The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1457 - BREAKING： Mail-In Ballot News Terrifies Libs

00:00:00.000 Republicans have just won a major court victory in Pennsylvania that could prove crucial

00:00:04.320 to the 2024 election. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that undated mail-in ballots

00:00:11.320 do not count. The ruling reverses an order by a federal district court which had ruled

00:00:16.120 that mail-in ballots possessing an incorrect date or no date at all under the voter signature

00:00:22.000 should be counted. Knowing the Democrats' proclivity for dubious mail-in ballots,

00:00:28.320 the Republican National Committee sued, and the appeals court ruled correctly that no,

00:00:33.840 mail-in ballots must in fact meet the bare minimum standards of voter integrity to count in elections.

00:00:40.880 The Democrats are furious, and the case will likely make it all the way up to the Supreme Court,

00:00:45.780 which raises a serious question for the Democrats. Why exactly are the Democrats so desperate for

00:00:54.180 these unverified ballots to count? First, why are the Democrats so certain that the undated or

00:01:02.480 incorrectly dated ballots will help them? Do the Democrats know something about these ballots?

00:01:08.820 Are they confident for some reason that these undated, unverified ballots are not going to help

00:01:15.280 Donald Trump and the Republicans? And then furthermore, what does the lack of a date or an

00:01:22.320 ineligible date say about the people filling out these ballots? It says one of two things. Either

00:01:28.280 the ballots are fraudulent, they were not cast when they were supposed to be cast, or that the voters

00:01:35.320 who cast them are incompetent, that they couldn't perform even the most basic tasks required in order

00:01:41.480 to vote. In either case, I have no doubt that the votes will help Democrats. And either explanation,

00:01:49.140 fraud or incompetence shows us precisely why they should not count. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the

00:01:57.320 Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. There's a new report out that the CIA is going trans. 0.93

00:02:22.220 That is really upsetting. I think of the CIA, I think of Felix Leiter, you know, in the James Bond

00:02:28.280 movies. Now, not so much. Now, Felicia Leiter, maybe. We will get to that in a moment. First, though,

00:02:33.760 speaking of lighters, you got to get your smells and bells candle, baby. DailyWire.com slash shop.

00:02:40.260 DailyWire is going to stop selling these after Easter, and it is Good Friday today, which means that

00:02:45.820 tomorrow is Holy Saturday, which means that Sunday is Easter Sunday, which means that Monday they're gone.

00:02:51.300 So this is the greatest selling candle ever, certainly in the history of the Daily Wire,

00:02:55.900 probably in the history of candles. Maybe not like all candles, but it's pretty,

00:03:01.080 you want to talk about right out the gate. We've sold about a bazillion of these things.

00:03:04.640 I know some people want to stock up because they're going away now that Lent is over. So if you want,

00:03:10.600 I think we're selling them in packs of two and packs of three right now. Head on over to DailyWire.com

00:03:15.100 slash shop, and you can get yours before they are gone. Okay. Speaking of Democrat politicians,

00:03:21.300 the mayor of Baltimore says that white people should be afraid and that making white people

00:03:29.520 afraid is actually the purpose of his life. I know, and we all know, and you know very well

00:03:35.600 that black men and young black men in particular have been the boogeyman for those who are racist 0.79

00:03:40.940 and think that only straight wealthy white men should have a saying anything. We've been the 0.84

00:03:46.800 boogeyman from them since the first day they brought us to this country. And what they mean

00:03:51.760 by DI, in my opinion, is duly elected incumbent. We know what they want to say, but they don't have

00:03:57.380 the courage to say the N-word. And the fact that I don't believe in their untruthful and wrong

00:04:03.760 ideology, and I am very proud of my heritage and who I am and where I come from, scares them.

00:04:09.780 Because me being at my position means that their way of thinking, their way of life of being

00:04:15.060 comfortable and suffering, and while everyone else suffers, is going to be at risk. And they

00:04:19.860 should be afraid because that's my purpose in life. My purpose in life. I, what's this guy's name?

00:04:25.840 Brandon Scott. I have a purpose in life, and my purpose in life is to make some of my constituents,

00:04:32.240 particularly white men, afraid. Not exactly the civic spirit, kumbaya, bring us all together

00:04:43.260 kind of happy talk that we sometimes hear from Democrat politicians. But of course,

00:04:48.420 this is really what underlies all of leftist ideology, is a kind of resentment. I mean,

00:04:55.600 let's not forget the term left comes from the National Assembly during the French Revolution,

00:05:00.460 when on the right side you had the monarchists and the Catholics, and on the left side of the 0.75

00:05:05.980 assembly you had the atheists and the revolutionaries who were preparing to chop off the head of the 0.94

00:05:11.960 king and the queen and a lot of other people, and then to destroy whatever cultural patrimony there 0.73

00:05:17.860 was left in France, and to raid the churches and loot and steal and pillage and burn. So no surprise 0.95

00:05:24.720 there that leftism would continue to have this envious and resentful and vengeful aspect to it.

00:05:32.400 I think it was Winston Churchill who famously said that socialism, here we might just substitute

00:05:36.540 leftism broadly, is the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, to say nothing, of the philosophy

00:05:45.380 of failure. And so looking around Baltimore, the city is a disaster. It's too bad. It could be nice.

00:05:50.840 There has been beautiful architecture there. It's in a nice spot in the country. But it's a total

00:05:55.620 disaster. And with this guy running the show, who says that his purpose in life is to make his

00:06:02.080 constituents afraid if they're white, then you can expect that to descend even further into 0.99

00:06:07.380 kind of third world conditions. I'm not sure we're quite at the level of barbecue in Haiti yet,

00:06:12.960 but that's the direction. That's the direction that these guys are headed. Because what he's

00:06:18.720 articulating is not only an indifference to the common good, which is supposed to be

00:06:23.580 the chief concern of civil servants, of statesmen, but actually a hostility toward the common good

00:06:31.840 and a preference for selfishness and for private interest over the common good so that he can

00:06:39.860 plunder and terrorize some of his constituents for a smaller interest group. Now, speaking of

00:06:47.540 America's cities, things are not only bad in Baltimore, they're also bad in Los Angeles,

00:06:52.860 they're bad in San Francisco, and they're bad in New York City right now in particular. And having

00:06:56.640 been a New Yorker for a lot of my life and having grown up in New York and lived in the state of New

00:07:04.520 York and in the city of New York, I can see it when I go back and visit, things are getting a lot worse

00:07:09.000 over there. And that's particularly true when it comes to crime. And the New York's police department

00:07:14.860 is one of, if not the best police departments in the world, but they've been hamstrung in their

00:07:21.020 ability to stop the crime. When the NYPD is allowed to do its job, then New York goes from being Gotham

00:07:28.040 to becoming a really safe place. That happened under Mayor Giuliani. That lasted even through Mike

00:07:33.780 Bloomberg. And then right about the time I moved out of New York, things started to get really bad again.

00:07:38.040 And they're getting bad now. And the NYPD are big targets. So there was a New York police officer,

00:07:44.320 Jonathan Diller, who was murdered by a career criminal. Very sad. It's very sad when any innocent

00:07:49.520 person is murdered, especially sad when the people who are risking their lives to protect all the rest

00:07:53.880 of us are murdered by the criminals. And it's especially, especially sad when the political

00:07:59.000 establishment takes the side of the criminals instead of the cops and instead of the innocent

00:08:03.560 people. So President Trump went to New York to attend the wake for Officer Diller. Here's what

00:08:10.840 he had to say. Well, thank you very much, everybody. I want to thank Bruce and all of the people that

00:08:16.720 have worked so hard to make this area beautiful and safe. And this is what happened is such a sad,

00:08:23.900 sad event, such a horrible thing. And it's happening all too often. And we're just not going to let it

00:08:30.200 happen. We just can't 21 times arrested, this thug. And the person in the car with him was arrested 0.78

00:08:38.360 many times. And they don't learn because they don't respect. They're not given the respect. The

00:08:44.680 police are the greatest people we have. There's nothing and there's nobody like them. And this

00:08:49.320 should never happen. I just visited with a very beautiful wife that now doesn't have her husband. 1.00

00:08:56.460 Stephanie was just incredible. Their child, brand new, beautiful baby, sitting there innocent as can

00:09:04.520 be. Doesn't know how his life has been changed. But the Diller family will, you'll never be the same.

00:09:13.840 You can never be the same. And we have to stop it. We have to stop it. We have to get back to law and

00:09:18.660 order. We have to do a lot of things differently because this is not working. This is happening too

00:09:23.840 often. So it's the right thing to do, obviously, to pay respects to a fallen New York City cop who's

00:09:31.400 killed by a career criminal, especially at a time when the political order won't lock up the

00:09:36.740 criminals. And so many of these tragedies are totally preventable. It's also a good campaign theme.

00:09:44.120 And it's a good campaign theme, not in the sense that it's cynical or exploitative. It's a good

00:09:47.700 campaign theme in that the people want law and order, and their elected representatives are not

00:09:53.300 being responsive to that. They're actually undermining the desire of the people. If you look at top

00:09:57.960 election issues in 2024, crime is pretty high up on the list. I think according to a recent Gallup poll

00:10:04.000 or a morning consult poll, it was number four. So it's not quite in the top three, but it's really,

00:10:12.180 really close. And it's true not just in New York. It's true around the country. So it's an important

00:10:16.920 campaign theme because it resonates. And it's good for that to be a campaign theme. And it's a disgrace

00:10:22.560 that Joe Biden won't make it a campaign theme, but he can't because he's campaigning on promoting crime

00:10:26.680 effectively. Crime all the way down to our national border, which is controlled by criminal cartels

00:10:33.640 wide open, encouraging people to violate our most basic laws in this country, a major crime in and of

00:10:40.580 itself. But then even, even street crime, even, even murder, even robbery and the rest of it,

00:10:46.120 the Democrats are going very soft on that. Trump is getting stronger on that. I know that the

00:10:51.000 Republican party has been taken in recent years by certain flights of fancy when it comes to going

00:10:55.980 easy on the criminals. And there have been voices within the Republican party saying, we need to

00:11:00.940 let some criminals out of prison, you know, and we need to, we need to reduce punishments for it.

00:11:06.020 No, I don't think so. And in as much as president Trump has been persuaded by those voices, it's

00:11:10.360 not only not in keeping with the properly conservative position, but it's not in keeping

00:11:17.260 with, with Trump's view. Trump for pretty much his entire career has, has been very, very tough on

00:11:22.600 crime, including when he was making political comments from the private sector, which is most

00:11:26.760 of his career. So I see this as a, an excellent rearticulation of Trump's view. And it happens to be

00:11:33.800 the traditional view of the conservatives and it happens to be what most people want. And the

00:11:38.660 cherry on top is it's the right thing to do. Speaking of the right thing to do, you ought to

00:11:44.260 donate to Food for the Poor. Go to foodforthepoor.org slash Knowles. For many people worldwide, the

00:11:50.340 question of where their next meal will come from is a constant pressing concern. Beyond the staggering

00:11:55.020 statistics about food insecurity, there are individual stories like Brandon's. Little Brandon and his

00:12:01.260 family live in a rural city in Guatemala. His mother tries to care for him and his little

00:12:05.880 brother as best as she can, but it's not enough. Earning a living is hard, but accessing food is

00:12:11.260 even harder. For too many mothers and fathers, there are no safety nets to be found. There is

00:12:16.840 little help from neighbors, social programs, or even from their own government. When these children

00:12:21.060 get sick from hunger, their bodies become weak and something as simple as a cold could be

00:12:24.700 devastating. When you donate to Food for the Poor, you are not just giving, you're becoming part of a

00:12:28.940 powerful collective effort. It's a shared responsibility to ensure that no child goes

00:12:33.180 to bed hungry. Every dollar you give has a direct impact on children like Brandon. It translates into

00:12:39.040 meals, nourishment, and a chance for a better tomorrow. Thanks to a meal-for-meal match, a donation

00:12:44.020 of $80 can feed two children like Brandon for an entire year. Donate now by texting Knowles,

00:12:49.640 K-N-W-L-A-S, to 51555 or by visiting foodforthepoor.org slash Knowles. That is Knowles. Text it to

00:12:56.220 51555 or go to foodforthepoor.org slash Knowles. Now, turning to major issues and keeping on the

00:13:05.200 theme of violence, there's a new Gallup poll out that shows that most Americans disapprove of the

00:13:11.120 war in Gaza. This is a shift. Back in November, Gallup found that 50% of Americans approved of

00:13:18.020 Israel's actions in Gaza, while 45% disapproved. 4% said they had no opinion on the war. So even then,

00:13:24.800 it was a somewhat contentious issue, but half of Americans, and certainly a plurality when we're

00:13:31.620 talking about the three opinions expressed, said that they supported Israel's actions.

00:13:37.160 Makes sense in November. I'm actually surprised the number wasn't even higher. This was in November,

00:13:41.280 right after this horrific attack by Hamas on Israelis, killing well over 1,000 and committing

00:13:48.620 all sorts of crimes and then taking a lot of hostages back to Gaza. So that was in November.

00:13:52.640 And it's amazing because in my mind, the war has only been going on for a couple of months,

00:13:57.880 but no, it's been going on at this point for what? Six months? At this point, public opinion has

00:14:03.600 changed. 55% of Americans say they disapprove of Israel's military action in Gaza. Only 36%

00:14:11.460 say that they approve of it. Now, what does this mean for Israel's conduct of the war? And more

00:14:18.420 importantly, for our purposes as an American political program, what does this say for how

00:14:23.840 America ought to feel about it? The biggest issue when it comes to the conduct and continuation or

00:14:29.700 cessation of the war between Israel-Palestine is not just public opinion, because public opinion can

00:14:37.000 be wrong. And we don't base our judgments of right and wrong. We don't base our understanding of

00:14:41.800 justice on consensus. The people can be wrong. The biggest issue I see here is a news report that

00:14:49.480 comes along with these bad numbers. And the news report coming from the Telegraph says that Israeli 0.98

00:14:54.160 intelligence is now admitting that it might not be able to destroy Hamas.

00:15:00.340 This is the biggest change, I would say. And this is probably feeding into why public opinion has

00:15:10.820 shifted. Probably the lengthy duration of this war now is feeding into why public opinion has shifted.

00:15:16.700 So much so that even President Trump is saying it's time for the war to wind down. But I haven't heard a

00:15:22.600 clear articulation of why the war now all of a sudden really should wind down. The reason comes down to

00:15:30.060 proportionality and the reasonable probability of success. It comes down to a concept that is not

00:15:36.900 discussed nearly enough these days, which is just war theory. Some people, you know, I don't know,

00:15:43.120 the Kumbaya hippies or something, they say, there's no war ever made. War is terrible all the time, man.

00:15:48.640 Give peace a chance, man. Pass the bong. And that is not a serious view. And it's not a moral view.

00:15:55.340 We have no moral obligation to allow the cruel to rape the earth, for instance. We have a natural

00:16:01.900 and correct inclination to defend ourselves. Self-preservation is an aspect of the natural law.

00:16:09.600 So some wars are justified. Not all wars are justified. And it's even more complicated because

00:16:15.920 there is justice in going to war, and then there is justice in the conduct of war. And those are

00:16:21.800 separate questions. A country could be justified in going to war, but then not justified in its

00:16:26.820 conduct of the war. So on the two separate questions, the first one is, did the state of

00:16:32.740 Israel have a right to go to war in Gaza? I think most people would agree, yes, it obviously did. 1.00

00:16:38.040 After this major attack by the government of Gaza, which explicitly in its charter says,

00:16:43.680 we want to wipe out the Israeli state. And then they go in and they kill and maim and take as 0.99

00:16:49.600 hostages a number of civilians. Very few people would disagree that Israel had a right to go to 0.97

00:16:56.520 war. Then the question over the last six months is, does the state of Israel have justification in

00:17:03.460 its conduct of the war? This has been much more contentious. There have been strong arguments

00:17:07.120 on both sides. But I think many people would say, yes, the goal of the war is to get rid of Hamas.

00:17:15.320 The Hamas leadership in Gaza is an unacceptable security risk. And so they are justified in 1.00

00:17:21.700 conducting the war, even from the perspective of proportionality. Proportionality is misunderstood.

00:17:28.560 A lot of people bandy that word about, and they seem to think that proportionality means

00:17:32.940 one side kills one guy, and then the other side kills one of their guys. That's not what

00:17:40.100 proportionality means. But what proportionality does mean is that you are not using excessive

00:17:47.300 violence to achieve the aims of the war. So the war has an objective that you're trying to achieve.

00:17:54.620 And so in war, innocent people are killed. That is basically inevitable. But it means that you're not

00:18:01.240 using excessive violence that will not further your aims. And a related concept here is the

00:18:08.080 reasonable probability of success. So if Israeli intelligence is now saying, as according to

00:18:12.660 reports, that it will not be able to wipe out Hamas from its control of Gaza, then the war has to end.

00:18:22.520 Then it's not even clear what the goal of the war is. Then the criticisms that the state of Israel

00:18:28.920 is not being proportionate in its carrying out of the war are justified. If the state of Israel says

00:18:35.280 they can wipe out Hamas from the government, then you might say the war continues to be justified, 0.98

00:18:42.200 although debate would continue to range. But if this is the case now, and why, by the way,

00:18:46.880 why is Israeli intelligence, according to reports, saying that it can't wipe Hamas out of Gaza?

00:18:50.740 They're saying it's because the US, which is the most prominent sponsor of the state of Israel,

00:18:55.780 and especially of the Israeli military, I think we fund six and a half percent of it.

00:19:00.340 If the American people have turned against it, the state of Israel is saying,

00:19:03.600 well, now we can't achieve our goals. And maybe that's the case. And maybe you say,

00:19:06.820 well, that's wrong, and the American people shouldn't have turned against the state of

00:19:09.220 Israel. And actually, if we just run another ad campaign or something, maybe public opinion

00:19:14.880 will swing back, and that way they can wipe out Hamas. Whatever the explanations are, 0.95

00:19:20.900 whatever one's opinion is of that, if that is the case, then the war has to wind down because there

00:19:26.820 is no longer a reasonable probability of success at achieving the war's aim. If the war's aim is taken

00:19:32.560 off the table, then obviously the violence is excessive vis-a-vis the goal of the war,

00:19:39.620 because the goal of the war, we now say, is totally out of sight. So this is happening.

00:19:45.480 Whether you want that to happen or not, both political parties in the United States are

00:19:51.280 turning against the war in Israel. Israeli intelligence is saying that without America's

00:19:57.960 full-throated support or thereabouts, they're not going to be able to achieve their war aims.

00:20:01.940 Okay, that's the end of the war. If you find a hole in my logic, please let me know.

00:20:08.080 But until any of the, I think even the Israeli sources are basically coming to this conclusion.

00:20:13.920 So if the war continues to go on, which it seems in the interest of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the 0.73

00:20:21.280 Israeli government for it to continue to go on, that's going to continue to be a major issue in

00:20:26.300 the 2024 election as well. And it's one of these strange ones because now all of a sudden, just

00:20:31.920 within the last couple of days, President Trump has said it's time for the war to wind down. So

00:20:35.800 you've got an odd issue where Biden and Trump seem to be in agreement. And President Trump,

00:20:42.840 who's the most pro-Israel president ever in my lifetime, they named a town after the guy in the

00:20:46.660 state of Israel, would seem to be at odds with the government there, the Netanyahu government,

00:20:52.440 which is already on shaky grounds. And where one cannot even articulate, it seems,

00:20:58.840 a goal any further for that war might come to an end soon. Now, speaking of things that are

00:21:09.160 potentially nuclear, I suppose that war could potentially go nuclear. The Washington Post is

00:21:15.160 celebrating the demise of the nuclear family, which is very, very unfortunate, probably speaks

00:21:21.960 to a lack of education and a lack of patriotism over in the left-wing newspapers. So when we want

00:21:29.420 to turn that around, we got to get educated. You got to check out PragerU. Is America doomed?

00:21:34.740 A majority of Gen Z supports left-wing policies like open borders and socialism. If we don't reach them 1.00

00:21:40.800 and change their minds, the country that we know and love will be lost forever. PragerU is the

00:21:45.100 leading nonprofit when it comes to influencing young people. Their educational, entertaining,

00:21:49.400 pro-American videos meet young people where they are and open their minds to the truth,

00:21:53.720 but they need our help. Go to PragerU.com, make a tax-deductible donation. Whatever you give

00:21:58.820 right now will be tripled and have three times the impact. Donate $10, triples to $30. I'm no math

00:22:05.320 major, but I'm pretty sure that's what it comes out to. You give $100, let's see, you carry the four out of

00:22:10.660 five, that triples to $300. PragerU is 100% free to everyone, no fees, no subscriptions. They don't

00:22:16.360 rely on ads or clickbait headlines. Contrary to what the libs say, PragerU is not funded by a

00:22:21.840 handful of billionaires. It's funded by people just like you. To keep making great content,

00:22:26.360 reaching millions and changing minds, PragerU needs our help. Go to PragerU.com to donate today. And then

00:22:33.000 you can check out my five-minute videos over there, as well as The Book Club with Michael Knowles,

00:22:36.880 my show over at PragerU, PragerU.com today. My favorite comment yesterday is from Phil Vetta,

00:22:44.560 who says, all I want to know is, did Diddy do it or did Diddy not do it? That's the question,

00:22:50.240 I think. It's one that has bedeviled philosophers for many, many days now. Did Diddy do it? Did Diddy

00:22:58.800 didn't do it? Did he? Let me know in the comments, please. Washington Post says,

00:23:07.400 the nuclear family is dying. That's a good thing. Headline, farewell and good riddance 1.00

00:23:12.200 to the typical American family. This article is really worth reading. It makes some interesting

00:23:20.100 points and it gives you, more importantly, it gives you a really good view of how the left views

00:23:24.840 the basic unit of society, the building block of all politics. Just a few lines here.

00:23:32.500 The Washington Post observes, families that are double income, no kids, you know, the dinks, 1.00

00:23:36.640 they're thriving economically. Dinks have a median net worth of over $200,000 and are making six 1.00

00:23:43.300 figures. Wow, that's a lot of money. They're also set up for a cushy retirement with more money stashed

00:23:48.360 away than any other groups. I don't know who's going to take care of them in that retirement,

00:23:52.800 but they got a lot of money. I guess they'll go to a nice retirement home or something.

00:23:57.200 Seems like everyone wants to be a dink these days. Okay, I don't. Yeah, the first part is true. The 1.00

00:24:03.300 dinks have a lot of money and the dinks are saving a lot of money and all of that's true. But I don't 1.00

00:24:08.720 know that everyone wants to be a dink. I certainly don't want to be a dink. Some people have to be dinks 0.88

00:24:12.700 because they're infertile and maybe they don't want to adopt or something. You know, not everyone gets 0.96

00:24:17.520 a kid. You don't have a right to a kid. You're not entitled to a kid. Infertility can be very,

00:24:20.760 very troubling, obviously. But some people are choosing it and that's a major aspect of the

00:24:30.360 cultural battle right now. The people who want family and the people who don't really want family.

00:24:35.860 To say everybody wants to, I don't want to be a dink. Probably many of you listening don't want 1.00

00:24:39.200 to be a dink either. So how does Washington Post explain this? They say the first major death knell

00:24:43.360 to the nuclear family came with the 1973 oil crisis and the two-year recession that followed,

00:24:49.760 which signaled the end of the West's post-war prosperity boom. Since then, the nuclear family 1.00

00:24:55.140 has crumbled piece by piece. In 1970, more than two-thirds of American adults between 25 and 49

00:25:00.880 lived with a spouse and at least one kid. By 2021, only 37% of adults fit that bill, according to

00:25:05.600 Pew Research. Very troubling, but you're noticing a theme from the article already.

00:25:08.840 Very Washington Post, very lib. Everything is being described in economic terms.

00:25:15.000 The dinks are thriving because they've got $200,000. Well, it's true. I know very rich people 0.55

00:25:19.840 who are very miserable. I know people who have a lot more money than $200,000 who are very,

00:25:25.320 very miserable. How is that? How's that possible? Because unlike what the Washington Post and many of

00:25:31.980 the libs and the Marxists seem to think, money does not equate to happiness. Money cannot buy

00:25:38.520 happiness. And sometimes it has the opposite effect. Up to a certain level, money is kind of

00:25:46.420 nice because it supplies your material needs and it actually can take a load off. I'm not downplaying

00:25:52.620 that. But after a certain point, the marginal returns are kind of low and sometimes it can even

00:25:57.320 go in the other direction. And what's the price of a child? What's the value of a child?

00:26:04.100 I would say priceless, having two and a half of them myself, my friends with children,

00:26:08.180 pretty much all of them would say priceless. But that doesn't make sense. If you're approaching

00:26:11.900 this through a Marxist or even a liberal lens where everything's just about money,

00:26:15.900 it seems like they're thriving. And then they look at the breakdown of the family and they say it's

00:26:19.760 all because of economic circumstances. Economic circumstances do play into that,

00:26:23.060 but there are a lot of cultural and religious circumstances too. Okay, the bill goes on or the

00:26:26.560 article goes on. Critics of the nuclear family include radical family abolition scholars such as

00:26:34.840 M.E. O'Brien, whose 2023 book Family Abolition, Capitalism and the Communizing of Care argues that

00:26:41.300 the contained family structures cannot carry the immense burden of work placed on them. So here you're

00:26:47.760 seeing an affirmation of what a lot of traditional conservatives have been saying for years, which

00:26:55.540 is the libs are not just trying to liberate you and let you do what you want, man, and if it feels

00:27:01.700 good, do it. They're trying to destroy the family. They're not trying to expand it. They're not trying

00:27:07.060 to open up new pathways of liberation. They're trying to destroy the family because they view the family

00:27:11.500 as the primary impediment to their political ends. And the WAPO admits that. They say, yeah,

00:27:15.460 no, there is a movement, the family abolition movement. They view the family as tied up with

00:27:20.020 capitalism. And so if you want to abolish capitalism such as it is, you got to destroy

00:27:26.240 the family. Okay, Pat Robertson was saying this back in the early 90s. All right, this is nothing

00:27:32.140 new on the right. What's new is that the left is admitting it. While a smaller global population has

00:27:38.580 its perks, the planet certainly isn't complaining. That's what they're saying. They're saying it has its

00:27:42.680 perks. Fewer people means that there will be less climate change, you know? There will be less

00:27:48.300 global warming. The sun monster will be less angry with us. The planet isn't complaining. You know,

00:27:53.460 the planet never complains because the planet's a rock with flora and fauna on it, no doubt. It's

00:27:59.240 teeming with life, but it's a rock. Humans complain because we have rational souls, but you don't

00:28:05.160 like the humans. You want to get rid of all the beings that could complain in deference to a rock.

00:28:10.880 It shows you something a little bit wrong with their view of human nature and the cosmos.

00:28:18.060 Goes on, it poses a serious threat to long-term economic growth if the family disappears.

00:28:23.740 Shrinking GDPs in the future are a direct result of shrinking populations. That will challenge the

00:28:28.140 very foundations of American capitalism. This is one reason why conservatives are so keen to limit

00:28:31.740 women's reproductive freedoms. Yeah, okay. We want economic growth, sure, but we don't want the tail 1.00

00:28:39.220 to wag the dog. We like economic growth. That's a good thing. It's important. The reason we want to

00:28:44.160 limit women's reproductive freedoms is because we think it's wrong to murder babies. That's the reason. 1.00

00:28:50.380 If murdering babies made us money, we would still oppose murdering babies. And in fact, it can. That's 0.95

00:28:56.480 why a lot of corporations that have implemented liberal policies encourage abortion. They'll pay for 1.00

00:29:02.640 abortion. They'll pay for women to go out of state to go get abortions if their state has banned 0.97

00:29:07.180 abortion because it increases the profits of the company. That would be an instance where it's the

00:29:12.280 liberals, it's the leftists, who are prioritizing profits over people. The conservatives are saying,

00:29:16.720 no, we prefer the people. Even if it's going to hit GDP a little, we don't think you should murder

00:29:20.060 kids. So they get that totally wrong. Then it goes on, today, nearly a quarter of children in the U.S.

00:29:24.380 live in single-parent households. That's so sad. That's so terribly sad. And it's a degree of child

00:29:30.300 abuse that has reached a national level. It's a national scandal. The pandemic invigorated people's

00:29:36.700 desire for collectivism and community. Okay, keep, put that word aside for a second. Put a little

00:29:41.260 bookmark there, collectivism. Rather than, this is how it concludes, rather than changing families to

00:29:46.860 be more like society, this vision of the future imagines a society that's more like a big supportive

00:29:50.760 family. Okay. It's a really worthwhile read because it shows you how the left, they, some of their

00:30:00.440 desires are good. Probably all of their desires have some good aspect to them. They just get so

00:30:05.740 perverted. I agree with the left that we don't want to make an idol out of capitalism or GDP. I totally

00:30:11.380 agree with that. I agree with the left that it takes a village to raise a child because we're the social

00:30:17.260 creature. So we're not just isolated living in outer space as individuals or even as a nuclear

00:30:22.100 family, but we're embedded within extended families and embedded within generations and

00:30:26.720 embedded within a community. I agree with that. But there's a big difference, a big, big difference

00:30:31.060 between collectivism and community. There's a big difference between the state controlling a bunch of

00:30:43.820 atomized individuals who are in a hodgepodge of bizarro sexual relationships and largely choosing

00:30:49.360 not to have kids because they just want to pursue their own financial and economic frivolities.

00:30:57.680 And the extended family, the real family, the organic communities that crop up. In one, it's an

00:31:06.220 ideological contrivance. What the left is pushing for is just pouring acid over society and all of the

00:31:12.880 intermediating institutions of society from states' rights to local government rights all the way down

00:31:18.780 to the family, from voluntary civic associations to natural and organic communities like churches

00:31:25.540 and other groups. They want to pour acid all over that. Parochial schools, private schools,

00:31:31.260 homeschools, pour all that and just then pull it all back together in a contrived, highly centrally

00:31:40.520 controlled way. The collective with a capital C. That's not, community is great. Community is totally

00:31:46.000 natural. And you're born, in fact, you are born into a community. All of us, we're not born as

00:31:51.660 individuals. We're born into a community. The first community is the family. And there are extended

00:31:56.440 families and it's good to get the wisdom of generations and the wisdom of your neighbors and

00:32:01.260 so on. And the state is a natural institution too. But with the libs, I always want to just totally

00:32:06.360 flip it. No surprise then. They say good riddance to the nuclear family. I would say we want the 1.00

00:32:12.560 nuclear family. You don't want to destroy the family, but you want it to be embedded within

00:32:16.340 bigger families and the tribe and the community and the state and the country. They want to do the

00:32:21.620 opposite. They don't want to keep growing out from there. They want to destroy the family as that

00:32:25.620 last stumbling block. And then we're all a bunch of undifferentiated individuals and the state can

00:32:31.260 do with us as it pleases. You know I'm a big tease. Well, I've got a story here. The CIA is embracing

00:32:41.860 gender ideology. This is, speaking of weird sex stuff, Cliff Sims, who served as deputy director

00:32:49.860 of national intelligence under President Trump, he has a new book out. It's called The Darkness Has Not

00:32:54.720 Overcome Lessons on Faith and Politics from Inside the Halls of Power. He sheds a light on how

00:33:02.400 transgender ideology has infiltrated not just our schools and our corporations and even the CIA, 0.84

00:33:08.780 which makes perfect sense. It tells us a lot about how the ideology works, how it works within the

00:33:14.260 state. But because I'm a tease, we're going to have to get to that on Easter Monday because now it's time

00:33:19.800 to get to the mailbag. The second episode of Divided States of Biden with Ben Shapiro has just

00:33:25.300 been released. It focuses on how fentanyl has become America's silent epidemic. The Biden

00:33:29.880 administration is completely silent on the matter. In fact, Biden's policies make it easier for

00:33:34.460 fentanyl to be distributed and sold across the country, allowing it to fall into the hands of any

00:33:38.340 American, many of them very young. Ben Shapiro uncovers the fentanyl crisis in one of the cities most

00:33:42.940 affected in the latest episode of The Divided States of Biden. Watch The Divided States of Biden

00:33:48.820 fentanyl America's silent epidemic now exclusively on Daily Wire Plus. Finally, finally, we've arrived

00:33:55.140 at my favorite time of the week when I get to hear from you in the mailbag. Our mailbag is sponsored by

00:34:00.020 PureTalk at puretalk.com slash Knowles, Canada W-L-E-S. Get an additional 50, 5, 0% off your first month.

00:34:06.040 Take it away.

00:34:36.040 Argument for Catholicism rests on its history, but I would think that God could change the church if

00:34:40.600 he thought it fit to do so. Also, what are your thoughts on Jehovah's Witness? I really like their

00:34:44.940 faith because they attend to biblical accuracy. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you

00:34:49.860 have a great day. Happy Friday. Good Friday. Good Friday, that's right. Really good question.

00:34:57.740 God, of course, can change the church and necessarily does help the church to grow and

00:35:02.820 promises always to be with the church. That's what our Lord promises us in the gospels. But I think

00:35:07.540 that, ironically, that would be one of my chief defenses for the Catholic church is that

00:35:17.220 there's corruption in the church. There are all sorts of, there have been bad popes. There have been

00:35:23.460 all, there's, I mean, to quote Hilaire Belloc, he has to take the Catholic church to be divinely

00:35:28.620 instituted as a matter of faith. But one evidence of it for the non-believer is that no other 0.95

00:35:32.300 institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight, much less 2,000 0.99

00:35:36.920 years. So the church does change in the sense that the church grows and develops within history 0.94

00:35:45.400 throughout the ages. That's, of course, true. It doesn't change its fundamental teaching. It

00:35:49.540 doesn't change its dogmas, but it does change in that way in the sense that it grows in the way that

00:35:54.000 a human being grows over time. But our Lord promises never to leave the church. You know,

00:36:02.840 the church is the, the marriage rather, is the symbol of Christ's love for her church.

00:36:09.420 So ironically, I think you're, you're kind of making the Catholic argument here, which is that

00:36:14.520 whatever we call the church that was instituted by our Lord, that has historicity and apostolic

00:36:23.540 succession and an unbroken line going back to the, to the first Pope, St. Peter, whatever you want

00:36:29.320 to call it, whatever, whatever your views on that, he would have to stay with that church. There would

00:36:35.620 have to be some authority that is wielded over time. Because if not, if, if, you know, as you seem to be

00:36:41.860 suggesting, our Lord can just say, okay, well, I was with the Catholics until this time. And then I went

00:36:46.500 over to the Presbyterians at this time. Then I went over to the Methodists at this time or something like

00:36:51.160 that, that, that would be tantamount to a divorce. So it would actually rupture the, the probably most

00:36:57.120 prominent symbol of our Lord's love for the church. You mentioned Jehovah's Witness. There are

00:37:03.020 lovely people who are Jehovah's Witnesses. I would probably dispute the precision with which Jehovah's 1.00

00:37:11.360 Witnesses look at scripture, but the problem would be a denial of the divinity of, of Christ among some

00:37:19.620 other problems. So that, that would be, you know, lovely people. I like them very much, but that

00:37:24.800 would, that would be why I am not a Jehovah's Witness, among other things. And is there a third

00:37:30.260 question in there? I don't know. If so, ask it again next week and we'll get to it. Next question.

00:37:36.180 Hi, Michael. My name is Eric. I was wondering if you could help me with the problem I'm facing.

00:37:40.700 I'm thinking about going back to school for my doctorate, and I'm wanting to get my doctorate in

00:37:45.480 philosophy with a focus of ethics and a focus of criminal law. But I know that I'm going to have

00:37:51.580 to read a significant amount of books from authors who have worldviews that are counter to my Christian

00:37:59.220 beliefs. I was wondering, how do you handle reading a lot of information from people who have more of a

00:38:08.160 toxic mindset when it comes to Christianity and morals and ethics and still be able to hold to

00:38:15.700 your values without facing doubts? Thank you for taking my question, and I look forward to hearing

00:38:22.060 from you. I don't seek out a ton of evil reading material or false reading material, to put it in a

00:38:34.200 nicer way. I read it. I obviously read plenty of things that I don't agree with, and to some degree

00:38:40.580 that can be very helpful because it can challenge your notions, it can expand your thinking, of course.

00:38:45.560 But contrary to the liberal spirit of the age that you hear on the left and on the right probably these

00:38:50.720 days more than on the left, I don't go reading false things just for the sake of it, just in deference

00:38:57.640 to the free marketplace of ideas or something like that. I read to find truth. So I am drawn

00:39:04.160 more toward books in which I think I will find truth. Sometimes you can find truth by way of

00:39:09.260 contrast. You read something that's just so terribly wrong that it, by contrast, sheds a light on what is

00:39:17.200 true. And in some things that are quite wrong, like Marxism, say, you can find little kernels of

00:39:24.400 truth in there that have been really perverted. You especially see this with Marx. But I would

00:39:31.060 ballast that with a lot of reading that is good and true. Resist the libs on the left and the right

00:39:37.580 who tell you, no, just read everything that you disagree with. Perhaps read some of these things that

00:39:43.060 you disagree with, but be careful. Just like you wouldn't want to fill your body with a bunch of 1.00

00:39:47.540 garbage, so too you don't want to fill your mind with a bunch of garbage. Sometimes eating things that 0.98

00:39:53.400 are a little more challenging as a matter of taste or ingredient can be helpful. It can help build up

00:40:00.860 your immune system. It can expand your palate, allow you to understand your tastes a little more

00:40:05.720 clearly. But sometimes it can kill you, so you don't want to do that. And I think the same is true

00:40:09.660 when it comes to what you put into your mind. Probably a very controversial take on the right,

00:40:15.460 but there you have it. It's very traditional and classical take. Next question.

00:40:18.500 Hi, Michael. I hope you're doing well. I'm such a big fan. I just wanted to send this in and ask

00:40:25.560 what you think the biggest slash most detrimental theological idea in Mormonism or LDS faith is.

00:40:36.220 Sure. LDS, some of the nicest people you'll ever meet in the world. Just so lovely. They have strong,

00:40:44.440 thriving communities and families. They go, they do their jobs. They've got proper systems of

00:40:50.400 government. So please don't take this as some kind of withering criticism on the poor Mormons, but

00:40:56.060 probably the central problem would be that they deny the divinity of Christ. It's a similar answer 0.74

00:41:02.860 I gave earlier to the Jehovah's Witnesses. LDS is a non-Trinitarian religion. So this would be, 0.82

00:41:13.740 the Trinity is the central mystery of the faith articulated by our Lord, but then really codified

00:41:22.000 at the First Council of Nicaea, which is that we believe in God, the Father Almighty,

00:41:28.640 maker of heaven and earth, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is begotten of the Father. He's begotten,

00:41:37.420 not made. He is consubstantial with the Father. Through him, all things were made. He's God from God,

00:41:44.280 light from light, true God from true God. That view is not, to my knowledge, held by the Mormons,

00:41:51.840 that the Son is subordinate to the Father, and there are other aspects to that as well. But in

00:42:00.560 any case, it's not the Trinitarian view. There are other sects like this. There is at least one

00:42:06.620 major Pentecostal sect that is non-Trinitarian. Obviously, the Unitarians are non-Trinitarian. So 0.56

00:42:12.820 that, the central mystery of the faith, that God is one, distinct in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

00:42:23.600 but also one, and of one divine substance. That's the central mystery. And so that would be,

00:42:28.840 that would probably be the chief stumbling block that one would have with LDS. Though

00:42:34.280 they have conducted themselves in public so wonderfully that, you know, I don't, I don't

00:42:41.660 really, I don't want to knock them all too much. But while we're here in theological disputes and

00:42:48.920 we're just discussing, you know, the faith itself and not, not just the external effects of a certain

00:42:56.860 culture, that would be it. Next one. Hey, Michael, my question's a little bit taboo,

00:43:02.720 but I think your young adult audience really needs to hear it. I'm a young adult. A lot of my friends

00:43:07.680 have made choices that they now regret, specifically having premarital sex. As we are walking into 0.80

00:43:14.160 marriage, a lot of us have fiancés and are married and we look on our paths. We tend to feel shame

00:43:20.040 and frustration at our former selves for making choices that we now regret. Much of us have gone

00:43:25.780 to church and asked for forgiveness, but it's become really hard for those of us to forgive

00:43:29.920 ourselves for choices that we can no longer go back and reverse. So my question to you is,

00:43:34.400 do you have any advice for young adults who have a hard time forgiving themselves for choices that

00:43:38.520 they made in the past, specifically premarital sex? Sure. I'd say go to confession and then you

00:43:45.160 will be absolved of your sins and then your sins are forgiven and that's it. If God forgives your sins,

00:43:53.800 then we ought to forgive people's sins too. That's about it. I'm not saying that there aren't

00:43:58.000 temporal effects that come as a consequence of sin, but you know, all sin and fall short of the

00:44:02.960 glory of God. And it's a fallen culture that greatly encourages premarital sex. So I guess the first 1.00

00:44:09.200 thing you would do is stop the behavior you bring up if someone's engaged. If you're engaged and you've

00:44:15.700 been doing that, but then you realize actually that's not a good thing to do, then just stop.

00:44:19.960 Stop until your wedding. I don't know when your wedding is, but if you're engaged, it's probably

00:44:24.380 not that far into the future. Just stop. That's the first thing. If you're going down the wrong path,

00:44:28.140 then the first thing to do is stop, then you turn around, then you go down the other path.

00:44:32.500 And if you did all sorts of bad things when you were young and dated around or whatever,

00:44:36.580 and then you've had a different idea, okay, well, one, be grateful that you've turned it around.

00:44:43.060 That's a wonderful thing to be grateful for. And then the reason I recommend sacramental

00:44:49.060 confession, I know not everyone believes in that. But in my view of things, it gives you

00:44:56.440 a certainty that an authority has been promised to the apostles and the successors of the apostles

00:45:03.220 that they have the power to forgive and to retain sins. And that this is a real power in a visible

00:45:08.600 church. And so it's not that you can't confess your sins to God, and it's not that God can't forgive

00:45:13.000 you when you confess your sins in your head to God, but it's an assurance in case you lack perfect

00:45:19.800 contrition, which most of us do most of the time. So I would do that. And there's a psychological

00:45:25.380 aspect here, which is not just, even if you don't really believe in the sacraments or something like

00:45:29.900 that, I recommend that you do. But even if you don't, there is just something psychologically very

00:45:35.740 comforting. In the real sense, it gives you strength to say, no, it is objectively the case

00:45:42.300 that your sins have been forgiven. Go forth and sin no more. All of us commit sins. I mean,

00:45:48.280 if we just focused on that, the devil wants us to focus on that all the time, and then you can't do

00:45:51.340 anything and you live a miserable life. But hope is not just happy thinking, it's a theological virtue

00:45:58.540 and to demand. So do that. That's what you should do. Okay. We have more voicemail back to get to.

00:46:05.000 We have more written mail back to get to. And we have Fake Headline Friday. The rest of the show

00:46:07.520 continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member. Use code Knowles, K-N-A-W-L-E-S at checkout

00:46:11.640 for two months free on all annual plans.

00:46:28.540 Here we go.

00:46:30.560 I'll see you next time.

00:46:33.520 I'll see you next time.

00:46:36.560 All right.

The Michael Knowles Show - March 29, 2024

Ep. 1457 - BREAKING： Mail-In Ballot News Terrifies Libs

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