize Republicans,
00:37:57.400 but that isn't one of them. Next question.
00:38:00.160 Howdy, Mr. Knowles. I'm James Roach from Texas. And I have a couple of questions for you, sir.
00:38:05.880 One, I've been meaning to get into political commentary for a while, but I have trouble finding
00:38:11.540 stories to stay relevant long enough. And plus just finding stories. So if y'all could help me
00:38:17.360 with that, that'd be amazing. But also, here's one you probably don't get asked very often, Mr.
00:38:22.500 Nostradamus. What are your opinions on motorcycles? I absolutely love them. I have one in the garage.
00:38:27.240 I got into an accident about like a month ago by myself. So I'm completely fine. The bike's bent out
00:38:33.880 of shape, though. I'm fixing it right now. But I just love riding. It is so such a zen thing,
00:38:39.700 especially in the countrysides and the winding hills of the hill country that I live in. Oh,
00:38:45.320 so great. It is so great. I'm actually kind of getting antsy right now. I was thinking about it.
00:38:49.760 But yeah, lots of you hear your opinions on this. Keep up the good fight. I look forward to seeing
00:38:55.200 you next episode. Motorcycles are extremely cool. They're very dangerous, and they're very cool.
00:39:02.400 Those two things often go hand in hand. So you've just got to take a sort of risk analysis here.
00:39:07.720 But I know I got a lot of friends and relatives who ride motorcycles. And I know a number of people,
00:39:13.620 including among that group, who have been very seriously injured on motorcycles. But, you know,
00:39:18.780 so if you're going to do it, be careful. Wear a helmet. You know, do your best to do it safely.
00:39:22.620 But I've heard it's wonderful. And when I've ridden on motorcycles, it's super cool. Definitely,
00:39:27.180 definitely very cool. As to how to help you get into political commentary. So you're telling me you
00:39:31.580 don't just want me to write my own show. You want me to write your show, too. You say, Michael,
00:39:35.380 I'm sure you don't have enough on your plate. When you finish writing your show, Michael,
00:39:40.240 how about you write my show, too? I don't think so, Buster. Unless you're paying very well,
00:39:45.680 in which case, reach out to my agent. We can talk about it. Okay, let's get to some mailbag
00:39:49.140 questions the old-fashioned way. We've got a question up. Hey, Michael, my fiance is in the union
00:39:57.600 and is an army veteran and has worked very hard for what he has and works hard to protect it.
00:40:02.840 He's really insisting we get a prenup before getting married because of horror stories from
00:40:09.300 fellow union workers slash military friends. No matter how many times I tell him that would never
00:40:15.640 happen as I don't believe in divorce, he is still really insisting on it. I don't like the whole
00:40:20.200 idea of a prenup in general. I think it completely defeats the institution of marriage and undermines
00:40:24.120 it looking for any ideas on how to change his mind. I've known from the moment we met I was supposed
00:40:28.280 to marry him even though he didn't. Thanks. Girl born in the wrong generation. So is that, I think
00:40:34.300 that, is that an anonymous? Yeah, that's from girl born in the wrong generation. Okay, great question.
00:40:41.720 Great question. I share your hatred of prenuptial agreements. I think they're awful and I do think
00:40:48.420 they undermine the institution of marriage. But I sympathize with your husband or your fiance
00:40:54.660 because he's coming at it from the perspective of men get totally burned in cases of divorce and
00:41:03.160 they basically have no power and the woman can just choose to walk off willy nilly and then take
00:41:07.080 half the man's stuff and take the man's kids and that's terrible. And so it puts men at a terrible
00:41:11.060 disadvantage. So my solution to this is yes, you should consider a prenuptial agreement, but not the
00:41:18.840 usual kind of prenuptial agreement. The usual prenuptial agreement makes it easier and simpler to get
00:41:23.440 divorced. My version of a prenuptial agreement would make it basically impossible to get divorced.
00:41:28.940 So I think a good prenuptial agreement to sign in our decadent licentious day and age would be,
00:41:35.600 we agree not to get divorced. And here are all the reasons we're not going to get divorced and here
00:41:40.680 are all the things that are going to make it much harder to get divorced. And finally, we will not have
00:41:46.020 a no fault divorce, quote unquote, no fault divorce. No such a thing exists, of course, but we won't
00:41:50.720 use that legal mechanism. And if we do get divorced, it will be because one party forces the divorce.
00:42:01.880 And here's the clincher of it. Whichever party initiates the divorce forfeits everything,
00:42:08.940 forfeits claims to money, forfeits claims to the kids, forfeits claims to the house,
00:42:14.820 forfeits claims to everything. And so the effect of this prenuptial agreement would be
00:42:20.540 to strengthen the institution of marriage. Now, of course, you could have some sort of carve-outs
00:42:25.880 there. If my husband becomes a belligerent, serial-killing, wife-beating maniac, maybe
00:42:32.300 there's a little carve-out here for some kind of a separation. But assuming that that's not going to
00:42:37.580 happen and putting that sort of thing, you don't seem particularly concerned about that.
00:42:40.760 I would use the prenuptial agreement against its intended purpose, which is to destroy marriage.
00:42:47.960 I would use it to strengthen marriage. And I think this is a political lesson for all of us.
00:42:52.440 We live in an age with all sorts of challenges forced on us by our disgusting liberal culture.
00:42:58.920 So what we ought to do is we have to play the hand that we're dealt, right? You live in the society
00:43:05.020 that you live in. You have the tools available to you that are available to you. We should use those
00:43:09.580 to undermine our decadent, disgusting liberal society. And the prenuptial agreement is a great
00:43:14.300 way to do it. Use the prenup, which is a tool of divorce, to basically make divorce impossible.
00:43:22.920 I think that would be a brilliant way to use it. And I think it's very brilliant because I came up
00:43:26.420 with it. From Andrew. Hey, Michael. I was having a conversation with a friend about men's clothing
00:43:31.660 the other day and wanted your take. I personally believe no man who cares about his dignity should
00:43:35.600 wear shorts, skinny jeans, or ankle socks outside of the house. Do you agree with this?
00:43:40.620 What do you think men should wear from day to day? I agree with that. Totally agree with that
00:43:46.020 as a rule. Now, there are some exceptions. Exceptions prove rules. But if you're going
00:43:51.240 to Bermuda, you have to wear silly colored pastel shorts. You have to.
00:43:56.260 You know, when in Rome, do what the Romans do. If you are at some silly sort of waspy event on a boat
00:44:08.080 in the middle of summer, then maybe there is some occasion to wear shorts with some kind of silly
00:44:13.740 pattern of lobsters or sailboats. Okay, maybe. But as a rule, yes, grown men should not wear shorts.
00:44:20.460 Those silly little head socks, you know, I guess there's some practical use for them,
00:44:24.800 but generally, no, avoid them. I almost never wear socks, just as a rule. It's fine. Boat shoes,
00:44:29.760 loafers, topsiders, that's fine. You don't need socks for that. Yeah, of course. Ideally, you know,
00:44:35.200 some kind of a collared shirt outside the house. Unless you want to, you know, unless you want,
00:44:40.460 you're walking around the Bronx, you want to wear like some cool kind of Italian sweatsuit or
00:44:44.220 something. Yeah, obviously there are exceptions here, but as a rule, you are completely on the right
00:44:49.420 track. I've been told, this is shocking to me, some people disagree with things that I have said,
00:44:56.300 and there is a TikToker who has disagreed with something that I have said. So informed my producers
00:45:02.080 this morning, they informed me of this fact. So we will be going over it on the member block,
00:45:05.760 and of course, we'll be going over, because it is Friday, the rest of the mailbag questions.
00:45:10.180 So the rest of the show is continuing now. You don't want to miss it. If you're not a member,
00:45:12.960 click the link in the description and join us.