Donald Trump (5:07)

There it is. Pursuant to the authority of the Secretary of Defense, Title 10, United States Code, Section 1, I direct the army to change the name of Fort Liberty, North Carolina to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. That's right. Bragg is back.

Michael Knowles (5:25)

Bragg is back. Now why does it matter that Bragg is back? Fort Bragg probably is the most prominent army base in the entire country. Fort Bragg was renamed to Fort Liberty. Why is it renamed Fort Liberty? Because Bragg, Braxton Bragg was a Confederate general and he's a very, very bad, nasty man. Because he was from the south and he fought with the Confederates. And even though Abraham Lincoln promised us malice toward none and charity for all, and we're gonna come back together and be a nation, then the woke libs got ahold of things and started toppling over the statues of every Confederate. And we all knew they weren't gonna stop there. As President Trump predicted, the minute they were done with the Confederates, they moved right on to Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln for that matter. However, they claimed Fort Bragg. So they renamed it from this real historic person who played an actual role in American history to this generic concept. Fort Liberty. Kind of reminds me of the French Revolutionaries going in and knocking down statues of the Holy Mother, an actual person in history, one of the most important people in all of history, and replacing her with the goddess reason or even the notion of personifying Lady Liberty. So he had Fort Liberty. Now Pete comes in. Pete, so good for military morale. Actually just a great pick for Secretary of Defense, despite what the haters said. He comes in, he says, nah, you know what? Here's one really easy way to boost morale again in the military. Fort Bragg is back. Okay, it's Bragg. However, there's a twist. And the twist is Fort Bragg is not being re renamed after Braxton Bragg, the Confederate general. It's being re renamed after Roland Bragg, who is an army paratrooper who was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. I think this is really clever. Some people are gonna say it's too clever by half. Come on, go all the way, man. Rename it after Braxton Bragg. Let's make a point that we're not gonna deny our history. We're not gonna let the libs knock over statues. We're gonna go right back to that old Confederate guy. I think here Pete is, and President Trump, the whole administration, broadly. This is a good example of being wise as a serpent, innocent as a dove, because everyone knows they're going back to Bragg because it's Fort Bragg and that's that and enough of it. However, if they had really gone and re renamed it after the Confederate general, one, there'd be a little political pushback, but. But two, it's a guarantee that the next time you have a Democrat administration, they're gonna rename it again and it'll be Ford Equality. Or it'll just be Fort Liberty and it'll go back and forth, brag Liberty. Brag Liberty. And it'll be ridiculous. By renaming it after this other brag that no one had ever heard of, I think Pete is insulating the fort against the re. Re renaming because now if the Democrats wanna rename it, they're gonna have to explain why this perfectly nice, unobjectionable World War II army paratrooper with the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, why he doesn't deserve to have a base named after him. This is probably smart. It makes it harder to rename the next time. A lot of people have worried in looking at all of Trump's executive orders. Well, okay, these are all really good, but how are we gonna protect them from the next time a Democrat gets elected well, this, on a relatively minor scale is showing you a little bit how you do that. You gotta make it sticky. You gotta raise the cost of Democrats undoing what you have done. And here on this relatively minor point, I think Pete's done a great job and hopefully a sign of things to come from the Trump admin. Now, speaking of controversial Trump nominees, great, great news. Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence. Here's Attorney General Pam Bondi swearing Tulsi in in front of President Trump in the Oval Office.

Tulsi Gabbard (9:19)

I, Tulsi Gabbard, you solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. And that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely. I take this obligation freely.

Michael Knowles (9:47)

There she is, a picture of elegance in class, despite the many unfair attacks on her that accused her baselessly of being a Russian stooge, being unpatriotic. This is a woman who served her country in the military, served her country in Congress, had such independence of mind that she left her political party, the political party in which she ran for president, to support a guy from the other political party because she felt that her party had become so corrupt. Really good stuff. She was confirmed by a vote of 52 to 48, mostly along party lines. Mitch McConnell joined the Dems because Mitch is the honey badger at this point. He does not care. He's not running for reelection. He obviously hates Trump. He is much more establishment within the gop. Tulsi, one could call her euphemistically, a little outside the box, not McConnell's cup of tea. Okay, fine. So then how did it end up being 52, 48? Because the usual swing votes. I'm talking Susan Collins, I'm talking Lisa Murkowski, I'm talking even Todd Young in Indiana. They voted for Tulsi. Now, this is really interesting. This is really the only part of this confirmation vote that's really interesting. And it defends, I think, Trump's or it vindicates Trump's strategy here of forming a coalition that includes some Democrats, because you'd expect. Okay, hold on. Tulsi Gabbard, one of the most controversial nominees. That means that Collins and Murkowski, they're always the fence sitters. Anything even slightly controversial, they're gonna go vote with the Democrats. Except, wait a second. Tulsi is kind of a Democrat. Except hold on, wait a second here. The knock on Tulsi is actually coming more from the GOP and especially the hawk and establishment wing of the gop. So weirdly enough here, you're probably more likely. In fact, I know you are more likely to get Murkowski and Collins to come along with the Tulsi Gabbard than you are to get them to come with a rock rib solid Republican like Pete Hegseth. Wow. It's almost like unpredictability. It's almost like scrambling up coalitions can, if you do it right, sometimes work to your advantage. As it has here. This was arguably one of the toughest Trump picks to get through. I knew after Hegseth got through there was a dramatically increased chance that Tulsi was going to get through. He really opened the gates here. But the weakness of this pick, the supposed weakness, namely that she's a Democrat and a lot of Republicans don't like her. In this case, I think it worked to her advantage and she actually cleared with a four vote margin. There's so much more to say. First though, go to PureTalk.comKnowles this country, I'm reliably informed, was founded on freedom. 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PureTalk.comKnowles Speaking of Oval Office meetings, this one I love. This comes from the Associated Press quote, Today we were informed by the White House that if the Associated Press did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval office. This afternoon, AP's reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing. Love it. Love that. The Associated Press. Most people don't know this. Most people think, oh, the New York Times is fake news or the Washington Post is fake news. Oh, the CNN or whatever. The Associated Press is probably the most egregious offender among the mainstream media outlets for radical leftist ideology. Specifically on this point of its editorial standards, the AP is a full on fake news outlet. The AP has its AP style guide. And for years now AP has issued guidance saying, for instance on transgenderism, that AP is going to defer to the preferred pronouns of people who pretend they're the opposite sex. That's just bad journalism. It is bad journal. If a big hulking dude pretends to be a woman, it is bad journalism to call him she. But AP is a bad journalistic outlet. Don't refer to the men by their real names. Don't know we have to defer to the transgender ideology. That's just untrans ap. A few years ago the style guide came out and said the term illegal alien is out. Illegal alien is the most technically precise term to refer to the people who have crossed into our country illegally and who remain here without any legal status. Illegal meaning not legal. Alien meaning foreigner. That's what they are. What term would you prefer? Illegal immigrant. They're not even really immigrants. They're not permitted here according to our immigration system. Undocumented Americans, they sure ain't Americans. Dreamers, everybody dreams. That's the most precise term. A journalistic outlet supposedly that says don't use the precise term is doing bad journalism. The word woke. They struck the word woke from their reporting. They didn't want to include woke anymore because they realized that that term, it's a polemical term, but it's a term that was used originally by the left. The right just started using the word that they themselves used to describe them. And they said no, we're gonna stop using it because people have turned against woke. And so that'll get them to turn against the left. Even critical race theory. They didn't want their reporters to use the term. CRT said no. Critical race theory is this really complicated important thing. So if you wanna give explanation about it, that's fine, but don't use the word crt. Why? Same reason. Cuz the public had turned against it, cuz they found out what it was. So the AP frankly should be barred from the White House. Period. They are one of the worst, worst offenders of journalistic ethics out there. They were one of the worst abusers of language in the media. But then here, of course, the President of the United States comes out. He says, hey, that body of water that is directly to the south of America, that body of water that can trace a much longer American coastline than it can trace a Mexican coastline, that body of water down there, we're calling it the Gulf of America now. And EP says, no, we're not. I'm actually going to call it the Gulf of Honduras. No, I want to call it the Gulf of you evil, terrible colonizers who came here and stole the land from the Native American. Okay, well, you guys aren't serious people, so why would we invite you to the Oval Office? Great. Love it. Boot them out of the press room too far as I'm concerned. Speaking of other announcements from the Oval Office, President Trump has a message for Hamas. So you remember, you might remember there's this war going on in Gaza. You might have heard a thing or two about it. After the October 7th attack, when Hamas killed and raped and pillaged over a thousand Israeli civilians, took a bunch of them, hundreds of them, hostage. This war has been going on. Israel has just been absolutely pummeling and obliterating Gaza. Now there's a ceasefire. The ceasefire requires the return of the hostages that Hamas took out of Israel. Hamas is now signaling that they're not gonna return any more hostages. So Hamas, the United States says, we're gonna institute this ceasefire deal. We're gonna get this done. But you need to fulfill your obligations. We're the global hegemon. Don't try us. Hamas says, we think you're bluffing. We're gonna call your bluff. Here is Trump's response to Hamas. Mr. President, when you say all hell is going to break loose, are you speaking about retaliation from Hamas?

Donald Trump (18:30)

You'll find out, and they'll find out, too. Hamas will find out what I mean. Mr. President, they're going to find out what I mean. These are sick people, and they'll find out what I mean.

Michael Knowles (18:40)

Saturday at 12, you'll find out what I mean. Oh, boy, that's cold. That's New York talk right there. I remember when I was a kid, I would hear a little broken dialect. Calabrese Italian or Sicilian? As a boy, we didn't speak it at home, but I'd hear it from my grandparents sometimes. And one of the phrases I remember the clearest was Tifazi, Vidi, oki, doki, tifatso. I'm going to show you what I'm going to do. You know, you never say exactly what you're going to do. I never knew what my grandmother was going to do. She goes in regular Italian, in Tuscan Italian, it's ti faccio vederei coelo que tifaccio. I am going to show you. Don't worry. Just use your imagination. It's like Alfred Hitchcock in the movies. I'm not gonna show you the killer or the monster. You're gonna imagine it. Okay? And that's what Trump's saying. He's not gonna show his hand, but I think he is not bluffing because the credibility of the United States is on the line. The way that Trump gets to be kind of a dove rather than a hawk, the way that Trump gets to not expand wars, the way that Trump, unlike Bush, unlike Obama, unlike Biden, the way that Trump gets to be a kind of a peace president is because every so often he drops the moab and you don't know when it's going to be. But every so often he's going to kill the top Iranian general. And you don't. Sometimes he's going to go hug Kim Jong Un and it's all going to be happy, happy. But sometimes he's gonna just blow up a town. And I'm not saying cuz Americans do not want boots on the ground in Gaza. Americans do not want Americans to become embroiled in that war between the state of Israel and Gaza. But he's gonna have to do something. And if you're Hamas, I think you gotta give up the hostages. The problem is the minute Hamas gives up the hostages, they're done. They're signing their death warrants. Because at that point, State of Israel has no reason not to just send them, not six feet below the earth, but, you know, 600ft below the earth, just drop every bomb they have on them. However, I don't know that they have much option right now listening to Trump speak there. That does not sound like the kind of guy who's joking around. Now, speaking of foreign soil, Richard Gere, my cousin. Richard Gere is my cousin. We shared an acting teacher in New York and we also share a bloodline because Richard Gere is a descendant of, I think, all of my Mayflower ancestors, because he's a descendant of Lydia Fuller. And so I think, actually I think Richard Gere and I share at least one, but maybe up to six Mayflower ancestors. Mayflower, which is, by the way, a delicious cigar that is back in stock right now. And you can get it@mayflowercigars.com Richard Gere has just come out and bashed the United States on foreign soil. Here's what he had to say.

Richard Gere (21:40)

I'm coming from a place now that we're in a very dark place in America where we have a bully and a thug who's the President of the United States. But it's not just in the US it's everywhere. Everywhere. You know, I read a really moving letter in the New York Times from a gentleman in Hungary, and he was the slippery slope of how this happens everywhere. Authoritarianism takes us all over. We have to be vigilant, we have to be alert, we have to be energetic, we have to be brave, we have to be courageous. And everyone who's watching this in the Spanish speaking world and elsewhere, we have to be willing to stand up, tell the truth, be honest, and that there's a place in all of our lives for basic kindness, for basic love and understanding.

Michael Knowles (22:44)

Basic love and understanding. That's what we need to get back to. This guy just flew to foreign soil to bash his own country. That alone, very disreputable. But the way he did it was insulting, not just to Trump. He's just saying this creeping authoritarianism, this bully and this thug who most American voters voted for. Don't forget that part. He can't even say, oh, it was just the electoral college and it was only a minority of Americans voiced it. No, it was most Americans. This guy, Richard Gere, who has been given a lot by Americans, by the way, this guy has been given a really nice, cushy lifestyle and a lot of adulation for many decades at this point by Americans. He's just called the majority of his countrymen quasi fascists on foreign soil. Very disreputable. Because we need to be so nice and kind. You know, just be kind. Be kind to everyone. Be nice. Be love. Hey, how about charity starts at home? Isn't that what the ordo amorice touches on? We were just talking about that last week. How about before you express your deep seated desire for kindness to people on the opposite side of the world that you really don't know at all, you have nothing to do with. They don't affect your life in any way. How about you try just not being a huge jerk to the people closest to you? How about we start there before we just give a big old hug and kumbaya to all of humanity? How about you show some genuine kindness and engage in an actual act of charity with the people who you interact with daily. Because if you can't muster that, I'm a little skeptical of the nice, nice, happy, happy, lovey kindness kind of talk. There's so much more to say. First though, go to tokovas.com knowles you know what they say, anywhere worth going is worth going in good boots. Find your perfect pair with Tacovas. I love Tacovas. I've had my Tacova boots for many years at this point and I even like to wear them in the snow. Okay. It makes me feel like a cool, big burly cowboy kind of guy. However, these are not just any boots. These are a testament to craftsmanship that speaks to both generational ranchers and first time boot enthusiasts alike. This was born in Texas in 2015. They took boot making by storm. Each pair undergoes over 200 meticulous steps in their handcrafting process resulting in something remarkable. Boots that feel perfectly broken in from the very first wear. It's not just boots. I also, you know, I don't wear cowboy boots all the time. I wear them sometimes, but not all the time. I just ordered a pair of their Monterey shoes which are extremely good looking, very sophisticated. I really like them quite a lot. You can wear them with a suit, you can wear them with slacks. I got them in Midnight Bison and they're fabulous. They haven't quite arrived yet. Counting down the days right now. Get 10% off at tokovis.com knowles when you sign up for email and texts. 10% off. T E C O V A S.com knowles tokovis.com knowles tokovas point your toes West. Speaking of the supposedly hostile takeover of our government, Elon Musk was just in the Oval Office. The Associated Press was not. But Elon Musk was there with President Trump and he was asked about this charge that he is leading an opaque and hostile takeover of the government contrary to the will of the voters. What say you, Elon?

Elon Musk (26:13)

Everyone's very quiet, by the way. People don't think it's quiet.

Michael Knowles (26:18)

Your detractors, Mr. Musk? I have what? Including a lot of Democrats.

Elon Musk (26:22)

I have detractors.

Michael Knowles (26:23)

You do, sir?

Elon Musk (26:24)

I don't believe it.

Michael Knowles (26:25)

Say that your organization orchestrating a hostile takeover of government and doing it in a non transparent way, what's your response to that criticism?

Elon Musk (26:34)

Well, first of all, you couldn't ask for a stronger mandate from the public. The public voted to have a majority of the public voting for President Trump. We won the House, we won the Senate. The people voted for major government reform. There should Be no doubt about that. That was on the campaign. The President spoke about that at every rally. The people voted for major government reform. And that's what people are going to get. They're going to get what they voted for. And a lot of times people that don't get what they voted for, but in this presidency, they are going to get what they voted for. And that's what democracy is all about.

Michael Knowles (27:19)

Great answer, great answer here from Elon. You see Trump nodding along with it. He obviously agrees. This was why it was so smart for Trump to bring Elon on the campaign trail and to bring Tulsi and to bring Bobby Kennedy and to trot out all of the most controversial aspects of his administration before the election. It's for that mandate. It's why it was so helpful for Trump to get the popular vote and to campaign in places like New York to try to help him get it. He wasn't just trying to squeak through and get in and hide the ball. Remember mitt Romney in 2012? The whole campaign was just on how bad the economy was under Obama. He didn't really speak about the things that he proactively wanted to do. Cuz he said, if I can just get in on an anti Obama sentiment, then I can do whatever I want. But not really, actually, because even if he had gotten in, if you don't build consensus for the things that you plan to do, then the media are gonna have an easier time attacking you and deflating you once you actually start doing those things. But here, Elon can come in and say, yo, guys, I was at all the rallies. We said exactly what we were gonna do. The American people voted for that. So actually, media, you're on the wrong side of this. The media knew exactly what they were doing. The fact that Elon Musk is such a famous guy is actually what makes him perfect to be the head of Doge. Because they say you're not being transparent. Not being transparent. Has Elon Musk ever had an untweeted thought since he. Since he spent 44 billion to buy Twitter. Hiding the ball, being opaque. What are you talking. This is one of the most famous men on planet Earth who is constantly telling you every single thing that he's doing on the major social media platform that he bought and that he now owns. What are you talking about? This is what the people wanted. It would have been a lot easier for the Senate to shoot down Tulsi Gabbard had she not been campaigning with Trump. Okay. It'd be a lot easier for the Senate to shoot down Bobby Kennedy had he not been campaigning for Trump. But all these guys within the Senate and even, perhaps to some degree, even some in the media recognize, oh, yikes. It's not just that we have to fear the wrath of Donald Trump or something. If we push too hard here, we gotta fear the wrath of the voters who made their choices clear. Caroline Levitt made this point beautifully. Doge is popular, people wanted. Nobody is out there campaigning or protesting for all the bloat in the federal government, USAID money being sent overseas for transgender ballets in Thailand or something. No one is really actively campaigning for that. So the more that the left tries to make an issue out of Elon or an issue out of Doge, the more that the White House can come out and say, hey, you wanna know what Doge is actually getting rid of? Caroline, take it away.

Caroline Levitt (30:20)

Before it was Elon Musk making our government efficient and accountable, it was some unnamed bureaucrat that none of you knew. Elon Musk is the richest man in the world. He's also now one of the most highly scrutinized men in the world alongside President Trump because of what he's doing and the access that he is allowing. So there's great transparency. As for the actual receipts, we are happy to provide them. And I actually brought some today because all of you know, I love to bring the receipts. We have contracts upon contracts that we can send and provide this information to you. Let me be very clear. We are not trying to hide anything. We have been incredibly transparent and we will continue to be. These are screenshots of contracts that Doge found across our government. This is a DEI contract. $36,000 for US Citizenship and Immigration Services. That is against the President's policies and his America first agenda. This is a 3.4 million dollar contract. A Council for Inclusive Innovation at the US Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce, another DEI contract that DOGE identified. I can continue to go through these. Oh, I love this one. 57,000 bucks for climate change in Sri Lanka. What is this doing to continue the interests of the American people? Absolutely nothing.

Michael Knowles (31:37)

This is just gonna be a consistent winner for Republicans. Great. Just please keep going after Elon. Media, I'm begging you, please keep going after Elon, one of the most public and scrutinized men in the world. Meaning he's pretty durable. You can keep trying to attack him, but trust me, if it were possible to have taken down Elon with some reputation scandal, that would have happened years ago. He's been scrutinized for a long time. This is in part why Caroline Levitt is a really good choice for press secretary. She ran for Congress. She endured at least some degree of political scrutiny. This is why I think it's smart for President Trump to pick media hosts for big positions in his government. Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon's a good example. If you are in public life, if you are regularly on camera or you've passed laws or you run major companies, at least at the degree that Elon has, because he has been such a celebrity, you have been subject to scrutiny. So there aren't gonna be all that many surprises, generally speaking. And so then the focus is just on the program. Great, the program's a winner. This is like when Trump posted to Truth Social and then actually signed an executive order saying that he's gonna bring back plastic straws. Okay, great. Now you've put Democrats in the position of defending paper straws. No one likes paper straws. Now Caroline Levitt and Elon and Trump have put the Democrats in a position of defending sending a bunch of money overseas for climate change in Sri Lanka. You think the American people want that? They don't. Wonderful, great. You keep getting them to defend things that 15% of voters at most support. Now this brings us back to the broader problem that the Democrats have now, which is they are not thinking straight. They're thinking gay. Cuz they're Democrats. No, I'm joking. They're not thinking straight because they've been driven crazy by Trump. So they keep falling for his traps because he makes them so angry with the way that he speaks and the people that he puts around him, like Elon. Just why Elon? He's not even wearing a tie. Why is he there? I hate him. They're just going so crazy that they keep making mistakes like defending paper straws or a bunch of money for climate change in Sri Lanka or whatever. And this is possibly even a clinical fact. There's an article I have from the Daily Beast quoting a number of psychologists. Psychologists are saying Trump is. They've seen an uptick in clients. It is because of Trump. The clients are Democrats. They can't handle it. Quote, I think we can take so much of something before the human brain just like peters out and says, I can't keep up. Sanam Hafeez, a New York based neuropsychologist, told Axios. This is being reported by the Daily Beast. The digital news site interviewed a handful of psychologists and mental health experts about the impact on Americans. Andrea Bonior, a Georgetown University professor And psychologist told Axios she had seen an increase in patients, largely Democrats, citing burnout and despair, in part due to the mounting uncertainty generated by Trump's rapid fire policies and the energy required to keep up. So this is actually probably good for Democrats in the long run because it's showing them their own mental, emotional, spiritual fragility. A politician that you don't like entering office should not be enough to send you to the loony bin. If that does send you to the loony bin, you have underlying psychological problems. You have problems of mental resiliency. You probably have spiritual problems. You probably just don't understand the world all that well. I think probably the thing that is driving the Democrats craziest here, and you can see it, and how crestfallen they seem right now, now, how really despairing they seem is that Trump won the popular vote. So they can't make sense of. I've spoken to Democrat friends of mine who've said, I just thought I understood the country. And I don't just thought I understood the country. But then almost half of Hispanics voted for Trump. What? Even a disproportionate number of black guys, even. A lot of women, even. Wow. I guess I just didn't understand the country. There's this. I mean, I think that's what they're most upset about is how embarrassed they are. They just got it wrong. Either Richard Gere is right and the majority of Americans are fascists, or these Democrats just kind of got it wrong. Good. That's a good opportunity for us. This is a teachable moment, as people used to call it. Say, right. Yeah, you were wrong about Trump, about voters, about politics. Yeah, but good. This is an opportunity for your healing. Trump is here. Trump is doing so much great stuff. Not only is he gonna fix the economy and foreign policy, he's even gonna fix your brain. Democrats. Lucky you. You're getting a lot for this election. You know the best reason to become a DailyWire plus member? You are directly supporting the fight. Every dollar goes right back into building a real alternative to the mainstream. More shows, more movies, more investigative journalism. This is how we continue to reshape the culture. Here's another reason. If you like this show, I know you love it. There's more of it waiting for you. Only Daily Wire plus members get exclusive content at the end of every episode, the show, after the show, the. The Membrum Segmentum plus live chats and much more. Do not just listen, be a part of it. This is a real community, baby. Download the Daily Wire +app or go to DailyWire.com subscribe and become a member today. My favorite comment Yesterday is from Aslan81, who says, apparently Siberia has such a large trans population they were able to form their own orchestra. And it's pretty good too. It is pretty good. That's what man. Maybe we need to ship all of the trans identifying people off to Siberia and give them all cellos. Because I agree that orchestra is very, very good. Speaking of the political divide, evangelical pastor Rick Warren has gone viral for making a political point through his understanding of religion. He posted a picture of our Lord being crucified on Mount Calvary with the two thieves on either side. And Rick Warren said, John 19:18, they crucified Jesus with two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. And then Warren adds, the guys on both sides were thieves. If you're looking for the real Jesus, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations, you'll find him in the middle, not on either side. Now, the problem with this analogy is that the thieves on either side of our Lord were not the same. The thief to our Lord's right is in heaven right now. Saint Dismas, the first saint, and the thief to our Lord's left is in hell. So if the point that Rick Warren was trying to make here is don't look to the right or the left, man. You know, that's all bad stuff. It doesn't work when the guy on the right is in heaven enjoying perfect beatitude with our Lord right now was with him that day in paradise and the one on the left is burning in hell. Not the best analogy for Mr. Warren to prove his point. I don't really know anything about Rick Warren other than I know he's a very prominent evangelical. And I thought that he was on the right, but I guess in recent years, my friend Megan Basham, who wrote a good book about this, in recent years, I guess he's moved over to the left. And a lot of evangelicals who used to be pretty rock solid for the Republican Party, they've moved over to the left. And I don't even. So Rick Warren has this weak analogy here about Calvary. But then even what is the point that he's trying to make is the point that if you, if you want to understand how the faith should inform your politics. Because we're incarnate creatures, we move through time and space. We have to engage in politics. We're the political animal. We got it. We live in a society. So it would be Better for our faith to inform our politics than for our faith to not inform our politics. That sounds like a really bad idea. Okay, how should our faith inform our politics? It seems to me what he's saying is you should just be a centrist according to whatever the standards the age embraces at any given time. Isn't that what he's saying? You'll find the real Jesus not on both sides, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations, not on the right or on the left. You'll find him in the middle. So that's like what Bill Clinton basically. Is that what he's saying? No. Look, if you're a real Christian, you're not going to be over there with those extreme conservatives on the right. You're. And you're not going to be even on the left. You're going to be right in the middle with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. What? I don't think so. And hold on now we're using. We're actually using the spirit of the age in order to ascertain what our Lord wants for us. I was always told if you marry the spirit of the age, you'll find yourself a widow in the next. I was always told not really to become too attached to worldly things. What it even then gets to the question of where these terms left and right come from. Left and the right. I hope Rick Warren knows this. Maybe he doesn't. The terms left and right come from the French Revolution when the Christians sat on the right of the national assembly and the atheists and the secularists and the anti religious people sat on the left. And broadly that just kind of exists today. So I don't know. Weak analogy. Real confusing. I don't know what's gotten into Mr. Warren here. Well, I actually do know a little bit because I'm talking to Meg Basham and other evangelical friends of mine who've said something has cracked among the evangelicals. I don't know. So they got to get back on track here politically. I don't know. Whoever knows Rick Warren out there, Someone's got to talk to him. Now, speaking of critical thinking, there's a study out says that people who use and trust artificial intelligence lose their critical thinking skills. This is a study that was conducted by Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft, found people who use AI regularly for basic routine tasks will lose their ability for complex critical thinking. And then this from the outlet futurism from social workers to people who write code for a living. The professionals surveyed were all asked to share three real life examples of when they used AI tools at work and how much critical thinking they did when executing those tasks. Those who trusted the accuracy of AI found themselves thinking less critically. And the researchers then concluded that AI can result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved. This is not surprising, should be expected. Now, it doesn't mean you shouldn't use AI. I use AI in fact, now when I'm putting together, I don't know, a little bit of research, whether for something that I'm writing or for a speech I'm going to give or even for part of the show, I will go to AI in fact, you sort of have to go to AI because even if you go to Google, Google now integrates AI so I'll check with AI it can be a good research tool. But I do not trust AI because I've said, hey, AI, I'm thinking of this text from some medieval or ancient writer. I forget exactly where it is. Can you pull up that text? And then AI will sometimes generate a bunch of text and you'll say, okay, give me a citation for that. They'll say, okay, that's from the Nicomachean Ethics Book 4. This line, this section. Okay, hold on, I don't quite remember that. Pull up a link for that. And if they will pull up a link, then you click on it and you'll realize, AI just made up the quote, just totally made it up. And then you'll tell AI you say, like, you just made that up. And AI will say, oh, yeah, sorry, I guess I did say, what? So you can't trust it. But a lot of the time it can be a good place to start, but then you have to go. You actually have to do the homework and check it yourself. And even there I find myself, I'm relying a little bit too much on it. But this has been a complaint going back all the way to antiquity, when poems were written down for the first time and people complained, oh, no, this is going to destroy people's memory. Previously, epic poetry would be the sort of thing you memorized. Someone would memorize the Iliad and you'd go and recite the Iliad. As people started to write things down, all of a sudden you say, oh, no, they're going to lose their memories. And it's true, people are really bad at memorizing things these days. CS Lewis saw this in Abolition of Man. He said, with this kind of progress, every step forward for man is actually a step backward. With each advance that we make, we lose a little bit of our humanity. So you think about the technology of artificial reproduction, whether it's IVF or genetic engineering of babies or genetic selection, with each step, we're taking a step forward. Well, okay, yeah. We can now exert greater control over our children, the kind of children that we're going to have. But it's a step backward because it means that the children, all future human generations, will have lost something. They will have become enslaved to the whims and caprices of their ancestors or of the scientists that their ancestors hired to help develop them. Every step forward becomes a step back. The more that we cede of our daily lives to machines, well, the less we have to do, the less human that we will be. Now, speaking of AI, JD Vance just absolutely crushed it at the Paris AI Summit. But we don't have time to get to that today. You know, I'm a tease. I'm a little bit of a tease. But I will point out JD Vance did such a good job defending American interests at the Paris AI Summit that shares of intel, intel, which had been a huge tech company, which had been being pummeled recently. Shares of intel closed 6% up after JD Vance gave his speech. Really impressive performance because we are in a new arms race. And it's not an arms race for the nuclear bomb like we had during the Second World War. It's not an arms race that built over the course of the Cold War as we stockpiled our nuclear arsenals. This is an arms race over AI and quantum computing. Will we win? Remains to be seen. First, though, gotta say goodbye to the hoi polloi. Right now we are heading into the Membrum Segmentum because we have got to discuss Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. Because I don't know anything about it and I have to know. So many women in my life are talking about it. I have to know. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. 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