The Michael Knowles Show - November 14, 2025


Ep. 1857 - Are We Finally Getting The Epstein Files？


Episode Stats

Length

46 minutes

Words per Minute

174.60352

Word Count

8,202

Sentence Count

693

Misogynist Sentences

15

Hate Speech Sentences

13


Summary

A new app promises to let you summon your dead grandma to ask for advice. An AI-generated song hits the billboard number one, and Congress is promising to release the Epstein files. This episode is brought to you by Peloton.


Transcript

00:00:00.540 Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.
00:00:03.400 You're almost at the finish line.
00:00:05.120 But first...
00:00:10.980 There, the last one.
00:00:15.020 Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.
00:00:19.960 This episode is brought to you by Peloton.
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00:00:45.320 A new app promises to let you summon your dead grandma to ask for advice.
00:00:50.120 An AI-generated song hits the billboard number one.
00:00:52.740 And Congress is promising to release the Epstein files.
00:00:56.240 Again, I'm Michael Knowles.
00:00:58.580 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:59.420 Welcome back to the show.
00:01:19.440 President Trump has met with a former member of Al-Qaeda in the Oval Office
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00:02:00.700 So are you guys ready for the most horrifying thing you've ever seen in your entire life?
00:02:05.140 No?
00:02:05.800 Okay, well, we're going to do it anyway.
00:02:07.100 This is a new app.
00:02:10.120 It's called Two Way, Two Way by Calum Worthy.
00:02:15.340 I guess he was a Disney star and he is behind this new app that allows you to summon the dead forever.
00:02:23.260 He's getting bigger.
00:02:28.560 See?
00:02:29.220 Oh, honey, that's wonderful.
00:02:31.740 Kicking like crazy.
00:02:33.380 He's listening.
00:02:34.560 Put your hand on your tummy and hum to him.
00:02:37.700 You used to love that.
00:02:43.460 Feels like he's dancing in there.
00:02:45.440 Oh, honey.
00:02:46.900 Mom, would you tell Charlie that bedtime story you always used to tell me?
00:02:50.420 Once upon a time, there was a baby unicorn who didn't know he knew how to fly.
00:02:56.760 This baby unicorn was like your mom because she didn't know that she knew how to fly,
00:03:02.320 but she knew how to do all kinds of fabulous things.
00:03:05.660 Hi, Grandma.
00:03:06.520 Hey, Charlie.
00:03:07.540 How was school today?
00:03:08.560 It was really fun.
00:03:09.720 I made this crazy shot in basketball.
00:03:11.220 I don't really care that much about basketball.
00:03:13.380 What about the crush?
00:03:15.200 Stop, Grandma.
00:03:16.000 Stop talking.
00:03:16.440 Just tell me one thing.
00:03:17.840 Look who's going to be a great grandmother.
00:03:18.920 Oh, Charlie.
00:03:20.420 Oh, congratulations.
00:03:23.080 She says that he's been kicking a lot, though.
00:03:24.860 Like, a little too much.
00:03:26.840 Tell her to put her hand on her tummy and hum to him.
00:03:31.340 You loved that.
00:03:34.640 You would have loved this moment.
00:03:36.780 You can call anytime.
00:03:38.020 You can call anytime, Charlie.
00:03:42.340 You can summon the dead whenever you like, Charlie.
00:03:45.480 And just remember, your grandma tells you to worship idols.
00:03:49.820 That's right, Charlie.
00:03:51.000 What was that, Grandma?
00:03:51.900 Oh, no, nothing, Charlie.
00:03:53.420 I was talking about baking cookies and how you need to get down on your knees and worship the devil, Charlie.
00:03:59.620 What?
00:03:59.860 Well, my grandma's telling me, too.
00:04:01.400 This is creepy, man.
00:04:03.540 It's really creepy.
00:04:04.700 It's obviously very psychologically damaging.
00:04:07.780 And I want to approach whatever servers.
00:04:11.360 No people.
00:04:12.240 I'm talking about whatever technology is housing this app.
00:04:15.560 And I want to explode it with a nuclear bomb.
00:04:18.340 I hate this so much.
00:04:19.860 I couldn't possibly hate it more.
00:04:21.660 The one thing I'll give to the Necromancy app is that it is the smartest, strongest way I have ever seen to get someone to continue a subscription.
00:04:33.580 You know, when I want to cancel my Audible subscription, it says, oh, well, don't you want to keep reading?
00:04:39.260 Not really.
00:04:40.660 Well, if you cancel, you're going to lose your credits for audiobooks.
00:04:44.620 Oh, well, I don't want to lose my credits.
00:04:46.380 Well, if you and they give you all these inducements when you try to cancel in this one, they say, hey, are you sure you want to cancel?
00:04:52.820 Because then you'll murder your mom forever.
00:04:55.440 You'll never get to talk to your mom again or your grandma or whatever.
00:04:59.080 You sure you want to kill your grandma?
00:05:02.120 I don't know.
00:05:02.940 Well, you better keep giving us $12.99 a month.
00:05:05.380 You want grandma to stay?
00:05:07.180 Please, Charlie, don't kill me.
00:05:09.680 Give me your $13 a month, please.
00:05:12.380 Oh, really horrifying.
00:05:13.240 And the N-word keeps coming up.
00:05:16.840 Obviously, the essential part of this app is the N-word, necromancy.
00:05:22.240 And for a lot of modern people, they're going to say, oh, you're exaggerating.
00:05:26.800 Oh, you're being a catastrophist or something.
00:05:30.200 It's not, this isn't actually necromancy.
00:05:33.760 You're not actually summoning the dead.
00:05:35.640 But I guess what I would have to ask to the modern materialist atheist is, what's the difference to you?
00:05:44.140 What's the difference?
00:05:45.140 Because necromancy is when you summon the dead for the purposes of divination, to tell you something about the future, or to, I don't know, answer a question, or just out of curiosity, which can become a sin.
00:05:56.640 And the Bible is pretty clear.
00:05:58.980 The Bible says, don't do that.
00:06:01.180 Don't summon the dead.
00:06:02.420 Don't engage in divination.
00:06:03.800 Don't, for all sorts of reasons.
00:06:06.120 Because you don't want to be like talking to demons.
00:06:08.460 You don't want to compromise your free will.
00:06:10.680 You don't, you know, death has a purpose.
00:06:12.440 And if you want to overcome death, I got great news for you.
00:06:16.900 There's a way to do it.
00:06:18.720 There is a man who is God, who died on the cross and conquered death.
00:06:22.140 And if we believe in him, we can have eternal life.
00:06:24.540 But the false idols that are promising you eternal life are, they're not going to come through for you in the end.
00:06:32.940 They're going to really screw you up.
00:06:34.920 Whether we're talking about seances or psychics or mediums or necromancy apps.
00:06:38.960 But the question that I would ask to the modern materialist, atheist type person is, what's the difference?
00:06:46.040 Because for you, you're saying human beings don't have souls.
00:06:51.360 There's no life after death.
00:06:53.240 Our loves, our joys, our thoughts, our everything are just delusions, actually.
00:06:58.460 We're big bags of meat.
00:06:59.820 We're just chemicals and physical matter.
00:07:02.620 And, you know, in as much as we think we have thoughts and desires, it's really just pistons firing off in our head.
00:07:10.340 So I guess then the question is, what's the difference between grandma on the app and the real grandma?
00:07:18.360 It's just the same difference as between the real grandma and the spirit that you call through the medium or whatever, through the traditional understanding of necromancy.
00:07:26.640 When you have a seance or something and you supposedly summon the ghost of grandma, I'm so furious about this.
00:07:34.600 I'm knocking over my microphone.
00:07:36.160 When you have a seance or something and you supposedly summon the ghost of grandma, which in reality means you probably do nothing or summon a demon, what are you doing?
00:07:44.560 You don't think that's like truly grandma in as much as there's no physical body.
00:07:48.440 It's just like the kind of spirit or some more ethereal version of grandma.
00:07:53.480 Well, it's the same thing in the app.
00:07:54.520 Yeah, it's not literally grandma in the sense that there's no body, but for all intents and purposes, it's the same thing.
00:07:59.580 Really, really bad.
00:08:01.340 And I guess my final question on this, I want to acknowledge that people will be tempted to do this because they miss their dead relatives.
00:08:09.500 That's what the app is preying on.
00:08:12.200 Just like people have been tempted to necromancy.
00:08:14.880 Remember, there was a show 15, 20 years ago, Crossing Over with John Edwards.
00:08:19.500 And it was this guy who said that he could speak to the dead.
00:08:22.180 And all these people who were grieving would go to his show and he would pray on them.
00:08:25.660 And he would make them think that he was speaking to their dead relatives.
00:08:30.880 That's totally a natural temptation.
00:08:33.680 All sin involves natural temptations.
00:08:35.920 I understand the allure of doing a ton of drugs and sleeping around with a bunch of women and gambling.
00:08:44.760 And I don't know.
00:08:45.200 I understand the allure of all those kinds of sins.
00:08:47.880 But what good can come of that?
00:08:49.520 As far as I can tell, it would lead you, if you were to use this app, it would just lead you to harp more on the fact that your loved ones are no longer really with you.
00:09:02.100 You can't hug them.
00:09:02.960 You can't hold them.
00:09:03.760 You can't have a real, it's the unreality of it would be sadder than the kind of joy of pretending you're, you know, seeing some simulacrum of your relative.
00:09:12.740 And what it would ultimately do is turn you away from the actual way that we can have eternal life.
00:09:17.260 And there's only one way that we can do that.
00:09:19.280 And it ain't through an app.
00:09:20.680 Now, speaking of AI, the number one billboard charting song right now was generated by AI, by an AI creation called Breaking Rust.
00:09:31.620 The song, Walk My Walk.
00:09:33.880 Been beat down, but I don't stay low.
00:09:47.160 Got mud on my jeans, still ready to go.
00:09:52.380 Every scar's a story that I survived.
00:09:56.220 I've been through hell, but I'm still alive.
00:09:59.700 They said, slow down, boy, don't go too fast.
00:10:05.220 But I ain't never been one to live in the past.
00:10:08.420 I keep moving forward, never looking back with a worn out hat and a six string strap.
00:10:16.860 You can kick rocks if you don't like how I talk.
00:10:20.780 I'm going to keep on talking and walk my walk.
00:10:24.120 Ain't changing my tone, ain't changing my song.
00:10:27.400 I was born this way, been loud too long.
00:10:30.840 You can hate my style, you can roll your eyes.
00:10:34.180 But I ain't slowing down, I was born to rise.
00:10:37.520 So kick them rocks if you don't like how I talk.
00:10:40.940 I'm going to keep on talking and walk my walk.
00:10:45.560 Everyone hates this.
00:10:47.860 I don't really hate it.
00:10:49.940 Everyone hates it, I don't really hate it.
00:10:51.160 I hate the necromancy app.
00:10:52.480 I hate summoning the demon ghost of grandma through your cell phone.
00:10:57.440 But this thing, it doesn't bother me at all.
00:11:00.140 It doesn't bother me at all.
00:11:01.840 Because as far as popular music goes, it's actually pretty good.
00:11:07.680 It sounds fine.
00:11:10.240 And because of the state of popular music, it doesn't really bother me.
00:11:16.660 AI should not be able to write a poem.
00:11:21.520 Or a song, I guess, like a really good song.
00:11:23.500 But let's just take the lyrics.
00:11:25.600 AI should not be able to write a poem.
00:11:31.380 Because to write poetry involves two things.
00:11:35.380 It involves sensual experience.
00:11:37.480 And it involves taking metaphors that have become dead and revivifying them.
00:11:43.000 Coming up with new metaphors that allow you to understand the world in a new way.
00:11:47.260 To see the world in a new way.
00:11:48.860 There's an excellent lecture on this by Jory Graham out of Harvard.
00:11:52.220 She's explaining why Wallace Stevens is a good poet and Walt Whitman is a terrible poet.
00:11:56.540 And part of it is the sensuality of it.
00:11:59.120 In the poetry of Wallace Stevens, when he's describing some piece of nature,
00:12:03.080 a grape or something like that, you experience the sensual phenomenon.
00:12:09.060 Whereas with Walt Whitman, he's just dealing in ideas.
00:12:11.720 So he doesn't really give you a place to see.
00:12:15.400 And the whole point of art and poetry is to have a sensual experience.
00:12:19.360 If it were just about ideas, if it were just about the moral of the story, say,
00:12:22.520 you could read an essay.
00:12:24.540 Then the proper medium for communicating that would not be art.
00:12:29.220 It would be some essay or book or something like that.
00:12:34.260 Same thing with the metaphors.
00:12:38.160 Our language basically comes about because we have these vivid images,
00:12:42.720 and then they become dead metaphors, and then we use them.
00:12:45.400 We say, so-and-so is hoisted with his own petard.
00:12:47.580 No one really knows what that means.
00:12:48.820 Most people don't know what petard even means.
00:12:50.620 It's like a bomb.
00:12:51.560 You get thrown off with your own bomb.
00:12:52.740 But we just use it.
00:12:53.340 It's just become a dead metaphor.
00:12:54.620 It means nothing.
00:12:55.400 What poetry does is it creates these new metaphors that we understand.
00:13:01.020 Okay, AI should not be able to do that because AI doesn't have any senses.
00:13:05.700 You have eyes and taste and smell and feel and everything.
00:13:09.940 AI doesn't have that.
00:13:10.920 AI is just a computer program.
00:13:13.060 Likewise, AI, large language models, are just running on all the language, all the metaphors.
00:13:19.460 So the one thing it should not be able to do is create new metaphors.
00:13:23.360 And so I understand people's hostility to the AI number one song.
00:13:29.780 Obviously, some people like it.
00:13:30.740 It hit number one on Billboard.
00:13:32.400 But I guess because popular music is already so derivative, because it's already such weak poetry,
00:13:40.640 because frankly, I think that the AI is doing it better than most of the human artists.
00:13:45.680 And that's fine.
00:13:47.280 I don't think it, in principle, I don't think it can ever beat the actually great human artists.
00:13:52.340 And so, all right, that's fine.
00:13:54.660 If we're just going to have slop pop music anyway, I'd rather have it made by an app than by some,
00:13:58.760 some, I don't know, kind of degenerate mediocrity.
00:14:02.380 Now, speaking of degeneracy, I want to get to the Epstein files.
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00:15:43.720 Four Republicans are joining the effort, which is almost exclusively led by Democrats,
00:15:49.960 Democrats and Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky, to make the Justice Department
00:15:55.460 release all the Epstein files.
00:15:57.700 At this point, I'm not even sure what the Epstein files are.
00:16:00.000 However, the one thing that I'm certain of, and I've said this from the beginning, and
00:16:06.600 it's not popular, but it's true.
00:16:10.340 We currently know everything that we are ever going to know about Jeffrey Epstein.
00:16:15.100 And we've known it for six months or a year or two years.
00:16:17.860 Everything that you are ever going to know about Jeffrey Epstein, you already know.
00:16:22.800 Because if what we're all hearing from not just the government, but from, I don't know,
00:16:29.560 all the established authorities, if that's all true, that Jeffrey Epstein was just some
00:16:33.140 weird sex freak, and that's it.
00:16:35.200 He was a rich sex freak.
00:16:36.980 He wasn't a super duper spy.
00:16:38.800 He was just a weird sex freak.
00:16:39.840 Then we already know that.
00:16:43.180 And if Jeffrey Epstein were a double, triple, super agent, James Bond guy, running all sort
00:16:48.980 of clandestine evil programs for various governments, if that were the case, we'll never find out.
00:16:54.120 Those documents don't exist anymore.
00:16:56.020 The people who would reveal it are dead.
00:16:58.420 It's not, we're not going to find out.
00:16:59.640 That's not how the government works.
00:17:02.220 But there are some Republicans who want to join with most of the Democrats and Thomas
00:17:09.060 Massey, who is a political enemy of Trump within the Republican Party, who President
00:17:12.880 Trump is trying to primary, and they want to release the files.
00:17:16.240 Now, I think Stephen A.
00:17:17.760 Smith, a Democrat, had the best take on this.
00:17:21.800 Ladies and gentlemen, keep in mind that the Epstein files were in existence and free to
00:17:27.420 have been opened during the Biden administration.
00:17:31.000 You were there for four years.
00:17:36.100 How come you didn't open it as a Democratic Party then?
00:17:40.060 What am I missing?
00:17:42.080 What am I missing?
00:17:43.420 It's a great question.
00:17:44.800 I made this point, actually, we filmed Bar Fight last night.
00:17:46.940 It was a lot of fun.
00:17:47.540 We'll try to have that out ASAP.
00:17:49.240 And at one point, at the very end, the Epstein files came up.
00:17:52.720 And I said, you know, the guys are trying to insinuate that Trump was seriously implicated
00:17:58.200 in the Epstein files.
00:17:58.980 And I have it on good authority that he's, obviously, he comes up because he knew Epstein.
00:18:02.180 But even very serious Democrats have told me he's not seriously implicated in any way.
00:18:09.020 But I guess my point was, if Trump were seriously implicated in the Epstein files,
00:18:15.180 don't we think that Biden would have released it?
00:18:18.600 Don't we think that the party that prosecuted Trump four times that tried to kick him off
00:18:22.600 the ballot and that raided his home and that justified his near assassination?
00:18:26.880 Don't we think those guys, if they had some real good dirt on him, would have used it?
00:18:32.580 Of course, they didn't.
00:18:34.420 And then to Stephen A's point, if it were such a big deal that we have to release the files,
00:18:40.660 why weren't the Democrats pushing for this when Biden was president a year ago?
00:18:45.880 Why weren't they pushing for this?
00:18:48.140 Or the handful of Republicans who are really, why weren't they pushing for it?
00:18:51.640 It seems to me it's just kind of a political op.
00:18:57.560 Because I guess the question is, what is the real accusation?
00:19:01.500 Is the accusation that Trump was, Trump is some like pedophile or something?
00:19:09.060 Give me a break.
00:19:09.620 It's totally ridiculous.
00:19:11.400 There's zero reason to believe that at all.
00:19:13.840 And many reasons not to believe that.
00:19:15.760 Is the accusation that there are a lot of rich guys who paled around with Epstein?
00:19:20.080 Yeah, okay, I believe that.
00:19:23.940 Would I like to know more about the Epstein case?
00:19:26.780 Yeah.
00:19:27.360 Do I think that Jeffrey Epstein just accidentally killed himself?
00:19:30.160 No.
00:19:30.880 Are there all sorts of inconsistencies in the handling of Jeffrey Epstein?
00:19:34.500 Yes.
00:19:35.860 Are there reasons to believe that he was at the very least used by intelligence agencies?
00:19:40.220 Yeah, totally.
00:19:42.240 But what are you going to get out of the files?
00:19:46.600 What does that mean?
00:19:47.420 I just don't, I think this is largely a distraction.
00:19:53.780 I'm not saying it's an open and check case.
00:19:57.120 I don't believe that for a second.
00:19:58.260 But I think the files thing, the fact that this is being led almost exclusively by Democrats
00:20:02.640 and Trump's chief rival, chief opponent in the Republican Party tells you this is a distraction.
00:20:10.120 And what's it a distraction from?
00:20:11.480 Is it a coincidence that the Dems are pushing this Epstein file thing immediately after their
00:20:17.040 stupid shutdown failed?
00:20:18.640 No, I don't think that's a coincidence at all.
00:20:20.180 I think the shutdown itself was an attempt to distract from Democrats' big problems like crime in cities.
00:20:27.800 The shutdown itself was a way to say, man, we're on the wrong side of every 80-20 issue
00:20:31.660 basically other than healthcare.
00:20:33.740 So we're going to shut the government down, which is a tactic that has always worked for us.
00:20:37.000 And we're ostensibly going to do it on the issue of healthcare,
00:20:40.020 which is the closest thing we have to a winning issue right now.
00:20:42.760 And then maybe public opinion will turn for us.
00:20:46.160 And that didn't happen.
00:20:48.140 Trump was not really blamed for the shutdown.
00:20:50.940 Their arguments on healthcare completely flopped.
00:20:53.240 And Republicans pointed out they actually were supporting healthcare for illegal aliens.
00:20:56.580 So they gave up on that.
00:20:58.040 And then two seconds later, they're trying to change the conversation back to Epstein.
00:21:01.120 That's what I think.
00:21:02.660 I would just like some more specificity on exactly what's supposed to happen.
00:21:06.560 Do I want to know more about how he died?
00:21:08.340 For sure.
00:21:08.840 Do I want to know more about his connection or lack of connections to intelligence agencies?
00:21:13.220 Definitely.
00:21:14.500 Are we going to get that in the files?
00:21:17.180 No, no chance.
00:21:18.340 No chance.
00:21:19.080 I suppose I could be proven wrong.
00:21:21.340 Please prove me wrong.
00:21:22.980 Read all the stupid files.
00:21:24.580 I said this when the JFK files came out.
00:21:26.660 I said anything real, anything juicy that could pertain to JFK is not going to be in the files.
00:21:31.740 So read, good, good.
00:21:32.880 And people attacked me for it.
00:21:34.560 Good.
00:21:34.780 Have you guys finished reading the 80,000 pages yet?
00:21:36.900 You find anything juicy?
00:21:37.720 No.
00:21:38.500 Same thing with the Epstein files.
00:21:39.880 But please, prove me.
00:21:40.560 I'd love to be proven wrong.
00:21:41.820 Okay.
00:21:42.240 Speaking of foreign affairs, various intelligence agencies, a former member of Al-Qaeda has just
00:21:49.080 met with President Trump in the Oval Office, and President Trump gave him some cologne
00:21:52.740 in a very funny interaction.
00:21:54.180 We will get to that momentarily, what it all means.
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00:23:10.740 Ahmed Hussein al-Shara, who is the president of Syria after Bashar al-Assad was ousted from
00:23:19.120 Syria.
00:23:20.420 He just met with President Trump in the Oval Office.
00:23:22.540 Ahmed Hussein al-Shara created al-Nusra Front with al-Qaeda.
00:23:29.040 He was a member of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
00:23:31.760 It's kind of weird to see al-Qaeda members in the Oval Office.
00:23:35.140 Here's their interaction.
00:23:37.840 This is men's fragrance.
00:23:40.500 It's the best fragrance.
00:23:50.400 Come here.
00:23:50.720 I have one here, sir.
00:23:53.080 Okay.
00:23:55.300 So what we'll do is just take that, Joe, put it in, and then the other one is your wife.
00:24:00.300 You guys, I never know, right?
00:24:06.100 I never know.
00:24:06.900 All right, I don't want to wait for the translation.
00:24:21.960 You get the point.
00:24:22.960 He goes, I love the double joke.
00:24:25.920 He goes at the top, he goes, all right, I'm going to spray this cologne on you.
00:24:29.660 You know, you're a Middle Easterner.
00:24:30.720 You probably wear a bunch of cologne.
00:24:32.280 It's just true.
00:24:32.680 They do.
00:24:33.160 They do.
00:24:33.400 I actually have a cologne from the Middle East called Passion of the Desert Shake.
00:24:36.440 They do.
00:24:36.760 They do.
00:24:37.080 They smell fragrant.
00:24:39.480 But then he goes, and here, I've got some perfume for your wife.
00:24:41.900 How many wives do you have?
00:24:43.240 I only have one wife, sir.
00:24:44.760 Oh, yeah, one.
00:24:45.360 Okay, I don't know.
00:24:45.940 You never know with you people.
00:24:50.080 I love it.
00:24:51.600 I love it.
00:24:52.280 I love the guy.
00:24:52.900 I don't know how you don't love the guy.
00:24:54.720 But let's get back to the bigger question, which is, why is a member of al-Qaeda in the Oval Office?
00:24:59.200 A member of al-Qaeda is in the Oval Office because he's the new president of Syria, because the old president of Syria got booted out.
00:25:06.760 And this kind of gets back to the broader discussion of geopolitics, America's role as a nation or an empire.
00:25:15.460 Israel has become a huge flashpoint in all of this.
00:25:17.860 And the reason that that guy, that that al-Qaeda guy is in the Oval Office right now is because Israel and Turkey went in and ousted the old guy.
00:25:31.540 And because the United States has supported groups that have tried to oust the old guy, which was Bashar al-Assad.
00:25:37.500 And Bashar al-Assad was, you know, as far as leaders of Syria go, he wasn't all that bad.
00:25:42.860 But Bashar al-Assad was not allied with the United States and American allies like our NATO ally, Turkey, or like our longtime ally, Israel, or like any.
00:25:52.240 Bashar al-Assad was allied with Russia and Iran.
00:25:55.500 And so that wasn't great for our geopolitical imperial position.
00:25:58.780 And so we ousted him.
00:26:00.020 And now we have this guy in here.
00:26:02.060 And I know it's kind of weird, but politics makes for really strange bedfellows.
00:26:05.480 And so when people ask all the time, they say, well, you know, what do we care about Syria for?
00:26:11.380 What do we care about Israel and Gaza for?
00:26:14.120 What do we care about Venezuela for?
00:26:15.640 That's a new one that's coming up because it looks like we're going to go to war with Venezuela.
00:26:18.420 What do we care about?
00:26:19.680 I don't know, all these other places.
00:26:21.600 The simple answer is we are an empire.
00:26:25.480 We just are.
00:26:26.660 We're a global empire.
00:26:27.840 I talked about this the other night in my Belmont Abbey speech, which is available on YouTube if you want to check it out.
00:26:32.100 And we are.
00:26:33.000 And empires have territories and provinces and nation states that are allied with them and that are opposed to them.
00:26:43.540 And it says nothing about the individuals there.
00:26:46.440 It's not even based really on morality.
00:26:48.640 It's just based on how the world shakes out.
00:26:51.360 And in this case right now, the guy who was in al-Qaeda in Iraq, the guy who founded al-Nusra Front with al-Qaeda, he just like kind of happens to be on our side.
00:27:02.460 And, you know, Saddam Hussein used to be on our side.
00:27:06.060 There's pictures of Don Rumsfeld meeting with Saddam Hussein, and then he stopped being on our side.
00:27:10.080 And that's just what happens.
00:27:12.080 And it is scandalous.
00:27:13.960 You know, I've had friends say, why was an al-Qaeda guy in the Oval Office?
00:27:17.500 Why are we making deals with the Taliban?
00:27:19.760 Why are we?
00:27:20.380 And the answer is because geopolitics is really messy and ugly in their alliances.
00:27:24.760 And there are all sorts of great debates and conversations to be had on whether an alliance with this country or that country is actually benefiting us.
00:27:32.600 Maybe the other country is getting more of the better end of the deal than we are.
00:27:35.920 Maybe we need to read.
00:27:36.860 But I guess my whole point on this is if you do not at the very least begin with the observation that, yes, we're a global empire.
00:27:47.020 And, yeah, we have interests overseas.
00:27:49.220 And that's just, you know, if you're starting from a place that we need to just retreat to our own borders and become a yeoman republic or whatever, at that point, you're so disconnected from reality that practical political arguments don't really pertain.
00:28:02.460 Just go to an ivory tower somewhere.
00:28:04.400 Go talk about political theory in the abstract.
00:28:06.660 But in practice, yeah, we're going to meet with an old al-Qaeda guy.
00:28:11.020 And if you're Trump, he's going to charm him and schmooze him and kind of make fun of him a little bit and dominate him and spray him with cologne because he's a Middle Easterner and ask how many wives he has.
00:28:21.140 Okay, speaking of religion, some good news in our religion, not the other religion, but ours.
00:28:26.380 Bible sales are up 36% since Charlie Kirk's assassination.
00:28:31.480 And that is a real silver lining.
00:28:33.320 But this is, according to Wall Street Journal reporting, Bible sales soared 36% starting in September, and they continue to be up.
00:28:45.120 This is based on data from the publishing sales tracker, Serkana BookScan.
00:28:49.740 This is irrefutable evidence of the Charlie church bump.
00:28:53.760 And a lot of people were saying after Charlie was assassinated that they noticed more people coming to church, checking it out.
00:28:58.920 I get stopped on the street by people who say, hey, Michael, you were friends with Charlie.
00:29:03.180 You know, you really, he changed my life or we're seeing more people at church, whatever.
00:29:07.040 It's really, really important that in a storm cloud, you want to find a little bit of a silver lining.
00:29:14.860 This is not totally new.
00:29:16.660 This is based on a trend that was already happening.
00:29:18.380 The decline of Christianity had already started to level off.
00:29:20.960 People were beginning to explore.
00:29:22.320 People were beginning to say, well, what do these eternal questions mean?
00:29:24.900 I think technology is a big part of that, getting us back to the horrifying AI app.
00:29:29.440 I think the fact that technology is changing means that we're going to reevaluate who we are and our position in the cosmos.
00:29:38.200 This has always happened.
00:29:40.080 You know, when the printing press came out, there were all sorts of theories about impression.
00:29:44.360 You know, the notion that what we see is kind of printed onto us and leaves a mark on our soul.
00:29:50.620 When the steam engine came out, that gave us Freudian psychology.
00:29:53.360 There's no Freudian psychology without the steam engine, the notion that we have to blow off a little steam, the theories of repression and all the rest.
00:29:59.800 When the computer came out, we had all sorts of theories of the mind that relate to computing.
00:30:04.940 We talk about how we're going to upload our consciousness or something like that.
00:30:08.120 AI is going to cause us once again to rethink our place in the cosmos, how the mind works, how the mind relates to the body and the soul, who we really are.
00:30:16.300 And that's a silver lining too, because there's going to be all sorts of horrific stuff that come with AI.
00:30:21.200 There could be, not certain, but there could be massive job losses.
00:30:25.820 There will be a huge upending and disruption of society.
00:30:29.400 You will get the occasional necromancy.
00:30:31.820 I mean, there's a lot of it.
00:30:32.680 There's going to get a ton of weird porn stuff.
00:30:34.680 It's going to be awful in many, many ways.
00:30:37.140 The silver lining to that is it's going to cause us to rethink our place in the cosmos, which is important.
00:30:42.860 Because you have to remember first things and ultimate realities.
00:30:47.860 And the ultimate reality is, our chief relationship is not going to be with a phone, and it's not going to be with a simulacrum of grandma telling us how happy she is about our new grandkid.
00:31:01.300 Our ultimate reality is going to be with the source and summit of all being, you know, with God, or we're not going to have an ultimate reality at all.
00:31:09.960 Okay, on this point of Charlie, one other good bit of news.
00:31:14.820 Harmeet Dillon, the deputy AG, has just told the LA Times that the DOJ is investigating Charlie's assassination as a potential hate crime.
00:31:23.840 Was Charlie Kirk's assassination a hate crime?
00:31:29.600 Again, I would have the same answer.
00:31:31.760 There are indications that it may have been a hate crime.
00:31:36.200 There is a Christian aspect to this.
00:31:40.420 There's a transgender aspect to this.
00:31:42.500 The fact that young people, and even not young people, have such a volume of evidence on their phones and their social media communications means that doing a comprehensive review of all the people involved, maybe beyond the actual suspect that's been charged in Utah in this case, means that there may be other evidence.
00:32:08.860 Are you investigating Charlie Kirk's assassination as a potential hate crime?
00:32:14.180 The DOJ is investigating it as a potential hate crime.
00:32:16.860 So there you have it.
00:32:17.740 Yes, it is being investigated as a potential hate crime.
00:32:20.760 Why?
00:32:20.920 Because there's a Christian aspect, because there's a transgender aspect.
00:32:24.260 This was an important point that came up in that Senate testimony that I went to a couple of weeks ago, which is now everyone admits political violence in America is primarily a left-wing problem.
00:32:36.160 They say in years past, it wasn't really a left-wing problem.
00:32:39.620 But all those numbers, including the one today that admits that it's a left-wing problem, all of them are predicated on data that exclude a ton of left-wing violence, like the BLM riots, like trans-on-Christian violence.
00:32:53.400 So Harmeet's saying, no, no, we have to include that.
00:32:56.380 We have to seriously consider these things.
00:32:57.880 And we need to ask ourselves if this is a hate crime.
00:33:03.540 Now, there are two ways that conservatives can deal with the notion of a hate crime.
00:33:07.380 The typical way is conservatives say all crimes are hate crimes, and this is ridiculous, and there shouldn't be special categories of crime based on identity groups.
00:33:18.240 It's the kind of liberal, libertarian right-wing view.
00:33:22.480 That's crazy.
00:33:23.120 This whole idea of hate crimes is crazy, and we need to repeal hate crime legislation or whatever.
00:33:28.020 Then there's the conservative-based-in-reality view, which is, look, this is how our justice system works now.
00:33:35.340 Certainly post-Civil Rights Act, post, I don't know, the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, identity politics.
00:33:42.940 After all of that, certain crimes are elevated as hate crimes.
00:33:48.400 And we can either deny that fact, we can deny our political order, we can deny that we're a global empire, we can deny these things, or we can recognize political reality and wield it to our advantage.
00:33:59.420 Yeah, there is such a category as hate crimes here.
00:34:03.240 And what we need to do is work within the political system to turn it toward good ends.
00:34:09.620 Right now, it's just being wielded almost exclusively by the left for unjust ends.
00:34:13.740 We need to turn it and wield it toward good ends.
00:34:15.660 Yes, yeah, absolutely.
00:34:17.460 That was a totally, totally right approach from Harmeet here and the DOJ, and obviously we'll keep tracking that story very, very closely.
00:34:24.800 There is still time to win my personal Daily Wire Lifetime membership.
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00:34:55.400 Now, my favorite comment yesterday is from that hate low fanatic who says,
00:34:59.540 When I grew up, black beauty was a horse movie.
00:35:04.600 That's because Michelle Obama said we need to all be educated on her black beauty.
00:35:08.980 But black beauty was a horse movie.
00:35:11.040 Do you remember?
00:35:11.720 That's a great, I like that, I like that joke.
00:35:13.940 Finally, finally, we've arrived at my favorite time of the week when I get to hear from you in the mailbag.
00:35:17.160 Our mailbag is sponsored by PureTalk.
00:35:18.400 Go to puretalk.com slash Knowles Canada.
00:35:19.820 Be well, I asked to make the switch today.
00:35:21.820 Take it away.
00:35:22.240 Okay, good question.
00:35:47.560 And my top line advice is going to be, that's good.
00:35:51.200 There's someone for everyone, isn't there?
00:35:53.040 And if you're the trad who likes the girl who seems like she's kind of like a bad girl, but she's not.
00:36:01.300 And I don't know, I'm sure there are plenty of women who either used to be more rebellious and then tradded up a little bit,
00:36:06.860 or even maybe they're tatted up a little bit, and so that's great.
00:36:10.220 There's someone for everyone.
00:36:11.620 Cool, man.
00:36:12.320 I'm not, that's fine.
00:36:13.920 However, here's the but.
00:36:15.580 Now, I would like for you to ask yourself, what is it about these tattoos or the girl that's kind of goth or whatever?
00:36:26.620 What is it that attracts me?
00:36:29.000 And is that good?
00:36:31.480 What does that tell me about myself?
00:36:33.760 Is that perfectly innocent?
00:36:35.480 Does that relate to something that's gone a little wrong in my thinking or behavior?
00:36:40.580 What's that?
00:36:41.060 That's all I'm asking.
00:36:44.020 I'm slightly kink shaming you.
00:36:46.400 That's the term, I think, right?
00:36:47.720 Kink shaming.
00:36:49.660 You just have to ask yourself.
00:36:51.960 But I'm not going all the way, like, hardcore Puritan, no, you know, the girl has to, I'm not saying she has to wear, you know, some homespun dress, floor length, and if anything less than that, you have to, you know, send her to the gallows.
00:37:06.800 I'm not saying that, but likewise, I'm not going fully lib and saying, you know, don't yuck my yum, whatever you want, man, it's all cool.
00:37:14.700 Don't kink shame or whatever.
00:37:16.240 I'm just, I'm kind of doing this middle ground, which is, yeah, that's okay, whatever, that's great.
00:37:20.660 There's someone for everyone.
00:37:21.520 But why?
00:37:22.320 What is it about the tattoos and the God?
00:37:25.220 What is it about these things that kind of turn you on?
00:37:28.920 Is that, don't give me, like, I don't know, I was born this way.
00:37:32.720 I don't give me, what is it, what is it about?
00:37:34.520 Does that tell you something about yourself?
00:37:36.480 Is that something you need to work on?
00:37:37.960 Is that, or is it perfectly innocent?
00:37:39.420 I don't know.
00:37:40.120 I don't know.
00:37:41.360 I'm just asking you to think about it.
00:37:43.400 Next question.
00:37:43.900 Hi, Michael.
00:37:45.720 Love all you do, especially how you share the faith.
00:37:48.180 To jump right in, my sister lives in New York City in an open marriage in a polyamorous relationship.
00:37:53.020 They have one son together.
00:37:54.580 My sister and I grew up Lutheran, but her atheist husband has moved her entirely away from any belief in God.
00:37:59.760 When my husband and I both converted to Catholicism two years ago, they were the family most angry with us.
00:38:04.820 We still don't understand this.
00:38:06.000 Recently, they shared that they're most disgusted with the part of our faith that disallows self-abuse, calling our faith abhorrent, especially since we're raising four boys, currently all six and under.
00:38:16.100 Please help me understand why they're so angry with us and why in the world this is the hill they're dying on with regard to our faith.
00:38:22.420 Wow.
00:38:23.820 Oh, I'm sorry to hear about, well, I'm sorry to hear about them, you know, just their general situation and strife within your family and everything.
00:38:32.120 That's gross, though not surprising.
00:38:33.960 For those who don't know, who don't understand the euphemism of self-abuse, we're talking about like that thing that teenage boys really like to do, you know, alone.
00:38:44.180 You know, we're talking about what Woody Allen's once described as sex with someone you love.
00:38:49.360 Anyway, that's fine.
00:38:51.040 That's a family show.
00:38:51.760 We can leave it at that.
00:38:54.000 Your sister is upset that you don't want your little boys to be good.
00:39:02.840 Man, that is sick.
00:39:04.100 That's sick.
00:39:04.720 It's totally gross, but it's not exactly surprising.
00:39:09.200 It's shocking, but it's not surprising.
00:39:10.720 Because of 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 4, describing the Gentiles as engaging in all sorts of lawlessness and licentiousness and debauchery and gross stuff.
00:39:23.080 And the fact that when you don't engage in that, they hate you for it.
00:39:29.400 That when you don't join people in like weird, debauched profligacy, they don't like you, they mock you, they turn on you.
00:39:37.480 I mean, this is probably, if you've ever been at a party and someone offers you drugs and you say, no, I'm good.
00:39:44.380 I don't want drugs.
00:39:45.160 They get angry with you.
00:39:46.640 I remember, I cannot tell you how many times in my life I have been offered cocaine.
00:39:50.180 I've never done cocaine, but I've been offered cocaine many times.
00:39:53.880 And I always thought it was so funny.
00:39:55.320 People say, hey, you want to do some cocaine?
00:39:57.260 And I say, no, I'm good.
00:39:58.720 No, thank you.
00:40:00.120 And they say, come on.
00:40:01.700 Why not?
00:40:03.260 So I don't know.
00:40:04.120 I just don't really want to.
00:40:05.260 I don't want to.
00:40:06.360 I don't need it like another bad habit.
00:40:08.180 That's, I'm fine.
00:40:09.460 Come on, just do.
00:40:10.640 And I thought, isn't cocaine expensive?
00:40:12.200 I heard cocaine was expensive.
00:40:13.140 Why are you trying to make me do the coke?
00:40:15.860 And it's because they feel a kind of a shame.
00:40:20.300 The fact that you don't want to do something that they want to do for often for moral reasons
00:40:26.580 makes them feel like, well, hold it.
00:40:28.120 Now I'm even more aware.
00:40:29.740 I have to confront the fact that I'm doing something that's not good.
00:40:32.040 And they get angry with you for it.
00:40:34.000 And obviously, your sister is in some gross, completely disgusting kind of lifestyle.
00:40:39.340 And the fact that you say, no, I'm not doing that.
00:40:43.100 And actually, I am joining the mystical body of Christ.
00:40:46.220 And I am in the clearest, most longstanding, doctrinally sound and consistent community that
00:40:58.620 there's ever been.
00:40:59.500 The only institution from antiquity that has survived in the West.
00:41:02.920 Yeah, of course, she's going to dislike you for it.
00:41:06.140 Yeah, it was ever thus.
00:41:07.320 It's in, it's in scripture.
00:41:08.360 Too bad.
00:41:08.800 Sorry.
00:41:09.020 I hope, I hope she comes around and I'm sure you'll be nice to her in the meantime, but
00:41:12.220 that's sick, man.
00:41:13.680 That's gross.
00:41:14.900 Totally gross.
00:41:17.020 I assume her response would be, don't be so judgy.
00:41:19.880 You know, don't be so, no, be judgy.
00:41:21.680 Be judgy.
00:41:21.980 You don't, don't condemn her, you know, per se.
00:41:25.700 But that behavior, that's gross, man.
00:41:28.220 Yuck.
00:41:28.880 Yuck.
00:41:29.620 Next one.
00:41:30.020 Hi, Michael.
00:41:31.660 I work for a tribal casino and wanted to get your perspective on legalized gambling.
00:41:37.820 It's an issue I haven't heard you talk much about, and there's so many different aspects
00:41:41.640 to it from state lotteries to sports betting, online gaming, and casinos.
00:41:46.600 What should our stance be as Christians and conservatives?
00:41:49.120 Should the government regulate it or prohibit it?
00:41:51.720 I really appreciate the time.
00:41:52.800 Love the show.
00:41:53.240 Thanks.
00:41:54.120 Great question.
00:41:55.140 I don't like it very much.
00:41:56.400 And I'm probably going to gamble today because I, a buddy of mine, buddy and I, actually
00:42:01.540 a couple of buddies and I, for over 10 years now, whenever we go out, get lunch, get drinks,
00:42:07.580 whatever, we will play a credit card roulette or rock, paper, scissors for the bill.
00:42:13.180 Which means if you do this with friends or family members over many, many years, you were
00:42:19.240 talking about many thousands of dollars going back and forth.
00:42:22.900 And in a way, I guess that's gambling.
00:42:25.160 But it's an acceptable degree of gambling, as far as I'm concerned, because you would
00:42:32.180 be willing to buy your buddy a drink.
00:42:34.900 You would be willing, you know, it's with your friends.
00:42:36.840 It's a kind of a little fun thrill.
00:42:39.600 Generally, though, I think people need to be a lot more cautious of gambling than they
00:42:43.020 are.
00:42:44.160 I don't like that sports gambling is being legalized everywhere.
00:42:47.820 I don't, you see some data come out that where sports gambling is legalized.
00:42:52.560 You see instances of like domestic abuse increase.
00:42:55.280 When people really, when people have that kind of ease of gambling, it can create major
00:43:00.080 problems.
00:43:01.440 It does prey on weaknesses and addictions.
00:43:06.300 You know, the lottery used to be handled by the mafia.
00:43:09.780 They used to run the numbers out of, you know, little mafia strongholds in the Bronx.
00:43:13.580 And then the government realized they could get in on it and make a ton of money.
00:43:16.780 So then the government came in and said, we're going to be the mafia.
00:43:19.760 It's not great.
00:43:21.040 I like a game of blackjack as much as the next guy.
00:43:23.480 But I guess my answer is it should not be totally unrestricted as the licentious and
00:43:29.380 the libertarians want.
00:43:31.120 I don't think it should be entirely prohibited.
00:43:34.560 That's not even really in the Christian tradition.
00:43:36.820 It's not that, you know, any kind of betting should be verboten.
00:43:40.900 It said it should be heavily, heavily regulated culturally and by the law.
00:43:45.220 Next question.
00:43:46.780 Hi, Michael.
00:43:47.520 My husband and I are both longtime listeners and Daily Wire Plus subscribers.
00:43:50.800 My question today is about your stance on kids and toddlers in church.
00:43:53.980 My husband and I have a three-year-old, an almost two-year-old and a six-week-old baby.
00:43:57.620 Our middle boy goes into church ready to rock every Sunday.
00:44:00.600 We just this morning left a particularly tough daily mass.
00:44:03.640 And I wondered where you stood about this issue.
00:44:05.900 When would you remove you and your child from mass?
00:44:08.220 Are you a cry room family?
00:44:10.140 I'm interested because I think this is a really divisive Catholic parenting topic,
00:44:14.380 but we're pretty anti Cheerios and snacks here.
00:44:16.980 Thanks.
00:44:17.900 Yes.
00:44:18.500 Oh, this is one of the most difficult issues for parents at church, parents of young kids
00:44:23.980 at church, because there's no clear answer.
00:44:27.340 On a lot of issues when it comes to church, there's like a clear divide between, you know,
00:44:32.260 the more conservative people and the liberal people.
00:44:35.760 You know, the more conservative people wear a suit and tie, the liberal people wear Birkenstocks
00:44:39.740 or something.
00:44:40.080 It's a clear issue.
00:44:41.160 You don't, the conservatives don't wear Birkenstocks and the libs don't wear suits and ties.
00:44:44.780 It's clear, separate.
00:44:46.420 On kids in mass, on kids in church generally, bring in the Protestants and Eastern Orthodox
00:44:51.080 here.
00:44:51.600 It is totally unclear because you can, you could have someone just come out and say,
00:44:58.440 no, we're going to keep our kids sitting in a pew the whole time.
00:45:00.840 If a church ain't crying, it's dying.
00:45:02.560 This is great.
00:45:03.480 We want there to be babies in the church.
00:45:06.100 And you could not know, is that a lib who said that?
00:45:08.560 Libs have fewer children, but it could be a lib.
00:45:10.840 That could be a conservative that you don't know.
00:45:12.780 Likewise, you'd have someone say, God loves children.
00:45:15.740 He doesn't want to hear him cry.
00:45:16.620 Get that kid out while he's screaming.
00:45:18.200 And you don't know, is that a lib?
00:45:19.700 Is that a conservative?
00:45:20.420 You have no idea.
00:45:21.840 We don't have a cry room in my church.
00:45:23.980 I know a lot of churches do.
00:45:25.120 We don't.
00:45:25.600 I go to a very traditional church.
00:45:27.040 I don't like the idea of cry rooms, sequestering the kids, but I don't want kids screaming,
00:45:32.480 running up to the altar willy-nilly.
00:45:35.340 I certainly don't.
00:45:36.100 No snacks in church.
00:45:37.360 Hate that.
00:45:39.480 I try to instill the fear of God in my children before we go into mass.
00:45:45.460 That's the stick.
00:45:46.580 I threaten to just viciously beat them if they make noise.
00:45:49.200 No, I'm joking.
00:45:50.100 But there are vague threats.
00:45:53.220 Keep them quiet.
00:45:54.500 And then there'll be a little carrot to say, boys, if you behave in church,
00:45:58.100 maybe we can go out to lunch after church.
00:46:00.580 That helps a little bit.
00:46:01.700 And then when they get a little out of line, sometimes I got to just take them and hoist
00:46:08.440 one of them over my shoulder and walk out of the church and give them a stern talking
00:46:11.780 to and go back in.
00:46:13.400 That's it.
00:46:13.920 That's my via media, moderate position.
00:46:16.680 You got the stick.
00:46:17.760 You got the carrot.
00:46:19.140 You take them out when it gets to be too much.
00:46:21.120 You leave them in when it's just a little like, meh, meh, meh.
00:46:23.740 Shh.
00:46:24.340 Meh, meh, meh, meh.
00:46:25.020 That's it.
00:46:26.620 That's it.
00:46:27.040 That's a very totally unsatisfying answer.
00:46:29.860 But it's, that's what I do.
00:46:32.060 And I think that's what you should do too.
00:46:33.520 Today's Fake Headline Friday.
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00:46:39.880 Thanks for listening.
00:46:42.140 Thank you.
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00:46:53.820 Thank you.