Chip Roy (3:04)

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.

Glenn Beck (3:11)

Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. Yesterday, Ali Beth Stuckey hosted the Blaze debate for the Texas Attorney General. And Chip Roy is joining us. Chip was there running for Attorney General of the great state of Texas and all the coverage. I'm sorry, Chip, I didn't have a chance to see it. I was at an event last night, haven't had a chance to see it, but I read about the coverage and looks like everybody was kind of infighting. And then, you know, you were trying to talk about the, the Muslim footprint in Texas, which is really super important. People don't understand in Texas how close Texas is to A going B blue and B having a real problem with Islamists. Welcome, Chip.

Chip Roy (3:57)

Yeah, good morning, Glenn. Great to be on. No, had a great debate last night, a lot of great reviews. Tried to be the, you know, adult there at the, at the, at the debate, making clear what we need to do for Texas, staying focused on the issues, laser focused. You know, yesterday before the debate, I joined with my colleague, Keith Self. You probably know Keith well, he's great, conservative, represents the county area north of Dallas. And we were out at your studios. We're in one of your, one of the great rooms out there where we were holding a gathering, a meeting with a lot of folks in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex who are attuned to what's happening with the advance of Sharia law and the advance of the Islamification of Texas and particularly Dallas, Fort Worth. And so we had a good discussion there about the state of things, about the extent to which there are some areas now increasingly no go zones in Dallas, Fort Worth for women. You know, you saw the dust up with my friend and colleague Randy Fine, who was, you know, equipping a little bit, but about a little bit of this issue in New York about the dog issue. And now you got Democrats calling on him to be censured. I mean, it's absolutely absurd. There is a cultural war going on. And I think it's really important for people to understand that Again, you and I have talked about. So you and I are strong defenders of the Constitution. This is not about your ability to believe in the God of your choice and how you want to carry out your life. It's about being at war with our civilization and having a purposeful plan to undo it.

Glenn Beck (5:24)

So I'm getting heat because I spoke about that yesterday and I said, look, not all Muslims are Islamists. And Islamist. I would pick a dog over an Islamist every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And so, you know, what I'm getting heat on is I didn't go far enough. I'm very, very clear. I don't have a problem with Muslims. If Muslims believe the Constitution is supreme law of the land, period. But anyone who believes that Sharia law and the Quran usurp the United States Constitution, then I got a problem with you. And you don't belong in here because you are warring against our culture and the Western civilization. But there is a big difference between those two.

Chip Roy (6:13)

So here's the way I look at it, and I think this is a really, really important conversation that I hope you and I and all of us will be having now, like, regularly, right? And to do it intelligently as adults, as people who believe in our Constitution, but who recognize what's happening. I start with, and what I want to do as attorney general is use the power of the attorney general's office over looking at corporations and nonprofits, looking at the books, following the money, and go look at all these organizations. And you start with places like care. You look at the Muslim Brotherhood, obviously, Governor Abbott has declared each of those as terrorist organizations. And we need to look at all of these organizations and see what their plan is. What are they doing? Because you've got groups that are saying specifically, as the Muslim Brotherhood has, that they have a plan to Islamify America and then carry forward that as a goal and a missional goal, politically, ideologically. That's not faith, that's not religion that the First Amendment contemplates. That is a specific political, ideological effort to reshape and remake America and destroy our constitutional values in Western civilization. If we don't recognize that, then look across the Atlantic, look at Europe, and that will be our future. This is happening in real time, and we have to recognize it. And we cannot flinch, cannot blink. We've got to take this on squarely because it is a war raging for the soul of Western civilization.

Glenn Beck (7:42)

Okay, quickly, let me just ask you, what do you know? What are you. What are your thoughts on Axios? Brook? A Story earlier today, a major war. We're a step closer to a major war with Iran. That's not Trump's M.O. to get us into a war. What do you think think is coming, Chip?

Chip Roy (8:04)

Well, I haven't been able to study that. I saw the news. I need to make a few phone calls today. So I'm always careful about how I speak about things. So I at least go talk to folks. But comma, however. All right, I don't believe that we ought to be looking to engage in getting involved with war. I supported the president and what happened with the bunker busters and dropping the bombs and taking out their advancement of nuclear power. Right now, I think we need to be resolved and stand with the people of Iran who are pushing back on their tyrannical leadership and offer that kind of support in that way. But, you know, we start engaging in war, I've got concerns. I need to go look at it, talk to the experts. I don't want to talk about what the president's doing without doing that. But, but it, but look, we need to be very, very careful, okay? We've had over two decades of this engagement and conflict in the Middle East. There's a war raging right here in America. There's a war being waged against our way of life and the Islamists are trying to do it here. So let's start here and work out. That's why I support the president in the Western Hemisphere knocking out cartels. I supported the Maduro move. I don't want them having the Soviet Union, I'm sorry, Russia, Freudian flip to my 80s youth. Russia and China and Iran over in the Western Hemisphere through Venezuela. I think the president did a masterful job on many fronts, not being a warmonger, but being a strategic peace through strength president. Stay in that lane is where I think we need to be.

Glenn Beck (9:29)

And I have a feeling that's where. Because he's not a war guy. I mean, he is a peace through strength guy. But I'm anxious to see where he's going with this. Let me talk to you about the ICE shutdown. Putting your congressional hat back on the ICE shutdown. We're now in day five. I don't know what the Democrats are thinking. This is only going to hurt them as it hits because it's not going to stop ice. They are already funded. This is only going to hurt dhs, which goes to our national security, but also go to our airports. When that starts to hit, they're not going to be popular. It's exactly. It's a rerun of what they just did, which didn't work out for them. What are they doing?

Chip Roy (10:07)

Well, yeah, I mean, look, I think this is politics, right? This is all about what they're trying to do with ice. The Save America act is connected to the very same issue. It's their bread and butter. Look, remember a year ago, some of us were leaning into the big beautiful bill, working with the president to make sure that there was money there for both defense and for ICE and Border Patrol. We put $150 billion in there. That was a lot of conservatives kind of looked at us cockeyed and, you know, tilted their head. I said, guys, you got to look ahead. You got to be smart. We used that to guarantee there would be money there to stop what the Democrats are doing right now. So there's money there for ICE and Border Patrol. Now, what that does is it leaves TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA dangling in the wind. So we just got to make sure the Americans understand we've already sent a funding bill over there. Democrats are blocking that funding. So when weeks go by, if they don't do their job, they're the ones that are going to be causing travel headaches and nightmares, not allowing FEMA to do its job in Tennessee after the ice storms, et cetera. And then the Coast Guard not to be what it needs to be. I trust the president, Russ. Vote to figure out how to move money around to try to keep us safe, the Coast Guard. But Democrats are playing politics. And by the way, the SAVE act, as a perfect Save America act, is a perfect example of the same story. Democrats want to try to block that in the Senate. I hope soon we'll use the talking filibuster, you know, which I've written extensively about to try to break the back of it. But these things are related. Right? Because soon can't put that on the floor until we figure out this funding mechanism.

Glenn Beck (11:41)

Yeah. So I think that's what, I think that's what this is about. I think this is to delay the Save America Act. Quite honestly, correctly tied. Yeah. Do me a favor. Talk about the talking filibuster because a couple of conservatives came out and said we can't change the filibuster. We don't want to do this. No, no, you're not changing the filibuster. You're actually restoring it to what it used to be, a talking filibuster. This is, this is the best option out there. You're not changing it. You're actually restoring it. And doing it the way it's supposed to be done, on the books. Correct.

Chip Roy (12:18)

Well, Glenn, thank you for making that so clear. And for all the listeners out there, if you don't understand what we're talking about, I posted on X a memo, a dear colleague letter I wrote walking people through what's really happening. Look, I understand the Senate, right? I was there for seven years. I was a lawyer on the Judiciary Committee and I was Ted Cruz's chief of staff. I know the rules, I use the rules. The rules, the Senate rules. It's built around the filibuster. The filibuster is a great tool, Right. It's an important part of the Senate and its history and its legacy. But we need Mr. Smith to go back to Washington. If you don't get that joke, it's the old movie, right? And where you had Jimmy Stewart had to be on the floor of the Senate filibustering and talking. What we've done is we've defaulted to this notion it's a fake filibuster or a zombie filibuster, as Mike Lee says, that, oh, there's a 60 vote threshold to shut off debate. If a Senator, you know, wants to slow walk a bill. That's, that's a mechanism. That is one tool to shut off debate. The other thing to do is make them talk. And if they keep talking, let them keep talking. There's a two speech rule where you can only give two speeches on a topic. If Republicans are disciplined, Democrats will run out of gas. And it's a win win. If they successfully filibuster for two months, then they've been on the floor of the Senate telling America they want non citizens to vote rather than protect our elections. They oppose voter ID even though it's an 85% issue or we break their back and we get good policy. That's a win win. We're not changing the rules. That's not what we're saying. We're saying use the rules, use the Senate, do your job, speak. Stop playing fake games and trying to tell the American people that failure theater, putting the bill on the floor, the 60 vote threshold is doing your job. It's not.

Glenn Beck (14:06)

Do you really think it would take two months?

Chip Roy (14:10)

No, I actually think we'd probably break their back faster than that. Right. I mean, how 47 Democrats, and I think Fetterman is kind of leaning in our direction. How many of them are going to speak for more than two hours or three hours or four hours?

Glenn Beck (14:22)

Right. Most of them are over like 97.

Chip Roy (14:26)

Right. Like, half of them, like it's a nursing home. Like, look, you're gonna have to wheel them over in the nursing home, tell them to put their jello down. Tell them to go down to Florida Senate and stand up. Because by the way, you have to stand and you got to keep standing and keep talking. Cory Booker will go do a show. You know, five, six, seven, eight of them will go do a big show. They'll. They'll talk a lot. They'll say we're going to be taking the vote away from women, that It's Jim Crow 2.0. Let them do that. We stand strong. We present the facts. By the way, our bill specifically allows any person who goes to register to vote under, under the Save America Act. If you have a conflict in your id, if you show up as Sarah Smith on your driver's license, Sarah Jones on your birth certificate, you can sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury. I'm the same person. That's it. We allow for that with any state's registrar. We allow states to create the systems however they want. That is a respectful way to make sure that we have a system that is trying to guarantee only citizens vote. There's nothing controversial about it. Democrats want non citizens to vote.

Glenn Beck (15:33)

Chip, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Good luck with your race. He's running for Texas attorney general candidate in that race. You can follow him at roy.house.gov also follow him on X@ChipRoyTX. Chip, thank you very much. Appreciate it. ChipRoy.com is his campaign website. Thank you. You bet. Bye. Bye. When we talk about America turning 250 years old, the real story isn't just in the history books. It's in the people who got up before the sun, did the hard work, kept the country fed throughout every kind of storm that we might have faced. That's the tradition Good Ranchers comes from. This is a company that is built around American farms and American ranches. And every cut of meat is raised right here, packaged here and shipped here. I've been a subscriber for years now, and every box is a reminder that some things in this country are still done the right way. After 250 years, that kind of commitment still matters at Good Ranchers. It's what they stand for. To support a company that is committed to honoring America's past, present and future, all you have to do is go to goodranchers.com today, subscribe to any of their boxes. 100% American meat. You're going to save up to $500 a year. Plus, if you use my code, Glenn, you'll get an additional $25 off on your first order. It's promo code, Glenn. Do it now. Goodranchers.com that's goodranchers.com American meat delivered. Now back to the podcast. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. Monica, welcome to the program.

Monica Crowley (17:04)

Glenn, it's so great to be with you. Thank you so much for having me.

Glenn Beck (17:09)

You bet. So I want to go right to the deal with Nixon. You worked with Nixon? When, when, how old were you when.

Chip Roy (17:18)

You worked with Nixon?

Monica Crowley (17:20)

Yes. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight, Glenn, because I don't want anybody to think I'm 125 years old. I was not actually born when President Nixon was elected president, but I did work with him during the last four years of his life. So the early to mid-1990s, up until he passed away in 1994, what an.

Glenn Beck (17:45)

Amazing thing that had to have been. Did you ever talk to him about the deep state and some of this stuff?

Monica Crowley (17:51)

I did, actually. And what's so gratifying for me, Glenn, on a personal level is I really adored President Nixon. You know, I came to know him as my boss, of course, for four years, my first job out of college. But also he served as a grandfather to me. He was a mentor and he was a very, very dear friend of mine when I was very young. And he was at the end of his life. So I promised him before he passed away that I would take care of his legacy. I said, Mr. President, I pledge to you that I will spend the rest of my life advancing and protecting and defending your legacy. And Glenn, I'll never forget, he looked at me and he kind of smiled in a wry kind of way, and he said, monica, I appreciate that, but you're going to have much more important things to do in your life and career. And now, of course, here I am working for President Trump, but I pledged it to him. And Glenn, I have literally spent the last 30 years since he did pass away doing exactly that. So now to see these new documents coming out, these new revelations about the truth about what happened to Richard Nixon and how Watergate was a deep state frame up of him is personally very gratifying. I will say that when I worked for him in the early 90s, Glenn, to your question, we did speak about it, but nobody really knew what the deep state was. Now, remember that Richard Nixon served as Dwight Eisenhower's vice president. Eisenhower's farewell Address famously warned about the rise of an unaccountable deep state, what we. What he called the military industrial complex, what we now know as the deep state. Nixon internalized that lesson because he saw Eisenhower, a military man who, who helped to win World War II and free the west from. From Nazi oppression. He saw what, what Eisenhower was going through and the rise of the security state that was unaccountable to anyone. So the after World War II, the creation of the CIA, the creation of the NSA, the creation of the DIA, the corruption of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, Nixon saw. So when he became president, and this is actually what gave the deep state the context to do what they did. Nixon understood the threat within, but also understood he couldn't bring it to the American people. In the late 60s, early 70s, they would go, what are you even talking about? It took the next years for people to wake up. Go ahead.

Glenn Beck (20:33)

He also, I mean, what I saw in the documents, he also was very. He did not want to drag the military through the mud. He'd just gone through Vietnam and he's like, I don't want to do more damage to the military because the military is important and it's good. So he also was trying to protect the good parts of the military. At least it seems to be that way for anybody who doesn't know. Give us what the documents revealed that maybe the public didn't know before.

Monica Crowley (21:03)

Yes. So when Nixon becomes President, he understands what Eisenhower was warning about, decides that he is going to consolidate all foreign policy and national security decision making in the hands of two people, he and his national Security adviser at the time, Henry Kissinger, who we later learned was a Deep State operative. Okay, so Nixon is getting inputs from one man who he really trusted, who perhaps he should not have. All right? That creates the environment where he is excluding the military. His own State Department, his own Secretary of State, they're all the CIA, they're all going crazy, Glenn, because he is keeping all of the secrets to himself. The opening to China, detente with the Soviet Union, shuttle diplomacy in the Middle east, all of these huge peaceful foreign policy initiatives, he and Kissinger are keeping close to the vest that then gives rise to this military spy ring that pops up in the White House to spy on Nixon and Kissinger rifling through their papers. When they go home, you know, when Nixon goes upstairs to go to bed, they come in, in the middle of the night in the White House, in the Oval Office, in Kissinger's office, in the White House, they're rifling through their papers, they're examining their telephones, everything possible to spy on Nixon. Does that sound familiar? On Trump? Yes, because they were all freaking out. The Deep State flipped out that they were being excluded. They had no idea what the President was planning, the discussions he was having. And so ultimately, Glenn, when you. And this is what these new papers show, the more Admiral Moore, General Radfield at the time, created this military spy ring to spy on Nixon. And you know who was a key member of it was one Bob Woodward, who was a Naval Intelligence officer who was read in on this military spy ring. And then through the CIA's Mockingbird Media program, was planted as a, quote, journalist at the Washington Post being fed all of the Deep State plans to throw it on the front page of the Washington Post to bring down a president.

Glenn Beck (23:38)

Wow, I had not heard that. That is shocking.

Monica Crowley (23:42)

Shocking, yeah.

Glenn Beck (23:44)

Okay, so, so Nixon, when he left it, the Deep State had to consider this a huge victory for them. Did that just embolden them and just keep growing and growing and growing until we get to Trump? And if that's true, Trump didn't know how to fight it last time. He seems to be fighting it really well this time. What's the difference? How is he doing this?

Monica Crowley (24:13)

Yes, great question. Let me just go back to Watergate for one second, Glenn, because it's really critical point. The five Watergate burglars were apprehended at the DNC site at the Watergate complex. Five of them, and they were indicted along with two others, E. Howard Hun and G. Gordon Liddy. Of those seven, six were linked to the CIA and the other one was linked to the FBI. So to your bigger point about Nixon's selflessness, which is what these current documents show, Nixon decided not to fight it in the moment because we were still in the Cold War. And he wanted to preserve the integrity and the public's honor of the United States military. So he did not blow the whistle at the time. He fell on a sword for the second time in American history, because the first time was the 1960 election, which was stolen by the Kennedys and by Lyndon Johnson. It was also a Deep State operative. It was stolen in 1960. He was presented with concrete evidence on election night and he said, I am not going to challenge this result because the American people deserve a full time president who is not under a cloud. Nixon gets no credit for putting the country first, not once, but twice. You talk about what Trump has learned, we talk about Nixon, but it actually, the Deep State goes back even further to your Favorite president, Woodrow Wilson, Glenn Gorse. And the rise of progressivism here in the, in the US and the West. But remember, Woodrow Wilson comes in at the exact same time that you have Vladimir Lenin getting off the train at Finland Station and launching the Russian Revolution. You know this better than anyone. Those two tracks to destroy and crush the west gave rise to a globalist, transnational deep state. Donald Trump in the first term did not know what he did not know. He had never done any of this before, but he knew that he was targeted this time around. And you know, God always has plan. So God sent, just as God sent Richard Nixon into the wilderness from 1960 to 1968 when he ran and won again, he sent Donald Trump into the wilderness for four years during the Biden years. Again, catastrophic for the country. But God had more work to do in both men. And when Donald Trump comes back this time around, he's so much wiser about how Washington works. The deep state here works, but also the globalist deep state. And Glenn, when I tell you, because I was in the Oval Office with him yesterday, this man is dismantling our deep state and the globalist deep state brick by brick. And he's doing it by pulling the funding, pulling their money. We know that they launder money in a couple of different ways. Human trafficking, Trump is putting a stop to that. The drug trade, he's putting a stop to that. Dealing the border in every.

Glenn Beck (27:20)

He should look into the art world. He should look into the art world. Just saying, but go ahead.

Monica Crowley (27:25)

Good, good point. No, thank you. Piece by piece.

Glenn Beck (27:28)

I can talk to you about that sometime off the air if you'd like.

Chip Roy (27:30)

But anyway, I love it.

Monica Crowley (27:32)

I love it. So he's really, he's cutting off their sources of funding, which are all illicit and very dark. Human trafficking, child trafficking and the drug trade.

Chip Roy (27:43)

This is.

Monica Crowley (27:44)

And another reason why he got Maduro alive is because the drug trafficking trade through our entire hemisphere has funded a lot of these deep state activities. Trump is doing it piece by piece and he is working with like minded leaders, like minded countries. This is why, Glenn, you know, tomorrow my team and I are actually helping to run the first Board of Peace inaugural meeting. And I think We've got about 45 heads of state and others, foreign ministers, maybe more, maybe 60. It's up to now coming in tomorrow for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace.

Glenn Beck (28:24)

Love this.

Monica Crowley (28:25)

Donald Trump is building parallel organizations to the corrupt deep state, globalist ones like the un, like the World Health Organization. In a couple of weeks, we're going to do a Western hemisphere summit. So what he's doing is building a parallel superstructure of like minded people who are with him on destroying and smashing the entire corrupt globalist status quo that has actually run the world over the last 70 plus years.

Glenn Beck (28:56)

Monica, I have to tell you, he said to me, you know, I hope to be considered like a founder. And he said, you know, my goal is, you know, George Washington was so great and I'd like to be remembered, you know, in a category like that. And I thought, wow, that's pretty ambitious. I've been watching him, what he's doing to the rest of the world and how he's dismantling this. I think he will be. He won't be remembered like Washington, but he is a refounder. He is in a unique category that I would only put a couple of presidents in. What he's done is remarkable and the American people just don't understand it yet. I know you have to run. Can we touch base on America 250 just quickly?

Monica Crowley (29:38)

Sure. Yes. Thank you. And yes, I agree with you. If you look at the big three, Washington founded the nation, Lincoln saved the republic. The and Donald Trump is restoring the republic. That's how I look at it when the big three. So in terms of America to 50, very exciting. As we're getting closer to July 4th, we have founded an organization that is nonpartisan, a public private partnership called Freedom250. And I know you and your team are working in partnership for your big May 2nd event on Ellis Island. Incredible. I want everybody to attend that. It's going to be amazing. Highlighting legal immigration that helped to build this country. Illegal immigration. Yes, yes, of course. So freedom to freedom250.org is the website. Please go check it out. We are planning the Great American State Fair on the national mall with all 50 states represented. We are organizing a national prayer event to return the nation as one nation under God. Glenn. And that will be on the National Mall on May 17. So everybody mark their calendars for that. We've got the big UFC 250 fight on the President's birthday on the South Lawn that will take place June 14th. We've got your event on May 2nd, of course. And it's going to all culminate on July 4th with a national international naval review in the New York harbor and the Hudson river. We've got about 50 countries sending tall ships as well as modern naval ships, which is going to be incredible. And then there'll be a huge salute to the nation led by the President, including An address to the nation and the biggest fireworks display in the history of the world. After July 4th, by the way, party doesn't end. We've got the FIFA World cup final two weeks later in New York with a big Freedom 250 theme. And then in August, the President just announced an IndyCar Grand Prix race for the first time in Washington, D.C. so Independence Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and so many other streets in D.C. will be turned into an IndyCar 500 race with the President in attendance and about 100,000 spectators. So we want everybody coming out for that. This is going to be a truly national and global celebration. I have every world leader approaching me, Glenn, including some of our tough adversaries who want to help Americans celebrate. So we are going to have every country on the face of the earth who's willing to do it is going to help us celebrate that entire week leading up to July 4th. Extraordinary.

Glenn Beck (32:27)

Monica, you. You are an amazing, amazing person, and I just. I love having you as the ambassador protocol, because I know what that means, and you are perfect for the job. So thank you for everything. You're doing my best to you and everybody in the administration. God bless you.

Monica Crowley (32:41)

That's so kind of. Thank you always for having. Big friend.

Glenn Beck (32:45)

You got it. You bet.

Chip Roy (32:47)

You're streaming the Best of the Glenn Beck program, and you can find full.

Glenn Beck (32:50)

Episodes wherever you download podcasts. So let me just start with Ash Wednesday, because my favorite part of Lent is Fat Tuesday, but that's passed. So let's start with. Let's start with today. It's amazing to watch people go on television and see this and you see the sign of the cross on their forehead in ashes, ashes. There's something haunting about ashes. You know, every year, people from all different walks of life, from all over the globe, stand up moms, presidents, plumbers, teenagers, to stand in line and get a. A mark on their forehead and hear the words that, you know, most of us are trying to live our lives not to hear. Remember your dust, and to dust you will return. And that's where the story of Ash Wednesday begins. Ash Wednesday didn't begin as a holiday. It was really starting as a shock. You know, in the earliest centuries of Christianity, long before there were stained glass windows and grand cathedrals, those who had fallen badly were brought forward publicly. And then they were told they had to wear sackcloth, rough. You know, like bags of flour come in sackcloth. And then they were covered in ashes. And they had to stand outside of the community as a visible reminder that human beings fail and that only with humility comes restoration. And that practice echoes something even older. In the Hebrew Scriptures, figures like Job and Daniel sat in ashes as a sign of repentance. Kings humbled themselves in dust when they realized, or they were forced to realize, that their power is temporary. Ashes have always been the universal language of mortality. But late in the first millennium, something profound happened. What once only marked the worst sinners began to be given to everyone. Now think of that. The Church looked at humanity and said, we are all sinners, everybody. No one stands outside the need for repentance. So the ashes moved from the few, really, really bad to everyone. And by the 8th century, the day of Ashes appears formally in liturgical books. And by the 10th century, the entire congregation received them all over. The ashes are what remains after a fire is finished. You can't fake ashes. They're the only thing that's left when everything else burns away. Wealth, titles, ego, clothing, certainty, everything. And here's the little known part that most people don't talk about. The ashes are traditionally made by burning the palm branches from Palm Sunday last year. And that's the day that people were cheering and waving branches because the victor was entering, Christ was coming into the city. So yesterday's celebration becomes today's reminder. Triumph turns to dust. History folded into this one simple ritual that most people don't even think about. Ash Wednesday became really widespread during a time when Europe was building empires and kings were imagining themselves nearly divine. Remember? I mean a divine right of kings. Who gave you God, appointed me king. Yet once a year, even the powerful bowed their heads and heard the same words that the peasants did. Dust your dust, you'll return to dust. No exceptions. It was perhaps the first and most radical equalizers in all of human history. Imagine the medieval rulers who believe the bloodline came from God, kneeling with ashes on their head, and the public declaration that you're going to die. This guy, he's just like you, and he's going to die just like you. No law forces humility like mortality. When you hear from ashes you came and to ashes you'll return. You know, from dust to dust. We hear that today as pessimism, but it's not. It's realism. The message is not you're nothing. The message is you are temporary. And if that is in the right context, that truth does not lead to despair, it leads to clarity. When you know the clock is ticking, you stop wasting time pretending it isn't. Pope after pope have repeated the same idea. Ashes remind us of our fragility, but also of the hope Dust, according to the tradition, is not worthless. It's dust touched by God. We came from dust, so it's not worthless. History turns when people forget they are dust. Empires collapse when leaders believe they are beyond dust. Markets crash when investors believe growth is eternal. It will always be this way. From dust to dust. Ash Wednesday is this amazing historic counterweight that that changes human arrogance. It's one day each year a group of people in a civilization pauses to admit, we are not God. How great is that? How much would change if we would all humble ourselves and say, we're not God? I know I am not God. There's things that I can do and there are lots of things I cannot do because that's in the realm of God. It's a warning and a promise if you stand far enough back. Ash Wednesday looks less like a religious ceremony and more like an annual corrective to human amnesia. It's once a year being reminded, hey, you're fragile, dude. Time is really short. You know, you don't understand until you get older how fast and how short your life really is. I mean, it's gone in a blink. And you can only understand that to when I think you get to be about my age, where you're like, wow. I mean, it's almost over and I still have the mind of a 20 year old, but my body reminds me. No, it's, it's coming and it's coming for you. And when you start thinking that way, you realize, wow, whatever I build is not going to last. The only thing that survives is character. That's it. Honor, integrity, how you treated others. I think this is why this has lasted a thousand plus years in its current form. Because every generation it's normal for humans to think, well, there is an exception. I'm an exception to history. They didn't know I know until the ashes remind them otherwise. Think about what this was, what this was like then, and really what it's like now. People lining up, not to be praised, but to be reminded. No applause, no spotlight, just dust. And I think that's why this ritual endures. Because we live in a world obsessed with proving we matter. Ash Wednesday does not care. It does not. It is not asking. It asks a better question. Your life is short, dude. What are you going to do with the very limited time that you have, that you have been given before you return to dust and ashes? History waits for your answer, Nana.