The Michael Knowles Show


Ep. 82 - Bannon Book: Fact vs. Fiction


Summary

The mainstream media are having a field day with the saucy anti-Trump book quotes, and President Trump is giving Steve Bannon the Rosie ODonnell smackdown. Then, Fleckis Talks, Austin Fletcher and Jacob Eary join the panel of deplorables to discuss Jeff Sessions' crackdown on pot, the old Haitian oregano, and how the Virginia House of Delegates highlights the moral error of Never Trump. Finally, the mailbag.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The mainstream media are having a field day with the saucy anti-Trump book quotes
00:00:05.320 and President Trump's giving Steve Bannon the Rosie O'Donnell smackdown.
00:00:09.580 We will analyze the claims and separate fact from fiction.
00:00:13.240 Then, Fleckis Talks, Austin Fletcher and Jacob Eary will join the panel of deplorables
00:00:17.780 to discuss Jeff Sessions' crackdown on pot, the old Haitian oregano,
00:00:22.480 and how the Virginia House of Delegates highlights the moral error of never Trump.
00:00:27.140 Finally, the mailbag.
00:00:28.380 I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:38.280 This entire show today is going to be page six, basically.
00:00:41.600 It's just saucy claims and pot and all this sort of stuff.
00:00:44.260 But before we can get to any of that, we have to talk about something that I am very excited about now.
00:00:49.580 You know how I always say they never pay me here?
00:00:51.360 They don't give me any money to show up?
00:00:52.940 They do occasionally, I'll get a freebie from one of the advertisers.
00:00:56.560 And this is a really good one.
00:00:57.580 This is bowl and branch sheets.
00:00:59.820 So it is very important.
00:01:01.560 If you're like me and you spend 14 to 18 hours a day sleeping, you're going to want to make sure that you're on good sheets.
00:01:08.020 And look, I'm a cheapskate sometimes.
00:01:10.360 I'll go and I'll buy the worst sheets that you can find.
00:01:13.120 The cheapest sheets at the local store or on the internet and they will feel like sandpaper.
00:01:19.440 They will chafe my skin.
00:01:20.800 They are not comfortable at all.
00:01:22.200 But even if you're not like me, you still probably spend anywhere from six to eight hours a night on your sheets.
00:01:28.280 You should treat yourself.
00:01:29.580 We live in decadent times.
00:01:31.440 Treat yourself to nice sheets and bedding.
00:01:33.860 You will not regret it.
00:01:35.360 I am telling you.
00:01:36.680 Now, some of these sheets, if you want really, really high quality sheets, they can cost, I kid you not, $1,000.
00:01:43.040 And they're worth it, by the way.
00:01:44.820 But bowl and branch has something special.
00:01:47.100 You can buy directly from them.
00:01:48.720 So you're essentially paying wholesale prices.
00:01:51.720 So you're getting, you know, these luxury sheets could be $1,000.
00:01:54.600 Bowl and branch sheets are only a couple hundred bucks for just the exact same high quality.
00:01:59.780 Everything bowl and branch makes from bedding to blankets is made from pure 100% organic cotton.
00:02:05.320 This means that they start out super soft.
00:02:07.420 They get even softer over time.
00:02:09.660 Unlike my sandpaper sheets where they start out really crinkly and then I get even softer over time.
00:02:14.380 You don't want that.
00:02:15.160 You want the sheets to get better as you use them.
00:02:17.500 So everyone who tries bowl and branch loves them.
00:02:19.940 I can tell you this for sure.
00:02:21.400 That's why they have thousands of five-star reviews.
00:02:23.720 Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, they're all talking about bowl and branch.
00:02:27.260 Three U.S. presidents sleep on bowl and branch sheets.
00:02:30.600 Three U.S. presidents and one presidentially endorsed best-selling author of a completely blank book.
00:02:36.540 I think one group of that is more impressive than the other.
00:02:40.100 They all sleep on bowl and branch.
00:02:41.940 The shipping is free.
00:02:43.060 You can try them for 30 nights.
00:02:44.600 If you don't love them, send them back for a refund.
00:02:46.700 And you will not want to send them back.
00:02:48.720 I'm telling you.
00:02:49.240 There's no risk.
00:02:49.980 There's no reason not to give them a try.
00:02:52.280 Really, just give them a try.
00:02:53.460 It's completely free to try them out and you are going to be hooked.
00:02:56.480 I promise you.
00:02:57.380 To get started right now, my listeners, get $50 off your first set of sheets.
00:03:02.380 That goes a long way toward getting a set of these really nice sheets.
00:03:05.240 It's got to be your first set.
00:03:06.480 So, if you're hoarding bowl and branch sheets, sorry, you're not going to get the discount.
00:03:10.220 But for the rest of you, you're going to get it.
00:03:12.320 Go to bowlandbranch.com, B-O-L-L, branch, B-R-A-N-C-H, dot com, promo code Michael.
00:03:21.980 That's bowlandbranch.com today for $50 off your first set of sheets, B-O-L-L, and branch.com, promo code Michael, M-I-C-H-A-E-L.
00:03:33.900 Really, really great company, great product.
00:03:36.040 Go check it out.
00:03:37.480 Okay, let's get right into all of the sauciness.
00:03:40.240 Now that I did roll out of bed off my bowling branch sheets and saw all of the crazy, scintillating headlines today, let's go through the claims.
00:03:48.580 We've been talking about this book all day.
00:03:49.940 There's a hot book that's going to come out over Donald Trump in the White House that's saying he's just awful, everything's chaos.
00:03:56.220 Steve Bannon got smacked down for this.
00:03:58.600 Let's go through and see which claims are credible, which are not.
00:04:00.880 Here they are.
00:04:01.300 Joe Curl compiled a great list at the Daily Wire.
00:04:04.240 A lot of other authors have, too.
00:04:05.940 Number one, he's not only crazy, he's stupid.
00:04:10.780 Billionaire and Trump confidant Thomas Barack Jr. told a friend, Barrack, Barack, you know, said this is totally false.
00:04:18.660 Wolf never ran the quote by him to ask if it was accurate.
00:04:22.180 He also said it's clear to anyone who knows me that those aren't my words and inconsistent with anything I've ever said.
00:04:28.000 What do we think about this?
00:04:29.720 I guess he could have said it.
00:04:31.060 If he did say it, he wouldn't, he certainly would deny it at this point.
00:04:35.360 That said, what motivation does he have to say it?
00:04:37.540 What motivation does he have to say it to some nobody, lefty reporter or writer?
00:04:42.920 I don't see the motivation there.
00:04:44.420 I'm skeptical that he said it.
00:04:45.920 I'm skeptical that the writer, Michael Wolf, heard this in any credible way.
00:04:50.440 Number two, Melania was in tears and not of joy on election night.
00:04:55.220 They didn't want to win the White House.
00:04:56.820 They just didn't want to be.
00:04:57.820 This is one, he wrote, the author of this book wrote a piece in the New York Magazine and said, Trump didn't really want to be president.
00:05:05.100 This is hard to believe, guys.
00:05:06.660 He's been talking about being president for 30 years.
00:05:09.580 He has been encouraged to run for 30 years.
00:05:12.180 He flirted with it in the year 2000 and he almost ran for the Reform Party nomination.
00:05:16.820 He seriously considered it in 2012.
00:05:18.760 He's been talking about issues of American policy, both domestic and international, for decades.
00:05:24.480 Even during the Reagan administration, he took out a big ad in the New York Times to question an aspect of the Reagan foreign policy.
00:05:32.000 I just don't believe it.
00:05:33.360 People don't know what it takes to run for even dog catcher or Congress or governor, much less president of the United States.
00:05:40.140 If you don't want it, you're not going to do it.
00:05:42.260 He wanted to win.
00:05:43.300 That's total nonsense.
00:05:44.660 Number three, when Roger Ailes suggested Trump tap former House Speaker John Boehner for White House Chief of Staff, he said, who's that?
00:05:52.020 Don't you get it?
00:05:52.760 Because Trump's such a dummy, he didn't know who the Speaker of the House was, right?
00:05:56.660 Ridiculous.
00:05:57.560 We know, Donald Trump tweeted about John Boehner in 2013.
00:06:02.160 He said, quote, Speaker John Boehner, who I like, should never have agreed to raise taxes because the Republicans got absolutely nothing for it.
00:06:09.440 He sent out another tweet, or rather, Don Jr. agrees with that.
00:06:15.640 But here's another tweet from Donald Trump about John Boehner.
00:06:19.300 In 2015, Trump tweeted,
00:06:20.600 Wacky Glenn Beck, who always seems to be crying worse than Boehner, speaks badly of me only because I refuse to do his show.
00:06:26.780 A real nut job.
00:06:28.480 You can't have it both ways.
00:06:29.520 You can't have it and say that all Donald Trump ever does is watch cable news.
00:06:34.920 He's glued to Fox News morning, noon, and night, but he's never heard of any of the things that are talked about there.
00:06:39.860 Sorry, guys.
00:06:40.520 You have to choose a line of ridiculous attack, and Michael Wolff is trying to have it both ways.
00:06:45.520 It just isn't true.
00:06:46.600 Another quote from there is,
00:06:47.800 Working with the president was like trying to figure out what a child wants.
00:06:51.700 This was attributed to Katie Walsh, White House staffer.
00:06:54.880 She denies having said it.
00:06:55.980 He's done what he said he would do.
00:06:59.260 That's what has shocked so many people.
00:07:01.020 You know, it sort of surprised me as well.
00:07:03.540 But he has done it.
00:07:05.080 So trying to figure out what he wants, he's been saying what he wants for 30 years.
00:07:08.040 This is one of the crazy aspects of Trumpism.
00:07:10.540 They say he's playing 4D chess.
00:07:12.280 He isn't playing 4D chess.
00:07:13.540 He said he would nominate originalists.
00:07:15.120 He has.
00:07:15.720 He said he would cut regulations.
00:07:17.200 He has.
00:07:17.860 He said that he would lower taxes.
00:07:20.100 He has.
00:07:20.700 He's just doing what he said he would do.
00:07:22.860 And this is confusing a lot of people.
00:07:24.660 Certainly not like working for a child.
00:07:27.620 Number five, Wolf reports that six weeks into office, Donald Trump still had not determined
00:07:31.940 what the new administration's top priorities would be and said that operations in the West
00:07:35.740 Wing were chaotic.
00:07:37.120 Ditto on the last point.
00:07:38.620 Exactly ditto on the last point.
00:07:40.340 We know what the agenda has been.
00:07:44.700 He said it during the campaign and he's fulfilled it.
00:07:47.620 Now, what about Michael Wolf?
00:07:49.000 We know that this guy has very little credibility.
00:07:51.500 This isn't his first book.
00:07:54.040 He's been around for a while.
00:07:55.260 He admitted to lying in his first book, Burn Rate, which was about his time in the early
00:08:00.060 days as an internet entrepreneur.
00:08:02.340 You know, the dodgiest profession imaginable.
00:08:05.120 The dodgiest profession until like Bitcoin broker or something.
00:08:08.340 So what are some of those allegations?
00:08:09.680 He wrote in that book, quote,
00:08:11.040 How many fairly grievous lies have I told?
00:08:13.480 How many moral lapses had I committed?
00:08:15.460 How many ethical breaches had I fallen into?
00:08:17.600 Like any other financial conniver, I was in short-term mode.
00:08:20.680 So this is a guy who has no credibility.
00:08:22.460 He's admitting he has no credibility as a matter of honesty.
00:08:25.640 He's saying that he's a liar.
00:08:27.100 His business collapsed in 1997.
00:08:29.260 Surprise, surprise for anyone familiar with the dot-com bubble.
00:08:32.780 That book came under siege.
00:08:34.320 He took very few notes, yet he recounted long conversations verbatim.
00:08:37.880 Judith Regan, a classmate of Wolfe's at Vassar, disputed every single thing that he wrote
00:08:43.300 about her in that book and said that she hadn't talked to him in 30 years, and he admitted
00:08:47.200 that he hadn't talked to her in 30 years.
00:08:49.160 Andrew Sullivan, the political columnist, accused Wolfe of fabricating whole quotes of
00:08:54.380 his in 2001.
00:08:55.780 In total, 13 subjects of Burn Rate said that Wolfe invented quotes from them, whole cloth.
00:09:02.460 So the guy has no credibility.
00:09:03.800 The New Republic's Michelle Cottle wrote about him, quote,
00:09:07.880 Much to the annoyance of Wolfe's critics, the scenes in his columns aren't recreated
00:09:11.860 so much as created, springing from Wolfe's imagination rather than from actual knowledge
00:09:17.200 of events.
00:09:18.200 Even Wolfe acknowledges that conventional reporting isn't his bag.
00:09:22.020 He's adroit at making the reader think that he has spent hours and days with his subject
00:09:25.980 when in fact he may have spent no time at all.
00:09:29.020 But of course, none of that will deter the mainstream media, will it?
00:09:31.960 Absolutely not.
00:09:32.800 They are having a field day with all of this.
00:09:35.020 That's because they are less credible than Wolfe.
00:09:37.040 Esquire says,
00:09:38.640 If Michael Wolfe's access to Trump surprises you, then you don't know Michael Wolfe.
00:09:43.100 What?
00:09:43.620 New York Magazine ran, Donald Trump didn't want to be president.
00:09:46.400 Haha.
00:09:47.120 Vanity Fair wrote,
00:09:48.420 How Michael Wolfe stuck a shiv in Donald Trump.
00:09:51.480 Cosmo, five bombshell revelations about Donald and Melania's relationship from new behind-the-scenes
00:09:57.760 book.
00:09:58.220 Okay.
00:09:59.900 All ridiculous.
00:10:01.000 And by the way, when Ed Klein wrote that book about the Clinton, or about Barack Obama
00:10:05.540 rather, called Amateur, did we see bombshell, bombshell, bombshell in all of those news
00:10:09.700 outlets?
00:10:10.060 Absolutely not.
00:10:11.000 We saw people calling his credibility into question, calling the quotes into question,
00:10:14.280 but not so here.
00:10:15.300 The story is just too good.
00:10:16.420 Now, what about the Bannon quotes?
00:10:17.620 What does this mean about all of the Bannon quotes?
00:10:19.720 Wolfe alleges that Bannon said, quote, Donald Jr. is a traitor, that he's treasonous, that
00:10:25.920 he's going to be cracked like an egg on national TV, that the Russia meeting was treasonous,
00:10:30.480 that Breitbart's not a legitimate news source, that son-in-law Jared Kushner is greasy, and
00:10:34.820 that they're sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category 5.
00:10:39.160 Now, Bannon was apparently the guy who allowed Wolfe into the White House.
00:10:42.820 His access appears to have ended, Wolfe's access, when John Kelly took charge there.
00:10:47.060 Reports came out as early as August that Trump blamed Bannon for the leaks.
00:10:51.440 David Martosco, a conservative writer, wrote, in case it's not clear to everyone by now,
00:10:57.060 Steve Bannon was the single biggest leaker in the White House in the West Wing until
00:11:00.980 his departure.
00:11:02.280 Don Jr. agrees.
00:11:03.480 Donald Jr. wrote, Steve had the honor of working in the White House and serving the country.
00:11:09.180 Unfortunately, he squandered that privilege and turned that opportunity into a nightmare
00:11:12.640 of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying, and undermining the president.
00:11:16.380 Steve is not a strategist.
00:11:18.660 He's an opportunist.
00:11:19.940 Plus, most damning of all, Trump smacked him down yesterday.
00:11:22.980 Now, Trump's natural reflex is to call BS on the mainstream media, to call fake news.
00:11:27.020 For some reason, though, he seems to think Bannon really talked to this guy.
00:11:30.760 Doesn't mean the quotes are truthful.
00:11:32.540 Bannon didn't even join the campaign until two months after the meeting he allegedly calls
00:11:38.160 treasonous took place.
00:11:39.660 But Trump seems to think that he at least said it, which makes us perhaps conclude that he's
00:11:46.560 right about Bannon here.
00:11:47.600 At least these Bannon quotes are right.
00:11:49.420 At least Bannon talked to him.
00:11:51.120 The writer Michael Wolff says that he has tape of Bannon, so we'll have to see about that.
00:11:55.940 But the Trumpiness of all of it makes me think that at least some of this is true.
00:11:59.440 Let's bring on the panel to describe it.
00:12:01.640 We have Fleckus Talks, Austin Fletcher, and we have Jacob Berry.
00:12:05.580 Guys, what do you think?
00:12:06.260 Is this legitimate?
00:12:07.360 Is Bannon done Fleckus?
00:12:09.400 What do you think?
00:12:11.400 I think it is.
00:12:12.440 I was hoping that we would have heard something from Bannon before everyone started responding.
00:12:18.000 But once we got all the responses from Don Jr. and President Trump himself, it kind of
00:12:22.720 seems like what's said was said, and you can't really come back from it now.
00:12:26.320 It's like when you kind of hold things in the back of your mind when you have a girlfriend
00:12:30.020 or a certain relationship, and then once you say those certain things that you were holding
00:12:33.700 in forever, you can't really take them back, and it's never going to be the same.
00:12:37.100 So it's sad to see him go, and it's a shame to potentially lose something like Breitbart,
00:12:41.920 a big ally of the president.
00:12:43.320 Hopefully, he goes his separate way from there, and we don't lose Breitbart.
00:12:47.720 That's true, and it is pretty gross to think of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump as boyfriend
00:12:52.660 and girlfriend up on Makeout Point or something in an old Cadillac, but that's neither here nor there.
00:12:58.380 Jacob, what do you think?
00:12:59.100 I think Bannon's pretty much done.
00:13:01.860 If he finds some way to bounce back, it's going to be in Dick Morris style, you know,
00:13:07.720 where he just kind of makes appearances on Newsmax TV, I think.
00:13:10.920 And gets caught doing weird things with hookers in hotel rooms.
00:13:13.300 Sure, yeah, yeah.
00:13:13.940 A lot of possibilities here, sure.
00:13:16.000 But I honestly think he's done.
00:13:17.660 I think that he got fired, and he decided to get a little bit of vengeance, but it's really
00:13:24.940 hard to get vengeance on the president of the United States, especially when you don't
00:13:29.160 know anything.
00:13:30.440 So I honestly think that he's had his time, he had his moment in the sun, and no one really
00:13:36.040 even knew who he was until this election.
00:13:38.240 The mainstream media kind of made Bannon a name.
00:13:41.300 So I think that when all this is settled down, when the dust settles, we'll be going, Bannon?
00:13:47.160 Bannon who?
00:13:49.080 Absolutely.
00:13:49.640 I don't know the guy personally, but a number of my friends do.
00:13:52.240 Some of them sort of like the guy.
00:13:53.960 Some of them say he's just a monster.
00:13:56.780 So I really don't care about Steve Bannon.
00:14:00.220 One thing also that makes this seem kind of legit is that apparently Wolf's access ended
00:14:05.960 way back right when Bannon got kicked out of the White House.
00:14:09.480 So it could have been that he was salty about getting fired, salty about how things were
00:14:13.160 going.
00:14:13.900 He gave these quotes out, and now they're dropping.
00:14:16.580 It's really a matter of liberty for me.
00:14:18.940 That's all I care about in all of this is the freedom of it all, my freedom in particular.
00:14:23.020 So Donald Trump has enacted a wonderfully effective conservative agenda.
00:14:28.220 He's done it pretty quickly within his first year.
00:14:30.620 I like that.
00:14:31.260 I want more of that.
00:14:32.300 I want lower taxes, more tax reform, less regulation, more originalist justices who are
00:14:37.900 going to respect the Constitution, more strength and credibility abroad.
00:14:42.960 I don't really care who's doing it.
00:14:44.580 If Steve Bannon is going to help that, great.
00:14:46.840 Be my guest.
00:14:47.600 Go on and help it.
00:14:48.340 But if Steve Bannon is going to undermine this presidency, undermine this administration,
00:14:52.520 because of some personal vendetta or because he wants to burn down certain aspects of the
00:14:56.640 Republican Party, sorry, buddy.
00:14:58.520 See you later.
00:14:59.100 I don't know.
00:15:00.040 No, thank you.
00:15:00.860 No, no, no.
00:15:01.700 More give me the freedom.
00:15:03.220 Give me the freedom.
00:15:03.960 And if you're going to turn on that and betray somebody and betray a movement and betray your
00:15:09.260 president, your candidate, then you're not going to be able to do it.
00:15:12.960 It's like, if these quotes are true and they do seem fairly legitimate, then that big shoe
00:15:19.360 of Donald Trump just came down and squashed the guy.
00:15:22.600 He might be trying to crawl out from under it, but it's no good.
00:15:26.080 We just have to keep calm and make America great again.
00:15:29.160 OK, let's get to the news.
00:15:30.920 So this is sort of Trumpy news.
00:15:32.760 The Virginia House of Delegates now remains in Republican hands because of a lottery in
00:15:39.360 a hat.
00:15:40.360 David Yancey, a candidate there, beat his opponent, Democrat Shelley Simons, after somebody pulled
00:15:47.300 a name out of a hat.
00:15:48.140 It was an exact tie.
00:15:49.900 There were multiple recounts.
00:15:51.840 And so I guess in the Virginia House of Delegates, the way you resolve that for the first time
00:15:56.280 in the centuries is you just reach into a hat and pull out the Republican, thankfully.
00:16:00.320 Jacob, is this race the ultimate demonstration of the moral error behind Never Trump, behind
00:16:06.980 well, I'd like Trump to win, but I don't want to vote for him because it's icky?
00:16:10.980 Um, I don't think so.
00:16:12.760 I honestly think that this was just, uh, like you said, it was just recount after recount.
00:16:18.060 And I think the people just wanted to see someone seated.
00:16:20.740 So they brought in this old archaic rule.
00:16:23.460 But as far as, uh, uh, whether Never Trumpers have anything to do with this, I don't think.
00:16:28.960 Remember, there's two types of Never Trumpers.
00:16:30.920 They're the, we're going to vote for Hillary because we hate Trump for some reason.
00:16:34.620 And then there are the David French, kind of Ben Shapiro, and me included in that, who
00:16:39.400 are just kind of like, well, we don't believe Trump is a conservative.
00:16:42.100 And so far he has been his first year.
00:16:44.520 I'll give him credit.
00:16:45.660 The most conservative administration since at least Reagan and possibly Coolidge.
00:16:48.760 Sure.
00:16:49.000 Uh, well, I wouldn't go that far.
00:16:50.280 But I will, uh, I will say that we're still, this administration is still young.
00:16:55.340 So we could see that, uh, lefty side that we know existed in Trump, at least for some
00:17:00.060 time.
00:17:00.460 But as far as this delegate situation goes, I think that they just wanted to end this race.
00:17:06.260 And they're like, let's just get this over with so that we can seat someone in this house.
00:17:10.300 I'm not going to let you off that easy.
00:17:12.040 Jonah Goldberg said that he wanted Trump to win.
00:17:15.380 That if the, if the vote were a perfect tie and it came down to him to decide the winner,
00:17:20.400 he would have picked Trump.
00:17:21.600 But nevertheless, he will never, ever vote for Donald Trump because it's icky.
00:17:27.500 Because it would be hard to look at himself in the mirror.
00:17:30.480 He's not good enough for me.
00:17:32.140 He does, or something like that.
00:17:33.320 Right.
00:17:33.920 And his premise is that his vote doesn't matter.
00:17:37.300 My vote doesn't matter.
00:17:38.420 This election shows us even one single vote can matter.
00:17:42.020 And not just in that little house of delegates election, but it's,
00:17:45.380 throws the entire body.
00:17:47.460 Without this guy winning, the Republicans would not control the Virginia House of Delegates
00:17:51.480 anymore.
00:17:52.300 So, again though, I'm not sure what this really has to do with, with Trump as far, I know
00:17:57.620 you're, I know you're trying to connect it to the one person.
00:17:59.700 I'll explain to you what it has to do with never Trump.
00:18:01.600 Never Trumpers were Republicans who said, I would like Trump to win generally because
00:18:05.800 it would be better than Hillary Clinton, but I don't want to actually vote for him.
00:18:09.660 And it's okay because my vote doesn't matter.
00:18:11.800 And what this shows is that your vote does matter.
00:18:13.800 Every single vote can matter, can throw a whole election.
00:18:17.300 You know, I don't think that was actually a never Trump argument.
00:18:20.480 That was Jonah Goldberg's argument.
00:18:21.640 That may have been Jonah Goldberg's.
00:18:22.340 He was a leading never Trumper.
00:18:23.720 Well, okay.
00:18:24.440 He was a big name never Trumper.
00:18:25.840 I wouldn't say he like was the face of the movement.
00:18:28.240 Really, I would probably have to say that Glenn Beck was probably the face of the never
00:18:31.600 Trumpers.
00:18:32.040 But I think that as far as this goes, remember, I voted.
00:18:36.360 I didn't vote for Trump or Hillary.
00:18:38.360 So yes, I disagree.
00:18:39.980 I think you should vote in these situations.
00:18:43.840 And maybe Mickey Mouse will win.
00:18:45.160 And maybe Mickey Mouse will win.
00:18:46.540 But I know someone who hated Trump, but they voted for Trump because they liked Pence.
00:18:50.960 And if that argument had been presented to me, hey, if we will at least get Pence as
00:18:55.900 the VP in a more intellectual way, I might have been more persuaded with that argument.
00:19:01.740 But to me, this Virginia House race just represents just how volatile the elections have become
00:19:10.360 in the era of Trump.
00:19:11.540 And how important every single vote is.
00:19:13.200 In the spirit of Republican unity, I will leave it there.
00:19:15.760 But I think that conservatives and Republicans should take a lesson from this election and
00:19:21.500 from the closeness of certain races and the actual stakes for the country rather than for
00:19:26.200 how one looks in the mirror.
00:19:27.540 Fleckis, is a random hat drawing the best solution to a tied election?
00:19:35.160 Besides, obviously, recounting and recounting and recounting.
00:19:38.420 Yeah.
00:19:38.940 The gore model.
00:19:39.900 I don't think it's that bad.
00:19:42.180 I think the Democrats should find a way to make this the norm because 50-50 odds, I'll
00:19:47.600 take that all day.
00:19:48.460 That's better than anything you'll ever find in Vegas.
00:19:51.000 If the Democrats could do 50-50 odds with the whole thing and pull everyone's name out
00:19:54.460 of a hat, I mean, that blue wave might happen.
00:19:56.660 That's where you're going to get a lot of dead people out of the hat.
00:19:58.760 They've been trying versions of this strategy for a fairly long time.
00:20:02.160 Absolutely right.
00:20:02.940 I also do kind of like the whimsy of it, of pulling the name out of the hat, because
00:20:07.060 so frequently, one of the negative sides of democratic politics, especially in an era
00:20:12.860 where politics and entertainment are exactly the same thing, is that people treat politics
00:20:17.240 like religion.
00:20:18.320 They treat it like the sole focus of their life, and that's what give their lives meaning.
00:20:24.260 Obviously, we don't have a monarch in America in countries with a constitutional monarchy.
00:20:28.140 It's sort of the monarchy that embodies the spirit of the country and is the head of state,
00:20:33.260 and the government kind of changes, but there's that stability and continuity.
00:20:37.880 In liberal democracies like the United States, we don't really have that.
00:20:42.180 And so I do like the idea of sometimes it's just going to be pulled out of a hat.
00:20:46.300 You're going to roll the dice.
00:20:47.360 That's your leader, and it's going to be okay.
00:20:49.520 The government shouldn't dictate every aspect of your life.
00:20:52.800 And if it is doing that, then you have to fix something about your government, more importantly,
00:20:56.420 about your culture.
00:20:57.000 Speaking of the culture, Jeff Sessions' Justice Department is cutting an Obama-era dereliction
00:21:02.840 of duty and finally enforcing federal law on marijuana.
00:21:06.800 So for years, pot dispensaries have cropped up all over California and other states with
00:21:11.080 legal marijuana, even though those state laws violate federal law.
00:21:15.700 Now, Fleckis, you strike me as no stranger to the old Haitian oregano.
00:21:19.720 What should the conservative position on pot legalization be?
00:21:23.560 Michael, my mother watches this show.
00:21:27.800 I'm sorry, Mrs. Fleckis.
00:21:31.420 Mrs. Talks.
00:21:33.140 Mrs. Talks, exactly.
00:21:34.500 I'm kind of disappointed because, realistically, I think California was heading towards this
00:21:41.540 liberal utopia, which is also basically hell.
00:21:45.160 It's a sanctuary state, much of which is on fire.
00:21:47.960 There's tons of homeless people.
00:21:49.580 Many of them have hepatitis.
00:21:51.300 It's not illegal to give people AIDS knowingly anymore.
00:21:54.320 So I was kind of, like, every time I leave my apartment, I live downtown, it's basically
00:21:58.940 a Mad Max movie.
00:22:00.260 So I'm kind of disappointed that this final piece that could have made, you know, gone
00:22:05.240 all the way around, bam, California is officially hell.
00:22:08.440 I thought it would have been some good action and made it more interesting.
00:22:10.960 So I'm a little disappointed to see Jeff Sessions tear these back a little bit.
00:22:15.200 That is too bad.
00:22:16.140 Yeah, I really enjoy the cinematography of driving around downtown.
00:22:19.500 All the explosions and fumes.
00:22:22.600 Jacob, for a long time, the libertarian strain of conservatives and Republicans have said,
00:22:28.400 we need to legalize pot.
00:22:29.880 Obviously, all the lefties want to legalize pot.
00:22:32.320 I personally don't really have anything wrong with it.
00:22:34.820 I just don't care that much, except that the pro-pot people are so passionate about it
00:22:41.240 and they're so annoying that I really want to make them upset.
00:22:45.080 So I want pot to remain illegal.
00:22:47.020 I'm really torn on this subject, as you can see.
00:22:49.640 How should conservatives think about it?
00:22:51.720 Well, I think we should look at it honestly and we should say, okay, when we see...
00:22:56.600 Now, I'm coming at it from a conservative perspective, not a libertarian perspective,
00:23:00.560 but I think we should look at the pros and cons of it.
00:23:03.480 One of the...
00:23:04.480 It's not as volatile as even alcohol, but on the flip side, there are people who suffer
00:23:09.720 dire consequences from being addicted to it.
00:23:13.080 But also, there's the medical aspect of it.
00:23:15.500 Now, I don't believe that marijuana cures cancer.
00:23:19.460 I've not seen...
00:23:20.300 I've seen nothing but very subjective gossip that it has any effect on cancerous cells.
00:23:28.220 But I do think that people who suffer with chronic pain, who suffer with anxiety, maybe
00:23:35.380 it could be medically applied to them.
00:23:36.760 Now, to be clear though, I'm against all forms of smoking.
00:23:41.020 When you have a grandmother who had a lung transplant, it kind of takes the wind out of
00:23:44.980 your cells as far as smoking itself goes.
00:23:47.940 But I think if we look at it...
00:23:48.940 But you're very pro-Brownie.
00:23:49.980 But I'm very pro-Brownie.
00:23:50.900 Yes, absolutely.
00:23:51.560 And like I said, we can always look at the medical aspect of it.
00:23:54.020 But I kind of agree with you that about the pro-POP people, they just get so insanely
00:24:00.320 crazy.
00:24:01.060 You just want to go, oh man, just be quiet.
00:24:03.640 It also, I will say, I won't tell any tales out of school.
00:24:06.380 I might have tried the old Haitian oregano once or twice.
00:24:08.920 I had a local yogurt when I was in India.
00:24:12.380 And it turns out that local yogurt was very mystical indeed.
00:24:16.380 We were on the Ganges.
00:24:17.620 And I just can't get that into it.
00:24:19.280 I just don't really like it that much.
00:24:21.000 So as a matter of culture, I don't really want to encourage people to do it.
00:24:25.680 It's not really that fun.
00:24:27.520 People say it makes you so much funnier.
00:24:29.300 That isn't true.
00:24:30.200 You just think things are funnier because you get stupider and hungrier and fatter.
00:24:34.580 But you aren't funnier.
00:24:36.080 So I don't like that aspect of it.
00:24:37.860 It just makes you kind of confused and your heart beats a little faster.
00:24:41.300 I can't get that into it at all.
00:24:42.940 I would come to a compromise that we can legalize pot if we first legalize Cuban cigars.
00:24:47.580 I'm not very hopeful on that bit.
00:24:49.460 I would support that.
00:24:50.320 Yeah, sure.
00:24:51.600 See, that's the spirit of compromise.
00:24:53.140 We're getting things done.
00:24:54.180 The art of the deal.
00:24:55.320 Gentlemen, we've got to move on to the mailbag.
00:24:56.880 But thank you for being here.
00:24:59.200 Austin Fletcher, Fleckis Talks.
00:25:00.960 Once again, Mrs. Talks.
00:25:02.540 I'm very sorry.
00:25:03.240 I'm only joking.
00:25:04.380 And Jacob Berry from The Daily Wire.
00:25:06.180 Thank you both.
00:25:06.780 I will talk to you soon.
00:25:07.960 Look, I know you want to hear the mailbag.
00:25:09.500 We have some really good questions.
00:25:11.140 We have some video answers.
00:25:12.600 But if you are not subscribed to TheDailyWire.com, we just can't do it, folks.
00:25:18.380 I'm sorry.
00:25:19.000 I want you to stick around.
00:25:20.320 If you're on Facebook and YouTube, we've got to say goodbye.
00:25:22.160 If you already subscribed, thank you.
00:25:23.680 You help keep the lights on.
00:25:24.700 You keep Covfefe in my cup.
00:25:26.200 We really appreciate it.
00:25:27.460 If you don't subscribe, guys, come on.
00:25:29.180 It's the new year.
00:25:29.820 It's the Trump economy.
00:25:30.920 4% economic growth.
00:25:32.440 Massive tax cuts.
00:25:33.640 If you have an S-Corp, you're about to make a ton more money.
00:25:36.240 It's $10 a month or $100 for an annual membership.
00:25:39.660 What do you get?
00:25:40.320 You get me.
00:25:41.060 You get the Andrew Klavan Show.
00:25:42.100 You get the Ben Shapiro Show.
00:25:43.080 No ads on the website.
00:25:44.700 But you get this.
00:25:45.380 The Leftist Tears Tumblr.
00:25:46.620 And I will say, I had a knockdown, drag-out debate with The Daily Wire's director of tumblers
00:25:52.500 because, as you'll notice, I don't use the lid on the show.
00:25:56.500 I drink it without the lid like a civilized person who's not driving a car.
00:26:01.220 But I have to tell you, all of the lawyers want me to say, it comes with a lid.
00:26:06.200 So if you get it today, you'll get a special limited edition Michael Knowles Show,
00:26:11.900 Leftist Tears Tumblr, with a detachable lid.
00:26:15.240 So you can use the lid.
00:26:16.460 You can take the lid off.
00:26:17.500 We're all about freedom of choice here on the right and in the conservative and liberty movement.
00:26:22.100 So go over to thedailywire.com right now.
00:26:23.820 We'll be right back.
00:26:26.500 The first question comes from Lucien.
00:26:37.160 Question is, what is the UN?
00:26:39.420 John, take it away.
00:26:40.680 The point that I want to leave with you in this very brief presentation is where I started.
00:26:46.140 Is there is no United Nations.
00:26:48.340 There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world,
00:26:57.760 and that's the United States, when it suits our interest and when we can get others to go along.
00:27:04.200 The secretariat building in New York has 38 stories.
00:27:07.560 If you lost 10 stories today, it would make a bit of difference.
00:27:12.200 This kind of mindless creation of the United Nations as something different than what it's in the United States' interest to do
00:27:22.720 isn't going to sell here or anywhere else.
00:27:26.140 The United States makes the UN work when it wants it to work.
00:27:29.980 And that is exactly the way it should be because the only question, the only question for the United States is what's in our national interest.
00:27:37.680 And if you don't like that, I'm sorry, but that is the fact.
00:27:40.580 You said it, brother.
00:27:42.760 You said it.
00:27:43.600 That is former UN ambassador John Bolton.
00:27:45.980 I couldn't have said it any better.
00:27:47.320 Next question from Jason.
00:27:49.220 Hi, Michael.
00:27:50.060 I work in tech and never learned much history.
00:27:52.220 What books would you recommend for learning about the history of Western civilization?
00:27:55.900 I'm trying to avoid the revisionist trash but don't know where to start.
00:28:00.200 P.S.
00:28:00.520 Your book is inexplicably good.
00:28:02.240 Jason.
00:28:02.620 Thank you, Jason.
00:28:03.180 You clearly have great taste in literature.
00:28:05.460 So I always recommend this book.
00:28:07.500 Whenever anyone says, I don't know anything about the history of Western civilization, I want a kind of recent book to sum things up for me.
00:28:14.760 You can start with the modern era.
00:28:16.320 That's from about 1500 to 2000 through the present, the era that begins with what we would call the Renaissance or the high Middle Ages.
00:28:23.920 The best book on that to begin, I think, is From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzin.
00:28:29.160 He's the guy who started great books at Columbia.
00:28:30.860 One of the reasons this book is so good is he'll just include in parentheses other books you should read as he goes through everything from the Protestant Revolution all the way up through the present.
00:28:40.300 It's a really good work on modern Western history.
00:28:43.880 It explains how we got from the advent of Protestantism all the way through the present just about everywhere on Earth.
00:28:51.380 So it's really, really good.
00:28:52.660 You should also read maybe the greatest history book ever written, Thucydides.
00:28:56.320 You might notice I borrowed a line from Thucydides to open up my own magnum opus, Reasons to Vote for Democrats, a comprehensive guide.
00:29:04.860 That's a great ancient history work and really the beginning of, I think, where you should start on ancient history.
00:29:10.860 If you want other things that are kind of in the news, people are always attacking.
00:29:14.600 Christopher Columbus is always attacking.
00:29:16.520 The Pilgrims and the Founding of America.
00:29:18.700 Some good books to start on that that you can breeze through in a day or two, maybe two or three days.
00:29:23.300 As Samuel Elliott Morrison's book on Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, is really good.
00:29:28.940 He's not a lefty lunatic.
00:29:30.580 He's a little bit more conservative historian, but a wonderful, highly respected historian.
00:29:35.460 And Nathaniel Philbrick is pretty even-handed in his treatment of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower.
00:29:39.840 This was a very popular American history book that came out maybe 10 years ago.
00:29:44.260 Start with those.
00:29:45.260 Dawn to Decadence is where I would begin.
00:29:46.720 And then you can get more into what I think is really fascinating history in the Middle Ages and late Rome.
00:29:53.860 But I would begin there.
00:29:55.060 And you kind of work your way backward from what you know to from what is familiar all the way backward into the foundations of your civilization and your culture.
00:30:03.280 From Garrett.
00:30:04.580 Hi, Michael.
00:30:05.620 I would like you to bring light to my confusion with C.S. Lewis's Law of Human Nature.
00:30:10.720 Lewis states that there are typically two instincts that humans face when looking at a problem.
00:30:14.220 The right instinct and the wrong instinct.
00:30:16.960 And there's a third.
00:30:18.400 There's a conscience.
00:30:20.000 So this argument tends to work for most people, but it doesn't work for all.
00:30:24.280 For example, a child who is out of control does what they want to do without regard for a conscience.
00:30:29.460 The typical response to this predicament is the child has not yet learned right from wrong.
00:30:33.220 But the moral law that Lewis is proposing is saying that right from wrong is built into us.
00:30:38.680 I do not know if humans would know not to steal, murder, or lie naturally.
00:30:42.620 Can you please clear this up for me?
00:30:44.320 Thanks.
00:30:44.760 Yes, absolutely.
00:30:45.520 They would know this naturally.
00:30:47.860 These moral laws have been observed in all people at all times and all places.
00:30:52.280 Now, Lewis writes, he specifically addresses this.
00:30:55.320 He says,
00:30:55.600 This law was called the law of nature because people thought that everyone knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it.
00:31:01.860 They did not mean, of course, that you might not find an odd individual here or there who did not know it, just as you find a few people who are colorblind or have no ear for a tune.
00:31:10.880 But taking the race as a whole, they thought that the human idea of decent behavior was obvious to everyone.
00:31:16.760 So, yeah, there's going to be a random psychopath or someone who has no moral sense.
00:31:21.420 But these are exceptions that prove rules.
00:31:24.060 When it comes to the specific example of little children, a three-year-old is the worst individual on the face of the earth, right?
00:31:30.020 And the three-year-olds are just awful monsters of selfishness who demand everything and don't really care about anybody else.
00:31:35.840 But this is because they haven't yet reached the age of reason.
00:31:40.300 So the age of reason, the Catholic Church says the age of reason occurs around seven years old, but just about every framework for viewing the world has some sense of the age of reason.
00:31:50.460 Three-year-olds are not reasonable in the way that older children and then teenagers and adults are reasonable.
00:31:57.540 So a way to think of it is that my ability to reproduce is built into me.
00:32:01.780 It is a fact of nature.
00:32:03.220 It isn't something I learned.
00:32:04.160 I didn't learn how to reproduce.
00:32:05.120 Trust me, if I were in the woods, I would do it just fine.
00:32:07.760 And people all over the world have done it.
00:32:09.600 But I can't produce sperm cells at age four either.
00:32:12.760 I haven't yet reached an age of maturity.
00:32:15.140 There is a time to every purpose under heaven.
00:32:17.420 And so while that law of nature is built into all of us, we must mature.
00:32:21.960 Even Jesus in the Gospels grows in wisdom, right?
00:32:24.860 He matures because he's in time and space and he's enfleshed in a body.
00:32:29.080 So far from contradicting this law of nature,
00:32:32.400 it simply tells us something about our own time and our own space and what we have to do
00:32:36.760 to live as human beings with bodies as well.
00:32:40.800 From Alex.
00:32:42.200 Hey, Michael, I have a bit of a dilemma.
00:32:44.440 I'm very attracted to the idea of the Catholic Church.
00:32:47.000 You know, I'm always shocked when we get these Catholic questions.
00:32:49.220 We never get these, do we, Marshall?
00:32:50.580 No.
00:32:50.860 Never get these.
00:32:51.380 That's wonderful.
00:32:51.960 I'm very pleased in any case.
00:32:53.260 Well, I'm glad to hear that you found an evangelical church that is bringing you close to the
00:33:23.240 and that you're closer to God and that you're also thinking about joining the Catholic Church
00:33:28.680 and you're thinking that might be the next step.
00:33:30.760 That is a little bit retelling of my own return to the Catholic Church.
00:33:35.440 I did read a lot of Protestant theologians and evangelical writers and preachers
00:33:39.180 on my way back across the Tiber to my Popish 2,000-year-old institution.
00:33:45.860 One of the, you bring this up with the LDS Church, this is the risk of dealing in real institutions
00:33:52.480 and it's a real risk of faulty teaching and faulty engagement with the faith.
00:33:57.800 This isn't just about LDS or some other derivative of Christianity, even Catholic schooling.
00:34:03.060 I have a lot of people who come up to me and they say,
00:34:05.020 Michael, you're still in the Catholic Church.
00:34:07.260 Did you go to Catholic school?
00:34:08.780 And I'll say, no.
00:34:09.480 And they said, oh, that's why you're still in the Catholic Church.
00:34:11.360 I know a lot of people who went to Catholic schooling and it just led them, they ran away.
00:34:15.120 They had bad experiences.
00:34:17.460 They don't want to associate with their childhood and the pain that comes with being a child or an adolescent.
00:34:22.760 So this is a trouble.
00:34:24.260 The thing that you must do is not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
00:34:27.560 Something that might aid you on your journey, there's a wonderful resource called Catholic Answers,
00:34:32.920 which is the benefit of being around for 2,000 years and having people during those two millennia
00:34:38.380 debating all of these questions.
00:34:39.960 If you pose to the Catholic Church, what should I have for breakfast on Tuesday morning at 8,
00:34:43.880 they'll have an answer.
00:34:44.820 They'll have bacon and eggs and orange juice or something.
00:34:47.880 So you can consult a lot of the questions you might have on the institution of the Church,
00:34:54.180 on the sacraments, on the magisterium, on the Church Fathers, whatever.
00:34:59.240 You can search for it and you'll probably find an answer.
00:35:02.400 If you're drawn to the notion that the God who became incarnate and enfleshed and lived for a certain time and a real time and place chose real people to do real things,
00:35:12.300 who instituted the acts of the apostles and who said,
00:35:15.480 Peter, on this rock I build my church, feed my sheep, you have the keys to the kingdom of heaven,
00:35:21.240 whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
00:35:25.320 If that leads you to conclude that maybe there is a real church with a real order and real people running it,
00:35:30.820 then I encourage you in that and don't be discouraged.
00:35:34.500 The devil likes to discourage us.
00:35:36.140 That's his main tool is to say no, no, cynicism.
00:35:40.780 You know, no, no, it's all fake.
00:35:43.700 People are all fools and don't ever commit yourself to something real that will make you vulnerable.
00:35:49.060 Don't fall into that trap.
00:35:51.020 Proceed in joy and seriousness, you know, with joy and prudence and I wish you luck on your journey.
00:35:59.320 From Preston,
00:36:00.100 Hey, Michael, I'm 20 years old and I reside in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
00:36:03.860 I just recently received a premium subscription to The Daily Wire.
00:36:07.220 Well, congratulations.
00:36:08.100 It means you're going to survive the floods.
00:36:09.420 That's really good, pal.
00:36:10.360 I'm glad I'll see you on the ark and the ark that'll just be,
00:36:12.960 it'll just be people floating on leftist years tumblers.
00:36:15.340 I couldn't have asked for a better gift.
00:36:16.800 I'm having trouble finding a major that suits me.
00:36:19.320 A major in college, I assume.
00:36:20.980 I enjoy theology and politics.
00:36:22.400 Any suggestions?
00:36:23.480 Yes.
00:36:24.480 I don't necessarily recommend studying either of those.
00:36:28.620 Undergraduate theology might be good to study.
00:36:30.800 I don't recommend political science or really any of the social sciences.
00:36:34.400 I prefer disciplines that are older,
00:36:37.460 that are more grounded in the university.
00:36:40.360 The social sciences came about relatively recently.
00:36:42.900 They came about as theories to apply the scientific method to things that don't necessarily lend themselves to the scientific method,
00:36:51.500 such as human affairs, government, history.
00:36:54.620 I majored in history.
00:36:55.760 That was one of my majors in college.
00:36:57.080 I recommend that history will give you a grounding for anything that you want to do.
00:37:01.680 It will give you, in my view, a better political education than political science ever would.
00:37:08.220 Political philosophy is an interesting field of study,
00:37:10.420 but it's fallen totally out of favor at the university in favor of political science,
00:37:15.260 which I don't have a ton of respect for.
00:37:17.000 I would study that.
00:37:19.180 If you're interested in politics and theology, I might study the classics.
00:37:24.060 I might study literature.
00:37:25.280 I think literature is a wonderful way to engage in both theology and politics.
00:37:29.680 Literature basically converted Andrew Klavan to Christianity, literature and Christmas cookies.
00:37:34.120 So that's one recommendation for it.
00:37:36.180 But an older field of study, an older discipline, I think will serve you well in any of your interests.
00:37:41.720 From Jessica, dear Michael, do you know how the new tax plan will affect freelance musicians?
00:37:47.800 Thank you, Jessica.
00:37:48.800 Well, as a former freelance actor myself, you'll probably be fine because freelance artists don't make any money,
00:37:54.560 in my own humble experience of it.
00:37:56.980 It actually will help you a lot, I think, because of the advantages to pass through entities.
00:38:01.840 So a lot of freelance artists have an S corporation.
00:38:04.640 They'll incorporate themselves.
00:38:05.740 So an actor could incorporate himself and then deduct movie tickets, wardrobe, haircuts, whatever.
00:38:11.860 You can deduct things that feed into the business of that.
00:38:14.820 If you're a blank book writer like me, then you could deduct blank sheets of paper or pens without any ink in them.
00:38:21.220 Those could be business deductions as well.
00:38:23.240 Under the new tax plan, you can deduct, I think, up to 25% of your income.
00:38:28.320 So that is a real nice benefit.
00:38:30.100 If you're an artist, I assume you live in one of these godforsaken cities with high city and state and local taxation like Los Angeles or New York.
00:38:40.080 That part will ding you a little bit, but I think it will be more than made up for on the S corps.
00:38:43.780 If you haven't incorporated yourself as an artist and you do make an income, incorporate yourself.
00:38:48.200 There are a lot of benefits to it.
00:38:49.560 From Nathan, Michael Knowles, King of the Trolls, what is your favorite color?
00:38:54.340 Nathan, my favorite color is green.
00:38:56.360 There's no joke.
00:38:57.160 There's no any addition to that.
00:38:58.480 I just really like the color green.
00:38:59.900 Green like money, I guess.
00:39:01.160 From Marcus, hi, Michael.
00:39:02.700 I love your show.
00:39:03.580 My question, when should we hit a bully back twice as hard and when should we turn the other cheek?
00:39:09.820 Please answer using biblical references.
00:39:12.140 People misunderstand this all the time.
00:39:14.400 A lot of people who would just take Christianity to be just some small aspect of it, they'll become pacifists.
00:39:22.480 They'll say we should never punch back.
00:39:23.980 Don't ever fight back.
00:39:25.720 They've only read a couple lines of the Bible.
00:39:27.480 And they'll say, see, it says this.
00:39:28.900 They haven't read the other things.
00:39:30.480 G.K.
00:39:30.820 Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy that heresy is not the promotion of vice.
00:39:35.000 It's just the promotion of one virtue to the exclusion of all the others.
00:39:38.320 That's what they're getting at.
00:39:39.400 But don't forget Ecclesiastes.
00:39:41.220 There is a time for everything and a season for every purpose under heaven.
00:39:45.540 There's a time for war and a time for peace.
00:39:47.640 In the same breath that Christ says, turn the other cheek, he also says, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away.
00:39:56.040 I don't know that he means that literally.
00:39:57.960 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
00:40:01.100 I don't know that he means that literally, as we mean literally.
00:40:04.080 He says, do not say anything other than yes or no.
00:40:06.440 Everything else that you say comes to evil.
00:40:07.960 Of course, he doesn't mean that literally because he says many other things.
00:40:11.080 And he tells St. Paul, takes many oaths, takes many vows.
00:40:15.700 He says, only pray in your inner closet.
00:40:17.420 But then Christ prays in public as well.
00:40:19.880 So Christ also says to the apostles, if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
00:40:26.500 He says that very explicitly.
00:40:28.360 St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas both explain just war very well, all the reasons when wars can legitimately be undertaken.
00:40:36.020 Santa Claus himself, St. Nicholas, punched a heretic in the face at the First Council of Nicaea.
00:40:41.420 When we're talking about that Sermon on the Mount, Christ sums up the whole sermon in the next chapter.
00:40:47.260 He says, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
00:40:53.560 That's what he's telling us.
00:40:54.840 Seek first the kingdom of God, then follow everything else.
00:40:58.360 And then he gives us these examples, these parabolic examples, these hyperbolic examples.
00:41:02.340 Do not, you shouldn't strike back at somebody for spite, or for cruelty, or even really for vengeance.
00:41:09.540 I don't think that you should be doing it and say, ah, that'll hurt him and that will give me great pleasure and joy.
00:41:14.380 But our Lord is also not telling us to be doormats and to let the cruel rape the face of the earth.
00:41:19.820 Christ is speaking of a spiritual strategy to humble the self and to win other souls over to him.
00:41:25.100 But not everybody is moved, necessarily, by this humility.
00:41:28.900 So we should love our neighbors as ourselves, but sometimes we all need a little bit of tough love, don't we?
00:41:34.480 A priest friend of mine keeps a baseball bat near the door of his rectory because it's not a great neighborhood.
00:41:39.860 There have been break-ins and burglaries of the poor box.
00:41:42.680 I one time asked him about this, and he explained it to me.
00:41:45.620 Sometimes there just isn't time to turn the other cheek.
00:41:49.040 That's my feeling as well.
00:41:50.460 That's our whole show for today.
00:41:52.080 Be sure to tune into Another Kingdom.
00:41:53.420 It's finally back, my podcast with Andrew Klavan.
00:41:56.880 The next chapter is up, chapter 11, episode 11, and we're coming to a big climax in this.
00:42:03.000 If you haven't caught up, listen.
00:42:04.500 It's a really fun narrative podcast.
00:42:06.680 That is going to go up tomorrow morning.
00:42:09.300 Tune in on Monday.
00:42:10.100 We'll be back to do it all over again.
00:42:11.600 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:42:12.340 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:42:13.380 We'll see you then.
00:42:19.560 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Marshall Benson,
00:42:22.100 Executive Producer, Jeremy Boring.
00:42:24.620 Senior Producer, Jonathan Hay.
00:42:26.560 Supervising Producer, Mathis Glover.
00:42:28.880 Our Technical Producer is Austin Stevens.
00:42:31.460 Edited by Alex Zingaro.
00:42:33.600 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.
00:42:35.820 Hair and Makeup is by Jesua Olvera.
00:42:38.260 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.
00:42:41.760 Copyright Forward Publishing 2017.
00:42:52.100 Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef sold in U.S. grocery stores is imported?
00:42:57.000 That's why I buy all my meat from GoodRanchers.com instead.
00:43:00.720 Good Ranchers products are 100% born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms.
00:43:06.400 Plus, there's no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, and no seed oils.
00:43:10.620 Just one simple ingredient.
00:43:12.140 That's meat.
00:43:13.040 Best of all, Good Ranchers delivers straight to your door for added convenience.
00:43:16.060 So lock in a secure supply of American meat today.
00:43:19.180 Subscribe now at GoodRanchers.com and get free meat for life and $40 off with code DAILYWIRE.
00:43:24.240 That's $40 off and free meat for life with code DAILYWIRE.
00:43:27.580 Good Ranchers.
00:43:28.340 American meat delivered.