Ep. 1104 - Kanye Schools Republicans On Being Conservative
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Joe Biden praises Ron DeSantis, Biden pardons a bunch of drug criminals, and the U.S. stocks up on nuclear radiation drugs.
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The gaffe-prone Biden administration gave Americans a potential glimpse into the future this week when the president gave a joint press conference with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and allowed DeSantis to speak from a lectern bearing the presidential seal.
When I first saw the photos of President DeSantis going viral, my first thought was that some poor schlub on the White House advance team was probably having a very, very unpleasant afternoon, probably getting chewed out by Biden's chief of staff for the gaffe that framed DeSantis as a potential future president.
But then something even stranger happened.
Biden complimented DeSantis.
What the governor's done is pretty remarkable, Biden said.
I think he's done a good job.
We worked hand in glove.
We have very different political philosophies, but we've worked hand in glove.
Now...
DeSantis has done a terrific job on hurricane preparation and recovery, so I am sure in part Biden just wants to associate himself with that success.
If you can't beat him, join him.
But that does not explain why Biden would be so effusive in his praise.
Certainly was not because Biden is sincere or gives credit where credit is due.
This is the same guy who told black voters that milquetoast Mitt Romney wanted to put them back in chains.
Joe Biden is a mean, nasty partisan.
So why is he being so nice to DeSantis?
The lectern might have been an accident.
The public praise suggests to me a strategy.
It seems to me Biden and his team, at least his team, I don't know if Biden makes any of these decisions himself, but at least the team has made a conscious decision to build up Ron DeSantis.
And it makes perfect sense.
DeSantis is currently the biggest threat to Joe Biden's biggest threat, who is Donald Trump.
As Democrat policies plunge America into poverty, chaos, and possibly even World War III, the best shot the Democrats have at retaining power is to divide the Republicans.
And again, I'm not saying anything about Trump or DeSantis in a general election.
I'm just saying, you look at the polls, Trump is at the top of the heap by a long shot.
DeSantis is the number two guy.
So the best way the Democrats can divide Republicans is to egg on a Trump-DeSantis shooting match as early as possible.
You're already seeing some sniping around the periphery.
As Democrats get more desperate, expect surprisingly kind words for the governor of Florida.
I'm Michael Knowles.
This is the Michael Knowles Show.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment yesterday is from Frank S., who says, with the holidays coming up, it's important you know how to talk to conspiracy theorists in your family.
First, look them in the eye.
Second, shake their hand.
Third, apologize profusely.
So true.
So true, man.
Because all those people who have been derided as horrible conspiracy theorists, cranks with tinfoil hats, they have a much better record than pretty much all the political experts and eggheads and scientists and all the rest of it.
So yes, you should.
When you are speaking with your family this holiday season, and there's that crazy uncle, that crazy right-wing uncle at your table, just say you're sorry.
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What a news day.
Yesterday.
I've been on the road.
I've been traveling like crazy.
I was in Las Vegas yesterday with Senator Cruz.
We've got a big announcement on verdict coming up, so you're going to want to check that out.
It's an announcement that I've kind of been foreshadowing for a little while, but it's an announcement.
Nevertheless, you should go check out.
So I was in Vegas.
My head was kind of out of the news.
And then I'm getting on the airplane to come back to Nashville last night.
And I see a lot of big stories, but the most important one, as far as I'm concerned, Mr.
Yeezy, Kanye West, goes on Tucker Carlson.
It's an extremely wide-ranging interview.
We can't get to all of it.
But he, Kanye West, makes an incredibly, a beautiful, actually eloquent and precise argument for life and even just beyond life and the abortion issue for a whole view of politics.
Take a listen.
So you just came from Paris Fashion Week, you just landed, and you have a lanyard still on from it, and there's a photograph on it.
What is that?
It's a photograph of a baby's ultrasound.
Why is that?
And you designed that?
Yes.
Why?
What does that mean?
It just represents life and pro-life.
Boy, so you wear it on a badge.
What kind of response do you get?
Amen.
I agree.
I don't care about people's responses.
I care about the fact that there's more black babies being aborted than born in New York City at this point.
That 50% of black death in America is abortion.
So I really don't care about people's responses.
I perform for an audience of one, and that's God.
Wow.
Wow.
His pro-life message, superb.
And it's more important that Kanye West, this major cultural figure, maybe the most important cultural figure of our era, I say this as someone, don't listen to a ton of pop music or hip-hop or anything like that, but the guy was just transformative within his own genre and industry, and he's sort of transcended his genre and industry, and he's just a force of nature in the culture.
So it's very important that he says that.
But that last line, oh my gosh, it just shows you Kanye's political insight and spiritual insight for that matter.
He says, I don't care what other people say.
I perform for an audience of one, and that's God.
Wow.
That's it.
Write that down.
Write that down on the back of your hand so that you can just look at that anytime you get confused in politics or your personal life or anything else.
A lot of people will tell you, they'll give you the opposite version, the kind of inverse of that maxim.
They'll say, I don't care what other people think.
I perform for an audience of one, and that's me.
You know, I don't care what other people think.
I'm just going to do what I want to do.
I'm going to live my truth.
I'm going to be authentic to myself.
But that's dumb.
That's stupid.
You're just as fallen and corrupted and broken as anybody else.
Kanye says, no, no, no, you don't.
You don't live for the crowds.
That's dumb.
And you don't live just for yourself.
You're performing for an audience of one, and that's God.
God, the essence of being.
Truth, goodness, and beauty.
That's what you're living for, baby.
That's it.
Your creator, your maker, the omnipotent king of the universe who holds all of our lives in his hands and on whom we rely for every breath that we breathe.
That's who you're performing for.
Everything else is just crap.
You could win a zillion cars and a ton of money and big houses.
You could become, I don't know, governor of a state, president of the United States.
None of that matters if you're not living a life of sanctity, if you're not moving towards sanctification and holiness.
Because ultimately you're going to turn to worm food and you're going to take a dirt nap.
So the only audience that it matters that you're performing for is God.
And Kanye West gets it.
And I feel totally freaking vindicated.
Because I have been very pro-Kanye for many years now.
And I made the point, I looked it up on Twitter, I made the point a couple of years ago, two or three years ago.
I said, Kanye West has greater political insight than the vast majority of elected politicians and journalists and certainly all those people at the New York Times.
And he does.
It's true.
Kanye West has more political insight and is doing more political good, not just than the majority of politicians, but than the majority of elected Republicans, than the majority of conservatives.
And at the time, when Kanye West first started making these kinds of conservative noises, started to suggest he might be bucking the trends here on some of these left-wing matters.
A lot of the people liked it, but a lot of the professional conservative types, the beltway types, they said, uh-oh, we don't like this.
He's not one of us.
Kanye West, he never even had an internship on Capitol Hill.
Kanye West, he doesn't even wear tweed to think tanks.
And so he's not, I don't know, I think we ought to keep this guy at arm's length.
And I said, no, this guy is getting it.
Yeah, maybe he's saying some things that are a little weird here and there.
He's kind of coming into it now.
He's figuring out what he thinks.
But the guy's heart is in the right place, and his vision is in the right place.
He's looking at the right thing, and he's trying to figure it out now.
Actually, some of this began with Candace Owens.
You remember, Kanye tweeted out something to the effect of, I love the way Candace's mind works.
I like the way Candace Owen thinks or something like that.
And so I think she played a role there.
There were other people who played a role.
Kanye, just the other day, tweeted out the trailer to Candace's movie.
So we here at Daily Wire Plus have this movie coming out.
The greatest lie ever sold.
It's the story, the real amazing story of George Floyd and the BLM movement that came out of George Floyd.
And I've gotten to see the cuts of it.
Obviously, it hasn't come out yet.
It's going to be available exclusively at Daily Wire Plus.
So if you're not a member, sign up now.
But it gives you a perspective that you just haven't seen anywhere.
You haven't seen it in the left-wing media, obviously.
You probably haven't seen it in the right-wing media.
And it's a perspective I think really only Candace Owens can give, which is why we love that we have her here at Daily Wire.
But that's the kind of message that cuts through all of the noise.
And Kanye saw that.
Now Kanye is just totally expanding the political imagination.
Much more so than your average egghead at a think tank.
Much more so than your average Beltway staffer, professional Republican on Capitol Hill or at the RNC or something like that.
Kanye, by the way, he's not only shifting people away from the left toward the right, he's also helping clarify what the right should think.
Because for a long time, the right said, you know, enough of that God talk.
Enough of those cultural issues.
You've got to stay away from that.
Let's just talk about tax cuts.
And it was so dumb, and all we ever did was lose back when the Republicans talked like that.
And Kanye West is saying, no.
No, uh-uh.
We're going to stand up for life.
We're going to stand up for our culture.
We're going to say white lives matter because we're going to, why did Kanye say white lives matter?
He said, because BLM is a scam and everybody knows it.
And now it's over and you're welcome.
Those are his exact words, okay?
We're going to do that.
And we're going to stand up for the most important thing of all.
We're going to say, we are going to orient our country back toward God.
We're going to orient our individual vision back toward God and our country back toward God.
That's what we did.
That's how the country started.
That's what made the country great.
We turned our eyes away from God.
That's why the country looks like crap right now.
And if we want to fix it, if we want to make America great again, we've got to put our eyes back where they belong and have our actions follow that vision.
100% love it.
Great stuff, Kanye.
The other huge news story that came out yesterday is that Talk about opposites.
You know, talk about contrasts.
So you've got Kanye West saying, defend life, be good, pursue virtue.
Sure, I'm a fallen man.
I've made all sorts of mistakes.
But come on, we've got to just go do the right thing, look toward God, perform for an audience of one.
And then what do you have Joe Biden doing?
Joe Biden lets drug dealers out of prison.
That's his big announcement.
Take a listen.
As I said when I ran for president...
No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana.
It's already legal in many states.
And criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, to housing, to educational opportunities.
And that's before you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences.
While white and black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionately higher rates.
to end this failed approach.
First, I'm announcing a pardon for all prior federal offenses for the simple possession of marijuana.
Second, I'm calling on all governors to do the same for state marijuana possession offenses.
Third, the federal government currently classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance, the same as heroin and LSD and more serious than fentanyl.
It makes no sense.
So I'm asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate a process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana.
It's time that we right these wrongs.
It's time that we right these wrongs.
We're going to let the people out of prison for simple possession.
Now you're going to say, Michael, you just said that Biden's letting drug dealers out of prison.
But that's not what Biden said.
Biden said he's just letting the people out who are in jail for simple possession.
Right.
That's what he said.
The problem is, statistically speaking, pretty much nobody is in jail for simple possession.
There are some people, a small number of people, who are in jail ostensibly for simple possession.
But most of the time, the vast majority of the time, they're not really in jail for simple possession.
They've taken plea deals because the people had...
There's amounts of marijuana that they could sell.
Even if they only had small amounts, they were selling.
These are drug dealers.
These are traffickers.
These are people involved in the drug trade.
And then they go in, and especially because we've liberalized all of our drug laws, these weak prosecutors go in and they plead it down and they say, okay, we're not going to get you for trafficking.
We're not going to get you for peddling poison to kids.
We're just going to say it was simple possession, but you're going to go to jail for that.
So in practice, there's a really good survey on this by the Hudson Institute that came out a few years ago.
Go check it out on the Hudson Institute website.
In practice, what this means is Joe Biden is going to be letting drug dealers out of prison.
Okay.
And again, the number of people who are in federal prisons for drug offenses is very, very small compared to the state prisons.
But why is Biden doing this?
Why is Biden letting drug dealers in practice out of prison during the worst drug crisis in American history where the drug crisis is so bad that the life expectancy of the United States is actually decreasing because of overdoses and suicides and deaths of despair?
Okay.
But a big part of that is overdoses.
Why?
It's a classic Democrat strategy.
Let the criminals out of prison.
It's a classic left-wing strategy.
They've been doing it since the French Revolution.
You let the criminals out of prison, you expand vice, you expand political chaos, and that will allow you to take more power.
Biden also knows, going into the midterm elections, he's got nothing.
The economy is in the gutter.
the energy prices, which had spiked to all-time highs in some places.
And then they had started to come down a little.
So Biden initially said, it's not my fault that energy prices are high up, even though it was his fault, largely.
Then they started to go down a little.
He said, it's all thanks to me that the energy prices are starting to come down a little tiny bit.
But now they're going back up again.
Now they've reached record highs again.
You look in California, they've never seen prices like this.
All of a sudden, Biden says, it's not my fault again.
Biden has drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
It has not been this low in many decades.
And he's done that to try to bring the prices down.
And that still hasn't really succeeded.
And so now he's increased the amount that he's releasing out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is really imperiling national security.
But that still doesn't get him across the finish line.
Then you've got the fact that we are in a recession.
The Biden administration doesn't want to admit it, but we are in a recession.
Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.
We are in a recession, folks.
And you've got the first major war in Europe since World War II, now threatening nuclear war.
And not only is Russia saber-rattling, but the West is openly talking about potential nuclear war.
So just things are terrible.
You look at the social issues right now.
What is Biden running on?
He's running on killing more babies, which is not really helping the Democrats, not nearly as much as they thought it would.
And they're running on transing the kids, deeply, deeply unpopular.
It's just, I mean, we could be here all day if we talked about every issue that they're losing on.
And so the nearest thing that Biden can do, the easiest thing that he can do to try to gin up his base is to free some criminals.
You know, his base.
And to lie about a public policy issue.
Say, these poor people, it's just some poor kid who was trying one joint for the first time, and he was probably black, and he was nabbed by racist cops, and given a life sentence in prison.
None of that ever happened.
The people Biden's talking about are drug dealers, nasty, rotten people who are poisoning your kids and killing Americans.
He's going to let them out of prison, and he thinks it's going to help him.
And I just don't think it will.
I think it's wrong to do, and I just don't think it's going to help him that much.
Speaking of political stunts, in this case, I think more successful political stunts, a concerned mother, Timothy Rakes, that's sort of the amalgam, that's the androgynous name of Kimberly and Timothy.
No, Kimberly Rakes, the founder of a parental rights group at Iowa Mama Bears, just showed up to a school board meeting at Ankeny High School And she referred to this insane incident that occurred at the school where the Gay Straight Alliance Club, the sort of LGBT propaganda club at the high school, invited drag queen performers to perform for the kids for their end-of-year meeting.
And so Kimberly Rakes shows up wearing the outfit that the drag queen wore.
Take a listen.
Does this outfit make you turn your head?
Does this outfit seem appropriate for anybody here to see?
Because if this makes your head turn, if this picks as you walk, then it's stripped.
Because this guy walked into our school doing the exact same thing.
Kimberly, can you dress the work this way?
This is what the man dressed like in front of our kids.
So this makes your head spin.
This pisses you off in any way, shape, or form it should.
Because I'm embarrassed to stand here in the outfit that I am in today, but I have a point to prove, and that is that this outfit should not be ever accepted in our schools anyway.
Ma'am, please, please put that out for that.
That's obscene.
That's pornographic.
That belongs in a strip club.
Right.
Right.
That's true.
So why is it wrong for a mother at the school, so someone who's in the school community, a woman to show up wearing women's clothing that's kind of scandalous and risque?
That's unacceptable.
Ma'am, sit down.
Please change.
Put some clothes on.
But when a dude, like a big fat pervert dude, who has no connection to people at the school, shows up wearing the exact same women's clothing, that's wonderful.
That needs to be celebrated.
That's so great.
Why is it that transgender people or drag queens or any of these confused men, why is it that they get to do whatever the hell they want and that is wonderful and celebrated?
Why is that?
That doesn't make any sense at all.
And the woman, I thought she made a beautiful point.
And even for us, I think even we've become kind of desensitized to it.
Oh, there are those weird drag queens again.
Well, it's like the joke in Family Guy, where there's the transvestite sitting in a bar, and the bartender comes up and says, Ma'am, you can't look at pornography, download pornography at this bar.
And he, dressed up as a woman, says, Oh, no, no, I'm transgender.
And the bartender says, Oh, okay, then you can do whatever you want.
Why is that?
But you see the woman and you're like, whoa, man, that's way too sexual to be around kids.
That's totally inappropriate.
Right, it is.
How much more inappropriate is it for some weirdo dude to show up and prey on little kids like this?
Of course.
Anyone.
Any adult who had any foreknowledge of the drag queen event needs to be fired from the school for sure.
And then this club, the Gay Straight Alliance, certainly needs to be disbanded at this high school, if not at other high schools as well.
And we just can't...
We need to take a much harder stand on this because the radical LGBT activists are never going to stop until we are all wearing the rainbow flag.
You know, the corporate media agenda means that the news is presented in a very biased way.
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the radical LGBT activists are not going to stop until you and everybody else are waving the rainbow flag.
Mark my words.
How do I know this?
Because of poor Jack Phillips.
You know Jack Phillips.
His cases have made it to courts around the country, all the way up to the highest court in the land.
Jack Phillips has appeared on this show.
He's the masterpiece cake shop.
He is a really nice, soft-spoken, earnest Christian guy who was asked to create cakes specifically for a gay wedding, quote unquote.
And he said, oh, I'm sorry, I can't participate in a gay wedding because...
I'm Christian.
And so, you know, you can go to, there's a gay cake shop down the street.
The owners are super pro gay stuff.
And so it's no big deal.
You just go down there.
It'll be fine.
And what happened?
The radical LGBT activists sued this guy and tried to destroy his business.
And fortunately, he was able to win that case.
But he wasn't saying, I won't serve customers who have eccentric sexual views.
I won't serve gay guys who come in to buy a cake.
But he said, I can't make a cake specifically for your gay wedding.
You can't force me to use my art, my craft, to participate in a ceremony that I consider to be sinful and contrary to my religious views.
There are plenty of other cake shops that will do that.
Why are you guys so focused on making me kneel down and worship at your altar?
And why are you so interested in making me violate my Christian views when there are so many other options for you?
Because it's not about the cake and it's not about the wedding.
It's about making the Christians Get down and do what they're told.
That's what this is really about.
And the way you know this for certain is that after Jack Phillips took a huge financial loss, really hurt his business, but he prevails in court.
Well, he's in court again.
Because the activists are going after him again.
Because after his Supreme Court victory, he gets a call from a woman, quote-unquote, it's really a man, named Autumn Scardina, who calls Phillips...
And he says...
Here we go again.
You know that this wasn't about the cake.
There are plenty of other cake shops.
But this radical trans activist calls this guy to say, oh, we didn't beat you last time.
We're going to beat you this time.
Celebrate my sexual delusion.
Celebrate it.
Do it.
Do it now, bigot.
You're going to do it, you stupid Christian.
We're going to make you do it.
We're going to use the force of the law.
And so he's in court again.
I hope he wins.
I don't know.
It's totally up in the air, this poor man.
At first, before I met Jack Phillips, I thought, is this guy just, is he a political activist who's really just trying to put himself in these situations?
He's not.
He's just a soft-spoken, nice baker who keeps getting targeted by these vicious people, these vicious LGBT activists who obviously hate Christians and don't want to allow Christians to practice their religion.
They're so confident in their sexual identity that they demand that every last person in this country affirm their way of life and their delusions.
That's how confident they are.
That if even one person even thinks like, I actually don't think you're really maybe totally a woman.
Even one person thinks that.
That's an existential threat.
We've got to bring Jack Phillips to his knees.
They're not going to stop.
And so, everyone's going to try to find some middle ground.
Like, oh, well, you know, actually, let's just support...
We can redefine marriage in this way, but not in this way.
And let's just go halfway.
And look, I'll refer to Caitlyn Jenner as Caitlyn, because you can change your name.
But I don't know if I'm willing to...
Only at a certain age are you willing...
No, guys, guys, it's not...
There's no middle ground here on questions of ultimate truth and...
On ontology and on just basic questions of being and human nature.
You've got to just pick a side and stand for the truth.
Kanye can do it.
Why can't you?
Why can't you?
Because you think, oh, well, we'll meet halfway.
Okay, what if I bake a cupcake?
I'm not going to bake a full cake, but a cupcake.
No, that's just not...
Either Christians get to practice their religion or they don't.
Either men are not women or men can be women.
There's no middle ground here.
You've got to just pick a side and have courage.
And just take a lesson from Yeezy.
Speaking of attacks on conservative businesses...
This is not just a handful of activists who are attacking businesses.
We're talking about some of the largest asset managers, the largest investing companies in the entire world are now using a specific platform called ESG, but other tactics as well, to force conservative businesses to go woke.
And one of the biggest offenders of this is BlackRock.
BlackRock, huge, huge fund manager, right?
This is...
You figure there's BlackRock, there's Vanguard, there's State Street.
Those are kind of the three really big ones.
And so how are they able to do this?
They're able to do this because pretty much everyone invests their money with them.
Retail investors, university pensions, state pension funds.
And so there's great news now.
Louisiana has said, the Louisiana state treasurer, John Schroeder, has said that Louisiana will divest We're good to go.
But this is just not right for the people of Louisiana because BlackRock is putting their own radical left political agenda above making money in some cases.
And so whatever it takes, whatever argument it takes, good.
We need the states, we need the good conservative state treasurers to pull their money out of these funds.
Because these attacks are not going to stop just because we're complaining about them.
They're going to stop when we get leverage and political power and wield that political power.
Now finally, we have arrived at my favorite time of the week when I get to hear from all of you in the mailbag.
Our mailbag is sponsored by Pure Talk.
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Let's take it away with the voice mailbag.
Hey Michael, my name is Kate.
I am happily married with two young girls and we are devout Christians who also love celebrating Halloween.
So that brings me to my question.
My sister-in-law has recently started texting me, my husband, the rest of the family, these articles and memes claiming that Halloween is evil.
And even though we celebrate Halloween at the church fall fest, instead of trick-or-treating, she's saying that, quote, it's okay to do evil things if it's at church and that we're teaching our kids that fitting in is more important than holiness.
I mean, my little girls want to be princesses this year.
I don't see much evil in that.
But I also, you know, as a Christian, I want to lead by example.
So what are your thoughts on this?
Let me know.
Halloween is not evil.
You can do evil things on Halloween, just like you can do evil things on any day of the week, but Halloween is not evil.
Halloween is the night before All Saints Day.
That's what it means, Halloween.
We get in English, because English has Latin roots and German roots, you get the word for holiness comes from sanctus in Latin.
You know, sanctity, sanctification.
And we also get hallow from the German.
But it's the same thing.
It just means holiness.
And because All Saints Day has been celebrated for a very, very long time, many centuries here in the West, the evening before All Saints Day is Halloween.
Some people will claim that Halloween is a pagan tradition.
This is not true.
I mean, inasmuch as you hear these arguments all the time, people will claim that Christmas is actually based on a pagan holiday.
That is also not true.
I've done a few shows about this that's made up.
Actually, the pagan holiday that they say it is based on, it very likely came out after Christmas as a response to Christmas.
And there's certainly no evidence that it predates Christmas.
And the reason that Christmas is celebrated on the day that it is has to do with understandings of when the Annunciation was, the conception of Christ, and the length of a divine life.
And anyway, it's a little bit of a tangent, but we can go into it at some point.
So that's not true.
It's based on All Saints Day.
But furthermore, even if it were true, that is, I don't see what the problem is if you can baptize pagan holidays.
And I'm not saying that's what's going on here, but even if that were true, that's sort of a good thing.
So if there were some kind of fall festival, a pagan fall festival, and then the Christians came in and said, actually, this is going to be All Saints Day now, that's a great thing.
That's a wonderful thing to do.
In terms of what happens on Halloween, what happens?
You give kids candy.
That's a nice thing to do.
You go around and see your neighbors and you wear fun costumes, sometimes as saints, sometimes as a princess or whatever.
That seems fine.
And you carve jack-o-lanterns.
That seems fine.
And so, yeah, I don't recommend that you all dress up as the devil and start sinning left and right and having kind of satanic rituals.
But if you're just celebrating Halloween as the way that you're describing, that sounds wonderful.
Next question.
Hey, Michael.
Shout out to Pure Talk and love the show.
My question is regarding kids and smartphones.
What do I do when my kids reach that age where all of their friends have smartphones and access to the internet, unfiltered, TikTok, softcore, Instagram, porn, and goodness knows what is going to be available to them in...
Let's say 8 to 10 years.
Do I just shelter them completely, not give them one, although I'm sure they'll be able to access it via their friends?
Or do I give in and let them have that access but monitor it heavily?
Or do I stick with old school phones for contact for those extracurricular activities?
I mean, what are parents supposed to do in this day and age?
Thanks, Michael.
Old school phone.
Do not give your kid a smartphone.
Hear me now.
All who have ears to hear, let them hear.
Do not give your kid this portal to hell.
That would be insane.
That would be completely insane.
Now, my kids are not old enough yet that I've had to deal with this issue.
I know it's hard.
You want the kid to fit in.
You don't want the kid to seem like a weirdo.
You want your kid to be cool or whatever.
I'm just telling you, all the kids that I know, Of all the kids that I know, of my friends' kids, family members' kids, as a rule, the ones who have smartphones have way more problems.
And the kids, the little, perfect, wonderful kids that I know, they don't.
Of course, of course not.
So, yeah, don't do that.
This is a simple...
Do not...
Whatever you do, I'm trying to shake you through the screen.
Do not give your kids a smartphone.
All right, next question.
Hi, Michael.
The other day I was talking to this older man who said that he had worked in the oil industry for all his life.
He just recently retired from it.
And he had said that he's now an independent voter because Republicans control the gas prices.
And so when Republicans get into office, they lower it.
And when Democrats get into office, they raise it.
And so he just doesn't trust either side is what he said.
And I was just curious if you had any opinions or knowledge about this.
Do you think maybe the Republicans are not the good guys, that they're actually just kind of tricking all of us into thinking they're the good guys, and we're all just kind of ignorant to it?
Thank you.
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of and angry at Republicans, but raising the gas prices is not one of them.
That is not how gas prices work.
So the little kernel of truth in what your friend said is that I do strongly suspect that Republicans are...
Are disproportionately represented in the oil and gas industry, especially compared to every other industry, which is basically dominated by Democrats.
So yeah, that's true.
There are a lot of good old Texas Republicans who are involved in the oil and gas industry.
But no, the way that it works is not that the oil companies just kind of get together and decide in a smoke-filled room what the price of gas is going to be, and then that's reflected at all of the pumps.
That's not the way it works.
works.
Also because the oil and gas industry is a global market.
And so what determines the price of oil and gas is much less the whims and caprices of a few guys down in Texas.
It's much more what's going on in Saudi Arabia.
It's much more what's going on throughout the oil-rich Middle East.
It's much more what's going on in the war in Ukraine.
And if you want to blame one event for the rise in energy prices, that would be the war in Ukraine.
And who bears responsibility for the I think, obviously, Vladimir Putin's the one who invaded Ukraine.
But I think if you're going to blame someone stateside, it would have to be Joe Biden.
And that's not just my opinion because I'm a Republican partisan or a conservative or something like that.
That's what Vladimir Zelensky said.
That's what the president of Ukraine said.
He said that if Joe Biden lifts these sanctions off of certain Russian assets, that is going to allow Russia to invade.
And then Joe Biden actually invited Russia to invade Ukraine when he said if there's just a minor incursion into the east of Ukraine, that won't be a really big deal.
So he is the one who did that, and I think he is directly responsible for these oil prices going up, of course.
It's not the Republicans.
I think your friend...
I think your friend is somewhat deluded in that regard.
Plenty of other good reasons to criticize Republicans, but that isn't one of them.
Next question.
Howdy, Mr.
Knowles.
I'm James Roach from Texas, and I have a couple questions for you, sir.
One, I've been meaning to get into political commentary for a while, but I have trouble finding stories that stay relevant long enough, and plus just finding stories.
So, if y'all could help me with that, that'd be amazing.
But also, here's one you probably don't get asked very often, Mr.
Knowles Stradamus.
What are your opinions on motorcycles?
I absolutely love them.
I have one in the garage.
I got into an accident about a month ago by myself.
So I'm completely fine.
The bike's bent out of shape, though.
I'm fixing it right now.
But I just love riding.
It is such a zen thing, especially in the countrysides and the winding hills of the hill country that I live in.
Oh, so great.
It is so great.
I'm actually kind of getting antsy right now just thinking about it.
But yeah, I'd love to hear your opinions on this.
Keep up the good fight.
I look forward to seeing you next episode.
Motorcycles are extremely cool.
They're very dangerous and they're very cool.
Those two things often go hand in hand.
So you've just got to take a sort of risk analysis here.
But I know I got a lot of friends and relatives who ride motorcycles.
And I know a number of people, including among that group, who have been very seriously injured on motorcycles.
But, you know...
So if you're going to do it, be careful.
Wear a helmet.
Do your best to do it safely.
But I've heard it's wonderful.
And when I've ridden on motorcycles, it's super cool.
Definitely, definitely very cool.
As to how to help you get into political commentary.
So you're telling me you don't just want me to write my own show.
You want me to write your show, too.
You say, Michael, you know, I'm sure you don't have enough on your plate.
When you finish writing your show, Michael, how about you write my show, too?
I don't think so, Buster.
Unless you're paying very well.
In which case, reach out to my agent.
We can talk about it.
Okay, let's get to some mailbag questions.
The old-fashioned way.
We've got a question up.
Hey, Michael.
My fiancé is in the Union and is an Army veteran.
He's really insisting we get a prenup before getting married because of horror stories from fellow union workers slash military friends.
No matter how many times I tell him...
That would never happen, as I don't believe in divorce.
He is still really insisting on it.
I don't like the whole idea of a prenup in general.
I think it completely defeats the institution of marriage and undermines it.
Looking for any ideas on how to change his mind, I have known from the moment we met I was supposed to marry him, even though he didn't.
Thanks.
Girl born in the wrong generation.
So is that, I think that, is that an anonymous?
Yeah, that's from girl born in the wrong generation.
Okay.
Great question.
Great question.
I share your hatred of prenuptial agreements.
I think they're awful, and I do think they undermine the institution of marriage.
But I sympathize with your husband or your fiance, because he's coming at it from the perspective of men get totally burned in cases of divorce, and they basically have no power, and the woman can just choose to walk off willy-nilly and then take half the man's stuff and take the man's and the woman can just choose to walk off willy-nilly and then take half the man's stuff and take the man's kids,
So my solution to this is, yes, you should consider a prenuptial agreement, but not the usual kind of prenuptial agreement.
The usual prenuptial agreement makes it easier and simpler to get divorced.
My version of a prenuptial agreement would make it basically impossible to get divorced.
So I think a good prenuptial agreement to sign in our decadent licentious day and age would be, we agree not to get divorced.
And here are all the reasons we're not going to get divorced, and here are all the things that are going to make it much harder to get divorced.
And finally, we will not have a no-fault divorce, quote-unquote no-fault divorce.
No such a thing exists, of course, but we won't use that legal mechanism.
And if we do get divorced, it will be because...
One party forces the divorce.
And here's the clincher of it.
Whichever party initiates the divorce forfeits everything.
Forfeits claims to money.
Forfeits claims to the kids.
Forfeits claims to the house.
Forfeits claims to everything.
And so the effect of this prenuptial agreement...
Would be to strengthen the institution of marriage.
Now, of course, you could have some sort of carve-outs there.
If my husband becomes a belligerent, serial-killing, wife-beating maniac, maybe there's a little carve-out here for some kind of a separation.
But assuming that that's not going to happen and putting that sort of thing, you don't seem particularly concerned about that.
I would use the prenuptial agreement.
Against its intended purpose, which is to destroy marriage, I would use it to strengthen marriage.
And I think this is a political lesson for all of us.
We live in an age with all sorts of challenges forced on us by our disgusting liberal culture.
So what we ought to do is we have to play the hand that we're dealt, right?
You live in the society that you live in.
You have the tools available to you that are available to you.
We should use those to undermine our decadent, disgusting liberal society.
And the prenuptial agreement is a great way to do it.
Use the prenup, which is a tool of divorce, to basically make divorce impossible.
I think that would be a brilliant way to use it.
And I think it's very brilliant because I came up with it.
From Andrew.
Hey, Michael.
I was having a conversation with a friend about men's clothing the other day and wanted your take.
I personally believe no man who cares about his dignity should wear shorts, skinny jeans, or ankle socks outside of the house.
Do you agree with this?
What do you think men should wear from day to day?
I agree with that.
Totally agree with that as a rule.
Now, there are some exceptions.
Exceptions prove rules.
But if you're going to Bermuda, you have to wear silly colored pastel shorts.
You have to.
You know, when in Rome, do what the Romans do.
If you are at some silly sort of waspy event on a boat in the middle of summer, then maybe there is some occasion to wear shorts with some kind of silly pattern of lobsters or sailboats.
Okay, maybe.
But as a rule, yes, grown men should not wear shorts.
Those silly little head socks, you know, I guess there's some practical use for them, but generally, no, avoid them.
I almost never wear socks, just as a rule.
It's fine.
Boat shoes, loafers, topsiders, that's fine.
You don't need socks for that.
Yeah, of course.
Ideally, you know, some kind of a collared shirt outside the house.
Unless you want to, you know, unless you're walking around the Bronx, you want to wear like some cool kind of Italian sweatsuit or something.
Yeah, obviously there are exceptions here, but as a rule, you are completely on the right track.
I've been told.
This is shocking to me.
Some people disagree with things that I have said.
And there is a TikToker who has disagreed with something that I have said.
So informed my producers this morning.
They informed me of this fact.
So we will be going over it on the member block.
And of course, we'll be going over, because it is Friday, the rest of the mailbag questions.
