Ep. 1639 - 2024 Recap: A Strange Year in Politics

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Michael Knowles Show, Ep. 1639 - "2024 Recap: A Strange Year in Politics"

Release Date: December 18, 2024

In Episode 1639 of The Michael Knowles Show, host Michael Knowles delves into the tumultuous political landscape of 2024, dissecting pivotal events, controversial claims, and cultural shifts that have defined the year. The episode is segmented into several key discussions, each highlighting significant moments and insights from the past year.

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1. PolitiFact's Lie of the Year

Timestamp: [02:27]

Michael Knowles begins by addressing PolitiFact’s selection for the "Lie of the Year." Contrary to what many might expect, the award went to false claims made by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. They asserted that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were responsible for eating pets—a accusation that sparked widespread outrage.

Notable Quote:

"Our Lie of the Year goes to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance for false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pet dogs and cats." ([02:27])

Knowles critiques the plausibility of such claims, highlighting the lack of evidence and the subsequent backlash. He contrasts this with other potential contenders, including misleading statements from Joe Scarborough regarding Joe Biden's cognitive abilities, and Kamala Harris's contradictory stance on pardoning her son, Hunter Biden.

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2. Democratic Fabrication and Media Spin

Timestamp: [04:04]

Delving deeper, Knowles discusses the broader pattern of Democrats spreading misinformation. He references Joe Scarborough’s exaggerated praise of Joe Biden, made mere months before Biden’s resignation due to dementia.

Notable Quote:

"Joe Scarborough said that four months before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race because of his dementia." ([04:04])

He emphasizes that while both parties engage in spin, Democratic fabrications often lack plausibility, undermining their credibility and eroding public trust.

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3. Transgender Ideology and Corporate Backlash

Timestamp: [09:00]

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the backlash against transgender ideology, particularly in corporate settings. Knowles cites Disney as a prime example, noting the company's decision to remove a transgender storyline from its new series, "Win or Lose."

Notable Quote:

"We have been saying that to you public elementary schools for years... Until November, when there were a whole lot of reasons that Republicans won unified government in a landslide." ([11:54])

He argues that the public’s rejection of forced transgender narratives has contributed to Republican successes, asserting that such ideological impositions alienate the broader audience.

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4. The Rise and Fall of Meme Coins: Fartcoin’s $800 Million Market Cap

Timestamp: [14:24]

Transitioning to economic trends, Knowles critiques the volatile cryptocurrency market, spotlighting Fartcoin—a meme coin that astonishingly reached an $800 million market cap. He compares its value to established companies like Office Depot and Guess Jeans, questioning the sustainability and underlying value of such digital assets.

Notable Quote:

"It's just a meme. The coin not only doesn't have any value, people think it has value." ([14:24])

Knowles warns of the speculative nature of meme coins, highlighting their susceptibility to "pump and dump" schemes and the broader implications for financial stability.

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5. Vatican’s Financial Struggles and Church Dynamics

Timestamp: [36:38]

In a segment on religious institutions, Knowles discusses reports indicating that the Vatican is nearing bankruptcy due to declining global donations. He explores internal tensions within the Church between traditionalists and progressive factions.

Notable Quote:

"The future of the church seems to me will be traditional one, because the church has the deposit of faith that is sacred scripture with sacred tradition." ([22:23])

He posits that the Church’s future hinges on its ability to balance tradition with modernity, suggesting that traditional parishes are thriving with younger congregants, while more progressive ones are aging and dwindling.

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6. Neighborhood Political Bias Tool: Owici's New Platform

Timestamp: [24:24]

The episode introduces a new technological platform developed by Owici, designed to display the political leanings of various neighborhoods. Knowles underscores the significance of political alignment in community formation, likening it to historical patterns of segregation based on prevailing societal factors.

Notable Quote:

"The distinctive characteristic of our age... today that is politics." ([40:30])

He argues that political compatibility is now a primary driver for individuals when choosing where to live, reflecting the increasing polarization within American society.

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7. Disturbing Poll: Young Americans and Justified Assassination

Timestamp: [47:05]

A particularly alarming topic discussed is a poll from Emerson College revealing that a majority of young Americans (ages 18-29) believe the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO was justified.

Notable Quote:

"A full 24% of them say it was somewhat acceptable. And then 17% say it was completely acceptable." ([47:05])

Knowles attributes this disturbing statistic to contemporary education systems that he claims promote Marxist and Nietzschean philosophies, eroding traditional moral frameworks.

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8. Drone Sightings and Government Transparency

Timestamp: [40:28]

Addressing national security concerns, Knowles covers the increasing sightings of unidentified drones across major American cities. He critiques the government's evasive responses, contrasting them with President Trump's more direct communication style.

Notable Quote:

"He says, the administration and the military know exactly what those aircraft are." ([42:22])

He speculates on the nature of these drones, suggesting they are likely domestically operated military or law enforcement devices rather than foreign or extraterrestrial in origin.

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9. Loneliness and Social Isolation: A Growing Crisis

Timestamp: [47:05]

Concluding the episode, Knowles touches upon a poll from the University of Michigan indicating that loneliness and social isolation, especially among individuals over 50, correlate with increased sickness and mortality rates.

Notable Quote:

"This is really shocking and scary." ([47:23])

He attributes this trend to the erosion of community bonds in an increasingly individualistic society, underscoring the societal cost of diminished interpersonal connections.

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Conclusion

Throughout Episode 1639, Michael Knowles provides a comprehensive analysis of the multifaceted political and cultural challenges faced in 2024. From debunking misinformation to critiquing societal shifts and economic anomalies, Knowles offers a perspective that emphasizes the importance of traditional values, governmental transparency, and the dangers of ideological extremism. His commentary serves as both a reflection on the past year's events and a cautionary tale for the future trajectory of American politics and society.

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Note: Advertisements and non-content segments by Elise have been excluded from this summary to focus solely on the episode’s substantive discussions.

Transcript

[Elise]

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[Michael Knowles]

Years old or older to order.

[Elise]

Some exclusions apply as we wrap up.

[Michael Knowles]

The strangest year in recent political history. Maybe in all of American political history. Unidentified drones spread to more major American cities. Disney abandons transgenderism. And a financial asset called Fartcoin has hit an $800 million market cap. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles. Welcome back to the show. There's a new poll out asked young Americans whether or not they think the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO was justified. And more people said yes than said no. Not a good sign for the future of the country.

[Elise]

There's so much more to say. First, though, go to balanceofnature.com, use promo code Knowles. Balance of Nature fruits and veggies is the most convenient way to get whole fruits and vegetables daily. So Balance of nature takes fruits and vegetables, they freeze, dry them, turn them into a powder, and put them into a capsule. You take your fruits and veggie capsules every day, and then your body knows what to do with them. Balance of nature is just one ingredient of a balanced lifestyle. Has no intention to replace a healthy diet, exercise, sleep or any other healthy habits. It is intended to be used in concert with other healthy habits. I absolutely love balance of nature, especially someone like me. I, I'm on the road a lot. I'm eating a little bit of that fast food. When sweet little Elise isn't making my meals, I'm not prioritizing my fruits and veggies. So with Balance of Nature, you can.

[Michael Knowles]

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[Elise]

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[Michael Knowles]

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[Elise]

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[Michael Knowles]

As we wrap up the year, PolitiFact has given out its award for the Lie of the Year. And there were, there were some real doozies in 2024. I'm sure you could list off the top of your head ten of the biggest lies easily. And politifact didn't pick any of them. Do you know what politifact chose for the Lie of the Year? A lie marked a town and its residents in the name of campaign rage. It was absurd, it was consequential. Our Lie of the Year goes to Donald Trump and J.D. vance for false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pet dogs and cats. That's the Lie of the Year now. Gotta love Community Notes, which came in after Elon purchased Twitter. Community Notes points out, back In March of 2024, residents of Springfield were complaining about missing pets. There were 911 calls about missing pets. Furthermore, this isn't even in the Community Notes. A woman was arrested in Ohio for eating a cat. When she was arrested, she had fur on her mouth. So maybe it wasn't a totally, maybe it wasn't a precise claim. Maybe it was. I don't. But you tell me regardless. That's the lie of the Year. That's the defining lie, or the most egregious lie. I don't know. I've got some other contenders. Do you remember for instance, when Joe Scarborough on msnbc, echoing the entire liberal establishment all the way up to the White House said this about Joe Biden?

[Joe Scarborough]

Start your tape right now, cuz I'm about to tell you the truth and F you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I've known him for years. The Brzezinski's have known him for 50 years. If it weren't the truth, I wouldn't say it.

[Michael Knowles]

Joe Scarborough said that four months before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race because of his dementia. So that would be a pretty good one. It wasn't just Scarborough, it was the whole liberal media. It was the whole Democrat establishment. It was Kamala, it went all the way up to the White House. Scarborough just put himself out on that limb the furthest, I guess four months later, Biden steps down because his brain doesn't work anymore. Okay, that might be the lie of the year. Hey, I got another contender. Here's another contender for the Lie of the year. This one from Joe Biden himself.

[Kamala Harris]

As we sit here in Normandy, your son Hunter is on trial. And I know that you cannot speak about an ongoing federal prosecution, but let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is, yes. And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?

[Michael Knowles]

Yes, yes, I have ruled out a pardon for my son. That was six months before Joe Biden gave Hunter Biden the most sweeping comprehensive pardon in American presidential history. Seems like that could be a contender for lie of the year, wouldn't she say? But no, no. Trump and Vance mentioned police reports that had come up in a town in Ohio that might have been true. Seemed like they very well could have been true. We know that that exact crime actually did occur in Ohio around that time. Hmm. I would put those ahead. I don't know. I don't think it's just my partisanship. In fact, I think it's probably politifacts partisanship. Now there's another big story coming out. Another big whopper, actually. I guess this was a story out of Aurora, Colorado. Police have arrested 14 people in an apartment complex that is run by the Trende Aragua Venezuelan gang. And if you wanna go through the lies of the year, you might go back a little bit to when Martha Raddatz on ABC News was interviewing then vice presidential candidate J.D. vance.

[Elise]

J.D.

[Michael Knowles]

Vance pointed out that this Venezuelan gang had taken over a town in Colorado. Martha Raddatz said, hey, cut it out. Fact check. 10 billion Pinocchios. No big deal. How dare you suggest that, J.D. vance.

[J.D. Vance]

What we're hearing, of course, Martha, is that people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs.

[Martha Raddatz]

Senator Vance, I'm stop you because I know exactly what happened. I'm going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment conflicts, apartment complexes. And the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful of problems only.

[J.D. Vance]

Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris's open border. Americans are so fed up with what's going on and they have every right to be.

[Michael Knowles]

I love JD's reaction here. Martha, do you hear yourself? But that was it. I'm gonna stop you there. I'm gonna stop you there, jd. Okay. A small, very small number of apartment complexes maybe were like briefly taken over by Venezuelan gangs and everything, but the police have totally taken care of it. It's no big deal. It's not a problem. It doesn't exist. Move along, move along. That's how it started. Then Yesterday, police arrested 14 people in one of the apartment complexes that had reports of armed Venezuelan gangsters marauding through the hallways. They were responding to an armed home invasion in one of the apartments in which the victims were kidnapped and then held hostage and one of them was stabbed by allegedly the Venezuelan gangsters. So that's, I don't think that's the top lie of the year. Martha Raddatz and the libs denying that Kamala Harris's open border had allowed a Venezuelan gang to take over a town. But it's a good runner up. I think the first two winners belong to Joe Biden and the people around Joe Biden. It does not help Democrats when their lies become implausible. Democrats lie. I think they lie more often and more egregiously than Republicans. But Republicans lie sometimes too. It's politics. People spin. People stretch the truth. I get it. That can be effective. If, if your lies are plausible. That is not effective. When your lies become implausible. When you go out there and you say my policy is going to help the American economy and even if it doesn't, even if inflation goes up or even if GDP goes down a little bit or even you could at least still maybe make the argument and say, no, it's actually working to help fix the deficit or, I don't know, it's helping this tax credit helped you in this particular way or what. There are ways to spin it where you can convince the American people that something is true even if it isn't. But when you go up to the American people and you say, hey, the guy who can't speak, who's drooling, who's about 150 years old, he's as sharp as ever. This is intellectually the best version of this politician we've ever seen. That is not plausible. You are insulting people's intelligence. The people are going to conclude either that you have no idea what you're talking about or that you're lying to them. Either way, they're gonna say you have very poor judgment and I'm not gonna trust you anymore. That's what happened. That's the big conclusion. That's how you know the Democrats are responsible for the lie of the year. They're really responsible for the lie of the year because they got clobbered, okay? The people were sick of those lies, all the way down to the basic lie of a man can become a woman, which was a culture war issue that really played in Republicans favor this year. It was all just evidence that the Dems had lost the common sense. You saw this at Disney. Disney just came out with a huge culture shaking story yesterday. And I feel a lot of people did not actually pay Attention to it. Disney has this new original series. It's Pixar's first ever original series. It's called Win or Lose. And Win or Lose, according to Variety, the trade paper had a trans storyline in it. This from Variety. Win or Lose was originally set to feature a transgender storyline that ended up being cut by Disney, Variety has learned. And what did a spokesman for Disney say? This is on the record. When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline. Since when? Since when did you realize that we have been saying that to you, Disney for years. We've been saying that to you public elementary schools for years. We've been saying that to you, libraries and the whole liberal culture for years. And you've said, no, you dirty rotten parents don't have a right to raise your kids how you want to. No, you're going to scar them. You're this kind of phobe. You're that kind of phobe. We're gonna force all this weird LGBT stuff on your kids from the youngest age possible. And if your kid wants to start pretending to be the opposite sex, we're gonna affirm him in those delusions. And sometimes we're not even gonna tell you about it. Forget about you parents. You have no right to raise your kids. That was until November. And then in November, there were a whole lot of reasons that Republicans won unified government in a landslide. But one of them, and a lot of people didn't believe me, I said, one of the big reasons is the transgender ideology issue, an issue that I've been paying attention to for quite a while and I've pointed out must be eradicated from public life entirely.

[Elise]

The whole ideology, at every level.

[Michael Knowles]

The reason for that is that the trans issue smuggles in so many premises. The trans issue is such a political nuclear bomb that if we accept the transgender ideology, then we totally blow up the foundation of our politics. Our perceptions can no longer be trusted. Our reason can no longer be trusted. We can no longer make any distinctions, including the most natural distinction between a man and a woman. We lose everything. That's why the libs are so gung ho about it, is it allows them to toss reason out of politics altogether and turn politics into a manner of sheer interest and the tyranny of one's will. Kind of voluntarist politics. That's why they like it so much. But they lost, okay? The American people broadly rejected that. And now even Disney, as its stock prices, has cratered in recent years. Even Disney has to say, okay, you know what? We went too far. You're right. We'll throw the trans ideology overboard. We'll throw the trans activists overboard. We are not gonna win. We're not gonna win in the marketplace. We're not gonna win at the ballot box. If we keep this up, we libs have lost the common sense. The conservatives have it. We need to try to gain it back.

[Elise]

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[Michael Knowles]

Speaking of the culture, Fartcoin now has an $800 million market cap, the value of a new cryptocurrency, which is a meme coin, which is called and I'm displeased that I have to even say it, but it's the name of this supposed asset. It's FartCoin. $800 million. NBC News points out an $800 million market cap is about equal to Office Depot to Guess jeans wear, you know, Guess jeans that you would buy at the shopping mall. It's about equal to the parent company of Steak n Shake, a major long standing food company. Now among those mighty companies, we have Fartcoin. How did this happen? It's just a meme. The coin not only doesn't have any value, people think it has value. So in a sense, I mean if you own some of it, you could trade it you could cash out before the whole thing collapses. And I guess you'd get some US dollar for it, you'd get some greenbacks, and that way it has value, but it doesn't have any actual underlying value. How has it jumped so much? Well, it's jump in part because bitcoin, the most established cryptocurrency. I don't even know that it's exactly a currency, but it's certainly a type of a digital asset. Bitcoin has jumped 130% this year. More importantly, Bitcoin has jumped 50% in value in price, I should say, since Trump was elected. The Trump election alone saw bitcoin shoot up 50%. There's another coin in addition to Bitcoin and all the I don't really invest in these things all that much, but I was persuaded to buy some LGB coin years ago. Still waiting for that return to come in. I put a relatively modest amount of money into let's go Brandon coin. I guess LGB could stand for a number of things, but it was let's go Brandon. And I was about to become a trillionaire on that and I put a small amount of money in and I seem to have lost all of it. That's what happens with meme coins. Maybe that's what will happen with crypto broadly. But there are others. There was one hawk coin, not the bird it refers to Hawktua, that girl, Hayley Welch, who went viral for making a lewd comment. Over the course of 24 hours, the Hawktuha coin market cap hit $500 million. But then it cratered down to $28 million and people lost basically all their money. And the girl, Hayley Welch, is now being accused of insider trading, although she's denied it and I kind of believe her. I don't think that Hayley Welch is some financial evil mastermind. I don't know, maybe I'm going a little too soft on her. But in any case, the coin was a pump and dump. Whether she knew about it or not, it was a pump and dump. The SEC is right to look into this thing. It raises questions about all sorts of meme coins and crypto broadly. Regardless, though, let's say you've made a ton of money on bitcoin. There are plenty of people listening to the show who've made an insane amount of money on bitcoin. I wish I'd made a little bit of that money on bitcoin, but I'm not losing sleep over it because a lot of the crypto investing it just feels like gambling. The fact that Bitcoin jumped 50% after Trump's election to me is not a great sign about the health of crypto, about the health of the economy and about the health of the American political order. That's the sort of thing that happens in kleptocracies, that's the sort of thing that happens in banana republics where the supposed value of assets, of companies, of investments jumps or collapses based on jokes, based on memes and based on elections. That's not how things are supposed to work. The way it's supposed to work is the price, the market cap is increased because there is an actual increase in the value of the underlying asset. The widget company stock price goes up because the widget company is making and selling more widgets. And there's a long term strategy for it to make and sell even more widgets. And it employs real people and it produces real products and it has real effects in the world. Hoctua, coin, fartcoin, all these other little meme assets, supposed assets don't have any underlying value. It's just gambling. And that's fine. There's a role for gambling. Gambling has existed in all societies forever. But you don't want these kinds of huge swings. You don't want people, you don't want major financial institutions, just gambling. That's not good. As some friends of mine have pointed out for years now, luck is not a business model. And right now, it seems to me with our country, we've gone from sober, deep strategic planning in our law, in our political order, in our economy, we've gone from that kind of long term, sober serious thinking into just kind of random gambling and making it all up as we go. That's probably not a good sign for the health of the country. Now speaking of going bankruptcy, there's a news report out, this is from the Irish Star that the Vatican is on the brink of bankruptcy. This due to a dramatic decline in global donations during the course of this pontificate. Now, the Vatican, even the enduring institution of our entire civilization, been around for 2000 years now, still going strong. The gates of hell will not prevail. Our Lord will always be with the Church. I certainly believe it doesn't mean the Church is immune to the same kind of economic ups and downs that present themselves to all of us. That happens, but this seems a little bit steeper. This seems more than just ripples in the stock market. People are donating a lot less, consistently less, and donating less even than people are expecting. Why is that some are gonna point fingers. They're gonna say it's because of Pope Francis. That's what this article is doing. Some are going to say it's this problem or that problem. They're going to point to all sorts of hobby horses. It seems to me, as a mackerel snapping papist myself, there is a strange tension right now, and has been for some years, between certain elder prelates in the church who are often radical and iconoclastic and even innovative. The kind of people who really celebrated the degradation of the liturgy and the. The intrusion of electric guitars and maracas and, I don't know, whatever balloons into the Holy Liturgy. And the laity. The laity which is younger, at least, the really tuned in laity, younger, which wants Orthodoxy and tradition and reverence. I just see it. I go around to churches all around the country. Sometimes I'm traveling on a Sunday or a holy day, and I go in and I go to traditional Latin Mass churches. I go to churches that have the. The new Mass, the Mass of Pope Paul vi, but in a more reverent way, ad orientum, with chanting, with some more Latin, fewer electric guitars, fewer, you know, jokes and vaudeville shows. So I go into those. And then I sometimes go to parishes that are really kind of modern and casual and engage in all sorts of liturgical abuses. And I can't help but notice the more traditional Reverend parishes. They're full of young people, and they're full of really young people, meaning the young people who attend have a lot of kids. They're vibrant, they're crying. You know, if a church isn't crying, it's dying. And I go into the more innovative, modern, hippie, dippy ones. The median age is about 106, and.

[Elise]

They aren't having kids.

[Michael Knowles]

And so there's a financial issue here that is raising a broader and inevitable political point. The future of the church seems to me will be traditional one, because the church has the deposit of faith that is sacred scripture with sacred tradition, as St. Paul tells us, but also because the more traditional people, the people who want orthodoxy and truth and beauty and reverence, they're the ones having the kids. So I'm not even just wishcasting here. I'm just saying the future of the church is going to be that because the other people are not producing the future of the church. So I guess there are two ways it could go. The churches will either become more reverent, more Orthodox, more traditional, more beautiful, more of what they are over the course of two millennia, or those churches are gonna become mosques or coffee shops. Cause there aren't gonna be Christians to go into them. Those are the two options.

[Elise]

There's so much more to say. First though, go to strongholdrescue.org as Americans, we are blessed to have people like you, Navy seals and Army Rangers to represent and defend us during the worst of times. However, in most countries, when war and.

[Michael Knowles]

Violence break out, there's often no one.

[Elise]

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[Michael Knowles]

If you would like to become a.

[Elise]

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[Michael Knowles]

Strongholdrescue.org Speaking of deeply held beliefs, there is a new platform, a new tech platform for real estate that will show you the political leanings of neighborhoods. And this is gonna be really helpful to a lot of people. And you might pretend, you might say, I don't care about the political leanings of my neighbors, but I think you kind of do. I certainly do. I'm not saying I don't want any Democrats on my street, but I wanna live in a place where people wanna live the way that I wanna live. Isn't that why we move to a neighborhood? Isn't that the very essence of community is people living in common, having something to do with each other? It takes a village to raise a child. Well, you better make sure you're living in the right village. It really does take a village to raise a child. So make sure you're not Living in a village that is totally opposed to your beliefs, that is totally opposed to what you want for your children. Because your kids are not going to turn out the way you hope that they will. This tool is being launched by owici. Looks like it should be Odyssey, but it says Oicy Oise. I don't know, whatever. It's some tech startup. Since South Florida and New York. This is being reported by Axios. Users will be able to see consumer and political data for each block. This will be taken from campaign and election results, campaign contributions, licensable commercial data. You know, we give our data out all the time on our phones, on our computers, so it can get those data and it can tell you what the neighborhood looks like. This is useful. If I were in the market to buy a house, I'd probably check it out. You want to live with people who want to live the same way as you. Now you're going to hear people say, what do you want to do? You want to live in a kind of segregated community? They're going to use the S word, but in this case pertaining to politics rather than race or religion or something like that. And why is that? It's because the distinctive characteristic of our age, the really significant characteristic of our age is politics. It's not really race. In every country around the world, for all of history, there have been racial divisions because racial distinctions are real. But in America today, it's not the most important thing. There have been times when it's been more important. Today, it's not as significant as it once was. Even religion. There have been times in every country around the world, for all of history, where religion was a big dividing line. Today, not so much. I grew up in Westchester, New York. In Westchester, New York, you had a lot of Jews, you had a lot of Catholics, you had some old WASPs. But really, you know, what everyone was just about was just kind of liberal and basically secular. I'm not denying that there were some people who really practiced a faith, but not much. The Catholics were kind of squishy. The Jews were reform, the WASPs, I mean, I don't know. Have the mainstream Protestant churches believed anything in 100 years? I'm not so sure that they have. Everyone did kind of believe the same thing. Even if they, on paper they had different religious differences, those distinctions didn't matter that much. So when people self segregate in the homes in which they live, the distinctive characteristic will be whatever is most significant at that time. And today that is politics. It's not really race. It's not really religion, it's not really any of the other factors. It's gonna be politics. No wonder this kind of app is gonna come out. That's just human nature. You might say that's prejudice. That's this, that's that. You can call it whatever you want. That has recurred everywhere for all of human history. It will continue into the future. And it tells us something about what we believe, about how we view ourselves, our relation to the world, our relation to maybe beyond the world, that today the most important thing to people is electoral politics. Now, speaking of shifting political attitudes, there's a poll out from Emerson College a little bit disturbing. More young Americans believe that the United Healthcare CEO who was assassinated. More young Americans believe that his assassination was justified than believe it wasn't justified. They polled 18 to 29 year olds. 41% of them say the murder was either somewhat or completely acceptable. A full 24% of them say it was somewhat acceptable. And then 17% say it was completely acceptable. One in six, almost one in five young people polled say that the murder of the healthcare CEO was completely acceptable simply because there's a husband and a father simply because he was the CEO of a health care company. I don't even think he was a rich kid growing up. I think he was in many ways a self made man. 40% say that the murder was completely or somewhat unacceptable. 33% say somewhat unacceptable. Just 7% of young people say that the murder of a health insurance company CEO was completely unacceptable. This should not be surprising at all. It should not be surprising certainly on the left shouldn't even really be surprising on the right, especially that we're talking about young people here shouldn't be surprising at all. If you are educated on Karl Marx, if you are educated on Friedrich Nietzsche, if you're educated just on plain old liberalism, then how would you have the moral and ethical architecture to understand why it's wrong to murder this guy just because he runs a company you don't like? Those are the kinds of people that young people are educated on today. They're educated on Marx and his heirs. They're educated on Nietzsche and his heirs. God is dead. We're going beyond good and evil. There's the Superman. You have to violate the supposed moral norms in order to fulfill your full potential.

[Elise]

The tyranny of the will, you're supposed to.

[Michael Knowles]

And then just plain old liberalism, which is all about me, me, me, me, me. It's all about my rights and my entitlements and the social compact that I've entered into because I'm fundamentally an individual and it's all about me. All right, if that's what you're raised on, why is this wrong? This has been mainstream thinking since the French Revolution, which we are taught today was a great event. The French Revolution is one of the most evil events in the history of the world. The French Revolution, when these nasty revolutionaries came in, murdered their king and queen, overturned the whole society, spilled zillions of gallons of blood, ultimately ate their own, killed the revolutionaries too, destroyed so much beauty, so much tradition, harassed and murdered so many innocent people. We're told that was good. Why? Well, because they were after revolution. They had a good end in sight, and the good end justified the immoral means. That is universally the moral teaching that we get today in the mainstream culture. Okay, well, if that's all true, if you can behead the Queen of France because you think she said something that you don't like, she didn't even say it. You know, let them eat bread or let them eat cake. Rather, if you can behead the Queen of France purely because of envy and recklessness and wrath and pride and all of the deadly sins, if that's justified.

[Elise]

Surely killing the CEO of a health.

[Michael Knowles]

Insurance company would be justified. Sure. If there's no morality and we're beyond good and evil and we're gonna become the superman and everything we think about the transcendent moral order is just a bunch of bunk and illusions and fairy tales that we tell kids so they're not afraid of the dark. Then why wouldn't you kill the healthcare CEO if you don't like him? Frankly, I'm proud. I'm gratified to see that 7% of young people still understand that this is always immoral. Wow. In a culture so poorly educated as ours, so confused as ours, a culture after virtue, 7% still understand the truth. That's pretty good. I'm looking at the glass half full, but we've got our work cut out for us. Speaking of harming people through politics, horrible story out of Canada. Another horrible story out of America's evil top hat. Should this be a daily segment on the show? What's going on in America's evil top hat? It seems to get worse by the day. A Canadian woman, woman of a certain age, Roseanne Milburn, 61 years old, needed knee replacement surgery. This is a relatively common surgery. She needed that surgery. She needed it six years ago. But because Canada has a socialist healthcare system, she had to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. And her injury got worse and worse and worse. Eventually, her number comes up in the lottery. She gets to have her knee replaced. And there was dead tissue. Things had started to turn a little bit. Cause the healthcare system made her wait so long. The government made her wait so long. So they found some dead tissue, they removed the dead tissue, and it was okay. It was successful surgery. And then they just needed to send her to one more specialist to stitch her up. They were going to do that later that day. Problem was, she could not be transferred to that specialist who was at the Winnipeg Health Sciences center, because the Winnipeg HSC didn't have any beds available. All the beds were full. So they removed the dead tissue. The surgery had gone pretty well, but this woman had an open wound. She hadn't been properly stitched up, so they had to wait for a bed. And she waited and she waited and she waited. She waited for eight days at Concordia Hospital where the first part of the procedure was done. Eight days with an open wound. In Canada? Not in Cuba, not in Madagascar. Not in some far flung third world country. No, no, no, in Canada. Finally, they bring her to the HSC to have her wound stitched up. But it's too late now. You've got more rotting flesh. And she had to have her leg amputated. This woman, who was scheduled to have what is considered these days to be a relatively routine procedure six years ago, had to lose her leg because the government just dragged its feet. The bureaucrats couldn't get her in in time. Even after they were able to do most of the job. They just didn't. They couldn't find a bed for her. So she had to lose her leg. This is socialist healthcare. This is the reality of socialist healthcare. There are all sorts of complaints about the American healthcare system. There's all sorts of excuses for murdering the head of an American health insurance company. The US Health care is expensive. It's byzantine. It's got all these sorts of problems. It is much better than that. Even still, in America, you don't lose your leg because you're waiting six years for a procedure. You might amass a ton of medical debt. You might have to wait in the emergency room for a little bit. You might. But you're not gonna lose your leg over this. And US Healthcare was much better before Barack Obama. Before Obama said he was gonna bring premiums down, increase coverage for everyone. And he implemented a healthcare system much closer to Canada's. Before all that, before those big lies of the year when health care rates actually skyrocketed. And American healthcare is still terrible. So terrible that people are justifying the murder of a healthcare insurance CEO even after Barack Obama. What is it, 15 years now, after Obamacare? But U.S. health care was even better before Obamacare.

[Elise]

It's not perfect.

[Michael Knowles]

There's still plenty of things to complain about, but it's better than this. Why? Why doesn't socialist healthcare work? Why? Why are there still all these problems? Because there is no avoiding the finitude of resources in time and space. We live in time and space. We pretend we don't. We pretend we're gnostic spirits floating through the ether or something.

[Elise]

We're not.

[Michael Knowles]

We live in time and space. There is a finitude of resources. So the question is, how do you allocate these resources in a way that is efficient, that that gets the job done, and we don't turn into this evil top hat up there called Canada? At the Daily Wire, when we say join us in the fight, these are not empty words. These are real battles that affect the lives of every American every day. We took on the Biden administration in their unconstitutional vaccine mandates. We took it straight to the Supreme Court, and we won. The groundbreaking documentary what Is a Woman? Changed the national conversation forever. It's a major part of the fight that has now made it up to the Supreme Court. Then we took on the box office with Am I Racist? Americans showed up in record numbers, making it the number one documentary of the decade, despite Hollywood's pretending it doesn't exist. At the Daily Wire, we fight the left and we build the future. And we need you standing with us. Every dollar you invest goes directly back into these battles. Join Daily Wire plus today or give.

[Elise]

The gift of Daily Wire plus this Christmas for 44.0percent off.

[Michael Knowles]

Go to DailyWire.com right now. My favorite comment yesterday from that person. Six thousand, one hundred and ten. Who's referring to a favorite quote, apparently from me. It's my new favorite MK quote.

[Elise]

It is normal for politicians to have.

[Michael Knowles]

An interest in theater because the skills are so similar. You know, it's funny. I guess that sounds funny, but I didn't mean for that to be funny. It's just a fact. The skills actually are similar when you're in politics and when you're in the theater. You need to be able to communicate well. You need to be able to understand people. You need to have an interest in people at the best levels of theater and politics. You have to care about the truth in theater, living truthfully in imaginary circumstances in politics, caring about political truths, social truths, economic truths. So I wasn't joking. It sounds funny because it makes politicians sound like vain liars, which at the low end they are just like bad actors are vain liars. But I wasn't really joking. There is a reason that many, if not most politicians have some background in the theater. It's just their similar skills, you know, all the world's a stage, I guess. Now, speaking of the government, there's an update on the drones. You know the drones that are flying all over the country, especially in New Jersey. Well now, drones have been spotted way above the clouds in Detroit. Reportedly, you can see this was uploaded to YouTube by easily amused EE and it's. It's someone flying in a commercial flight above the clouds. And there are these little shiny dots. Now part of me would say, okay, maybe you see one of those. You say, it's probably just another airplane. I don't know. There are five pretty close together. Maybe it's a reflection off the glass in the window. However, people are coming out saying, no, it wasn't a reflection off the glass, didn't behave like a reflection in the glass. So it could be drones. This was a flight from Chicago O'Hare heading to Newark, showed at least four glowing objects above the clouds. So the cloud layer was supposed to be at 8,000ft, maybe as high as 12,000ft. According to the Express, that is higher than any commercially available drone would be able to hold station at this altitude. And the drone seems significantly higher than the cloud layer. So then you ask, okay, well, is it another airplane flight? Radar data show that there were no commercial flights in that region at that time. So now the plot thickens. Now we say, okay, it's not just.

[Elise]

Around this port in New Jersey, it's.

[Michael Knowles]

All the way closer to Detroit. You can't say it's airplanes. Maybe you could say it's just an illusion off the glass. Doesn't look like that though, from the, from the camera footage. Kirby, the national security spokesman at the White House, says, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast. But, you know, the work continues. Move along, move along. Okay, so that was a non answer. Well, no, look, it's something up there, but don't worry, don't freak out, but it's something. But don't worry. Stop asking me. President Trump gave a more straightforward answer on this. He says that the administration and the military know exactly what those aircraft are.

[Donald Trump]

The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it's a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went. And for some reason, they don't want to comment. And I think they'd be better off saying what it is our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense. I can't imagine it's the enemy, because if it was the enemy, they'd blast it out. Even if they were late, they'd blast it. Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don't want to tell the people, and they should, because the people are really. I mean, they happen to be over Bedminster. They're very close to Bedminster. I think maybe I won't spend the weekend in Bedminster. I've decided to cancel my trip.

[Michael Knowles]

Have you received an intelligence briefing on the drones?

[Donald Trump]

I don't want to comment on that.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay, so there's the answer once again.

[Elise]

For people who say, Trump, he's brash, he shoots from the hip, he's crazy.

[Michael Knowles]

He's being extremely controlled, responsible in his rhetoric, raising legitimate concerns.

[Elise]

He's being more direct with the American.

[Michael Knowles]

People than Kirby is or than Joe Biden is. And what's he saying? He says, the military knows what this is, Biden knows, and the military know what this is. And he's asked, well, are you receiving intelligence briefings? And he says, I don't wanna comment. Of course he's receiving intelligence briefings. He's the president elect. He was permitted to receive intelligence briefings during the campaign. He chose not to because he said, I received these intelligence briefings, and then I don't say a word about it. And then someone, probably from the administration, leaks the information, and then they blame it on me because I received the intelligence briefing. So he said, I don't even wanna receive them. And then you can't blame it on me. Now, this is a setup. But Trump won the election in a landslide.

[Elise]

He has unified government.

[Michael Knowles]

He's about to become the president a month from now. Of course he's receiving intelligence briefings. And if he says they know what they are, the administration and the military, then he knows what they are. But he's saying, look, it's really not my place. I am presently not the president, but I really wish the president would just come out and say what it is reading between the lines of what Trump is saying here and of what John Kirby is saying here. It seems to me my gut instinct was totally 100% correct, which is I suspect these are our vehicles. Maybe they're trying to suggest they're commercial vehicles that are American, but probably it's our military. At least this is all going up with the acquiescence of our military. I don't think it's UFOs, I don't think it's Iran. I don't think it's any of that stuff. Now, why the drones are up there, why the Biden administration won't be straight with the American people. I don't know why Trump doesn't wanna stay at Bedminster because the drones are hovering overhead. That I do know. I mean, he was almost murdered twice and this administration has justified his assassination. So I get that part. But people are going off on all of these kind of crazy theories. Some in New Jersey and New York are claiming that they're getting sick from drones. This is now being reported. Residents in New Jersey say they've become mysteriously ill after seeing drones in the sky. After witnessing or reading about the devices, residents revealed how they started coughing, suffering from a blocked or runny nose, or experienced puffy watery eyes. One woman in New Jersey said she.

[Elise]

Became so sick it felt like she.

[Michael Knowles]

Was coughing up my lungs.

[Elise]

Well, a second in New York City said her blocked sinuses must be because.

[Michael Knowles]

Of drones over Staten Island. So people are getting sick during flu season and now I guess we'd call it Covid season. And they're saying it's cause they looked at a drone. Now I haven't seen any drones in the sky. I also have been coughing and I've had a runny nose and itchy and watery eyes. So I don't know, that would seem to me a little far fetched. Seems a little bit like mass hysteria. Then this video was going viral of a woman driving down the street. She sees Tesla cars with their lights flashing. She said the drones are taking over the electric. Electric cars.

[Unknown]

Oh my God, what are these Teslas doing? Oh my. Oh my God. My phone's making funny weird noises too. Oh no, they're hacking my system. Oh my.

[Michael Knowles]

So the woman I think is joking here, but the video was making the rounds and going viral. See, no, the drones are affecting the electric cars, which that's just what Teslas do when they get updated. And Elon updates these Teslas all the time. So that would appear to be some mass hysteria. But I predicted two things. One, of which seems to have been proven true already. First thing about the drones I predicted is I think they're ours. At the very least, we know exactly what they are and it's not that big a deal. That would seem. Trump seems to be holding that view.

[Elise]

Or implying that view.

[Michael Knowles]

The second thing I predicted is whatever the drones are, it will be the lamest possible explanation. Everyone's really excited for it to be an alien invasion. It won't be. Whatever they are, it will be the lamest possible explanation you can imagine. This is part of a theory that has become a meme on the Internet, which is that nothing ever happens. And it's not exactly true that in history nothing ever happens, but most of the time nothing happens. And I think this would be an example of that. Now, speaking of people getting sick, this is. There's a story out.

[Elise]

I'm just gonna tease it. You know me, I'm a big tease. There's a poll out of University of.

[Michael Knowles]

Michigan that shows that friendship after the age of 50 can be a matter of life and death. Which is scary because people over the age of 50 often don't have very many friends, if any, friends. These days, even young people don't seem to have very many friends.

[Elise]

Rates of loneliness and social isolation have.

[Michael Knowles]

Skyrocketed in recent decades, and that's especially.

[Elise]

True for people over.

[Michael Knowles]

Especially true for men over 50. But this study is showing that people.

[Elise]

Who don't have close social connections, people.

[Michael Knowles]

Who don't have friends over the age of 50, are more likely to be sick, are more likely to die than.

[Elise]

People who do have friends. And there is a significant correlation between these things. And this shouldn't be surprising.

[Michael Knowles]

This wouldn't be surprising to classical philosophers in politics. This would not be surprising to anyone with a modicum of common sense 200 years ago.

[Elise]

But in our individualistic age, this is.

[Michael Knowles]

Really shocking and scary. Perhaps we'll get into it tomorrow. Now, I don't have time for that because I need to bring on one of my friends for a Face Off. If you haven't seen my Face off series before, it's usually on YouTube. It's also on the Daily Wire website where I test my knowledge of trivia, usually really stupid, pointless trivia, against great experts in those subjects. And most of the time, I've won. There have been a couple.

[Elise]

I've gone down. In any case, I have a genius.

[Michael Knowles]

Coming on the show today, and I intend to beat him. The show continues now. You do not want to miss it.

[Elise]

Become a member.

[Michael Knowles]

Use code Knowleskinwlas at checkout for two.

[Elise]

Months free on all annual plans.

[Unknown]

Foreign.

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