Father (9:18)

Yeah, well, tariffs, just another name for tax. Okay. But it's a tax on goods that are brought into your country from another country. For example, from Canada. When they sell us goods, we buy stuff from Canada than that and we impose a tariff on that or a tax on that. And it's very, very common. And when we send goods to Canada, some of those goods, they impose a tax on us. And the reason for that is really two or threefold. One reason is that it helps protect their local businesses. Right. Like Canada has a huge lumber industry. I don't know if you spent much time in Canada, but I remember when Daniel and I went up for a fishing trip in Northern Canada probably 15 years ago, and we were flying, you know, getting ready to land and it was just amazing how massive the forests were up there. In fact, we got up there and you could see on the other side of this lake, there were smoke coming out of the forest and it was, it was fire, forest fire that was probably started by lightning or something. But they don't even put them out. I mean, they don't, you know, it's not, it's not affecting the local community or something. And that's just so massive. So they have, that's a lot of their economy. So they want to protect that industry and they don't want other countries flooding their country with low price lumber. Especially if you're talking about countries that, like China or dictator type country where they can really control the labor market prices, then they can make stuff a lot cheaper. And if Canada just allowed them to dump it in there cheaper, it's really going to hurt their own citizens.

Ali Stuckey (11:05)

Because when you put a tax on an import that is going to the. Those that are importing, it will have to raise the price of their product in order to make up for that tax.

Father (11:18)

Either that or they'll lose.

Ali Stuckey (11:20)

Yes. And so that is how you are saying they protect the local products, because the local products, since they don't have that tariff, they don't have that tax, they don't have to raise prices so they can be more competitively priced or a little bit cheaper than the imports. So people who are actually buying the product will prefer the cheaper local product.

Father (11:39)

And that's one of the reasons. Okay. Another reason is that it simply leverage for something else. And that's the case with Mexico and Canada primarily. Now we have a trade deficit with both of those countries, I believe. I know we have one in Canada, meaning that they sell us more than they buy from us. Right. It's about a $60 billion difference in Canada. I'm not sure what it is in Mexico. And so one of the things that we've always fought for is not only free trade, so that there's not very many tariffs at all, but fair trade, meaning you really can't expect us to pay tariffs, and yet you don't want us to do that to you. It doesn't make sense. Canada has tariffs on us and have for a long time on different goods. Right. They have them, and that's. That's the way the system works.

Ali Stuckey (12:30)

And Trump has always said that's been Trump's thing for a long time, especially when it comes to China.

Father (12:36)

Yeah.

Ali Stuckey (12:36)

Like, why do all of these other countries get to put tariffs on the products, but we don't get to. And as soon as we say we're going to do tariffs, people say, oh, my gosh, that's so awful and mean of America.

Father (12:47)

Yeah. And the reason that they say that is because they buy so many goods from. We buy so many goods from them. Right. That's the. That's the reason. The other thing. So leverage. And so in Canada and Mexico, it really wasn't as much to do with trade. All right. He knew that tariffs that we would put on their products would hurt their economy, and he doesn't want to do that because that eventually makes you and I pay more for whatever we're buying from them. But he needed them to understand about what we wanted to do at the borders. And in Canada, it was primarily fentanyl. All right. Not as much human coming across Canada, that was our worry in Mexico is primarily the human smuggling and Whatever. But also fentanyl. Fentanyl as well. And both of those countries, within hours agreed to do what he wanted to do. So I don't know how you couldn't say Trump policy didn't win out on that. I mean, Mexico is going to put 10,000 people at their southern border to keep people from just coming through their country. They've also done a deal related to drugs and of course, so has Canada. They all came around on that. The other thing that you would use it for. And up until 1913, in the United States, tariffs represented, I think I read, 60% of all the tax revenue until we put in the income tax. In fact, do you know when the first tariff started in the United States?

Ali Stuckey (14:16)

I don't.

Father (14:17)

George Washington.

Ali Stuckey (14:18)

Okay. All the way from the beginning.

Father (14:20)

The very first major bill that passed the first Congress was a tariff on imported goods from Europe. 50 cents a ton. Okay.

Ali Stuckey (14:32)

And explain that. I don't, I don't think you've already said, like, what it means 50 cents a ton. Like who is paying what, where the.

Father (14:42)

Tax has to be paid by. Let's say it was England that was sending it over. So back then they did it per ton. They didn't look at a specific good. So much so that when a ship came over and let's say they had a ton of goods on there, then they had to pay an extra 50 cents. Okay. That, that, that government had to pay us before they got, before they could bring them in. And so therefore, in order to recoup that, they had to raise the price.

Ali Stuckey (15:08)

Of whatever that was, which would mean that Americans would be less likely to buy their.

Father (15:13)

Again, they would prefer because America's US shipping vessels only had to pay 6 cents a ton.

Ali Stuckey (15:19)

Mm.

Father (15:20)

So that it started and it's happened in every country, you know, ever since then.

Ali Stuckey (15:26)

Yeah. You said that Canada does that, that China does that. And it's funny because they might not call it Canada first policy or China first policy, but that is what it is. They are protecting the interests of their country at the expense of other countries. And that has always been, not just when it comes to tariffs, but when it comes to all policy. That has been Trump's America first, even at the expense of other countries. We're going to put the well being of our country first. And yet I hear over and over again that America first is wrong. It's wrong to put your country first. But in a variety of ways, every country does that, even progressive countries like Canada.

Father (16:02)

That's why we have countries. Right. That's why it's not one world, no matter what our Davos people may want us to believe and what have you. The other thing I think that they do, and this is especially true for the European Union. His comments about tariffs in the European Union are twofold. One, we have a huge trade deficit, okay? We buy about $580 billion worth of stuff from them, and they buy only about $370 billion from us. And a lot of that is because of the tariffs they put on some of our goods, that we can't be competitive over there. But even more important, I think, in Trump's mind, and I have obviously haven't spoken to him, but I think more important is the leverage to get them to increase their own defense funding. We've talked about that with NATO and other things before. He wants them to defend themselves. They've known for the last probably 60 or 70 years at least, okay, World War II, that eventually we'll come a running and we'll bail them out. And that's what we did. We did that with England, which was the right thing to do. We've done that with country after country. And so what they've done is they've taken what they. They should be spending on defense to protect their own selves and put it in these social policies, Right? And they say, well, we can't put more on defense because that means we'll have to. Some of these social policies will have to be reduced. Well, that's an issue you have to deal with. And so I believe he is very strong on that. And I believe that will, you know, will have an impact. The other thing that's a misnomer that nobody's talking about is what President Biden did, You know, Trump put some tariffs on when he was in his first term in various countries. In fact, at the time during Trump's administration, we had an actual trade surplus with Canada because of that.

Ali Stuckey (17:48)

And explain what that means.

Father (17:49)

Yeah, that means that they bought more from us than we bought from them. Okay. And. But going to China, he put in some tariffs. And of course, you know, the democrats in their 2020 election decried those, how bad they were and all that, but Biden left those in place. In fact, not even a year ago, he actually increased some of those tariffs, which were somewhere between 10 and 25%. He increased those between 50 and 100%. There's some goods coming from China right now that like electric cars. Okay, now you know why Biden did that? Because he trying to bolster the electric car industry here. So the theory was the same, but 100% tariff he put on China electric cars. So all that did was not allow the US Population to buy cheaper electric cars. And I mean, how can you have it both ways? You know what I'm saying? I don't blame him for doing it because his belief was he wanted the US Electric car industry to be bolstered. Okay, Now I don't agree with that, but that was his belief. And one of the ways to make sure that happened was that nobody's flooding the market, which is exactly what Trump's doing as well, plus some other leverage things that are, that are going on. So I just found that to be really, you know, one of the things about Canada and the reason it, the reason this leverage stuff works, Ali, is because, so when we, when Canada sells goods to us, all right, when they sell goods to us, that 480 billion, all right, now if that goes down, that obviously has a negative effect on their economy because 480 billion that we buy from them today represents 20%. 20% of their entire gross domestic product of their entire economy's value is 20%. So that's a big hit, right? If that, if that thing, let's say that our, what we buy from them drops to 300 billion because of this, well, that hurts Canada for sure. However, what, what they buy from us, 420 billion only represents 2% of our economy. So we can last a lot longer than they can last. And that's what Trump knows and that's what their leaders know, and that's why they agree to negotiate and come up with an agreement for that.

Ali Stuckey (20:11)

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Go to ranchers.com ally code ali okay, let me just outline the specifics of what happened because it's crazy how many politicians and how many left wing people in America seem to have just forgotten exactly what you said. The power that America has and that we still have the ability to flex our muscles and that almost every other country is going to just back away. Even if they posture for a little bit like Mexico and Canada did, they're going to say, okay, so on February 1st, President Trump announced that he was imposing tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico. In China he issued the tariff, sighting an extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including dead deadly fentanyl. So that's the. He implemented the 25% additional tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, 10% additional tariff on imports from China. Energy resources from Canada will still have a lower 10% tariff. There were some exemptions to that. They were set to take effect on Tuesday. He basically said, look, you got to take control of your borders, of this deadly stuff that you're importing over here or else, else it's going to be really hard for us to trade together and your economy is really going to suffer. He pointed out that trade accounts for 67% of Canada's GDP, 70, 73% of Mexico's GDP and 37% of China's GDP. So that's kind of like our buying power. He said this on X. He said we need to protect Americans. It is my duty as president to ensure or not on X it's on truth social to ensure the safety of all. I made a promise on my campaign to stop the flood of illegal aliens and drugs from pouring across our borders. Americans have overwhelmingly voted in favor of it. Claudia Shine, Bomb Pardo, she is the president of Mexico. She at first said, you know she's going to retaliate. Well, she's going to use her own tariffs and you're not going to be able to intimidate me. You're not going to be able to push back against me. And then she said after talking to President Trump two days later, she says, I had a great conversation with President Trump and you know what? He's right. Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard. The United States is committing to work, working with Mexico to prevent trafficking. Our teams will begin working today on two fronts, security and trade. So they're going to pause those tariffs for 30 days and I guess Trump will reassess after the end of the month. And then Justin Trudeau, who also said, you know what, we're not going to back down and we're going to boycott your products and Canadians do not buy your whiskey from Kentucky and all of that stuff. Justin Trudeau also said two days after these tariffs were announced on X, I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan, reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and person. I mean, this is the guy who came to Mar a Lago too. And after his conversation with President Trump, President Trump was like, oh, the governor of Canada and joked about invading Canada and taking over Canada. So Justin Trudeau can act tough. He's not by the end of the day on Monday, President Trump announced deals with both North American countries to delay tariffs 30 days after the nations agreed to help with border security. China announced retaliatory tariffs on select American importance imports on Tuesday, shortly after Trump's tariffs and China took effect. And so that affects a variety of of products. They said that they will challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organization. So this apparently sets off a 60 day period for the two sides to resolve their differences. What is your thought about what's going to happen with China since they are not so easily backing down?

Father (25:40)

First of all, Trump's not going to pay one bit of attention to the WTO at the end of the day. He's going to do what he wants with that. But he may use the 60 day cooling off period to try to get something done. I think this will be negotiated between he and Chi and I think there'll be tariffs left on both sides. He'll probably reduce some of the Biden tariffs, you know, which would be easy for him to do because he didn't do them to start with. Right. And so he could claim victory in that to Chee and then I think Chi will do something as well. This is about. More about negotiating global power and Chi spreading his money, their money, all around the world like they were doing in Panama and other countries in Africa for sure. And so that's probably what all of this is about. May have something to do with Taiwan as well. It's a big, much bigger picture than goods. Now, also remember, you know, you've heard of these websites. Like, you've heard this website Temu T E M U. It's a China website. Well, none, but if it's, if I think I read the other day, if it's like under $800, okay, let's say you order something from that site and it's under $800. There's no tariff on that. There's a de minimis type thing is.

Ali Stuckey (26:59)

How to do that.

Father (27:00)

So there are ways around some of that. Most of us, honestly, most of us aren't buying things that are the super expensive things anyway.

Ali Stuckey (27:10)

Yeah, you know, tariffs also worked. This was a couple weeks ago now on Colombia, because the Colombian president, who according to the Daily Wire is a former literal Marxist terrorist, not an exaggeration, like he was apparently a terrorist who did so in the name of communism and Marxism. So he blocked two repatriation flights in late January filled with criminal legal aliens from the U.S. the U.S. said, hey, we don't want your people anymore. You can deal with these criminals. We're not going to. We're going to fly in back. Here you go. They blocked the flight. So President Trump said, okay, well, 25% tariffs on all Colombian goods. And it's so funny, leftists on X were like, oh, no, some of our flowers in our coffee comes from Colombia. It's okay, we're going to be fine. And the Colombian president, again, he puffed up and he said, we're not scared of you. We're going to retaliate. And you know what? You know what? We're not going to back down. The State Department said, well, we're going to continue to enforce and prioritize our America first agenda. We are not backing down. There will be travel sanctions on individuals and their families. Anyone who is responsible for the interference of these repatriation flights. And then the Colombian president, he said the same thing. Great conversation that I had with President Trump. And this is the statement from the White House after that conversation. Very quickly, by the way, this is like, all in a matter of 24 hours. The government of Columbia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all legal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, it goes on. Today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again, which I just agree with. And what's crazy about this, dad, is that for years we were told from Biden administration that he is doing everything he possibly can to protect our border. His hands are tied. It's just Congress. Congress isn't doing anything. Republicans are stopping him. And he's trying as hard as he can, but there's nothing that can be done. Trump is proving that you can just do things. You can just flex your muscles and things actually get done.

Father (29:26)

Yeah. And you know, the other thing that happened in that Columbia thing is the President sent his plane to pick those people up so that he had to pay for it.

Ali Stuckey (29:34)

Yeah.

Father (29:35)

Which was even, even better. So, yeah. You know, and I'll tell you something else that's gonna happen kind of unrelated to this, but it's the same type of thing where we should be following it. You know, George Soros bought all those radio stations.

Ali Stuckey (29:46)

Yeah.

Father (29:47)

And there's a radio station in San Francisco or Sacramento, one of the two that was announcing where border ICE people were and what cars they were in and all that type of stuff. And when you endanger law enforcement, I believe that you're breaking the law. You can watch the FCC is going to come way down on that, may pull some licenses and whatever. I mean, that's just evil.

Ali Stuckey (30:14)

It's so evil. And what's incredible. And George Soros, who has funded the most disastrous, deadly policies and politicians in this country country, just has wrought chaos everywhere his money goes. He just got the, you know, the Presidential Freedom Medal from Joe Biden. Alex Soros is his son who now runs Open Society and all of his foundations, continuing to fund the disasters. And Chuck Schumer posted on X that we have, you know, a billionaire run shadow government that is taking over the federal government. And of course, he's referring to Elon Musk. And who retweeted that sentiment? Alex Soros. Which is just an irony because George Soros is a billionaire who has been. Which is exactly why we can't worry, I think, on the Republican side of, well, like, what are they going to do, you know, when they're in power if we do this? Not saying that they shouldn't act in integrity, but some people are worried, oh, if Trump does this, maybe Democrats are going to do that next time. Democrats are going to do it. They're always going to do the worst thing that they possibly can. And so Trump's job isn't to worry about what Democrats are going to do next. His job is to worry about what he can get done right now.

Father (31:30)

Yeah. And I think he learned that from his first. I think he tried to make friends his first time.

Ali Stuckey (31:34)

Yes.

Father (31:35)

He's not in the friend making business right now. And of course, for Chuck Schumer, that's a better statement to retweet than his. His tweet that he put out about, you know, here's why you need to be against tariffs.

Ali Stuckey (31:46)

Yeah.

Father (31:46)

Your guacamole and your beer are going to be more expensive. And guacamole, you know, comes from avocados. He had to explain that to people, too. I mean.

Ali Stuckey (31:54)

Well, yeah, in New York, they have the fake stuff that they just have to mush together. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Okay. Speaking of lawmakers, I saw this clip of Jasmine Crockett. She is from the great state of Texas. She's in Congress now going around again talking about mediocre white men. I don't know. I'm not really sure if she's.

Father (32:17)

Everything for her goes back to white.

Ali Stuckey (32:19)

Supremacy, the white man, because she's clearly so oppressed. Okay, let's play that clip of Jasmine.

C (32:24)

I know that I had to work 10 times as hard as they did just to get into the seat. When you look and you compare me to Marjorie Taylor Greene or me to Lauren Boebert, there is no comparison. And that is the life that we have always lived. So the only people that are crying are the mediocre white boys that have been beaten out by people that historically have had to work so, so much harder.

Ali Stuckey (32:47)

Oh, she's so pressed. She's such a victim. Okay, so were you in the Texas legislature with her or was she there after me?

Father (32:54)

She came in right after me. And, you know, she wasn't even well liked within her own party in the Texas legislature. Several Democrat people that I. Colleagues that I'd worked with down there, if you talk to them about her, they just roll their eyes because it's all about her. I mean, she's all about, you know, making a show. She is. In my book. I talk about, you know, workhorses and show horses. She's a show horse. She was someone that would get up in the middle of the legislative session when they're trying to discuss bills and make some type of lambasted speech and statement, stuff like that. I mean, just. And she never accomplished anything either, by the way. If you look at the record of the bill, she passed almost nothing. She did very little. I'll tell you what she did. Do what she did do is she ran out on her responsibilities when we were trying to. They were trying to pass a bill that would cut down on election fraud and things like that to try to make elections fairer. Okay. And, and, and, and she and some of her colleagues, led by her, ran off to Washington D.C. and refuse to even do their job. That's what, that's what type of person she is.

Ali Stuckey (34:08)

Okay.

Father (34:09)

She wants to make it so it's easier to cheat. And that's why she's, you know, pro, open borders, all that type of stuff. And she's just not. She's just not a very good person.

Ali Stuckey (34:22)

She's not a good person. She's not a bright person. And still being a member of Congress who has made her way up from the state legislature to Congress, she still thinks that she's oppressed. She still thinks that it's the mediocre white boy that is somehow, in her way. Look, if that were the case, if, like, you are so excellent, you are so much better than those mediocre boys, then you shouldn't need DEI programs and the racial quotas that purposely discriminates against white men. If you are so awesome and so excellent, you should be able to rise to the top no matter what's.

Father (34:59)

She's the epitome of a racist.

Ali Stuckey (35:01)

Yeah.

Father (35:02)

She is a racist bigot. That's all that she is. I mean, I'm sorry. And that's the nicest terms I can say.

Ali Stuckey (35:07)

Yeah.

Father (35:07)

Is. She is a. She is everything that's wrong with the whole victimhood in America.

Ali Stuckey (35:16)

Yeah. We have a lot of Texas legislators that make their way to Congress from Democrat run cities that are really stupid.

Father (35:25)

Yeah.

Ali Stuckey (35:25)

Oh, and bad. What's the other lady's name from Houston?

Father (35:29)

Well, she passed away. Oh, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Ali Stuckey (35:32)

Sheila Jackson Lee.

Father (35:33)

She passed away.

Ali Stuckey (35:35)

Rest in peace, lady. She was bad, though.

Father (35:37)

She was really bad. Now, interesting enough, the. The gentleman that took her place, Sylvester Turner, I did serve with. And Sylvester and I had a great relationship. And I often said, at least when.

Ali Stuckey (35:49)

I served with him, oh, didn't I just meet him?

Father (35:51)

You did meet him in D.C. he.

Ali Stuckey (35:53)

Was, he was so kind. He was so kind and he spoke. So he was a Democrat in the Texas legislature. And the Texas legislature. Now he's in Congress. And he said, oh, your dad was my favorite legislator when we were down there. Because my dad, as conservative as he is, he. I mean, you really worked with the other side because different than this show horse you were actually concerned about, okay, what can we actually accomplish? What can we actually get done, rather than, like, how can I just make a name for myself? And I wish that's how all lawmakers were, but.

Father (36:31)

And there are still some there that try to do that. I'm sure there are some in D.C. but Sylvester and I, we did work together. And I would often say if you had helicoptered in and didn't know what party he was in, many times, you would think, well, this guy's got to be a conservative Republican on this particular issue. Now, there were other things we certainly disagreed on, but it was, yeah, he was, he's a sweet man.

Ali Stuckey (36:51)

Yeah.

Father (36:51)

Very good guy.

Ali Stuckey (36:52)

Well, thank you so much, dad. And the book that you just referenced, Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon. Good. We'll put the link in the, in the description of the episode.

Father (37:03)

Appreciate it. It's been a good time. And, yeah, we'll just see how things go. We're just gonna keep winning.

Ali Stuckey (37:08)

I know. I'm, I'm, I'm loving it. And you just have to, like, if you haven't learned anything from the past election, the past four years, the best eight years, the media lies to you and the pictures that they paint just aren't accurate. So you have to dig deeper, you have to ask questions, and sometimes you just have to ignore it and just say no. What Trump is doing right now is in America's best interest. And I think things are going to work out. I, I, I am so pleasantly surprised. I really thought, I mean, I love Ron DeSantis still and think he would have done a great job, no question, excellent job. And he, in some ways, kind of taught us what it was like to not care about what the other side says and just to do what's right. He kind of set the tone for that. But President Trump has really done that over the past couple of weeks. He has shown he's not just in it for a personal vindictiveness. He is, as you said, not in the friend making business. And that's a good thing right now.

Father (38:05)

Can I give one bit of encouragement to your audience?

Ali Stuckey (38:07)

Yeah.

Father (38:07)

What I would encourage your audience to do is just let President Trump and his people do what they're doing. Okay. They've got that, they know where they're going. But where we need to stay involved is locally, make sure you're getting involved. And a lot of those are happening this spring. Your local school board and city elections, you can have the most impact because it's the least turnout voters, so your vote counts a lot more. And you make sure an interview or either research each Candidate.

Ali Stuckey (38:40)

And where can they find that?

Father (38:41)

They can generally. Well, first, what I would first do is find the names of the candidate and then look to see whether or not in the past. You can do this in Texas, in a lot of states, whether they voted in a Democrat or Republican primary in the past, that'll tell you a lot. It won't tell you who they voted.

Ali Stuckey (38:58)

For, like your zip code or your county. And say, who represents me local or like local elections in this county?

Father (39:04)

Just say, yeah, you can, you can do that in your county. What are the local elections in 2025? Because a lot of them are nonpartisan, so they don't have an RD by their name. But believe me, they're partisan.

Ali Stuckey (39:15)

Right.

Father (39:15)

Okay.

Ali Stuckey (39:15)

You need to know what their positions are, especially when it comes to school board.

Father (39:18)

And you can also call your local Republican Party because they'll know and they can give you information on them as well.

Ali Stuckey (39:24)

And you just have a lot more access to those people that are running most of them.

Father (39:27)

I'd be happy to sit down with you over coffee.

Ali Stuckey (39:29)

Oh, yeah. Whereas, you know, your congressman in D.C. just probably won't.

Father (39:34)

But they've got a million people they represent. It's hard to do.

Ali Stuckey (39:36)

Exactly. That's really good piece of advice and advice that I'm taking to heart. So thank you very much.

Father (39:41)

Thank you.

Ali Stuckey (39:46)

Okay, before we get into the rest of the show, let me tell you about our next sponsor for the day. I love masa chips. We had this huge box of moxa of masa chips in our our pantry and we are almost out because like we eat them every day. They're so good. It's such a great, satisfying but healthy snack because masa chips are made with only whole ingredients. No seed oils, no fake stuff, no natural flavors. They use beef tallow on their chips, which is great because it's good for skin and brain health. It's loaded with all different kinds of vitamins, like vitamin A and D, fatty acids with antibacterial properties. It's really just good for you. Almost all chips and fries used to be cooked in Tallow until the 80s and 90s. But then corporations, to save money, switch to seed oils. Seed oils, if you don't already know, are very inflammatory to the body. They can make you feel bad, especially over time. And there are all kinds of health issues that when seed oils are or over consume for long periods of time can be caused. And so it is amazing that we have these healthy alternatives now for some of our favorite foods. And that's why we love masa chips because, like, we love some chips and salsa and some chips and guacamole and that can truly be a healthy snack if you, you are choosing Masa. If you go to masachhips.comm a s a chips.com, use my code Ali B for a discount. That is masachips.com code Ali B. All right, so Lily Collins is an actress and she is the latest person in the news about the birth of her baby via a surrogate. And listen, when we started talking about this on Relatable, I think the first episode that we did on this was 2020, maybe, I, I think it was four or five years ago and I did not have all of the knowledge and all of the passion about this subject that I have now. So I'm not trying to say that I was some, like, trailblazer in general. And talking about this. There are people who have been talking about the ethics of surrogacy and IVF for a very long time. Katie Faust comes to mind. Jennifer Law comes to mind. These are women who have really informed me on the subject and have helped me grow in this over time. And yet most people, I will say, in conservative media simply were not talking about this. And man, when we started talking about this, like, if I told you some of the names of the people in the conservative commentariat who messaged me and told me to sit down and to stop talking about this, that my position on this is sad and radical and extreme, who now seem to have moved that direction without ever telling me, hey, like, maybe I shouldn't have messaged you that. Like, you would be, you'd be pretty amazed. Or the people who I know were like, oh, I can't believe that we're talking about this, who actually thought that it was a pro life position at one point to be for things like surrogacy, I don't blame people for changing their mind. I've changed my mind. Like, I also didn't know about, like, the ethics of surrogacy and the industry and all of that. I would have said at one point, yeah, I don't really care, like, how the baby comes to the world. If they come to the world, then it's beautiful and it's a blessing and we shouldn't shame someone for that. So it is awesome for people to change their mind. I am also one of those people that, as I've gotten more information, my mind has really evolved on this. How, however, I'm just saying, like, it is such a shift. It is such a shift from where it was a few years ago when it was very stigmatized and unpopular to broach this topic at all. And understandably in some ways, because infertility is a very, very, very sad and difficult and sensitive and personal subject that we should approach with compassion. However, what I've realized is that we also have to approach these babies with compassion. And how babies are conceived and how they are gestated and how they are born actually matters because they are people made in the image of God. And in all of those arenas, we should be doing everything to maximize not only their chances at physical life, but also their well being. And so when we look at the process of ivf, we look at the process of sperm donation and egg donation and then surrogacy, none of these things maximize the well being of the child. They may maximize the satisfaction of the wishes of the parents, but not the well being of the child. And when we shift our mentality to the needs of the children over the wants of the parent, that changes everything of what we think about these subjects. And as I've realized that again, crediting so many people that were preaching that message far before I did, that has just really deepened my conviction over this. So no matter how many messages I used to get or still get from people saying I should never talk about IVF again, I literally had someone like threaten me and tell me if I talk about IVF again, she's going to make sure that I'm mass reported and that I'm deplatformed from Instagram for talking about this. I will continue to talk about reproductive technology because these babies in the womb who are voiceless, they really matter. They really matter. And not enough people think about this. So I am, am always grateful when there is a story like this, even though I don't like it. Like, I'm grateful that there's a story like this of a prominent actress, like going through this. And I am so grateful, truly, I'm so grateful that it has shifted so much that now so many conservatives and so many Christians are talking about this and are realizing like, with every story like this that comes out, there are more people who stand up and are like, like, oh, that seems wrong. And so let me read you the story and I think you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. So she's best known Lily Collins for the lead role in Netflix's Emily in Paris. She posted a photo to her Instagram account announcing the birth of her daughter via surrogate. Welcome to the center of our world. Words will never express Our endless gratitude for our incredible surrogate and everyone who helped us along the way. We love you to the moon and back. Again, I have absolutely no doubt that she loves her baby very much and that she is grateful to this surrogate. Lily's post, however, was flooded with critics who are critical that the couple had chosen to hire a surrogate. And again, this is such a shift from what it was a few years ago. And I think also just the breakneck pace of the LGBTQ sexual revolution has also made people take a step back for a second and say, hang on, how do we get here? Like, how do we get to the point to where we are now renting wombs and in some cases, like buying children via egg and sperm donation. Like, how did we get to this being accepted and celebrated? So one commenter wrote that surrogacy is and quote, exploitation of impoverished women that shouldn't be normalized, while another user argued that having babies shouldn't be like placing an order on Amazon. Lily's husband, Charlie McDowell, quickly hopped into the comment section to defend their decision. He said basically that they are ignorant. He said it's okay not to be an expert on surrogacy. It's okay not to know why someone might need a surrogate to have a child. It's okay to not know the motivations of a surrogate, regardless of what you assume. And it's okay to spend less time spewing hateful words into the world, especially in regards to a beautiful baby girl. See, this is often the manipulation that happens, the emotional game that is played there, that if you criticize surrogacy, if you show compassion for the surrogate, if you show compassion for the baby who has just been torn away from the only body and smell and heartbeat, that she knows that you are being hateful towards the parents who wanted to do this. Because in all of these, in all forms of reproductive technology, what is being prioritized more than the well being of the child is the wish of the parent. And I am not saying the wish of the parent does not matter at all. I am saying it does not matter as much as the well being of the child. We do not know why Lily Collins chose a surrogate. And I know that what I will hear is that you don't know why someone has to have a surrogate. This was their only option. Listen, IVF and surrogacy are never someone's only option because adoption is possible. Adoption is available. Yes, it is expensive. So is surrogacy. So is ivf. Yes, it is difficult. And I know that people say that is easy for you to say because you have, have, you have your own biological children and you do not have to have struggled with infertility yourself to call out the objective reality of the ethical problems with something like surrogacy. Because what we have right here is actually akin to the Handmaid's Tale. For some reason, liberals love to dress up in their red robes and pretend that Margaret Atwood's novel is about abortion. Like allowing children who have been conceived, believed to not be murdered and to be born. That's not what it's about. It is actually much closer to the surrogacy industry in which you have rich women, which I don't know if this is the motivation of Lily Collins, but for a lot of these celebrities that use surrogates, rich women who want a baby because they're women and they have that natural instinct to mother, but they don't want to ruin their body and they don't want to hurt their career and they don't want to go through the sacrifice and they don't want to miss out on a job opportunity. And so they pay a less rich woman, typically an impoverished woman, to do the hard work of carrying their child. And I know people say, well, it's voluntary. And so if everyone consents to it, what's the big deal? There are a lot of things that people consent to that are morally wrong. It technically prostitutes, many of them, not all of them. Many of them may say that they are consenting to what they do. That does not mean that offering your body for a price is moral. Because again, we don't believe as Christians in consent based morality. Consent is only one piece of the pie when we are deciding if something is right or wrong. People can consent to being objectified. That doesn't make objectification okay. People can consent to being commodified and commercialized. That does not make the commodification and the commercialization of human beings okay. It is still wrong. And the person who did not consent to any of this was the child. And as we've talked about many times, the primal wound, which some people take issue with this. But it is physiologically true that at the moment of birth, the child longs for the woman who has been carrying him or her. And ideally, like this is the, this is also the biological mother. Mother. But in the case of surrogacy, we have a lot of brokenness going on because we've got an egg. Typically we have an egg donor or an egg seller. The Egg seller is selling their eggs for money. They're called an egg donor, but it's a misnomer. They're selling their eggs for money. And that egg is being joined with the sperm of another person. And that embryo that is created is implanted to us into a surrogate who is another woman beside the biological mother. And so that is what happens, for example, in the case of two men. They're actually purchasing the egg seller. They're purchasing a separate surrogate. They're taking the baby away from the biological mother. They're taking the baby away from the woman who carried that child. And they are intentionally raising a child who is motherless. I mean, what a cruel, draconian, demonic social experiment that we are forcing unconsenting children into in the name of love is love and inclusion. And there are even conservatives who will get on social media and applaud that ruthless and cruel exchange. But in the case of Lily Collins, it is probably her egg. It is probably her husband's sperm. This is probably the biological child. And yet again, we know I didn't totally finish my thought, but I'm coming back to it. There is a physiological reality here that that baby, when that baby is born, wants the woman who carried him once, who he thinks is his mother. He has heard that heartbeat for nine months. He knows her voice. He knows her smell. He knows her. And this is all he knows. This has been his home. This is how he feels safe. And the only reason someone would scoff at that and laugh that off and wave that away is because that baby can't talk, because that baby cannot articulate that that is what he or she wants. That baby can't tell you that that is what he is crying. And later on in life, 10 and 20 years later, when he still feels that wound of being separated from the only home he has ever known, he still won't be able to verbalize that that's what he has always known he is missing. And yet it's true. And we know know that there is still a primal wound with kids who are adopted who are separated from their mother. Now, I am not at all against adoption. I am for adoption. Adoption, because adoption redeems a broken situation. But surrogacy creates the broken situation. Adoption redeems and cares for, in principle, a baby that has already been created has already been conceived to. But surrogacy and even the IVF that always has to accompany surrogacy, you are purposely, from the start, creating a child to be separated from the natural process of conception and gestation and in the case of surrogacy, in the case of egg and sperm donation, you are purposely creating that child to be separated from their mother and or father and the woman who created them. So you were creating the broken situation in surrogacy surface of your wants. And so we know that. We know that the separation that happens at birth for a variety of reasons, whether it's because of surrogacy or not, can actually have a lifelong indelible psychological, physiological effect on a child. And we are willing to risk that, especially in the United States, because while, well, the parents just wanted it, the parents wanted a child. And so we think, especially pro lifers think that we should take in any means necessary approach to having children because having children is good. But that is not actually the pro life and moral position. And there's some really good insightful commentary on this on social media that I'll get into in a second. Let me go ahead and tell you about our last sponsor for the day first, and that is Net Suite. Net Suite is for business owners. Over 38,000 businesses have future proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle. This is the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one fluid platform. This is one unified business management suite. So you have one source of truth. It gives you the visibility and control that you need to make quick decisions. With real time insights and forecasting, you're peering into the future with actionable data. When you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you're spending less time looking backward and more time looking to what is next. Whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions or Hundreds of thousands, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. So go to netsuite.com/ali. You can learn more there. You can Also download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com alli that is netsuite.com ally so lots of people are upset with this on X, which again I just love to see. Rachel Moselle I don't know who these people are, by the way. We might not agree on a variety of things, I'm not sure, but these are some popular ex posts out there. This person says, I don't know where on the political spectrum this opinion falls, but I think the concept of a womb for hire is egregiously exploitative and exploitative however you want to pronounce the that it is exploiting. And she's absolutely right. And I I do think that there are progressives and conservatives that agree on this. And I think that there are progressives and conservatives that are for this that will not say anything about it because they don't want to upset their gay friends, which is very sad. Someone also said, what is up with this trend of wealthy women paying surrogates to carry their baby? The most wonderful journey of being parents is the pregnancy. The thought of providing everything the baby needs in your utero, utero. A mother's privilege and blessing. Absolutely right. Other people are pointing out that basically this is saying pregnancy is just for poor women. Pregnancy is just for women who need the financial help. This person Maria says on X, the future pregnancy is for poor women. Yeah, that's basically the concept of the Handmaid's Tale. And most progressives are fine with this. Not all, but most progressives are totally fine with this form of trafficking women's bodies and commercializing children. Billy Bragg, I follow her on X. She says, just such a coincidence how so many rich women whose careers are built around their physical attractiveness have to use surrogates. Isn't it another mystery will never get to the bottom of now? There are many. Even though this is not an LGBTQ story, there are many in the LGBTQ world who are very fiercely defensive of things like surrogacy because again, they are prioritizing their own wants over the well being of children. And so they will purposely create fatherless children. They will purposely create motherless children. They will use the sperm sellers, they will use the egg sellers, and they will create this children and they will convince themselves their children are fine, that they're not robbing their children of anything. But. But spoiler, the two people needed to make a baby are also needed to raise a baby and to purposely create a motherless or fatherless child. It's a social experiment that is extremely new. Those chickens will come home to roost at some point. We don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but I guarantee you it will not be good. We're going to have a lot of lost and lonely and very confused young people. And I hear stories all the time, by the way, that you guys send me. You were a nanny, you were a teacher, and you met a child who was especially like little girls who are raised by two men who would always ask if you were their mother, who would have the propensity to go around to different women that they see and ask, are you my, Are you my mom? You'll remember this is not surrogacy. Or LGBTQ related. But Hayden Panettiere, a few years ago, she was separated from her child. I think she was in rehab. She had her own issues going on, and her child was very young. And her father told Hayden that while they were apart, their young daughter would approach every woman they saw and ask, are you my mommy? Are you my mommy? Well, of course, because kids want their moms. Kids need their moms. Do you remember Lance Bass, the NSYNC singer? He's gay. He had his kids via egg seller and surrogate. He actually told the media, I think it was People magazine. Publicly. He said, I'm so sad because my kids, I think they were toddlers at that point. They won't cuddle with me, but whenever my mom comes over, they always want to cuddle with her. Hmm.

Father (60:32)

Yeah.

Ali Stuckey (60:32)

Probably because you robbed your kids of a mom and they're wondering, like. Like, it's like that Dr. Seuss. Actually, I think it's P.D. eastman, but it's like, under the Dr. Seuss umbrella that. That book, like, where is my mother? And you have the little baby bird going around to the cow and to the truck and to all these different objects. Where is my mother? Yeah, Everyone wants to know that. Everyone wants to know whose they are and from where they come. The LGBTQ media world, the progressives. And not everyone who is in this world is okay with surrogacy. So I just want to say that up front. There are many who say, no, there's something wrong with that. And even though they identify as gay or something else, they understand that it's not their right to purchase children. But Pink News is like a big LGBTQ media outlet. They're a digital publisher. They responded to the trending conversation with an article celebrating surrogacy for, quote, unquote, gay dads. It's worth noting that. So here's the headline. It says, an outstanding gift, Gay dad on the joy of having a child via surrogacy. And so they go through this person's. These people's story. Kevin and Michael, they have a child via surrogate. This dad says it's a special kind of relationship without a name. Our surrogate is not a sister, aunt, or cousin, but she is family. And then they are lamenting that there's a massive shortage of surrogates in the UK and they need women to step up. They also say that this is an altruistic thing from surrogates, but it's not. It's not altruistic because these surrogates are getting paid tens of Thousands of dollars. And they're typically already mothers who feel strong strapped for cash. Do you remember the story of Britney? The woman who was strapped for cash was already a mother of four who was a surrogate twice. And the second time she was a surrogate, she was a surrogate for two men. She came on here to tell her story. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was pregnant. They told her, we don't want anything to do with this baby because something bad might happen to it. So abort this baby. At 24 weeks. Abort this baby. And we don't want anything to do with you. We don't want anything to do with the baby. She did not want to abort the baby. Baby. The doctor said, hey, you really need to deliver early for your own health. We don't know entirely what happened, but she delivered very early and the baby did not live. And again, we don't know entirely what happened with that procedure, but the dads that hired her wanted nothing to do with the remains of the baby. They just said they want a new surrogate to, quote, try again. So I'm not saying that at all describes every gay couple and how they treat their surrogate, but again, this like rosy picture of like the friends and everything that is just not always the case. So this person, Helen Prosser, is actually who said there's a massive shortage of surrogates in the uk, Women need to step up. She points to the desire of women to have children as a way to get women interested in being a surrogate. It's innate. It's innate, she says. The desire to have children and we feel it is one of the greatest joys that somebody can have. Have, yes. To have your own children. To have your own children. Katie F Says, do you know how hard it is to make a motherless baby in response to all of this? A mother is required for life to is required for life to being is the child's entire emotional, nutritional, physical world for nine and a half months. And even beyond that, if you're breastfeeding, it's critical to infant bonding, attachment and soothing. Surrogacy is anti human peddled as progress. And the CEO of Pink News is Benjamin Cohen and his partner, former trustee of a UK pro LGBTQ organization called Mermaids. They have a picture of themselves carrying a newborn baby they obtained via surrogacy away from his mother. Just as a reminder, surrogacy, whether it's two men doing it or whether it's a man or a woman doing it, like we are treating babies Worse than we are treating pupp. We say that puppies and kittens need to stay with their mothers for eight to 12 weeks because it is cruel to take them away from their dog mom or their cat mom. And yet for babies, human beings born via surrogacy, we take them away from their mothers and from the woman who gestated them minutes after birth. And I'm telling you that is cruel. It is exploitation. It doesn't. I don't care care what the gender are of the people doing this. I care about the children. And no matter how a child is conceived, that child is made in the image of God, has just as much value as my children or anyone else's and should be cherished and loved and cared for. And I believe these parents do love their kids. But again, the safety, the well being, the interests of children must supersede the desires of, of the parents and of and of grownups. And if you want more information about all of this, I have so many episodes on surrogacy and IVF and sperm and egg selling. We'll put a few of them in the description of this episode. We can't put all of them because there are so many. Especially if you want to know more about IVF because it seems to surprise people my position on it. We have many conversations about it, compassionate, gentle conversations about it. Some passionate though from all different angles. People have struggled with infertility from a doctor's perspective, from the advoc perspective, like all different kinds of perspectives on it we have covered on the show. So go back and listen to those if you're curious about it. As you can hear, like I'm very adamant about this subject and it's not because I have like disdain for people who have gone through this or struggled with this is because like there's just not enough people sticking up for these children. So thank you to those of you who are doing that now and who have done that that because culture is changing times, they are changing on this in a really, really good way and praise the Lord for that. The prayer of a righteous person has much power as it is working. And the Lord is using every step of obedience of Christians, private and public to change the game and to protect these children. So let's keep going, let's keep raising a respectful ruckus about this. All right, that's all we got time for today. We'll be back here tomorrow.