All Episodes
Previous Next
April 20, 2023 - Dinesh D'Souza
48:40
A NATIONAL MALAISE? Dinesh D’Souza Podcast Ep562
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This episode is brought to you by my friend Rebecca Walzer, a financial expert who can help you protect your wealth. Book your free call with her team by going to friendofdinesh.com.
That's friendofdinesh.com. Coming up, a new survey seems to suggest we're suffering from a kind of national malaise, almost the kind that Jimmy Carter predicted several decades ago. I'll talk about that. I want to praise Ron DeSantis for creating very desirable cities in Florida, but I'm going to ask the question, is this the right time for him to make a run for president? And I'll tell you how the drugstore CVS has now joined the woke brigade. That's
not good. Hey, if you're listening on Apple, Google, or Spotify, or watching on Rumble, please hit the subscribe button. This is the Dinesh D'Souza Show.
I'll talk about that. America needs this voice.
The times are crazy and a time of confusion, division, and lies.
We need a brave voice of reason, understanding, and truth.
This is the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast.
Looking around us, we have good reason to wonder whether we are a civilization in decline, in decay, in freefall, maybe even to some degree in collapse.
So normally when we talk that way or we think that way, we're talking about the Biden administration, we're talking about terrible policies that have bad effects.
But I want to address the question from a different side, which is just looking around in the culture, looking around at the lives of ordinary Americans and asking the question, how's it going?
It turns out that there is new data that's just come out that is a clear indication that it is not going well.
In fact, That the society, our society, has a kind of pervasive social, cultural, maybe even moral and spiritual sickness.
We're suffering from a kind of national dementia, a la Biden.
Or perhaps even the phrase is a national malaise.
Remember that phrase? It was one that Jimmy Carter used in the late 1970s.
Of course, the malaise then was a Jimmy Carter malaise, not a national malaise.
But we might be having a national malaise now.
Look at a very startling indication of this life expectancy.
So life expectancy, by and large, goes up and up and up.
It's been going up in industrialized countries.
It's, in recent decades, been going up in non-industrialized or so-called developing countries.
Life expectancy in countries like India was in the 50s and then the early 60s, and now it's gone up to the 70s.
Life expectancy in America has been in the high 70s, 78 or so.
But now it's falling.
What? It's going down.
And for the second year in a row, life expectancy is 76 years.
And now look, there was a short dip in life expectancy worldwide when COVID first came around.
So in the first year or so, there was a worldwide drop in life expectancy, perhaps to be expected.
But in 2021, there was a rebound, and countries essentially went back to their previous level, and now life expectancy is going up again.
But in the United States, it has declined again a second year, and it's now at the lowest point in two decades.
So the question is, is this part of a longer trend?
And the answer is yes, it is.
Why? Because actually our decline in life expectancy has nothing to do, at least not now, with COVID. It has to do, in fact, it has nothing to do by and large even with infectious disease.
It has nothing to do with, for example, a collapse of the medical industry or the fact that somehow mysteriously more people are getting cancer.
Not really any of that.
It has to do really with the fact that death rates have jumped up, not just at the older level.
Obviously, older people are closer to the end path of life.
We're talking about death rates in young and middle-aged adults, age 25 to 64.
Sometimes these have been called so-called deaths of despair.
But they are also deaths caused by things like diabetes and heart disease, which are the result of, let's be honest about it, national obesity.
We have become a ridiculously fat country.
I can testify to this myself.
When I walk into stores now, I pick up a shirt that is size large, but I look at it and it's actually, it should be labeled size giant.
Because it's so huge.
Even the middle sizes are ridiculously large.
There's also been a remarkable increase in death in children and teenagers, which has really, I mean medical experts say, I haven't seen this in my whole career.
Now why are these death rates falling in the United States?
The death rates have been falling for many decades because of advances in medicine.
Also, by the way, doctors have become really good at curing birth defects, which would often cause people, they would live, but then their life expectancy would be shortened.
So those cures have produced, these are factors increasing life expectancy.
But interesting, even car accidents, deaths from car accidents have gone down.
But the upward trend is caused by suicides, by homicides.
And very importantly, drug overdoses, mainly in young people, 10 to 19 years old.
The fentanyl crisis has something to do with this.
And the important point here is that these are man-made pathogens.
These are preventable deaths.
That's what makes it so pathetic and so tragic.
So when Debbie says on the podcast, there's a mental health crisis in the country, that is confirmed in these statistics.
And these drug overdose deaths have been increasing.
So, this is not a problem in our healthcare system.
People aren't going to the hospital or they don't have government-funded healthcare.
No, it is basically that we are seeing an increase in drug overdoses, in homicide, and in suicide.
Other countries now have higher life expectancy than the US. The US was at the top, along with other countries, and it's like we have dropped down a few notches.
So other countries are now ahead of us.
So we're living in a society now where a considerable portion of young people, remarkably, are I mean, this is just an unnecessary tragedy, but I think it's a reflection.
Sure, it has something to do with bad policies, but I think it also has to do with a...
Destructive and dysfunctional culture, the breakdown of the family, the emergence of harmful peer groups, including, of course, gangs.
And all of this is having its effects.
At one time, some of these pathologies were largely identified in the Black or in minority communities, but now they are quite clearly nationwide crises.
So we are in at least to some degree a spiritual malaise, and it may be One of the recipes for it, there are a number of policy recipes, a number of sensible things that can be done, but a religious revival on top of those things certainly wouldn't hurt.
For years, big mobile companies have been dumping millions into leftist causes.
We had to take it because another option didn't exist.
Well, now it does.
Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider.
It's helping to build a parallel economy.
What does that mean? It means an economy within America in which we support our own and refuse to subsidize companies that use our money to subvert our principles and our values.
Patriot Mobile offers dependable, We're good to go.
They're 100% US-based customer service team.
Makes switching easy. You lose nothing by talking to these guys.
Just go to PatriotMobile.com.
That's M-O-B-I-L-E. PatriotMobile.com slash Dinesh.
Or call them 878-PATRIOT. Get free activation today with the offer code Dinesh.
Ask about their coverage guarantee while you're there.
Once again, PatriotMobile.com slash Dinesh.
Or call 878-PATRIOT. I spoke yesterday about Ron DeSantis and his skirmishes with Disney.
And there are a number of commentators on the subject who have been saying, this is very irresponsible of Ron DeSantis.
Florida is highly dependent on Disney.
And why would he seek to antagonize a company that brings so much revenue, brings so much tourism, creates so many jobs?
And when you listen to DeSantis' rhetoric, you get the idea that he doesn't really care.
He's like, hey Disney, if you want to relocate, you can do that.
You can pack up and go.
And of course, it's not exactly easy for Disney to do that.
Disney has shown no willingness to want to do that.
But I want to raise a different question.
Why does DeSantis not care?
And the answer is obvious.
He doesn't care because Florida is doing really, really well.
Florida actually doesn't need Disney.
Florida is less dependent on Disney than Disney is dependent on Florida.
Now, as a recent survey, a study that's come out, it looks at the most desirable cities in terms of growth, in terms of jobs, in terms of low unemployment, in terms of opportunities for upward mobility.
In terms of business investment, and in terms of overall quality of life.
And guess what? Four of the five cities, the metropolitan areas, that are doing the best in the country are in Florida.
And this is despite the fact that Florida continues to gain population.
I say despite the fact because you could make the argument that as people flee from the Northeast, they come to Florida, let's say, for the sunshine, or they come to Florida because they don't like the way taxes and other things are in New York.
They come to Florida, you think, well, with all these new people, Florida is going to have more of a problem.
How are we going to employ them?
Where are they going to live? Quality of life.
There's going to be a pressure of digesting this incoming population.
But in fact, the opposite is true.
What's happening in Florida is that the incoming population is entrepreneurial.
It is excited to be in Florida.
They're starting new businesses.
They're creating new jobs.
And so Florida is booming.
Now, Miami is booming perhaps the most of all.
It has the lowest unemployment rate.
Of metropolitan areas, it's actually tied with Birmingham, Alabama, but Birmingham, Alabama is a lot smaller.
The unemployment rate, 2.2%, very, very low.
In fact, economists say that that may even be below what is considered, in effect, zero unemployment because there's always some mobility in a workforce.
Now, the interesting thing about Florida, though, is it's not just Miami that's booming.
Jacksonville is booming.
Tampa is booming. Orlando is booming.
All those places have unemployment rates under 3%, right around 2.6 to 2.7%.
Nationally, the jobless rate is at least a percentage point higher, 3.5% in March.
The point here is, and Trump has said, other people have said, well, Florida's great because of the sunshine.
And of course that's true, but Florida's always had sunshine.
It's not like the sun started coming out in Florida last week or last year.
So when you see a change and Florida is getting better and things are improving, obviously public policy is some part of that.
And I want to give full credit here, not just to DeSantis, but to the Florida legislature that is also doing great stuff and doing great stuff in a very energetic and continuing, Florida has gained more than 300,000 residents just in the past 12 months.
It's the fastest growing state in terms of population right now in the country.
And things in Florida are affordable.
Yes, the weather is good.
But life is good in Florida because there's also economic opportunity and upward mobility.
It's not just getting a job.
It's getting a job and being able to move up the ladder.
Businesses are relocating to Florida.
By the way, a number of the big financial firms, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Citadel, have all announced, basically in the last 12 months, we're moving to Florida.
And part of this is a little bit of a herd mentality, but part of this is that the herd mentality is driven by where it is better to go.
By the way, Texas is also benefiting from less of a financial boom.
As a high-tech boom, high-tech people are suddenly realizing that the hill country of Texas, the Austin area, is a lot like California without the taxes and without the regulation.
So this is all very good news for DeSantis.
What it means is that having come into power, being elected governor by just a hair's breadth.
I mean, think about how Floridians are feeling.
They could have voted. They almost voted for Andrew Gillum, the guy who was found on the floor surrounded by needles and drugs.
I mean, this is what they could have been dealing with.
This would have been a horrible option.
They took a slight bet on DeSantis, and DeSantis has proven them that he has earned their trust.
He won re-election resoundingly and setting up a potential campaign for the presidency.
But I'm going to talk about that in the next segment.
Good news from MyPillow and good news for you.
Mike Lindell and MyPillow have launched My Mattress Topper 2.0.
The new 3-inch MyPillow mattress topper is made up of three unique layers.
Layer 1, MyPillow patented foam, which provides superior support and durability.
Layer 2, transitional foam, which provides optimal comfort, evenly distributes body weight and helps relieve pressure points.
And Layer 3, the cover made from a special material to keep your body temperature regulated through the night.
This MyPillow mattress topper is washable and dryable, made in the USA. 10-year warranty, 60-day money-back guarantee.
The incredible 3-inch mattress topper is as low as $219.59 with promo code Dinesh.
So go ahead, call 800-876-0227.
That number again, 800-876-0227.
Now go to MyPillow.com.
Make sure to use the promo code D-I-N-E-S-H, Dinesh.
There's every indication that Ron DeSantis, having produced a successful record in Florida, is very seriously considering running for president.
Now, there have been some recent reports coming more from the left, but also some from the MAGA Trumpsters, that DeSantis is having some setbacks.
He's running into some roadblocks.
He This is not a good idea.
It's not going very well for him.
I don't put a whole lot of stock in all that.
I want to actually ask a different question.
From DeSantis' own point of view, is this the best time for him to run?
And I'm going to ask this as someone who is well disposed toward DeSantis, has nothing against him, has only admiration, as I described in the last segment, for what he's done and for his record.
So I'm not looking at whether DeSantis is a nuisance for Trump or whether DeSantis is a...
Bye.
I'm looking really at whether DeSantis is doing himself a favor by running now as opposed to waiting it out for the next time around.
Now, the case for DeSantis running now, and I think this is what a lot of the DeSantis people are saying on social media, Is basically the idea, you get it in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, there is a tide in the affairs of men, and the idea is you've got to take the wave when it comes and go for it.
But let's remember that this is stated by who?
I believe it was stated by Brutus, maybe Cassius, one of the two of them, right before a battle, that they lost.
And similarly, the proverb that we all know, fortune favors the brave.
This is a proverb, by the way, from Virgil.
And it comes from the Aeneid.
But it's not said by Aeneas.
It is said by an Italian warlord named Ternus.
He goes, fortune favors the brave.
And then he goes into battle with Aeneas.
And guess what? He is slain.
He is killed in that battle.
So with Virgil, there is an irony to the phrase fortune favors the brave.
And that's the issue I want to examine here.
I'm doing it with reference to an article I want to give credit to.
It's a very good article by Daniel McCarthy.
It's in The Spectator, thespectator.com.
And it is an article precisely about DeSantis and his future.
By and large, what Daniel McCarthy is arguing is DeSantis may be better off waiting till 2028.
He goes, listen, yeah, you can try to take on Trump.
He goes, it's going to be really hard to beat Trump for the nomination.
But even if you do...
The chances are that your nomination, your candidacy will be sort of sabotaged.
There'll be MAGA people who are like, I don't like what he did to Trump.
I'm not going to vote for him.
Who knows what Trump will do?
Will Trump run as a third party?
I hope not. I don't think he will.
But even if he doesn't run as a third party, Trump and Trumpism are going to define the next election.
I think there's little doubt about that.
So even if DeSantis is the nominee, the question is always going to be, how do you stand in relation to Trump?
What would Trump do about this?
And what are you doing about that?
And if there's a hair's breadth of difference, you now have to explain the difference.
So it becomes a kind of almost a natural wedge in the Republican base.
Now, says Daniel McCarthy, the writer of this article, it is true that a few people, I can think here of Kemp in Georgia, but also Youngkin in Virginia, they were able to sort of run independently of Trump.
They were able to say, listen, this is not about Trump.
This is about Georgia. This is not about Trump.
This is about Virginia. But, says Daniel McCarthy, those were local or regional.
They were state elections. It was not a national election.
And Trump continues to stand, again, to quote Julius Trump, He sort of strides across the country like a colossus.
In other words, he dominates the debate.
And even when he's not present, I mean, think about it.
Trump hasn't been president for two years.
And yet, if you look at media coverage, it's still all about Trump in a sense.
Certainly all about Trump when the media is covering the Republicans and the right.
Let's look, says Daniel McCarthy, at 2028.
He goes, in 2028, there's going to be no frontrunner, not only no Trump, No Biden.
And he goes, as a result, it's an open field.
And in an open field, you have a better chance to define not only where you come from, where you stand, but you have a better chance to also define your opponent.
You're not playing in existing grooves, and you're not, in a sense, limited to the options that are on the table before you.
He says not only that, but DeSantis now has a second term.
He would have to interrupt that second term to run for president.
But let's say he doesn't do that.
Let's say he says, listen, I am doing really well in Florida.
Florida is doing really well.
And this is a trend that's likely to continue.
So if I'm able to have a fantastic record in Florida on all indices, I win my battle with Disney.
I shut down the woke agenda.
I stop the indoctrination in the schools.
Perhaps I'm able to limit, if not end, affirmative action, at least in state universities and state contracting.
I'm able to restore the American dream in Florida, restore the Florida dream, make Florida great again.
And Florida's already pretty great right now.
If DeSantis can accomplish all this I saw a recent interview with DeSantis where he was saying, listen, this is not just a matter of stopping the left.
Governing is also a matter of positive things that we do to make life better, to create more opportunity, more ladders of success.
And this is totally right.
Very often, Republicans are on the defensive.
We're up against the wall.
We're like really lucky if we're able to block the bad stuff.
But DeSantis' point is, let's do some really good stuff.
And I think what Daniel McCarthy is getting at in his article is like, if DeSantis can do that, he has an eight-year record.
Think of it. That's like a Reaganite record for Florida, a Reaganite record for Florida where you've got all these marvelous indices that you can demonstrate.
He says, listen, it doesn't even matter.
Even if Trump wins in 2024, even if Trump's running mate somehow gets into the inside lane, he goes, that guy will not be able to stand against DeSantis.
He will have unbeatable credentials for being the Republican nominee, and he will have the best chance for him, the best prospects that he has to win the presidency.
Inflation has consequences.
As the Fed raises interest rates to combat out-of-control government spending, long-term bonds have diminished in value, crippling banks, depositors are holding their breath, investors are bailing on bank stocks.
Diversification has never been more important.
The recent surge in gold prices shows why gold has historically been a great hedge against the stock market and against inflation.
The only company I trust to help you diversify into gold is Birch Gold Group.
I buy my gold from Birch Gold because I want a safety net for my family.
You should do the same. Text Dinesh to 989898 to get a free information kit on gold.
Birch Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k that's tied to a volatile market into an IRA in physical precious metals, gold and silver.
And the best part, it's tax-sheltered.
Text Dinesh to 989898 to claim your free information kit on gold today with an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, thousands of happy customers, It seems like the latest corporation to come aboard the woke bandwagon,
and the list is now fairly long, is the drugstore giant and chain called CVS. And Debbie and I, well, we've been shopping at CVS for quite a while now.
And sometimes when I find out about these kinds of things, I always think to myself, what does this mean?
Does this mean we should not shop at CVS?
Does it mean that we should go up to those guys and kind of convey to them that we're not really happy about this kind of craziness?
But of course it's a little bit hard to do because, I mean, the guy at CVS, at least the guy I run into, honey, is this Indian guy.
He's a very well-meaning fellow.
He's always cheerful.
And they have nothing to do with these policies.
So for me, I don't want to make that guy feel bad.
And I don't think he has really any influence.
So we got to think about ways sometimes to send an email or create an organized campaign.
The idea is to get to the people who are making these decisions or the people who have power over them.
But let's talk about CVS. Their latest policy is about the transgender issue.
Now, what makes all this interesting is that, of course, pharmacies and medical facilities and drugstores are generally supposed to be all about the science, all about the medicine, all about...
And the people who work there have generally an interest In these sorts of products, they have probably some sort of interest in medicine generally.
I'm guessing that some of these people thought at one time about becoming nurses or becoming doctors.
For whatever reason, they didn't do that.
But they're like, I'm going to work in a...
In a drugstore. But in any case, my point is they're not into the trans issue.
And I think what's regrettable here is that CBS is kind of making them get into the trans issue even though they might not want to.
So, the CVS apparently put out some gender transition guidelines.
Here we go. And I'm just going to describe what they are.
I don't even need to provide a critique of them.
I'm just going to tell you what's going on.
They basically say this is a policy for CVS across the board about it's addressed both to people who are trans or want to become trans, And then to everyone else who works at CVS. How you should deal with people who are in transition or have transitioned.
Number one, CVS says, I said CVS. They're actually quite different.
But CVS goes, people who are trans should be able to use whatever restroom they want.
So right there, this tells me I probably want to stay out of the restrooms at CVS. They're probably not the cleanest restrooms in America anyway.
But nevertheless, here's a second reason to hold it till you get home.
This open restroom type of policy.
But that's not really even the worst of it.
The worst of it is that CVS is actually encouraging this kind of transitioning.
They basically say things like, quote, For people who want to transition, CVS says, tell everybody that you're doing it because, quote, the company wants to provide support and to make your transition as smooth as possible.
You may also wish to have appropriate medical care to support your transition, including treatments like hormone replacement therapy and or gender confirmation surgery.
I mean, even that word, gender confirmation, is so telling.
It's like your mind is telling you one thing.
You don't see it in the world.
You need to do surgery to confirm that you really are what you think you are.
I mean, how pathetic is that?
In any event, CVS says please report any issues you have with your work environment, which is another way of empowering the trans community to make allegations against other CVS employees to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.
I don't know if the people who write these guidelines want that to be the effect.
You wouldn't think that a corporation wants to disrupt its own work environment, but how else can you look at it?
And then CVS also says that employees must support people who are transitioning by being very careful how you talk to them.
Don't misgender them.
Don't so-called deadname them.
If you haven't heard this term, deadnaming, it's like using the person's old name or his old pronouns.
You have to be really careful not to dead name the person.
And again, it's a little hard to believe that in normal companies where we're trying to transact business, let's think about it.
This is not some kind of a spa retreat.
This is not kind of self-actualization.
This is the routine business where I go to CBS, I got a prescription, I'm trying to have it filled.
This has nothing to do with your gender or nothing to do with whether or not you're trying to chop off your breasts or remove your testicles.
That shouldn't really be at issue here, but CVS is making it an issue, and I think that really is right there the problem.
Debbie and I made a New Year's resolution.
We're going to lose some weight, and thankfully, PhD weight loss came to the rescue.
We both started the PhD weight loss and nutrition program 11 weeks ago.
Debbie has already lost 15 pounds, and I'm down over 23 pounds.
You can see it. Wow. The program is based on science and nutrition.
No injections, no pills, no hours in the gym, no severe calorie restriction.
Just good, sound, scientifically proven nutrition.
It's so simple. They make it easy by providing 80% of your food at no additional cost.
They tell you when and what to eat.
And guess what? You can do this without ever being hungry.
The founder, Dr. Ashley Lucas, has her PhD in chronic disease and sports nutrition.
She's also a registered dietitian.
She helps people lose weight and most important...
Maintain that weight loss for life.
So if you're ready to take the step of losing weight like Debbie and I have, call PHD Weight Loss and Nutrition at 864-644-1900 or find them online at myphdweightloss.com.
The number again to call, 864-644-1900.
I want in this segment to discuss the question of whether it is somehow anti-Semitic to attack George Soros to talk about the fact that he is the A key bank roller of Alvin Bragg, the New York DA who's been going after Trump, and also to use the phrase Soros-funded DAs around the country.
The fact is that the DAs around the country are Soros-funded.
In races where there's not a huge amount of money involved, Soros often puts a big infusion of cash to help very left-wing DAs make it into the DA's office.
And of course, there are very bad policies that come out of that.
It's also a fact that Soros is a key funder of Alvin Bragg.
Right before, when Bragg was running for office, a group called Color of Change PAC announced a big $1 million donation to Bragg that helped Bragg to make it across the finish line.
And as it turns out, days after the Color of Change PAC announced this gift to Bragg, George Soros wrote the group a check for $1 million.
So the left is saying, well, Soros never met Bragg.
That's not the issue. The point is that Soros basically made a donation to Bragg through the Color of Change PAC, and that seems undeniable.
Now... I'm seeing all over the place in media accounts the idea that somehow because Soros is Jewish, and we'll see how Jewish he is in a minute, that it's somehow an anti-Semitic trope to talk about Soros, even if his Jewishness is not mentioned.
Why? Because we're talking about Jews, we're talking about money, we're talking about control.
Here, by the way, is NPR, All Things Considered, the NPR host named Mary Louise Kelly.
And she says that quote about Soros, he's Jewish, which brings with it all sorts of connotations if one wants to play on anti-Semitism.
And she has on a guest, and she asks the guest this question.
She says, you mentioned Soros as Jewish, which is prompting questions as to whether the attacks on him were And then the guest, a fellow named Tamkin, says the idea of a Jewish person being all controlling and all powerful and using that control and power to denigrate and degrade and corrupt society is a very, very old one. It doesn't matter if the word Jewish was not actually said.
This is trying to use anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic tropes.
And on and on and on.
And this is the question I want to look at.
Now, the fact is, George Soros does have a lot of power and he does have a lot of control.
In that sense, he's not an ordinary Jew.
We're not just talking about some guy, Nathan, who lives down the street or who's a realtor.
We're talking about a guy who is a multi-billionaire with a net worth around the, what, $30 or $40 billion, who has also announced that I am giving, and to a degree have given, a large part of that wealth to my political causes, administered, by the way, to a considerable degree by Soros's now adult son, a guy who has been going essentially almost in and out of the White House on a regular basis to meet with Biden.
So there's a Soros hand in the White House.
So it doesn't seem unreasonable, given all this, to say, hey, Soros does have a lot of power.
He does seek control.
By the way, not just in the United States, but around the world.
Now, in this context, I want to revisit a very interesting interview that Soros gave going back to 2006 with Steve Croft on 60 Minutes.
And I'm revisiting the incident because George Soros talks in that interview about that's when his character was made.
I'm going to read the quote. I would say that's when my character was made.
There you have it. And what is the character that he's talking about?
Quote, I am basically there to make money.
I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of what I do.
Here's Soros saying basically, I'm in it for myself.
I'm in it for self-interest.
And don't talk to me really about morality.
I don't care.
He goes on to say another quote.
I don't feel guilty because I'm engaged in an amoral activity which is not meant to have anything to do with guilt.
So, how does one develop this kind of an attitude?
It turns out when George Soros was 14 years old in then Nazi-occupied Hungary, he was able to save his life by his father assigning him to a man who was a kind of henchman for the Nazis.
So this guy, friend of apparently Soros' dad, took in young George Soros.
But here's the key point. He didn't just take him in.
That would be one thing, a survival strategy.
George Soros would accompany this guy when he went door to door to the homes of Jewish families to confiscate their property, to seize their art.
Now, no one is saying that George Soros did that.
But we're saying that George Soros was there when it happened.
He obviously didn't object.
He didn't say anything.
He shut his mouth.
He allowed this to go on ahead.
Think of it. His fellow Jews are having their property confiscated.
And Steve Croft asked George Soros about all this.
And George Soros basically says...
I don't have any guilt about that either.
I don't even think about it.
In fact, he goes on to say, that's when my character was made.
And when he's asked, what do you mean?
He goes, well, essentially it taught me that one should think ahead.
One should understand and anticipate events when one is threatened.
So Soros is basically taking the lesson out of this, that he was just a really resourceful guy.
He beat the system.
He, you may almost say, played a young Nazi in order to help the Nazis, but he got away with it, and he got out of there eventually, and then he took that lesson.
That's what he means when he says, my character is made.
So to present George Soros as some kind of representative of worldwide jury...
Or to represent him as some kind of a Holocaust survivor?
I mean, he's a survivor in the sense that he survived.
But the point here is that he survived by at least accompanying a Nazi collaborator.
And of course, these days, there are leftists who go, well, do you not remember George Soros was a child at the time?
Well, it'd be one thing if he was seven.
But George Soros was 14 years old.
And what's interesting to me is not just what he did at 14, but his adult reflections as delivered in the year 2006.
About what he did when he was 14.
And it's pretty clear that George Soros feels no sense of compunction.
He feels no sense of guilt.
He feels no sense of morality.
He is actually a thoroughly amoral guy.
Who likes aches and pains?
Nobody does. Debbie and I started taking Relief Factor a couple of years ago.
The difference we've seen in our joints, nothing short of amazing.
Aches and pains are gone thanks to this 100% drug-free solution called Relief Factor.
How does it work? Relief Factor supports your body's fight against inflammation.
That's the source of aches and pains.
The vast majority of people who try Relief Factor become regular customers.
They order more because it works for them.
Debbie's a true believer.
She can finally do the exercises that for a long time she wasn't able to do.
So Relief Factor's been a game changer for her, her aunt, other members of our family, Mike here in the studio, and for many other people.
You too can benefit.
Try it for yourself. Order the three-week quick start for the discounted price of just $19.95.
Go to relieffactor.com or call the new number 800-4-RELIEF to find out more about this offer.
The number again, 800-4-RELIEF or go to relieffactor.com.
Feel the difference. The left really is out for Clarence Thomas and they are really mad at this guy because he has simply refused to stay on the liberal and democratic plantation.
ProPublica has been trying to publish exposés of Clarence Thomas, and they published one saying that Clarence Thomas has a longtime friend, Harlan Crow, and he has been vacationing at the Crow Resort in the Adirondacks, and he has been flying on Harlan Crow's private jet, and blah, blah, blah.
I guess Harlan Crow paid for expensive dinners with Clarence Thomas.
And I'm thinking, so what?
It's very clear in the guidelines that when you have a longtime friend and you get these favors, as long as that friend doesn't have cases before the Supreme Court or is seeking some kind of quid pro quo, hey, Clarence Thomas, you can vacation on my property, but I want you to vote this way.
There's no even implication that any of this is even going on.
So the whole thing is a little bit dumb.
But nevertheless, the ProPublica reporting is amplified in other media outlets as if Clarence Thomas has serious questions he has to answer.
And at one point, Clarence Thomas responded and even said, Harlan Toro is a longtime friend and I certainly didn't think I needed to report this or do anything inappropriate.
I don't know why Clarence Thomas bothers to do this.
He doesn't need to do it.
I advise him not to do it.
But here, ProPublica is back, now claiming that there's some kind of a dubious real estate transaction.
The implication is it might even be some sort of a payoff to Clarence Thomas because Harlan Crowe apparently bought Clarence Thomas' childhood home In Pinpoint or the outskirts near Savannah, Georgia, where his 90-something mother still lives.
And when I first saw this, I thought, well, this is interesting.
And certainly if Harlan Crow had paid $4 million for a $50,000 or $100,000 property, that would be inappropriate on its face.
That would suggest something odd is going on here.
This guy has paid way above the market value.
And this is problematic.
As it turns out, the transaction being reported in ProPublica is downright comical.
The Crow Company bought some land around the Clarence Thomas property and bought the cottage in which Clarence Thomas' mom lives.
By the way, Clarence Thomas doesn't even own that property.
He will inherit it from his mom, and in that sense, he has a one-third share in it.
One-third for his mom, one-third for his brother, one-third from him.
And so the value of this property is actually, guess what?
Well, we know it's under $133,000 because Harlan Crowe paid $133,000 for the house and the adjoining lots that he bought, all of it for $133,000.
So what kind of a bribe is this?
It's nonsense. By and large, ProPublica took the trouble to contact Harlan Crow, which is a good thing to do, and Harlan Crow very simply said, Hey, listen, I am a huge fan of Clarence Thomas.
I admire his life story.
Here's a guy who came up from nothing.
I want to, quote, preserve it for posterity.
He goes, I approached the Thomas family about my desire to maintain this historic site so future generations could learn about the inspiring life of one of our greatest Americans.
The two guys are friends. You can see how Harlan Crow goes, listen, you know, this is a great way for me to take over this property.
I'll rehabilitate it.
It's obviously not in the best shape.
And I will turn it into a sort of a mini-historical museum.
And it's a museum to the life of someone who came up from their bootstraps.
So this is really all that's going on.
And there's nothing more to it.
So again, think of the stuff.
The left takes... It takes these kinds of small issues that are no big deal.
We have giant scandals going on with Biden, giant scandals going on with people on the left.
By the way, there are leftist Supreme Court justices who have rich and powerful friends.
Leftist justices fly on their jets, stay in their homes, receive benefits from them in exactly the same way.
No reporting on this.
No big deal. No one even thinks it's a big deal.
So this is a singling out of Clarence Thomas.
And I think what it really shows you is how straight-laced this guy is.
They've got nothing on him.
The best they can do, he has a friend who bought a mistake dinner.
He has a friend who made his house available for him for him to spend the weekend.
and now preposterously he is a friend who bought his childhood home or the home in which his mother lives and some adjoining properties all for the measly sub of $100,000. You can see why I'm chuckling over this stupidity. I'm concluding my discussion today of Pascal's wager, an argument, as I've emphasized, not definitively proving the existence of God, but in my opinion, definitively
proving why it is reasonable and why it makes sense to believe in God.
Now, Pascal, as I mentioned, having laid out this proof, basically showing that the risk of believing in God if he doesn't exist is negligible.
The risk of not believing in God if he does exist is infinitely bad.
And so, no rational person should check that box.
Pascal also goes on to explain the hiddenness of God, arguing that God is hidden, at least invisible.
Why? Because he wants you to reach out to him.
He wants to be available to those who seek him.
He's not trying to impose himself, shove himself, force himself on anyone.
There's one concluding point that needs to be addressed in this context, and it's raised, interestingly enough, by the biologist Richard Dawkins.
He says Pascal's argument is odd, his word, and he says because, quote, believing is not something you can decide to do as a matter of policy.
At least it's not something I can decide to do as an act of will, end quote.
Now, first of all, notice what Dawkins is conceding here.
He's conceding that he doesn't really have a way to answer the argument.
And his only answer comes at the very end.
He's like, the argument is sound.
I should believe.
I may even be convinced that I must believe.
But I still have to get my will in alignment with that.
What if my will sort of resists it?
I can't just choose to believe in God's existence because, quote, it makes sense to believe.
This is really what Dawkins is getting at.
And in some ways, he's making a point that I think Christians would agree with.
Why? Why?
Because what Pascal is saying is, it makes sense to believe.
It's rational to believe.
I've removed the objection for believing.
But I'm not saying that the choice to believe doesn't, to some degree, rely on grace.
Grace here is a gift from God.
God is sort of giving you the grace to believe.
If you have the right disposition, if you're willing to be open to it, God will provide the grace.
I also want to argue, and I'll argue this later in the course, in this mini-course of mine, that there are powerful psychological reasons to resist believing in God even when it makes total sense to do it.
It's the idea that you have personal motives, self-interested motives, the appeal of sin, that whispering in your ear, hey, even if this seems to make sense to you, do you really want to go there?
That's going to make life harder for you.
It's going to deprive you of things that you want.
So we'll get to all that.
Pascal, by the way, recognizes that That there are two kinds of reasonable people in the world.
Quote, So Pascal is saying, since we don't know, it is reasonable to seek.
And since these big questions of life are unanswered, The truly decent person wants to know the answers, doesn't kind of foolishly and casually dismiss these questions.
So Pascal says, I recognize that faith is a gift.
We can't demand it, but only ask God to give it to us.
And he goes, in the meantime, let's just say you don't have faith, and you want to have faith, but you don't, and God has somehow not given you yet this gift.
Pascal goes, listen, I want you to do two things.
One, I want you to kind of live a moral and decent life.
Why? Because even without God, there's no reason that you can't follow God's laws.
Even without God, God has still given us a rule book.
Let's loosely call it the Ten Commandments.
Follow and abide by those.
And that alone is going to give you a better life, a more wholesome life.
But then, Pascal says, you need to pray the prayer of the skeptic.
This is, I think, something I find very interesting.
I'm going to give you not Pascal's version of this prayer, but a prayer composed by the philosopher Peter Kreeft.
And he says, if you're a genuine skeptic, you should pray this.
God, I don't know whether you even exist.
I'm a skeptic. I doubt.
I think that maybe you're only a myth.
But if I'm not certain, at least I'm not certain when I'm honest with myself.
So if you do exist, if you really did promise to reward all seekers, you must be hearing me now.
And so I hereby declare myself a seeker, a seeker of the truth, whatever and wherever it is.
I want to know the truth and live the truth.
If you are the truth, please help me.
And Peter Kreef's point, and I think this is the point that Pascal would echo also, is that the Bible promises that all human beings who seek God in this way with earnest and open hearts, not may, not might,
▲
Export Selection