Leftist Blondie (7:53)

What is it that you're doing or that she's doing that's not fair to you? Well, me and her would have a lot of arguments about things, especially over, like, me being trans. So she'd be like, you're not a real boy in and all, you know, the whole spiel of transphobic stuff. Okay.

Michael Knowles (8:11)

She doesn't approve of your lifestyle, that you're.

Leftist Blondie (8:15)

She doesn't approve that. Would you say she was like, trying to kind of meet me in the middle, but it wasn't really working all that well. All the time she would try to call me child instead of. Cause it's more like gender neutral rather than kind of meeting in the middle, I guess.

Michael Knowles (8:31)

Okay.

Leftist Blondie (8:32)

Is she misgendering you?

Michael Knowles (8:35)

Yeah.

Leftist Blondie (8:35)

So when you guys are arguing, is she intentionally calling you she or not using the appropriate pronouns or not referring to you as Jasper and referring you as Julia?

Michael Knowles (8:46)

Wow. So here the teenager is saying, yeah, and you know, my mom, she actually did try to meet me in the middle, and we just try to avoid the pronoun issue altogether, But I murdered her anyway. I don't have much to conclude about this story other than here's yet another data point. Another day, another example of a trans identifying person flying off the handle and killing people. We can ask why this is. There might be a physical explanation. I remember this is probably a couple years ago now. I interviewed a gal who was transitioning to a boy, or you can't really do that, but pretending to transition to a boy, just like this one. And she said she was filled with. With rage and with much increased lust when she was injecting the testosterone. So that stands to reason. Maybe there was a physical cause of this. You know, just when you inject a girl with a lot of testosterone, weird things start to happen. But we see plenty of guys who identify as girls who also shoot people and kill people. So there might be a deeper problem here, which is that transgenderism is a rebellion against the most basic limits that are imposed upon us. It's a rebellion not just against a moral order or political order or a church or even a family, but against one's very self, one's very nature. So no surprise there that someone who would seek to kill oneself. The transgender transition is a kind of ritual suicide. This is why they refer to their names given at birth as dead names. It's a kind of a rebirth, like a phoenix rising from the ashes in their minds. It's no surprise that who would kill one's own self in a ritual would also kill one's parents to liberate one from oneself. Certainly one would try to liberate oneself from one's parents. In any case, the other thing to conclude from this is here is yet another example of left wing violence that will not be counted in the statistics, even to the point on the guy who tried to blow us up in Pittsburgh when the debates were happening after Charlie's assassination over the left and the right committing political violence. You heard this line from the left a lot. They said, well, actually the left commits relatively little political violence. You can look at the statistics and in the data set. So I did. I went into the data sets and I realized that the most prominent examples of left wing political violence in the last few years weren't even showing up there, including the one against me in Pittsburgh that didn't show up. The BLM violence that killed dozens of people, that didn't show up as left wing violence. A lot of the trans violence, the transvestite who shot up the Christian school in Nashville doesn't show up in registers of left wing violence. And I bet this one won't either. They'll say this wasn't a political motivation, it was about identity and a family dispute. And they'll come up with all sorts of ways to cover up the problem. So we now know, even from liberal sources, that political violence is a left wing problem. And they're not even counting much, if not most of the left wing violence. Okay, speaking of death and destruction, looks like we're about to go to war with Iran imminently. We'll get to that momentarily. First though, wanna tell you about Ave Maria mutual funds. Go to avemariafunds.com Michael M I C H A E L Folks, I believe that you should not compromise your values when it comes to investing. Why put your money into companies that go against what you believe in? That is exactly why I love our sponsor, Ave Maria Mutual Funds, and why I'm proud to serve on their board. I actually just got back from the Ave Maria Mutual Funds board meeting, and they're wonderful people and they have a very, very impressive mutual fund and multiple funds. Actually, they've been around since 2001, founded by George Schwartz, and today they manage nearly $4 billion in assets with more than 100,000 shareholders. What sets them apart is simple. They refuse to invest in companies tied to abortion, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, or those supporting Planned Parenthood. Whether you're saving for retirement, your kid's education, or you just want to grow your wealth responsibly, Ave Maria Mutual funds offers a range of options so that you do not have to compromise. Learn more at avemariafunds.com Michael M I C H A E L that is avemariafunds.Com Michael all mutual funds are subject to market risk, including possible loss. Principal Request a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, fees, charges and expenses, and other information that you should read and consider carefully before investing. The prospectus can be obtained by calling 1-866-283-6274 or it can be viewed at Ave Mariaf Ivy Marine Mutual funds are distributed by Ultimus Fund Distributors, llc. We Might be Going to war with Iran. I know. Look, we've been hearing that for some of us every single year of our lives, oh, Iran is on the brink of a nuclear weapon and we are on the brink of war with Iran. We've been hearing this for a long, long time. However, the situation does appear to have gotten a little more imminent. The US Embassy in Jerusalem is telling diplomatic workers that if they want to leave the state of Israel, they should do so immediately, not just catch the next flight back to the United States. The embassy is reportedly telling diplomats and staff, get on any flight out of Israel, any flight to anywhere. And from anywhere you can get a flight to the United States. But if you want to get out, you got to get out now. Would seem to suggest we are edging closer and closer to war. We've been waiting for this for months now. And you saw a similar buildup actually with Venezuela, a buildup of military, military assets outside of Venezuela for weeks and months, and then, before you know it, a strike. Well, we've been seeing a huge buildup of military assets in Iran. We've been seeing a buildup of a casus belli, the case for war, which says that Iran is trying to rebuild their nuclear program. Iran hasn't exactly been shy about that. They've said they want a nuclear program for a long time. They say it's only for peaceful purposes. I don't exactly believe the Mallahs, but in any case, Politico is reporting an attack looks imminent. Senior advisers to President Trump would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country. They think that would be politically easier for the administration if Israel launches the strike first. Israel, obviously in much more imminent threat from Iran than the United States is. But the United States, because we're the global empire, has assets all over the region. So if Iran wants to hurt us, they can hurt us. We have assets all over the place, all over there A couple takeaways here. One, the administration appears to be unified. The left is always trying to find little chinks in the armor. They're always trying to find little divisions of the administration, pitting Trump against Vance or Vance against Rubio or this advisor against that advisor, whatever. But when you look at the administration from the top on down, the president, the vice president, the Secretary of state, and everybody else, they're showing a unified front. They want a diplomatic resolution in Iran, but they're recognizing that Iran does have nuclear ambitions and that war is possible. The other takeaway here is President Trump clearly, really does want a diplomatic resolution. I think most Americans do because we still have trauma from the Iraq war, which was so, so bungled, so many times bungled and so horribly bungled in the 2000s. So I think a lot of people do not want to go to war with Iran. They want to get rid of the mullahs, but they don't want to go to war with Iran. It's kind of like the public opinion polls in Minnesota. The majority of Americans want mass deportations, and also the majority of Americans think that ICE is going too far carrying out deportations. Well, obviously, those two things are in conflict. So I think Trump wants a diplomatic solution. The fact that he keeps tipping his hand, the fact that you're getting all of this reporting from Politico and elsewhere, it looks like the US Is on the brink of war to me, suggests Trump is signaling to the mullahs, hey, guys, make a deal with us, because we're serious. If Trump just wanted to go to war with Iran, you wouldn't read any reporting about it. Now, how would war look? Gotta give a hat tip here to the economist Philip Pilkington, great economist who writes for various post liberal outlets and other outlets. He dredged up this report from the Brookings Institution in September of 2012. Headline, Simulated war between US Iran has a Grisly End. This comes from an interview on NPR's All Things Considered, a show that I was actually on just the other day. I was on it two or three days ago. It's worth reading and it's worth listening to. The interview. Iran is not Venezuela, Okay? Iran is not Venezuela. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is a real country and the Iranian government has real contingency plans. So on the one hand, we have to say President Trump has a great record on foreign policy. President Trump over the last decade has earned a lot of grace and a lot of credibility when it comes to foreign policy, because big, basically every single thing he's done in foreign policy. I actually can't think of an exception going back to the first term even. They've all worked out really, really well. Most recently the strike on Iran's nuclear sites. Obviously the decapitation of the Maduro regime in Venezuela, which kept the regime in place, but took out the bad guy who was wanted in the United States and dropping the Moab. And it's worked out pretty well. So even with Russia, you know, the Ukraine war only really kicked off after Trump was booted out of office by the powers that be. So he's got a really good record. And that's why I do trust the admin considerably on this. However, Iran is not Venezuela. Iran is a real country. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is a real country. And the Islamic regime, look, we'd all love for the Islamic regime to go away. I was talking to some foreign policy people about U.S. grand strategy just a few weeks ago. So what do you think? Should the US Go in and get rid of the Iranian regime? And the universal answer seems to be, well, if we could do it in 88 minutes, if we could do it like the Maduro operation, boy, wouldn't that be great. No love lost for the mullahs, for the Islamic regime in Iran. They've been our enemy since 1979. So, yeah, that would be great. Would that it were so simple. But the war games suggest it probably wouldn't be that simple. We don't know how that war would end. We could reinstall the Shah or the crown prince, the son of the Shah. He seems to be the most unifying figure for Iran. Would he take. Would that work? Would it. Plenty of Iranians hate the mullahs, but would it? Or would it descend into civil war and chaos? Would we have a repeat of Iraq? One point worth observing is that we have done coups in Iran before. 1953, there was a CIA coup in Iran, and that was when we got rid of the socialist Mossadegh and we helped solidify the power of the Shah. That lasted until 1979. So you're talking 26 years. 1979, the mullahs come in, it's now 2026. We've wanted to oust the mullahs for almost twice as long as we had the Shah in there in full power. And the mullahs have held on almost twice as long as the CIA regime that we previously had in Iran. I trust this administration on foreign policy more than basically any administration in my lifetime. George H.W. bush was very good on foreign policy, too. I was 2 years old during that administration. So I don't remember that one that well. But this is not the same decision as taking out Maduro in Venezuela or dropping the MOAB or really any of the decisions we've seen in Trump's foreign policy. The stakes are very, very high here. If we strike Iran and it works out, it will be one of the crowning achievements of US Foreign policy of the last hundred years. And if it doesn't work out, it will destroy the Trump administration. Those are the stakes. I'm glad I don't have to make the call, huh? Those are very serious stakes. Speaking of Muslims, New York City workers, sanitation workers here are in uniform saying a Muslim prayer before a meal in the office with the mayor. We'll get to that. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Seems like in America now we have a separation of church and state, but not a separation of mosque and state. We'll get to that. First though, I want to tell you about Mizzen and main. Go to mizzenandmain.com, promo code Michael 20M I C H A E L number 20 I love Mizzen and Main. You know, I try to dress well. I've done that for a long time. One thing I don't love is ironing or sending the clothes to the dry cleaners, picking them up at the dry cleaners. 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Mizzen, Maine is veteran led, committed to supporting those who've served through year round military discounts and giving back to veteran organizations. It's a timeless style you can invest in once and enjoy for years, which is why thousands of guys swear by themselves when they want to look great without the fuss. Right now, Mizzen in Maine is offering our listeners 20% off your first purchase at mizzenmain.com, promo code Michael20. That is Mizzen spelled M I Z Z E N and main m a I n.com promo code michael20 for 20% off mizzenandmain.com promo code michael20. If you'd rather shop in person, you can find Mizzen and Maine stores in select states. My favorite comment yesterday is from ukrlvivrum who says good to know that Martin Luther King Jr. Was not assassinated. It was death by gun violence. Yes, this in response to that Democrat Rep. Who says that Charlie Kirk was not assassinated. Okay, some sanitation workers in New York. This was initially wrongly reported as cops in New York with sanitation workers. But uniformed in New York say a Muslim prayer before a meal with so Run Mamdani to all our city agencies. There's Zo run there. He's in his little mayor outfit. Okay, I don't know these guys. Maybe they're secret Muslims, but they just look like a bunch of New York goombas to me. It's kind of weird to see them saying a Muslim prayer. What happened to the libs whining about separation of church and state? Don't we always hear that you put up a Santa Claus in the town square? They say this is a sign of creeping theocracy. They say we need to get religion out of government. They pretend that the United States government is based on a separation of church and state. That's not true in the first place. I wrote a lengthy book actually, in no small part about that, called Speechless Controlling Words, Controlling Minds, which is available, thank you, anywhere you buy fine books. But it shows us actually as as that book endeavors to show. The libs don't care about the separation of church and state. They want to separate the state from your church. It's not that the libs don't like any form of religion. They don't like your religion. They don't like the true religion. They don't like Christianity. They love all sorts of false religions, though. Just like the libs take on free speech. It's not that we need total free speech or we need total censorship or anything like that. It's that they don't like your speech. They're not anti free speech. They're anti your speech. They want to make your speech taboo and they want to make their speech mandatory. You will use the right pronouns or else you're going to get murdered. By the way, sorry, you will use the wrong pronouns or else you're going to get murdered. They will impel plenty of speech and they will ban plenty of speech. They don't like your speech, they don't like your religion. But every society is going to have some kind of religion. We're all gonna have some kind of prayer, some kind of ritual before we eat. For Christians, we say grace. For Muslims, they do whatever Zoran and the sanitation workers just did. For liberals, they toast the mimosa. That's the liberal grace before meals. But there will be something. Because we're bodies and we move in time and space and we do stuff. And those little mores, those little habits are culture. And culture comes from the same root as cult. Has a lot to do with religion. Do the libs have the fears of a creeping theocracy here in Manhattan because of Zoran's Muslim prayers? No. No, not at all. There will be an alliance of radical left wing atheists and Muslims. And they don't share a lot of beliefs, but they do share a common enemy. And the enemy is Christianity and to some degree, Jews as well. Especially in New York, there are a lot of Jews. Okay, speaking of foreigners in our country, this was an unpleasant video going around. I hope no one was seriously injured. A semi truck driven by a CDL commercial driver was going the wrong way down a highway. 18 wheeler going the wrong way down southbound 61. He is on the northbound lanes of 61 going the wrong way. Love that. When he realizes he's going the wrong way, he speeds up. He doesn't slow down or pull over. He speeds up. I'm going southbound on 61. He's in the northbound lanes on Highway 61. Crazy. Okay, all right. I've seen enough. I don't want to see him hit somebody. You know what happened here? Was this just an Oopsie Daisy from Bubba in the country who made the wrong turn? No. You know exactly what happened. This is a guy who can't read the signs. He can't read the signs because he can't read English. He can't read English because he's a foreigner. This company was registered to an Abdi Wali Ahmed. And this driver, whoever he is, got his CDL from Tim Walls in Minnesota. And in his defense, why would he be expected to read the signs? He's from a foreign country. There's no evidence when he comes here that he speaks English. That he would have to speak English. The government run by Tim Walls there doesn't encourage people to learn English, doesn't encourage people to assimilate to the Culture wants to get them signed up to be integrated into Minnesota as quickly as possible because they think that the foreigners will give them a permanent electoral majority. So, yeah, I blame this guy for his actions. I blame Tim Walls more. I blame the federal government that has allowed all these foreigners in and encouraged these foreigners to come in, notably under Democrats, not really Trump, who closed the border. I blame them a lot more. Okay, speaking of crazy stunts, Daily Wire's making an action movie. This per Deadline yesterday, the Hollywood trade publication Jonathan Majors is gonna be in a Daily Wire movie. Jonathan Majors, who? I don't really watch modern movies. This is my confession. I know this is really big news, but I don't totally know why, because I'm totally out of the pop culture. I don't go see the big movies. But this guy's been in huge movies. This guy was in Creed 3. This guy was in Ant Man. Just looking on his IMDb or his resume. It's pretty. Pretty impressive stuff. He's gonna be in a DW action movie. Now, I'm not saying that I don't know the details of the action movie. Maybe I do. Maybe I'm privy to some insider information. But we're not releasing it yet. It's not mine to divulge. I would tell you if I could, but I'm very discreet. I'm very, very capable of restraint, as you know. So, anyway, this is cool stuff. It's cool to even knowing basically nothing other than this movie star, who was in a lot of big movies, is gonna do a movie of ours right now. That's pretty cool. And you know why that's pretty cool? Because we need to create stuff. This has been a theme on my show for a very, very long time. It's been a theme of this company for a very long time. Too often conservatives get mired in just reacting to everything and reacting to our enemies and just in this endless cycle of criticism. And we don't move forward, we don't build stuff. We don't create. We don't advance the vision that we want to advance. We don't set the conversation in the way that we want to talk about it. And this is how you do it. You don't like the movies that Hollywood's putting out. Make your own movies and go take their actors and go tell the stories you want to tell. You don't like what's in the news cycle, set the new news cycle. It's good stuff. This is OGDW kind of stuff. Okay, Speaking of interesting things on film, the Clintons by the way, I should point out, before I move on, I should point out the only way that we can sign big movie stars and make big movies and build culture is because of you. So I'm very, very grateful to the Daily Wire plus members who have signed up, especially our lifetime members. But the people have signed up. They joined the creme de la creme. They are on board for the mission. Putting their money where our mouths are. It's great. That's how we do it. I appreciate it. If you're not subscribe to Daily Wire. If you don't have the Daily Wire plus app, get it right now. Get it right now. I appreciate that. Okay. Speaking of interesting things on film, the Clintons are testifying under oath about Jeffrey Epstein. A movie 15 years in the making. Jeffrey Epstein, whose paramour and madam Ghislaine Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding. Bill Clinton, who palled around with Epstein who knows how many times, flew all over the world on that Lolita Express. They testified under oath. And we don't have the footage yet, but here is Hillary at a press conference after the testimony.

Celsius Energy Advertiser (31:58)

What message did we say that presidency? Because I don't know when the video will be out. I don't know when the transcript will be out. We've asked that they be out as quickly as possible. And then you can see.

Michael Knowles (32:12)

We heard from Bill Gates, concerns about Epstein trying to blackmail him. Okay. Love the reporters asking these questions. Hillary doesn't really want to talk about it. She goes, well, the footage will be out soon and that we're not going to get answers. We're not. I've said this. I. I think I should win the Oscar for saying unpopular but indisputably true opinions about politics that are gonna irritate everyone. They're gonna irritate the libs, certainly, but are also going to irritate conservatives with unrealistic expectations. You're not gonna get answers. The idea that the Epstein scandal has been brewing since 2006, 2007, and that there is still some document floating out there that's gonna be the smoking gun is preposterous. You think that our government, with multiple other governments, are colluding in an international black male pedophile sex ring, but they have too much dignity and integrity to shred a document that's totally insane. You're not. Sorry. Sorry. You can hate me for telling the truth, but this is the truth. You're not gonna get any more serious information about Epstein. That's a fact. And the people who tell you otherwise are either ignorant or they're lying to you. They're pandering to you. That's the fact. You're not. So set your expectations. You're not gonna get any more information. What this can do, however, is reset the narrative. The libs have jumped on the Epstein narrative to try to make it about Trump. There is nothing incriminating about Donald Trump in the Epstein files. There is nothing serious there. If there were, Joe Biden would have released it. The Democrats who tried to kick him off the ballot, who tried to prosecute him four times, who tried to kill him, they would have released it. I promise you there is nothing in there. But the Epstein story was a Democrat scandal. That's what it was in the 2000s, in the mid 2000 teens when it came up again. Until very, very recently, it was a Democrat scandal. The people he paddled around with were chiefly Democrat politicians. Even the international politicians he paddled around with were on the left. The industrialists, the businessmen, the academics, Noam Chomsky. They were largely, if not exclusively on the left. It's a left wing scandal. If it breaks down left and right. And the libs have tried to pretend that this is a right wing scandal, this kind of testimony exposing the degree to which the Clintons palled around with Epstein, that will reset the narrative to where it should be, which is that if this is party political at all, it's a left wing scandal. Okay, so much more to get to, but it's time for my favorite time of the week, the mailbag. Our mailbag is sponsored by PureTalk. Go to PureTalk.comKnowles today.

Mailbag Caller 1 (34:54)

All right, Michael, it's time that I send my first mailbag question to you about a big question that's actually been on my mind for a while. So I grew up with split custody between my mom and dad, both of which were atheists. So my mom has grown even more so to be that way. My dad less so. But anyway, I ended up becoming agnostic as a result of this, which means I've never read the Bible, I've never studied it. In fact, I'm afflicted like most other gen zers are. I'm 22 by a large swath of ignorance surrounding many aspects of our culture, like, you know, the roots of it. So however, I've always found your show interesting. I've listened every day now for about two years. I'm not like a leftist or anything like that. So as a result, I've become more curious about your rhetoric surrounding Christianity and religion broadly. You're brainwashing me, in other words. So where do you suggest someone that doesn't know anything about this actually start to learn when it comes to Western culture, religion, even the distinction between different religious sects as well, like the logic behind that? Find that fascinating. And so, yeah. So what would you suggest people start with as a foundation? Thanks in advance.

Michael Knowles (36:01)

Great question. I'm so glad to hear all of this, that you're moving more toward faith and that you're plugged into it. So I'll just give you my own example how I went from an atheist to an agnostic, then a theist, then a Christian, and then specifically returning to the Catholic Church. I'll take you through it. The first thing that you should establish is whether or not God exists. And the thing that worked for me is the arguments for God's existence. St. Thomas Aquinas famously has five ways of determining God's existence. The Catholic Church at least believes that the existence of God can be known with certainty purely from natural reason. Just looking at the world, revelation is required for the rest of religion. But you can at least know with certainty that God exists in much the same way that the virtuous pagans in Greece understood that. So anyway, there are those arguments, there are other arguments for God's existence that worked for me because I was an atheist, because of, in part because of intellectual hubris. So that was my way in. For other people, it will be acknowledging that there's meaning in the world. For some people, it will be beauty. So whatever it is, you have to establish that God exists, and he does. Then you have to grapple with the person of Christ who claims to be God. You have to determine whether or not he's right, whether or not he's telling the truth. Is Jesus who He says he is? He is, by the way. But you have to grapple with that. And so you say you haven't read much of the Bible. I would dig into the Gospels, and then I would dig into some of the corroborating historical accounts. And you will determine, I think, that Christ is who he says he is. And then you have to determine whether the Church is what she says she is. And so one way to determine that is by looking at the writings of the Church Fathers and of the ancient churches. You know, the Christians have done a great job at keeping records and letters and writings going back to the first century. Even the Didache, the very first catechism, was written in 70 A.D. justin Martyrs writing in what, 150 A.D. so you get a lot of writings there. And I think the church is who she says she is. But you know, that's down the road from where you are right now, which is, does God exist or not? That's where I would begin. And I mention the virtuous pagans because as you are reading and as you are reading Revelation, you can also read philosophy, and philosophy will buttress your faith. You know, I think faith and reason go together. I don't think that they're opposed. So I mentioned Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist. He's a philosopher who is reading Revelation and recognizing that the two are harmonious. Okay, next question.

Celsius Energy Advertiser (38:44)

Hey Michael, I watched your show on Wednesday and I am pretty angry that you won't talk more about all the terrible things that Candace is doing to Erica Kirk. What she's doing is just awful. Everyone else is talking about it. Why won't you?

Michael Knowles (38:57)

Very good question. I'm glad you asked me that. I caught so much flack for my show on Wednesday. This was right after the State of the Union and I did a segment on President Trump's beautiful tribute to Erica Kirk. And what did I say? I'll tell you why I caught flak. Well, one, the reason I caught flak is also because some manipulative, organized Twitter accounts clipped out a very small section of what I said and misrepresented what I said. But here's what I said. I think people could sincerely be angry at what I said, but I don't think they're justified in that because amid all the flak I took, I have yet to see a single person refute my argument. I have yet to see a single person. I think people are angry because they feel a little called out or something. But what was the argument? I said Erica Kirk is a national hero, as I've said many, many times. I said she deserves our full support and full sympathy. I said Candace is wrong in what she's doing. I said all of those things. Everybody should agree so far. Probably most people would agree. But then I said, I think it's a bad strategy to focus on all of everyone's attention on Candace and her new show. That was the part that got people really upset. Some people. Maybe some organized people too. But let me ask you a simple question. Do you think Candace is happy or sad that all the right wing accounts and podcasts are talking about her ad nauseam and talking about her new show? Do you think that makes her happy or sad? I think you would probably have to say it makes her happy, right? Cuz it's promoting her show now There can be an effect to talking about something. There can be good effects if you're like running a campaign and you talk about what someone's doing and then that makes that person lose support or lose an election. Okay, so then let me ask you a follow up question. What will the effect of all this publicity be? Will the effect be to get Candace to walk back her claims that everyone wants her to walk back? No, I don't think anyone thinks it will. In fact, I think we have proof that it has not done that. Okay, will constantly talking about Candace and publicizing her show, will that decrease the number of views that the show gets or will that. No, it won't. Will it increase the number of views? Yeah, I think it probably will. I think it has. So then what's the effect here? What good is actually being accomplished? We've all stated we love Erica Kirk, we support Erica Kirk. I think we should focus on the good things. That's basically my thesis. But what is actually accomplished, and the point I made on my show is people will feel good. They'll feel a kind of emotional catharsis because people are really angry and they get a catharsis by venting that even if it promotes this show that they say they hate, they'll get a catharsis. They'll seem really good to all the people who already agree with them. They'll get to posture and seem present themselves as really moral and valiant. The third thing that will happen, ironically, is they will profit off of Candace's content. They will profit off of the attacks on Erica Kirk. If they have a monetized Twitter account or if they have a podcast, they will be making money off of the attacks on Erica. Okay, so that's an ironic third thing that will happen. But the only person who will benefit is Candace. Other than maybe an individual feeling good, the only person who will benefit is Candace. And so my observation was, if your goal is to support Erica tpusa, obviously you state your opinion, you state the true thing. But if your goal is to hurt Candace, you're playing right into her hand. You're giving her exactly what she wants. I said, isn't that a bad strategy if that's your goal? And the point I made was that it's human nature, and I don't put myself above it, but it's human nature to want to feel good or even to seem good, even when it comes at the expense of actually doing good. And so I'm not surprised. There were some people who were insincere in their reactions but even the sincere people, I'm not surprised at that reaction because I think it hits a little close to home. But amid all of the kerfuffle, amid all of the people who are really angry, I have yet to see a single person refute a single point of that argument. And this is what happens when people get very passionate and allow their emotions to run away with them in politics. They don't view things in a more dispassionate way. People make mistakes. And I think that from a strategic standpoint, people are making a lot of mistakes right now. Okay, next question.

Mailbag Caller 2 (43:51)

Hey, Michael, I'm just wondering, as far as I can tell, basically 50% of our taxes goes for social programs, and the economy is one of the most significant things. Would it not behoove the Trump administration, the Republicans, to fight to just abolish these social programs? Ultimately, maybe a minimal amount is good, potentially, but if it, if it's 50 of our taxes, I would imagine if they just freed that up 50 or even 20 or 30%, whatever it may be, that would be really significant and can cause the economy to just boom in a way we probably wouldn't even imagine. I would think maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

Michael Knowles (44:36)

What are your thoughts on this, you sweet summer child? I remember the days when I. You know, there was a time when much, if not most of the conservative movement believed that, and it was called the Tea Party. I was there. I was a wee lad, but I was there. We believed that at that time, you know, basically half the budget is entitlements. We were running off a fiscal cliff at that time. I think debt was 80% of GDP, 70% of GDP. Now debt is 120 or 130 or something percent of GDP. We said the only way to fix the debt problem, this debt bomb, would be to reform entitlements, because you're not going to do it on waste, fraud and abuse. And it totally failed. The libs accused us of pushing Granny off a cliff, wanting to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and it didn't work. We came in on the Tea party wave in 2010. The tea party wave was over by 2012. It didn't work. The argument that was made at that time by really great politicians, people I supported, like Mitch Daniels, said, we need to have a social truce, a truce on some of the cultural issues in order to solve the fiscal problem. And the voters said, no, this is the problem. So then Trump realized, okay, actually, no, you can't put off the social issues in order to first solve the fiscal problem. It's the opposite. You're not gonna solve the fiscal problem until you solve the social issues. So then Trump comes in and he says, no, we're gonna focus on immigration, we're gonna focus on social solidarity, we're gonna focus on cohesion at home. We're going to then and we're not gonna touch Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. And he won. And then ultimately he won the popular vote. So it's not gonna happen. Even if it would make sense from an actuarial perspective, it would make sense from an accounting perspective. It's not gonna happen anytime soon. I think you have to fix the cultural problems before that happens. Okay, I wanna get to more mailbag but it's time for the membrane segmentum and today's fake headline Friday. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss this. Become a member use code knowlescanawles at checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Legal sent this list of everything we're not allowed to do in season two. We're gonna do all of it.

Leftist Blondie (47:07)

We've got games, more celebrity guess. And yes, the mailbag is somehow worse.

Michael Knowles (47:11)

If you thought season one was extra, season two, we're doubling down.

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We're not supposed to be doing this.

Michael Knowles (47:17)

Exactly. Ben After Dark Season 2 streaming on daily Wire Plaza. Lifelock. How can I help?

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No problem. I'll be with you every step of the way.

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