PINCHED: Make the Economy Great Again | Guest: Jill Savage | 5/1/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show — "PINCHED: Make the Economy Great Again"

Host: Steve Deace
Blaze Podcast Network | Aired: May 1, 2026 | Guest: Jill Savage
Theme: Principled conservatism with a snarky twist served up daily.

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Steve Deace Show delivers a spirited, unapologetic conservative take on the week’s political, economic, and cultural developments, marked by characteristic snark and polemic. Steve, joined by regulars Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre, welcomes back former colleague Jill Savage for a wide-ranging, informed, and often fiery panel discussion. Major topics span the escalation of violent rhetoric in politics, issues of accountability and the "administrative state," the economic strains hitting Americans, US policy toward Iran and immigration, and the fundamental incompatibilities between Islam and western Christianity. The episode is rich with memorable quips and pointed cultural analysis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Political Violence & Media Rhetoric (00:44–15:33)

- Opening Montage:

Aaron presents a montage of recent inflammatory statements and attitudes from media and left-leaning voices regarding Trump, highlighting a climate that seems to condone or at least dismiss the threat of political violence.

- Jill Savage’s Reaction (:48–08:38)

• Jill: Sees the media’s rhetoric as partly responsible for real-world threats against political figures, likening the show’s technical hiccups to lapses in Secret Service competence.
  • Quote [06:48]:
    "Is the production of today's show about the level of the Secret Service right now around Donald Trump?... The rhetoric that we see right now is almost... not welcome... but it's something that we understand exactly where we are."

- Should Political Speech Have Consequences? (08:38–10:50)

• Steve, Aaron, Todd: Discuss whether people openly advocating violence should be rounded up; all three express little sympathy and even a desire for strong legal consequences, noting free speech has legal limits (“espousing assassination is not considered free speech”).

- Media Accountability & Cultural Hypocrisy (10:53–14:55)

• Todd: Blasts media figures as "enemies of the state," equating their "pathological lying" to dangerous gaslighting.
• Steve: Skewers the tendency to blame Trump for “provoking” violence against himself, drawing an analogy to victim-blaming.

- Exit Question—State of Depravity (14:57–15:33)

• All rate the “total depravity level” at “10,” echoing a sense of moral freefall in public discourse.

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2. Accountability for the Administrative State (16:58–29:44)

- DOJ: Signs of Life? (16:58–18:13)

• Aaron summarizes: Recent indictments (Southern Poverty Law Center, Fauci advisor Morens, MN fraud, Comey) suggest the DOJ might finally be delivering overdue accountability.

- Is It Enough? (18:13–21:44)

• Jill: Skeptical, calls these steps “bare minimum” and demands the pace increase, especially given the entrenched “weaponization of government.”

  • Quote [18:13]:
    "Is this the accountability that we voted for? I would need this like times 100... We have so many things that we need to get done in this country."

• Todd: Worries these moves may be mere “placation” rather than principle-driven reform, likening the challenge to cleaning out decades of grift ("the Epstein list times a million").

- Normie Voter Problem (22:59–23:24)

• Todd points out the public, despite demanding "drain the swamp," may balk at the mess it entails.

- On Pam Bondi's Role (23:26–25:22)

• Aaron: Fiercely critical of former official Pam Bondi for “losing a year” of reform inertia, labels her tenure “an unmitigated disaster.”

- Administrative Infighting & Personnel (25:22–28:34)

• Steve breaks his “no anonymous Trump sourcing” rule to discuss a report suggesting West Wing infighting (Patel vs. Susie Wiles), raising questions about Trump’s personnel acumen.

- Exit Question—Will There Be Real Justice? (28:34–29:44)

• The panel is divided: Todd and Aaron are “cautiously pessimistic” (“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”), Jill is more fatalistic (“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”—it’s not happening).

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3. The Economy: Can It Be Fixed by November? (34:04–43:05)

- Americans Still Pinched (34:04–35:25)

• Aaron details worsening financial sentiment (Gallup poll: 55% say finances worsening—the highest since 2001). Rising energy, food, and insurance costs are main factors.

- Strategies for Economic Recovery (35:25–39:09)

• Jill: Central issues are energy prices, the prolonged war in Iran, and immigration:
  • "If you just went through and deported the millions... weighing down the system... insurance, housing costs... it will make it a lot easier for the people that are actually supposed to be here."
• Aaron: Fixing the economy in the short term hinges on resolving the Iran crisis; warns downstream consequences have yet to be felt.
• Todd: Predicts only partial relief ("cheaper gas") is plausible before midterms; deeper malaise is baked-in.

- Political Capital: Iran vs. Immigration (40:03–41:54)

• Steve critiques the administration for squandering political capital on Iran rather than “deporting the invaders.”
  • "At some point we need to risk some political capital for what's happening here on our own continent... At some point we do."

- Unilateral Economic Policy Fixes (42:32–43:51)

• Jill: "Deport them all."
• Todd: Universalize Iowa’s ESA (school choice/vouchers).
• Aaron: Abolish income tax, replace with flat sales tax ("God's tax").

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4. Islam & the American Right (55:23–70:36)

- Listener Question: Can a Conservative Muslim Belong? (55:23–67:32)

• Steve: Argues core Christian and Islamic worldviews are fundamentally incompatible unless one waters down their faith; points to lack of religious reciprocation in Islamic-majority nations.
• Todd/Aaron: Suggest the listener, “Muhammad Ali,” reevaluate whether he fully grasps his own faith tradition and its history, noting that Islam’s core imperative is world dominion—a sharp contrast with Christianity’s gospel-centric mission.

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5. Cultural Observations & Faith (70:37–78:01)

- Listener Letter: The Religion of the Secular Left (70:37–76:58)

• Steve and Todd agree that progressivism functions as a secular religion, complete with tithers, martyrs, and unwavering zeal.

  • "Government is their God, the state is their church. They count it all joy to pay their tithe."

• Todd: Warns Christian laxity and idolatry (e.g., prioritizing sports over church) explain why the left is often more activist and committed.

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6. Internet Culture & Anti-Semitism (80:59–91:26)

- Online Antisemitism (80:59–91:26)

• Question: A Michigan pastor describes a torrent of antisemitic vitriol for defending Zionism online.
• Todd: Ties this ugliness to atomized, unaccountable “lone gunman” internet Christianity and the toxic effects of anonymity.
• Aaron: Attributes much of the trend to online “ops,” algorithmic reinforcement, and lack of disciplinary shepherding.
• Steve: Recommends never arguing with anonymous trolls—most are not even real people.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jill Savage [06:48]:
  "They are showing us exactly what they believe in this point in time. And I would take truth, you know, just the honest truth over them trying to sugarcoat anything, like we know exactly what we're facing now."

• Todd Erzin [10:53]:
  "They need to be beaten with severe prejudice and, and that means making sure that they go out of business in every way, shape and form that is possible."

• Steve Dace [13:54]: "Do you know what time it is? And I think that people are forgetting that right now in this Trump administration. Our guy won. Things aren't going as well as we thought that they would, but we've lost the plot, I feel like, at this point."

• Aaron McIntyre [24:07]: "That interest of not doing anything compounds daily. We lost over a year because of [Pam Bondi]'s inaction... An unmitigated disaster."

• Jill Savage [35:25]: "If you can't get gas prices down, which is just going to be the front end of everything else... you can't look at anything else... come down anytime soon."

• Steve Dace [41:50]: "At some point, we need to risk some political capital for what's happening here on our own continent. At some point we do."

• Steve Dace [65:57]: "There's just a, there's just a different level of accommodation that I have to be willing to offer you that your worldview does not demand that you offer me. It just doesn't."

• Todd Erzin [76:58]: "If every month you are at a different town every weekend, and three times you're playing a sport and you're only going to church once, you're not raising a Christian child, you're raising an idolater."

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Important Timestamps

• 00:44 — Panel Introduction, “Bleep Lord Nefarious” montage
• 06:48 — Jill Savage on violent rhetoric, free speech limits
• 10:53 — Media hypocrisy, enemies of the state
• 14:57 — Exit question: level of depravity ("10")
• 16:58 — DOJ/accountability discussion
• 18:13 — Jill’s skepticism of “accountability”
• 23:24 — Normie voter problem & cleaning the swamp
• 24:07 — Pam Bondi, missed opportunities
• 28:34 — Will anyone actually go to jail?
• 34:04 — Economic pain, Gallup data
• 35:25 — Jill’s economic prescription: energy, immigration, war
• 42:32 — Panel’s economic policy wishlists
• 55:23 — Islam and compatibility with Western conservatism
• 65:57 — Steve: "Accommodation your worldview does not demand"
• 70:37 — Progressive activism as religious devotion
• 80:59 — Online anti-Semitism, anonymity debate

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Tone, Language, & Atmosphere

• The language is cutting, direct, often polemical (“enemies of the state,” “deport them all”).
• Humor and snark is ever-present ("Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow").
• The panel is comfortable being contrarian and self-critical toward the American right—not just leftist targets.
• The show encourages audience introspection about faith, courage, and cultural effort, while lambasting moral softness.

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Summary

This episode is a whirlwind tour through hot-button issues across politics, economics, faith, and culture. The show’s trademark snark is in evidence, but so is a consistent call for courage, accountability, and self-examination on the right. The panel expresses heavy skepticism that the required political and cultural transformation is achievable without discomfort or direct confrontation. Jill Savage’s return adds fresh analysis, while Todd and Aaron maintain the show’s unfiltered edge. For listeners seeking an unapologetic, inside-conservative review of the moment’s most urgent issues—with a heavy dose of existential urgency and some laughter along the way—this episode does not disappoint.

Transcript

[Steve Dace]

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[Jill Savage]

@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail].

[Steve Dace]

Greetings. There we are. Happy Friday. Greetings to all of you. Happy Friday. Welcome to the Steve Day show here live and on demand on Blaze, TV, radio and podcast alongside Tod Erzen and Aaron McIntyre, joined by our sister, former colleague Jill Savage for the Dace Group here in a matter of moments. I am Steve Dace. A ton to get to here today. Feedback Friday, of course, coming up your way next hour, tons of feedback to get to the topic of Islam is going to be coming up right off the bat next hour as well, so make sure you're tuned in for that. Okay. But first, it's time for the day script.

[Todd Erzin]

Whoa.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You didn't give me nearly enough time to get that. I mean, I was used to a live.

[Steve Dace]

I know. Management's yelling at me. Get to this stuff faster.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay, there's the intro.

[Steve Dace]

There we go. All right, here we go.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's it.

[Steve Dace]

That's it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's it.

[Steve Dace]

That's the intro.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Well, the whole thing doesn't work then.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I'm sorry.

[Steve Dace]

We can't play it now.

[Aaron McIntyre]

No. Something is freezing up at the exact same time as well.

[Steve Dace]

This is just the second time out of three days that that's happened to us now. Yeah. Are we gonna be able to play anything?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't know where this freaking thing went.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm giving it all she's got.

[Steve Dace]

Captain, do we have any delithium crystals? I can't do that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, that's why I forgot. There it is. Oh, golly.

[Steve Dace]

If I do a live read there, that client's gonna murder me in my sleep. All right. With that as a segue. And I would deserve it, of course. Yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It wasn't.

[Todd Erzin]

You've done worse.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I forgot.

[Steve Dace]

I'm confident of that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I forgot that I made my life easier by creating a bumper for the Dace Group. Bumper. At any point, I could have just hit that button.

[Steve Dace]

We have not totally forgotten. We have not all been together here on a Friday for like a month. It's Been a bit. It's been a bit.

[Todd Erzin]

Jill is over there just like, what

[Aaron McIntyre]

did I get myself?

[Todd Erzin]

Who are these three monkeys and why am I here?

[Steve Dace]

Jill is like, listen, I'm not there anymore, and this thing is just absolutely falling apart. All right, Your weekly look at the week that was begins as it normally does, other than this week with issue one, Bleep Lord Nefarious.

[Todd Erzin]

He's never exercised and he only consumes Diet Coke. He shouldn't be this hard to miss,

[Jill Savage]

really, at this point, I'm just waiting for that death certificate. Send us that death certificate so we can prove that that man is going to be 10ft under the ground and burning in hell before we all celebrate. Real shooters don't miss.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Our first lady Melania is here. Look at Melania.

[Steve Dace]

So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. I'm not going to any more events

[Aaron McIntyre]

where Trump's at him.

[Steve Dace]

I don't feel safe. This is what we believe. You're right. I got Trump derangement syndrome. I hate the mother. And you know what? I want to watch him suffer, and I can't watch a dead person suffer. So I want him to be fully cognizant come November. I'm not going to any more events

[Aaron McIntyre]

where Trump's at him.

[Steve Dace]

I don't feel safe.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Remember that it's been Donald Trump and the Republicans that have called for political violence. I have no responsibility. I have no problem with Donald Trump at all. I mean, I talk about the policies

[Steve Dace]

of this administration, the authoritarianism. Yeah, kill them. Kill those mothers and murder those mothers in the street.

[Todd Erzin]

Let the streets. Let the streets soak in their ing red capitalist bloods.

[Steve Dace]

I'm not going to any more events

[Aaron McIntyre]

where Trump's at him.

[Steve Dace]

I don't feel safe.

[Jill Savage]

He also wrote this. I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction?

[Steve Dace]

Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're. You're.

[Todd Erzin]

You're horrible people.

[Steve Dace]

Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody.

[Jill Savage]

Oh, you think he was referring to you?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Excuse me? Maximum warfare everywhere, all the time, in connection with the redistricting battle that Republicans launched. I stand by it. You can continue to criticize me for it. I don't give a damn about your criticism.

[Jill Savage]

So Minnesotans.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, not Minnesotans.

[Jill Savage]

Somalis brought more than just. More than just built the economy. They didn't just build the economy. But we contribute to the soul of this great state. Cuba has a remarkable public health system. I think the claims that millionaires are

[Aaron McIntyre]

going to leave our state are like super overblown.

[Jill Savage]

And if you know the ones that leave like, bye.

[Todd Erzin]

New York City faces a budget crisis of a historic magnitude.

[Steve Dace]

So Aaron, everybody, literally, including my mother in law is telling me that there was an echoed reverb throughout all of that. No, I don't know. Yeah, because we're not hearing anything on our end.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Absolutely nothing on iHeart. It doesn't even seem to be playing our show so well.

[Steve Dace]

Iheart is like, I don't even know why are we even listed there? I mean seriously, if I don't get an email from somebody about something went wrong at iheart then I mean, I'm looking for a star in the east at this point. I mean that just, that's a day that ends in Y and has gone on for literally years. And I've just given up trying to figure out that that's ever going to get figured out. So I just delete all those notes. So if you're on iheart, stop. I mean there's no point listening over there watching. I mean, I can't help you. I mean, I mean I'm not kidding you. There's something from my heart in my inbox like every single day for literally years. Years. I've just, that's how I know that it's a day in Y. All right, if it's a day, that day and that ends in Y, if it's a weekday, if it's a broadcast day, a day that I'm supposed to report to work. I know because there's a note, someone complaining about I heart. All right, except I don't think my mother in law knows what I heart is. So I don't think she was watching on that. So where are we? Are we anywhere?

[Todd Erzin]

Carrier pigeons? Should I learn sign? Whatever way we can get.

[Steve Dace]

What about owls? Can we get some owls from Hogwarts maybe? Jill, let's start with you. What was the most vile thing that you just saw and why?

[Jill Savage]

Well, let's just start out with. Is the production of today's show about the level of the Secret Service right now around Donald Trump? Are they, are they anywhere close to one another? Because if we continue to let people in the building, you know, in a hotel that he's at with actual weapons, like this is not, this is not going well, you guys. The production so far on this show, we're already off the rails. We're only a couple minutes into this, but you see in that video montage that Aaron laid out, this is how we get here. Now, I'm not going to say that they need to stop saying these things on the left. Now. Would I like them to tone down the rhetoric?

[Todd Erzin]

Sure.

[Jill Savage]

But do I think that it's useful for them to go out and just reveal who they are, pull the mask off, you know, it's free speech in this country. If you want to say that this is how you feel, by all means. But I hope that you will be getting a knock on your door. I hope you know that those that are set to be in charge of protecting the President are actually going to be following through with this. Because at this point in time now, three, three different attempts, right. Like, we know this isn't going to slow down anytime soon. If the midterms don't go the way that the Republicans want them to. I would assume that all of this is going to continue ratcheting up after November because their guys are going to be closer in line. You know, they have Donald Trump and J.D. vance at this point. Like, the rhetoric that we see right now is almost. It's definitely not welcome. It's not that. It's, it's just something that we understand exactly where we are. They are showing us exactly what they believe in this point in time. And I would take truth, you know, just the honest truth over them trying to sugarcoat anything, like we know exactly what we're facing now.

[Steve Dace]

All right, let's, let's follow up on Jill's contention here. What if we just sent. Secret Service, FBI, the Trump administration just sent people out and just rounded all these people up for these comments because these are really all crimes. I mean, to openly discuss and advocate and espouse the assassination of a president is absolutely not considered free speech by pretty much every legal precedent in America. All right, so what if they just rounded them all up? Normie voters respond. How do they not care? Are they offended?

[Todd Erzin]

I'm not sure I care. I think I, I want truth and justice. I mean, I'll take not.

[Steve Dace]

You're not sure you care what the normie voters think because you just want it done? Is that what you're saying?

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

And that's really the only way through on this and many, many other issues. If you constantly. I understand the near term election, the one that's coming up right now, but we have a psychology problem and the words that people use. We talked about this on a different issue, this with a different guesses. Here this week. The words that people use actually change how people think. And we have got to show them that there are consequences for this. There must be.

[Steve Dace]

Aaron, same question to you. What do you think? How would the normie public respond to just rounding up all these TikTok moms and these public officials just rounding them up because they're committing crimes of advocating for the assassination of a president?

[Aaron McIntyre]

How do you think the normies would react? My answer is I really don't care. I'd like to just, I'd like to find out how they react because you just. We've said this for years. How many more years can we say it? How many more different ways to say it can we think of? You just can't share a country with that they don't intend to share a country with you. And the normalization. Oh, we can't normalize political violence. It's already normalized. So how do we unnormalize it? Maximum prejudice against those who are just bathing in it, wallowing in it, just dreaming of it. Maximum prejudice against those instincts because that's going to disintegrate faster than anything.

[Steve Dace]

All right, Todd, what stood out to you about the montage?

[Todd Erzin]

What's the gal who interviewed Trump? What's her name? Martha?

[Steve Dace]

Is it something o', Donnell, isn't it Nora o'?

[Jill Savage]

Donnell?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, yeah, just the, all the corporate media people, they all look like to

[Todd Erzin]

me, the feigning, the faint. You thought when I read that that was talking about you. They're pathological liars. Journalism is magical and not at all broken. Means that Chuck Todd, again, pathological liar. That montage isn't a surprise to him, although we should spam him with it like after this. Aaron, like just publicly on every social. Shove it down Chuck Todd's throat, make sure he sees that they're enemies of the state. And I don't. You're never going to do anything with just a laugh track against these people. They need to be beaten with severe prejudice and, and that means making sure that they go out of business in every way, shape and form that is possible. Trump has flirted with lawsuits with them in the past that unfortunately been have been more word than deed. Really? Why? Why have anything to do with these people?

[Steve Dace]

Jill, I compared the other day on the show. I'd like to get your take on this as a chick. I compared Chuck Todd's comments on this the other day on the show to the equivalent of, well, of course, you know, if you're going to dress like that, you're gonna Wear those bleep me pumps. Of course you had it coming. I mean, would you. I mean, if you're gonna. I mean. I mean, if you're gonna instigate, you're gonna provoke him like that, right? I mean, if you're gonna dress like that, I mean, kind of. You had it. Come and talk. That's essentially what I hear Chuck Todd saying. I mean, that Trump is provoking these people to craziness, and so therefore he just has to stay away because he's to blame for all the times they keep trying to shoot him. Did I go too far with that analogy? What do you think?

[Jill Savage]

No, because if we go with our friend Jesse Kelly, he would always say, the street communists, right? All the leftists are being riled up by the street communists. They know what they're doing when they say this. So you can't on one hand be the leftists that are getting everybody all agitated, ready to go, and then when it actually happens, be like, I'm so shocked that anybody actually followed through with this. No. At that point in time, you are exactly in line with the words and deeds that you have already done. This is just one of the things that is so infuriating that you look at what is being just allowed to be said in the country. And again, if you want to have the free speech stuff, fine, as long as it doesn't cross the line of actually trying to go and kill somebody, then you have a right to say certain things that you want to say in this country. But it gets so annoying, you guys, because I think that what we always go back to on this show is like, do you know what time it is? And I think that people are forgetting that right now in this Trump administration. Our guy won. Things aren't going as well as we thought that they would, but we've lost the plot, I feel like, at this point.

[Steve Dace]

Aaron, what about your montage? Shout out to you.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It is that Norah o', Donnell, the dude survived yet another close call assassination attempt less than 24 hours after or before that interview. She sets this up. We played the fuller clip or the broader clip earlier. She sets this up. This manifesto is about you, Mr. President.

[Todd Erzin]

That's.

[Aaron McIntyre]

She basically said that without saying that. And she wants to play sub room temperature IQ word games after that. Oh, you thought that was talking about you. That is just. That goes beyond journalism, is not. Is magical and not at all broken. That's just a crappy human being. Yes, it is just a crappy human being.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, isn't that what we saw at the dinner. Hey, guys, grab those bar. Grab those jars or those bottles of champagne and make sure to take all the selfies we can. You know, after it was nearly just a mass shooting here. I mean, that kind of gives you an idea of the class of people we're dealing with here, right? Like I said, this is a general rule.

[Todd Erzin]

They are literally enemies of the state.

[Steve Dace]

100% they are. No question about it. All right, let's get to the exit question. Okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the odds Tucker Carlson won't do a show about Israel ever again because it's literally the only show he does every single day, every day. 10 being the odds he'll be a holocaust denier by the end of this year. Todd, rank this week's level of total depravity. What do you think?

[Todd Erzin]

10. Jill is right. We've lost the script, and we got to keep reminding ourselves. 10. 10. 10.

[Steve Dace]

All right, Aaron, what do you think it is? Aaron's a 10.

[Aaron McIntyre]

10.

[Steve Dace]

Jill, what about you?

[Jill Savage]

Solid. Lindsey Graham. 10. We had to get him in there.

[Steve Dace]

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[Aaron McIntyre]

Don't look now, it seems there are some signs of life at the Department of Justice. In just the past week and a half or so, there have been indictments against the Southern Poverty Law center for allegedly funding the very groups and conservatives at large, by extension, that they were attempting to discredit. Then we learned of the criminal indictment of former niaID director Anthony Fauci's top advisor, David Morens, on allegations he destroyed and or tampered with federal records during the COVID pandemic. Also in Minnesota, warrants were executed related to the ongoing massive fraud saga in the Gopher State, focusing on austere institutions like the Quality Leering Center. And former FBI Director James Comey was indicted this week for threatening bodily harm on President Trump stemming from a social media post he made around this time last May. Still much work to be done, but what a run for the doj.

[Steve Dace]

And it's amazing how this has all happened just in the last few weeks since Pam Bondi was fired. Funny how that works. So let's get to the first question. Jill, I'll start with you again because we discussed this ourselves a couple days ago. So let's start with a fresh voice on this. Are we finally getting some of the accountability that we voted for here?

[Jill Savage]

Well, it's funny what happens when you have somebody in charge that their top priority isn't just going on Fox News interviews. Weird how you can actually get something done in a very short amount of time there in Washington, D.C. now, is this the accountability that we voted for? I would need this like times 100. You guys going to give them just the one week of good stuff that we have going for us because we have so many things that we need to get done in this country. And I would go back to probably last year. Was it March or April of last year where they were shutting down usaid? And you look at the incremental steps Trump came out of the gate. It was the shock and awe with executive orders. There were things that were getting done all the time. But where did phase two start coming in? We had to wait until now. Right. Like this month is when phase two of the Trump administration, administration getting things done really starts happening. Now. One of the things that I will always continue to go back to is the weaponization of government and the inability for them to do that, no matter who wins in 2028 or not, and we still have the FBI basically completely intact at this point in time. You look at Cash Patel, when he was going through the nomination process, he was saying that he was gonna have the Hoover Building, was going to be a deep state museum. Well, what are we getting right now from Kash Patel is anytime that there is some bad PR from him, then we turn around and get some firings or something happens with the FBI. No, no, that is not enough for what we're facing right now. If the Democrats win in 2028, digital gulags are going to be the best that we have to hope for. So we need to really get things turned around and we need to start going at this pace that Aaron had in that montage. We need to do that for the rest of the time that we have with Donald Trump office, or we're going to be in a world of hurt.

[Steve Dace]

All right, what do you say, Todd? You're nodding your head yes.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I agree. And of course, it's not a coincidence that is happening now that Bondi's gone, but it's also not a coincidence, I fear. So we're getting the ball rolling, but motivations do matter in terms of sustainability. This is also going on now because of Iran and because of the economy. And I fear that the thing that we wanted most, this level of accountability, is just something that is being done to placate us instead of being done on principle. And if that's being the case, again, near term, good, long term, it just won't be sustainable. And again, I've also fear, we talked about this on the show before, that level of accountability. I think everybody knows these assassination attempts, the shoddy security everywhere, I just think everybody knows there's doing the right thing is going to be very, very messy. You're going to get rid of all kinds of people who know all kinds of deep, dark secrets, and they're going to go everywhere. And that's really what keeps a lot of people from doing anything. I mean, it's the Epstein list, times a million.

[Steve Dace]

I think the point you just made is fantastic. Tragic, but, yeah, fantastic. I mean, you just don't have an embedded system of power for this long with this much access to a printing press of unlimited paper, apparently to pay people off. You know, I'd forgotten about USAID that Jill just invoked a few minutes ago. The grifting schemes, the patronage schemes that existed here to fund all of this and keep all of this going for how many years?

[Todd Erzin]

It's a mile.

[Steve Dace]

Decades. Yes. And you're really kind of describing District 1 in the Hunger Games and the idea that to get what we want out of this will not come with a severe amount of collateral damage all the way, every step of the way through. I mean, I was trying to pull out this. This weed last night that had popped through my deck as I'm getting things ready for spring. You know, so I climb under the deck, you know, with the. With the clippers to cut this thing off, and all of a sudden I recognized this thing has been growing down there under my. Under my deck for years. I mean, given the level of thickness coming right out of winter and everything, if it's this thick and it's this embedded, I mean, I've got to move all the landscaping rocks. I'm, like, digging holes with my hands to get down to where the root of this thing is, because it's been there so long under the surface. Are you guys following my analogy here? It's been there under the surface that I didn't recognize how long it had actually been growing underneath there until it popped up and started growing through my deck. And it wasn't until I cut that off that I then went underneath and saw, oh, this thing's been here a while and it's festered. Are you following the word picture I'm making here?

[Aaron McIntyre]

And the word picture that I have in mind is that Pam Bondi is, like, over on the far reaches of your fence or your property line with a binder.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. Yes. Yelling at it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

And vamping, you know, vamping for the cameras that we're going to get rid of this thing. Yes.

[Todd Erzin]

So let's talk about that normie voter again that we talked about earlier. Here's the problem that the normie voter is. Is going to deeply, deeply resent cleaning up. They will clean up the swamp, give me what I want. They're not going to want it the way it needs to be done. And then they're going to just say, give us Barabbas. That's the problem.

[Steve Dace]

Aaron, what do you think?

[Aaron McIntyre]

So that was an excellent word picture. Good for you. Getting hands dirty and getting holes dug and things taken care of. But ultimately, I think calling Pam Bondi a traitor to the Republic, and this is not all on her. It wasn't Pam Bondi's fault that the Department of Justice, for many a moon, had been weaponized against the American people, but she was the one in the moment, when the time was right. She was the one who was supposed to be in that position to clean house. And that interest of not doing anything compounds daily. We lost over a year because of her inaction and or inability to do what needs to be done to hold people accountable. And yet in a few weeks after she exited stage left, or stage right, whichever one it is, we get this. Who knows if there are going to be convictions for David Morens? Who knows? Maybe he'll sing. Maybe he'll sing. Who knows if there's going to be a conviction for James Comey. I saw the other day there might be some other charges coming down the pike for him unrelated to the 8647 post. Who knows if there will be actual convictions. You know what's good, though, is that people are now starting to think twice. Maybe, hopefully, if I do this, if I say this, if I post this, I might have to get my mugshot taken when previously, previously, you could just do that. You could just do that to your heart's content, your heart's delight. At the very least. There's something there that's being accomplished. With Bondi at the helm, there was nothing. And we wasted over a year on this, for sure. Not only wasted a year with the Epstein stuff, the Epstein folders, the binders, what have you. That started to blow back against the president. Ok, so this was just an. She was an unmitigated disaster. An unmitigated disaster.

[Steve Dace]

If only someone had known this and predicted it the day that her name was floated. Digress. You're just all blindsided. There was a little development that happened the other day, and we have a policy on our show, and we've had it really, since about the first month of Trump's first term. Okay. That we just don't comment on things that are either from anonymous sources about him or in. From them. Okay. Because we have, we have seen that our opponents are just, they're, they're totally fine with complete and total gaslighting where Trump is concerned. And. But we also know that Trump has no problem with an obfuscation here or there either in response to their gaslighting. Right. And so it just puts me in a position. How do I even know when I'm commenting on. It took me like three times in Trump's first term to say if this is true, and then it never turned out to be true. Then I'm like, I'm just not doing that anymore. And so we've largely had that policy in place for like 10 years now. Right. I'm gonna break it, but I'm gonna explain why. There was an article someone in the know a birdie of mine sent me from Axios and it was pointing fingers at Susie Wiles in defense of Cash Patel. And you're saying that essentially the West Wing because you know, we had Robert Malone on the show last week saying the West Wing is essentially hog tie in RFK junior Down. Right. And this was essentially saying that, that the FBI under Patel has wanted to be more aggressive the entire time and the West Wing led by Susie Wiles would not allow it. And it almost reads like Cash Patel, like ghost wrote these quotes and sent them off to Axios. They're so specific, ok. And so glowing about Cash Patel. I would have never brought it up at all, at all. And I would not risk breaking and violating our own policy except for this. Did you guys see out of nowhere two days ago that Susie Wiles announced she's. She's going on Twitter? Yep. No, I didn't like the day after this article.

[Jill Savage]

Oh yeah.

[Steve Dace]

The day after this article came out, Susie Wild said hey guys, now she's battling like breast cancer and stuff. I mean she's got some things going on. Okay. You know, so she is the chief of staff to the United States. So you know, pray for her obviously. But did you see that she kind of announced out of there. That was the day after this Axios article ran and she said hey guys, I'm gonna be on Twitter. Just want to make sure, you know, everybody keeps up to date on what's really going on with the administration kind of a thing. And that's what made me kind of think maybe there was something to that article. So is the show ombudsman your thoughts, Todd?

[Todd Erzin]

Well, it's too.

[Steve Dace]

That's a hell of coincidence. If it's nothing. Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

We're going to find out how good Donald Trump is at if he's learned anything about personnel as policy and how often he was shanked in the first term and yes did better the second time around because listen, trust but verify at the very least because I mean, I don't know you should you all your spidey senses if you're Donald Trump should be going off because you don't. You love social media. You don't need her as you know to go out there. You don't even like people taking attention from you in that way. You know, a different spotlight. So this her motivations seem utterly compromised for doing this. And Donald Trump, if he doesn't understand that I, I'm concerned.

[Steve Dace]

Exit question if your confidence we're going to see someone that matters go to prison for what they've done to this country. If it were an Elton John song, which Elton John song would it be? A, Philadelphia Freedom as in hell. Ja. B, Don't Go Breaking My Heart. I can't. I just. I can't believe. Again. I can't do it again. I can't.

[Todd Erzin]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

Or C, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I've already tapped out. I'm out. I'm just. I've already given up the ghost on this.

[Todd Erzin]

Don't Go Breaking My Heart.

[Steve Dace]

That's where you're at. All right, so you are in trust by verify mode.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Or verify then. Trust mode maybe is the way you would put it. All right, Aaron, what say you?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't think I'm allowed C. So I'm definitely a B.

[Steve Dace]

B. All right. What do you think, Jill?

[Jill Savage]

I'll be the downer. It's C. It's not going to happen, guys.

[Steve Dace]

Come on. So what happens to Morins do you think then, Jill?

[Jill Savage]

Nothing. Prove it to me first. Prove it. Prove that.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, something will happen. I mean, there's an indictment. I mean, they're going to have to do that. But they just got to go, hey, we forgot and we didn't follow through. Nothing. I mean, something will have to happen, right? There's an indictment there. I mean, now it may. The something might be a slap on the wrist or, you know, something our

[Jill Savage]

audience would not be okay with whatever the outcome is going to be. That's what I'm thinking.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, that's a better way. That's more pinpoint. All right, that is, whatever. Whatever. Whatever the song is, it's not satisfactory. Okay? Not satisfactory.

[Todd Erzin]

It's the same thing with the swamp. If. If he's found guilty, it has tentacles that reach so far and so wide. And all kinds of people right now are saying, make this go away, please. God.

[Steve Dace]

So Joe went off the board and said, I guess that's why they call that. They call it the blue. She went with that song. Went off the board, I guess. All right, we'll come back. How do we fix this economy? We'll get into that here next. Stay tuned. The steve day show. All right, back here on the Steve Day show, we're powered by our friends over at Jace Medical. Supply chain issues, sadly, we know are no longer rare. All right? And when you look at the oil that we lost access to in the last month, it's used in every step of getting you your meds from acting as a base ingredient in manufacturing and Shipping and also when it comes to delivery. So the best response, make sure you're prepared with the things you need right now at home. Jace Medical helps families do that. Get the OG Jace case prescription antibiotics and emergency medications for common infections to serious issues. Then there's the Jace Daily. That's up to a 12 month backup supply of your everyday prescriptions so that you've got that peace of mind to go on. And there's so much more that they offer as well, just in case that can never happen here. Happens here again and again and again because it does. All right, so enter the promo code DACE at checkout for a discount on your order. That's promo codE-E-E J-A-Com promo code dacejase.com for the discount. All right, we have an update on the reverb and I wanted to give the audience an update because this is some. The TV just flinging itself off the TV shelf level stuff in our hotel room last week. Level stuff. Todd. I mean this is again, this is crazy. Aaron, what happened?

[Aaron McIntyre]

So I noticed as I was trying to troubleshoot with our engineers, one channel that is usually not active, but it's muted, it's potted down in our mixer. I noticed that there was audio that was kind of tracking just a little bit delayed with all of our voices, all of the elements that we were playing. So I let them know, hey, I see this active. And it's usually not active even though we couldn't hear it because it was muted on our channel. And so sure enough, there's this box, it's called a Comrex brick. We have not used it at all this year because we've started playing elements, bumpers, things like that just locally here out of our studio. We're not relying on Dallas for this, so we didn't need. This box. Hasn't been active all year. It's still plugged in. It randomly decided to connect automatically and it started looping our audio into our tv, our encoder. So it was coming from us, but we couldn't tell because it was past the point of our mixer in the broadcast flow chart, if you will. So I don't know why it did this.

[Steve Dace]

Just randomly activated it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I mean we were, we were working on this element to try to help you guys out when you were in Dallas last week. But why wouldn't have started acting up any other day this week except for this day. It just randomly decided to turn on. So in the middle of the segment I actually got up, ran to our rack, unplugged it, and we're just going to leave it unplugged. Oh, and by the way, by the way, our engineers were able to disconnect this by themselves, but it kept reconnecting automatically. That's why you heard it go away, heard the echo go away, heard the reverb delay, whatever you want to call it, go away, come back, and then when you heard it go off again, sound normal again. That's when I was. That's when I unplugged it.

[Todd Erzin]

Did this start the minute that Jill said Lindsey Graham?

[Steve Dace]

No, this started a while ago.

[Aaron McIntyre]

The thing with the DACE Group bumper. I would like to say that that was a gremlin. That was just me being stupid.

[Steve Dace]

So, you know, I've seen this before. I've seen stuff like this before. Probably just a coincidence. You know, I'll leave it at that. Let's get to issue three. How do we fix this?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Americans are still feeling pinched. According to a Gallup survey out this week, 55% of respondents to a poll conducted in April said their financial situation is getting worse. That's up from 53% last year and 47% in 2024. That Gallup number is the highest since 2001, higher than the recession of 2008 onward. And the Gallup survey identified energy prices as being a key concern, along with inflation, though the latter figure has come down since its peak in the Biden administration. At the same time, there are some positive economic numbers coming out this week. Consumer sentiment ticked up, and jobless claims beat expectations. Recent News also has US capital goods orders jumping by the highest mark since 2020. Redistricting, bluster, Gallup polls, government numbers. The 2026 midterms are six months away. They will be the final verdict on the state of the economy.

[Steve Dace]

All right, so, Jill, this is in your wheelhouse then. Okay, Way I do, way I see it, we've got five months to fix this. All right? We've got to have this. We've got to have much of this fixed by the end of September because early voting will be starting and everything else right around then. Okay? So. And a lot of our geese are going to be cooked. So how do we fix this, Jill? What do we do?

[Jill Savage]

This is in your wheelhouse with the war in Iran. And you just look at. It was four to six weeks that they told us that we were going to be there. I was on the show with you guys the first week of March, and we were just like, how long is this thing going to go on for. Well, you know, we're nine weeks into it right now with really no end in sight. And, you know, people are talking about the energy prices. Well, of course, when you look at cost of living, you know, you have your housing, the insurance costs, costs to all, the cost of food, ground beef is at the highest levels that it has been. And it's expected, it's forecasted to go up 10 to 18% more throughout the end of the year. So if you can't get gas prices down, which is just going to be the front end of everything else that you're going to buy, if gas and diesel continue to stay high, you can't look at anything else, all the prices of everything else that you're going to buy to come down anytime soon. So to me, all of this is still going to be centered with the war in Iran. And another thing that you look at is the insurance. And our friend Riley Gaines, she put out there an X earlier this week that she had her baby seven months ago, and she just randomly got a $3,000 bill from the hospital. And it's like, oh, here you had a baby, but we're gonna wait seven months and then we're gonna send you another check, another bill for thousands of dollars. So the system is broken in so many different places right now that it's very difficult for the American consumer to get out from underneath any of this. And then you go back to Donald Trump and the prom, where he was going to go through and deport everybody. Well, we really have changed the messaging for that. And now he just says that he wants to see the criminals to be deported. And I think that if you just went through on that and you got rid of the millions and millions of people that are weighing down the system where you have the higher insurance costs, the housing costs, right. You have so many extra people in this country. If you just start getting rid of some of them, it will make it a lot easier for the people that are actually supposed to be here.

[Steve Dace]

All right, Aaron, how feasible is what Jill just said?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, with the right political will, eminently feasible. That's my answer. It's just a matter of the political will. Now, when it comes to removing, you know, it's not fast enough, but it's a hell of a lot better than we would have gotten with Kamala. But hell of a lot better than fill in the blank is no standard, especially when the state of the republic is what it is. But nevertheless, we should be thankful that there's some deportation, some expulsion happening when it comes to the broader economy. However, I really think in the short term, this all has to do with Iran. It really does. And I really don't know. I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer, because I think the success we've had militarily, divorce, just in a vacuum, is incredible. But all of the downstream impacts of crude and all of the derivatives of crude oil that we, that we experience in one way or another, not just at the gas pump, we really haven't. We haven't begun to really feel that impact yet. And all of those exports to the countries like India, especially China, those, I don't really think the globe has even begun to experience that yet. So in the short term, I think this all has to do with Iran. And I'm not really sure there's a plan in place necessarily. I'm sure there is a plan. I want to give them more of a. But I have not heard an articulated plan or an articulated wind down to this. And as we talked about earlier this week, you know, call it the sunk cost fallacy if you want, but call it political reality, I think you have to, if you're going, if you've gone this far with Iran, you have to see it all the way through. So I'm not really sure if there is much to fixing this in the short term.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, same question to you.

[Todd Erzin]

I totally agree, which is why I said I think we're getting the consequences to her this week, and I think that'll continue at least until the election. And then I think we're going to get a lot of July 4th jingoism. And the less left is stupid. There's just nothing to be done in the very short term that can ultimately rescue him from the consequences of this decisions. Even Iran, etc. Even if it's correct, even if there's legitimate reasons for holding tight on immigration a little bit, finding those half measures that Jill is talking about, people are just psychologically, they've already been programmed. The best you can hope for is much cheaper gas. And that like takes the edge off of the hangover.

[Steve Dace]

So at the end of February, which is when we basically cut our losses in Minneapolis was in the end of February because it was like a week or two later that we launched this war at the end of February. On February 28, Trump's approval rating on the RCP average was underwater by 11 points. 44% approved, 55% disapproved. Okay. It currently stands at RCP at minus 16. 57% disapprove. 41% approve. And again, I detest the Iranian regime. I am fine if we kill every single member of their high command. Praise Jesus, it's Romans 13 in action. Okay, but we had to run off, run away from Minneapolis because we couldn't take the political hit. We're taking a massive political hit for this. Just let me just a quick random. Let's do this for the exit poll, let's do this for the exit question. If we were gonna suffer a minus 16 for Trump's approval rating as we currently are, would you have rather have done it over war with Iran or deporting the invaders, which one would you rather have taken the hit for? Todd?

[Todd Erzin]

Deporting the invader, A deporting Jill.

[Jill Savage]

Deport them all.

[Steve Dace]

I don't disagree with all of you.

[Todd Erzin]

That's what I'm talking about. We've been psychologically programmed. Even if we do get cheaper gases, this level of frustration is just baked into the near term cake.

[Steve Dace]

At some point, at some point, we need to risk some political capital for what's happening here on our own continent. At some point we do. At some point we do.

[Jill Savage]

We called America first.

[Steve Dace]

On something we do. On something we do.

[Todd Erzin]

There's just too much money, Steve.

[Steve Dace]

On something we have to risk the political capital we have on things that will immediately impact the lives of the folks that live here. At some point we do.

[Todd Erzin]

We're too comfortable. We don't have to, we don't want to.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I have a schizo unifying theory about the Middle east that you could make that case about Iran now. It'd be really complicated, but I don't hear that case being made. It's just basically we've got an old grudge, a 47 year grudge against this country and it's time for this grudge to meet its conclusion. That doesn't really say America first. That just screams grudge.

[Steve Dace]

Let's get to the kicker topic. If you could unilaterally impose one economic policy fix right now, what would it be and why? Jill, I'll start with you.

[Jill Savage]

I'm going to stick with the. Deport them all. I want them to go away. Because if you do that, then we're not paying the crazy outlandish cost.

[Steve Dace]

More housing, more housing is available, Housing, wages would go up.

[Jill Savage]

Costs for every single American will be, will be reduced overnight. If we just take 10 million people out of the country.

[Steve Dace]

I don't, I don't disagree with that. Todd.

[Todd Erzin]

Make the ESA funding that has been legal here in Iowa for three, four years now. Make that the state of the union across the entire nation, that makes people fluid in a new way and it breaks the back of public schools, is the main spender in every state's economy, totally reshapes things.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Aaron, get rid of the national income tax and go to a flat sales tax. That cannot be changed without a super majority of Congress.

[Steve Dace]

So essentially God's tax, that's what God did. It's 10%. Everybody paid the same rate.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That way your policies are directly tied to how much revenue the government can take in. That's the idea.

[Steve Dace]

Anyway, one last thing on Iran really quickly. Ok. Bonus exit question. Should we have just told people from the outset this is a regime change war. We're not doing Iraq again. We're not sending over a half a million troops. There's not going to be that invading land force. But this regime has to go rather than it's almost been over for five weeks. What I mean again, I don't want to tell maybe the greatest pitch man in the history of this country, you know, let me be your backseat driver. But should we have just said to people up front this is a regime change war. It's going to take some time. These people have to go. Our Arab allies want them gone too. Right. So stick with us for a few months while we get rid of them. We're not, you know, calling up half the National Guard like Bush did for Iraq and Afghan, not doing any of that. All right. But this will be a multifaceted attempt to remove this regime once and for all so they cannot interrupt the free flow of oil for their terrorist acts ever again. Should we have just told people this from the outset rather than it's almost been over for four straight, five straight weeks now?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

You don't think we should have done that.

[Todd Erzin]

Okay. For all the reasons that. Well, some of the reasons that drove you nuts about Iraq. Fill it with what they know what happened in Iraq, even though that's pretty

[Steve Dace]

clear what we're doing here now at this point. Right. That's what the siege strategy and we're doing a regime change. It's pretty clear. Right. That's what's going to happen.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, to. And with what though?

[Steve Dace]

I don't have the answers to those. But I don't work in the State Department or the Department of Nobody.

[Todd Erzin]

Nobody. Nobody.

[Steve Dace]

But I think that's pretty obvious what we're doing now. There's no other reason to expand this to the Strait of Hormuz and there's no other reason to have done anything to continue on what we're doing that. I can see, barring we're just. We're doing a regime change. I think that's just pretty obvious.

[Todd Erzin]

And then instantly you're gonna have to deal with the fact that people will tell you you shouldn't have done it at all.

[Steve Dace]

All right, you guys have just give me a yes or no answer so I have time for predictions. Should we have done that or was this messaging the right way? Yes or no?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. We should have admitted it was regime change from the start. Okay, Jill, what do you think?

[Jill Savage]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, predictions. Aaron, I'll start with you.

[Todd Erzin]

Go.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I predict that next week we will see zero engineering snafus. And I'm just going, if we do, they're all nefarious.

[Steve Dace]

Well, like I said, probably just a coincidence, Todd.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, we are. We are sprinting to the day. It's sooner than ever before, where instead of the Michigan Wolverines against the Ohio State Buckeyes, it is going to be the Michigan ass hats versus the Ohio State Buck nuts. Because that's the only way they're going to break the back of this idolatry is just say you do not get the colors, you do not get the auto anymore. You want to be proud? Go be pro. Stop having both. This is all a lie. You've all cucked yourself.

[Steve Dace]

That's a. That's a polemic, not a prediction. Different P word.

[Todd Erzin]

No, that's a. Either way, that's. That's what I got.

[Steve Dace]

All right. All right, Jill, go ahead.

[Jill Savage]

The rest of us are just counting down to college football while Todd just sits there. It's okay. My prediction is that everybody in your audience is going to be excited because Matt Peterson and I are going to get back together for a podcast. It's called Exit Memos, and it's going to be about people, you know, leaving legacy institutions. They're reshaping power and building what comes next. Matt has been on the forefront of the parallel economy. So everybody go to Exit Memos on X and start following it. Like, we literally just launched that page like a day or two ago. Like, it's so new, my mom doesn't even know about it yet.

[Steve Dace]

Well, now she does. With an echo, maybe even thrown in. So good. That's. Congratulations. Pass that along to Matt for me as well. So good to see you guys back together. That's good.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right.

[Steve Dace]

I've been teasing this prediction for the last couple of days. With the UAE leaving opec, I think what you're watching is that Trump is going to create an alternative oil cartel, consortium, partnership, whatever you want to call it, of nations who want peace in the region and a de escalation of radicalism. That's what I think is happening here. And long term, I think this will be greatly to our benefit. The problem is the cost of doing this may cost us in the short term 60 House seats. And so it'll be a great benefit long term to another president down the line, more so than this one. That's my fear. But I think that's what you're watching take place right now. There's a complete resetting of the oil

[Aaron McIntyre]

markets in the world, us, Venezuela, uae. Yep, that's a heck of a three starting founding members of whatever this cartel.

[Steve Dace]

Correct. And if you're the president in 2032, man, you're gonna, you're gonna print money off of this. But that won't be Donald Trump. Good to see you, Jill. Hour two is next. And we're back here with hour two live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio and podcast alongside Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve Dace. You can let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedace.com inbox. Take advantage of that by emailing the show [e-mail] that's D E A C E like us on Facebook, Me, we and Gab. You can follow me at steveday show on X Instagram and Tick Tock. Also subscribe to our new YouTube channel at Day show on YouTube. That's at Day show on YouTube. And then also you make sure to subscribe to the podcast if you like that variation of the program. And you do that by just hitting the subscribe button or if you're on Apple, itunes, hit follow. And that's how you're going to know for sure that every time we do a new episode of this podcast, it's right there in your feed. For sure. Every time. You can also for sure be one of the tens of thousands to leave us a five star review. And we for sure love each and every one of you that have done that for us. Add yours today on your podcast platform of preference. Also today is opening day for the latest iteration of one of my all time favorite works, one of the great works, I think in modern Western literature, George Orwell's Animal Farm A Cautionary Tale. Now, some of the marketing and concerns about this film are also cautionary. So right now I'm planning to go see it tomorrow and then I'll let you know what I think. All right. I understand a lot of left wing stars are claiming that it's actually anti capitalistic, but we'll see. I'm not entirely sure that that's true. All right. And I would be stunned if angel let this happen to the degree that maybe some of these left wing stars are trying to sell it on social media. But your tickets are available today because it opens today when you go to angel.com animal farm that's angel.com animal farm recommended for ages 11 and up. And angel says, hey, this actually will help you, you and your children to have meaningful conversations about power, corruption and also freedom. Angel.com Animal Farm tickets available. Opens nationwide, in theaters today. And also it opened this week over on BlazeTV, the sixth and final installment of the COVID up series that we have been doing over the last couple of years, looking at the origins and true machinations of the scamdemic. Episode six is out now. You get $40 off an annual subscription to Blaze TV so you can watch that and then all the other episodes you missed with the Code Lab leak when you go to fauci coverup.com dace that's fauci coverup.com daish use the code lab leak for $40 off your annual subscription so you can watch all of that and all of the stuff we do. Exclusively for advertiser. I'm sorry, exclusively for subscribers here at BlazeTV. That's Fauci coverup.com Dace using the code lab leak for $40 off Alrighty, are we ready for some feedback Friday?

[Todd Erzin]

Let's go.

[Steve Dace]

All right, let's crank it up. Okay, I want to start with this handwritten or hand typed note I received at our mailbox from Michael Cook. I hope this letter finds the three of you well and encourages the three of you. I wanted to let you guys know the impact that your show has had on my life since I first came across this little podcast called the Steve Day show in the spring of 2020. You were at roughly 89,000 followers on the artist known as Twitter at the time. Now we're about to 300,000. And I learned about you and who Nefarious was through an interview that you did with Michael Knowles. And that's right, I did go over as we were just beginning, the pre production for the Daily Wire was still all out in LA at that time. They had not yet moved to Nashville and I was heading out to begin pre production for Nefarious when Gavin Newsom briefly opened the state of California in June of 2020. Then he closed it again shortly thereafter. But I went out there and while I was out there, they called me and said, hey, why don't you come over here? And Michael Knowles, love to have you. And so that's when Michael and I met for the first time too. So, yeah, good times. That's maybe the only time I'm ever going to fly into LAX again the rest of my life. Because LAX is a. It's a thing. But In June of 2020, it was wide open spaces. Dixie Chicks. All right. You guys thought you heard an echo over your speakers in the first hour. Walk through a panicked LAX during a scamdemic and everybody there is convinced it's the end of the world. Plenty of seats still available all throughout lax. Man. It was a. It was a pretty comfortable experience that you don't typically get going to lax. That's right. Michael goes on to say, it's been. It's been quite the season of spiritual warfare for our family over the last two years, including a potentially life threatening medical diagnosis. We had to move seven times in one year following a move across country from Memphis to Colorado to help our family in the healing process. I wrote my own book on spiritual warfare. But I really wanted to include my newest manuscript for you, which I am considering self publishing. And it should quite literally take you just a brief moment to review if you should have the opportunity. And would you be willing to endorse. Was too. Was motivated by your theology Thursday segment of 16 Ways Islam and Christianity are not Compatible. And so I know you guys panicked when you saw me pull out this stack of papers thinking, how long is this thing? Right. Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

No, it was impressive. Are we going full manifesto?

[Steve Dace]

All right, so this is just, you know, he just sent me the. The sheet and. Thank you, Michael. Glad we were. We were able over the last few years to encourage and inspire you and hopefully get to do that some more. And this is just the length of Michael's note. It's not that long. Right, okay. But Michael did send along his manuscript. All right. And speaking of Michael Knowles, do you remember one of the. One of the best guerrilla marketing techniques I've ever seen on the right. I think it was in 2016, Michael Knowles released a book, Reasons to vote Democrat. Do you remember this?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

And all the pages were blank.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Do you remember this?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, Little homage here. Michael sent along his manuscript that he wants me to review. Christianity and Islam, a complete analysis of similarities and common grounds. You don't say anything.

[Todd Erzin]

I don't say.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, the pages are all blank. The pages are all blank. So that was sufficiently snotty, Michael. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Better watch out, Michael Newles might. Might sue you.

[Steve Dace]

That's true. He might come after you for copyright on that one. Yeah, but that's clever. All right, more on Islam. Okay. So I met, you guys, know, a couple weeks ago, was speaking out in D.C. at Jim Dement's Conservative Partnership Institute. And they had me come and do a Friday night program for some congressional aides and conservative activists from all over the capital and congressional aides from right there up on the Hill. And one of the ones I met, his name was Muhammad Ali. And he was there and nice young man and heard my comments about concerns about the spread of Islam within the culture and how you're hearing a lot more about that from our moms especially, and how Chip had just been on our show, Chip Roy from Texas, and he said he. The number one issue he got asked about out on the campaign trail running for AG in Texas was about Islam. And. And so Muhammad Ali sent me this follow up note. He says, as a Muslim American who identifies with many of the values and principles on the right, where do I fit in the movement when some of its prominent figures say that Islam is incompatible with Western civilization? And thank you again for taking the time to come and speak for us and for being willing to engage with the question. So I think this is a very important question that we need to answer. Okay. And I would actually argue we don't really share any values fundamentally in common. And if we did, then there would be reciprocation, meaning that the places where your worldview dominates when it is the most centered on its religious fundamentals would look very similar to the places where our worldview dominates when the same occurs. Except that's not the case, and it's never been the case. And that's why these two worldviews have been in conflict for 1400 years. Because fundamentally, when they are observed in a way that puts the first things of each side's worldview first, they're not compatible. And this is why when you look at the United Arab Emirates, probably the most modern contemporary Muslim country in the world, you still see women wearing headdresses there. You still see limitations there that would be unthinkable here, even in our current diminished state where we are becoming increasingly godless as a people. So I would argue, Muhammad, that for. For us to have values in common would require one of us to amend our understanding of our existing belief systems. And with all due respect, that someone's probably going to have to be you. Because my worldview commands me to give you an accommodation that yours does not command of me. My worldview says that though you are estranged from the one true God of the universe and lack the atonement for your sins that comes only from Christ, that you are made in the likeness and image of God every bit as much as I am. Your worldview denies that we're made in the image of God, in fact, so my worldview says we both are. And my worldview reminds me that without the grace of Christ, I also was his enemy. I also, I also was bound for an eternity apart from him with my sins unatoned for. And therefore the chasm that exists between me, a sinner, a helpless sinner, mired in total depravity and the holiness of the one true righteousness, triune God of the universe cannot be bridged by my own efforts. But it's a, it's a, it's a trail blazed in blood from a savior who sacrificed himself to. To pay the penalty I should have paid and died the death I should have died. And so my entire worldview begins with that. Yours begins with he never even died, let alone rose again. So we don't have a lot of fundamental values, I would argue now, because I. My. One of my values though, is to love my neighbor as I love myself. Even though you and I are on opposite sides of eternity according to my belief system and yours too, by the way. That's not a one sided street. Your. Your belief system also thinks I'm on the wrong side of eternity. So we, I guess we could share that in common. I guess from, you know, opposite sides of the street, we both think the other one is on the wrong side of eternity with God. But my worldview commands me to remember that without the grace of Christ, therefore I would go down the same exact paths. And I was on those paths before the grace of Christ came into my life. And so therefore, provided that you are not attempting to impugn on my ability to, to believe, think and act as a follower of Christ Jesus, because I have to. I have to love God first. That's the first greatest commandment, right? To love the Lord your God all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Right? Okay. So if you, if you're, if you are pursuing policies and if you are pursuing a culture that gets in the way of me doing that, well, that takes precedence over love my neighbor as I love myself, because that's second. But as long as you're not doing that, then I will love you as I love myself. I'll give you the freedom that has been given to me, provided you're not using your freedom to impugn on that which God says is right. And then that's where we can find things in common. I'm also guessing you'd rather live here than literally any other nation on earth dominated by Islam. I'm guessing that's also true. Which then begs the question as to, well, why would make this place better for you as a Muslim than the other Muslim nations in the world? And that, I'm sure that's the case, because otherwise, why would you be fighting to preserve values you think we have in common? So I don't think we have a lot of fundamental values in common. I don't. I. I think there's no way to access values for us to have in common without one of us making a significant attempt to water down what they believe. And then I think if one of us is willing to do that, then we can find other places where we do have some things in common from there. And in the meantime, provided that you're not getting in the way of. Of me following after the. The law of Christ, well, that same law then also commands me to love my neighbor as I love myself, and I'm able to extend the same grace and mercy to you that was extended to me. We love because he first loved us, and he makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike. But that. That path doesn't exist in your worldview. And you literally don't seen that, see that completely lived out in any culture that's ever been dominated by your worldview ever. And that's just a fact. And that's probably. And you know that, which is probably why you live here. Thoughts?

[Todd Erzin]

I think you aren't really asking

[Steve Dace]

a

[Todd Erzin]

question strictly born of the fact that you're Muslim. You're asking a question that many on the left in a state like Iowa has tried to use. And I. I say this in charity, but they've tried to use this as emotional sort of blackmail in Iowa, in the transgender issue, where Iowa has got a lot of wins, like, where am I supposed to go? Isn't there a place for me? My point in bringing this up is, I know it probably hurts a little bit to hear that way, but you have some serious why questions to ask about what your faith is actually for. And listen, you are in a place. If you lived in the west, you've been conditioned, just like many Christians, many conservative Christians that we talk about it on this show. All the time. You've been conditioned to think of faith fundamentally as therapeutic and as comforting. And that's an idol that a lot of Christians need to break. I think you need to break that too, because you need to reevaluate all your fund. For the sake of argument. For the sake of argument, devil's. Even if you're right and Steve's wrong and we're wrong, that you've got the truth and we don't, I don't think you're actually applying your own truth, the objective facts of your faith to your actual life. I think you're living a con. A lot of Christians do that too, from their perspective with their faith. And so I don't even think you'd be asking the question. I think things would be much clearer for you and it wouldn't be because of what Christian podcasters are and aren't saying. You would just have a very clear, not viewed through rose colored glasses view of. If I'm saying I'm a Muslim, this is what it means. We talk about this. I talk about. This is why I talk about suffering so much. Christians lie to themselves all the time about avoiding that. If you're avoiding suffering at all costs and you call yourself a Christian, you're, at the very least, you're just lying to yourself and thus, and, and you're lying to God. I think you need to do some deep dives on that as it applies to this because it's, it's. Steve basically said, hey, brother, there's a lot of different ways you and I can break bread because of what I'm commanded to do. As a Christian, I think you have to ask yourself what you're committed.

[Steve Dace]

I don't know how we could do that with the way that. With what you're commanded to do. Yeah. I mean, you, you significantly have to water down your belief system. UAE is considered the most moderate Muslim nation in the world. They've got. Congratulations, 40 Christian churches in the country. About 40 is the number. There's 300 mosques in Texas alone. Okay. You know, so there's just a, there's just a different level of accommodation that I have to be willing to offer you that your worldview does not demand that you offer me. It just doesn't. History demonstrates this, as does the president. Aaron.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, this is going to sound very jerkish, but it's. I'm tracking. I'm glad that Todd went there because that's kind of where I was going to go as well. Take a real critical, hard look at the history of your own faith. And I believe if you are honest, as honest as any mere mortal can be, you will realize that the question you should be asking Steve is where do you fit in with me? Not how do I fit in with you, because that's the history of your faith. That's the history of your belief system, your religion. Not how do I fit in with the Christians. It's fit in with me or else. So I have real doubts whether I'm trying to give you the maximum benefit of the doubt, whether you understand what you say you believe to the degree that's necessary. Because if you did, the question that you asked Steve is kind of moot. It's kind of moot.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I'm just. Here, Here are some numbers. Okay? Here are Christian churches in just an assembly of some of the most Muslim dominant nations in the world. Okay? All right. Lebanon has 2,400 Christian churches there at last count. Now, that's also one of the oldest Christian enclaves in the world. All right? So that's a severely diminished amount. All right. Turkey has roughly 1300. All right. Egypt has, depending on officially, the state recognizes hundreds. There may be thousands of underground Coptic Christian churches that the state does not recognize. All right? Iran had about 600 prior to the start of this war. Okay? Iraq has just a few hundred. The Palestinian regions of Israel would be in the tens. Syria had a few hundred until this latest persecution. The UAE has maybe 40. Saudi Arabia has zero. So are you noticing a trend line here? Where's the reciprocation at? There isn't any in your worldview, and there never has been. And so, I mean, your worldview doesn't call for a reciprocation en masse that mine does. I mean, mine even challenges me to the extent of how much worldly power should I wield if it means I may alienate people from the gospel? Am I willing to essentially forego my own rights and my own freedoms, maybe my own life, my own, not someone else's, not taking. Someone else's, not martyring them but me? Am I willing to forego my own Civil Liberties Rights Agency as a human being on behalf of the gospel? That's the challenge that exists within my worldview, which is why there's been an ongoing. An ongoing dialogue and debate within Christianity from the very beginning about how much the affairs of this world ultimately should matter to the believer. We start in Christianity with a point of diminishing returns. There's already a limiting principle about how far we're willing to go for the things of this world. Your worldview says that that's the prime directive of your belief system is the spreading and seeking of dominion in the power in this world. That's your primary belief system. I mean, that's your core directive. That's your prime directive. So, yeah, I mean, I thought what you said, Aaron, about the way the direction of the question should be in the. Actually the opposite direction I thought was completely correct. Any of your thoughts on that before we move on?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

Okay. Holly Malik writes, I am a runner and recently ran the Alamo half in downtown San Antonio. I had the honor of running on Team27, which honors the memory of the 27 girls who died at Camp mystic last year. Many of their parents ran on the team as well. I haven't run a big city organized race in a while, and I had 13 miles to observe the people participating in the race as well as the downtown area. The race opened up with an unexpected prayer and a man who beautifully sang the Star Spangled Banner, a national anthem in an opera like fashion. The race started with the fire of a real cannon and the people operating it dressed up in period clothing from the Alamo. There were thousands who ran the race and I experienced nothing but the happiest and joyful people I have seen in one group in a long time. Granted, a group of runners are typically high on endorphins and are very jovial, as you would know. Okay, it's hot. But there were several firefighters who ran the race in full gear, several people running with flags, a group to remember the unborn, a blind man running with a guide assisting him, several proud, obvious members of the military, and a Catholic priest who was in front of his church high fiving everyone as they passed. The crowd cheered along the way. Was the crowd cheering along the way was great too, holding the signs with messages ranging from run like your name is in the Epstein's files. Run like you are a millennial running from commitment and nobody likes a quick finisher. It was simply a great time. I think I took more notice this year because I don't expect it anymore. I sense no division whatsoever. I actually liked all of those people. In that moment I felt like the America. It felt like the America that I remember feeling. It was a long time ago. We ran through a district called the King William District. It looks just as it sounds. The houses are so beautiful and antique with ornate designs and manicured lawns. It is. It was. It has been election season, so there were so many political signs to look at, meaning the primaries down There all of the ones that I saw were representing the left or Democratic Party. I didn't see any supporting the candidates that I support. I knew that most the affluent people in the cities like these tend to support left leaning policies, but I didn't expect all the ones I saw to reflect that. I wondered why this is. And the only conclusion that I could come up with was these people have got to receive some kind of financial kickback or exclusion from the rules that their candidates are going to try to push on us. What do you think so, Holly? I think that's some of it, but I think, well, you know how we roll on this show. It's worse than that much. It's much worse than that. This is their tithe, this is their religion, this is their church. These are the most godless areas, America, which I find fascinating because they're also the areas where the entire megachurch movement tried to plant itself for the last several decades. And how did that work out, by the way? Built these large churches in all these neighborhoods and these neighborhoods are more godless than they were before we built all these mausoleums there. Funny how that works, huh? Weird, huh? Weird indeed. But no, this is their religion. Government is their God, the state is their church. They count it all joy to pay their tithe. And they're anxious tithers. So it's, it's worse than just you. You can't create a system like, I mean, you go look at the 16% of counties that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 and that's about the number Democrats winning almost president every presidential election nowadays. They're all in the neighborhood. They're all, Holly, in these neighborhoods. Inner cities. In these neighborhoods. Now why would they be inner cities? And then these neighborhoods. So they're in inner cities which are getting all the money and then they're in these neighborhoods that are paying it all well, again, it's a religious exchange. They are happy to give. They're joyful givers. In fact, they are practicing our Christian ethics from a godless worldview. It's also why they sacrifice more. It's also why they are more involved. It's also why they're willing to suffer more for what they believe. Like the lesbian woman who left the comfort of her own home to go do die. Suicide by cop in Minneapolis early this year. She's a martyr. Trump's Hitler. They're all Bonhoeffer project. Valkyrie is just one martyrdom away. They're all heroes of their own story and they're acting out. Government loves a cheerful Giver, they're happy to give. I think the reason we're struggling to understand the motivations of the other side is because we, frankly, have lost many of the motivations on our own. Yep. And so when, when we see true blue, no pun intended, commitment and courage of conviction, we're like, there must be an ancillary. It must be an analog here. There must be a subplot here I'm not aware of. I'm sure there's some of that. That's human nature in any system, any society that's ever existed and will east of Eden until the Lord returns. But you don't create the critical mass of this in all these kinds of neighborhoods and everywhere in America on an outlier. It's a religion. It's a state of being. They're proud. They're proud of what they believe in and they're anxious to spread it like we used to be.

[Todd Erzin]

And when Bob was here on Monday, when you were at jury duty, talked about, you know, Christians get involved politically when they're worried about something, when the BLEEP really hits the fan. A lot of our success here in Iowa, it's because of that. But Bob and I agreed, and he talked about it at length that, listen, we are supposed to be prayerfully engaged civically in thanks to God. We're not always supposed to be waiting till the 11th hour. We are supposed to be our duty as citizens as a prayer of thanks. Why don't we do that again? It's because we are way too comfortable. We have too many idols. There is a preacher I just saw in the last 48 hours online who was talking about kids, travel, sports teams, and he said if every month you are at a different town every weekend, and three times you're playing a sport and you're only going to church once, you're not raising a Christian child, you're raising an idolater. He's absolutely right.

[Steve Dace]

It's important for the audience to understand the context of what it means for someone like you to say this. Your daughter, your oldest daughter, just got named the Scholar Athlete of the Year in the most successful, comprehensively successful college athletics conference in America, and she just was named the female Scholar Athlete of the Year. I'm sure you guys did that all from your own home. No, I'm sure you did that all online. I'm sure your family never was in the car all day. Traveling across the country, all over the state, you guys just did that, just going within walking distance of your own home.

[Todd Erzin]

It happened all the time. And that's why we've been at Mass in cities across the country without exception. And the coaches always knew, even if we had to be late to a game, that's just how it was. And our daughters understood that as well.

[Steve Dace]

And somehow that didn't stop her from becoming the scholar athlete of the year in the Southeastern Conference, up against literally the most comprehensive, most impressive list of college athletes that exist in America. America.

[Todd Erzin]

You always talk about having make sure you don't flip the first and the second amendment commandments. Excuse me. We didn't flip it either.

[Steve Dace]

So it can be done? Oh, yeah, if you're willing to do it anyway.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

Smash the idols. All of them.

[Steve Dace]

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. More in a moment. The steve day show. I know that we're kind of getting conditioned to accept insane prices for things, but that doesn't have to apply to your hearing aids. With our friends over at MDHearing, they deliver high quality rechargeable digital hearing aids for just $297 a pair. That's over 90% less than traditional clinical hearing aids. And they do this because they were created by a medical professional who saw how his patients needed hearing but just were unable to afford it. So he set out to fix the system. That fix is MD hearing. And their new neo model fits right there inside your ear, so it's nearly invisible. Their new Neo Xs is their smallest hearing aid ever. No bulky hardware, no learning curve, just big savings in a tiny hearing aid from empty hearing. So go to shopmdhearing.com use the promo code Steve to get a pair of hearing aids for just $297 plus plus they're adding a free extra charging case that's $100 value just for being a part of our show that shop as an shop shopmdhearing.com using the promo code Steve and get a pair of hearing aids for just $297. That's shopmdhearing.com promo code Steve. Shopmdhearing.com promo code steve alrighty. Jonathan writes, I'm a pastor in Michigan. I run a smallish Instagram account where I post daily theological content. Inspired by much of the recent conversation on the right about Israel, I created a post seeking to give a biblical defense of Zionism. I purposefully grounded my argument in God's design for human government, national sovereignty and self determination rather than delving into any dispensational or eschatology eschatological arguments. See, right away you see a distinction here. Okay, again, most People talking about this think these distinctions don't even exist. That's just all one just, you know, nebulous blob of Jewish propaganda. The amount of anti Semitic pushback I received was astounding. I received far more comments on that post than any other post I've ever produced. I know this has been an issue you've been tackling on your show lately. Do you have any advice and how to push back on these shallow anti Semitic tropes that are growing in voice and popularity on the right. That is from Jonathan. Before I give some thoughts, let me throw it open to you two guys and let you guys answer this one first. What do you two think?

[Todd Erzin]

You're not. No one's going to like what I have to say.

[Steve Dace]

You're going to say get rid of anonymity.

[Todd Erzin]

It's a combination of anonymity for sure. But listen, this is going to be a very Catholic answer. I will acknowledge that there is a strain of this without question on the Catholic side of things. But this, this is one of the problems with just pick your Bible up and read it and the plain reading of scripture. Listen, there's, there's hurting people, wounded people going to the Bible to be rescued. But this is when Steve talks about the young men, young, young men entering a military are broken down to be built back up. They are, they are turned into soldiers in boot camp by drill instructors. How it's supposed to go, you know, you know when we had. I know we're trying to recover a military that's not run by trannies and things like that, but we're getting there. But we know how the military is supposed to work. And all too often in the modern day therapeutic world of script, we just have lone gunmen slinging around individualized versions of faith that make these people feel strong and powerful and yes, saved for the first time and fighting for God. And there's a 2000 year history of people on the Catholic side and the Protestant side. If they become too individualized and too atomized in that and they are not part of the church, it always turns into things like this. It gets dark, it gets hateful, it gets brutal. So I don't know, we've been giving uncomfortable answers all day long, so why stop now?

[Steve Dace]

Aaron, what would you say?

[Aaron McIntyre]

So I have similar experiences anything like projects independent even of this show, although that's hard just because that's what I do for a living. Various people randomly come at me. You're not a Zionist. That sounds Zionist. You're not a Zionist. Are you and you wonder how long this op has been going on that now regular people, normal people who are not bots, just their feeds are just completely inundated with this tribe. And so they believe this to be normal. Now they believe this to be just a standardized way of thinking. And so anything that kind of cuts across that or maybe contradicts that way of thinking this very much. You know, who's in control? They are in control. That clip going around of Wilt Chamberlain dressing down Buckley, Carlson, Tucker's brother, very much the same. Oh, you know, very. The insinuations about who's really controlling those types of things are just so inundated in the average person's feed. Sometimes on certain social media websites because of the algorithm, maybe things they've. They've interacted with that now they just become complete anti Semites, not even realizing that it's kind of outside of small O orthodoxy. So which came first? Was it just a spiritual attack? Was it a psyop from foreign actors? I think the answer is probably yes. But I see this as well. And ultimately, obviously, I differ with Todd on the beginning of his, on the preamble of what he said there, but what he ended with is, I think is apropos. And I don't think you would have a problem with this either, Steve, without shepherding, without accountability, eventually, whether your name is Tucker Carlson, Trucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson, you're going to devolve. It's just the branding or flavor of devolvement might look differently depending on whom your audience is and what your proclivities naturally are.

[Steve Dace]

Right? I mean, listen, we could get sidetracked on this, but since Todd brought it up, I mean, our side would argue we care deeply about accountability. That's why we keep splintering. Right. I keep running into people that don't want to preach the counsel of God and want to go do their own thing and make it about themselves. And, and, and that is the splintering is actually evidence of why there is accountability. I mean, ultimately, if, if people are bound and determined to not want to follow accountability, whether that accountability comes from sola scriptura or that accountability comes from a magisterium, I mean, then, then that's why there's a hell. And I mean that. You know, that all being said, I would, I would have no I. Unless your standard with you as a pastor is different than mine as a provocateur. That's. I mean, that's part of my job is to poke and prod. It's what I do. So I will argue with Anonymous on X if it is because it fits my agenda of a larger point I'm trying to reach. I would never urge a member, a pastor, a member of the ministry whatsoever to ever argue with anybody who's Anonymous. In fact, I just banned them. If someone came to you wanted to. Wanting to advocate for child porn, no one would hesitate that you should just ban that person out of the right. Out of the right. Out of the conversation. Right. No one would, no one would argue that. That's, that's a, that's, that's not fair. Right, right. So we're so there. Therefore we are already agreeing there are moments then that are certain things. We're just not going to entertain them. We are agreeing that those moments exist then.

[Todd Erzin]

Right, of course.

[Steve Dace]

So then we're just discussing whether this meets that moment or not. Someone who's anonymous spring that stuff. I'm just telling you right now that there's, there's an 85 chance it's some guy in Sri Lanka or in Hebron than it is a guy from, you know, on, on, on Flower straight down, you know, in your neighborhood. Real high likelihood.

[Todd Erzin]

So there is a, like there is a likelihood, but there's a lot there. One of the main responses of these guys to me, they actually compare themselves to the founding fathers. I'm publius. No, you're not.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, that's why I would just delete them. If they're spreading that level of vitriol, I just delete it right away. If you can't argue with Anonymous if it is someone with a name, if you have a chance to engage with them, maybe I do it once to see if they were anxious in a dialogue. If they're not and it's clear they have a narrative, then just get rid of them. I mean this is the, this is the thing I don't understand is I

[Aaron McIntyre]

don't want to step on this. Did you just send us something last week about like this bikini clad right wing influencer?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, total fake. Total fake. Yeah, we're gonna discuss that on the show next week too. Yeah, guy came out, he grew to like 93000 followers or something and a guy in India said yeah, it's just me the entire time. Just made the whole thing up. Right. So there's pretty arguing with. Yeah, that's pretty decent odds that that's who you're dealing with. And who knows how, how who know Facebook gives you, makes you do an identity. Who knows how tight that confirmation is? If it's just a Gmail account or something else. That whole thing could be just scammed as well. Okay, so there's a pretty good chance, I would say a 20% chance that you're dealing with somebody that. You know what, I'll even go a little higher. 30% chance you're dealing with somebody that is clearly caught in this web. 70% odds you're not even dealing with a real person.

[Todd Erzin]

Cost benefit analysis. I just got to present this one more time. Thank you for just dumping more shrimp. Put another shrimp on the barbie. What is the importance of having anonymous social media? Like legally, what do we need it for?

[Steve Dace]

When you brought this up before, under the old Twitter, we were in the. We had no real places of any form of. There's a reason why guys called El Guato Malo, okay, were out leaking medical studies from what was going on with COVID during the old regime and Twitter because there was not a single place of significance platforming in this country where we could challenge the narratives of.

[Todd Erzin]

So you're making my point. I made last banging about what Christians always wait until things get in trouble. We were in trouble. I get it. But in a healthy society, why do we need it?

[Steve Dace]

And now I would say, I mean, listen, at this point, Elon Musk is so free speech. All kinds of porn is on his site. All kinds of hookers soliciting clientele are on Twitter. I mean, all kinds of blasphemies are there all over the place. I would say, given that there's really no excuse for it.

[Todd Erzin]

Now we have what, Reddit, 4chan, all this stuff. Why any. Why is it even legal?

[Steve Dace]

Legal is a different question than the. The question of the rules of engagement

[Todd Erzin]

on a Nobody, nobody. Nobody has a God ordained right to be anonymous.

[Steve Dace]

If I owned a social media platform, I would not allow any anonymity anymore. Given where we are. Yeah, I don't think it's.

[Todd Erzin]

You can Civic cancer.

[Steve Dace]

You can make an argument in times of oppression. If what you'll what you'll get that you can. That Sir Thomas Moore can write. What's the book that he wrote going after Henry viii?

[Todd Erzin]

Utopia.

[Steve Dace]

Utopia. That Sir Thomas More can write. Utopia under a pen name that he couldn't write under his own name. Of course he ended up just getting, I think burned at the stake anyway, if I recall. So wrong. So it didn't work. It only worked for a little while. Right, but we're not in any of those kinds of eras right now. I mean, you can. I mean X is basically allowing anybody to post literally just about Anything at this point.

[Todd Erzin]

But am I, Am I missing something? Is there a fundamentally good reason that

[Steve Dace]

it's that I would argue in times of extreme oppression, there's a time and a place for it. Yeah, no, but I just would argue that this is not one of those places.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm talking about social media. Is there a. A fundamental.

[Steve Dace]

Oh, you mean not the. But social media as a general constant

[Todd Erzin]

of theory of why you might need in very dark.

[Steve Dace]

Are we talking social media or anonymity on social media?

[Todd Erzin]

I'm talking about anonymity on social media.

[Steve Dace]

Okay. I would say in times of extreme oppression that there's some people in Iran who might think that they could use. Of course, they can't even get on the Internet right now, but, you know, there's some people in Iran that would probably be willing and able to tell us things that they could not if they put their name on them, because they'd be hunted down and found. Right. Okay, so I was. Extreme, extreme oppression.

[Todd Erzin]

But that's also a secondary reason. Fundamentally. Basically, we're saying there's no good reason.

[Steve Dace]

That's what in our country. I don't think there's any sort of extreme oppression that justifies it. No, I don't anymore. We're gonna say something else.

[Todd Erzin]

The main excuse is cowardice in our

[Steve Dace]

country, for the most part. I would say that that is the main excuse. Yeah. Where do I want to go next?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Isn't the irony, though, that the government already, and I'm not saying this as some sort of tinfoil hat, this is just the reality of the situation. Even with the vpn, which is, you know, harder for Big Brother to track, but not impossible. Government already knows who everybody is anyway or can do that like that. Government already knows that. A lot of people will say, well, I don't know.

[Steve Dace]

Interesting point.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't want to get fired from my job. Well, listen, they can't fire everybody.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, your job would probably stop doing wicked stuff if they got exposed for the wicked stuff you're aware of.

[Todd Erzin]

They keep telling us this lie. It empowers if everybody's public. And I'm going to say what I want to. So if that's the country we're in, the whole board game changes. We keep conceding it to them.

[Steve Dace]

Let's close with this one because it made me chuckle. I'd forgotten this had been in here for a while. Remember, it was about a couple months ago you waxed poetica your love for Waffle House.

[Todd Erzin]

I love Waffle House.

[Steve Dace]

Keith D. Says, I could not believe. When I saw Scourge and Erzin's lips begin to move, my entire being revulsed and convulsed towards the nearest mute capability open to me. And this has been my open affliction with him every day I listen since. But then I heard him praise Waffle House. I was singularly gobsmacked by his critique and almost revered tone of this beloved Southern eatery. And miraculously, this misandrist was able to do so without throwing a single man in the proverbial waffle iron. I love that. Made me laugh.

[Todd Erzin]

You're welcome.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, that made me laugh. All right, gentlemen, final thoughts. Man, a great use of the term misandrist, by the way. That's a term that's got to make a comeback. I like that word. Final thoughts.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Ultimately, let's just summarize the whole show here. Ultimately, the midterms are going to determine the true state of the economy. I think that's true. I think we kind of already have an indication of what it is. I think the DOJ had a good week. There is way too much work left to be done. That in and of itself is not going to save Republicans in the midterm. But I think Todd just went there and said, yeah, the DOJ is starting to actually show signs of life because of what's happening with the economy vis a vis the war in Iran. And then when it comes to Islam, the individual who wrote, I just think, needs to do some more serious soul searching and just as humanly honest as possible about his stated belief system. I think we were all in various degrees of agreement on that. All that is to say, Coming up to the end of this week, if you cannot be as courageous as you need to be to just put your name on what you say you believe online, whether it's little snipes or whether it's big ideas, none of that other stuff matters because you're probably not going to be courageous enough to go to your local school board meeting. You're not going to be courageous to take on Islam in your local communities. And it doesn't really matter how much money you make or how much you're paying at the pump, because the currency of civilization is how much that people who really believe what they say they believe are willing, how far they're willing to go with that. And if we're not even willing to go far enough to put our names on it, then just turn out the lights.

[Todd Erzin]

We are a society filled with men without chests. And when even a smidgen of the truth comes along, we usually throw it into a cistern. That's not going to cut it.

[Steve Dace]

So here's the good news, though. That's not everything you just said is accurate. It's also not unique. In fact, most of the pages of the scriptures include doing exactly to truth tellers what Todd just said. All right, so we've been here as a species and as a people before. We've been here before. Which means if we're still here despite being there before, there is a way out. It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to go down like this. It doesn't have to end this way. Something to think about. Go hard. Have a great weekend. Romans 8:28.