← Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec
Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec
Trump's Grand Deal In The Works - Russia, China, and Iran
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Hey guys, it's Jack. I wanted to let you know that we're starting a new push for subscriptions here on Human Events Daily. So make sure that when you're listening to this podcast, you hit subscribe, you download it, and you share it with five of your friends. Make sure they're all going and downloading as well, because we need to get the signal out as much as possible. Look, we've done so much over the past couple of years since this show started, and we're only going to do so much more. Let's get it. This is what happens when the Fourth Turning meets fifth generation warfare.
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A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran.
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This is Human Events with your host, Jack Posobec. Christ is king. Decarlos Brown, the man charged in the death of Irina Zaruska on the Charlotte light rail, has been found incompetent to stand trial. Now, according to court records, his defense
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attorney is asking to delay a key
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hearing in the case. The US And Iran plan to hold
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talks this weekend in Islamabad. Vice President Vance leading those as President Trump says US Forces will remain in
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the region until a lasting peace agreement is made. He wrote this quote, All U.S. ships,
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aircraft and military personnel with additional ammunition, weaponry and anything else that is appropriate
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and necessary for the lethal prosecution and
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destruction of of an already substantially degraded
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enemy will remain in place and around
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Iran until such time as the real
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agreement reached is fully complied with. Iranian state media saying oil tankers have now been halted from passing through the Strait of Hormuz because of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
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Iran closing the strait, blocking oil tankers from going through as Israel unleashed a sprawling attack on Lebanon.
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President Trump saying Lebanon is not included
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in this ceasefire deal, calling it, quote, unquote, a separate skirmish. Dozens of consecutive strikes on Lebanon by Israel have rocked its capital, Beirut. More than 200 people were killed in the strikes on Wednesday, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. The highest death toll for a single day in the last five weeks of the renewed conflict between Israel and Iranian backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
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Why is there not a rally around the flag event for Donald Trump?
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In fact, you look at these numbers, they're absolutely bonkers. You, there's been the opposite of a rally around the flag event. Look at this net approval change due to actions in Iran. If you look a month in back during the Iranian hostage crisis, look at this. Jimmy Carter saw his net approval rating jump up by 32 points. There was a massive, massive rally around the flag event. But look at this. Trump's net approval Rating, it's actually down, it's actually down 1, 2, 3, 4 points, 4 points since the beginning of the war in Iran.
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And indeed, you can look at wars
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during the last 35 years in the Middle east and you see the same story that is usually you see rally around the flag events. You're not seeing that. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard today's edition of Human Events Daily. We're here live on Real America's voice. Today is April 9, 2026 Anno Dominique, folks, the grand deal. And that's what I want to lay out a little bit here today. People talking, what's going on back and forth. Is the cease fire happening? Is it really going on? Is President Trump planning to go back to war with Iran? Are we going to see the strikes continue? Are we going to see boots on the ground? Guys, guys, understand what President Trump is doing here is getting the pieces in place for the grand deal. And I've been talking about the grand deal for a couple of weeks now. And not a lot of people tell me that Trump wasn't working on a deal, that a deal wasn't in the cards, that he was going all the way in that. They, you also had people who, these warmongers that wanted a full on boots on the ground invasion of Iran. They said, we need American troops, we need American muscle, we need American boys out on the ground. President Trump said, we're going to do what we can. We did it from the air. And then he got to a point with Iran when they eventually came to the table and he said we're not gonna need it. And those people are now very, very upset and they're very, very much in their feelings. And you know, I'm supposed to feel sorry for them. And I just, I try very hard to be. I try very hard to be, but I'm just not, I'm really just not. Because I've always told you that this is the negotiator in chief right here. He's building the greatest deal that America has ever seen and he's still working on it. That's what people need to understand, that Iran and what they're doing vis a vis this Islamabad meeting that's gonna happen later this week. Vice President Vance, we're being told her, and don't forget that right here on Human Events Daily was the first place that you heard the vice President would be involved in these talks. He's going there. And if security holds, we've said that's always been the biggest issue. If security is able to hold that he will be personally there on the ground in Pakistan with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. What we then also need to see that it's not about Pakistan or Iran, it's not about Egypt, it's not about Turkey. It's about the United States, Russia and China. The United States, Russia and China. And when I was with the president on Air Force One, you guys remember, what was the last question I asked him on air? I said, would you be interested in bringing Russia and China into the Board of Peace? And he said, yes. And he said, because you need Russia and China together, you need to work with them if you're good. These are the other two big dogs in the world. All right? America's the biggest dog, but these are the other two big dogs. And that's what President Trump is structuring everything around our relationship with Russia and China. We know what Kamala Harris would have wanted. She would have wanted to go to war. She would have wanted World War three. President Trump, once the deal. So what do you do? Well, if you want to constrain China, you have to constrain their oil. You have to constrain their ability to receive petroleum. They receive it completely. It's almost completely imported. So what do you do? You go to Venezuela, then you go to Iran. That's one. That's two. And what's the last place China gets their oil from is Russia. So that will be the final piece here. Trump, his plan was going to go to China originally, a couple of weeks ago. That's been pushed off. That's May 14th. That's the sit down with Beijing, who's backstopping the Iranians and pushing for these talks in Islamabad. That's also China. So if you don't understand that these things are entirely, inextricably linked, then you have not been looking at the broader picture of what President Trump intends to do and what he's talked about doing for years now, putting America in a better situation vis a vis our geopolitics. Both militarily, yes, but more importantly, economically speaking, for the viable good of the United States citizen and every American. Right back. Rich Barris here. Human events daily. In our way. And our golden age has just begun. This is Human Events with Jack Posit. Now it's time for everyone to understand what America first truly means. Welcome to the second American Revolution. All right, Jack was opaque. We're back. Live Human events daily, folks. One in three people. It's very unfortunate, but they will face a battle with cancer and most never see it coming. Actually just had a, just lost a cousin to cancer and she was a. She's a great person. 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In the morning, drink the high dose nutraceutical cocoa mix. Then with food, you take the soft gels with ingredients like medicinal mushrooms, turmeric, green tea, olive leaf, berberine and black cumin seed oil. SHIELD gives your body the tools it needs to be to keep cells healthy. Head on over to TWC Health POSO and use promo code POSTO to get 10% off plus free shipping for US residents. Again, that's TWC Health slash POSO. So, wanted to bring in Rich Barris here on human events. He's the people's pundit. Rich, you know we usually have you on to talk polling and I know there's a lot of polling news going on, but man, you and I offline have been having some great conversations about geopolitics and people don't realize that you actually do have a geopolitical backgr. And I've been walking through, you know, Iran and of course we're looking at the war and we've seen the polling on it, everyone's seen it. But what I've pointed out to a lot of people here is that I think that what the president is doing isn't just about Iran. It's not just about the Strait of Hormuz. I said you're all looking at the wrong strait. The real strait to look at is the Taiwan Strait because all of this has to do with, with China and the president is going over to China in just a couple of weeks time. So Rich, you know, we can, we can put the Iran war in context or. Look, the Iran operation In context now, that epic fury seems to have winded down. Of course, you know, caveat, caveat on that. But when you look at it in the context of China, does it, do you, is it to your, is it to your mind that what the president's doing here is all about gearing up towards this showdown with Beijing?
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Well, let's not forget until this military action in the Middle East, a lot of the reasons why foreign policy, academics, international relations theorists were excited about Donald Trump is because the field is dominated by realists, Jack. And he was basically the first realist president we had before he took this action that was, that is his record. And I don't think he's lost sight of that. This may be the silver lining. This is part of what we have been talking about. Look, unfortunately, one of the, the issues with the, with this war, with the Iran war is that it has delta blow to the security agreement that we have in the region, which also is similar to the agreement we have in this in Southeast Asia with Japan, with South Korea.
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Right.
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And, and other allies. So I do think that, again, I'm calling it a silver lining, but this may be finally our opportunity to pivot. The president does have leverage here, which, I mean, we back to it. I mean, the president clearly doesn't care what the polls say.
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Right.
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We could, we could go back to it. The Chinese have their interest there. But you and I have, I don't mean to go too far ahead in the future here, but I do want to see what the president does. He once upon a time did support the remilitarization or at least allowing Japan to go their own route and decide what they wanted to do. I just think this is our opportunity to have a generational conversation. And that has been. It's like a big thing that's plaguing our country with so many issues. And you have the old guard who doesn't see the world in this way. So when they're looking at this through the lens of, you know, when they're looking at the Iran war, they're looking at, through their generational lens, and they're not looking at it like you have been. And I've been watching your commentary. We're a different generation and we see it in a totally different light. And I hope, I hope that this will be the beginning of having those conversations, because I want to see us pivot as we have been talking about for over 10 years more. When was Barack Obama president, for crying out loud? And the pivot to Asia. Right. I've long Wanted to see that. I just wanted to see us leave the Middle east on our own terms. But this may be, exactly to your point, this may be Trump's chance to try to, to try to do that.
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Well, and so you mentioned what I just threw out as well, that the other big card to play, and you know, I haven't talked to the admin about this at all, but I think one of the other big cards to play you just mentioned, we did the whole show on it yesterday, remilitarizing Japan. Because here's, here's what you have, right? What you have is a clash, this, this competition really, between the land powers and the sea powers. And when you look in terms of geopolitics, America is one of the sea powers. You also see Great Britain, that is the, that's the European sea power. And then of course, with Asia. Who's there? Japan. Japan, historically speaking, was the sea power there. Now, what does the sea power, what does sea power have to do? The shipping lanes, Freedom of Navig. That's what the Suez is about. That's what Strait of Hormuz is all about. The land powers, of course, Persia, Russia, China, India, those are your land powers. So if you're moving to put one of the sea powers in check, which I believe the President is trying to do, what is the best way to do that? What's a great way to do that? Build up one of your allies and Japan, look, in 1945, that was a, I think, what, two generations ago, that was a, you know, almost a century ago. When you think about it, it is a completely different world now that we are in. And historically speaking, the west has worked with Japan in the past to put China in check. And if you're worried about the Taiwan Strait, if you're worried about the three island chains, it just makes sense. Work with you. And by the way, Vietnam and the Philippines as well, right. You work with all of those in that defense. Because now, because you've got, now you've got your sort of your, your ceiling, which is j. And then you've got your, your floor. That's the South China Sea. That's Vietnam and the Philippines. So, so rich. Walk us through. Walk us through what, what we're trying to get at here.
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Yeah. And by the way, not to jump too far ahead, but it's also a reason why when Donald Trump, when the President used to, or tried to introduce this concept of re. Engaging with Russia, it was the right call. They don't have to be our best friends, Jack. But if the real threat is China and who are they allied?
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Right.
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Pyongyang, if they are the threats. I mean, now you. North Korea has nuclear weapons. Japan does not. Right. Who does? Russia. Right. So if you're trying to box someone in, in a sphere of influence, the correct way to do that is sometimes to make friends with people that you normally wouldn't be friends with. But we're dug into this Russia phobia and it's preventing us from being able to. Again, we. It's. Every now and then you have to re. Examine the map. Re examine what we call the international state of anarchy.
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Right.
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It's a system and a great power balance lies within. Doesn't stay the same forever. And the United States has been sitting in this stale blob, Cold war mentality. Russia phobia has been birthed out of it. It's been used in our domestic politics and it's paralyzed us from being able to move on to what the President's trying to do. You know, bringing up naval versus land powers. We have an advantage with that. I mean, Russia, of course, would still be largely is a land power, but we have an advantage as we're insular. Japan is an island. That makes them insular. So is Great Britain, by the way. It does give us an advantage. We're harder to get to. We can take, I don't want to say more defensive posture and get people to take the wrong idea. But it can allow us to finally concentrate more on ourselves because they cannot project power across water yet. And we. And so it gives us the advantage to try to get our own act together. But we are behind on this, Jack, when it comes to Japan and remilitarizing. They've had this domestic goal. They've had this domestic conversation. I was really, I, I saw a lot of promise during the first administration because his relationship with Abe was so soon. So Abe, the late, of course, prime Minister was, was so strong that, that I was hoping we could see them finally get on the same page. But the, the domestic conversation is there because none of this matters if they don't have the will for it. But of course, we have seen them move in that nationalist direction. They're not Germany, they're. The Post World War II era is over, you know, in the way that, that we saw it. I hate to say it, but we've been focused too much on Europe and the old power structure for too long, Jack. We just have. And look, look. Did they come to. Did they come to the President's aid when he Asked. Right. What did Naito tell him? So it's time to re. To rebalance. We need a new balancing coalition. It's time.
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No, we need a new balancing coalition. And by the way, talking about sea power, talking about sea approaches. So if I'm talking about Japan at the, you know, up in the northern Pacific, what do we see up in the northern Atlantic, what are we doing to keep that on. On lock? Oh, right. Greenland. Green. Greenland is right there for the northern Atlantic. And what did we see? President Trump truth out last night when he said, oh, Naito has a problem with coming to the United States as aid when we need it. Well, maybe we should talk about Greenland. Maybe we should talk about that again. And when I was in Davos with the President on. When he spoke and on that delegation, he brought up Greenland and he said, we're going to do a deal there. And they put that to rest. But that doesn't mean that the United States cannot. Does not. And by the way, I would even argue should not go in and work on a deal directly with the Greenlanders and find a way that Greenland. I'm just saying it. Greenland should be part of the United States. It should be. It is in our interests. And who is the naval power that should have the ability to control the GI UK gap directly? It's the United States. Boom. Is that it?
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Yep.
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Yeah. And Jack, look, this is another thing about, you know, what? We're talking about the future. We're talking about changing the order, the balance of power into something that allows us to refocus on our own hemisphere. It gives us a chance to take a breath, to regather ourselves, to rebuild our strength and to focus and lock down our own hemisphere. I think a lot of people would be surprised about. My own views are about how we should be in this hemisphere. We need Greenland. We need it. Jack, we're $40 trillion in debt. We need a lot of other people's stuff, too. And it can be done. Look, we were talking about this the other day with the Panama Canal. We had a very different posture at one point. It's the current system that constantly baits and bleeds us, you know, into other. Other regions, which, honestly, we just can't afford to be in anymore. Like that.
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That's exactly right. We need a new people's pond here. Human Events Daily. We'll be right back. Talk about influencers. These are influencers and they're friends of mine. Jack. Where's Jack? Jack. He's got a great guy. All right, Jack. We're Back live here, Human Events Daily. Real America's Voice. We're on with Rich Barrister, the people's pundit. We're talking about the shifting balance of power on War Room. We talk about hemispheric defense, we talk about Western power, but we're also looking at the shifting goal. But look, do you want America. It's real simple folks. Do you want America to be the world empire anymore? Do you want America to have its system of. And Rich, this is what I ask you about this idea that America is going to be the world empire. We have these, we, we call them international organizations, but they're actually US dominated organizations. All of these things that we use, we call it international law, but it's ultimately we're the ones who pay for it. We're the ones with the United States Navy that have to backstop it. And I can remember serving in the United States Navy and we're going to these far flung regions of the world and we're doing all the work. And I remember sitting there thinking, does this really benefit us? Is this really in the benefit of the United States of America? We. When I see what's going on on the border, you know, and then a movie like Sicario comes out and you're like, how come we're, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll go to, we'll go to town when it comes to Mozambique or when it comes to the, you know, Al Shabaab in Somalia. But we can't do the same thing when it's the Zetas right on our own border. What's, what's going on? It feels like our priorities are out of whack and it's because we're upholding this globalist system. And so I've always said that MAGA is about the repudiation of globalism. It's not about upholding globalism. So if want a new system, you have to create a new system. And I would argue, and I would stipulate that that's what President Trump is actually doing. So Rich, let's walk through that some more. Does it make sense for us to continue holding up the, whatever you want to call it, the US Led rules based order, the post war consensus, what do you call it? Does it make sense for us to continue moving along this system? Because that's what Joe Biden was doing. That's what Kamala Harris wanted.
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Yeah, that. I think you just said it. What MAGA has always been about is a repudiation of the globalist order. The globalist Order is defined by the international system right now. You know, NATO is a huge part of it. Look at what the President just truthed out. You know, we were talking about this over the break. I mean, he's hammering NATO. He's going over NATO. When he needed NATO, NATO wasn't there for him. NATO is a reason why we're in a war with Eastern. In Eastern Europe right now, with the power which I referenced in the last section. We don't have to love. We don't have to share full morality with. The Ukrainians are deeply corrupt. They're. They're. This is. We act like this is somehow a moral country and Russia's the big bad guy.
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The.
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The NATO was not there for us. We're entrenched in a war in Eastern Europe. Ladies and gentlemen, NATO was created to balance the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact has been dissolved. It has not evolved in its mission in any significant way since the end of history after the Cold War. This will forever. If we continue operating in this system, we will. To bleed our resources, to bleed our blood, our treasure out in other people's ventures, which we get nothing back for in return, right? Did they come to our aid, Jack, the way we came to their aid in Europe? It wasn't, you know, solely that we were helping Ukraine. We were helping other Western countries who were afraid of Russia, France, Germany. Did Fran. Did the French come and help us? No. They vetoed us at the Security Council. The norms, the institutions. Again, I mean, it's really. There's no better. There's no better example of this expression. This is all fake and gay. It's unnecessary. The NATO powers are absolutely useless and they're just draining us. And by the way, while. While they do, we allow them to engage in these experiments like social, you know, like democratic socialism, right? And we allow them to flourish and pretend like that kind of a system can work without the US Subsidizing it. It's ridiculous. I mean, the entire point of MAGA was not to pull back and be isolationist. I know a lot of, you know, people who. Who have been, you know, voices, you know, at the front of the MAGA movement for. For 10 years OG Maga, who are okay with empire as long as it's empire that suits us, as long as it's realistic, right? As long as it allows us to deal with our own stuff in our own backyard and again, our own hemisphere. We make light of the Greenland situation, Jack. We need Greenland. We can't be.
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We.
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We can't afford to mess around in Eastern Europe. We should be on better terms with Russia. They should be balance China while we deal with Greenland, while we take Greenland while we take back whatever else we want to take back. But this system is designed.
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It.
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This is the. The. I don't think people understand.
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By the way Rich.
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It seems like drain us. Yeah.
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By the way rich on that. On that point real quick. The United States already has Greenland. It is even about taking it back because the. Who was it that. I mean Greenland in World War II? Their military from the Germans when they were going to get it and they were going to. They took over Denmark. They occupied Denmark. And who was it that went in and prevented the takeover of Green? It was the United States military and it was the United States that did that. And I'm sorry, when you took territory in wartime, that actually used to mean something. I'm just saying we're the only ones
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who give things back, Jack. We're the only ones who do this.
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Yes.
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And this is. This post World War II order was designed at a time when we were one of only two remaining standing superpowers. And we decided, not that the Russians did, we decided that it would be okay for us to export a little bit of our wealth, a little bit of our treasure, a little bit of our blood, a little bit of our way of life in order to keep the rest of that world stable. Well, this really hasn't worked. I mean, that's the truth of it. People would argue that NATO has been a stabilizing force. NATO's been an aggressor at. In the interest of the European powers who don't come to our aid when we need them. So this entire thing can. It was. I don't. It was never designed to continue forever because, of course, we don't have finite power to. To lend to the rest of the world. We're in enormous debt. We need to lock down our own system. We need to make sure that we're still competent at balancing the real threat, which is, of course, the. The Chinese. And it's time to move on from this old, stale way of thinking. And unfortunately, again, this is generational. It's why you hear people like Lindsey Graham constantly bring up Munich. Right. And all of these other myths of empire. They're stuck in this generational mindset, and it's not their fault. You're defined by your generation in many ways, but the world changes. And if our leaders don't change with it, then it's time for new leaders. Donald Trump understood that. He understood the world needed to go in a different direction. And unfortunately these systems are strong. They don't want to go right? So rich, but Rich he needs. And that's what I'm going to say, leaving NATO.
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And that's what I'm going to say. And as the new system is being created, that's why he's trying to put the United States in the most powerful spot that he can as these negotiations for the new system, as I call it, the grand deal, take place. Rich Barris, where can people follow you, brother?
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Best place on locals. All the best. Peoplespundent.locals.com thanks, Jack. Talk to you guys.
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I'll be right back with the great Michael Knowles here. Human Events Daily. This is Jack. Where's Jack? Where is he? Jack, I want to see you. Great job, Jack. Thank you. What a job you do. You know, we have an incredible thing. We're always talking about the fake news and the bad, but we have guys,
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and these are the guys who've been getting policies.
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All right, Jacksonvik, we're back live here. Human Events Daily. And we've got huge breaking news. So there's been this story, this narrative running around all over Washington D.C. it's about a meeting that took place all the way back in January of this year regarding Cardinal Pierre, the then people nuncio to the United States. It's sort of the, the ambassador, if you will, from the Vatican to the US And a meeting that he held with Elbridge Colby, who is the under Secretary of War for Policy. And there's been this narrative in left wing media that there was this huge clash between them, that it was this just, you know, barn burner of a meeting. And yet the photos that have come out that have just now been released minutes ago by the Pentagon, well, they don't appear to be caustic at all their photos. And if we can get them up, guys, they're sitting down politely, there's photos of them smiling and shaking hands. And you know, they're pointing out that this was sort of a get to know you kind of meeting. It wasn't a argument or a debate or, you know, anything like the media has been trying to say. It was actually a quite cordial meeting and as they say, a respectful and reasonable discussion. And the Pentagon writes, we have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See. So I wanted to get on someone to. I'd heard that this was gonna be coming out. I had reached out to the Pentagon to see what's going on with this story. I mean, it felt like A left wing media op. I think that's what's going on here. But I wanted to reach out to noted Catholic Michael Knowles to bring him on here because he is a Catholic. He has been so in public. And, and if I understand correctly, Michael, are you now a Catholic?
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You know, I am now a Catholic, Jack. I saw the other day that everybody on Twitter was becoming Catholic. It was on Easter Sunday, actually. And I said, well, I go, I want to get in on this. I'm feeling left out. So I tweeted, I said, I am now Catholic. I was also Catholic yesterday. I was Catholic Day before that, too. But I am now one, as I believe.
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Are you indeed? I am now Catholic. I was Catholic yesterday. I was Catholic on Easter. I was Catholic when I was. I'm Polish. Like, we pretty much only come in one flavor, so that's. That's kind of par for the course. But break down your. Your just reaction. I know these photos have just been released, but we've, we've been sort of living through this narrative of, you know, a war between the pentag and the Vatican. And it was all about this meeting. And, gosh, I mean, look at the fireballs being thrown in this meeting. I mean, it just. I understand that these are graphic photos. I want to be very careful. If anyone has small children at home, I should have put up a viewer discretion. Be advised. Warning. Because, I mean, you look at the fangs. Just the fangs. And the, you know, of Elbridge Colby
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just hiding behind the, the smiles and the handshakes. I'm sure there's a fang in there somewhere. Yes. When it comes to any story about the Trump administration, because he has. Because the whole administration has been the target of so many lies. I always have to consider the source. When you add religion and specifically the Catholic Church into that. The Catholic Church, also the subject of many a media op. All of a sudden, my vigilance is turned up to 11. And so when I saw this story going around, I looked at who was promoting it, and one of the chief guys promoting this story, even if he didn't publish it initially, is this guy. Christopher Hale, I think his name is. Who is.
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Oh, gosh, that guy. He's a huge liberal. He's a huge lib.
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C
Yeah, yeah, you can't. I mean, leftist Catholic is a contradiction in terms. And so when I see a lib or a heretic or a liberal heretic promoting some story about the government and the church already, I'm really, really skeptical of it. But then I saw the pictures and I said, okay, I'm glad. I was skeptical, because if the story is right and the Trump administration were threatening to, I don't know, depose the Pope with an anti pope, send the papacy to Avignon as it was in the Middle Ages, you know, it sure doesn't look that way from the photos of this meeting. However, it does bring up an enduring and important topic, which is namely that the spiritual authority and the secular authority have always been in a little bit of tension with each other. I mean, this. This doesn't just go back to the Francis era or the Benedict era. This goes back to the fifth century. And so there's a famous Catholic maxim, which is duo sunt. Duo sunt comes from a papal letter, Famuli Vestre Pietatis, which was written by Pope Gelasius I. It was written to the Byzantine emperor to say, hey, look, look, we have different roles here. And so the spiritual authority is superior to the secular authority because the spiritual authority looks at eternity, whereas the secular authority looks at the temporal world. However, we do have different areas of competency. You see this debate play out later in the Middle Ages. Dante famously was a little tough on the Pope. He puts a couple of popes in hell. He sides with the emperor when it comes to the Pope, even though he's part of the political party that supports the Pope over the empire. All of which I say not as fun church political trivia, but to point out, there's always been a little bit of tension, especially in Western Christendom. And so the idea here that this free press story promoted by liberals is going to suggest that the US Is going to go to war with the Holy See. It's just totally laughable. It's historically illiterate and it seems to be dishonest, judging by what the Department of War just put out.
- [33:13]
A
Well, I think the story was dishonest. And, you know, I also saw people trying to, you know, try to, I think, use this as a wedge of, you know, putting it between the Pentagon and the Trump officials and the Pope, because obviously we're in the midst of, or at the time had been in the midst of a war. We're currently in the midst of a ceasefire. So people who really supported the military effort wanted to try to, you know, pit these people against it. And they said, well, Pope Leo's come out and talking about war and all that. I said, guys, news flash. Popes generally in the modern era are not pro war, regardless of what the war is. Pope John Paul, the second, one of the last things that he did on the world stage was speak out against the start of the Iraq war. So this isn't something new. It's not really a new trend. It's not really something that, you know, is going to, I think, break the news cycle and, you know, you know, shocker, right? You know, church leader calls for peace. It's not exactly something new. And that's why I think I was so confused when I saw people bringing it up. I said, yeah, well, the Popes are generally always like that. That's, that's pretty much what they go for. And to your point, right, they have different, they have different goals in mind.
- [34:21]
C
You know, some people are using this to attack the Trump administration as being anti Catholic, which I think is pretty laughable. We have the first practicing Catholic vice president we've ever had in American history. Some of the officials in that room, actually the Pentagon, are Catholic. So. So that, to me is a total joke. And then some people, as you point out, Jack, are using this to attack the Pope. Some are claiming that Pope Leo XIV is a liberal or something like that. And I think this speaks to an understandable ignorance of what the Pope is and what the Catholic Church is. The Pope, whether we're talking about Pope Leo or we're talking about pretty much every other pope, the Pope is much more conservative than basically any American politician in either party. When it comes down to the litany of issues, whether we're talking about life, whether we're talking about marriage, whether we're talking about sexual ethics, even when we're talking about hot button issues like abortion, on which Pope Leo has a relatively moderate and I think even slightly conservative view. When we get down to issues like war, again, in which Pope Leo, I think, has a pretty moderate view, the Pope is, is very conservative. You cannot map the left wing political paradigm onto an institution such as the Catholic Church. Let's not forget the left right political paradigm was established at the beginning of the French Revolution to distinguish between the people who supported the Church, who sat on the right side of the national assembly, and the people who hated the Church and wanted to destroy it, who sat on the left. You can't map these things on the only institution in the west to survive since antiquity. The Catholic Church is by definition very, very conservative. And I think people are, to your point, they're trying to gin up divisions where none exist.
- [36:07]
A
Yeah, I think that's right. And I've said, look, if you want to, you know, if he's popping off about immigration or something, and we want to get into that, all for it. I do it myself, as a matter of fact. And I think he's, you know, much better, by the way, than Pope Francis has been on that hot button issue. And, you know, he said some things that, you know, that I, you know, are concerning to me. But we haven't seen the same level of, I think, abrasion between himself and conservatives that we saw under Pope Francis. And Pope Leo has actually called for communion with the Latin right, with the Latin Mass, which I think is phenomenal. We had my brother on the other day. We were talking about this just after, after Easter Sunday, because this has been. That was, I mean, it felt like a burgeoning schism within the church, almost this idea that the, the Latin Mass Catholics and the Novus Ordo Modernist Catholics were in totally, you know, different camps on this. And it was going, it was getting, it was bubbling up to the point where it could have gotten ugly. And it looked like an ugly situation. And here we have the Pope coming in and saying, you know what, we have to find a way to bridge the divide. If you feel pulled towards the traditional right of Mass, then we should not try to stamp that out. We should respect that. And by the way, those are the types of Catholics. We'll get into that in the next segment here a little bit. Those are the types of people that are flocking to the church among Gen Z. Quick break. Jack Posobic, Michael Knowles, here is our guest. We're doing a little Catholic talk, talking about the Vatican here on Human Events Daily.
- [37:44]
C
This the Jack Posobic Appreciation Hour. I can say confidently, I believe, I
- [37:48]
B
think Josh Shapiro would be the vice
- [37:50]
A
presidential nominee if it wasn't for Jack Posobic.
- [37:52]
B
And that is, I'm being honest.
- [37:59]
A
All right, Jack Posobic, we're back live. Human Events Daily. We're on with Michael Knowles. And Knowles, I had to ask you because, you know, we were talking about the Vatican, we're talking about the Pope, we're talking about Catholicism and in America as sort of this, you know, are there differences between, between you know, the presidency and the Holy See, obviously. But there's this huge narrative going on. And we've kind of been talking about a little bit on the show this week already about this Gen Z, you know, is it a trend? Is it a fad? Is it here to stay this movement towards Catholicism? And I think all those questions are valid. But let me ask you, because I know you talk about this a lot. What do you think is driving, what do you think is underpinning this? Because you know, when Gen Z really first started coming online a couple years ago, I think of shows like Euphoria and like Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney and these types of things, and that doesn't lead me to think it's tough to draw a line from that to the Holy Roman Church. So Roman Catholic Church. So I'm trying to figure out, how did this start in the first place?
- [39:05]
C
So three things, I think, when it comes to the Gen Z conversions and Gen Z really is driving this, especially young men. The first one is the Holy Spirit, I believe is what's driving it.
- [39:15]
A
But that's exactly what my brother said, by the way. That's exactly what my brother said when I asked him that question.
- [39:19]
C
First answer. So this. The second part is transgenderism, and the third part is Covid. I think those are the. Those are the immediate reasons that we're seeing this happen right now. Now, this, of course, has been building for decades, and even centuries in my estimation. But what Trans did was it denied the importance of the body. It said that you are not your body, and your body really has no connection to your true identity. So you can look like a man, but be a woman. You can chop up your body, but that's not really you, and that's just not true. We all know that we are our body. We're also spirit, but we are our body. And so people, I think, are drawn to religion that deals with the body. A lot of modern religion doesn't really deal with the body. It's a motivist, it's a personalist. But, you know, you need to be drawn to liturgical or sacramental religion if you're going to deal with the body. And the Catholic Church does that more perfectly than any other institution. In fact, many religious groups have defined themselves against that. And so I think that's why you're seeing a Catholic surge there. Then the other one is Covid, because Covid participated in much the same social problem. It alienated us. It told us we could live our lives virtually on screens. So it said, you know, you can say goodbye to granny in the hospital on a screen, not in person. It said, you go to school on a screen. It said that your whole social life can exist locked up in a cube as long as you can be present in the virtual world. And we're not satisfied by that. We want to touch people, we want to hug people. We want to go out and get a drink, smoke a cigar, throw a baseball. And so I think people are therefore, once again drawn to the sacramental and liturgical aspects of the church. And then the final little coda to those top three is that the new atheism was spent. The new atheism that said that only dummies are religious in the 2000s and that had a particular hatred for the Catholic Church. That was a joke. It was really a deceit, because the only reason it became popular was that they exploited the 911 terror attack, which was perpetrated by Muslims, to try to attack Christians under the guise of attacking religion generally. It was a sleight of hand. It was a little trick. And it ran out. People realized that religions are in fact, different and that man is a religious creature. And the eternal questions don't just go away because Sam Harris made some dumb point on a podcast or something. So that part, I think, was all bound to happen. But we're beginning to live in a world where young people especially want something that is sturdy, that is solid, that they can touch physically, and that is solid intellectually and spiritually. And so when I say that this problem goes back hundreds of years, I mean, I'm going back to Descartes here, who screws up Western philosophy by saying that basically the only thing that we can know is within our own minds, that we can't ever really access the real world, literally. And the medieval tradition and the ancient tradition says, no, you can. You actually can know things. We can know things for certain. We can come to conclusions. We can have confidence in authoritative teaching. And the Catholic Church, contrary to most of modern religion, says there are dogmas, there are doctrines. We don't leave everything up to private judgment. There's a role for private judgment, but there's a role for magisterial teaching, too. All of that, I think, has finally come back because of young people in particular having a dissatisfaction with the failures of the alternative.
- [42:42]
A
No, I think that's right. And it also explains why there's the connection more so in with the traditional rights of the Catholic Church. Because they don't want the Novus Ordo. They don't want the modern church with the guitars or, you know, these. These newer churches that, you know, it's it, you know, and. And we drive past a couple of those churches to go to where. Where we go to Mass every Sunday, where we attend Mass, because I don't want to go in a, you know, go to a church or take my kids to a church that looks like a YMCA that's got a cross eye up. Right, right. I want my kids to go to a church in a place that looks different, that looks like it's from a different world that has a direct connection to the spiritual where you're conducting all the liturgical rituals, where you've got the stained glass and the pillars and the artwork and incense and all of it. And you need those things. You absolutely need those things. And I think that that's something that speaks to Gen Z, because when you're doing those, not in a performative way, but in a robust spiritual and humble. Right. Incredibly humble mindset, as you are approaching God. You know, these distinctions like communion on the hand versus communion on the tongue, they become very important if you're actually looking at it from that perspective. And I think it's that authenticity that the traditional right has that is actually attracting so many people from Gen Z, because it's authenticity that they are searching for so much. Because I'm just gonna say it. So much of the modern world is fake and gay.
- [44:22]
C
Yes. Yeah. I mean, what you're getting at is this old Latin expression, lexerandi lex credendi, which is the way that we worship is gonna imply something about the way that we believe. And so you mentioned receiving the Holy Communion on the tongue, kneeling, as is traditional, versus the more modern way where you receive our Lord in your hands. Both are valid. The Vatican is okay with both. However, I think a lot of young people are looking at it and saying, well, hold on. If I really believe that this is Jesus really and truly present body, blood, soul and divinity in the communion, host in the Eucharist, then I don't want to touch it with my unconsecrated hands. I want to receive in a very reverent way, kneeling before the Lord. It's not to say that you're not allowed to do the other. It's just that our behaviors imply something about our belief. And so I think young people in particular, living in this disenchanted world where we're told we can't believe anything and nothing's true and nothing's meaningful and they know that that's a lie. They're going to look for the expressions of religion, the practice of religion that are full of expression. I mean, you even mentioned Jack. We've all had this driving past the ugly suburban church that looks like a Dairy Queen. And it's no knock on simplicity. You can have a beautiful, cheap and simple chapel. You can. In fact, a lot of the really traditional masses are pushed to the margins on the outskirts, in the bad neighborhood with the chapel that's too small, but it's beautiful and it's adorned nonetheless. And this isn't a prejudice that's irrational. Most people realize that there's a relation between beauty and truth and goodness. These are the transcendentals, and they have relation to one another. So, you know, if we are longing for a beauty that is beyond this world, if we're longing for transcendence, if we're longing for objective truth and moral goodness, we're going to recognize that these things are all going to have something to do with one another. And people don't want to just go to the same sorts of places that we go every other day of the week. You know, if I want more of the world, if I want to be entertained by a priest who's facing me doing a standup routine like an actor in a vulnerable vaudeville show, I don't know, I'll just go to some entertainment venue. But if I want to be led in the worship of the true God to have my eyes lifted up to heaven, I'm going to go to a place that looks and feels a little different from worldly things. I think that's perfectly rational. And in this regard, I think the kids are all right and the older generations have something to learn from them.
- [46:52]
A
No, I think it's exactly right. And, you know, it's like what they say, you know, and you've. And you find, by the way. And you find the younger priests. I wish you had more time to talk about this. Have to do it the next time. You find these younger priests and they're like, so on fire, so conservative. I mean, it's like boomer priests. They're on their way out. And these younger ones coming up, like, they're just great. Michael Knowles, where can people go to follow you?
- [47:13]
C
They can go to Michael J. Knowles.com or to any of the various social media platforms. Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, Zanga Live Journal, I don't know, whatever other ones there are.
- [47:24]
A
You still have a Zanga? Does that exist? Is that allowed? Is that legal? Oh, my gosh. Actually, I actually found all of geocities in a zip file once somewhere. I'll have to tell you about it later. Ladies and gentlemen, as always, you have our elder millennial permission to lay ash.