Loading summary
A
It's the Steve Day show and here's what happened while we were away, brought to you by. I guess the ceasefire's over then. After completing a retaliatory strike against Iran for their downing of an Apache helicopter, CENTCOM then announced an additional round of strikes deeper into Iran. Yesterday evening, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also assured the world the United States is back to military strikes. And this morning, Trump posted on Truth Social, quote, the United States will be hitting Iran, whose Navy, Air Force, radar, anti aircraft and all other forms of defense, together with most of its offensive capability are gone very hard tonight. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Carg island and other oil infrastructure points and assume total control of their oil and gas markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. So another wave of attacks is forthcoming, according to President Trump, who also added that during yesterday's attacks, Iranian leadership called begging for the bombs to stop. Yesterday at the White House, Trump dropped this revelation again.
B
We're taking out millions, which I'm just announcing today for the first time, but we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night. We took out oil. But now I'm going to tell you, because they just figured it out. So now that they figured it out, I can tell you it was very hard for me. I wanted to say it so badly, but I didn't want to ruin it. But it was very hard. But millions of barrels of oil has come out. That's why it's at 85 $90 a barrel instead of 250.
A
Trump went on to say he's not concerned about inflation numbers that came out yesterday as well. We shall see. A new generic congressional ballot poll from Signal, one of the best pollsters of the 2024 cycle, shows Democrats leading Republicans 49 to 44. The sample size was 1500 likely voters, who also told Signal they trust Democrats more on the economy and cost of living. While Republicans still carry a large perception advantage on issues like immigration. And after passing the Secure America act earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune reminds everyone they don't have the votes to pass the Save America Act.
B
We don't have the votes. And the only way that you could
A
figure out a way to get the
B
votes, and even in that case, the Save America act didn't even get 50 votes last week on the floor of the Senate. But even if you confine it to just the two issues of photo ID and citizenship. In order to register to vote on those two issues, you take 60 votes in the Senate. The only way you could get there is to undo or get rid of the legislative filibuster. And there aren't even close to the votes here in the United States Senate
A
in order to achieve that in the House. Act Blue CEO Regina Wallace Jones testify. Act Blue, of course, is that organization that processes donations to the Democrat Party and has been long suspected of engaging in shady, if not fraudulent activity to conceal where those donations come from.
B
You weaken your fraud standards to help Democrats. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.
A
Yeah, that checks out. Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention voted in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment that solidifies the denomination's ban on women serving as pastors, overseers and elders affirming God's design for church structure. The vote marks a significant victory for conservatives. One year after a similar proposal failed to gain enough support, messengers to the SBC annual meeting held in Orlando, Florida, approved the measure, sponsored by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler, known as the Truth and Unity Amendment, by A vote of 6028-2026. A second vote will be held at next year's SBC annual meeting as well. The Brendan Sorsby saga continues at Texas Tech University. Sorsby, if you haven't heard, is the player who bet on his own team a few years ago was caught and punished by the NCAA and was just granted an injunction by a judge, meaning he's able to play this season. His coach, Joey McGuire, says he doesn't understand what the big deal is.
B
Brendan Sorsby is recovering from an addiction. He's recovering like, I've sat down with this young man multiple times and the things that he is going through and what he's been through is serious. As a society, we've been okay with other things that happens and allowing players to play. And this has been the one thing that has united people that we're against. You know, it's crazy because it's not murder. It's not beating somebody.
A
And finally, last night after the NBA Finals game between the Knicks and the Spurs, a Zoomer streamer caught up to Knicks fan and comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
C
Oh, Jerry Seinfeld.
B
What up, Seinfeld? What up? Can we get a free Palestine? Can we get a free Palestine? Come on, give me one free Palestine.
C
It doesn't exist.
A
That's how you do it. And that's what happened while we were away.
B
Every time John Thune speaks, a couple fails to conceive. And on the Iranian oil confiscation, well, I mean, gas is down about a gallon or about a dollar a gallon here at home in the last week. So that would seem to be some circumstantial evidence that the president is correct about that. But I have something I need to inform you all about and close the loop on here in a moment on the Steve Day. Greetings. Happy Thursday. Welcome to the Steve Day Show. That is me alongside Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. We are brought to you by our friends over at Pure, Pure Preborn, I should say, who has been just a tremendous partner to this show. And because you guys have been tremendously generous to Preborn, I think I've told you guys before, met the the CEO of Preborn. He was on the same D.C. trip as me, and he just raved about how generous our audience in particular has been, that you guys outperform a lot of what at least is perceived to be much bigger audiences than ours out there. So let's keep it going because there is no more important cause than the cause of life. In fact, we're going to talk about the cause of life later on on Theology Thursday. I'll tell you about that here in a second. But to make your tax deductible donation today. And my favorite thing about Preborn it's it is that, hey, when they get a mom, a woman to choose being a mom over a murderer, like my mom once did at 15, they don't just say, hey, on your merry way. Thank you for everything and good luck to you. Thoughts and prayers. All right? They're the hands and feet of the gospel. They're there with practical needs like car seats and diapers and formula, intimate needs like counseling. And all of that is free to this new family now. But we all know that it's really not free. And that's where you and I come in. Make a tax deductible donation today@preborn.com Steve that's preborn.com Steve on today's show, I mentioned next hour for Theology Thursday, there is this kind of stalled out, I guess we're gonna say intern fight in the pro life movement right now. And the and since really the pro life movement and Christianity are intertwined and always have been on this planet, we're going to address this in Theology Thursday. And I'm going to offer a humble compromise to see if we can maybe move this thing along and come up with come up with something that all these various Sides will agree upon. And then Todd and Aaron let you guys tell me if maybe I've got a shot here or it's just completely and totally a fever dream. Right? Okay, so we're gonna do that. A local pastor here in our, in our community ran into the Rainbow Jihad at his church where he's gonna tell us that story coming up at the end of the program. And then at the bottom of the hour, old friend Robert Orlando is going to join us and talk about his new book on Karl Marx, who is one of the sages of this age for sure. All right. Before we get to that though, I have something I want to address and this will just be a, a topic that I alone will discuss and I, I wrestle sometimes with how much to tell you guys and get into this kind of stuff because ultimately if it, if it doesn't factor in, into the overall mission, you shouldn't care. It's not about you. Right. So if it, whether it's a professional thing with me or a personal thing with me, and I try as best as I can to not let that stuff. Human relationships are complicated. We're in a very uncertain place right now as an industry. Right. And, and so there's, there, there's a, there's a lot of scrambling right now. And I know that you guys are aware of a lot of this. Like you saw the layoffs at Daily Wire, for example. You've seen Wes lose some shows here at the Blaze, like Matt Peterson and Jill Savage, both very good friends of mine. Right. And so you guys are aware of this stuff, but a lot of it is also kind of gossipy, I think. And so there's really no reason to address it until it's very clear that it gets in the way of the mission we're trying to do here. And ultimately that is the advancement of a biblical worldview. That is our prime directive on this show. Or as we used to spell it out in the early days of the program. What's that look like? Fear, God, tell the truth and then make money. Because this is not a non profit and Todd and Aaron are expect. Their kids are expecting to eat this week, as are mine. You know, so we're not a charity. Right. This is one of those moments though where I think I should let you behind the curtain. I've decided because it, it not only impacts what you do and don't see from this show, but I think you're going to learn it impacts a lot of what you do and don't see comprehensively in our industry. So many of you know that we have been fighting YouTube censorship on this program since 2020. A lot of it had to do with COVID censorship. Our show was not alone, but it was in a unique group of programs that successfully pierced the veil of the scamdemic. And it was about this time five years ago that Todd and I had the number one book in America, Fauci and Bargain. On top of that, I was the first person on our network to accuse the. The. To make the accusation that the 2020 election was being stolen. I did it while Glenn and I were the last two people left anchoring. Election night coverage was about 1 or 2am and it was just very clear. The first, the first clear impropriety to me is what was going on in a place called Antrim, Michigan. I grew up in Michigan on the place very well, right. Suddenly they want to tell me now that Trump is getting blown out in a community, that he blew out the last round and then they ended up correcting. That was the first sign that something here isn't. Something smells rotten in the state of Denmark. And some of you may remember that the comments I made about them stealing the election the next morning on the Glenn Beck program caused the entire Blaze Facebook channel to be demonetized by Facebook at the time. So the two things in 2020 and 2021 that social media would not permit you to address without crushing you. I happen to be on the front end of both of those issues, which was Covid and election fraud. And that's why you'll go back and look at that era and you're going to see some very prominent voices on our side doing great content. But you're going to notice there's a lack of them addressing a couple of Topics. The stolen 2020 election and what was happening with the scamdemic. Why? Because right away you were going to end up on the excrement list of big tech and there was no Elon Musk yet. There was nobody to check them yet. So here we are. So this has gone on now for six years. Our numbers have never changed on YouTube for six years. We've started a different channel. It doesn't matter. Nothing ever changes. In fact, let me share some numbers with you. Right now we are a top 20 podcast on Apple, which is about 55% of the podcast market in America. It was, it was higher just a couple years ago. But Spotify in particular is really eating into it. Netflix is now getting into this. But it's still the overwhelming majority of how you guys access Podcast is through Apple. We are a top 20 podcast in the country in one of the largest podcast categories that Apple has, Religion and spirituality. The last estimate I was able to find from 2022 had over 32,000 podcasts in that category. I'm guessing, guys, it's probably not gone down. More people are podcasting now than four years ago.
D
Right.
B
But even if we went by the 2022 numbers, it would be over 32,000 podcasts. Okay. And we are routinely and consistently in the top 20 of those podcasts. I want to share with you whether the YouTube subscriber numbers, as of this morning, of the peer group that we are consistently in the the podcast rankings with. So you guys can see for yourselves the outlier here. All right, the Bible in a Year with Father Mike schmitz. He has 312,000 YouTube subscribers. We need to Talk podcast has 943,000. Live free with Josh Howerton. That's the church channel has 1.2 million. The Bible recap has 493,000. Follow him, which is one of the largest Mormon shows in America, has 163,000. The briefing with Albert Mohler has 53,000. That's twice what we have. He's the lowest on this list, by the way. Unashamed with the Robertsons, 1.12 million. Timothy Keller Sermons. He's been dead for six years. 242,000. Joel Osteen, 3.81 million. Relatable with Ali Stuckey, 741,000. The Bible Project has 61,000. Bryce Crawford has 924,000. The Catechism in a Year. That's another father Mike Schmidt's podcast, 180,000. 2828, 2819. Church, 1.1, 1.81 million. And then Lake Point Church with Josh Howerton, 1.2 million. Joyce Meyer, 2.19 million. Those are the YouTube followings. We have been in this category now for a year, and this has been our peer group. There's very little movement at the top of this category. Sometimes someone sneaks in. Sometimes someone sneaks out. There's a few others that are kind of on the periphery of this, like Pints with Aquinas, that's over at Daily Wire. But this is consistently pretty much the top 20 group and has been for months on the within the religion and spirituality category on Apple iTunes, the number one podcast platform in the world. And as you can see, we have about 22,000 subscribers currently on YouTube on a page we started a year ago when we had to give up the previous page because it just stopped growing at 56,000. So even even though we haven't posted to that previous page, if you add both pages together and say they're all unique people, they're not a lot of you subscribe to both. But let's even say they're all unique people, that would be roughly 79,000. We'd still be second to last and like way second to last on this list. Like, not even close. We make about $50 an episode on YouTube. YouTube is the number one video platform that has ever existed on planet Earth. Your kid, your, your kid can start screaming his video game streaming, his video game play with his buddies. And there is a realistic chance that within a couple of years they could get to 20,000 YouTube subscribers, which is what they say one of the biggest evangelical podcasts in America has. So in response to this, I took this to First Liberty in Dallas and they did everything. First Liberty went to the Federal Trade Commission because the new FTC commissioner under the Trump administration said that he wanted to go after weaponized social media against people like me. He asked for information, we gave it to him. We even filed the formal complaint that he asked. There was absolutely no follow up whatsoever. That was all done last April and May. It's been a year. So then they tried another front. They went to the state attorney generals and we did get 16 of them. In fact, we featured that on this show back in April, which is why I feel like I should tell you this, because I'm giving you content and then to just act like stuff's not happening, I think is disingenuous. Disingenuous on my end. So I'm just going to tell you the truth. Just telling people the truth has gotten me this far. So I'm just going to go with it all the way to the end, see how, see how this whole thing works out. Sixteen state attorney generals sent YouTube A, and Google a note back in March. The note that YouTube has sent back essentially says it's about, it's a hand. It's about four pages, if I remember right. And the note essentially says, screw you and the horse you rode in on. You can't do anything. And, and we promise you we're not doing it anyway. That's essentially what it says. This morning I received a call from Hiram Sasser, my attorney at First Liberty. Great guy, by the way. And First Liberty is a tremendous organization, pro bono for me. They have been doing this and on my behalf for the last year plus. And he called me this morning as I'm in the middle of working out and he's telling me, I, I think we're out of options. I don't think the state Attorney generals are going to do anything. I don't think there. Anything. There is anything to do now. A month ago, there was another option. There's a handful of people. It's tough to go against the Antichrist. You're not gonna have a lot of leverage with Google. Now a couple of people do. The majority in Congress would. The president would. Some of you may have seen the headline that the President successfully negotiated a. A settlement with Google for all the censorship they did against him. I believe he received $60 million or thereabouts. Part of that settlement was there's going to be a weaponization fund now for people like me to go to, to try and get some recompense. It is not even a slight exaggeration to say that I would be a millionaire right now if not for YouTube. I've released how many books, I released a wide release film. I produced 240 shows a year and I'm generating nothing. I generated nothing from YouTube for any of those expenditures at all. So I lined up an attorney that has a lot of experience with this kind of stuff. Then we got word that a couple of RINO senators decided they didn't want to help people like me. And I kind of don't even blame the Trump administration. The more I think about it now, because they do have 75 other things to fight about. They can't even get the SAVE act passed, for goodness sakes, let alone a weaponization fund for schmucks like me. But they gave up. They essentially said, fine, we'll just pull it, you know, sucks to be you to people like me. I'm out of options. There's nowhere else to go. I don't. Because of YouTube censorship, frankly, I don't have the tens of thousands of dollars I can just pay out of pocket to the kind of attorney it would take to really dent them and what they have. And I, and I'm just going to be brutally honest, I feel like I've been on my own here for quite a while on multiple fronts. But on most of them, though, that's not important to you. It has no bearing on what you do and hear from the show. But on this point it did. The Blaze told me that they thought there was little chance of success and so they wouldn't help me as a network. Just gave me the information I asked for and then I was on my own. I Feel like the president that I voted for kind of left me hanging. I feel like the party I voted for kind of left me hanging. I feel like my own state attorney general, frankly, left me kind of hanging. If I'm just going to be brutally honest here, and I'm not pious, I'm not set apart, I am a guy. I've got at least a little testosterone left. And I'm not allergic to money. So I don't know how many of you feel, but I don't know how you'd feel if someone just took hundreds of thousands of dollars away from you that was supposed to belong to you, that you have no chance of ever seeing or getting back. My guess is you wouldn't take it very well. And I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not taking it very well. I'm not. Can probably tell. But I'm telling you this for two reasons. Number one, because we shared this journey with you, and I feel like I have a responsibility to close the loop and not be one of those hosts that when it's. When it's my issue or my situation or my network or my platform, we don't. We're not open to the same transparency and accountability that we provide other people. I see a lot of that. You see a lot of that in this business. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. We made this a part of the show. We shared this content with you. Therefore, you are owed an explanation to the conclusion of how this story ends. Secondly, though, I. I need to get this just personally off my chest so I can move on, because the reality is, in the grand scheme of things, none of the things I just told you is really that important. And a lot of people in my business make big decisions on the basis of do they get their feelings hurt or not. And I'm not happy how the Trump administration handled this, but it's. It's nothing compared to, I need them to save our way of life. I'm not happy with how a bunch of rhinos in the Senate screwed us over on this, but I'm way angrier that a bunch of rhinos in the Senate are screw us over on securing elections in our country. That stuff's just way more important. Just way more important. The third reason you need to know about this is because this is a little window to the soul of our industry. The censorship industrial complex has made it regardless of what you think of them as people or their content, and I don't know either one of them very well, but when you look at people like Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro, you could not. You cannot become them. Today. Cannot happen. The censorship regime won't allow it. What they did is they said, I don't need a radio network. I don't need an existing network. I don't have to be a syndicated columnist. I can be my own platform. And they used YouTube and digital media to do it and built their own. Built themselves into their own networks. And there's a myriad of other examples like that. You won't be permitted to do that today. And this is why much of what you hear and see is attached to an interest or is the front for something else or won't say certain things because the system's rigged. It doesn't want to let people like me do what people like me are trying to do. And this does affect a lot of the content you do, and most importantly, don't see or hear. So I'm not happy. Think you can tell, but we're on a mission here. And on my deathbed, I'm not going to think at all about the 600 or 800 or $1.2 million of YouTube revenue I'm never going to see. I'm going to look my children in the eye and ask, did I do absolutely everything that I could to leave them a better life than was given to me. Am I going to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. So after this, I'm gonna set it aside. For the first time ever, I posted my show personally on Rumble yesterday. Turned out I had a Rumble page. Didn't even know I had one. Guess I started it five years ago, had no clue, forgot. But I'm never mentioning YouTube ever again. I'm just moving on. But you need to understand, as an audience, two things. Number one, I don't work for the Blaze. I literally don't actually. But I don't literally. And I wouldn't even if I did. I don't really work for them. I don't work for the government I ultimately work, or advertisers even. I work for you. And my Lord, without you guys, all the other things don't happen. You're the audience. You're the reason we get to do this at all. And then. But ultimately, though, I'm not going to be the final account. I'll give will not be to any of you, but to the Lord. And I'm not going to just sit there. I don't think I get to say, well, you know, I just kind of mailed it in because I got really ticked off that YouTube didn't monetize me as much as I thought they should or as much as I deserved, or they ripped me off or so and so didn't defend me, or so and so didn't stand by me. That's not how any of this works. None of that. None of that, none of that is missional at all. Which is why after I'm done here, I'm setting this aside. You'll never hear me speak of it again. I'll never allude to it again. And we're gonna get back on mission. We have a country to save. I need many of those Rhinos that screwed me in the Congress. I need them to win this fall. To help me do it, I need Trump, who disappointed me by backing down on his weaponization fund and not using all the leverage against big tech that he had or his administration. I need them to kick ass in Iran, secure the borders, improve the economy, more deportations, because that's what I voted for and that's what I think the country needs. And I'm going to go back to focusing on that. Moving on. The Iranian oil confiscation. We brought it up yesterday. This news broke in the middle of the show yesterday. We kind of said. You said.
D
I didn't kind of say. I said it has to happen.
B
It has to happen. I said I need it to happen. All right. Gas is the cheapest it is in our community right now, since it's been a couple months since it's been. Or at least a month since it's been 350 a gallon, which is what it is now. Does it look like it happened? Does it look like this, this is really going down? We really did take this oil. We really have flooded the market with it and really did cause gas prices to come down even as we're in the midst of escalating the war with Iran as we speak. If that's true, that's one hell of a deft move, man. Give the. Give the. Give the Trump administration some propers. That was. If it wasn't 4D chess, it was at least chess. Thoughts?
D
Agreed. As long as it's sustainable and it doesn't put our people in a level of danger that we can't tolerate as a people. Trust but verify, is what I'm saying.
B
Aaron, what do you think? Did they pull it off?
A
Do you want a wet fart on this program right now, Steve? Because if you don't, then I'm just gonna stay silent.
B
I would like to know what you really think? What do you really think?
A
I have questions. Was this Iranian oil or was it other Gulf coast country oils that we escorted through? That's my first question that I want. If it was Iranian oil and we flooded it into the market, was that before or after the customers already paid for that oil? Meaning is Iran still getting its bill? Is it still making money? And we're just basically facilitating the transfer of oral oil for Iran. Now, a number, we've. We've disabled a number of tankers as well, some of them very, very large. Did we have tugboats, like pulling those tankers through the Strait of Hormuz or something like that? Now, if it is just merely, hey, we were actually successfully escorting hundreds upon hundreds of millions of barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. That's pretty cool. Especially when Iran has claimed that it's been closed. But I'm unclear on whether or not we stole Iranian oil and sold it back into the market, or if Iran is still getting paid for that oil that was already on those tankers.
B
Didn't Trump say, we took the Iranian oil? We took it. It sounds to me like he's saying we confiscated it. We took it.
A
But if it's already paid for, I mean, I guess I would have more questions about the machinery of how they're getting paid right now if all of their funds and accounts. But you see the questions that I have here, if it's confiscated but it's still going to the open market, what's the difference between that and Iran just sending their own oil normally? You see what I'm saying?
B
So you're wondering who's getting compensated for this?
A
It's getting compensated, yes.
B
Well, it's obviously not Iran, because if they were, they'd be lobbying a lot more missiles at us than they currently are. Can we at least agree on that?
D
Trust but verify. I don't know, man. I don't know. I need this to play out for more than a couple days. Based on the precedent that's already been
B
set, a good question's been asked. If we flooded the market with their oil, then who got the compensation for it? I mean, why wouldn't we get the compensation for it? We flooded the market with the oil. Why would the money go to us?
D
Reasonable questions. We'd be dupes if we believe answers that. How about you don't last more than a couple of days?
B
How about using that money to arm the Iranian people?
D
Are they ready and willing and able to do that?
B
Maybe some of that money went to our Gulf State neighbors to stay aligned and keep quiet while we finish the job here.
D
More likely,
B
Karl Marx is next. The Steve Day Show. All right, back here on the Steve Day show alongside Todd erzin and Aaron McIntyre, we're brought to you by our friends over at Kexi. Father's Day is just around the corner. Don't screw it up because the deadline to get your Kexi box to your old man in time for Papa Day is fast approaching June 14th. And since that's actually a Sunday, don't hesitate. Do it today. All right, this is the moment. Now, you want that peanut butter. Let me rephrase that. Pops wants that peanut butter marshmallow cookie. Listen, he didn't get that dad bod for nothing. That took a lot of hard work. It took a lot of peanut butter marshmallow cookies. All right, so, Warren, peanut butter cookie melted chocolate gooey marshmallow. Basically, that's everything dad wants for Father's Day. It's like flowers for dad, but, like, better. They come in a box, too, right? Kexi.com is where you want to go. K E K S I. You want to make sure that you get your order in for dad by the 14th to ensure Father's Day delivery. All right, that's kexi.com k e k s I. All right. Kexi.com k e k s I@kexi.com all right. We were unable to connect with Robert Orlando on the show, so we will, we'll move on on that front. Let's do this. Let's talk about the comments from the Texas Tech football coach. And let's make, I think this is, he's making a way broader cultural argument when he says things like, well, Brennan sourcebe, we accept players who do a lot worse things. We've got players on teams, you know, that have hurt people. That's true. That's very true. I mean, what was the story that went around a couple of weeks ago? The, the major league baseball player who. Oh, no, it was Jackson Dart, the Giants quarterback. Jackson Dart who introduced Trump in an event. And you know, one of his teammates is like crying, literally in tears. I can't believe you introduced this Nazi. And Jackson darts. Like, I mean, we have guys in the NFL that like, run over people with cars. What do we, what are we doing here? Okay, for those of you that don't remember, Brendan Sorsby is the Texas Tech University quarterback who was discovered to be illegally gambling against rules of literally every sport that's ever existed in modern times. Not just gambling, though, but on his own team when he was the quarterback at Indiana University and that there's apparently some evidence that he was engaging in interstate, there was, there was interstate gambling happening at the exact same time. So he was coordinating with people in other states to get burner accounts and, and everything else in order to, to, to make it look like it wasn't him. He only admitted that he was, that he was. He only went to treatment after he was discovered. And so on Monday morning a, a district court judge in Lubbock, Texas gave him an injunction with a two game suspension. I have no idea what power a judge has to levy a suspension. He's not the, a member of the NCAA enforcement committee. There wasn't, this wasn't like a negotiation. You see what I'm trying to say. Where they weren't, they, it wasn't like, hey, we'll take a, we'll take a two game suspension from the ncaa. Well, they, I mean it was just kind of a weird stipulation. They will appeal the case. The problem is it takes nine to 12 months to appeal a case to the Texas State Supreme Court typically. And the Texas State Supreme Court, by the way, is loaded with Texas Tech grads. Okay. Apparently I read that today. What I think will happen next as I think the NCA is going to rule them ineligible and then basically dare Texas Tech to play an ineligible player. And you could run into a situation where the College Football Playoff is then asked to make it a rule if you play, if you're playing an ineligible player, you can't be in the College Football Playoff because that's independently governed and not by the ncaa. So I don't think the story is over by a long shot. So before. But, so I think a broader conversation, guys, about the argument that, well, he's in treatment. I know family members of mine who have had gambling addictions gone through gambling. Gamblers Anonymous. I do think there is, you know, an addiction aspect to the dopamine hit for it for sure. Which is why traditionally we have not made this a part of, you know, the broader access to society. But it's kind of been on the fringes and you know, under the table in the red light district of America. But now it's everywhere, it's ubiquitous everywhere you go. So I do think, I do believe you have addictions to these kinds of things. I do believe in things like sex addiction. I do think the dopamine hits that you get from that there are crashes and come downs. I 100% believe in that stuff. Agree. Now I would argue though, there May all those things are manifestations of sin. So while I agree these conditions exist, I don't necessarily think they're excuses. And we're a biblical worldview show. One of the proverbs says, if a man steals from you because he was hungry, you're not angry at him, but he is still a thief and must, must make restitution and pay back. I think it's four times what he stole, I think is what it is. So we have this, we have this thing happening in our culture right now, this toxic empathy thing. But, but that doesn't mean empathy is not a thing. Empathy's a thing where it becomes toxic, I would argue. And I think this is the broader conversation, because whether he's actually going to play this year or not, I still think is very much up in the air. And we've got months to figure that out. But the broader conversation I want to have about this is, is aren't there still consequences? You can, you can, you can look at Brendan Sorsby and say, you're playing in an industry that is sponsored by gambling. The entities that want to condemn you are taking huge gambling dollars in advertising. But they're also. So I understand the temptation. We put these little devices in your phones, and you're. The, you're, you're an impulsive young man. And all this stuff, all this, all the, the, the, the visocracy is right here at your fingertips. It's very enticing, hard not to succumb to. You know, it's funny, I totally agree with Tucker Carlson on their credit card debate thing I do. Why? Because when I was on campus at Michigan State University, everywhere I went was a credit card application for everything, coupons for free, pictures of beer and everything else. I mean, they were literally pimping these things out. Hell, you fly around the country with me sometimes now, every flight ends with what now? A credit card pitch. Stewardess gets on the air and ends it with a credit card pitch. So there, there's an, There is an enticement aspect to this. We can have empathy for Brendan Sorsby if he was in his right mind, if his soul was in proper order. Brendan Sorsby was supposed to get paid $6 million by Texas Tech to quarterback their team this year. That still may not happen despite this ruling. You've got member institutions in his conference saying, we're not playing them. That still may not happen in his right mind. Would Brendan Soaresby risk a $6 million payday to get down for 25 bucks on a Nick Spurs NBA Finals parlay. No. Just like in your right mind, would you risk your entire family and your reputation to get down with your secretary? No, but see, because of sin, we're not in our right minds and that's why we need consequences. So just because toxic empathy is a thing doesn't mean empathy isn't a thing. We can imagine having the world as your oyster, as Brendan Soaresby did, and the money you're making now and this device in your hands and the dopamine hits and can think, holy cow, what would I have done at that, with that? At 20 or 21, you can have empathy, but we still have to have accountability. And I think that's where the disconnect is here, right? And if, if you hand over empathy without accountability, that's when it becomes toxic. Now you let, now you're letting yourself get used. I can have empathy for the fact that people are being slaughtered by Islamists in Islamist dominated countries. And I should, as a matter of fact. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have to open my borders and risk infestation of those same Islamists into my country because they disguise themselves as the oppressed. And it's kind of really hard to tell the difference. Or no. Everybody looks alike, everybody talks alike, everybody has the same customs. Kind of really hard to vet this thing, who's been radicalized and who is not. And here's the reality. If you're trying to vet who's been radicalized and who is not and you're not, and you, they all see we have to be right every single time in our vetting process. Right? We got to be right every single time. They only have to be right once. You only have to be right once. And you got a 911 on your hands. You don't have to be right once. And you've got, you know, a terrible tragedy on your hands, a mass shooting on your hands, a bombing on your hands. And I'm going to tell you right now, Joey Maguire does not coach his team with that standard. I promise you he doesn't. I promise you, if a player comes into him and says, well, what about so and so what he does? Why do I have to run stairs? Why do I, Why don't I get, why don't I get to start? That's. I promise you, he doesn't coach his team like that. There still has to be accountability. And I think beyond the current diatribes we're all having about college football, there is a broader conversation here in the culture about what, what about the toxic empathy angle. What's the difference between empathy and toxic empathy? Because this isn't just happening in college football. It's like happening everywhere. Everyone's a victim. This has been going on for decades, college football. And the reason we're so frustrated with it is this was one of the last places left, one of the last masculine meritocracies left where, where we were supposed to ward all this off and it wasn't permitted to happen. And now it's in the water table absolutely everywhere. You have to lose your country so you don't get called racist, bigoted, homophobe. Your entire way of life you have to avoid has to be based on your willingness to be called names or not. So there's no accountability. I would argue the difference between empathy and toxic empathy is toxic empathy demands no accountability and instead condemns you for trying to instill it. Empathy comes with accountability. Like in Proverbs, if a man is hungry and steals from you, you're not angry, you understand why he did it. But he's still a thief. He doesn't get to steal because he's hungry. He's still a thief and he still must make restitution for what he took. Guys, what do you think?
A
I think something that needs to be re emphasized with this story is that Brendan Sorsby did not turn himself in. He was caught. Now that's a very big distinction on one level. He's caught. Oh, now all of a sudden I understand, I have a problem that in and of itself is problematic because you kind of wonder, hey, do you really think that you have a problem here? Whereas if he had turned himself in, I think the accountability should be the same thing. But on a human level, on a man to man level, there's some integrity that is still left. Number two, that word integrity. Joey Maguire saying, well, we, you know, we have different standards for guys for, you know, they murdered somebody or they beat somebody. When you do something like that, which is a crime, it's a felony crime, you are taking a sledgehammer to your own credibility, own integrity. You have none left if you're doing that. Those types of behaviors with this particular crime and some level of what Brendan Sorsby is alleged to have done is a crime. I mean, you can't. He was underage, that's not right. He was having proxy betters. From what I've read, that's not right as well.
B
Those are crimes.
A
But what he's doing is not just undermining his own credibility and integrity with this particular one he is nuking the integrity of everyone else in this sport with this particular thing. Because now everyone is going to watch this. Well, that guy must be betting because he didn't make the catch, an easy catch for a first down on the last drive of the game. He's probably point shaving with this particular one. He's nuking everyone's integrity, everyone's credibility. So it's just disgusting.
D
There were multiple sports bros who were simultaneously utterly embarrassing themselves but being incredibly truthful at the exact same time by defending what Texas Techs was doing and like aggressively so, and then saying, and this is where they're absolutely right. Every other school would be doing the same thing. What do we call that? See this? We are in Iran territory with this analysis. Almost all the details don't even matter. That's a lot of Rube Goldberg stuff. This is just idolatry. This is not a masculine driven meritocracy. Football clearly is just creating very weak men across the board. All of them. The coaches, the players, the fans. This is pathetic. That little Jerry Falwell. Coach, I have sinned alter call this.
B
Don't besmirch the great name of Jerry Falwell. That's Jimmy Swaggart.
D
Jimmy Swaggart. Excuse me.
B
Apologies to Jerry Falwell.
D
That was a slip. That was a slip. It was a Jimmy. It came up. But everybody stop. Stop digging this hole. Repent. This is idol worship. This is what it does to people.
B
It's.
D
And that's just Occam's razor. At that point, I don't have to project it out at all. And it's sad. And it's sad. This is how a culture dies.
B
What about the broader definition? Are you guys okay with my. What's the difference between them? We have to have empathy. You can't love your neighbors. You love yourself without empathy. Empathy is foundational to human existence.
D
Specifically, what am I supposed to have empathy for in this situation?
B
That's the question. To me, toxic empathy. And empathy is empathy. Empathy. Empathy comes with still consequence. You still, you understand the human condition. Therefore, by the grace of God go I. I'm a sinner too. But that's exactly why we have to have consequences. Because we're all sinners. And toxic empathy says no. Your status and your feelings and your victimology or how you make someone else feel about theirs is more important than actual accountability in the standard. That's how I would define the difference. But what do you guys think?
D
I just, I don't have any empathy for any of these specific Individuals involved in this at any level, they all shouldn't play again, they should be fired from coaching. They should have the sport brought to its very knees so they can't watch it anymore because this is destroying souls.
A
Yeah, I don't have any empathy either because remember who we're talking about here. This is a player, a quarterback who has obviously God given amazing athletic abilities, who has been put in position both by his abilities, his efforts, the people around him to do the utmost with those abilities and God given talents. He's now getting compensated handsomely for those talents, abilities that have been given to him by God. He knows the rules, he knows the laws and still chose to break them anyway and only confessed some level of remorse after he was caught. I have no empathy and neither should anyone else.
B
This case notwithstanding my broad definition of empathy and toxic empathy. And the difference, is it a good or is it a distinction without a difference or is it just culturally irrelevant?
D
It's culturally irrelevant if it's not broadly applicable at the most important times. And it clearly has no intention of being applied to this because it's an idol. Just like I said, people have their no go zones. It doesn't matter if it's philosophically correct. Will it be applied in this case? Nope. Bread and circuses.
A
Yeah. I would like to say that this case for this audience and college football audience could be a wake up call. But ultimately I think what Todd said, if your team's doing it, then it's okay.
B
We'll come back. Hour two is next. Stay tuned. All right, back here with hour two here on the Steve Day show. That would be yours truly with Toddurson and Aaron McIntyre. You can let us know what you think about what we think via the steveday.com inbox. You can do so by emailing the program steve@stevedace.com that's D, E A C E like us on Facebook. Me, we and Gab. You can follow me at Steve Day show on X Instagram and tick Tock. Subscribe to our Rumble channel at Steve Dace on Rumble. At Steve Dace on Rumble. And then if you are a podcast listener, thank you guys very much. We appreciate you very much in return because without you, you're the biggest part of our audience. You're the one metric that apparently we can count on to demonstrate growth. So you guys please hit, hit us up with a five star review as tens of thousands of you have. You can also hit the subscribe or the follow button if you're on Apple itunes to ensure that every Time we do a new episode for sure. It'll be right there in your podcast feed. This part of the show brought to you by our friends over at Cove Pure. So I gave Code Pure the ultimate test. The Erzin family, and they've just got more kids and stuff living in their home than we are. They're living a more active life than we are. All the traveling and everything else they do, it's a family of runners and athletes. So let's put this puppy on your countertop and let's see what this thing can do. It's been there for what, almost a year now, right?
D
Oh, yeah.
B
Gotta be close to a year now, right?
D
I can't imagine a time before, honestly.
B
Is this year like TiVo? Like we're. How did, how did I live without this before?
D
Let's not go that far. But that's, that's a whole different level of stuff, so.
B
Dude, you're the one that said, I can't remember a time before. So tell us, tell us what time before was like and what time since has been with this cured look Keurig looking device. It looks very sleek like a Keurig right there on your counter. But it's, it's, it's got a very important role for your family.
D
It's sleek, is easy. But here's the thing. Last time I finally said something that, because my wife said, you realize something, you never say, that's really important. She's right. So I won't bury the lead anymore because I'm kind of a caveman. She. She's like, the water's really good. Which is, if it wasn't, it'd be a total non starter because I like all my girls, their taste palettes are like, ew. It doesn't. Just off just a little bit and game over. They all love it. They absolutely love it. So that, that's the first part. And secondly, this thing should be in the garbage by now. Based on how much we've used it, it should not have been able to last. I mean, we have pummeled it and it just keeps going and going and going. It is the Energizer Bunny of hydration. So I, I dare you to do better.
B
And I mean, you guys are trying to break this thing.
D
Yes.
B
And you can't. So if you want this, the clear wave reverse osmosis technology inside your co Pure, get all those contaminants out there, right? This is what that can help you do. And as Todd said, the water tastes great. And the best part is as Todd also said they make it so easy, they put it right there on your countertop. You don't have to drill any holes, don't have to call a plumber, just plug it in. So don't wait. Take control of your water quality right now. Head to copure.com steve. You'll get $250 off your unit for a limited time if you do that. C O V E P u r e co pure.com Steve get 250 off your cove Pure right now@covpure.com Steve all right, we've got an hour of theology Thursday lined up for you guys. First we're gonna give you kind of an eye or next we'll give you kind of an eyewitness account what it looks like when you, when you smash a shibboleth of the damned. And the spirit of the age shows up at your church with a friend of mine who saw that at his local church here in Des Moines over the weekend. But let's start with a pro life conversation and I had a chance to finish or to see my buddy Seth Gruber's new movie that's coming out, the Last Stand. It's incredible. The film is incredible. And the premise of the film, and of course we'll highlight it when it comes out later this year. But the premise of the film is that the church has often forgotten who she is throughout history. And then when, when she wakes up and remembers, lives are changed, cultures are changed, everything changes. And this is that moment right now in our country for the church to wake up and remember who she is so that the trajectory that we're on can change. One of the things Seth says in his film, and he makes, he points this out with real history, by the way, is that Christianity is the pro life movement and the pro life movement is Christianity, that it's, it's one of the first fruits of the Christian faith going all the way back to ancient Rome when the Christians used to wait, when the, when the Romans would drop off the babies. They didn't want it into ditches just to die or be eaten by wild animals. They would come and adopt them and send them and send them into Christian homes. And then eventually there were so many of them, they created orphanages because they couldn't handle the, the inventory of babies that the Romans were discarding. And I think that's a very profound statement and it's correct. The pro life industry is Christian Christianity and Christianity is the pro life industry or movement, I should say. They're, they're One is an offshoot, a symbol of the other, a manifestation of the other. So we're having this big debate right now within our pro life circles about how to proceed moving forward, and somehow we've been exceedingly stalled. We've been talking about this. Now, what was it? 2022 when Roe was overturned? Right, guys, 2022, I think it was. So actually was the end of June 2022, the very end of the session, if I recall. So we're almost the four year anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Do you guys remember how triumphant and everything you felt that day?
D
Sure.
B
How thankful you felt that day? A day. A day I thought I'd never see. Imagine hopping in the DeLorean and telling ourselves we would accomplish exactly nothing of significance as a pro life movement for the next four years after overturning Roe. Aaron, can you imagine even contemplating that at the time?
A
Nope.
B
Todd? Nope. Is it true though? Basically what happened? Of course not only that, since we overturned Roe, basically every mailbox can be an abortion mill in America now, right?
D
Yes.
B
So something has clearly and systemically gone wrong when you lose ground after your biggest win. Like, we just celebrated the anniversary of D Day, June 6, 1944. Just last week, in fact. Right. Okay. If the Third Reich is still in power, are we celebrating the great victory that was D Day? It seemed like it would kind of diminish the accomplishment of D Day if we then went on and lost the war after that. Right. That a good analogy for where we're at right now on the pro life side.
D
A brutal one.
B
Yeah, we're losing all over the place. We've lost ground comprehensively since we accomplished our generational goal of overturning Roe. We pulled off D Day and now we're. But we're. Now we're losing the war. One of the things, and one of the main reasons why we're stalled out is there is deep, deep, deep, deep, and I mean deep division over a particular tactic. And it's the question of abolition, as it's called in some places. Although they would take what I'm about to say beyond even what I'm about to say. My buddy Seth Gruber calls it equal protection. And it's the idea that if you commit a murder, you should be held accountable, as we hold people accountable for committing any other form of murder. And the mainstream pro life movement is adamantly against this. And the talking point has been for decades that there's really two victims of abortion, a woman and her baby. I have friends on Both sides of this. I've talked to leaders on both sides of this. The biggest source of opposition to this in the mainstream pro life side, frankly, is they just don't think it's politically viable and it'll get us nuked. I had a meeting with some pro life leaders. You guys remember this wasn't. Was this in February? I think it was, yeah. National pro life leaders. I think it was in February. I got called into this off the record and I asked everyone in this room, I asked them, I said, hey, if, if it weren't a political calculation, would we want people who murder their unborn children to be prosecuted for committing a crime? How many hands do you think went up in the room? Every single one. Every single one. So it's really a political calculation. I don't believe very many mainstream pro life leaders truly believe in a second generation of third wave feminism. There's just a bunch of scared girls who don't know what to do. Like my mom 50 years ago, before we saw what, you know, thermal imaging inside of the womb look like everybody had seen a sonogram. Let alone the kind of full, you know, full immersion visuals that we get inside the womb today. And then these. There's the other group that doesn't want to do anything other than prosecute murder and move on. And doesn't want to consider political calculations. Well, we have. We, we determine who gets power in America by how, what, what, what devices do we have that determines who gets power in America? Election, elections. Therefore we have to make political calculations, do we not? Yeah, yeah. Now listen, part of my political calculation is there's a God in heaven, he's undefeated. But, but he also doesn't do everything for us. We're not robots. Right. We have to demonstrate. We demonstrate obedience and then we tend to get providence. Right. We demonstrate obedience as in we are truly interested and humble before God and interested in his kingdom and not our own brand. And when that's, when that's demonstrated, we tend to get his hand of providence more often. Fair. So there is a, so there has to be political calculations. We're human beings in a fallen world. So I want to humbly propose, I'm going to propose my compromise and then I'm not going to say anymore and bring you guys in questions, comments or insults. You can, you can tell me that's the, you know, Steve, you ignorant, you ignorant slut. There's no chance that's getting, that's ever happening. You can do that. You may have follow up questions as to why I came up with this compromise or you just want to give your opinion or all of the above. We have plenty of time here for the next 20 minutes. And some of this, Todd, frankly, is inspired by you because for years you've sat there next to me saying we ought to just offer Democrats. Okay, cool. We're going to ban all the abortions except your so called exceptions. Are you in? Not because we agree that there's exceptions to murder, but we're going to call a false, we're going to call forth a false objection. We're going to call a bluff, right?
D
Yes.
B
All right, so we're just going to, we're going to ban all abortions except of the exceptions. And here, let's take it another level. We'll even let the doctor determine if it's an exception or not. Think they'd still take the deal?
D
No.
B
No. And why won't they take the deal?
D
Because they want to kill them all.
B
Because they want to kill them all. It's not about the exceptions. Right. So I think one of the things that the, the older pro life movement is struggling with is that it primarily grew up in an era where there was a handful of network TV channels and then a handful of cable TV channels. And that was the, the Overton window was, was the right of, was Fox was on the right and MSNBC and those things were on the left. And we are permitted to engage everything in between. And then these networks all pumped in your skull from, you know, since the 1990s, constant polling. We're constantly knowing what people think about literally everything all the time. And so that's kind of the information ecosystem of the older generation. They're, they're, they're very mindful of what, what political opinion will and will not tolerate, I would argue, to the point of letting political opinion almost act as God. The younger generation doesn't watch any of those shows and couldn't tell you any polling news. For better or for worse, they conduct all their polling in real time. Comment sections on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchats with their friends and their peer group comments on Tick tock to videos. They're not doing random samples. They're talking to other fellow anons or other, you know, actual human beings or bots. But I repeat myself. And one of the things that the younger generation see when, when you look at Ali Stuckey and Alex Clark, for example, two young women, they're vehemently for equal protection. They would, they are, they would be. For they'd be. It's the older men who are Like Fox News told me for 20 years, we can't do that and we will lose every election if we do. And Alex Clarkson and Ali Stuckey's are out there because they're younger women. So they're surrounded by a peer group worked over by third wave feminism. They're not shocked by shout your abortion. This, this was the kids that girls, they went to school with. This is their, these are their neighbors. And the younger generation has watched people be proud of killing their children. And so to them, they're not, they're not necessarily worked over by the political calculation or what the polling says. The information system ecosystem they come out of is that there's a lot of women that want you to know they murdered their kid and they can't wait to jump online and receive your affirmation for it. Who was the publication last week even had a story? Gosh, who was it? Yes, murder is killing but. Or abortion is killing but. Did you guys see this? Oh, who was it? It wasn't the Atlantic, but it was one of those had a story and literally was titled Abortion is. Is killing but. So in the mean. So, you know, we got this generation gap. I'm gonna, I'm, I'm the in between generation Gen X. So let me propose the compromise. Can we at least agree? Can we at least agree to this? If you publicly admit you are a murderer and have made it very clear you are proud of such, then you are not a victim, but you are a sociopath and should be treated as such by the law. By your own admission. By your own admission, Aaron, what was the video you had last week where the gal was, was bragging about murdering her kid while her other kid was like clapping for her? Oh, yeah, Remember that video?
A
Mother's Day.
B
Yeah, thank you. Do you remember that video? She's like, she's like, proud of the fact she murdered her kid while her other kid is clapping and, and, and applauding for her mom dancing the, the abortion jig. If that's you, you're not a victim. You know, in a strange way, this kind of ties into this conversation we had last hour on the other subject. What's the difference between empathy and toxic empathy and having it again?
D
Yes.
B
You're not a victim by your own admission. You're proud of what you did. You want people to know what you did. Okay, I'm, I'm, I still believe a lot of women are deceived into having abortions out of desperation, but I don't believe it's every single woman and I think it's, as the years go on, that number's gonna dwindle and dwindle and dwindle. But at the very least, I think we lose all credibility as a movement moving forward. We're like liberals who sit there to, to white liberals who say to the Hispanic, you, you don't know how oppressed you really are. We, we know more about how oppressed you are than you are. We're going to walk up to that gal last week in the viral video or the couple who's bragging in the last week about killing their down syndrome baby. No, really, you're not a vic, you are a victim. I, I, no, I went on YouTube, told everybody we did it, and I'm very proud of it. I'm actually quite angry that people aren't as proud of it as I am. No, you don't understand. You're a victim. You're. How ridiculous does that sound?
D
Very, very.
B
So once someone forsakes the benefit of the doubt and says, I don't want your benefit of the doubt, don't give it to me, I reject it and I want you. Not only do I reject your benefit of the doubt, but I want you to know, and I want the people around me to know, I'm proud of what I did. My compromise is, once that happens, we have to give up the ghost of our own talking points. We look like idiots, we're arguing against our own premise. And I just don't know how we can have a credible movement if we're going to say, if you brag about committing murder, reject the benefit of the doubt we've been trying to give you for a generation and go online to brag about it, own it, and at least imply you want others to follow in your footsteps. At that point, you're not a victim, you're a sociopath and should be treated as such. That's my humble compromise for the two sides. And then on the other side, you agree to give up if we don't give everybody the death penalty for this right away, I, I'm against it. In fact, I'm going to go into states and argue against pro life laws. You give that up, they give up. We can never prosecute anybody. You give up that unless we, unless you agree with me on the most draconian tactics ever, I will then try to self destruct your pro life movement because that, is that an ad in accurate perception of what's actually currently happening right now?
D
Yes.
B
Okay, so one side agrees to give up its nihilism, the Other side agrees to give up its delusion. And let's just agree on this. Once you admit I'm a murderer, I want you to know it. I did it. I'm proud of it. At that point, you should be treated as such. Now the floor is yours.
D
Well, on our side, you know that there's a. There's just too much money excuse for giving up that nihilism that's in there somewhere. But other than that, you know, you. You. You're trying your best. But I'm reminded of the conversation you had just yesterday with Brianna Morello about that case. That's what came to mind when you were talking. Not the football case, but that. And she said she kind of expected more nuance in there, but it was just so ridiculously black and white and obvious. If. If that can be a template for this, if we can just grab whatever that was, that psychological and emotional state of mind and apply it for this, you are over the target. I just. I'm not going to hold my breath because as I said, we all know that even on a lot of other red states, this may have broken that. That trial may have broken another way. And we continue. This is where you're right about the football. We continue to have excuses that we've fashioned into idols that are way bigger than the God we claim to serve. And big baby, one of those, you know, that industry, and it shouldn't even be called industry, of course it should. It's a mission. But it has turned into an industry. You know, it's far better than I do. So I want you to disabuse me of my skepticism desperately on this. But people want what they want. There's not an area of life right now where some kind of giant idol isn't being worshiped and polished and polished by people in the name of the Lord. So I just. I need to see with my own eyes that they are capable. Adding one plus one equals to here. Because once again, Steve, you're not doing calculus. You're just doing remedial math.
A
So say some major Hollywood executive comes out and says, hey, we understand Hollywood is broken. And we have decided corporately that we are going to get back to the basics, the fundamental basics of storytelling. We don't care about creed. We don't care about that unless it matters to the story that we're trying to tell, if it's based on real life events, what have you. We're just getting back to storytelling.
D
Okay?
A
The first movie that the studio then puts out after that announcement is 120 minutes of agitprop. It takes and bastardizes every single syllable and codicil of some well beloved fairy tale or work of fiction from yesteryear. The intention may have been right from the, from the executive. Was the execution. No, it wasn't. Was the execution of that idea correct? No. It cuts against the very premise that they asserted that we're stuck here, we're not doing something right, so we're going to start doing this. I kind of think that's a little bit of an analogy of where we are with the pro life movement, the anti abortion movement, because some of the abolitionists got on me when I highlighted their work. I remember this. I highlighted some abolitionist movements work and I described it as pro life and they got mad at me for that because they're not pro life, they're abolition. Sorry, I'm never going to highlight your work. That's, that's the, that's the, you know, that's the inclination that they're forcing you to fight against. But that's kind of where we are. If on the one side you believe that no matter what, women should not be punished, but they keep going on Instagram Live or Facebook Live taking an abortifacient bragging while they have other kids around that they're killing their kids. You can scream you are anti abortion till you're blue in the face, but you really don't believe that if your answer to videos like that is that woman should not be prosecuted. So this is a small, using the word again incremental step towards getting both of these inclinations, criminal prosecution. And I don't think that that's appropriate right now or a political winner right now. That's a step towards bridging that gap. Do I think that that is possible right now in the year 2026? No, but it is a good idea that people should heed, but that they probably won't.
B
All right, I want to respond to what you just said, Aaron, after we talk about Chef iq. And Aaron, normally I have you do it, but I, I received this note from Scott Jones, who said, my daughter Lauren bought me a single probe Chef IQ last year. I've used it successfully to smoke brisket, to grill dishes like steak, salmon and stuffed peppers. It's fantastic. Salmon can be a challenge. The Chef IQ grills it to perfection every single time. It's fantastic. So fantastic that I just ordered the three probe kit to keep it here at the home bay as well. So we're gonna take the single probe out to the Lake house. So we've got these at both places where we hang out and grill this time of year. So great product and hat tip to Aaron and agree with his review. So that's from Scott Jones down there in Texas, agreeing with your rave review for Chef iq. Aaron so wanted to share that with the audience as well. So if you want to try Chef IQ for your dad, that's how Scott got his. His daughter bought it for him. You want to get it for your dad. Father's Day is coming up 40 off site wide right now at chefiq.com use the promo code Steve. Chef iq.com promo code Steve. And you get 40% off site wide for dad. Just in time for Father's day right now. Chefiq.com promo code Steve, I think you made a very important point where, and I think this was what, when I was part of the personhood movement, I kept saying, we're arguing quality of life by doing things like fetal pain bills. We need to argue what is a life like. Quality of life is their argument. Their argument is we do abortion on the basis of the kid will suffer, it'll be disabled. That's their argument. That when we say, well, not until the feed the fetus can feel pain are we trying to ban abortion. Well, that's a quality of life issue. So if we come up with a painless way to murder a kid in the womb, it's totally fine. If we come up with a way to completely zombify the child in womb and utero and turn all the nerve endings on and make it unconscious, just, you know, then it's. Then it's okay if there's no pain. That's a quality of life issue. That's not a sanctity of life issue. Our argument is the sanctity of life, not the quality of life. And you just made that point again. If, if you can do whatever you want, if, if a woman under her own consensual authority can do whatever she wants to a fetus and face no accountability, no matter what her motivations were, no matter what she said about it after the fact, then we are essentially making the argument then that of the other side that, yes, the woman's consensual authority reigns over the child. Isn't that what they think? Yeah. Yeah, that's what they think. That's their argument. But again, I understand the political calculations. I've done a lot of polling. I've worked on a lot of campaigns. I've done a lot of pro life polling. I've written Pro life polls. I know. I know what the political calculations are, which is exactly why I am saying if we're at the point now that women are going to brag, that now becomes a political calculation in the other direction, where we look like fools, where we look like we really don't believe what we believe. And we're arguing against ourselves, which is what we did for decades and why it took 50 years to overturn Roe. We kept making quality of life arguments, not sanctity of life arguments. What is a life? Lo and behold, we settled on, well, a heartbeat signifies life. And a few years after doing that, what did we do? We overturned Roe. Weird how that works, huh? So we stopped arguing their point, started arguing our own, and we got victory, right?
D
Yes.
B
How about we repeat that? If you're going to brag I am a murderer, then you should be treated as such. What would be the, the only argument for why we would say, no, it's not any different than the Carmelo Anthony argument. It's a political calculation. Well, he's, he's racially unprivileged, so murder is okay, he's black. Political calculation. That's what we're doing. And I think when the reason we're arguing amongst ourselves so much on this is because of exactly what I am saying. We're arguing amongst ourselves and we're not arguing against them. It's the same thing that happened before that led to the heartbeat bills that overturned Roe. We did this. We were divided because we weren't arguing what we claimed to believe, but we instead granted political calculation, which I do think matters, but we can't make it God. At the same time, there's a balance. When you get to the point you're arguing against your own premise, that's when you've taken political calculation to idolatry, all right. And made it God. If people are going to brag about being murderers, they should be treated as such. To not do so is to argue against what we even claim to believe. The Steve Day Show. So a lot of companies now want to get into the whole red parallel economy space, which is great. We need that. Right. But sometimes you hear from them that it's about shared values. No, it's not. First, you have to have a good product. Right. Excellence just so happens to be one of our values. Not ripping people off happens to be one of our values. Right. Going to the nth degree with your God given potential happens to be one of our values. So the first thing is, is it a good product? Is it a good service. And if the answer is yes, well, then we get to look at the shared values as a tiebreaker. Why go with you maybe over another company. And I can tell you now that our family has been with Patriot Mobile for almost exactly six years, that is that it is an excellent service. And when they first started partnering with our show, I was not a customer, became one just out of frustration. T Mobile one day sent out a mass text to all of its users during COVID saying, we're going to start screening your texts for misinformation. And I said, all right, that's my tap out. And I put it off. They were already on the show for like a year and I put it off because I just thought, we got five people. This is going to be a hassle. I don't want to deal with this. We've never looked back. It's a great product, first and foremost. Secondly, they share your values. So make the switch today. Keep your number, switch your number, keep your phone, upgrade your phone. And I've seen firsthand when I go speak around the country, so many of those events are sponsored by Patriot Mobile. They do really reinvest in the values that they share with you. Get started today with a free month of service with the promo code Steve. When you go to patriot mobile.com Steve, use the promo code Steve to get started with a free month of service. Today@patriot mobile.com Steve. Use the code Steve to get started with that free month of service. Well, we continue on a theology Thursday, and I wanted to bring in this week a good friend of mine who I've known for many, many years, who's a local pastor here in the Des Moines area, Michael Damascus. Good to see you again, brother. How are you?
C
Good to see you, brother.
B
So you're in the church sign business. This is.
C
That's some messages you could put up on your own marquee.
B
Yes. This is not your first rodeo.
A
No.
D
Right.
B
But this rodeo with your church signs went a little bit different than some of the others have gone a little bit. So just. So tell us what happened.
C
So just full disclosure, I did this knowing that we're going to hear, you know, stupid phrases like happy pride all month, which, I mean, think about that. Just those two words, how stupid that is to put those two things together. But just the fact that we're going to be just inoculated with so much focus on pride, which is, frankly, the antithesis of what our faith is all about. And so I put up a simple message, four words that ditch pride, embrace, humility, which spawned a protest against our church.
B
Now, I would say this is one of your. I've seen you provoke and poke at the spirit of the age before. I. I would say this is one of the gentler ones that you have done over the years.
C
It's. It's so. So tame. So tame.
B
I mean, you've sent me a couple over the years, and I'm like, Even I'm like, here we go. All right. But this one seems, again, pretty tame by what you've done in the past.
C
It's very tame.
B
But I wonder if the simplicity of the message. Why do you think this one in particular, particularly in an era where the forces of pride are broadly on the run, the amount of pride recognition in all our stores and all the commercials by corporate America is at the lowest it has been in several years.
C
Praise God.
B
All right. Several years, Right. So why do you think now that one simple message lit these people on fire to come and protest your. Your local Des Moines church on Sunday?
C
Well, I think we're a smaller church, and I think that, you know, they're. They're already on the run, and it's like, well, we can. We can fight this one, you know, and so come and attack our church. And. And they. They were pretty tame. God blessed us with rain that day. About a dozen people. We had some of our church folk go and take them some donuts even, which they took and ate. If you look at their sizes, you can see why. But it. It was. It was. It was tame and they had bullhorns, and that was the part I didn't like yelling obscenities at our people as they were pulling into the parking lot of the church. And, And I want to say to you personally, just. That was hitting me hard Sunday morning, and you really encouraged me. I mean, thank you, brother. Thank you.
B
You're very welcome. I think the simplicity of your message is what was very convicting. I think that. There was a very Christ like, gentle, gently applied, nevertheless strategically located cross check to the ribs. And I think. I think you hit home with what you said. I think that they are very conditioned within the rainbow Jihad to respond to the outlandish because they're outlandish themselves, to be provocative because they're uber provocative themselves. Right. Okay. And so I. I don't think. I don't think language like sodomite. I don't have a problem with that language. I don't. Just don't think they care that they. That that sort of provocative language is their native tongue. Right. And They'll. They'll take it to degrees that we would never take with their own. They'll take it to degrees that the King James words. The King James won't print. The original King James.
C
Exactly.
B
All right. So I think that's just par for the course with where they. I think they're comfortable arguing on the terms of who can be the most provocative in their language or in their stating of their position. I think what you did with your sign and why the simplicity of this one, I think really hit home, especially given this moment, that this thing is declining rapidly, is this. You did a. You did kind of a version of when after Adam sins, what does God do? Shows up and he just says, what are you doing? Are we doing here? Checking in. Right. And the level of conviction that goes with that. Right. You disarmed them with that statement, I think. I think you disarmed them. You cut through all the talking points on both sides and got away from the provocative language and this provocative symbolism and everything. Hey, listen, I did Richie Meets the Rainbow last year. It's a very provocative book.
C
Good little book.
B
It is. But I wrote it provocatively not because I thought I had any chance with. No matter how I told this story, I didn't think there was no way that I could possibly tell this story, that someone that's involved in hijacking our children for the rainbow jihad would listen to it. Right. So therefore, I wrote it the most provocatively that I could, specifically to motivate our own people to get up and do something about it. Right, right. But you messaged at them.
C
Right.
B
And you messaged at them with a very, well, grandfatherly rebuke. I mean, it was. It's. It. You gave them the version of when mom used to say to you growing up, I'm just really disappointed in you. And you're like, you know what? On second thought, go ahead and call dad. Have him come home and beat me right now, because that'll get done with living with the fact my mom, you know, just buried me right to the heart like that. You did that, all right. You gave them a gentle rebuke that cut right to the heart of the matter. And I think that's what drew the opposition.
C
Well, you know, I was.
B
See, that's why I wanted to talk
C
about this, and I appreciate that. I was planning on keeping the sign up for a couple weeks. Now. I'm going to keep it up every stinking day of June, and I'm going to be printing T shirts that say, ditch pride, Embrace humility. And, you know, I'm just the, the reaction, it did anger me because it, it was overkill.
B
Let me ask, did that seem like a group of well adjusted content people to.
C
No. No.
B
Did that seem like. Did that seem like a group of people that when this event was over, they were going to spend the rest of their Sunday afternoon and evening in, in, in an enriching way that would bring them more joy, more peace, contentment, that they would do something that would, that would pertain a memory or a legacy that they'd want to pass on within their own families.
C
These are people coming forward, critical thinking skills. They don't think, they respond and react. It's all emotion. And the same way that a completely void of reason in the issue of abortion, where a woman would say, you can't talk about this subject because you're not a female, is. That's an insane rule of logic that I can't talk about the issue of pride because I'm not homosexual?
B
Right.
C
You don't own that term.
B
Correct.
C
And so that's, that's, that's the same kind of reasoning. It doesn't make any sense. It's, it's. It doesn't stand up and, and I push back on that.
B
But you can. You convicted him is what you did. Yeah, that was, that was personally convicting. Because they're, because they are lost. Because they are. They're not. No one, no one's more reasonable. The more that they embrace this worldview, they become less so. I mean, these people are very broken. I'm sure many of them have mental health issues or seeking out mental health counseling as we speak for these kinds of issues. And you went at them in a way that said, we both know you want better than this. We both know you do. We both know that when the chants are gone and it's just you. Right. And you turn the key and you turn away from the keyboard at night and the instant and the re. The. We both know the reason you need that instant affirmation from whoever's following you on TikTok or whatever as you continue to radicalize and post the craziest stuff you can possibly pose. We both know, though, that when you put your head down on the pillow at night. Okay. That you're not sleeping well.
C
Yeah.
B
That. That you are not. Your conscience is not. Is not clean, is not clear. That you're unsettled and that's why you're behaving this way. We both know this.
C
And it's the very reason.
B
And that that was Convicting in how you did that.
C
And it's the very reason why we prayed over them and for them during our worship service on Sunday morning. So we don't hate them, we love them and we want the very, very best for them, which is Jesus Christ. And they. They don't.
B
But they don't get to walk all over us though, either.
C
No, no, no, sir.
B
Not at all. See, this is. This is. This is something I wanted to demonstrate to our audience through what you did with your sign, because I've been talking for years, that we are way too focused on tone, right? What's a nice way to tell people, listen, you're all going to hell. In fact, you want to. You desire it. You have a zeal for it. You were born with a conscience that reserved your aisle seat in the eternal smoking section. And that's where you'll go, and that's what you want. Unless you believe that one day God sent his son to pay the penalty, to live the life of perfection. You could not live, pay the penalty for your sins. You could not pay, die the death that you should have died and then rose again to life. So that you may now, if you acknowledge that, escape all those penalties and live eternally with Him. And that's your only way out of your. Of your. Of your hellfire destiny. I communicate for a living. I'm paid fairly well to do it. I've been asked by companies and corporations and campaigns to help them communicate. I am unaware of the gentle way to communicate the message I just did. But is that not really the heart of the gospel?
C
It is.
B
There is no real gentle way to do it. There's no. This is. This is the most offensive reason. There's a reason why they hung our Lord on a tree and they drawed and quartered and beheaded all his disciples. This is the most offensive message ever devised in the history of this planet. What I just gave and what I
C
told my church was what Jesus said was not just a possibility. He promised it. They hated me. They're going to hate you.
B
If they did this to a green tree. What are they going to do to you?
C
Right?
B
And so I think I want to make sure, though, we don't have the tone argument too far the other way. Because I've done this long enough, Mike, and I've lived long enough. Or maybe I'm just getting older and softer. But now I. Now I'm concerned about some of the harsh language I see from some of the people that represent me for the first time in my career right because here's the thing. We do still have to love our neighbors. We love ourselves. So it's a false choice between we just let him walk all over us. We have the Mike Pence perpetually furrowed brow and we feel real bad about it, but we'll do not a cotton picking thing about it ever. Right? And then, in fact, we'll get offended at people who want to do something about it. We'll make them like, we'll make the people that are trying to do something about it make them feel in our own ranks like they're weird. They're the enemies. And if you just left these folks and these forces alone, they'd treat us all better and not try to disturb the peace. Right, Right. But that's a false choice, though. Between that and, hey, the jerk store called and it's all out of you. Okay, That's a false choice. That's. And what you did, brother, in a different tone, was deeply confrontational. I mean, you cut right to the bone and marrow with that. Yeah, you act like, you guys act like you got it going on. You act like you're in charge of the culture. You act like everybody bows to your women, everybody listens to you. But if that were really true or you really thought that, the last thing you'd be offended at is, my son. You're only offended at it because when the computers go off and the devices recharge and you put your pillow down at night and it's just you and that little Jiminy Cricket on your head, on your shoulder, we both know that's not true.
C
That's right.
B
And that's. And that. And that the reason you're acting out like this and you become this ridiculous. And you. And you've let yourself become this estranged from your creator and you have all these other mental and physical ailments because in manifestations of your own sin is because when the parades are done and the lust is spent and you've all had, had your dopamine hits and it's just you and your conscience, we know that's not true.
C
That's right.
B
And that's what you did to him. You convicted him.
C
Well, and that's, I think, what we're called to do. Salt and light, right? But I. I think that more than just that, for them, for us, we need to be reminded. Because like you just said, some of the criticism that I've received even in this recent endeavor is from pastors who tell me things like, you're making it really hard to share the gospel. You know, you're clouding the waters here. The people that we're trying to reach, you're making it difficult to do that.
B
So the people, the pastors who have stood by and watched us losing a culture and the people that were losing the culture to are both upset at you is what you're telling me.
C
Yes.
B
Well done, good and faithful servant. That's why we're doing this segment. Todd and Aaron, your thoughts on this conversation.
D
Can you just punch me in the face, Pastor? Because that's. Pastors being mad at you about this. My inclination is to ask you for names because you want to talk about making people feel uncomfortable. They're first on my list, like you. What. What did you get into this for? I mean, honestly, this. That's it. The gospel is a rated R movie, Pastor. Whoever you are, Catholic or Protestant, it's a rated R movie. It's not PG 13. It's. It's definitely not G. Put on your big boy pants and go to work. Otherwise, go change oil or I don't care. I pick anything else because you are literally supposed to be in the job where young George Washington out on the around what is now modern day Pittsburgh shot at for the first time and he said, there's something charming in the sound. I must say, you get called a bad name and you wet yourself. I am done with you, pastor.
A
You won't be able to hear me. You're not wearing headphones. But I just. If we had more pastors who were worthy of drawing protests from demoniacs, we would have no protests because we would be living in an era. We would be living in an environment where the pastors are actually the ones leading the charge culturally, spiritually, and if necessary, politically. But we don't have a lot of pastors who are worthy of drawing up demoniacs to Sunday morning services because they are afraid of being offensive or we don't. We're a gospel only. We're a Jesus only church, whatever that means.
C
So that's Gnosticism.
A
It is, yes. And so this is where we need our pastors to be. I think also another thing that's factoring into this locally here in Iowa. I think the left in Iowa are kind of starting to feel themselves a little bit because they think that they have a little bit of momentum. So, hey, let's fire up the protest. Let's fire up the. Just getting a completely annoying machine. But eventually, eventually, regardless of whether it's now or whether it's on down the line, you or your children are going to have to confront this. And you will be confronted with this whether you want to or not. So might as well get it over with. Plant your flag, stake out your ground.
B
Good to see you, brother. Thank you, Mike.
C
Good to see you too, bro.
B
Love is not a tone, and neither is confrontation. Love can be expressed in a very provocative way. Confrontation can be done in a very distinction, discreet, personal way. Remember that. Back at it again tomorrow, noon to 2 Eastern, right after Glenn Beck. Until then, go hard. Romans 8, 28.
Podcast: Steve Deace Show
Host: Steve Deace (Blaze Podcast Network)
Date: June 11, 2026
This episode explores several timely political and cultural topics through the lens of “principled conservatism with a snarky twist.” Major themes include escalating U.S.-Iran tensions, ongoing frustrations with YouTube censorship, a broad discussion of empathy versus accountability in the context of the Brendan Sorsby college football gambling scandal, and deeper questions on Christian cultural response. Steve delivers personal reflections, industry critique, and spirited panel discussions with regular contributors Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre.
Timestamps: 00:01–05:02
US Retaliation Against Iran:
The show kicks off with a summary of renewed U.S. military strikes on Iran after the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter. Trump announces on Truth Social expanded strikes and intentions to seize Iranian oil infrastructure, promising, “We will be taking Carg island and other oil infrastructure ... and assume total control of their oil and gas markets, much like with Venezuela.” [00:31]
Congressional Polls & Senate Gridlock:
Democrats lead in a generic ballot poll. Republicans lag on economic trust but lead on immigration. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says they lack votes to pass the Save America Act, citing the filibuster. [02:07]
ActBlue Hearing:
ActBlue CEO pleads the Fifth on fraud questions related to Democrat donations. [02:52]
Southern Baptist Convention Update:
Messengers pass a “Truth and Unity Amendment” banning women as pastors/elders—a victory for conservatives—pending a second vote next year. [03:05]
Brendan Sorsby Update:
Texas Tech football’s Brendan Sorsby (caught gambling on his own team) gets a court injunction allowing him to play. Coach Joey McGuire downplays severity, using rhetoric of addiction and selective outrage:
“It’s not murder. It’s not beating somebody.” —Joey McGuire (as recounted) [04:00]
NBA Finals Viral Clip:
Jerry Seinfeld declines a “Free Palestine” chant:
“It doesn’t exist.” [04:57]
Timestamps: 05:02–26:00
“The note that YouTube sent back essentially says, screw you and the horse you rode in on. You can’t do anything.” [16:51]
“If someone just took hundreds of thousands of dollars from you that was supposed to belong to you, my guess is you wouldn’t take it very well. ... I’m not taking it very well.” [20:30]
“You cannot become them today. The censorship regime won’t allow it... The system’s rigged.” [23:35]
“On my deathbed, I’m not going to think about the $1.2 million of YouTube revenue I’m never going to see. I’m going to look my children in the eye and ask: did I do everything I could?” [25:00]
Timestamps: 26:00–29:53
“Was this Iranian oil or was it other Gulf coast country oils that we escorted through? If it was Iranian oil... was Iran still getting its bill?” [27:22]
Timestamps: 35:00–47:53
Empathy vs. Accountability:
Steve proposes the core issue is “toxic empathy”—empathy without accountability.
“Empathy’s a thing. Where it becomes toxic is when it demands no accountability and condemns any attempt to instill it.” [41:55]
Broader Cultural Manifestation:
Uses biblical analogy: “If a man steals from you because he was hungry... he’s still a thief and must make restitution.”
Aaron McIntyre:
“Brendan Sorsby did not turn himself in. He was caught. That's a very big distinction.” [42:10]
“He's nuking the integrity of everyone else in this sport... Now everyone is going to watch this—well, that guy must be betting because he didn’t make the catch...” [43:29]
Todd Erzin:
“Football clearly is just creating very weak men across the board... This is idol worship.” [44:53 – 45:19]
Steve Deace:
“Empathy comes with accountability... Toxic empathy says your victimology is more important than accountability.” [45:48]
“He knows the rules, he knows the laws, and still chose to break them... I have no empathy and neither should anyone else.” —Aaron [46:29]
Timestamps: 47:53–55:03
Timestamps: 54:49–77:00
“If you publicly admit you are a murderer... you are not a victim but a sociopath and should be treated as such by law.” [63:54]
Timestamps: 80:09–95:32
“Can you just punch me in the face, Pastor? ... The gospel is a rated R movie.” – Todd [93:06]
“If we had more pastors who were worthy of drawing protests from demoniacs, we would have no protests...” – Aaron [94:08]
“The note that YouTube sent back essentially says, screw you and the horse you rode in on. You can’t do anything.”
— Steve, [16:51]
“Empathy comes with accountability. Toxic empathy demands no accountability and instead condemns you for trying to instill it.”
— Steve, [41:55]
“If you publicly admit you are a murderer... you are not a victim but a sociopath and should be treated as such by law.”
— Steve, [63:54]
“The gospel is a rated R movie... Put on your big boy pants and go to work. Otherwise, go change oil.”
— Todd, [93:06]
In summary:
This episode examines how empathy, accountability, and moral clarity intersect in politics, sports, media censorship, and the church. The panel delivers sharp, often humorous critique—of both enemies and their own side—while advocating for biblical worldview engagement that’s neither naive nor coldly legalistic. The Sorsby debate becomes emblematic of broader cultural decay, and the “Ditch Pride” segment models the power of gentle yet unyielding truth-telling.