Ep. 890 - If You Ain't Cheating You Ain't A Democrat
Summary
As the jurors in the Rittenhouse trial remain in a stalemate, reportedly not over the evidence so much as over fear for their lives, MSNBC dispatched a producer to follow the jurors' bus, presumably to uncover more about their identities. The judge in that case did not, as you might expect, take too kindly to the legacy media's efforts to harass the jurors.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
As the jurors in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial remain in a stalemate, reportedly not over the evidence
00:00:06.240
so much as over fear for their lives, MSNBC dispatched a producer to follow the jurors bus,
00:00:13.640
presumably to uncover more about their identities. The judge in that case did not, as you might
00:00:19.420
expect, take too kindly to the legacy media's efforts to harass the jurors.
00:00:25.040
Police, when they stopped him, because he was following in a distance of about a block
00:00:31.420
and went through a red light, pulled him over and inquired of him what was going on
00:00:37.040
and he gave that information and stated that he had been instructed by Ms. Bion in New York
00:00:45.320
to follow the jury bus. The matter is under further investigation at this point.
00:00:53.880
And the media has asked questions about it. That's the latest I have.
00:01:02.700
And he was ticketed for violating a traffic control signal. He's not here today, from what I'm told.
00:01:10.480
And I have instructed that no one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial.
00:01:21.780
Love that. Absolutely right. How can anyone expect a fair and impartial verdict in this case with that kind of intimidation?
00:01:30.720
Not just from the activists outside, but the activists who pretend to be journalists.
00:01:35.520
No matter how weak the prosecution's arguments, no matter how strong the defense's case,
00:01:40.900
no matter how clear the evidence, the jurors fear for their lives.
00:01:46.180
And with good reason. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:01:48.720
Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment yesterday is from Steve Mikkel, who says,
00:02:00.020
everyone takes a beating sometimes is known as the Goodfellas statute. Very well-known law. This is true.
00:02:06.600
And the prosecution, which made that argument, that everybody takes a beating sometimes,
00:02:10.680
is acting like a bunch of gangsters. And, you know, we all see it. We all see that the evidence
00:02:17.200
is on Kyle Rittenhouse's side. We all see that all the pressure and intimidation is on the side of
00:02:22.160
the prosecution. But the fact is, the jurors are people, all right? And they're people who have
00:02:27.100
to go about and live their lives. And they're people with families. And they might succumb to that
00:02:31.800
kind of intimidation. It's really important to make sure that you take care of your affairs with all
00:02:37.200
this crazy political nonsense going around, the economy going up and down and up and down.
00:02:42.300
You probably want some tangible assets, which is why I would recommend you check out
00:02:45.520
Acre Gold. Acre lets you subscribe to gold bars for as little as $30 a month. I know what you're
00:02:52.040
thinking. You're thinking, Michael, gold bars cost more than $30. Hear me out. Acre has an ingenious
00:02:58.300
way to allow you to invest in physical gold without coming out of pocket all at once. You pay each
00:03:02.940
month. Once your gold stash reaches the price of their gold bars, they will discreetly ship Acre
00:03:08.160
Gold to your house. They've also got a new $100 a month subscription to a five gram gold bar if you
00:03:13.760
want to up the ante. I've really enjoyed investing in physical precious metals. I've really enjoyed
00:03:18.740
investing in Acre Gold. Go check them out today. That's getacregold.com slash Noel. Start investing
00:03:27.180
in physical gold today. Make sure you go to that URL because Acre is giving away a gold bar
00:03:32.320
to qualify for the giveaway. Tweet or post why you should be the recipient and mention at get
00:03:37.400
underscore Acre. That URL is getacregold.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S. And thank you, Acregold,
00:03:46.540
for supporting the show. NBC News, which is now, you know, which obviously owns MSNBC. NBC News sent out
00:03:54.660
a very curious non-denial denial about the incident with the jurors bus. Take a listen to this.
00:04:04.680
This apparent denial, which I think is anything but. Quote,
00:04:08.740
last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. While the traffic violation took place
00:04:14.240
near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations
00:04:21.720
and never photographed or intended to photograph them, NBC News said in a statement. We regret the
00:04:27.860
incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation. Okay, hold on.
00:04:32.480
Hold on a second here. If you did nothing wrong, then why do you regret the incident?
00:04:39.600
We did nothing wrong, but we regret the incident. Why? Because you're admitting that you did do
00:04:42.900
something wrong. It was a freelancer who received a traffic citation. Why are you trying to put distance
00:04:49.400
between yourself and your employee? Who you're saying, look, he was working as a freelancer.
00:04:54.320
Right, a freelancer who was apparently working at your direction. No, no, it's a freelancer. It's not us.
00:04:59.780
Okay. He just received a traffic citation. Okay, what was the traffic citation for? Why was he being
00:05:06.600
pulled over in the first place? The freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors
00:05:13.660
during deliberations. There you go. There are the two words that show you that these guys are guilty
00:05:19.540
as can be. During deliberations. No one ever said he was going to contact them during deliberations
00:05:27.540
is back when they're at the courthouse. Obviously, if he's chasing their bus, he's not going to be
00:05:32.880
contacting them during deliberations. The problem is he's contacting them outside of the deliberations.
00:05:37.580
And you know it, and you lying hacks, you dishonest NBC news journalists.
00:05:46.020
You're admitting it here. Those two words are the proof. Yeah, we sent one of our operatives to go
00:05:54.360
harass the jurors to find out more about their identities, probably to dox them, at the very least
00:06:00.340
to pressure them to throw this kid in the can, even though all the evidence is on his side. That's
00:06:06.380
what went on, and NBC News, tacitly at least, admitted it. Meanwhile, the prosecution is now
00:06:13.740
admitting that they sent the defense weaker evidence than they had. You remember this issue of the
00:06:20.440
videotape. There was drone footage of the interaction between Kyle Rittenhouse and the Antifa thugs who were
00:06:27.520
trying to kill him. And there was a difference in the quality of the video. The prosecution had
00:06:33.220
extremely high quality HD video, at least three times more clear than the defense had, which was
00:06:39.640
this grainy kind of video. It looked like it was filmed on a Nokia flip phone. So initially, the
00:06:45.660
prosecution said, no, no, no, it's not our fault. It's the defense's fault. It's their iPhone or their
00:06:50.080
Android or their computer. They're the ones whose technology messed up the video. Then the defense
00:06:56.660
came back and said, that's BS. It's got a different file name than the file you had. So obviously,
00:07:00.740
it happened when you sent the file. It has nothing to do with our computers. It has everything to do
00:07:04.840
with what you guys did. So now, the prosecution is making the opposite argument. They're saying,
00:07:09.700
oh no, it was actually the guy who sent it to us. That's why the footage was different for the
00:07:15.780
What happened? When Detective Howard obtained the video, he airdropped it to my phone,
00:07:28.000
which is a lossless type procedure, or at least it didn't change anything.
00:07:33.360
At some point, I emailed it to myself, which did not change anything. It has the file name,
00:07:39.840
the long file name. I did ask Detective Howard to email it to me as well. Then it had the IMG file
00:07:48.000
name that Attorney Wisco received. So somehow in this Detective Howard transmitting it to everyone,
00:07:58.040
if it was emailed, it was compressed. If he airdropped it, it was complete.
00:08:03.200
And that was not known by anyone until a few days ago on Friday.
00:08:09.320
So let me get this straight. Your first story is that it was the fault of the defense computers.
00:08:15.280
And then when that was shown to be BS, you blame it on the only other person that you could blame
00:08:19.540
it on other than taking responsibility yourself. And what you're saying happened is that the video
00:08:25.780
man airdropped it to you. So you had the perfect quality video. Then you emailed it to yourself.
00:08:34.940
And then you separately had him email it to the defense. And whoopsie daisy, the videos that got
00:08:42.340
emailed were of lower quality than the one that was airdropped. So one, why did you email it to
00:08:48.600
yourself? If you were not going to forward it to the defense, if you were just, and you already had
00:08:54.500
the video file airdropped, the high quality video file, why did you then separately have Mr. Video
00:09:00.280
Man send it to the defense? Why, why were you making sure? And, and if you were just, if you
00:09:08.480
emailed it to yourself to forward it to the defense, then why didn't you just send them the airdrop?
00:09:13.040
There seem to be one or two extra steps in here that mean that this does not pass the smell test.
00:09:20.200
I never want to attribute to malice that which is equally explained by, or explained just as well
00:09:27.560
by stupidity. And the prosecution has exhibited a lot of stupidity here. But I think they're, I think
00:09:33.960
they're also exhibiting some malice. I think they're also exhibiting some corruption. I think they're
00:09:41.340
changing their story a little bit too much. I think they're making legal arguments that are so bogus that
00:09:47.880
if they're being made in earnest, you should probably be disbarred. The prosecutor should.
00:09:54.420
Or they're being made disingenuously. I don't buy it. Does not pass the smell test for one single
00:10:01.140
second. It's wrong. It's wrong what they're doing. So why don't we have a verdict yet?
00:10:08.860
Why don't, we don't have a verdict, I think, because the jurors rightly are afraid for their lives.
00:10:13.800
There are reports coming out, again, who knows if they're true, that it's a deadlocked jury.
00:10:19.800
And so I suspect it's not because the evidence is so clear. Kyle was completely acting in self-defense.
00:10:25.040
The whole narrative that we were told by the media, by the state, turned out not to be true.
00:10:31.120
The prosecution's case was undermined by the prosecution's own witnesses,
00:10:34.340
like the guy Grosskreutz, who said, yeah, I actually, Kyle only shot at me after I was coming
00:10:40.540
at him with the gun. Devastating to the prosecution's case. But the fact is that the jury
00:10:49.720
ought to fear for their lives. This whole trial started in the first place because leftist activists
00:10:57.900
burned down Kenosha. The last time they didn't get a movement of the criminal justice system that
00:11:05.900
they wanted, right? Remember the cop shot that degenerate Jacob Blake? Rightly so, absolutely
00:11:11.280
rightly so. He probably should have shot him sooner. And the left didn't like that, so they burned the
00:11:15.800
city down. And then Kyle Rittenhouse showed up, and then he killed these Antifa guys who were trying
00:11:20.060
to kill him, and now we're on trial. Now it's going to be a vicious cycle. I don't think that this trial,
00:11:26.140
I said, there are two trials going on. The trial in the court of law and the trial in the court of
00:11:29.020
public opinion. Well, I don't think that the verdict is necessarily going to come down to
00:11:32.520
right or wrong. I think it's going to come down to self-preservation for a lot of these jurors.
00:11:38.160
When, of course, it should come down to right. Just a further weakening of our trust in the criminal
00:11:43.020
justice system. You know, it's very right to protect yourself and your identity, which is why you
00:11:50.300
got to check out LifeLock. Cybercriminals use spearfishing attacks that are more tailored and
00:11:54.760
researched than normal scam phishing emails. These targeted attacks focus on an individual
00:12:00.240
and try to trick them into revealing personal information by posing as a trusted friend,
00:12:05.460
boss, company, or family member. It is important to understand how cybercrime and identity theft
00:12:11.340
are affecting our lives. Every day, we put our information at risk on the internet. In an instant,
00:12:17.680
a cybercriminal could harm what's yours, your finances, and your credit. Good thing there's LifeLock.
00:12:23.440
LifeLock helps detect a wide range of identity threats. For instance, your social security number
00:12:27.900
for sale on the dark web. If they detect your information has potentially been compromised,
00:12:32.520
they will send you an alert. Now, no one can prevent all identity theft or monitor all transactions at
00:12:38.880
all businesses, but you can keep what's yours with LifeLock by Norton. Join now and save up to 25%
00:12:44.860
off your first year by going to LifeLock.com slash Knowles, K-N-O-W-L-E-S. That's LifeLock.com slash Knowles
00:12:51.760
for 25% off. Speaking of right and wrong, Governor Ron DeSantis gave a speech yesterday,
00:13:00.320
press conference to reporters, when he was asked about his prohibitions on vaccine mandates in
00:13:07.940
Florida, his protection of people's rights and freedoms in Florida, he gave one of the most
00:13:14.340
perceptive answers on conservatism, on our political rights, on what freedom really is. One of the most
00:13:23.160
perceptive answers I have ever heard from a politician. Take a listen.
00:13:26.980
There has never been a federal vaccine mandate imposed on the general public. I hear people
00:13:35.640
talk about, you know, they do things in the military. Yeah, when I was in the military,
00:13:40.120
they used to give me all kinds of stuff. Honestly, I wish I would have thought a little bit,
00:13:43.540
but I mean, whatever it was. But that's much different than regulating the military and then
00:13:47.740
imposing it on civilians in society. It's never been done before. It's not, they don't have the
00:13:52.860
power to do it. There's no federal police power. States have the federal police power. So that's
00:13:59.520
from a constitutional perspective. It is worlds, worlds apart. Now, some people say, hey, these
00:14:05.640
local governments wanted to lock down businesses. They wanted to force mandates. They wanted to keep
00:14:11.700
the kids locked out of school. Yeah, you're damn right I overruled them on that because they were
00:14:15.960
wrong. And the fact of the matter is, the fact of the matter is, you don't have right to, you don't
00:14:26.740
have the right to do wrong. The fact of the matter is, you don't have the right to do wrong. That is
00:14:36.380
one of the most perceptive, insightful observations about American government and the nature of liberty
00:14:44.880
itself that I have ever heard from a politician. You don't have the right to do wrong. The typical
00:14:54.460
Republican answer that you would have heard for the past 20 years is, well, look, you look, people
00:15:00.320
have the right to do whatever they want. If people want to do something crazy with their bodies, if
00:15:03.840
people want to do something crazy and it's, and it's doesn't violate the certain limits of
00:15:09.140
some constitutional interpretation, then that's, that's totally their right. I don't agree with it,
00:15:13.360
but it's their right. You have the, the, the squishy Republican answer would be, you do have the
00:15:18.060
right to do wrong. The correct answer is you do not have the right to do wrong. This is why some of
00:15:26.000
the squishy Republicans will say, look, we're not going to have government mandates for the vaccine,
00:15:29.880
but if a private business wants to, that's totally cool. Private business can do whatever they,
00:15:34.740
they have the right to do whatever they want, even a bunch of wrong stuff. No, they don't. No,
00:15:39.420
they don't. You don't have the right to do wrong. This is something about Ron DeSantis that is
00:15:43.260
powerful. He talks like a linebacker and kind of looks like a linebacker, right? He's just a big
00:15:49.940
guy. He was like, look, okay. When I was in the military, right? He reminds you, I was in the
00:15:54.040
military. When I was in the military, they shot me with all kinds of stuff. It's pretty stupid. I
00:15:57.360
actually kind of wish I hadn't done that. But anyway, I did that, right? And he just talks in this very
00:16:01.180
blunt, down-to-earth way. But then he'll say something that is philosophically extraordinarily
00:16:09.220
sophisticated. You do not have the right to do wrong. So because he has that philosophical premise,
00:16:18.540
he's gotten everything right about COVID in Florida, right? And so those just seem like very
00:16:24.960
pragmatic, practical. No, we're not going to force masks. We're not going to force vaccine.
00:16:28.240
We're not going to let businesses force these sorts of things. But it's because he's got
00:16:32.120
real philosophical clarity here. And I think this is the reason that he's doing very well
00:16:36.540
in the pre-potential running for president type of thing is because Ron DeSantis is where the new
00:16:43.000
right is, which is much less libertarian and it's much more conservative. This is why he's doing well.
00:16:50.440
Now, if Donald Trump runs for president again, it's probably all a moot point because there won't
00:16:54.260
be a primary because he'll clear the field. But very impressive stuff from DeSantis. You want not
00:17:00.800
just do you want that philosophical clarity, but you want to be able to balance out the talking like
00:17:07.140
a truck driver, but having the political vision to know where the country is supposed to go.
00:17:12.200
The lower and the higher, right? The kind of on the ground, tangible, based in reality,
00:17:17.780
and also the pie in the sky, abstract philosophy. And you saw a little bit more of the former when
00:17:23.300
you looked at where he was giving the speech from. He was giving this press conference from
00:17:28.180
Brandon, Florida. It's obvious to a lot of the people in the crowd that they believe you chose
00:17:33.560
Brandon because of the thing that goes around on certain websites. Is this why you came to Brandon
00:17:38.660
because of the trolling of the Biden administration? So I think that Brandon, Florida is a great American
00:17:44.640
city. I think the people here are fantastic. And I can tell you my only negative on Brandon was they
00:17:59.060
when I was growing up playing baseball, they always used to beat us every year. But now I think,
00:18:04.840
you know, as governor, I'm really proud to be able to do it. I want to thank Brandon Honda for hosting us
00:18:10.780
here today. And we're proud to be able to make a stand for freedom in Brandon, Florida.
00:18:18.560
So the guy knows how to troll. I don't think he chose Brandon, Florida because it's his favorite
00:18:25.580
Honda dealership. Okay. I know. I think it might have something to do with the chant about Joe Biden.
00:18:31.620
That's good. You're going to need both of those things. Now, now it's very early. It's 2021.
00:18:38.640
The presidential is not until 2024. In 2013, for instance, no one could have guessed that Trump was
00:18:47.280
going to be the nominee. People thought, oh, it's going to be Bobby Jindal. Oh, it's going to be this
00:18:51.100
guy. Oh, it's going to be that guy. And it just wasn't. So Ron DeSantis has a long way to go to prove
00:18:56.520
himself. There are going to be other candidates that come up. Donald Trump might run and wipe them
00:18:59.780
all out. There might be a nominee who we've never heard of. But the reason I mentioned this DeSantis clip
00:19:04.900
is because he is seeing something here. Okay. And I think you don't have the right to do wrong.
00:19:11.700
That is where the Republican Party is right now. And it's, it's heading in that direction.
00:19:18.360
The stragglers who are not there yet are heading in that direction. And I think
00:19:21.300
whoever is going to be the nominee, whether it's Donald Trump himself,
00:19:26.720
I think they're going to have to be in that area. They're going to have to be doing that thing.
00:19:30.860
And DeSantis is doing an impressive job of that right now. Speaking of the Brandon
00:19:35.200
administration, you know, there's a little infighting going on between Kamala Harris
00:19:40.580
and Joe Biden. Joe Biden obviously doesn't like Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris launched her
00:19:47.680
presidential campaign calling him a racist. Kamala Harris doesn't like Joe Biden. Joe Biden keeps
00:19:53.320
throwing her under the bus and saying, oh yeah, I'm putting Kamala in charge of illegal immigration.
00:19:57.500
Yeah. Deal with the border, Kamala. Good luck. Okay. Enjoy. See ya. Enjoy Texas.
00:20:03.980
And he's not backing her up and he's saying nice things about his other
00:20:06.980
minions. He's saying nice things about Pete Buttigieg, for instance, but he's not really
00:20:11.100
defending Kamala Harris. And now Kamala Harris's flacks are going to the press and saying, yeah,
00:20:15.300
we think Joe Biden's a racist. So there's all this infighting going on. Jen Psaki goes out to try to
00:20:19.820
throw some water on this. She's asked, do you think the criticism of Kamala Harris is because of racism?
00:20:26.120
You took to Twitter this week to defend the most prominent woman there, the vice president,
00:20:32.200
after there were stories about her this weekend that mentioned low approval ratings,
00:20:36.480
allegations of staff problems. Some of her allies have attributed this to sexism. Do you think she
00:20:42.900
is receiving more criticism because she's the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice
00:20:48.060
president? Yes. Criticism from the outside? Absolutely. I do think that it is,
00:20:55.680
it's been easier and harsher from some in the right wing who have gone after her because she
00:21:03.300
is the first woman, the first woman of color. Criticism from the outside? What about the other
00:21:09.300
criticism, darling? Because Kamala Harris doesn't really need to worry about criticism from the
00:21:13.620
outside, from the Republicans right now. It's from you guys. It's from Donald Trump. It's not from
00:21:17.940
Donald Trump. It's from Joe Biden. Sorry, I got confused over who the president was. It's from Joe
00:21:21.820
Biden. It's why was Kamala Harris the first person out of the Democrat primary? Is it because of
00:21:27.060
racism and sexism? No, no, it's only Republicans who are racist and sexist. Democrats hate Kamala
00:21:31.620
Harris for completely different reasons. That's why. It's just the go-to. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh,
00:21:37.760
totally. Yeah. Racism, sexism, beep, boop, beep, beep, boop. It reminds me of this one time David
00:21:41.840
Webb, you know, was on, on the radio and someone, woman called in, black woman called in and said,
00:21:47.220
David Webb, you're just exposing your white privilege. She didn't realize David Webb's a
00:21:51.340
black guy. It was on radio. So she couldn't, she couldn't say, oh yeah, it's always racism and
00:21:55.100
sexism. Well, okay, honey, what, what's your excuse? Why does Joe Biden seem to be going after
00:22:01.140
Kamala Harris? Why did the Democrats not like Kamala Harris? You're going to need an answer on
00:22:04.980
that before 2024 or 2020. You're going to need an answer on that when you try to figure out who your
00:22:09.960
next presidential candidate's going to be. Frankly, I'm not sure whoever the candidate is,
00:22:15.960
is going to be able to do well if gas prices keep going up, which is why you got to check out
00:22:20.400
GetUpside. I am thrilled to introduce an incredible app that everyone who buys gas needs to know about
00:22:26.160
that is GetUpside. Right now, our listeners are making up to 25 cents for every single gallon of
00:22:32.760
gas every single time they fill up. Just download the free GetUpside app in the App Store or Google
00:22:38.540
Play right now. Use promo code Knowles, K-N-O-W-L-E-S, and get a bonus 25 cents per gallon on your first
00:22:45.160
fill up. That's up to 50 cents cash back. Do not pay full price at the pump anymore. Get cash back
00:22:51.180
using GetUpside. Just download the app for free and use promo code Knowles, K-N-O-W-L-E-S, to get up
00:22:57.880
to 50 cents per gallon cash back on your first tank. Some people who drive a lot are making as much as
00:23:03.140
two to three hundred bucks per month in cash back. There's no cash. There's only cash. Go straight to
00:23:08.320
your bank account or PayPal, or if you prefer, an e-gift card for Amazon or other brands. Download the
00:23:13.980
free GetUpside app. Use promo code Knowles and get up to 50 cents per gallon cash back on your
00:23:19.860
first tank. That is code K-N-O-W-L-E-S. Speaking of racism, Senator John Kennedy, one of the most
00:23:28.700
entertaining members of the United States Senate, he is, if you're not familiar with John Kennedy,
00:23:33.280
he's the very folksy sounding conservative Republican who, you know, he'll be grilling a
00:23:39.440
cannon. He'll say, well, listen here, you know, I, or he'll go on, he'll often go on cable news and
00:23:44.100
he'll say, listen, I remember the last time a possum skinned my granddaddy. He told me, you know,
00:23:48.740
he's got all these really folksy expressions, but beneath the folksy expressions, he's always making
00:23:54.560
these very perceptive points. He's very, very intelligent. He knows he's very strategic and
00:24:01.500
kind of like we were talking about DeSantis making these deep philosophical points in a very
00:24:05.900
down to earth way. John Kennedy does a similar kind of thing. So John Kennedy was just grilling
00:24:12.300
Saul Omarova. Saul Omarova is Joe Biden's nominee for comptroller of the currency. So the person that
00:24:20.160
we're going to put in charge of the currency. And the problem with Saul Omarova is that she
00:24:26.080
is a communist. That's the, I'm not, I'm not exaggerating. I'm not being hyperbolic.
00:24:31.660
Like the, she is an actual communist. And so Senator Kennedy asked her about this.
00:24:39.060
You used to be a member of a group called the young communist, didn't you?
00:24:48.940
Senator, are you referring to my membership in the youth communist organization while I was growing
00:24:56.620
up in the Soviet Union? I don't know. I was, I just, I wanted to ask you that question.
00:25:01.740
Well, Senator, I, there was a group called the young communists and you were a member. Is that
00:25:08.140
right? I'm not exactly sure which group you're referring to. Well, the formal name of it is
00:25:15.220
the Leninist communist young union of the Russian Federation. And it's also known as the Leninist
00:25:24.700
Komsomol of the Russian Federation. And it's commonly referred to as the young communists.
00:25:32.240
Were you a member? Senator, I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union.
00:25:38.080
Okay. Now, before we get to her bogus excuses, just look, take a masterclass lesson here in
00:25:43.900
rhetoric and politics from John Kennedy. He's sitting there. He's got no paper that he's holding
00:25:49.120
up, right? He's just looking and he's playing dumb. And he goes, ah, now I heard you were a member
00:25:54.440
of the young communists. Is that right? And so everyone who has their prejudices against
00:25:59.420
conservatives, against Southerners, they're going to look at that and say, oh, here we go.
00:26:03.240
Red Scare again, Joe McCarthy. Look at this bloviating guy. He doesn't, there's no idea what
00:26:07.260
he's talking about. There's no group called the young communists. And she thinks she's,
00:26:11.060
she says, hold on the young, the young communists. Yeah, I heard you're part of the young communists.
00:26:15.700
Isn't that right? Um, Senator, I don't, I don't know what on earth you're talking about.
00:26:21.000
Okay, well here, let me, let me check. The actual name is the Leninist communists. And then he goes
00:26:25.200
on because he's got all the details. So he leads her into this trap to sort of deny the young
00:26:31.380
communist connection. He goes, well, here's the official name and here's what it's known as. And
00:26:35.960
here's how long you were a member of it. And here is, oh, oh that, oh yeah, that group. So now she's
00:26:41.780
got to pivot. Now she pivots to, well, I was, I grew up in the Soviet union. I was so oppressed
00:26:47.740
there. I, we were all, you can't blame, if, if a kid grew up in Nazi Germany, he was part of Hitler
00:26:52.620
youth. You actually can't, you can't blame them. All the kids were part of that. So you can just,
00:26:57.240
just like that, you can't blame this woman for being part of the young communists, right?
00:27:04.720
You wrote your thesis in college at Moscow State University on, the title was Karl Marx's
00:27:11.580
Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in the Capital. But you won't send Senator
00:27:19.440
Tumi a copy. You studied at university, at Moscow State University, scientific communism, which
00:27:28.340
is the science regarding the working class struggle and the socialist agenda.
00:27:32.960
In 2019, not 30 years ago, in a Canadian documentary, you called the financial services industry,
00:27:44.720
quote, a quintessential ass industry. You wrote a paper called Systemically Significant Prices,
00:27:56.400
Calling for the Federal Government to Set Wages, Food, Gas Prices.
00:28:01.580
In 2020, you wrote a paper called The People's Ledger, where you said we need to abolish bank accounts and
00:28:10.440
make everybody set up an account at the Fed where the federal government will have access to your data.
00:28:15.760
He goes on. He's got this woman dead to rights. And he lets her, he first lets her make the
00:28:23.340
condescending response, right? You don't know what you're talking about, Senator. Then he allows her to
00:28:28.880
play the victim. I was just, I grew up in the Soviet Union. I had no, and then he says, well, no, but you
00:28:32.980
weren't just in the group when you were eight or nine years old. You went on to study scientific
00:28:37.660
communism and you wrote your thesis in a defense of Karl Marx's economics. And then actually just over
00:28:44.220
the last couple of years, you've been defending communist policies, including a takeover of private
00:28:50.680
property by the government, takeover of private bank accounts. The problem isn't that you were a
00:28:58.440
communist when you were a kid. The problem is that you are a communist now. And she, oh boy,
00:29:06.520
does she look bad. Now, can the Republicans actually railroad this nominee? I'm skeptical of that.
00:29:13.520
But the reason I bring it up, one is to show you the radicalism of the Biden administration. Two is to,
00:29:18.820
to show you this great political tool. All of us could take a lesson in this. Manage expectations.
00:29:26.640
John Kennedy, this very, very sophisticated man, walks up and he just, he just talked like a good
00:29:32.360
old boy, you know, just like a good old Uncle Bill, you know, and he, uh, down here now, listen here, you,
00:29:37.120
and he makes everyone underestimate him. And then he clobbers them. Speaking of subverting
00:29:44.520
expectations, I have to, this is going to be a little bit of a weird story, but I have to get to it.
00:29:50.000
Laura Ingram show the other night, Raymond Arroyo is on and they do, they have a discussion
00:29:55.580
where there seems to be some confusion between the host and the guest. And the liberal media
00:30:01.800
went crazy over this. You know, I was watching an episode of, uh, you where measles came up.
00:30:10.040
Wait, wait, wait, when did I mention measles? I don't know. It was on you.
00:30:15.500
What, what, what, what, what was on me? What are you talking about? Right? Is everyone even
00:30:21.320
hearing what I'm saying? I never had the measles. It was on you. We never did a,
00:30:26.660
we never did a measles and vaccine episode. Am I, is this a joke? I don't even know what you're
00:30:31.780
talking about. It was on you. It was on you. I've never had Raymond. I've never had measles.
00:30:37.800
What are you talking about? This is stupid. It was an episode of a show, Laura.
00:30:43.520
What's it called? You, you, it's called you. I've never done a show on measles. I,
00:30:49.440
I just completely give up. We got to get it. It's a show called you on Netflix.
00:30:54.940
There's a show called Laura Ingham on Netflix. What are you talking about?
00:30:58.480
I'm moving on to Adele. I can't explain this to you. The pop singer. All right. So
00:31:03.080
this is obviously a bit they're doing who's on first. Okay. And whether, I think it's kind of
00:31:07.900
funny, but if you, if you, maybe you think it's funny, maybe you don't think it's funny.
00:31:11.420
They're obviously just doing who's on first. I don't know what's on first. No, what's on second.
00:31:14.660
I don't know. Third base, right? They're just doing that. But about this, this Netflix show
00:31:17.780
and the left didn't get it. And the left said, Oh, these idiots, these, it's so obviously a bit.
00:31:24.060
But they didn't look at these. Oh my gosh, I can't believe this craziness that the takeaway
00:31:29.020
from it is not whether or not, you know, this is the funniest bit in the world. The takeaway
00:31:33.980
is the left does not understand the right at all. They don't get it. They think we're
00:31:39.900
so dumb and evil. And so they just like, so don't get what we're saying and what we believe.
00:31:47.220
And you're, and you're seeing this play out right now in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. You're seeing
00:31:51.940
a play out everywhere where the facts are sort of secondary to the left, just imposing their will
00:31:59.460
without even considering what the right has to say. You know, as the first people to file a lawsuit
00:32:07.020
against the Biden administration for their unconstitutional vaccine mandates, we at the
00:32:11.780
Daily Wire are pleased to see that the Biden administration suspended their implementation
00:32:15.300
and enforcement this week. But the fight is just getting started. We still have to win the
00:32:20.940
court case. So sign our petition against Joe Biden's vaccine mandate over at dailywire.com
00:32:25.880
slash do not comply to send a message to the Biden administration. We've had over 600,000 people
00:32:33.280
sign the petition, but we're aiming to get to 1 million signatures. Head on over to dailywire.com
00:32:38.760
slash do not comply to sign the petition today. Also, if you haven't signed up to Matt Walsh's
00:32:43.320
newsletter, then I highly suggest you do. Not only will you be getting a piece of Matt's mind
00:32:47.020
delivered to your inbox every Friday, but you'll be automatically entered into the running for his
00:32:51.580
beloved banjo. Hurry up because if you don't sign up by tomorrow, Saturday the 20th, the incredibly
00:32:57.240
lucky winner who gets Matt's banjo will not be you. Head on over to dailywire.com slash banjo to
00:33:03.100
subscribe to Matt's newsletter. We'll be right back with the mailbag.
00:33:06.080
Welcome back to the show. My favorite time of the week, the mailbag. First question up from Daniel.
00:33:22.780
Hi, Michael. I've been struggling with a porn addiction for quite some time now, and lately
00:33:27.520
I've been noticing the toll it has taken, not just on my moods, but on my ability to retain working
00:33:32.760
memory, my ability to concentrate, and my ability to stay active. And it just so happens that the
00:33:38.120
Daily Wire recently published a list of reasons to quit porn, and among them are these very side
00:33:42.340
effects. My question is this. Of what you've read and spoken to people about, to what extent can this
00:33:49.360
damage be reversed? If I succeed in my efforts to get rid of this addiction for good through prayer,
00:33:56.220
accountability, personal discipline, et cetera, will I still be left with permanent damage? Thanks.
00:34:01.120
Love the show. Well, I actually have two friends who have dealt with this. I'm not saying two friends
00:34:09.540
who have looked at naked ladies on the internet. I'm saying two friends who really had a very serious
00:34:14.600
addiction to this sort of thing, and it really had all the side effects that you're talking about,
00:34:18.180
and it took them a long time. I mean, it was like other friends of mine who have dealt with drug
00:34:22.980
addictions or alcohol addiction. I mean, it was certainly to that extent. And as far as I know,
00:34:29.980
as far as I can tell, they both did come out of it. The brain is a pretty elastic thing.
00:34:35.100
And one of the real temptations of the devil, one of the real snares here is to convince you that you
00:34:42.340
can never get any better. And so why even try? You're never going to kick the bottle. Just have
00:34:46.900
another drink. You might as well. You're never going to kick it. Oh, come on. You can't. You're not
00:34:50.800
going to quit dope. You got to just shoot it up. You got it. You never, you're, it's, you're not,
00:34:55.120
it's not possible for you. And same thing with something like porn or any other addiction.
00:34:59.840
It's a, it's a very pervasive addiction too. I mean, this is something that actually
00:35:03.100
should make you feel a little bit better about it is that what the, the average age of, of male
00:35:09.560
exposure to porn is like 11 years old now or something. So this is something that, especially
00:35:14.660
for younger people, I hear from zoomers all the time. You're very possibly a zoomer yourself.
00:35:19.240
You know, they're, they will have seen these things when they're very, very young. It's
00:35:23.960
obviously not a conscious choice they made, but then they get ensnared in it. Yeah. The
00:35:28.800
thing also that I think one learns about with any kind of addiction is that there's no, there's
00:35:36.400
no shortcut in this life. There's no way around virtue. If you, if you want to be free, you
00:35:45.280
need to pursue virtue and flee vice. You, you just have to, there's no way around it. And
00:35:52.740
we're very confused about that today because we think that we can be free and then do whatever
00:35:58.000
drugs we want and look at whatever porn we want, sleep with whoever we want, eat whatever
00:36:01.200
we want and just do, you know, follow our appetites. But we can't, the very act of doing
00:36:05.760
those things, as you do them, you are losing your freedom. And then you become enslaved to
00:36:12.560
these, to these things and you can't resist. Your, your appetite totally dominates your
00:36:18.140
rational will and you lose your freedom. But it's, it's a pervasive problem. A lot of
00:36:23.480
people have come out of it and you can, and the way to do it is accountability, prayer, and
00:36:29.860
just focusing on it. One, one thing that, you know, I'll give you the Catholic perspective
00:36:33.280
on, on not just this particular sin, but on all sin. One thing that will really persuade
00:36:40.560
you not to sin or not to sin as much or to think twice about it is confession. You know,
00:36:46.200
there's the sacrament of confession in the Catholic church where you have to go into a
00:36:49.580
box and you confess your sins out loud to a priest. And it's very difficult to do. I've
00:36:55.800
done it a zillion times and it's still difficult for me to do, no matter what the sin is. It can
00:37:01.460
seem like the most mild, moderate, but you're going there and you're saying, I did this wrong
00:37:04.840
thing. And I will tell you, if you get into the habit of, of doing this, of confession,
00:37:10.420
then the minute you want to do whatever you're saying, in this case, you know, look at porn or
00:37:14.860
something, you're going to think twice about it. Cause you just think, oh, I just don't want to
00:37:18.840
have to go to confession. I just don't want to have to tell the priest this and make the time.
00:37:24.240
So I, I wish you luck. Uh, I think your prospects are looking very good. The brain is very elastic.
00:37:30.380
My friends who have dealt with this particular problem seem almost entirely better now, you
00:37:36.800
know, much, much, much, much better. And, and as you may know, people have dealt with other
00:37:41.100
addictions and other problems. And how many people do we know who were alcoholics and now they've
00:37:46.920
recovered? You say, well, can the brain ever recover? The brain recovers just fine. You can do
00:37:50.780
it. You can do it, buddy. From Elise. Hey, Michael, I'm a 16 year old girl. I'm conservative and share the
00:37:55.940
belief that generally women should be mothers. However, I've personally never wanted children.
00:38:00.240
And feel that God has called me on an entirely different path. How would you approach this as
00:38:04.900
a believer? Oh, well, I, I would probably discern a vocation, right? If I felt that I'm not being
00:38:12.040
called to marriage and God is calling me to a path of celibacy, then I would probably pursue,
00:38:17.520
I would discern of whether or not I had a vocation, meaning, am I supposed to be a priest? Or in your
00:38:22.640
case, are you supposed to be a nun, for example? And not everyone is. I did not have a vocation.
00:38:30.240
And I was kind of an atheist at the time when I guess I would have been discerning these things,
00:38:34.760
but I didn't. Manifestly, I did not. Some people do. It's a gift given to some people. You know,
00:38:39.260
it's a charism. And so if you are that, then I, you know, I don't know, again, I don't know your
00:38:43.680
specific religious leanings, but I would discern that. You might be, you might be called to be a
00:38:49.300
nun. And that's great. There's some pretty, pretty cool nuns out there. I mean, some of the greatest
00:38:54.720
women in the history of the world have been nuns, have been called to a religious life. And even now,
00:38:59.800
you know, I am going to see at an event soon enough, a sister Deirdre Byrne, who's a really
00:39:05.940
impressive nun. She spoke at the RNC. She's, you know, she's in the military and she's a surgeon and
00:39:12.380
she's a nun. Very, very impressive people. So, you know, best of luck with discerning that.
00:39:17.680
Certainly, we can all pray for you. From Nicholas. Hey, Michael, my fellow swarthy former
00:39:23.160
Westchester, New York resident. How would you respond to the argument that a woman taking a
00:39:27.640
man's last name after marriage is an outdated and sexist tradition? Is there any reason behind
00:39:33.780
doing so other than its tradition? My fiance has heard from many of her engaged friends that they
00:39:38.720
either plan on having the man take the woman's last name. That's good. That's poor schmucks. Or to
00:39:47.480
create a new hybrid name based on a combination of the two last names. Luckily, I will be marrying
00:39:53.780
a smart, beautiful Catholic Italian woman who plans on taking my last name when we get married
00:39:58.580
in June. Could use some ammo for arguments with all these New York libs. You the man. Thank you
00:40:02.740
very much. Okay. You will inevitably be taking a man's name. Your family inevitably will take a man's
00:40:13.880
name. Whether your wife takes your name or you take her name or you both keep your names, you will
00:40:18.920
have a man's name. You will either have your last name, the husband's last name, or the wife's father's
00:40:26.440
last name. And let's say that the wife actually was named after her mother. Okay. Then you're going
00:40:31.140
to be taking the wife's mother's father's last name. But somewhere down the line, you will be taking
00:40:37.080
a man's last name. So if you take the husband's last name, this would seem to reflect that the man
00:40:44.640
has a special leadership role in the household, headship of the household. Doesn't mean he's a
00:40:48.820
knuckle dragging dictator, but there is a leadership role for a man in a household, which I certainly
00:40:55.020
think is the case. If you take the woman's last name, then you're saying that the father-in-law has a
00:41:01.320
special leadership role in the household. Okay. Not the way I want to run my household, but that's
00:41:05.480
fine. And if the woman does not take the man's last name, then you're saying we're not really
00:41:13.220
one flesh, right? We're still two separate individuals who've consented to do certain
00:41:17.200
things together. We share a dishwasher. And if you come up with a hybrid name together, if you just make
00:41:23.380
up a name, then what you're saying is we are doing this thing together, but we have no connection to our
00:41:29.140
past, no connection to our family. No, we are our own thing totally divorced from tradition and custom
00:41:36.740
and convention. Good luck with that. Each man has a very small quantity of reason, and I don't think
00:41:43.680
unfettered reason and unfettered atomized individualism is really going to lead you to a
00:41:49.960
flourishing life. The one exception I will say to this is a friend of mine had a very complicated last name
00:41:56.560
that was difficult to pronounce and probably not great for business. And he did take his wife's last
00:42:00.320
name because it was really succinct and easy to say and looked kind of cool. So there might be
00:42:05.680
prudential reasons to try to work your way around it, but I think generally speaking,
00:42:11.420
your wife should take your last name. From Thomas. Hey, Mr. Knowles. I think the metaverse is great.
00:42:19.820
This is Mark Zuckerberg's new thing where you just plug into the matrix. For the very same reason,
00:42:24.000
I think it's terrible. It's just like drugs or alcohol or porn. It's an escape from reality.
00:42:28.360
I've gone through a ton of trauma in my 19 years of living. As a young adult who struggles with
00:42:32.580
suicidal thoughts, a world away from this one sounds amazing. Sadly, I know the metaverse is in fact a
00:42:38.100
prison worse than this world and not the heaven we want it to be. So I would want to go to the
00:42:44.100
metaverse to escape my giants here. Demons, you might say. The more conservative I get and the more faith I
00:42:50.060
put in God, the more my family hates me. And the girl I love just sees me like an older brother.
00:42:54.960
I've wanted to run away for years and the metaverse seems like a great way to do it. Or like a way to
00:42:59.380
do it, even though I know I would only be running into a dark, lonely cell. Sincerely, a hurting soul.
00:43:03.200
Well, listen, pal, I'm sorry you're going through all this. It's really, really tough.
00:43:09.440
The first step to overcoming a problem is knowing that you have a problem. So you know that you have
00:43:14.380
this problem of trauma that you've got to process. The problem of not particularly enjoying your place
00:43:21.620
in the world and thinking you might need to make a change in your social life. And this problem of
00:43:26.660
recognizing the temptation of fantasy, which is what the metaverse is. So that's good. I think
00:43:30.860
you're really pretty far ahead of the game here. And you said your family hates you because you
00:43:35.940
believe in God. Well, you know, that's what the Bible says. They say they will hate you for my sake.
00:43:40.000
So you can take, I think, a great deal of solace and comfort in that. What would I recommend doing?
00:43:45.200
Well, one, I would recommend seeing a psychologist if you're trying to deal with psychological trauma
00:43:50.060
from your past. If you're not doing that already, I would recommend you do that. I'm not saying you
00:43:53.920
take a bunch of happy pills. I'm saying you speak to someone who might have some expertise in working
00:43:57.620
through this. Recommend talking to a priest. You know, you say you believe in God. So I would
00:44:01.760
definitely do that. And I would resist the temptation. You know it. You know that it needs to be resisted.
00:44:06.980
And sometimes we just need a little comfort to resist these things. Comfort in the sense of Bishop
00:44:11.040
Odo on the bio tapestry, wielding a club, smacking his own men and saying, get back to battle and don't
00:44:16.220
retreat. That would be the thing to do because you're right. The escapism, you know, booze, drugs,
00:44:25.000
porn, the metaverse, even video games can become a problem like this. What they often are about is
00:44:31.900
escaping time. We want to be outside of time. You feel under pressure. You feel like, ah, I just,
00:44:37.580
I don't like being in this world. So you just, you try to get out of that, but you can't get out of
00:44:41.060
that. You'll be far more edified to work out your problems here in the real world. And maybe that
00:44:47.840
means making some changes. Maybe you have to make some changes to your social life. Find a new girl
00:44:52.040
that you're attracted to. Who cares? The girl doesn't like you. So whatever. There's other fish in the
00:44:55.820
sea. Get over her. You know, she doesn't sound that great to me. Your family doesn't like you. Well,
00:45:00.700
maybe you need to put a little distance between your family. Or maybe you need to work things out
00:45:04.020
with your family. But, you know, maybe you've got to sort those things out. Maybe you do have to move.
00:45:09.880
Maybe you don't need to move. You're 19. You're very, very young. Maybe you work these things out.
00:45:13.200
People get better at these sorts of things. And the final part of that is maybe you need to recognize
00:45:19.220
the productivity of suffering. No one wants to suffer. Suffering is terrible. I'm sorry that you
00:45:26.440
got to deal with it. But suffering can be a sanctifying thing. You can react to it in a way
00:45:32.060
with patience and humility that is edifying. It will build you up. I just read Jane Eyre. You ever
00:45:37.140
read Jane Eyre? Terrific book. And the first part of the book is on this very point. It might be worth
00:45:42.480
doing that. That would be a much more productive thing to do, to read a great novel like Jane Eyre
00:45:46.800
than to go into the metaverse. Stay strong. You know the answer.
00:45:50.820
However, I think you just need a little comfort. And so I'm happy to provide that if we can.
00:45:57.220
All right. 20 seconds left. I'm still going to get to a question from Jared.
00:46:00.820
Michael, when talking about destigmatizing pedophiles, oh my gosh, it's a heavy episode,
00:46:05.820
guys. Heavy mailbag. Shouldn't we approach, as some people have, evil thoughts? And shouldn't we
00:46:11.200
approach, and this is worded a little weird. It's never okay to act on. But you should get counseling and
00:46:15.380
maybe isolate yourself. Encourage people to be better than their urges in this day and age.
00:46:18.660
Do you think our friends on the other side could accept this standard? If so,
00:46:22.140
we begin to chip away at all this gender stuff, right? If we basically say that you got to work
00:46:26.720
on these urges. Yes. Yeah, that is the problem. One of the central problems of the gender ideology
00:46:31.760
is that we're told that all of our desires are fine. And maybe you can't act on all of them,
00:46:36.920
that you can act on most of them these days. But oh, the desires are fine. You should never try to
00:46:41.400
change your desires or couch your desires. But the fact is, we can shape our desires. Maybe not totally.
00:46:46.140
This is a fallen world, and we have natural inclinations that we can overcome. But we can
00:46:50.560
order our desires. A little kid craves milk chocolate all the time. An adult craves filet
00:46:57.440
mignon. This is a cultivation of tastes. And this is true of all of our desires. You can aim your desire
00:47:04.000
toward vice, and then you'll get more of it. Or you can aim it toward virtue, and you'll get more of
00:47:07.120
that as well. That is the only way that you could overcome the gender theory stuff. But it requires a lot
00:47:12.500
of work on reshaping the moral discourse. That's our show. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael
00:47:17.820
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the
00:47:28.280
word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe. We're available on Apple
00:47:33.780
Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the other
00:47:39.340
Daily Wire podcasts, including The Ben Shapiro Show, The Andrew Klavan Show, and The Matt Walsh Show.
00:47:44.420
The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Ben Davies, executive producer Jeremy Boring. Our
00:47:49.480
technical director is Austin Stevens, supervising producer Mathis Glover, production manager Pavel
00:47:55.200
Vidovsky, editor and associate producer Danny D'Amico, associate producer Justine Turley,
00:48:01.240
audio mixer Mike Coromina, and hair and makeup by Cherokee Heart. The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily
00:48:10.080
Hey everybody, this is Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show. You know, some people are
00:48:14.260
depressed because the republic is collapsing, the end of days is approaching, and the moon's turned
00:48:18.840
to blood. But on The Andrew Klavan Show, that's where the fun just gets started. So come on over
00:48:23.520
to The Andrew Klavan Show and laugh your way through the fall of the republic with me, Andrew Klavan.