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- [00:00]
A
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
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B
I'm Josh Hammer and this is the Josh Hammer Show. So welcome back. Hope you've all had a great week. I am personally replenish and recharge from the Passover holiday Just in time for Masters Weekend, one of the greatest weekends of the year for US Sports fans. A little bit more on that towards the end of today's show. Also, is the Republican Party trying to sell you out when it comes to a horrific, outrageous, George W. Bush style mass amnesty bill? We have the analysis on Maria Salazar's horrific, horrific legislation, the so called did the acts a little bit later in the show as well. Eli Lake of the Free Press will join us a little bit later in the show as well to assess what is the topic of today's opening monologue, which is of course the ceasefire in Iran. So just as I was powering down on Tuesday evening, ready to go offline for the final two days of the Passover holiday, literally just maybe 20, 30 minutes before powering down my phone, we got the this news that President Trump had announced this two week tentative conditional ceasefire. Now this two week ceasefire with the Islamic Republic of Iran was conditioned on Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz. There's a lot to be said on that. And the number one thing to be to be said is that that has thus far not actually really happened. Trump has increasingly been vocal about that. Actually, he took to Truth Social just yesterday on Thursday to say as much, to say that Iran is not upholding their end of the bargain. How do we know that? Well, because we actually have cameras and we actually have metrics, we're able to track this. So for instance, over the course of just the first couple days of this ceasefire, there were one or two vessels a day on average that were able to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That's in contrast to the roughly 150 or more vessels on a given day. We're talking here about commercial vessels, oil tankers, things like that that were happening prior to the beginning of the war on February 28th of 2026. So the Strait objectively is not open. Moreover, the mullahs, or whoever is still frankly in charge these days in the Islamic Republic of Iran, is now threatening to extort the very few ships that do go through. They're talking about taking multimillion dollar, potentially bounties just to allow the vessels to go through. They're actually seemingly in a bit of a stick the knife in and twist it kind of thing when it comes to Jared Koester and Steve Wyckoff. They're now making fun of them and saying that we will only accept payment and cryptocurrency there. So the Iranians are basically just messing with us. That's essentially what they're doing. And in fact, J.D. vance, the Vice president who has been dispatched to Pakistan, to Islamabad, by the way, what a coup for Pakistan. I mean, Pakistan is a second world country at best, maybe third world country there. Pakistan infamously was where Osama Bin Laden was being housed there in Abbottabad when the United states sent in Seal Team 6 to go ahead and take out the man who perpetrated 9 11. What a coup for Pakistan to be hosting this, this summit, or at least this anticipated summit this weekend between the United States and Iran when it comes to trying to see whether there actually is a deal to be had. Trump has been talking a lot about Iran's proposed 10 point plan in theory, and it's always in theory with the malls of Iran. This two week ceasefires is supposed to be a means towards a 10 point proposal. And again, the number one problem here, zooming out a little bit, the number one problem when it comes to Iran is that they are led by some, the most deceitful, lying people on the face of the earth. Sharia law, radical Islamism commands these people at times, commands them, permits at best, commands at worst to lie, to deceive gullible Westerners, that is to say Christians and Jews as well, to deceive Christians and Americans, Europeans, the West more generally, insofar as you can lie to them to achieve your greater goal. And we've seen this with radical Muslims going back decades and decades. And a lot of this happens at any non state level when it comes to Al Qaeda is and all the various Alphabet soup of jihadist groups at a state level. Iran is the number one institutional organ that does this on a day in day basis. It's been the number one reason why you cannot make a deal with these guys because you do not trust them. Nonetheless, Donald Trump agreed to this two week ceasefire. My personal take on this so called ceasefire is essentially as follows. I believe that Donald Trump did this to try to calm jittery markets. That is what I believe Donald Trump was thinking. Trump is, if nothing else, a businessman. He is someone who has made oodles of money in real estate deals, being a general tycoon and everything from commercial real estate to residential real estate to casinos and so forth there. He's been an avid follower of the markets for decades and decades, going back to his 20s and 30s in New York City there. And he wanted to try to calm jittery market, especially energy markets there. And Hormuz, as we explained countless times on the show over the course of Operation Epic Fury, Hormuz is a very crucial waterway because it is a means of trying to hold the energy, the energy markets of the world essentially hostage. 20% of the world's oil flows through that strait. Actually, just on Friday, we got some troubling new inflation data. It looks like the monthly inflation metric went up the most month to month in four years. But the specific gasoline metric, the gasoline metric, this is really astonishing there. The gasoline metric has gone up on a month to month basis the most in six decades. That is astonishing. I mean, literally six decades going back to the 1960s to roughly the Lyndon Johnson administration. Really crazy stuff. So that above all is what Trump is essentially trying to tamp down here. The problem again is that Iran is not upholding their end of the bargain. And the latest, actually that just happened on Friday morning is that the speaker of Iran's parliament, a man by the name of Golibov, who is one of the leaders now of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Again, this regime has been deeply crippled. He's one of the leaders there essentially said, this is essentially, this is at the time that J.D. vance was getting on the plane at Andrews Air Force Base to fly to Islamabad, Pakistan, around the same time Golubov of Iran puts on X, quote. Two of the measures mutually agreed upon between the parties have yet to be implemented. A ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran's blocked assets prior to the commencement of negotiations. These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin. So J.D. vance was saying, Iran better not play us. Well, I hate to say it, but Iran is literally playing us. Like they're literally doing it in real time. They are trolling us. They are just messing with us. The notion that the United States will go ahead and unfreeze the terrorist Iranian regime's frozen assets in banks held the US Is nuts. These assets have been frozen for decades. So the whole thing is frankly a mess. It's very much an open question as to where exactly we go from here. But first, folks, just a word from our sponsor, today's show, which is Angels Studio. You know, I recently joined the Angel Guild and watched their new documentary film, Death of Recess. Let me tell you, I was not expecting this. It was a wonderful, wonderful, powerful documentary about the rise of the corrupt teachers unions led by organizations like the nea. Look, folks, for me, this is actually very personal. I come from a lineage of teachers. My mother was a teacher, my grandmother, great grandmother, all teachers. And I heard my mother all the time back when she was teaching about the way in which the teachers unions would come in and indoctrinate their kids and overall just take the classroom experience and use it not as a means of enriching the pupils, but rather as a means of ultimately enriching the teachers and all that that entails there. So kids are being pulled into all sorts of ideological battles. It ultimately is what happens when institutions protect themselves instead of children. But really, this is why platforms like Angel Studios matter, because they're willing to tell stories that others won't. So, folks, go to angel.com hammer to join the Angel Guild and watch Death of Recess right now. If you care about the future of your children, this is essential viewing. I guarantee you folks, this will not prove to be a waste of your time. So again, there's a huge question as to whether or not this sit down in Pakistan is actually even going to happen. Really? I mean, is this actually even going to happen this weekend? To me, it seems eminently possible that JD Vans could fly halfway around the world to Pakistan and Iran essentially says, just kidding, you know, the conditions were met. And then he gets on a plane and hops all the way back. So Hormuz is largely still being shut. Trump is rapidly souring on the deal in real time while the Vice President is flying halfway around the world. Meanwhile, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon are indeed heating up. Israel has waged some pretty serious warfare against what remains of Hezbollah in in Lebanon. Recall that Hezbollah is Iran's number one Shiite Islamic proxy. Hezbollah was grievously wounded in 2024, ultimately culminating in the assassination of Hasan Nasrallah, who was the decades long head of that particular jihadist organizational hierarchy. But there still are remnants, and unfortunately pretty lethal remnants. And Israel is now is now going to war as Hezbollah rockets continue to rain down on North Netanyahu for its worth. On Thursday did tell President Trump that he will scale back upon President Trump's request. So Trump seems like he is interested in trying to make this thing work, and of course he is. This is a guy who campaigns against forever wars. Now, if in theory, if in theory, this conflict were to end right now, which I do not believe it is going to do, Trump has left all the American military assets in the region. Like, literally, they're just sitting there. Like the aircraft carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln, etc. They're just sitting there. They're off the coast in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, etc. They are essentially just waiting to be ordered to resume hostilities. So I don't think this is going to be the end, but I do think that is worth emphasizing that if this is indeed the end of Operation Epic Fury, it will be a mixed bag result. On the one hand, it will still be a very fine result because the situation in the Middle east is undoubtedly much better now than it was a month and a half ago. The Iranian Navy and the Iranian Air Force, as Secretary of War Pete Hexseth has said, are essentially non existent. The navy has essentially sunk to the bottom of the sea and the Air Force is essentially done so. Nonetheless, they still do have ballistic missiles and drones and all sorts of other offensive facing weapons capabilities. Perhaps even more to the point, they still have hundreds of kilograms, we believe, of enriched uranium. The nuclear sites have been damaged, but some of them still exist. And the regime certainly still exists, albeit in a heavily, heavily subdued, dumbed down and largely, if not entirely defanged form. So it would be a partial victory, but not a total victory if this were to actually be the end of Operation Epic Fury. Again, my read on the situation is that Donald Trump was above all trying to calm down jittery markets that he's trying to indicate, not to the Iranians, because who cares what they think? He's trying to indicate to the Europeans, to our allies in Asia, the Far East, Australia, Japan, India, whoever, that we are trying in good faith to try to reach a deal here. So this thing does not go on forever, but the Iranians are just systemically incapable of engaging in good faith negotiations. Again, I could be wrong. Maybe we'll come back here on Monday, show on Tuesday, I'll be off on Monday and we'll come back on Tuesday and there will actually be a brand new deal and maybe things will look all cheery there. I would not get my hopes up. In fact, I'm very much not getting my hopes out there. If I had to place a wager I think that hostilities will probably resume within the next week or so. Obviously we will see whether I am right or not.
- [12:26]
A
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and best selling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living Savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt stories, storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
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B
So joining us now to try to make sense of this very chaotic moving picture of a so called ceasefire is Eli Lake. Eli Lake is a columnist for the Free Press where he also hosts the Breaking History podcast and all around smart guy when it comes to Iran and related topics. So Eli, thanks for joining the program. A long overdue main appearance actually, if I may say so. We hope that you'll join us again, of course, soon as well. So what do you make of this? I kind of gave my take here. I don't frankly exactly know what to make because I don't think this actually is much of a ceasefire. It seems to me that it's being violated in real time and the goalposts are shifting here. Is this a good thing? Is this actually going to hold for the full two weeks? Fed, give us your kind of 35,000 foot view assessment of it?
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C
Well, I wrote originally that it was a very good thing because I thought that when it was announced that that was what the deal was meaning. If the Strait of Hormuz opens and in exchange for basically a two week ceasefire, then Iran was giving up its only hard power leverage which was to try to shock the world economy. And the US and Israel had accomplished a great deal in terms of defanging Iran's ability not only, not only to threaten its neighbors, it still can. It does have ballistic missiles and launchers, but you know, the ability for Iran to produce and to replace its stocks and replenish its stocks. Add to that the damage done in the 12 Day War to the nuclear program. Add to that the loss of its leadership and everything else. Just I think that, you know, the Iranian regime has been diminished and its ability to be the bully of the Middle east is diminished. And if you then got the Strait of Hormuz open, then you basically would sort of reverse the damage done to the global economy, which I think acted as a kind of timer on the war and the United States would have been in the caprid seat. So that's one of the reasons I thought it was strategically advantageous. The other reason, to be perfectly blunt, is that the threat to bomb Iran's power plants, let's leave bridges aside, because they're military purposes, to me, was a pointless kind of atrocity that would have harmed our allies on the ground, which are for the most part the Iranian people, not all of them, but I'd say over 80%. And the final idea for the war, at least as the Israelis have said it, and occasionally even Donald Trump, has been that when the bombing stops, there will be an opportunity for the Iranians to take their country back. And I believe the Mossad has capabilities in place that would advantage that. It's no guarantee, but if that was the idea, then bombing power plants and making the Iranian population more desperate would be a way to make sure that you could never get that payoff in the end. Which, again, no guarantee. I'm not saying you bet the farm on that. But I think there's certainly a possibility, given recent history in Iran and my read of Iranian history in general, which is that the Islamic Republic is an anomaly when it comes to Iran. The broad sweep of what Iranians are largely used to in terms of how they organize themselves. So that's why initially I was very optimistic. Now it looks like the Iranians are playing a bait and switch. They, they are trying to expand the terms. They have not really opened the strait. There was firing, I think yesterday against Kuwait. It really. So it was a one sided. I mean, if it's a one sided ceasefire, I hope that Trump sees through it and just, you know, say, okay, if it's war you want, then it's war you get. There was very good news, you know, yesterday when you saw the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutt, and what did he say? He said that he was working on getting those European minesweepers to Hormuz, which means that there might be an opportunity to have some of our NATO allies reluctantly, belatedly, sort of join this mission to preserve an important waterway that protects the global economy and certainly affects them. So that would be good news. And then I think that there are military options to try to clear that area out. Not just, I mean, there's the obvious one, which is military naval convoys, which is important. But I think that there are limited ground operations that can be done to try to clear the coastline. But I also think that those are risky and I think that after the amazing effort to try to retrieve the second pilot from the downed F15 over the weekend, it might have been that the president said, imagine if that hadn't gone the way we wanted and they had a hostage. Imagine if they got more hostages because of a ground operation. I think hostages paraded in front of television would be a kind of political catastrophe for Trump and it would have been. And that could then we would really be in a lot of trouble. So I think he's reluctant to try to commit ground forces and I understand that, but maybe others can contribute some ground forces. I do think that there are the military operation is not impossible and I think that's probably our best option for Hormuz. And I think that given the fact that this doesn't look like it's a real ceasefire at this point, then maybe that's where we're headed.
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B
Eli Lake, you can be followed on XLI Lake he's comics for the Free Press, host of Breaking History at the Free Press. Eli, thank you very much for that very thorough assessment. Just before you and I started chatting, actually, there was a statement released from the speaker of the Iranian Parliament who's essentially the point man on the Iranian negotiating team, basically saying that we're not even going to sit down with the United States and discuss anything this weekend in Pakistan unless the hostilities in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel cease and unless and until all the various frozen Iranian assets and international financial institutions are unfrozen, certainly the latter is just not going to happen. It's just not. It's a complete and utter non starter. So I guess in our meantime, what's going to happen in Pakistan this weekend? Is there going to be a meeting in the first place there? And depending on the answers to that question there, what's going to happen as early as potentially Monday or Tuesday of next week, then back in Hormuz in Iran?
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C
Well, okay, so let's start with Golubov, the speaker of the Iranian Majlis. He is one of five people right now who comprise basically kind of a ruling council for Iran. Moshtaba Khamenei, who is the supreme leader and I reported in a piece yesterday, he's alive, he's talking, he's sentient, but he has delegated the responsibilities for governing Iran during the war and probably for the foreseeable future to this five person council. Galoba is one voice, almost everybody on it, with the exception of the President, I think you would have to characterized as a fanatic lunatic. And the president himself obviously is no great Shakes, but is maybe more moderate, more realistic. In my view, that could be posturing. But at least on the Lebanon front, I think that there's potentially a win win where the Israelis hit very, very hard last night, as I understand it, in a pretty significant bombing run. They hit a lot of targets. And then you also now have pretty much a political pledge from the government in Beirut, and that is unprecedented, at least in recent times, that they now consider Hezbollah to be an outlaw organization and that they are going to be. I don't know if they have the capability, but they've expressed that they have the desire at least to disarm them. So that's big because before governments in Beirut were intimidated by Hezbollah for good reason. They were the strongest militia in the country. So if maybe Netanyahu can bank that, even though he knows it's probably not going to be successful, with the understanding that he can come in and backstop a Lebanese forward effort that would be good for Israel from the perspective of their regional diplomacy. I think it would be good for Israel from the perspective of their standing in the world, although that's not very great right now. But the question is, militarily, would that be effective? And the Israelis are living under, you know, I don't know, around 100 rocket attacks a day from Hezbollah, from their remaining stocks. The good news there is again, the Iranians don't have a pipeline to replenish them. They can't even replenish their own missile stocks at this point. So in some ways this seems like it feels a little bit like the last gasp. And in the meantime, I think that Israel's sort of goal at this point is to finish the organization. We'll see if they're successful. But I think the idea that you've already seen a change. If Hezbollah now can no dictate the politics of Lebanon, if the parasite is no longer in charge of the host, then that's a change. And I think that there's an opportunity to politically build on that and intermittently militarily build on it. And maybe that means that that will give some space to Netanyahu if he can convince his own country that they're going to call this part of the war off and at least give some space to the negotiations. I don't think the negotiations are going to go anywhere. I want to make that really clear. But if you it also then sort of begins to change a little bit of the narrative because if the Iranians can't, you know, get to. Yes, and I don't think they will be. I don't think this, this council will be able to do that.
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B
They're definitely, they're definitely not going to it. I'm so sorry to cut you up on pretty hard break here there, but great analysis as always. Eli Lake folks all have next Lailake, host of Breaking History podcast for the Free Press. Eli, we really appreciate joining us stop by again so if you will.
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C
Absolutely will do. Thank you so much Josh. Big fan.
- [23:00]
A
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and best selling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is is always near, always for you and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:34]
B
So in closing, before we move on, I want to just state my position on what we see currently with the ceasefire in the Middle east. And two things are simultaneously true at once. On the one hand, the situation in the region is substantially better, no doubt about that, than it was a month and a half ago, frankly. For that matter, the situation is dramatically better in the region than it was prior to October 7, 2023. Iran has been severely degraded. Its ring of terror, its ring of fire, all of its various proxies. The Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, certainly Hamas. Hamas, by the way, they actually faced a deadline last last evening on Thursday evening. It was actually an international deadline from Trump's border peace for Hamas to fully disarm. The media didn't really cover this because they've been so obsessed with Iran and understandably so. Hamas, suffice to say, did not actually abide by this deadline to disarm there. So what happens next in Gaza, I think is very much an open question, frankly. Israel would be well within the rights to actually if they so chose and they saw an imminent threat to resume hostilities against what remains of Hamas now that Hamas has just not has not abided by their Trump imposed Board of Peace international deadline. So the region is definitely still a mess. Again, when you have Islam or you have radical Islam, you're going to have a messy situation. This is the reason why the region is so messy. But it's clearly better than it was a month and a half ago prior to Operation Epic Fury. It's clearly better than it was prior to October 7, 2023. All of that is true. On the other hand, it is simultaneously true that on the mission's own terms, Operation Epic Fury has not yet been accomplished. I think that really just cannot go without saying. It seems like it should be obvious, it should be, frankly, be self evident that the mission is not yet done. Just a few weekends ago, we saw that Iran was able to launch some of these missiles at Diego Garcia, the joint American British military base 2 1/2 thousand miles away in the Indian Ocean. That that missile range shows that essentially the entire European continent is in play. So they're still a threat. They are defanged, their air force, navy essentially done so, but they are very much still a threat. And unless until that is taken care of, I think there will be legitimate questions, frankly, as to what Donald Trump's legacy will look like when it comes to essentially getting your opponent in a wrestling match all the way on the mat and then letting him go again. That's if it ends here, but I don't think it's actually going to end here. So we will see what happens. Of course, if I am right, we'll know a lot more, frankly, after this meeting or non meeting in Pakistan this weekend. Meanwhile, Trump's attacks on NATO continue apace. So NATO has not exactly covered itself in glory over the course of this conflict, as we have covered time and time again. Trump has called them out and as said, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has basically said, what is the point? Like literally what is the point of the United States subsidizing this alliance if you guys are not gonna come to us in our hour of need? And they're right. They are fundamentally correct. The European NATO countries are a bunch of free riders. They are a bunch of free riders that are continuing to live off of the American security umbrella. NATO, more generally speaking, is at this point a multilateral internationalist organization in search of a purpose. NATO is obsolete and has been for three and a half decades. For literally the best reason that an organization can be obsolete, if you have a concrete goal in mind and you achieve that goal, take a bow, you know, clap your hands, bravo, you freaking did it. But maybe, maybe, just maybe at that point, bye, bye, exit stage left, you know, go do something new with your life. Nonetheless, this doesn't happen, as you know, because people have careers and they have, and they have, they have money and they have all these sunk costs and commitments there. So the threat of organizational mission creep is here, there and everywhere a threat. Whereas here you have an organization that has lived to see the fulfillment, the actual completion of its task. I've compared here on the show in the past NATO in this respect, it's somewhat of a crass analogy, but I think it holds to the Human Rights Campaign, which was the pro same sex marriage organization. You remember that stupid red equal sign then became like a purple and yellow equal sign, but that dumb equal sign logo during the marriage wars debate there. Guess what? They won. Unfortunately, it was a garbage Supreme Court opinion from Anthony Kennedy and frankly, a terrible public policy. It's wrong. Marriage should be between one man and one woman. But they won. And instead of going away, what did the HRC do? They just rebrand it as a pro trans organization. That frankly, in many ways that's actually somewhat better than what NATO has done. Not better, because transgenderism is a lying humanity. And it's just, it's horrific. It's absolutely horrific. But it's better at least that they actually chose a new mission in the first place. NATO hasn't even done that. NATO has literally. I could not tell you what NATO stands for. I mean, that is the craziest part. This organization achieved its mission three and a half decades ago and I literally could not tell you what it stands for today. So Trump is understandably upset that these countries, the uk, France, Germany, all of them have barely seen fit to lift a finger to help America in our hour of need. The only country that has meaningfully contributed to this war is Israel. Some countries have done little bit. I think South Korea has been a little involved in sending some people to the Strait. There barely anything there. But NATO has done absolutely nothing there. Now, the silver lining is that Marco Ruti, who is the longstanding Dutch political figure who is currently the General Secretary of NATO, he is aware of this. And interestingly enough, he actually went on Jake Tapper's CNN show to essentially say that Trump, that there's a kernel of truth theory. Go ahead and check this out.
- [29:23]
C
President Trump, he's not been hiding his frustrations with NATO countries. How was the meeting? Did he say he's withdrawing?
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B
Well, let me be absolutely clear. He is clearly disappointed and with many NATO allies. And I can see his point, but at the same time I was also able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they lived up to the commitments. And there is also widespread support for the fact that degrading the nuclear and the inter, the ballistic missile capacity from Iran was really crucial and that only the US Was able at this point to do that. Okay, so you know you're in trouble when you're the head of an organization and you are conceding that your number one critic is onto something. Now, again, he has a very self serving need to say this because America, again, is the number one subsidizer, number one funder of the NATO alliance there. So if this dude wants a job, if he doesn't want to go back to try to run for the Dutch legislature or try to go be a consultant or a lobbyist, whatever, he actually wants to keep his job as a General Secretary of NATO, then he needs America to stay in. So he actually needs to flatter Trump a little bit, which is why, if you recall, at the NATO summit back in December, he called Trump daddy, which is really quite funny, actually. So he's actually, he's gone above and beyond, actually, in deeply obsequious fashion, frankly, at times there. Whether or not Donald Trump actually buys this, I think is a whole nother story. It's very much a story, though, that we are keeping an eye on here. Speaking of things that we do not expect people to buy, there is a story we have not covered yet that is now picking up traction, as it should. I want to set the table for this for you. And then I will come back on the other side of the break to kind of finish the story. The daily listeners and viewers of the show will recall that a couple of months ago, maybe in late January, early February, give or take, I live here in South Florida. I told you at the time that I received a phone call from a man who was very personally conservative, perhaps not necessarily on immigration. I know him personally. He's a very nice guy, major donor to Republicans here in Florida and conservative causes. And he called me to essentially try to poll test something, get my instinct. He said, josh, I've been in touch with Maria Salazar's office when it comes to a possible immigration compromise. The compromise will essentially be this. It'll be increased border security for some path to legal status for those who are here illegally. But, you know, he assured me it won't be citizenship, it'll be something less than that there. And he was so confident, seemingly, that this would be popular, that it'd be politically popular within President Trump's base and that it would be the right and just thing to do as a matter of public policy. To which I respectfully but politely said, this is crazy. This is absolutely nuts. This is just the George W. Bush second term amnesty debate. All over again where Jeff Sessions, among others, helped kill it in the Senate against President Bush and his Republican sympathizers there. The Pro Amnesty caucus in the Republican caucus. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I told this donor, by the way, I said, look, I love you, you're a great guy. MAGA will never buy this for a second. I will vehemently oppose. This is what I told him. Vehemently. I used the word vehemently. Well, the bill is now out and the bill is called the Dignity Act. And I can't tell you that I didn't see this coming because I literally got word of it months before it became public. And this bill is a flaming stinking bit of Republican duplicitous garbage. It is offensive and it should be killed. And frankly, anyone who's aboard this train ought to be primaried at the next available election on opportunity.
- [33:25]
A
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement from pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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So what is the so called Dignity act that is proposed by Maria Salazar, one of the squishiest rhinos in the entire House Republican Caucus? Unfortunately from near where I live here in South Florida. So the so called Dignity act would essentially allow illegal aliens to apply for temporary legal status through this new program called the quote unquote Dignity Program. How Orwellian sounding. Provided of course they meet specific conditions. Those conditions include passing background checks, paying restitution and taxes, and maintaining gainful employment. And in exchange for this, there will be some amorphous amount of border security there. And the bill, according to its technical terms, does not offer a direct path to citizenship. The problem is that Maria Salazar is a moron and every so often she just lets the mask slip. So for instance, she joined local news channel 10 here in South Florida and the mask very much slipped. Go ahead and watch this. We give them dignity. At some point in the future another legislator will write another law to give them path to citizenship. Right now what we need to do is to buy peace for these people, allow them to stay to continue working because they are Needing. You, ma', am, are an idiot. You are a capital Republican trying to sell your bill. You and your traitorous co signers trying to sell this bill to a party that has shifted dramatically to the right on immigration since the Bush era, let alone the Reagan era, when you had the infamous Reagan Tip o' Neill immigration compromise. So. So you're trying to sell this bill to a MAGA base that has become very, very hawkish on the immigration issue while, by the way, someone's hensely picking up new voters, new black male voters, new Hispanic voters, young male voters, bald stripes there. So the immigration issue has not been a political loser for the MAGA era gop, but they've definitely been more hawkish on it. And you can't even keep your darn mouth shut to say that you're not gonna try to give citizenship. It's nuts. It's nuts. Mike Lee, the senator from Utah, not having it, nor should he. Here was Mike Lee just ripping Ria Salazar and saying that this bill should never, ever be passed. Go ahead and watch this. Amnesty is still amnesty, even if you call it dignity and even if you make people pay a fine. So look, if you want to push amnesty, go right ahead. I strongly disagree with that. But don't tell us that it's not amnesty, because that's exactly what it is. So it's obviously amnesty. Amnesty to me is defined as taking someone who is here illegally and allowing them to live here legally. You do not need citizenship for it to be amnesty. If you take someone here who is here illegally and then they are suddenly here illegally, guess what? That's amnesty. You might not think of it as amnesty, but that is absolutely 1000% an amnesty system there. I don't know what year this is. Is the year 2026 or 2006? No, really, I actually, I look at this bill and my eyes want to roll through the back of my head. I mean, each and every one. You guys should go ahead and read up on this legislation because each and every one of these congressmen and senators deserves to be primaried. Unless there is some sort of outrageously good reason that I cannot possibly think of as to why some certain individual might need to sign on here. This is bad, bad legislation. And they really, really, really ought to pay some sort of price for it. The GOP cannot go soft on the immigration issue. Maybe you change the way in the short term. Maybe. Maybe that's in force from here through November. Maybe. I'm not even sure about that. You could focus disproportionately on people who have committed high profile crimes. Guess what? They're actually already doing that though. And again, as we've explained a million times, just being here illegally is a crime unto itself. So this is totally going backwards. By the way, border security is still an issue. Southern border, U.S. mexico border crossings have dramatically plummeted. Dramatically plummeted certainly since the Trump administration came back into power there. And that's amazing. They plummeted 95 plus percent according to some metrics. It's been incredible. But there was a remarkable story that broke. According to Bill Milugam, he reports over at Fox News. This happened just on Thursday. Border Patrol caught and arrested four British nationals entering the US Illegally in a remote part of the Forest of Maine, crossing in from Canada, probably the province of New Brunswick. Their names of these British nationals, Ali Mohammed, Ali Abdullah Hamid, Mohammed Nagi Ibrahim Ayub Khan and Mohammed Sultan Saleh. I'm noticing a theme. Are you as well, is this really the time I ask for an amnesty? I think the question frankly answers itself. Wall Street Journal reporting yesterday another troubling story. The US Fertility rate has hit a record low. And this is a topic that we'll come back to many times there. It's a very, very important topic, one that's not going to go stale, unfortunately, anytime soon. Overall, the American fertility rate has gone down to 1.1.57, 1.57 children per child bearing woman. That is the lowest in recorded history. You need a what the demographers call a TFR, a total fertility rate of 2.1. You need 2.1 in order to grow a population. And contrary to the open borders crowd unit, to let in the whole world. That's not really going to necessarily change things if the name population is still shrinking. There's all sorts of reasons for this. Beginning, I would argue with the decline of religion and the decline of actual attendance and house of worship, churches, bible believing churches, Torah observant synagogues, things like that. That above all is the number one reason. There's all sorts of other sociological factors as well. I happen to think that our higher education complex has a lot to do with the story. I think that frankly that way too many people go to college, way too many people pursue degrees for four years and then try to pursue careers as opposed to trying to focus on family and dating and building a life together. Now think about that. I mean, who seriously dates for marriage in college? It's a very, very rare breed who has the mentality in the first place? Most people are there to kind of study a little bit and have fun and drink beer and go watch sports and this and that there. So we're structurally delaying the age of dating and marriage. Therefore, it's no surprise that according to this same poll, there's actually the first year reports to the Wall street journal in 2025 that there were more childbearing women in their late 30s than their early 20s, the first year on record that's ever happened. That is not a recipe for sustaining population growth. So there's lots and lots of ways to try to fix this. Some has been tried in recent years in places like Poland and Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe. The solutions are not perfect, but they're certainly a step in the right direction. Overall, though, this is a cultural and spiritual crisis and a religious one. And the number one thing that I come back to over and over and over again is this country needs another great awakening, and we need it really, really, really badly. Easier said than done. Trust me, if I can make it happen, I would. But that is the number one thing that would make this, I think, really, really, really considerably better. Well, speaking of things that are better, we will close with this. It's Masters weekend. We recently just concluded the NCAA March Madness Battle Tournament. This really is the greatest time of the year on the sports calendar. You have opening day for baseball. You have March Madness, which is just an amazing, amazing event. Now you have the Masters. I have been obsessed with the Masters for my entire life. I own no shortage of Masters paraphernalia. When it comes to hats, when it comes to shirts, I tragically have never been. As a lifelong sports fan, my two sports bucket list items for the events that I am most dying to go to and have not been to are the Masters, for which I enter the lottery to get tickets essentially every year. I've never won. If by some chance you work for a group close to Augusta national and are listening to the show, hello, I'm right here. I would love to go one year. So there's that, and there's also the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula one. Those are my two sports bucket list items there. The Masters is just a magisterial event. It is. What can you say? It's simply paradisical. It's paradise on earth. Looking at Augusta National Golf Club, amen. Corner, the 11th, 12th, 13 halls, the amazing bridge, the Hogan Bridge there on the par three, 12th hull, the azaleas, the flowers, the magnolias, the trees. Have you ever seen that shade of green before? That verdant, striking shade of green on the fairways and the putting services there. The caddies are. They'll wear these traditional white jumpsuits, the iconic caddy uniforms. It's a place, as the tagline goes, a tradition unlike any other. Interestingly, ironically, it has established that reputation despite being, I believe, the youngest, actually, of the four golf majors going on the shortest period of time. But it is a tradition like any other. And the prices have stayed that way. The prices for a hot dog, a Coke have stayed at the same price, roughly speaking, barely moving an inch for decade, you know. Earlier this week, Mark Calcavecchia, a former major golf champion, was kicked off the grounds for using a cell phone. No cell phones allowed. It is a throwback in time, and it's just an amazing, amazing, amazing tournament. A quintessential American sporting experience. I will be at a wedding on Sunday, my cousin's wedding there. But I will be sneaking in some streaming of the Masters on my phone during the ceremony. I hope my cousin, if she's watching this, is not too offended there. It's gonna be a great wedding, but I look forward to a great, great weekend at Augusta national very much as well. Folks, have a great weekend. We'll be right back here. I'm actually gonna be off Monday, so we'll be right back with a new show on Tuesday. Marc Davis is filling in for me on Monday. Have a great weekend, folks.
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In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 4040 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now. Wherever you get your podcasts.