Are We Sleepwalking into an Iran DISASTER? | 7/20/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show — Episode Summary

Title: Are We Sleepwalking into an Iran DISASTER?
Date: July 20, 2026
Host: Steve Deace
Co-hosts: Todd, Aaron McIntyre
Guest: Bob Vander Plaats (from 31:53)

Episode Overview

This episode focuses on rising tensions and U.S. military casualties in the Iran conflict, the broader existential challenges facing America in 2026, political realignments, and in-depth analysis of current conservative movement strategies. The hosts, blending snark and earnestness, unpack key news stories, question official narratives, and reflect on shifting alliances (such as Bill Maher openly considering votes for Republicans). The latter half highlights the Family Leadership Summit wrap-up, a lightning round of listener questions, and spiritual advice for new believers.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Escalation in Iran: US Deaths and Strategic Ambiguity

• [00:31 – 1:30] Aaron McIntyre shares a news montage summarizing the escalation in U.S.–Iran hostilities, detailing the deaths of U.S. soldiers in missile strikes and the brewing re-escalation phase.

  • Notable: Seventeen U.S. servicemembers have died so far as the U.S. expands strikes in response to attacks by Iran and its proxies.
  • President Trump asserts control over the Strait of Hormuz.

• [6:25 – 14:56] Steve Dace leads a roundtable on the mounting costs, both human and economic, of the Iran war.

  • Gas prices have spiked above $4/gallon.
  • America is at a 45-year low in oil reserves.
  • The trio grapples with a core question: Are the lives lost worth the conflict’s aims, especially to individual families?
  • Quote (Steve Dace, 16:59):
    “Is what we have done and we are attempting to do, is it worth the 17 lives lost? And if, if your loved one was among those, would you feel as if this was a worthy sacrifice?”

Doubt, Uncertainty, and Calls for Clarity

• [16:59 – 20:23]

  • Steve: “I don’t know… The longer it’s, ‘I don’t know,’ that patriot hard-on… sooner or later will turn into a no. Because this can’t be about guessing when it is human lives at stake like this.”
  • Aaron shares a personal anecdote about a friend who served near Iran, noting the disconnect between military success and unclear political outcomes.

• [22:33–24:43]

  • Todd speculates on possible endgames: regime change through attrition, buying time for oil alternatives, or simply kicking the problem down the road for political reasons.
  • Both Iran and the U.S. are sensitive to the approaching U.S. election.

Key Insight

• Prolonged ambiguity and lack of a clearly articulated strategic goal is eroding support, even among “patriotic” or hawkish audiences, with a general sense that Americans deserve more transparency on the mission’s objectives and why sacrifices are asked.

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2. Political Realignment: Redistricting, the Democratic Party, and Existential Stakes

Redistricting and Its Limitations

• [9:52 – 12:57]

  • Todd argues that recent redistricting efforts in southern states were a “B minus,” improving GOP odds but not enough for a critical “A plus” advantage as the electoral landscape becomes existentially high-stakes.

  • Quote (Todd, 13:05):
    “If Bill Maher and I have come to the exact same conclusion about the Democratic Party, we are at an existential cliff... the election now is not even so much about what the people you’re voting for will or will not do, but the knowledge of what the people you’re not willing to vote for will absolutely do.”

• [13:98 – 14:56]

  • Consequences for losing elections are now characterized as existential, particularly as the Democratic caucus operates in ideological “lockstep.”

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3. Bill Maher’s Shift and the Culture’s Existential Pivot

• [27:01 – 29:37]

  • Steve and Aaron discuss Bill Maher’s openness to 2028 Republican candidate J.D. Vance as evidence of just how radicalized the Democratic party has become.

  • Highlights Maher’s background—liberal but attached to “shared culture”—as relatable to Deace and a swath of Americans feeling forced to recalibrate their political allegiances.

  • Quote (Steve Dace, 27:13):
    “Bill Maher is the guy...he wouldn’t ask you your pronouns... Which is why his and Steve’s analysis of Donald Trump are almost identical at this point. Because on some level, they believe we have to have a shared culture.”

  • Aaron suggests Maher gains credibility only if he follows through, not just as a “court jester” but as a true defector.

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4. Family Leadership Summit Wrap-Up

[31:53 – 48:00]
Bob Vander Plaats joins to discuss the Family Leadership Summit’s big successes:

• Over 1,200 activists attended.
• High praise for sessions on America’s founding and Christian heritage, comprehensive family engagement, and pro-life education (Dr. Bill Lyle hailed as an outstanding speaker).
• Keynote appearances and interactions with national conservative figures, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy.
• Emotional climax: unveiling of a massive, custom-made American flag by Logan Reiser.

Noteworthy Moment

• [44:03] Chris Ruddy urges VP J.D. Vance to publicly rebuke Tucker Carlson due to “significant suspicion” about Carlson’s stance on Iran and alignment with populist/anti-interventionist positions—a revealing litmus test moment for the base.

  • Quote (Bob Vander Plaats, 44:49):
    “Tucker Carlson is highly suspect today with a lot of our base...they’re still seeing J.D. Vance as Tucker’s guy. And so [Ruddy]...almost doing a solid for JD, going, you’re gonna have to show clear separation...because if there’s not, there’s going to be a lane that just opened up for [other potential 2028 candidates].”

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5. Ask Me Anything: Rapid Fire Listener Q&A

Top Questions and Notable Replies:

• On Iran/America as “the great Satan”:

  • “Might we be a country that God has removed his restraining hand from… due to the things you see?”
  • “But Iran is in no place to be any form of judge of such questions…”
    — Todd, [91:10]

• Predictions Steve Got Wrong:

  • Misjudged Donald Trump’s political adaptation and the extent to which he would act as a transactional, pragmatic conservative willing to make deals.

• Predictions Steve Got Right:

  • (Todd and Aaron) Praise Steve’s fast uptake and leadership on COVID authoritarianism—a pleasant surprise.

• On Hunter Biden’s Claims of a GOP “Gay Mafia”:

  • “I am going to defer to Hunter Biden as the subject matter expert… without having seen or heard what he had to say… he’d have to go pretty far to exaggerate it.” — Todd, [77:19]

• Spiritual Advice for New Believers (Listener Question):

  • “The best way to get to know God is through His Word... join a men’s group or small group for fellowship and accountability.”
  • “Start smashing your idols; you need to find out how deep this goes… If you just go back to the exact same life but add some churchy things, is your whole life given over?” — Todd & Steve, [82:13–88:06]

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6. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Clarity on War Goals:

  • Steve Dace, 16:59: “It’s real easy to jump online and say...'cut a deal, no one wants to do this anymore'… or 'gotta go to the end' without telling us what the end is. If your loved one was among those lost, would you feel as if this was a worthy sacrifice?”

• On Political Stakes:

  • Steve Dace, 13:05: “If Bill Maher and I have come to the exact same conclusion about the Democratic Party, we are at an existential cliff.”

• On Bill Maher's Credibility:

  • Aaron McIntyre, 29:24: “If he actually follows through, he’s out of court jester…To me, he has a lot more credibility if he actually follows through.”

• J.D. Vance’s test:

  • Bob Vander Plaats, 44:49: “You’re gonna have to show there is separation, clear separation between you and Tucker Carlson…”

• On purpose in Christian living:

  • Todd, 88:06: “The more community with believers you have, the more you’ll see God at work in their lives, and it will give you encouragement… The more you are engaged in Kingdom work, the less you’re going to be concerned about the things of this world…”

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7. Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Topic | |------------|--------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:31–06:41| News Montage (Iran, politics) | Deaths in Iran war, reactions, shifting global alliances | | 06:41–16:59| Iran War – Deep Dive | Strategic ambiguity, worth of sacrifice, political consequences| | 16:59–20:23| Hosts’ Personal Reflections | Emotional impact of the war, demands for a plan | | 27:01–30:22| Bill Maher Discussion | Realignment, Maher's disillusionment, shared cultural values | | 31:53–48:00| Leadership Summit Recap (Guest: Bob Vander Plaats) | Event highlights, JD Vance, Tucker Carlson, base sentiments | | 51:59–80:50| Ask Me Anything | Predictions, election fraud prosecution, GOP “gay mafia,” spiritual advice | | 82:13–88:06| Christian Living Q&A | Advice for new believers, spiritual disciplines |

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Conclusion

This episode combines a hard-edged critique of U.S. foreign policy drift with urgent warnings about domestic political and cultural realignment. The hosts use both snark and sober analysis, calling for transparency and strategic clarity (especially on Iran), and warning of existential stakes in 2026’s political battles. The show closes with the sense that traditional coalition lines (even involving figures like Bill Maher) are fracturing, and that new, more fundamental alignments—both political and spiritual—are the real contest ahead.

Transcript

[Steve Dace]

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[Todd]

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[Steve Dace]

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[Todd]

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[Aaron McIntyre]

It's the Steve Day show and here's what happened while we were away. Brought to you by the escalation ladder only goes one direction. The Pentagon has released the identities of two soldiers killed in Iran's attack on US and partner forces in Jordan last week, identifying them as 25 year old Tyler James Feehan of Hawaii and 19 year old Isabella Gonzalez of Texas. The release of the soldiers identities comes after the US Military announced Sunday it had recovered unidentified human remains while searching for an American service member feared missing following that Iranian missile attack in Jordan. In addition, another U.S. service member was killed in a separate incident in Iraq. The U.S. military says the total number of deaths in the war with Iran is 17. The news of the slain soldiers come amid what seems to be a re escalating conflict with Iran as the United States hits the nation seemingly daily and with a reportedly expanding scope of targets. Iran has retaliated by hitting nations like Jordan, Kuwait and others, but notably has refrained from targeting Israel directly. President Trump says we control the strait,

[Bob Vander Plaats]

they don't control anything, so we'll see what happens.

[Todd]

But we hit him very hard again

[Bob Vander Plaats]

tonight and we did that in honor of the probably three. It's probably three as opposed to two great patriots.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says other countries need to finally step up when it comes to Iran, but other countries

[Todd]

need to begin to step up and

[Bob Vander Plaats]

provide, whether it's hardware or finances to

[Todd]

help carry that burden.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

It is not the United States job

[Steve Dace]

to protect

[Aaron McIntyre]

back at home. Are we starting to get nervous about Trump's mass deportation agenda? Border czar Tom Homan says President Trump

[Bob Vander Plaats]

is sitting in Oval Office today because of his promise to secure the border. We have the most secure border in the history of this nation now and because he promised mass deportations, which we're doing. Matter of fact, you know, I've read a lot of social media posts that we're not living up to it.

[Todd]

Just a bunch of crap.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Department of Homeland Security seemingly added a brief Addendum to the resumption of traffic stops carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement requiring agents to wear body cams if they engage in a traffic stop. Bill Maher talked to ABC News about the state of the Democrat Party. Says they'll likely win big in 2026, but he's open to one candidate in 2028.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

By then, this wing of the party, this new wing with all the energy and it's not just a few people anymore.

[Todd]

I read every day I read about

[Bob Vander Plaats]

a new person in some Colorado and Wisconsin, somebody who is saying some variation of not defund the police, abolish the police. No prisons, no police. Like, what world do they think we

[Todd]

could possibly live in under these conditions? It's just a level of nutty that

[Bob Vander Plaats]

I'm so glad that whenever it was, I was like, no, I'm not going along because this is where it ends. Could you see yourself voting for J.D.

[Todd]

vance?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yes. If this is the Democratic side, yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski went to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to write an essay on why she will not vote for the Save America act, citing the fact that the bill is, quote, really mean. The topic of Olive Garden was big over the weekend. Why? We'll let White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller explain.

[Todd]

There's a post on X that's going viral right now where a customer is a real thing. A customer at the Olive Garden was

[Aaron McIntyre]

sending a question to Olive Garden management asking if they if they're all you

[Todd]

can eat, Summer Pass could be shared with your family members. And Olive Garden corporate replied, and they said, no, your card has a barcode

[Aaron McIntyre]

that relates solely to you, and you

[Todd]

must present a photo ID with your all you can eat pasta pass in order to access all you can eat pasta. So we've reached the point of society where access to fettuccine at Olive Garden is vastly more secure than deciding who

[Aaron McIntyre]

is commander in chief of the company. Learning Chinese today. Today's phrase is we're not a ser. Are we? And finally, in completely unrelated news, we take you to the main Senate Democrat debates, not featuring Graham Platner, instead featuring Ashley Webb.

[Todd]

Ashley Webb, what qualifications do you have to serve in the US Senate? Oh, I ran for office several times.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Didn't win, but did run.

[Todd]

And then I'm a songwriter and then

[Bob Vander Plaats]

I write my own books.

[Todd]

And then suppose my transparency.

[Steve Dace]

I wouldn't lie to the people and

[Todd]

I wouldn't deceive the people like we're

[Bob Vander Plaats]

being deceived right now.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I know I'M a dude

[Aaron McIntyre]

in a dress and it appears I ate Graham Platner. But I'll always tell the truth. And that's what happened while we were away.

[Todd]

I would do anything for a Senate seat, but I won't do that.

[Steve Dace]

There was a little meatloaf there. I see what you did. You see what I did there?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I need to clarify. Lisa Murkowski did not in fact say she's not supporting the Save America act because it's really mean, but she said

[Todd]

that Lisa Murkowski is human debris. We have no further comment to preview coming up. That is a standalone but I do think that we have to ask some difficult question. Maybe the difficult question about the Iran war. Maybe it's time with two more service members deaths and the potential of more now with further escalation and what to make of Bill Maher's comments. We'll get to that and more here next on the Steve Day Show. And greetings. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend. I'm Steve Dase, he's Todders and he's Aaron McIntyre. We are the Steve Dase show live and on demand. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, we'll be joined by our good friend Vander Plaats. We'll get a wrap up of the Family Leadership Summit which included a talk from yours truly. And then next hour we will get into your questions via X. Your turn to ask me anything. And the bar is pretty high after the slate of questions we received last week. Todd.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, well that may have been the all timer last week. I'm not sure we got there. X is a different crowd and you got to filter through a lot more people there just to say Steve Dace, you suck. So look at her go.

[Todd]

How many times can you be asked if you're a Zionist cuck in a single thread? Essentially yes, yes, yes. We'll get through as many of those as we possibly can. And based on what Todd just said, it should not take much time. So come up with a backup topic. All right, some questions to ask based out of what Aaron just showed us in his montage. And I want to start with the Iran war. There are two trend lines this morning, the median gas price in America or the average. I'm sorry, the average gas price in America is back up over $4 a gallon nationwide. And right now we are I think at a 45 year low in terms of our own oil reserves. I think I saw this morning. Right. There are a lot of things that I think we could look at that would Be legitimate trend lines about what we're doing here and whether we should keep doing it or do more of it. That would be one.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Right.

[Todd]

Okay. Reasonable assurance of success would be another one. Right. Given the existential conflict. I mean, don't just listen to what a based right wing ideologue like me says. I mean, Bill Maher is warning you that the Democratic Party is getting taken over by communists. You know, we've often from the right. In fact, they just did this a few days ago with Riley Gaines comments about. He's got a doctor who thinks that not all pregnancies are from women. You need another doctor. And I made the point. I'd like to go back and tell my 1996 self 30 years ago that this would be considered prophetic commentary in America. Right. Well go back and tell. When did religious come out? Like 0405, sometime during the George W. Bush years. Right.

[Steve Dace]

A different life man. Yeah.

[Todd]

Go back and tell the man behind religious that he might be considering voting for the Republican presidential nominee in, in 2028, 20 years later.

[Steve Dace]

Right, right.

[Todd]

For sure.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Todd]

But so there's a lot of. And when you have. The other side now is just taken over as a demonic construct. And he would, you know, Bill, as

[Steve Dace]

a,

[Todd]

as an atheist, he'd call it communism. But I repeat myself, Communism in and of itself is a demonic construct. The cost of losing every single election has existential consequences at this point. Right. I mean, we have done a. This is why, by the way, we can't. We can't. You're gonna hear, including some big name Republicans, they're gonna tell you that we can not deliver on things like the SAVE act because we can redistrict our way out of this. And that's just a flat out falsehood. Whether it's a lie and the person knows better, whether it's just an incorrect analysis. And the person don't. Person does not. I don't know. But so that's why I didn't use either one of those terms mistake or error or falsehood or lie. I used falsehood because it's just simply false. And here's why. Have we greatly reduced the Democrats margin for error this fall with redistricting?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. Yes.

[Todd]

But we also didn't go nearly as far in redistricting, particularly in the southern states as we could. Remember I warned you about that. Like literally two days after I predicted this. What did the NAACP start trying to do in red states? Do you guys remember? Hey, if they take away every single predominantly racially gerrymandered seat. You know, the black athletes at these SEC schools should be, that are playing, that are making all this money for the university to play football. Should, should be sitting out. Right. So, so I'm just telling you that was a big reason why I could see it coming a mile away. That was. And it goes beyond even Todd's, you know, calling out of idolatrous fandom. Well, in fact, maybe the idolatrous fandom is the cause of what I'm about to point out. But the economic consequences of that are catastrophic for a lot of these communities. A lot of these southern states don't have major pro sports teams, major discretionary income reasons to spend. And that's one of the reasons why college sports has become so huge in these places. Because it's, it's the, it's the fun game in town. It's, it's the Hollywood. Birmingham, Alabama per capita is number one for college football TV ratings every year. Right. So that kind of gives you an idea that in these, a lot of these southern red states, it is what Disney is to Florida, what Hollywood is to California. Right. What lakes are to Minnesota and to Michigan. It is the entertainment industry of that state. It's a huge part of that state's economic wherewithal, not just cultural identity. So the Southern states did not go as far as they could have gone with redistricting. They gave us a B minus. So it's better than what we had before. It is better, you know, but they gave us a B minus in a cycle where the environment is against us and we really needed an A plus. But here's what we did do, right? We did, we did greatly reduce the amount of seats that are contestable in this election estimates. I've seen my own time that I've had to study it. I would say it's less than 20, a little somewhere between 12 and 20 seats in the House that are contestable. So the margin for error for Democrats is not what it was even a couple of months ago. But here's the problem with that. Well, Steve, why is that bad news? Well, here's the problem with that. Even if Democrats have a one seat majority in the House, they're probably going to end up behaving as if they had a 200 seat majority, right?

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Todd]

They're just going to be in lockstep all together. They're all going to vote for the same stuff. So here's the thing. We have to dominate those contestable seats. They've only got to win a handful because a one or two seat Democrat majority is going to be more in lockstep and more aggressive than a 30 or 40 seat Republican majority would be. Anybody want to challenge me on that assessment, by the way, before we move on?

[Steve Dace]

No, I just want to push it forward and say listen or ignore at your own peril. That's all I want to do.

[Todd]

So that puts us at a point then. If Bill Maher and I have come to the exact same conclusion about the Democratic Party, we are at an existential cliff. I mean, we truly are, right? Where for the first time now, the elections really aren't even about necessarily as much as I would. And you have to know me to understand how much I loathe saying this. I built much of the early phases of my career and until recently off of challenging the Republican Party from the right. If you want to know why the where the origin of the I'll never get to speak at CPAC comes from, I'm telling you it's because I consistently challenged the Republican Party from the right. At what point are we going to do all the stuff we promised and keep running on and keep talking about how many times Aaron grew up listening to that show before he now works here? Right. You used to just tune into that show before you worked here and now you're next to me as you've heard that show how many times over the years.

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Todd]

So I think you have to understand when I tell you that the election now is not even so much about what the people you're voting for will or will not do, but the knowledge of what the people you're not willing to vote for will absolutely do. I think you need to know that I'm going to be one of the last people with any kind of a significant platform in America on the right that is going to succumb to that line of reasoning. I'm going to hold out for as long as I can before I cop to something like that or own up to something like that. But it's where I think we truly are. How you choose to respond to that now is totally up to you. That's not my job. My. My job is simply to tell you the weather, you know, how you choose to dress for it. That's a you call. That's a you call, not a me call. I'm just giving you the weather. Did I give a bad weather forecast here? Tell me if you think that I did.

[Steve Dace]

Oh, the weather's bad, but the forecast is cash money. Yeah.

[Todd]

So that means there's a lot of back to the Iran Question. There's a lot of considerations that are meaningful, existentially meaningful about what we're doing in Iran. Even before we get to can Iran ever be allowed to have a nuclear weapon? For example, there are meaningful existential questions of what we're doing in Iran, what we're trying to do, and how long it will take to do it. But I think after two more deaths this weekend, particularly because these deaths occurred with the Iranians hitting a U.S. base in a foreign country, I think that it's time to just ask maybe the most difficult but important question. Seventeen US Service members have now died. Are the lives we have lost worth it? If this was somebody you care about, would it be worth it to you? It's real easy to jump online and say, cut a deal, cut a deal, no one wants to do this anymore. Or it's really easy to jump online and say, well, you know, got to go all the way to the end without willing to tell us what the end is really easy to do. And that's a lot of the discourse on social media about this conflict at the moment. Right. I'm somewhat oversimplifying, but not by as much as I frankly would had hoped. I mean, when you boil it down, that's essentially what it is. It's just said better. So that's the question, and gentlemen, let me put it on the table. Is what we have done in Iran and what we are attempting to do because the mission is not done, is what we have done and we are attempting to do, is it worth the 17 lives lost? And if, if your loved one was, was a, had been among those, would you feel as if this was a worthy sacrifice of someone you care about?

[Steve Dace]

I have an answer that's consistent with what I've put out on this. On other fronts. It's honest and it's. I don't know. And because it's. I don't know. I mean, it was just last week, I think, where we just need to have better communication about this. And then I thought that was going to come on Thursday with that press conference and it turned out to be the election, stolen election stuff. But if you're like me, I, the longer this is, I don't know, you're a patriot. You want to believe that. You believe that there's evil out there, that it's the job of the good in the world to do a job of taking out the trash every once in a while. So you're, you're open. But the longer it's, I don't know that Patriot hard on you, sooner or later will turn it into a no. Because this can't be about guessing when it is human lives at stake like this.

[Todd]

Aaron.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, I was gonna say I don't know. And it's kind of appropriate that Todd went there. I'll answer this. You can take this forever, however you want to take it. My buddy, best friends, known him. One of my first memories of life was with this dude. And we just remained friends throughout our lives. He just got back from northeastern Iraq, deployed with the National Guard a month and a half ago, spent basically the first year of his daughter's life on the other side of the planet. And he was over there really close to Iran, stone's throw from Iran, when all hell broke loose. I texted him over the weekend and I said, man, really glad you're back at home. Really glad you're back at home. So I don't know how that answers the question, but I think you're. I think I'm starting to get towards no. Starting to get towards no without a plan. And again, given the administration, given our military planners maximum benefit of the doubt. It's just. The problem is not military. The problem is geopolitical and the bifurcation of the military success. Guys, I just want to remind you, on Easter weekend, we built an airstrip in the middle of Iran to rescue one person and did it without ever taking. I don't think we even took serious fire during that operation. The military success of this has been astounding and quite frankly, scary. But the bifurcation of that military success with the geopolitical outcome that we're going for, which is still also an open question. It's that latter part that I have not heard. A workable plan, a workable outcome.

[Todd]

So it sounds to me like for both of you, to varying degrees, how this turns out is going to determine your answer to this question.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, and that's not. I don't know if that's necessarily fair. Basically, hey, if this is a great success, then we were for it the whole time. If it's not, then we weren't. But we don't really have enough information. Did you hear the number? I heard it. Listening back to the montage, the number of qualifiers that I put on. On reporting on this, because I seriously don't know what the aim is. I don't know what this truly know what the scope is. That's not really been confirmed by our military, by Central Command. It's just. It's a question mark and it's frustrating

[Steve Dace]

in. In Part. Not completely. I mean, I, it's the. Ultimately, we, we still, we all agree that Iran, I mean, Steve, you've said it as colorfully as anybody can. Do we have any ambiguity about whether Iran is like the bad guys or not?

[Todd]

Unless you are hosting the Tucker Carlson show most days. Correct.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Here. No, but we really still don't know. And they're as dangerous probably as anybody else in, in the world. And we know they're fundering Hamas and Hezbollah, et cetera, et cetera. They, they would wipe Israel off the face of the earth if they could. But from moment to moment, we, we. How bad was their nuclear capabilities? Have we really wiped them out? Are they really building them up again? I know only so much can be said and we're just the plebs out here, but the lack of certainty about what the crux of the issue that we had to do this then and now, none of us know. So it's not just about the result. I'm not so jingoistic that I'm just about, hey, it was great if we won, it's bad if we lost. There's a lot of really important things to try to do even when a loss is on the table. Right. D day, for example. But I don't. None of us have a sense of proportion like that. I don't know how much proportion we could possibly have and risk outcomes. That's fair. But still, I feel confident we should all know more. As Americans, if we're paying attention to the kind of people who want to know answers, we should know more than we do now. Again, Steve, how many months have we been doing this?

[Todd]

I would just. And I'm listen, because of everything you just said. I'm going to give an anal knowing this. I know this. That the analysis I am about to give is ex post facto of all the thinking that's going on at the Pentagon and the White House. Okay. That they are way ahead of me on this because they have all the information that you and I don't have.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. Okay.

[Todd]

So this is not meant to influence them in any way because they have. They're way ahead of us in terms of knowledge of what's happening here and why. It's really just me analyzing this now for me and our team and for all of you that are tuned in. Okay. Whatever the plan ultimately is, I could see the plan ultimately is here some form of benign. Well, benign is not the right word. We've killed almost a hundred of their leaders. Some form of indirect maybe, is the term I would use regime change that we so cripple their infrastructure and their potency and capability that the regime collapses within itself rather than because we sent a massive force in there to take, take them by force. Does that make sense? Okay, Whether that's the end game here or the end game is we're just trying to make sure we so decimate them that it'll take them years or at least well into next year to try to stick their heads above ground and be a threat at all, or whether the end game is some combination of the other two. But we might really just be trying to, to keep them at bay long enough for alternatives to Iran from an oil distribution standpoint like the uae greatly, you know, enhancing its, its output, or we just take control of the strait, as the President has said. So there's so, so all we're doing is just doing this until the alternative to the Iranian oil distribution system is put into place. Whatever of those three things it is, or maybe it's a ratio of all three, and we're waiting to see which of those is going to turn to be more successful. And that's the road we're going to go down. It's gotta be done by, like, Labor Day, because you've got to give this economy, which was already teetering, you've got to give it at least a surface level attempt to bounce back with gas prices and everything. It's got to. So, so this is the month. And you have to know that the Iranians know this, too. The Iranians know that November is coming. They, they know this. They know that the president does not want to be, you know, seeing headlines about whether we have a deal with Iran or another faction in Iran says we're never going to. No deals ever.

[Steve Dace]

Okay?

[Todd]

They know the president doesn't. Doesn't want to. And no Republican in America wants to be reading that on their feet in their feeds. September. Pick a random date. 25th.

[Steve Dace]

Right.

[Todd]

October 4th.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Right.

[Todd]

I mean, whatever you think our odds currently are now that we're going to survive this midterm, I think we all agree they don't improve if that's the case. Right. So who else knows this? The Iranians do. So this, this is the, to me, this is. We're entering now into the month here, a little more than, than a month between now and Labor Day weekend when everybody's gonna start kind of paying attention to what's going on in the world and the kids are all back in school and back into normal routines. We're, we're into this period of time now where if we're going to make a big move, this would be the time politically to implement it. So there's time for the effect of it to be felt before people start voting because we're also going to start voting, remember, in late September in many places around the country as well.

[Steve Dace]

My, my great fear is that there's, there's no clarification coming because the clarification is would be so bad. You know, something like there's no if

[Todd]

that is the case, then there'll be, there'll be a bad clarification the first Tuesday in November.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't know. Maybe, maybe the whole goal of this re escalation, maybe the whole goal is to create doubt inside whoever the heck is calling the shots in Iran, if anyone.

[Todd]

Very much so. Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

For sure.

[Aaron McIntyre]

To create doubt that maybe Trump doesn't care about dropping bombs and those headlines on election day. Maybe we really are in I'm in danger that Simpsons gif. Maybe that's the goal of this, the psychological warfare of some, some stripe.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. If there's, if they're sleepers all over sleeper cells all over America because our borders were so porous.

[Todd]

It's a great thing that under the former president, we didn't let 20 million people in that didn't belong here.

[Steve Dace]

If that's the reality and that's what jousting then I understand that then you talking about September is an absolute moot point. But of course, can they tell us. All I know is the what it does not make any sense that this continues to go on and on the way they do. We must be missing something.

[Todd]

All right. I want to make sure there's at least a time for us to, to have a response to the Bill Maher's comments. So that's the question. What's your response to what he, what he was saying to Jonathan Karl there from ABC News?

[Steve Dace]

My response, I've said this before in context and it's not some love, you know, conservatives trying to find love affair with the people on the left for cool. No, no, no. But I know Bill Maher. Don't know him personally, but I know Bill Maher. I went to college with him. I'm friends with people like him to this very day. I went to the University of Wisconsin liberals, we went out to the bars, House parties, hanging out, ripping each other's throats out as I was the young conservative then. And they were liberal. You know what? Then we did, we went to the Badger game and just like we're the best of friends and cheered for the same team. Like, you know, he. Bill Maher is the guy. Like, if you went to the Mets game, he's a big Mets fan. You talk to him, he wouldn't feel. He wouldn't ask you your pronouns. He wouldn't care what you think about it. You could still watch a game with that guy. Which is why his and Steve's analysis of Donald Trump are almost identical at this point. Because on some level, they do believe we have to have a shared culture. And they are both, in their analysis, pointing over there as the reason why they might have to vote for this guy over here. The. The logic is the exact same, and it's solid logic. That's crazy. They plan on destroying everything they say they are. Don't patronize me by telling me they're not. I'm done with this. So, yes, the problem's on you. If I have to go here and hold my nose and vote for this because we pretend this isn't real, I get Bill Maher.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah. I think for me, if he actually follows through, and I see no indications that the Democrat Party is going to say, hey, actually, on second thoughts, let's not be crazy. Let's not be absolute insane, you know, the party of insanity, I have no indications they're not gonna get off of this train if it comes to pass that Bill maher votes for J.D. vance. To me, Bill Maher is then firmly out of the category that I've placed him in, which is court jester entertaining to listen to. Yes, he harshly criticizes his own party, but at the end of the day, I'm still gonna vote for Joe Biden at the end of the day, I'm still gonna vote for Kamala at the

[Steve Dace]

end of the day.

[Aaron McIntyre]

But if he actually follows through, he's out of court jester. And he's not. I don't wanna say he's not a serious person, but he. I think, to me, he has a little bit more. A lot more credibility if he actually follows through.

[Todd]

I think a lot of what both of you said is correct. And there's a part of me that's wondered, even just the last few years, if Maher has held onto. I'm voting Democrat because it gives him enough credibility to maintain that show and everything else. Right?

[Steve Dace]

That's part of it.

[Todd]

I mean, do you. What. I mean, I have no idea what numbers that show does. Has to do. Some numbers. It's been around for a long time. Right. But if this comes right out and says, you know, Democrats are crazy JD Vance, 2028. Although you know what, there's new management at HBO now. Don't forget that you have the Ellison's taking over. I just remember that as we're talking under the old HBO management, probably not good. Right. But you have the Ellison's taking over who are very close to Trump. So maybe he's a little safer to speak his mind on some of these things they just kind of teased in the past, right?

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Todd]

More in a moment. The steve day show. All right, back here on the Steve Day Show. Good to be joined by my good friend Bob Vander Plaats to get a wrap up here on the just concluded leadership summit. There were a couple of things that stood out to me I want to ask you about. But overall I thought maybe I'd let you and on behalf of you and your team take a bit of a victory lap. Another incredible event. Well over a thousand activists in the state of Iowa that show up. You know, I mean, I had a chance to have lunch with my buddy Lucas Miles at tpusa Faith, who was one of your speakers. And him and I kind of got into the lunchroom early to eat together. So he had time to eat before he spoke. So I got to have kind of a candid conversation with him about what he saw. Keep in mind, he's doing this all over the country as a job. So he sees all this and he told me he doesn't know he has seen any state level organization that has this level of event and several national organizations that do not have this level of event. You know, so I mean he was, he was very impressed by the size, the scope, the presentation, the professionalism of the event for sure. But I'm going to yield because what I want to ask you about will be something controversial. So I want to make sure you get all of the course.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Here we go.

[Todd]

I'm just warning you, this was a great day and I want to make sure, I want to make sure that all the, all the helmet stickers get passed out right. Football practice is starting in high schools all over America as we speak. So hand out some helmet stickers.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

I gotta tell you, Steve, it's good to hear that from Lucas and from a lot of others. It was just a great day. It was highly favored, greatly blessed and it was the fruit of a lot of work put in by our team. And we have an incredible team. And Steve, I gotta tell you, I'm not saying this to just brag about you on your show. And you, Todd and Aaron, several fans of the show. Tell me. I heard about it on the show, so I wanted to be here. Had a young man, and I don't think he got to meet you. He wanted to meet you. I don't think he got a chance to meet you. Brad from Spokane, Washington.

[Steve Dace]

I met him.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

I told my dad, oh, you do?

[Todd]

He's a long way from home.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And he loved it. Just absolutely loved it. But I thought, how cool is that? I'm gonna hop on a plane from Spokane, Washington, come to Des Moines, Iowa. The heat of July, the humidity of July. And I'm going to spend all day Friday and some Thursday night, Friday, Friday night, and then Darlene, Saturday duties as well. But I'm going to spend this whole time at a leadership summit. It blows my mind. We had just over 1,200 registered, and you never know who's all there at one time, that kind of thing. But it was. It always reminds me what a great show of support for our ministry. And so God blessed it. And Steve, when I look back and I asked a lot of people about different highlights, a lot of people pointed to David Barton, who gave the first session about how our country was founded. And he went through the Founding Fathers, he went through those who signed the Declaration of Independence and the biblical Christian foundation of this country. And it was just a great reminder, but it was also a little bit discouraging. And, boy, have we drifted a long ways. But other people talked to me about my session with Greg Baker, about the comprehensive nature of the family leader, because you got this whole thing that you do with the church, and then you have this whole thing that you do with elections, this whole thing you do with policy, and then you bring the church and the state together to meet the needs of the community. And Greg, I thought, just knocked it out of the park. We got a chance to highlight our team with elections and policy and all of the wins. Of course, we had you, Steve, and again, I'm not saying this, and we had Lucas Miles as well. But Thursday night, your interview. Darla came home Thursday night, she goes, boy, a lot of people talk to me about that interview in a positive way, and the challenge in particular that you gave to dads to finish well, to grandparents to finish well about what are you really doing here at the end of the day? And of course, they loved hearing the insight from Lucas. And then both of you guys on stage on Friday. I thought it was really, really good. I think the interview with Ashley Henson, who's running for U.S. senate at our lunchtime, she loved it. I Loved it. The audience loved it. But it really gave a chance to see into Ashley's heart. I thought that interview is probably more impactful than even her remarks given at the summit.

[Steve Dace]

I agree.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Chris McGowan and Joe Mitchell, though, up on stage, I thought it was really good. People loved hearing from Chris Ruddy and they loved it. That Chris Ruddy of Newsmax not only presented, they loved what he presented, but that he was there and he interacted as a normal attendee.

[Todd]

For people that don't know, Chris Ruddy is the founder and long. I mean, I think he's been CEO of Newsmax from the beginning as the founder.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Right.

[Todd]

And Newsmax, you're. When you look at its total reach with linear and everything else you're talking about. In fact, I just. Because Chris was there and I'd never met him before and got a chance to meet him, I just decided I'd ask Rock, you know, where would be the. In terms of size, scope, social media metrics, valuation, et cetera, what are the largest. So what are the largest conservative media platforms in the country? Not surprisingly, Fox was number one in its own class. I was surprised by. Number two is the New York Post.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Wow.

[Todd]

I was surprised by that.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah.

[Todd]

But Grok said it was that number three was actually Newsmax.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah. So incredible Rich. He said right from the podium, he said, hey, Newsmax is trading on the stock exchange and we're $1 billion company today. But to think, would one of the Murdochs do that? Would they interact with the attend area and Chris and his team the way. At least Friday night when I saw them leaving the dinner, it was like we don't even want to leave. We're having so much fun. They were blown away by the event. Really love being partnering with them. SBA Pro Life and Dr. Bill Lyle. My gosh, did he knock it out of the park.

[Todd]

Let me say this, all right. About that guy.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You bet.

[Todd]

If you are looking to book a Pro Life speaker, I would highly, highly recommend him. He was fan fantastic.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

He's.

[Todd]

And his knowledge of the medical field as a doctor in this space and on top of just his charisma, it's a. It's a very enlightening combination. So if you're booking a Pro Life event and I'm not getting anything off of what's it. I can't even remember. I just remembered Pro Life doc.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Pro Life doc, Dr. Bill Lyles.

[Todd]

So Bill Lyles is his name. Not getting anything off this at all. I mean, I. I think you could do a heck of A lot worse. And I'm not sure you can do much better. I'd recommend it.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

The guy's winsome, he's funny, he's insightful, and yet he's ser at the right time. He really does a great job. Matter of fact, our team said, how could anybody be pro choice leaving that presentation?

[Todd]

Absolutely. I agree.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You have to be just looking at the science of it. The guy was flat out amazing. I thought our own governor, Kim Reynolds, did really well in us honoring her and her kind of giving her farewell and seeing what she did on social media afterwards about how much she has loved the partnership with the family leader. And then Zach Lane. I think Zach Lane needed that stage on Friday. I think he pointed out why Randy Feenstrom made such a huge mistake last year in not attending the leadership summit and why he's not the nominee today. I think if he attended the summit like Zach did, he could be actually be the nominee today.

[Todd]

10,000%. That's correct.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Zach Lane not only took the time on stage, but then he and his wife and kids attended our post dinner with some of our best supporters. About 220 people there. And Zach Lane, I thought, knocked it out of the park in the interview. And I think people need to see that from Zach. They need to see his heart and how much he cares. But, boy, Steve, you and I talked before about this, and I kind of want to land on this one. Well, before I land. Well, I will land on speaker. Mike Johnson. It is. I mean, without saying it, you just know. He comes from us. He comes from who we are. He's got a tough job, but, boy, the way he educated about the dangers of Marxism and communism and socialism and what you're seeing in America today and why this is the most important election in the country. But he did it in a way of not going gop. Rah, rah, rah, rah. No, no, no, no. He was going back to the Founding Fathers. He's going back to the historical nature of our country and what is at stake today. And gosh, Steve, I gotta tell you, we knew it was gonna be cool. But even it went above and beyond what I thought it could have been was the unveiling of that world record American flag by Logan Reiser, the artist from the Quad Cities who brought you in early, saying, hey, here's a vision I have. And not only was it a vision, but it was produced here, it was funded here. It's gonna be gifted to America from Iowa. But I had several people come up to me after the event going, I got emotional. I mean, I got overcome with emotion when I saw that flag. The national anthem. God. God bless America and God bless the usa.

[Todd]

Yeah. Pinned to my X feed is a picture of me in front of it. You'll get an idea of the scope of it. But I'm just going to tell you, no picture is going to do that thing justice in person. I just got a text from Logan. You're going to get a kick out of this, man. I'm so ticked. I couldn't even get a picture in

[Bob Vander Plaats]

front of that flag because everybody was going through.

[Todd]

Everybody picture. Yes. Yeah. As soon as, as soon as Mike, you. You guys adjourned the event. I made a beeline over there.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah.

[Todd]

I said, I am not walking out of here without getting a picture of me in front of that flag because I knew there was going to be a massive crowd right away and there was. So. Yeah.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And what's really cool, I mean, this shows Logan's heart as well. He's got a couple thousand hours for sure in this flag. 170 individual pieces, weighs over a thousand pounds, has to be constructed, deconstructed. It's got 24 karat gold in it with the writings on Psalm 35 and 2nd Chronicles 7:14. And I told Logan, I said, I believe the unveiling is going to be so cool. People are going to have a remembrance of this. And my wife's got a very expensive idea, I'm sure, but she would like to see miniature flags handed out at our post donor dinner. About you were there. And Logan created 215 of these little 3 inch by 1/4 inch glass flags out of the spillage of the flag that he built. And that is so cool. What a great is. I told people going in, this could be our best summit yet. I believe is our best summit yet. By the content, the people, the attendees, the partnerships, the sponsorships, it was definitely favored and blessed.

[Todd]

Well, I am glad you got through that filibuster of an answer, but it was well deserved because it truly was an incredible event.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

It was a great. Don't miss next year. It's going to be bigger and better.

[Todd]

In fact, the controversial question I'm about to ask you is a tease of next year's because next year's will be with the candidates. Well, let's assume we have no idea what level of primary Donald Trump is going to permit us at this point. He may endorse someone next week. He may say to the field, go prove yourselves. You know, I've used The analogy before it breaks the cue stick in half like the joker and says, we're going to have tryouts, you know what I mean? And that the tryout could last through Iowa, it could last through South Carolina. It could be literally the day before the Iowa caucuses, he. Wait, no one knows. No one.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

This is the Apprentice.

[Todd]

Yes.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And this is when Meat Loaf leaves crying.

[Todd]

And in many respects, it'll. It's his. It. It. It's. It's his largest final investment of political capital. Okay. That he'll ever make. Not the last one, but the largest last one he'll ever make. Because the minute he leaves the White House, his political capital will go down. From that time forward, it'll still be more extraordinary than any former president in recent times, but it won't be anything like when he held the power of the office itself.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

If anybody thinks he's going away, he's not.

[Todd]

Would you still rather have a Trump endorsement in a primary as long as he's alive than without one? Sure. But it just won't be the same as him dominating your screens constantly with the office. Right. So without knowing for sure what kind of a primary we will. We will be permitted to have, you know, for now, next year is when all the candidates will show up at your event. Right. And of course, one of the headliners there, we assume, would be the vice president, J.D. vance. This is the moment that most stood out to me other than the flag, getting to see that in person. And this was the moment, the entire day that stood the most out to me. One of the largest applause lines I heard on Friday is when Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of one of the largest conservative media companies on this planet, said to this room of 1200 Iowans who he probably that barely know him and he barely knows, and when he said to them that JD Vance is going to have to directly rebuke Tucker Carlson in that crowd, that was one of the largest applause lines. And maybe tell me if I'm exaggerating because you were at the whole event.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You're not.

[Todd]

Because I was not at the whole event. I was in and out, had meetings. I saw a lot of it, particularly the second half. But. But I was not there for the whole thing. Okay. But from. For what I was there for, which I would say was a little more than half or maybe exactly half. It's the largest applause line that I heard. And I. That stood out to me because, you know, it was three years ago that week that you brought Tucker in to headline your event, and he got A standing ovation was the first public appearance he had after getting fired from Fox. And in front of many of those exact same people. I don't think that's the reaction. If you brought Tucker out on stage three years later and this is. And so that's what stood out to me the most. And I want it. And so here's my controversial question. Your reaction to that, what you think it means?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, I think it was a matter of fact, I didn't know where Chris Ruddy was going to go with his remarks. We don't script people's remarks. And so I was almost a little bit surprised that he went there. But when he did, and I saw the audience reaction, I thought, what he's doing, he's exposing something that's there. Tucker Carlson is highly suspect today with a lot of our bass and a lot of our audience in regards to what's his real motive, what's behind him, why is he doing this? This doesn't line up with the best interests of America. It doesn't line up theologically. There's a lot of things it doesn't line up with. And they're still seeing J.D. vance as Tucker's guy. And so what Chris Ready's doing, I think almost doing a solid for JD of going, you're gonna have to show there is separation, clear separation between you and and Tucker Carlson, because if there's not, there's going to be a lane that just opened up for Ted Cruz, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ron DeSantis, Mike Johnson. Guys, I can't tell you. So controversial question. Let me give you a little bit of a controversial answer. In some ways, after Speaker Mike Johnson gave his address and after we had a private reception with him with about 100 people afterwards, I can't believe how many people came up to me going, would he consider 20, 28? They like that guy. And so who knows how this whole thing's going to play out. I still believe the midterms are going to have a lot to do with it. Trump's endorsement is going to have a lot to do with it. But I think Chris Ruddy laying that marker down. And Chris Ruddy, just so everybody knows, is also very close to who? Trump, to Donald J. Trump.

[Todd]

Newsmax based out of New York City. That's where Chris is located. Right.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

He's known Trump forever. He was at the King's dinner, the state dinner for when the King of England was in. Not everybody gets to be at that dinner. He was at that dinner. I saw the list.

[Todd]

It's going to be fascinating. It's why I did the show I did on this. What was that last Thursday? We did that show, guys. Right. I kind of went code red on this. Was it last Thursday? Because just as Marco's decision, Rubio's decision, I believe that to stand up there with Lindsey Graham and John McCain for the Gang of Eight is the most consequential moment in the 21st century in the Republican Party. He was the darling. He already had been president if he had never done it.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

No doubt.

[Todd]

There's never a Trump phenomenon. There's never a maga. The entirety of modern GOP political history and American political history changed with that. And as somebody who's a JD Guy, my concern is how he handles or does not handle this situation with Tucker could determine, like, what the next 10 years look like.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Right.

[Todd]

His favorables are still very high. His polling numbers are still very high. Thinking you're polling in Iowa. His overall favorables were almost as high as Trump's with a lot of our base earlier this year. But that poll was also done, what, February, March.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Exactly.

[Todd]

And Tucker has only accelerated his deconstruction since then.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And he's showing a separation with Trump Begum in life.

[Todd]

Yeah.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And he's even going. I'm surprised I'm even saying this. Which means it's not going to be good when it comes. What follows.

[Todd]

All right, 30 seconds. Thank you, my friend.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, first of all, with JD let's give him and his wife kudos.

[Todd]

Oh, thank you.

[Aaron McIntyre]

For that.

[Todd]

Yeah. They had their son last night. Yes.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah. For having their son and for modeling what a family should look like out of that office. And so this is not against J.D. the one thing we hear.

[Todd]

Yeah, 20 seconds now.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

The one thing we hear after each and every summit is how they are inspired and how they have fresh hope for the future of this country because it's not embedded in the gop. It's way big.

[Todd]

And back here with our two live and on demand here on the Steve Day Show. That is me. He's Tutters. And he's Aaron McIntyre. And you are you. And you can let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedace.com inbox by emailing the program [e-mail] that's D E A C E like us on Facebook, Me, we and Gabby. Follow me at Steve Dace show on x Instagram and TikTok. Subscribe to our Rumble Channel at Steve Dace at Steve Dace on Rumble. And then finally, if you Would not mind. Leave us please. A five star review. If you're a podcast listener, thank you. Tens of thousands of you have done that. We would appreciate tens of tens of thousands of more. And we also appreciate even more when you guys subscribe. Many more of you have done that and that ensures that you never miss an episode. So click that subscribe button if you're on Apple iTunes. You do it with the follow button these days. And thanks again if you've done that. And thanks to our friends over at Patreon Mobile. They've been an outstanding mobile phone service provider to the Dace family now for going on a little more than six years and since we made the switch, we have never looked back. Their outstanding US based customer service team. That means you can understand what they're actually saying and they will help customize a plan that's best for you and your family. You can switch networks within their main hub. They've got multiple networks. Switch anytime you need to for free. You move to another part of your state, town, country, where a network is better for where you are. They'll help you make that switch asap. You can keep your number, upgrade or well, maybe it's an upgrade if you hide it. Keep your number, switch your number, keep your phone, upgrade your phone, whatever you want to do. And you'll be able to do it. Oh, wait a minute. Maybe some of you are like, you know what? I'd love to do this, man, but I'm locked into a bad contract with one of those communist companies. Well, they've got contract buyout programs to free you from said communist at the same time. So get started today with a free month of service when you use the promo code [e-mail] Steve. That's patriot mobile.com Steve. Use the code Steve for a free month of service to get started today at patriot mobile.com/Steve, with great trepidation based off the tease he gave me at the top of the show. Now I hand this over to Todders. And for this week's ask me anything, no topic is off limits. Todd made it sound, however, like intelligence was off limits in these questions. So we shall see.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, one of them. That's definitely true.

[Todd]

All right. And we're gonna get through as many of these as we can as selected by Todd. Aaron has those questions. You guys know the drill. I've not seen a single one of them. Scouts honor. I was a cub scout once. It is true, indeed. Many, many, many moons ago. But I've not seen any of them. Todd has selected among all of these submissions the one he thinks it'd be best to answer on the air. We will get through as many of these as we can. What remains we will address today in the overtime for BlazeTV [e-mail] dace where you can also go to become a subscriber today blazetv.com dace for a discount. Aaron, we ready?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

We are.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Let's begin with Lawrence. Who asks, did you or will you watch the Summer Ball Buster Odyssey?

[Todd]

Nice. I see what you did there, by the way. I am going to see it actually this afternoon after the show. It is quite literally the only window. I have to see it like over the next two weeks. I'm, I'm book solid with side projects and other things. So I had one window over the next two weeks. It's. What's fascinating is trying to get tickets to this here in. I don't know if you guys are seeing this where you live. What's fascinating is that IMAX tickets and I'm gonna go see it at the IMAX today. But IMAX tickets are almost impossible to get. But there's all kinds of tickets available to the general screenings. So. And, and let me also say the reports of the film has had a very good opening, particularly for an R rated film. All right, I just want to say that from the outset, but I think you're saying what our buddy over at Nerd Roddick Gary calls Access Media. All right, the people that just, you know, the, the varieties, the Hollywood insiders that kiss the butt of the studios so they can, you know, get access and get invited on the junkets and stuff are way overblowing this opening. You're being told this is the greatest Christopher Nolan opening ever. First of all, whenever there is a historical comparison of box office, you always have to, you always have to adjust for inflation. You always do. It's just, I mean, if you don't adjust for inflation, then how do you account for films that made $100 million? When tickets were a quarter, tickets were a buck, tickets were two bucks. You see what I'm saying? You have to, you have to adjust

[Steve Dace]

for inflation because now you have to mortgage your house to go to the movies.

[Todd]

Pretty much, yeah. So if you, and especially if it's an imax, for example. So if you adjust for inflation, this is actually the third biggest opening that Christopher Nolan has had both domestically and globally. And it's well behind the first two because they're running all these headlines. It's bigger than the Dark Knight. No, it's nowhere near the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight did over 350 million global its opening weekend. I'm sorry, it did over 300 million global its opening weekend. The Dark Knight rises did over 350 million globally. So this film has done about 265 million globally. That's a huge number for an R rated film, but it's nowhere in that class. And just to put into context from a domestic opening standpoint, it's not one of the 50 biggest domestic openings of all time, adjusted for inflation. In fact, Marvel's the Avengers had a bigger domestic opening and that movie ended up, you know, hitting a huge downgrade in the second weekend in a massive flop. Now, I will be fascinated to see what the word of mouth on this is. And there are two guys online on the right who are often at odds. In a previous iteration of my career, I knew Ben Shapiro better. In this iteration of my career, I know Jack Posobic better. But neither one of the. But they tend to be on the opposite sides of things on some of the internistian fights on our side these days. Is that fair?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[Todd]

They were both overwhelmingly fetting this movie over the weekend.

[Steve Dace]

Are you sure that Posobic isn't doing a bit.

[Todd]

Oh, you what? You know what, Jack? That is absolutely possible.

[Steve Dace]

He was glossing this thing so hard. I.

[Todd]

That is. I hadn't even thought about that because he was. I mean, what do the kids call it today? Get the glazing when it goes over the top. Slurpage. Right. I think this, this, this. That, that would be interesting if it was over the top. And, and if, and if, and if, if I fell for it, then I'm gonna have to. Oh, Jack. An apology and text that to him because it got me. I thought for sure it was for real. I didn't know. Okay.

[Steve Dace]

I could be wrong too, but you might be.

[Todd]

I didn't even thought about that. But it felt like as soon as you said that, I thought there's a. I got a pit in my stomach because I'll have to do. I may have to apologize for something later on, which, you know, I love to do that. It's one of my favorite things to do to apologize for being wrong.

[Steve Dace]

Okay.

[Todd]

But for now, barring that, we don't know the context of said said post. But there are posts on X with both Jack Posobic and Ben Shapiro glazing this movie. Those posts do exist. I guess you've called into question the context of one of them. It's a worthy question, but. And I Don't know the answer to that, but. So I'll be fascinated to see what people think on the second weekend. All right, the second weekend. It used to be the first weekend kind of told us a lot. That's when. But the second weekend now gives us an idea because so many of these brands are so big and the branding is so strong that it can just. It has like a gravitational pull, you know what I'm saying? Like a. It can just pull in a certain amount of numbers just based off of the advanced hype machine that exists around a particular brand. Or in this case, Christopher Nolan, a director. Once people get to see the film, though, and the word of mouth spreads, I think that's actually the true test anymore is what happens the second weekend. So we'll see.

[Steve Dace]

Oh, we're going to talk about it with an Odyssey expert tomorrow.

[Todd]

We are from Hillsdale, correct? Yeah. Looking forward to it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right, next up, we go to Chuck Rambo, who says soccer, most boring sport ever or just a dumpster fire?

[Todd]

The framing of that question is tremendous.

[Steve Dace]

I actually put this out there. I mean, it was funny and I liked it. I'm genuinely interested from Steve and Aaron, two guys who are sports fans, but at. At best, could take or leave soccer and at worst, you know, loaded for all kinds of reasons compared to what you thought about it coming to America more than a month ago, because it just came out, this was the most financially successful sports enterprise in all of human history, which, you know, it's. Takes more than a month. I don't think they did like what you just said. You have to account for what you're really talking about, like with the Odyssey, but value at just plus minus, thumbs up, thumbs down, as objectively as you can, because there were worries going in. And I said that, like people weren't even going to come to America because they hate America so much. But it turns out the idol of soccer actually beat their hatred. Their idol of hating America because those stadiums were packed.

[Todd]

Yeah. I think from a cultural phenomenon standpoint, I think this was one of the. This may, this. It's possible not knowing what will occur the second half of the year. But I. I would argue because of how divided we are, that I would even have this eclipse America 250. And I cannot believe I'm scared to say what I'm about to say.

[Steve Dace]

All right.

[Todd]

When we just talk about the cultural benefit, a lot of this country just tapped out on America 250. And, you know, I haven't really been as harsh on them. Maybe as maybe some of my. My peer group has been. And let me tell you why, because I was just telling you a few years ago I was really having a hard time getting pumped for the fourth of July, man, when my own government trying to poison me and tell me you can't have a job if you won't take our poison and lying to me about said poison and putting my brothers and sisters in prison for praying to Jesus, you know, outside of a death clinic. Right. You know what I'm saying? I mean, if we were doing trune weddings for President Kamala, for America 250. And before you think that's even tongue in cheek, when I called it the leisure arm of the one world government conspiracy, my disdain for soccer is very real. Okay, but that is like a, as Todd would describe it, a rhetorical flourish. All right? I'm embellishing my point to drive home a point.

[Steve Dace]

And to be fair, that status has also been taken over by the wnba.

[Todd]

Well, that's true too. The WNBA is clearly. Now that I'm not. Not. That's not an embellishment. That is absolutely an enterprise of deconstruction. No question about it. Okay, that one I'm not even. There's no tongue in cheek on that one at all. That is. That is King James. All right? King James only. Okay, but if. If we were doing. Because we were just doing topless trunes on the White House lawn two years ago. Right. Ok. Under Biden, if we were doing troon weddings and you know, Baphomet. All hail Baphomet under President Kamala, I mean, how many. How much America 250 would you all be feeling? Todd and Aaron, how much would you be feeling?

[Steve Dace]

Negative integers.

[Todd]

What about you, ghostwriter negative over there, Mr. McIntyre? Yeah, yeah, that's a negative ghostwriter for me. Okay, so I'm aware that we're in a cold civil war. I was one of the first people to coin that term on our side. So I don't really lament that a bunch of people who hate America and don't want to preserve its traditions and heritage were disdainful of an attempt to preserve its traditions and heritage. If anything, I'm thankful for them outing themselves just to make it easier, you know, and plainer to people like to Bill. To the Bill Mars of the world. You know what I'm saying?

[Steve Dace]

But.

[Todd]

And so for that reason, I do think the ceiling of the.

[Steve Dace]

Of.

[Todd]

Of what the floor was always going to be very high for America 250 because you're going to at least get Half the country, but because who knows how much the other half you're going to get. The ceiling was limited in the case of what the World cup has done by being here. I think it's all ceiling because

[Steve Dace]

all

[Todd]

of the benefit has been. I would describe it. If not, maybe all is a tough word. The vast majority of benefit has been new buy in to Americana.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. There were no protests, which I also shocked me.

[Todd]

Yeah, no, there was very little. Very little sanctimonious lecturing. Okay. Very little of that. If anything, you had a whole bunch of European influencers who may be started going to the BUC EE's and the truck stops and to mock us. And then we're like, hold on, this is better than how we live. Right. And they had buy in instead.

[Steve Dace]

So

[Todd]

that could only be a game. Much of the global culture around soccer is detest is somewhere between skeptical to disdainful of Americana. Is that fair?

[Steve Dace]

Hmm, that's interesting.

[Todd]

Much of it is. What's much is 30% much, is 70% much. I don't know what the percentage is, but it's not 1%. And it's certainly more than say, 10 or 20. So.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, now that you. That's what I needed a little bit more of.

[Todd]

I think use the term significant.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[Todd]

All right. A significant portion of the global soccer ecosystem is somewhere between skeptical to disdainful of Americana. And instead, what we saw here was largely assimilation, immersion. And if anything, people were like, I guess air conditioning is not bad, not a bad thing. And I mean, Buc EE's is great. And you know, Chick Fil a. I've heard so much about it because I

[Steve Dace]

think that the majority of world soccer fandom. That's why I wanted you to put a number on it. How big are we talking? But I think the majority is actually just like NFL and Kaiju football fans. They're just guys who like watching their sports.

[Todd]

You would say it's the NFL that can be reached in Portugal.

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Todd]

You would say, okay, fair. All right. So I think it may end up being the biggest cultural benefit event of the year because of what I just said. I think that it showing off America and who we still are even in a declining state in relationship to the rest of the world. I thought that much of the world found that to be attractive. So. But I think that's different from what I think of the sport itself. I do think that the sport itself is a limiting principle. I do think to be as fair to the sport as I can, it puts a higher premium on skill than it does raw athletic ability. And we have sports that do that. Golf does that, for example, right? You had Craig Stadler, you know, with a size 44, jeans, went in green jackets. But then what happens when a guy puts fitness and athletic excellence right next to the precision of golf? What happens, except for his own self destruction, he was gonna end up beating Jack. Jack Nicklaus's majors record, right? He dominates the sport for like a decade plus, you know, so we have sports that do that too. You know, I don't know. The. The race car drivers today are good athletes, but I. I mean, I. I don't know how good of a driver. Bill Elliott and, you know, Richard Petty were in between Marlboro Reds and, you know, having a. Grabbing a, you know, a long neck while the crew is changing out their tires. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I mean, so we have that too, but as a general rule. But those are also niche sports in America, too. And the only time that golf went from a niche sport to mainstream is when it did have a dominant athlete as its face, not just a great golfer, dominant athlete. In general, Americans are attracted to bigger, stronger, faster. Everything we've tried to do as a country since we began is to do things bigger, stronger, and faster than everybody else. Everything we reward as a culture is what makes us bigger, stronger, and faster. It's why we have Buc Ees, for example, right? Which is a small moon, all right, on the dark side of Endor.

[Steve Dace]

Okay?

[Todd]

It's not a truck stop, all right? It's a small and Dorian moon, all right? It's why we have those things bigger, stronger, faster inherently as a sport, because of the way the rules are constructed, because of the way the game is played and why. I read it. I read. I saw my feed yesterday that I found out it was actually Spain that won the World Cup. I didn't know. I haven't watched any of it. Dominated the game, what was the score? Showing me all these stats, how Spain just dominated the stats. What was the score?

[Steve Dace]

One.

[Todd]

One to nothing, One nil. So I think in general, the sport has an egalitarian streak to it that most of American heritage is disdainful of. And I think the reason why a lot of lefties in America have tended to be more supportive of the sport than a lot of righties is because of what I just said. Not to mention their love of anything global and hatred for anything nationalistic.

[Steve Dace]

All right?

[Todd]

So I don't think soccer intended to be the leisure. When I used to call soccer the Leisure arm of the one world government. I don't mean that soccer intended that the World cup existed long before America's culture war may long outlive us for that matter. All right. American leftists wanted it to be that. You see what I'm saying, that they had a goal of bringing this egalitarian driven sport in to undermine some of the more mass, you know. Well, it's not like sparky spot merit, meritocracy, meritorious. I mean meritorious sports that Americans typically shine to. All right, so I've already talked way more about this than I thought I was going to. And I hate Todd, that you made that. You put this question.

[Steve Dace]

I did it. It's a win for me.

[Todd]

You did. You made me have a serious conversation about soccer for about 10 minutes there. I apologize to America.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Are you ready to move on?

[Todd]

Absolutely.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Righteously indignant question about Bill Maher. We already talked about that. I guess we could broach it again as I was in Righteously indignant says did hell freeze over reacting to Bill Maher saying he would vote for Vance. Do you want to talk any more about that?

[Todd]

Well, I think we could probably say for now that Vance is still the overwhelming stand in for ACME Republican nominee 2028 or fill in the blank Republican nominee 2028 because he's still right now the overwhelming polling favorite. So the most likely to get, you know, this is my son in whom I am well pleased, endorsement from Trump. So I think some of that is a stand. And I think the other part of it is that JD Just went and did a show a few weeks ago and took every tough question that Bill had and answered them all straight up. I think also that, you know, I think the level of dysfunction of family that JD Comes from, historically, I think the fact that he doesn't think that that and I agree with this, by the way, that we're not just going to and I know Aaron, you're big on this too. We're not just going to undo an entire generation of venture corporatism or vulture corporate corporatism and neo that's now becoming full blown socialism with we're going to cut regulations and cut taxes and stuff's just going to organically happen. He doesn't believe that's how this is going to work. That much of the same power that was used to end a lot of our economic traditions will probably now have to be exercised in order to take those barriers away. That would fit into what a guy like a Bill Maher thinks government ought to do is to, you Know, play referee on some of these things. On some level, I think he could probably buy into some of that economic populism to which the Ben Shapiro crowd's gonna say, that's exactly why we're against the guy and that's why we have primaries. We're gonna get to have that debate, right? And if somebody else wants to run and say that, you know, Milton Friedman, we can go straight from the controlled economy we've had for the last few decades straight to Milton Friedman's nirvana. I mean, I would love to live in Milton Friedman's north of nirvana. I just don't think it's achievable. I think there's got to be a halfway house. You know, we've been in this economic purgatory and we've, we've been locked down economically for so long. A lot of times when you are incarcerated, you go to a halfway house first, right? To make yourself fully ingratiated to getting back into the gen pop. And I kind of think that's where we are economically, but that's why we have primaries. And I long to hear those debates and discussions. But I could see some of that being attractive to Bill Maher for sure.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Next we go to pro life means, no exceptions. Who says, looking back at your career, what's one prediction you got right that surprised even you and one you got wrong that you learned from?

[Todd]

The one I got wrong, that I learned from is the easiest one.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[Todd]

All right. And without question, it's, it's, it's misreading Trump. But I think I should, from the outset, but I think I should explain with specificity, I had no idea really that Trump was as malleable to negotiation as he turned out to be, particularly in his first run. And we had just come out of an era that the Bushes, The Doles, the McCain's, the Romneys, they would call your conservative leaders in and say, here's what we're willing to offer you. And now you go back and sell this to your people. That's your job, to make your people eat the poop sandwich and vote for us. And I thought, you know, here's a guy with, we're way less. Even if we didn't, we're not, we're not so sure about his personal ethics, frankly. And so if we couldn't trust so called nice guys not to screw us, now the sudden, the guy that's on his third wife who brags about all his bankruptcies, right, that he's used to get around, you know, being saddled with debt and all that kind of stuff he said during that, during that, that entire campaign, this is the guy that's going to actually make deals with us and keep his word. I just didn't see that at all. And in fact, what I thought he was doing was, was using the precedent of us being so frankly, naive and pliable to turn us into suckers. And if I would have known that, no, this was actually a pretty earnest negotiation. And Trump is this level of pragmatist. And if you can prove to Trump, it'll benefit him and what he wants to do, he'll give you whatever you want. If I knew that, I would have made way different decisions than I did in the summer of 2015. But I didn't know that. And I only had the track record of his predecessors and then his own behavior at times during the primary to go off of. And it turned out he was way more malleable than I thought. Still is to some degree, even though as he becomes more sure of himself politically, he's still way more malleable than people think. Like Michael Cohen had, has dog cussed him, turned state's evidence on him. I read the other day that, you know, he's willing to hear him out, you know, on a, on a mea culpa, mea culpa maxima, mea culpa conversation. That's just not Trump's reputation. And his cold blooded reputation, frankly, does not often belie how he really is. And I was not aware of that. And that is the, maybe that's the best I've ever explained my reservations. That's the number one reason I misread this. And if I would have known he was this malleable back then, we all still thought Mike Pence was good, right? If you would have told me in the summer of 2015 that somebody like Mike Pence could be Donald Trump's running mate, I would have said, okay, I'm in. That level of Christian conservative would be your running mat. I'd never believed that in a million years. Right, Okay. I just think they ended up being way more malleable. I think that one's pretty easy because it also altered the entire next decade course of my career.

[Steve Dace]

Right.

[Todd]

Because a lot of the things that people you know and names you know, ended up doing was offered to me first, and I turned it all down. The other one, I would have to take some time. I would have to take some time to think about that one. Can you guys think of something that comes to mind that I was right about that you guys were even surprised about. There was virtually nothing about COVID and Jab that I was surprised. I was right about.

[Steve Dace]

Well, me. I was.

[Todd]

Oh, you were.

[Steve Dace]

I've said this before, okay, Because I knew all this stuff already. You know, I had. I had. I had the hardware for it. I had the belief system. I. I didn't think you'd be able to, even though you have the capacity to under the pressure, download as much information as you could. And then I thought, at best, you would be a neutral arbiter.

[Todd]

Mm.

[Steve Dace]

Steve, I mean, I'll defer to you on that. I've said this to you. I understand you're just thinking internally, but I've said that I prayed about this because I thought I would have to possibly go against you. And if this was going on long term, I don't think that would have been survivable. And I mean, my prayers were answered because, I mean, you just became one of the leaders in a very short period of time on this topic. And it wasn't just about politics. It was about life and death. And that was no small thing.

[Todd]

Thanks for your prayers. Apparently they were heard. Okay, I'll defer to you on that.

[Steve Dace]

It was amazing. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay, the UFO thing, I think you had that pegged.

[Todd]

Oh, why? I was so obsessed with it, where I thought the conversation was going, as

[Aaron McIntyre]

much as it annoyed me and Todd. But yeah, yeah, Bob Crawl still does.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, we're not done being annoyed. Just.

[Todd]

I've tried to give you guys a break for the summer.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Bob Crawl has this. Which stack of fools should pay the first for? Pay first for the election fraud of 2020 poll workers or politicians? Well, it's something we haven't had a chance to talk about.

[Todd]

It isn't actually. And we. That's the China thing because it came out over the weekend with everything else breaking.

[Steve Dace]

So

[Todd]

let's make sure we put it in the montage tomorrow. Make a point of it now so that we all have time to discuss it. But I think it comes down to there's two approaches you could take. You could take a RICO approach, which is you start at the bottom of the organization and you start working your way up to eventually flip people who don't want to take the fall and they start ratting things out for you. And that would say to start with the poll workers, start with them, make an example out of them, and then hopefully they start telling you who gave the order and where the instruction manual came from, or you start at the top and you take out somebody meaningfully. When I mean take out, I mean legally take out somebody legally. That makes an example for everybody else. And then other people come forward and say, we're happy to talk, too, so we're not. What's next? Both approaches work in the prosecutorial world. I don't know enough about what we do and don't have on people to know which approach to take. I'm in favor of taking an approach.

[Steve Dace]

Somebody wants. Anybody.

[Todd]

Pick somebody. Anybody, literally anybody. A janitor, someone who walked by these people as they were stealing the election. Anybody, literally anybody. A pet. Anything. Anything at all. Just, just, just indict somebody already or something at this point. Inanimate objects, desk chairs. They have to know something. Uh, just, just, just pick someone or anything and indict it. Or him or her.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right, let's go to Joe Allen, who is next. Not a fan of Hunter Biden, but he recently made some comments about a Republican gay mafia in D.C. no doubt he is exaggerating and engaging in hyperbole. However, you've mentioned similar things about some closeted GOP operatives in the Capitol. What say you?

[Todd]

Listen, if we are having a conversation about total sexual degeneracy within elite political circles, by all means I am going to defer to Hunter Biden as the subject matter expert. Okay? That being said, without having seen or heard what he had to say about it, because on purpose, I go out of my way to avoid what he has to say about literally everything. But if taking you as a submitter, if taking you at face value that this is correct, he'd have to go pretty far to exaggerate it. Pretty far. There is an absolute lavender brigade, a light in the loafers brigade. There's a graveyard of young women who took jobs in the Trump administration and went to D.C. thinking this is where they were to finally find a husband. All right? Lined up of successful men who have the same convictions they do, only to find out they were tops or bottoms. So fundamentally, he certainly is not wrong. Unfortunately, The steve day. So if you're like me, you are concerned that you want to make sure that you're either getting active or staying active, particularly as we get older. Recovery from workouts takes longer as we get older. Going for runs out there on the asphalt stings those joints more as we get older. Right? That's why you want to look at creatine. It's one of the most researched supplements in the world. It helps your body produce quick energy during high intensity efforts. It can support strength, power, lean muscle growth, recovery. It's got great cognitive capabilities as well for brain function. And that's why BUBS is different than the other creatine products you see out there. There's no junk. There's no fillers, no dyes, no artificial additives, no sweeteners, no unnecessary ingredients. Just rigorously third party tested for quality and pure and purity. It's even certified for athletes as well. It's tested for banned substances, which matters to athletes, competitors, tactical professionals and anyone else who wants a supplement that they can trust that'll max out the benefits without any of the blowback. All right, so live better, longer for a limited time. Right now our listeners are getting 20 off at Bubs Naturals by using code Steve at checkout. That's B U B s as in Bubs. Bubs. Just like it sounds. Bubsnaturals.com B U B S naturals.com use the code Steve and you're all set for that 20 off. After you purchase they're going to ask you, hey, where'd you hear about this? Make sure to support, support the show. Let them know you heard about it from us. All right? Bubsnaturals.com use the code Steve for 20 [e-mail] code Steve. All right, let's continue on. These haven't worn as bad as you indicated.

[Steve Dace]

I don't think the ones I were bad but like it was just a treasure trove last time and it took the more back to normal mining Zionist

[Todd]

Cucks Must Die 475-932-182X Egg had a few things to say. Of course. Yes, yes, of course. All the way from Pakistan. Yes, go ahead.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Can we back it up, Terry, real quick to the last one Talking about Hunter Biden.

[Steve Dace]

Great reference.

[Todd]

Of course, yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We're not playing buy, sell or hold. I just have this vision in my head that Hunter Biden is going to make a play at becoming a right wing or at least adjacent podcaster slash influencer.

[Todd]

I totally see it. Could totally see it. The Democrat party's gone too far.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Manosphere adjacent.

[Todd]

Yeah, it's gone too far. We can't be open communists. We're the fun police. Yeah, I could totally see this. This is, this, this might be a Nostradamus level take. Actually, no, because then it would not come true. This is. I think this is rock solid prophecy. Perhaps.

[Steve Dace]

I know I don't have this power, but Aaron, you're fired.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Deserved it. Finally, Hunter Oland says, hey, Steve, Newer listener Love your show. Was wondering what was the best way to up my game on loving and worshiping God as I have gone back to church after Charlie's passing and don't want to overwhelm myself but want to do more than just go to church Sundays. Thank you. Says he's reading the Bible slowly and also considering going to Bible study breakfast with my church on Saturday mornings. But still have a lot to learn looking how to honor Charlie and be a better man. Thank you for any insight or suggestions,

[Todd]

great questions and welcome to the family, my friend. A couple things I would suggest. I mean you're already, you know, dipping your toe into what I would say is number one, it's not the only way to get to know God, but the absolute best way to get to know God is through His Word. You're going to get to know the, the fullness of his character that as a human we can understand. It's. I'm. I think, I don't think God is bigger than we think. I think he is bigger than we can think. Okay, so that's a key caveat. The fullness of who our Father is that we are capable of understanding is expressed in the totality of His Word. So you're already going down that road. So that's great. Two other things I would urge you to do if you know the church you're attending, do they have a men's group, maybe a breakfast, you know, cookouts once a month, a breakfast each week. You know, if you can make that work in your schedule, I'd highly encourage that. If your church has get togethers weekly or every so often on a frequent basis with people in your age group so you can connect, I would urge that. And then another suggestion I would give if you've got the capacity to join a small group and I think one of the key things for new believers, and this is true for I think believers that are seasoned citizens, but especially for new believers, like I remember when I first got Hunter. I first got converted at that, that Promise Keepers in September of 2003. And on the way back from Kansas City, we all stopped off at a McDonald's in, in southern Iowa. Our, our entire bus did to eat. We weren't the only bus of guys coming back from Kansas City to Iowa. Other churches were too. And so there was another church there with us. And one of the older gentlemen walked up to me and one of my buddies and we were still pretty young at this time. I was barely 30 years old and he said to me, goes, yeah, Someone just gets saved, can kind of see the Holy Spirit high on you. Right? In other words, this relationship has a newlywed period like any intimate relationship does. Okay. And the temptation is when the newness wears off. Like, you know, when the reality of the world and the, and the duties that go along with being a husband and a wife and a, and a mother and a father kick in. And you'd still like to have your hands all over each other. But now one, if not both of you are exhausted at night. Little kids are coming in at night needing cuddles or they're not feeling well. You've got an early start in the morning. You see what I'm saying? This is the normal day to day stressors and obstacles of life just get in the way. And it makes it, as time goes on that you have to be now it's going to be less spontaneous and more intentional, more purposeful. And we're going to schedule date nights. We're going to leave the kids with mom, you know, with our moms and dads and go and go get a hotel room and get out of town. And we're going to put that on the schedule so that you don't end up in the same place Amy and I ended up in, where, you know, 8, 5, 5, 8, 10 years go by and you realize one night you're more roommates than you are married. Okay. You have to be intentional and purposeful about making sure that you're still building intimacy in that relationship. The same applies here too. And the relationship that the Bible describes more than any other between Christ and his church is a, is a marriage. And so there's going to be that, that instant. Yeah, that you, that instant dopamine hit that something is new about you, something's different about you, and a hope and an excitement. But there's going to be periods of times where you're going to not feel like God is directly at work in your life or he's not answering a prayer that you want answered, or he has. Maybe you're not feeling it or you're not growing as much. The more community with believers you have, the more you'll see God at work in their lives. And it will give you encouragement that you're just in a season right now where God is growing you for something or wants you to prune something that's in his way. And then you'll go through that period of growth too. Right. And then they're going to go through periods where they're kind of like, are we just kind of roommates here spiritually, what's happening, and they'll be encouraged by the work that God is doing in your life. And so I think that that is very key to maintaining your belief system is that connection to other believers so that you can see within a community of people that care about you and you care about them, that there's always going to be somebody in that group, that God is very actively manifesting his will in their lives at any given time. And that should encourage you for the periods of time it kind of feels like to you, maybe you're not on the same high that you were, you know, when. When you first became a believer. Does that make sense?

[Steve Dace]

Oh, yeah.

[Todd]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

I would just add one thing, and there's a lot of good feelings, especially early on. But start the stress tests out early. Give yourself little lengths. Start smashing the idols. Because it's. You need to find out, oh, how does deep to this go? Because, by the way, God wants it to go all the way. It's just a question of whether you really do start smashing some idols. What are the things that really control you? And it's not just, you know, the dark, deep sins. It's a life you've carved out for yourself. If you just go back to the exact same life but add some churchy things on the shelf, is your whole life given over? You need to start doing the thing, evaluate.

[Todd]

This is a very key point. I'm glad you said that. Here's the thing. Let me. In fact, I'll just pick. The Bible's very clear. We're only tempted by the things that we desire. All right? So I'll just, you know, just use me so I'm not just making a nebulous day. I'll just use my own example, right? Women in pornography. Okay. No one. Well, maybe I shouldn't say no one. I'm sure this has happened maybe at a time, but it's very rare, right, that in the middle of, like, a mission trip in an impoverished part of the world, you're like, hey, guys. Hey, third worlders. I was just about to feed you, but I've got to hit. These urges are so overwhelming. I gotta see how. How fast the wi fi is here so I can go run one out out back. No one does that. No, in fact, it's not even front of. That temptation is not even front of mind. Why? No, it. Maybe whatever your pet sin is, no one's like, all right, man, I was. Listen, I was gonna feed these hungry. These hungry orphans here in Haiti, all right? But unfortunately my gambling app won't connect and. Oh, I've, I've, I've got to. You know, I haven't said something nasty to my wife in the last hour and I just don't think I can pour you some soup until I do. No one does that. Why? Because you're, you're, you're as, as out of your own flesh in the middle of the kinds of, of, of, of acts that God or that Todd is describing as you probably can be in a practical way this side of eternity. You're, you're literally a citizen of another kingdom. And so you're, you're not thinking about maybe some of the privileges or permissiveness of the other kingdom that will often tempt you. As Paul, whoever wrote Hebrews describes it as the sin that so easily ensnares us. Right. It's not front of mind because you're operating within the realm and within the rules of another kingdom and so the other one's just not relevant to you at those moments. And so I think that this is, this is a not so. This is a very good piece of subtle spiritual advice. The more that you are engaged in kingdom work, the less you're going to be concerned about the things of this world, particularly the things of this world that are most prone to lead you astray and down self destructive paths. That was a good point. Thank you, Todd.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Next we go to this from homeboy or home by five, I should say, with record breaking abortions, promotion of LGBTQ by both political parties, destruction of the traditional family, and basically having all things immoral pushed down our throats by the entertainment industry. Are we in fact the great Satan that Iran says we are?

[Todd]

Well, here's these kinds of questions could have been asked for the last several decades and have been. And the maladies, the social contagions you're citing have only spread. But the answer is no, because it doesn't mean that the key to your point is the great Satan that Iran thinks we are. And the answer is no. Might we be a country that God has removed his restraining hand from the true God, the true standard, the only God? Might we be a country that, that God has removed his hand of restraint and blessing from because of the things that you say here and that will cause those things to only become even more prevalent and blatant? Is that possible? You bet it is. We've described that as a Romans one kind of a judgment and that there are some signs of it in our culture for sure. Okay.

[Steve Dace]

If that happens, the outcome would be so bad we would have no concern about what Iran thinks about us or what to do to us.

[Todd]

But Iran is in no place to be any form of judge of such questions, nor should their propaganda be used or attempt to be redeemed or even counterintuitively mentioned ironically as some form of contrarian cleverness. It's just straight mainline filth from the bowels of hell itself. Well, Steve, God used pagan neighbors and nations to judge the Israelites. That is true, but by God's standards, not the standards of those foreign nations. And then what would God then often do when he permitted those foreign nations to put his people in captivity? Is he would then in those, those same prophets that would say this is coming or this is what God is doing, would also then pronounce judgment on those pagan nations for their own pagan activity. You see what I'm saying?

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Todd]

They were not. Nebuchadnezzar was not a standard. God is the standard. Nebuchadnezzar might be a tool, but he's not the standard. You're asking me about Iran being a standard? No. They're not just pure. That regime there is just a pure manifestation of a demonic. Of a demonic king stronghold.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, before we get out of here, we'll have some bonus in the overtime, I believe. But before we get out of here for this segment, I tease that there was at least one question that was really dumb. Here it is. Celeste says all we need to see is that microphone under Charlie's shirt to see if it is intact or not. Let's see if you want to tackle this question. Where is his microphone and his shirt? Is it part of evidence or has it been destroyed like the grounds at UVU being paved over? Are you asking if the authorities destroyed the microphone that you say exploded? How do you destroy something that's already been exploded?

[Todd]

Let me start with something nice. I really like the name Celeste. And I. There's a few names that I think Celeste, Samantha, Alexandria. There's a few female names that I think should make a comeback. And this would. Stella. That's another one. That's, that's. That one might be atop the list. There's a few female names that I think need to make a comeback and yours is on the list, assuming that you're really Celeste and you're not Muhammad Al Oxwa from Qatar. Okay, Celeste, the best answer I could have for you is you should get on the phone right now. Don't. Don't send notes here. Tyler Robinson's life is hanging in the balance. Celeste you've already wasted valuable time. The amount of time it took for you to send this post, to wait then to see if it was going to end up on the show to be answered. Tyler Robinson's life is hanging in the balance, Celeste. Get off the Internet. Call his defense team and by all means enlighten them. Regale them. Even with your contrarian brilliance, the defense team that represented the Menendez brothers, I'm sure it's possible they have overlooked this key obvious piece of evidence. And I do think, Celeste, that you should get on the horn to them, maybe even yourself. Just make a pilgrimage if you will, out there and and do something before Tyler Robinson faces a potential death penalty for, according to you, a crime he clearly did not commit. We're gonna stick around and do over time for Blaze TV subscribers. For the rest of you, apologies that you're all more retarded now. Go hard. Romans 8:20.