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Conservatives Split: Is Trump’s Iran Deal a Mistake? | Ron Simmons
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Foreign. Well, hello, everyone. I hope everybody is having a good week as we get ready to celebrate America's 250th birthday coming up, I guess in about a week from when this comes out. And I know our family's looking forward to it. We're going to be doing the fireworks show. I see that Lisa's already bought a bunch of Fourth of July stuff, you know, decorations and grandkids are going to be all together for a lot, a big part of that. So we're looking, really looking forward to that. And I hope your family as well. We're going to talk about that in just a few minutes on kind of some of the polling that's gone on related to this monumental landmark that we're going to be celebrating. In fact, the longest running pure republic slash democracy in the world. Most of them last a lot shorter time than that. But we're very thankful that ours has gone on. And a lot of that tribute obviously goes to our founders and to our creator, because I do believe that there was quite a bit of divine intervention in establishing America. And just think about all the freedoms that we fought for over the years. And it is pretty humbling to think about when you think about the sacrifices that have been made by so many for those of us that are here today. But before we get into that, I want to talk there's a lot that's been going on on the Iran US Front. And as you know by now that President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding a week or so ago, maybe a couple of weeks by the time this comes out. And as I'm speaking to you today, Vice President Vance and Jared Kushner and Steve Wyckoff are in Switzerland continuing to negotiate the details that will follow the memorandum of understanding. But before we get into any of that, let's I want to go through the memorandum myself with you so that you understand and remember, a memorandum of understanding is not a binding commitment on anyone. It is an agreement that, hey, this is generally what we understand, that we want to happen both sides. But we, you know, as they always say, the devil's in the details. And that's the way it is with these things. I can't even I mean, I've negotiated a bunch of contracts in my past selling companies and contract with individuals. I've helped Allie with her contracts in the past. And I know that's complicated. I can't imagine how complicated this is, especially when there's somebody on the other side of the table from you whose regime has been committed to wiping US off the face of the earth. And so I can't imagine need to be praying for Vice President Vance. And also speaking of that, I hope that you watched or listened to Ali's podcast interview with Vice President last week. Boy, that was really, really good. She is such a great interviewer. And out. And JD Vance is a great interviewee. He is very smart. I was very, very impressed. Didn't necessarily agree with everything that he said, but I was very impressed with the way he handled himself. And I know Ali was, too, not just on camera, but off camera also. But anyway, let's go into the Memorandum of Understanding. We got to get my glasses on here because the type of that this printed out on is pretty small. So just be with me. I'm going to go through each point. All right, we've got time to do that today. Number one, the United States and Iran and their allies in the current war by signing this mou, declare immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. Now, that's Lebanon, as you know, is where I believe it's Hezbollah is. And that is the proxy for Iran that has caused Israel a lot of trouble. And so we wanted to make sure that really on both sides, Israel and Hezbollah, that their hostilities were going to cease as well. And we will undertake now on not to initiate any war or military operation against each other and refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, which I don't think they're going to live up to that. I don't think we're going to live up to that. We want to threaten force, which certainly we can do. We'll continue doing it and to ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. In other words, we're not trying to take over any property in Lebanon. The second thing is US and Iran will undertake with respect to each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs. Then number three, that US And Iran will commit to negotiating, achieving the final deal within 60 days. Of course, it can be extended with mutual consent, but there you got to put a deadline on something. You know, a goal without a deadline is just a dream, so. Or just a wish. Number four, immediately upon sign the mou, the US Will begin removal of its naval blockade and any disturbances or impediments against the against Iran and will fully end the naval blockade within 30 days. So we're going through the process of doing that. We're giving ourselves some time. First of all, nothing happens overnight. But second of all, I think we want to see how negotiations are going. That's my interpretation of it. Before we take everything away from there and we're always listen, this doesn't mean we're never going to have ships in the Middle East. We will have ships in the Middle East. We regularly have ships all over the world. I'm sure we'll have ships in the Mediterranean, we'll have ships in the Indian Ocean. And if we have to get back there quickly, we'll be able to do that. Upon the signing of this MoU, Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for safe passage of vessels with no charge from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Amman and vice versa. I think they've always had a fee going on for passing through there. And so what we're saying is for the next 60 days you gotta let them all go through for free. And then after that maybe negotiate what you charge for vessels to go through. Kinda like going through the Panama Canal. The US undertakes with its regional parts to develop mutually agreed plan with at least 300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran. The mechanism for the implementation of this plan will be finalized as part of a final deal within 60 days. All required licenses, waivers and permissions needed for the relevant financial transactions will be granted by the usa. We're not putting money up. That's what President Trump said time and time again. We're not putting money up. Some of the other countries in the region might be willing to put up money and we're going to allow that to happen, but it also has to come through us because it can't happen if we think they're not living up to the other parts of this agreement. That's why we. The licensing parts in there. Okay, that, that really was important for that to happen. The US undertakes to terminate sanctions against Iran, including United nations national security resolutions. Of course we can't control that ourselves. That's a, that's a committee that we have one vote on, although we do have veto power on that. But we can't control that 100% ourselves, but we're going to try to get that done. And also the IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, all unilateral United States, all unilateral sanctions, primary and secondary and agreed upon schedule as part of the final deal. Again, this will take time over a period of months. Number eight, Iran reaffirms it shall not procure. That means purchase or develop nuclear weapons. So they can't buy them from North Korea or China and they can't procure them. I Mean that's what they're agreeing to now. You know again the only way to know if that happens if we're monitoring that and we're going to, we're going to be monitoring that the US and Iran have agreed to resolve disposition of the stockpiled enriched material and the stuff that we blew up. And if also if they have any more pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon in accordance with the schedule mentioned in paragraph seven that's within the 60 days that they want to get that done. And, and then the minimum with the minimum methodology minimum methodology to be down blending on site under the provision of iaee the minimum thing they have to do is they have to down blend. So if they've got it so any of it at like 60% we got to down blend that because my understanding is is only takes 20% enriched to provide the electrical the power that they're looking for which is supposed to be the, and that's the only peacetime use they could would need it for. Pending the final deal, the USA and Iran agree to maintain the status quo. Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program when all of this is done. Which means, which means it's not enriched beyond the need for power just to get electrical power. And they will not impose any new sanctions and will not deploy additional forces in the region if Iran does that. The United States of America undertakes this immediately upon the signing of the termination of sanctions. U.S. the federal issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives and all associated services, including banking transactions, insurance and transportation. Number 11 the US undertakes to make fully available for the use of frozen or restricted funds of Iran. And number 12 the US and Iran agree on the executive mechanism will be established to monitor the successful implementation of the MoU and the final deal. So we've got to see how that we're going to monitor it and keep make sure that both sides are living up to their agreements. The final deal will be endorsed by a binding United Nations Security Council resolution. So at the end of the day the UN Security Council with the agreement of both Iran and the US will be asked to pass a resolution agreeing to all of these steps. And that means when they do that, that means that the UN is agreeing that both sides will stick to what they've said. And that's much more important to us that Iran sticks to their side. Because we're obviously not going to just go in there and nuke Iran with no threat against us. But we don't know, based on the mullah's past statements and intentions, if they would do that. So this gets the whole United nations behind it. Now sometimes that's a paper tiger, but hopefully that will carry some weight as we go forward. So that's the details. Okay. And I know that that's a little, can be a little boring. But I want you to make sure that you understand this. And this is so important. Those of you that have, you know, kids and grandkids that are not of adult age yet, you need, they, you need to be able to communicate with them over time. Not they're too little, this is too much for them. But over time maybe your teenagers or whatever and as to what this means because they're going to be living with it. You know, I don't know how long this is going to go on and when we're going to have future conflicts. But they need to understand this is an important point in history with our relationship with people in the Middle East. And it's also important that the people that are helping negotiate some of this, you know, the Sultan of Oman and then the people in Pakistan, that's really important that they're involved in this and they're helping us get to a solution on this. So we are, we're really excited about that. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the eventual deal will have to go further than the mou, which we agree with that, and not only curb nuclear ambitions from Iran, but also further terrorist activity by Iran and Iran sponsored organizations. And here is Sat 1 where Secretary Rubio talks about that. Are you trying to ease concerns to allies here in the region that most certainly will come up in these conversations. And there are items outside the MOU that will certainly be covered, but that's one that will have to be covered. It will be discussed. I think a careful reading of the MoU will see that when you talk about, for example, a complete and end of hostilities in the entire region, well, that's not possible. You can't have the end of hostilities and conflicts in the region as long as Iranian proxies are launching missiles and drones from Iraq and are participating in terrorism like Hamas did and like Hestilica. So I do think it's covered by the MOU and it is an issue that will be gotten to at the appropriate time in these negotiations. It's absolutely covered by the mou. In fact, I just read it to you where not only is Iran and its allies, okay, which would be these terrorist organizations that they have, they, we're holding them to the Same standard that we're holding Iran to. And we're just assuming that they're proxies of them. Right. Just like if, if United Kingdom, if they had a spy had helped us in this process, we would be considering them an ally and they would be held to the same standards that we're held to. So the whole United Kingdom without a spy is another episode which we'll talk about one day. But there's also been some criticism from Republicans. In fact, Ted Cruz says that history teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. Now, Ted knows this. Okay? Senator Cruz, and I know Senator Cruz as well. But Ted knows that we're not giving them money. The money that's been restricted is their money. Okay? It's money that, you know, through businesses or whatever that they've accumulated. And we are assuming everything goes well with these final negotiations going to lift those restrictions, but we're not giving them money. Okay? I want to make sure everybody understands that. Lindsey Graham says, well, let's try a diplomatic solution. I think it's going to fail. And then what happens next? That's a very good question, Senator Graham. I understand Senator Graham in this particular issue is probably one of the most hawkish of anyone. If you. I've talked about him before in that, you know, he was one of the big supporters of this conflict with Iran. And, you know, I'm glad we did it, and we'll talk about that as well, but we'll see what happens. That's all that you can do. I mean, we don't know the answer to that. I think I'm cautiously optimistic, but it wouldn't surprise me if Iran, you know, breaks this deal, whether soon or whether in the next few years they broke the deal that we did through Obama. You know, they were enriching uranium. Right. A long way of not allowing inspectors in and all that. So I think they're dealing with a different president and hopefully a different mindset as well. The other thing that's happened, and we're going to talk about this in just a second, is how does it compare to the deal that Obama did? What we called the. I think they called it the jcpoa. Yeah. The last quote is that Senator Tom Cotton credited President Trump for making Iran weaker than it's been in decades, but said certain aspect, this deal or a step, and he believes as the wrong directions, we need to make sure they don't squander the leverage that we built. That's a good Point, I think. Listen, I know that President Trump doesn't like criticism, but sometimes constructive criticism, and it's hard to find that in politics, honestly. But sometimes constructive criticism helps us make better deals, and it helps. Helps us understand the situation better. So I don't fault these senators for saying what's on their mind. Probably better if they did it in private. But politics is done and public policy is done in a very public manner, obviously. And that's the type of country we live in. If we were in Russia or one of these other places like Iran and others, there's nothing public about what they do. So I'm glad that they're doing this. I would just ask them to be supportive of getting the very best deal that we can. And I'm going to go over that in a minute. You know, it's really interesting that people that are complaining, I'm not talking about these three senators, but that people complaining the whole time about the war are complaining about how we're stopping the war. You can't have it both ways, okay? Either you're happy that we're stopping it no matter what, because you, some of you didn't believe that there was even a potential for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Some of you didn't believe that. And therefore, what do you care how it stopped? Right? You just wanted it to stop, but now you're complaining about that. We lost very few servicemen in this, and I know one's too many servicemen and women, but we lost very few in this. We put a lot of damage on the country of Iran and their power structure and their leadership structure. In fact, when you compare it to the JCPOA that Obama signed into place, there's. There's pretty big differences in that. In exchange for significant sanctions relief and access to frozen assets, Iran agreed to strict limitations on its nuclear program, including reducing its centrifuges, limiting uranium enrichment and allowing international inspectors. However, Iran kept enriching uranium anyway, built its nuclear program and never allowed any inspectors. And there wasn't any mechanism to do anything about it. We never did one thing about that. Not one thing. I don't think there was one legitimate inspector that ever went into Iran after the JCPOA deal in 2026. The Trump's agreement is not yet a nuclear deal. It is a memorandum of understanding that serves as a ceasefire. And the nuclear deal is going to be negotiated. Now, I will tell you, if we can't get that negotiated, there could be other hostilities, because I do not believe that Trump is just going to walk away from this without achieving his primary objective. Nor should he, in my opinion. Another difference in how the JCPOA versus this memorandum understanding and our long term potential deal is, is that our agreement came after, as I said just a few minutes ago, a series of military operations against their nuclear facilities which did much to weaken the regime and we hope it leads to a stronger full agreement. In fact, Vice President Vance, who I said was over in Switzerland right now, discussed the differences between the JCPOA and what the deal is now in Sat II. You have to remember, in 2015, Iran had built a sophisticated nuclear weapons program with a nuclear weapons stockpile. So the perspective that we came at as the United States was, you already have a really nice nuclear program. We're going to bribe you with American money in order to stop it. Our perspective and where we're coming at it is we already destroyed your nuclear program. And so if you promise and show verifiable pathways to not rebuild it, then we're willing to give you some sanctions relief and things like that. So it's a fundamentally different perspective. Well, that is very good way to put that. It's just a different way to look at it. What we did in 2015 or what Obama did as our president 2015, he said, okay, look, here's a bunch of money, please stop doing what you're doing. And they said, okay, we'll take the money and we'll stop doing what we're doing. And then, you know, didn't stop. It's kind of like having a child and counting to three with no consequences. And you might as well have counted to 3,000. If you don't have consequences after the count of three or whatever it is your family does when a child is acting up, then they're going to learn that pretty quickly. And what happened here was, is that we had been talking to them, telling them, okay, that hey, you need to stop this. We're going to do something about it. You know, Trump pulled out of the JCPOA agreement in 2018, I think, and they just didn't pay attention to us. We got reports from IAEA that they felt like they were at 60% enrichment and you could go to 90% within a few weeks. So we bombed the place and we believe that we buried their enriched uranium well under, you know, hundreds and hundreds of feet, if not thousands under the earth. And so we're saying, look, we're going to do more of this if you don't straighten up and we'll come to an agreement, we'll release your funds and all that. We don't have anything against. We don't. We're not trying to take over the country. We're just saying we're not going to allow you to be a threat to us or people that are our friends in the region. That's what we're saying. And we'll see if that works out or not. I don't know the answer that. Nobody knows the answer to that we can only deal with the facts that we know. Anybody that tells you they know the answer, that don't know what they're talking about anyway, that's what that's up to. Down Iran. I know it's a lot of information. I'm sorry it took so long to go through that. But I just thought it's very important and there, there could be, by the time this comes out in a couple of days, there could be some more stuff that has happened this week and we'll just keep following that.
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All right, now the next thing I want to Talk about is America250. Where are we and where are we going? I thought this is a pretty good time to do that. You know, July 4th. Ali's told you that's her favorite holiday of the year. It's our family's favorite holiday of the year. Our church service coming up this Sunday, they will pay special tribute to all the different armed forces. And they always have a member, a former member, usually a retired member of each level of armed forces. The Coast Guard, the Marines, the Navy, the Army, the Air Force. They'll have all of those represented, all of those branches of our military represented by generally a retired gentleman in his full dress uniform, whatever that happens to be. And maybe a couple of them are in a combat uniform. And then when they call out the US Navy, they'll play the Navy song while that guy's standing there saluting. And they'll do the same thing for the Air Force and the same thing for the Marines. And I always look over there at Lisa when we're watching that, and she's always shedding a tear, as we all probably should. And I always think that's a very special day and a special time. So I hope you're attending some of those things that are going to be going on. Your kids need to understand it's not just, yes, we're going to have fun and fun and games, but they also need to understand what we're really celebrating. We're celebrating something that no other country has really been able to celebrate. At least no other democracy republic like ours has been able to celebrate. So it's pretty darn exciting now. It is interesting, though, because we're so politically divided in the US that polls actually show pretty big frustration on how things are working today. And there's apprehension about what the future will decide. Now, in my opinion, even though they're showing a lot of apprehension, it's for different reasons. All right, and here, let me go. I'll go through that in just a minute. First of all, let's talk about the American Dream. I've got a lot of polling information for you here. Republicans are far more optimistic than other groups, with 57% saying the American dream remains valid, compared to just 24% of independents and 17% of Democrats. Also, men are more likely than women to believe in it as our older adults compared to younger ones. See, I think the reason these numbers are what they are is that for the Republicans that are. That are worried about the American Dream, they're not worried about it because of things that Republicans are doing from a policy standpoint. They're worried about it because of the people like Mandami, right, in New York and aoc that, that they're worried that one day they'll take over our government and we'll be living under the policies that they have. And that's something that makes them not certain about the American Dream. So it doesn't mean they're unhappy with the way things are today, but they have genuine fears. Right? And I think the reason women are more than men is because women generally have a little bit more of a cautionary look at things, and they become fearful for their families. Right? Whereas a man in our background of the one that needs to be in generally the one that's out there on the front lines, providing. I know there's a lot of women in the workforce, and you know that I support that. But just kind of the psyche of how we're made up makes us not near as sensitive to danger, maybe sometimes as we should be, but not serious, sensitive, danger, willing to take the risk to move through it. So again, just because a Republican might, 40, what, 43% might not be as positive on the American Dream. It's not because of necessary Republican policies. It's because of they fear the takeover of the far left and the policies they bring to the table. Nearly half of Americans age 60 and older still believe in the American Dream. There we go, Baby boomers. We're still doing it. We're still carrying the load. Keep on. All right. We're going to bring you millennials and Gen Z's and Gen Y's on Gen X, all of you along with us. You'll be there. But we still believe in the American Dream. Many of us have lived the American dream. And if you've read my book, Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon, you know that our family has certainly lived the American Dream. And we owe a lot of first to our creator and our savior, but also to the men and women before us that sacrificed so much so that we could be able to live the dream. Only a third, only about 1 in 5 adults, or 20% under 30, feel the same way. And that's probably from a lack of experience, life experiences. So far, they've lived through some pretty tumultuous times. In 2016, for example, when President Trump was first elected, that's been 10 years ago now. And you know, the people that are 30 were 20 years old and the ones that are 25 were 15. So they've lived through some very divisive times. No question about that. So I can see where that would make them, hey, what is the future hold? Is it going to get even more divisive? And we have a full screen that will come up that shows you the confidence in the financial situation by people at certain age groups and certain demographics. And you can see that there is concern about financial future and that inflation has something to do with that, which during the Biden era that went way up and then it went down and then it's been back up lately because of our conflict with Iran. So I can understand why people feel that way. Nine in ten Americans say freedom of speech and the right to vote are important to the nation's identity, while eight in 10 feel the same about freedom of religion. A smaller but still majority share, 57%, view the right to keep and bear arms as important. About half of the public, 46%, sees freedom of speech as facing a major threat today. And again, I think that's on both sides. I think there are equal number of people on the right and on the left that think freedom of speech is under attack. We think it's under attack on the right because the left controls most of the media. And because what we went through with Biden by the lawfare and the weaponization and even what we went through with Obama. Remember how the IRS went after a bunch of conservative organizations? We believe that freedom of speech is under attack on that. The left believes freedom of speech is under attack because of President Trump and how he responds to the media and how he doesn't tolerate, you know, the left wing media to dominate him. And that's why I believe, because there's so much Trump derangement syndrome. That's why I believe that they're concerned about it. Democrats are much more likely than Republicans and independents to view the right to vote and freedom of speech is under major threat. Now, see, that's really interesting, especially on the right to vote, because what the Democrats are saying on the right to Vote is they don't think we should have any restrictions on voting. In other words, we shouldn't do voter id, we shouldn't do, you know, identity checks, any of that type of stuff. You don't have, in fact, in a lot of places in local elections, like they're trying to get done in la, not even have citizens. You don't have to be a citizen to vote, which is totally crazy. So they don't see it as protecting the integrity of voting. They see it as if we don't let people vote that aren't really legally allowed to vote, if we don't let them do that, then we're suppressing, which is totally, totally wrong. That just doesn't make any sense. And SOT3 talks about NBC News report on how Republicans versus Democrats, which is more proud to be American again, 56% overall having extremely, very much proud of the country. It's 29% among Democrats, it's 90% among Republicans. Look at that staggering gap between the parties. Look at it on the other end here. Only a little or not proud at all. It's 36% among Democrats, that number among Democrats, it's higher on the low end there than it is on the extremely proud end. And it's only 3% for Republicans. So a massive partisan divide on that question of being proud to be an American. Look at that. That is just amazing. You heard what he said. If you're just listening to it. But that's. I tell you what that means on the Democrat side, you're going to elect people that don't even, aren't even proud to be an American. I mean, that's just. Absolutely. And some of the recent elections have shown that some of the primaries, you know, Socialists have had a big run in the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party is being taken over by Socialists. Just make sure that if you're a Democrat, you're supporting socialism. If you're not supporting it, then what are you going to do to change it within your own party? And I talked about that, I think on the last episode where I think the Socialists and Green Party people are taking over the Democrat Party. Like the Libertarians are trying to do the same thing with the Republican Party. Now let's look ahead to 2050. Where are we going to be in 25 years when we're 300 years old? You know, would that be. Yeah, no, that'd be. I'm sorry, 275 years old. Excuse me, should know my math. Two thirds of Americans expect the country to be even more Divided than it is today, with most seeing no end in sight to the deep divisions the public has spit on. Split on race relations, with half predicting they will improve over the next 25 years and the other half expecting them to get worse. Wow. On most other issues, pessimism outweighs optimism. More than half of US adults believe that by 2050, the country will play a less important role in the world, be less prosperous and become a more dangerous place to live, and will have a worse system of government. Despite the overall gloom, Americans expectations for a future have grown more positive since 2023, with noticeably increases in the shares who expected the US to be more important globally, less politically divided, and economically stronger than 2050. And I think that's to the tribute of the Republicans winning the majorities in 2024. People are generally more optimistic about that than Democrats are, and I think that's a good thing. You know, interesting. I'm just telling you, those are Ali's primary audience. It's going to be up to you to make sure that we are more prosperous, we are more, you know, we are less divided, we are more unified. It won't be up to people my age. All right, we are entering the time period where we have some influence, but our influence isn't as great. We're not running the companies, we're not running the government. We're not. We're not, you know, we're grandparents, and so we have influence. But you that are the parents and you that are the CEOs, and you that are the business owners, and you that are the new congressmen and state representatives and city council, you're going to be responsible for what happens over the next 25 years. And the best way to know what to do is to look at the past, to learn what to do and what not to do. So, anyway, a couple of viewer questions on this. How should I explain my optimism for our country to folks who say burn the flag? Well, the right that they have to burn the flag should give everybody optimism because that means that we're protecting people's freedoms. And remember, people generally believe what they want to believe. If they want to have an open discussion and you listen to their points and you listen and they listen to your points, then I think it's worth doing. Otherwise, I think it's a waste of your time and effort to do that. As a Christian, I still struggle with fear over the future of America. How do I calm down? Well, first of all, I think making sure that you're informed and sometimes information I know can Be depressing, but you better be informed than not informed. All right. And listen to podcasts like this. I've come on here every couple of weeks and talk about things that I current events that I think are important that people should know from a biblical perspective. Allie is on here three times a week herself that talking about all sorts of things and has great guests on here. So just keep plugged into things like this. Also, just know that as Ali says, God's plan is going off without a hitch and that always will be the case. Now he does expect us to do our part as well. We are expected to, you know, spread the word. We're expected to live a life of morality. We're expected to, you know, raise our families, love our families, teach them. And we're also expected to respect our government. And so I believe that as Christians, we should be the ones leading the way to make sure there's a better America and there's a better world to live in. One of the things that I, that I wanted to do before we get into the final viewer questions, I know that we have not done as well at this as we should have. And I, so I said let's, let's, you know, we talk about a lot of negative things on here, but I looked up this, this week some good things that have happened in America and I want to go over those. I've written them down so I'll be looking down reading it. But I want you to know about those. Here's a couple of things that have happened that are really good for the traditional family, for the faith believer, for the conservative. These are things that are going on that you may not be aware of. Several states, including Tennessee and Oklahoma, recently advanced or expanded tax credits and benefits aimed at helping single income traditional households. These policies were framed as strengthening families and giving parents more freedom to raise children at home. The US Congress should look at that. We need to get rid of the marriage penalty, which still exists. So my friends in Congress, please take that up in the next budget bill to get rid of the marriage penalty to make it so that it is actually better if you're married in a traditional family, even if it's a single income. The other thing is marriage rates are rising in several counties. New county level data from parts of Utah, Idaho and the Carolinas show a measurable uptick in marriage license issued this spring. A small but real positive trend for people who value traditional family foundation. Also, there are small towns around the country that are reporting major drops in crime. Several sheriff's departments, including in the Texas Hill country and rural Georgia reported double digit decreases in burglary and property crime over the last quarter. Officials credit community watch programs and strong local engagement. You have to be engaged. You can't complain about what's going on in your community if you're not engaged. Classical education schools are expanding. Classical charter schools which emphasize western civics, traditional curriculum and character formation have seen campuses approved in Florida, Arizona and North Carolina within the last month. Many families see this as a return to academic rigor and cultural roots. I know that all of our grandkids are in some type of classical Christian education and we have been incredibly pleased with it. It's been awesome. Veterans groups are launching new programs, mentorship programs. Veteran led nonprofits in Ohio, Texas and South Dakota launched new mentorship programs pairing older vets with young men lacking stable father figures. So important, a very traditional community driven approach. And then here's another thing that I'm really excited about. Skilled trades are seeing record enrollment trade schools or vocational schools or technical schools, whatever you happen to call them in your area. In states like Indiana and Alabama reported their highest enrollment in a decade. Many programs specifically highlight the dignity of work, apprenticeships and path to family to stable family supporting incomes without college debt. That is so awesome. The last thing is several states passed measures in the last month to protect family owned farms from land consolidation and foreign purchases. I know we did that in Texas. A win for rural communities and generational stewardship. So those are some good things that are happening. Not everything is negative. Okay. There are a lot of good things going on. If you know some good stories that you think would be beneficial to the audience, Ali's audience, send those to me. Okay? RonSimmons.com Also, any other questions that you might have, send those to me ronsimmons.com but I want to hear some good stories. I think those would be awesome. Now we're going to finish up here in the next few minutes by taking, by going over a few questions that you guys are so good about sending in. It's how did I know that my wife was the one? Because they said how did he know me knew that Allie's mom was the one. You know, I don't know how that happens. It just, I mean, I had girlfriends before I met Lisa when I was in high school and even, you know, in between high school and college. Lisa and I met as freshmen in college. We had two classes. This is the way Lisa describes it. We had two classes together in the same class. We had biology and psychology together. And Both of them worked, and now we've been together almost 47 years. But I do think God lays it on your heart. You know, I just knew that she was the one the way it was in my heart. I mean, it's my fortune that she's also beautiful and talented and all that, but I think even without that, God had laid that on my heart. We were, and we still are very different. Our personalities are very different. But God knew that I needed that balancing, and I think that he knew on her part that she needed some of the characteristics that I would bring to the table. So that's what happened. And I think it's a matter of the heart. There's no question about it. Can't be a matter of the eyes. All right. It has to be a matter of the heart. What are the practical tips for discipline, intense little boys? Oh, my middle child is a boy way different than the first. Oh, I can understand what you're saying. We've got three grandsons, sons, and we've got three granddaughters. And so while in some ways they're the same, they are a lot different. In fact, our youngest grandson is the same age as Ali's oldest daughter. And they are good buddies as cousins, but they are so different. You know, boys are just in a lot of ways, more aggressive. We need for them to be that way. I certainly recommend you read John Elbridge's book Wild at Heart. That's a very important book for parenting boys. And while I think that you have to give them boundaries, especially physical boundaries, on behaviors that are acceptable and not acceptable, I do think that you've got to allow them to get dirty. You've got to allow them to skin their knee. You've got to allow them to, you know, maybe take a tumble occasionally. They have to be able to do that because they're testing their boundaries on what they can and can't do. And they need to have confidence in order to be a successful man. You need to have confidence for sure. What's the best part of going from parent to grandparent? Oh, that is so awesome. Being able to, when they're acting improperly, to send them home. That's the best part. And to spoil them, you know, that's. I'm sorry, that's part of the grandparents role. Our life, most grandparents, life is at a lot calmer stage than it was maybe when we were raising children. And so we aren't. Don't have the stress levels that exist as much of a career or maybe finance things like that. Things are wherever we are. We are. It doesn't matter if you're rich or not. Generally by our age, you know, we have decided where we're going to be. We're not, you know, we're not under huge amounts of financial stress and we're not under job pressures as much. So I think we have a calmer life. And that makes being able to deal with our grandchildren and to enjoy them more than we may have been able to do at the same stages of the lives of our children, unfortunately. But in our case, that's probably the way it has been. How do we deal with the grief of empty nesting? Wow, that's an interesting question. You know, Lisa and I were only empty nesters for a very short time because of our middle son Daniel, who has some disabilities and lives with us now. There was a period of time where he didn't. So we were empty nesters when Lisa was. I mean, Allie was off to college and a little bit after and while Daniel was working on living independently. So I don't know exactly how to help you on that. I do think that it is a normal stage. One of the things that. If you would have asked me this before that you became an empty nurser, I would tell you to make sure that you have something going on that's important in your life outside of your kids. At least the songwriting was important to her. I still have got some. My fingers in some different business scenarios. So that. That keeps me, you know, I think, mentally cute and not sitting there just thinking about, okay, all my kids are. I want to be, you know, so much involved in them that I want to be controlling them. But you do need to be engaged in things that bring you self worth as opposed to just raising children. But there are times that we certainly miss, you know, not being with our kids as much as we want to or doing things. I'll tell you what, the things that now that we can afford it in a lot of ways to spend time with our kids and grandkids, it's kind of like cats in the cradle. They're busy doing other things and they've got a life of their own. And what we can't do. And what you can't do is you can't make your kids feel guilty for living their own lives. All right? You just can't make them do that. And that's a struggle. Because sometimes you know what's even better for them, even as they're adults. But over overdoing that is a problem. And it will call. It will cause resentment and we have to be careful. And I'm sure I've made mistakes in that area. I usually have some pretty strong opinions about things, as you know, so. But I try to work on that. And fortunately, I've got some really good kids that give me a lot of grace. What about parenting toddlers while grieving your mom? Well, you have to grieve, and I don't think you have to be ashamed of anything. Again, if you or your spouse, and you should probably ask your spouse, hey, I want you to tell me if you think I'm. Because of my grief, I'm not treating my kids properly. All right? Because you may. There may be something that you don't even see, but I think that you just move through it the best that you can. Okay? You need some respite care when you're not having to take care of the little ones so that you can just focus on the grieving process and hopefully you're able to figure that out. But time will get better with that. All right. It will get better with that there. I don't think there's any question. When Lisa's mom died, Lisa was. We had two little ones. Justin was four years old. Daniel was just born. Maybe Justin wasn't even quite four yet when her mom died. And so we had little ones and Lisa and her mom were pretty close. Now. We had just moved away. In some ways that made it better, some ways that made it worse, you know, from Arkansas to Texas. And so she definitely grieved, there's no question about it. But the requirements of what it takes to raise two little children allowed her to not have to focus on the loss of her mother as much. And I think you use the children will help you with the grieving process because your number one responsibility every day is with those kids and with your spouse. And while we can grieve for our parents when they're gone, hopefully we know where they are and they're in glory in a perfect body and, you know, hopefully being able to look down on us and smile. Let's see here how to talk to others who have growing sentiment towards socialism. You know, the only thing I think you can do with those types of people is you just have to say, just give me an example of the countries that have succeeded long term in doing that and they can't come up with one. And where does socialism in. If they're so. If they're so interested in social, why don't they sell everything they have and distribute it among all their friends? You know, socialism is Socialism, except for when it comes to me. And then I still want all of my stuff. Right. Let's see here. A sibling celebrated Charlie Kirk's death. And the parents. And, and, and my parents are angry that I got mad. What do I do? Well, first of all, you don't apologize for that. Nobody should have celebrated the death of somebody like that, especially someone that they know was important to you. And the parents are way out of line on that. If you want to be mad about that, you should have a discussion with it with your sibling and then move on. But the parents don't need to be mad at you about that. In fact, what they need to do is be mad at the. The sibling for celebrating that. That's. That is as wrong as anything. And so I would have a discussion with both of them and say, hey, I think it was inappropriate. You should be mad at me because, you know, my brother Joe or whomever this is, you know, celebrated the death of a good person. Tell me what about Charlie wasn't good? Please be specific in telling me what was about Charlie that wasn't good? What did he do that was bad that should cause for the celebration of his death and for you to be mad at me over that. That's the type of conversation. That's the type of conversation I would have. Which team is he supporting this World cup, apart from the usa? Well, Daniel loves England and so I. He. He'll support England and so I'll support Daniel through that. Usa, though, is, you know, USA or nothing as far as I'm concerned now, there's a lot of good teams. I don't think USA will actually win the World cup, but I hope that they go far. And I've been very pleased with the way the reception of America has given to the teams that have come played here and the fans. And I read all the reports about how positive the fan experience has been in the cities that these teams are playing in, and I, boy, I applaud that. I just hope that can continue going through the end, through the end of the World Cup. So anyway, I hope you've enjoyed today. I know it was a lot of detail of information, but I want you to think about as you listen to this. You'll be probably a week or so away from July 4th and just think about, take some time to reflect on how thankful that you are for the country that we live in and how it was formed. And if you're interested in knowing what faith, the role that faith played in that. Read any of David Barton. David Barton's. Materials on faith. I think Ali's had him on the podcast in the past. If we have maybe we can put that in the show that episode in the show notes but just look at that. Look into that and you can see where God's hand was on the creation. It's been on the hand of this country for a long, long time and we have a responsibility to live up to the values that he has asked us and instructed us to live up to and I hope that you'll continue doing that and I always wish the best for you and your family and thank you very much for supporting Ali's podcast again. If you have any questions that you want me to try to answer for you ronsimmons.com if I haven't answered them please resend it to me because somehow it got down the bottom of my email and I have somehow overlooked it and I apologize for that. So we'll see you later. Take care. Have a good day.
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