Joe Biden agrees to debate President Trump, the Left attacks NFL kicker Harrison Butker for giving the greatest college commencement speech of my lifetime, and the new stars of the Planet of the Apes movie say they side with apes over humans.
Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlri
Ep.1491
- - -
DailyWire+:
Introducing Emerson - A Premium Multivitamin for Men: https://bit.ly/3WlNWgs
Get 25% off your DailyWire+ Membership here: https://bit.ly/4akO7wC
Get your Yes or No game here: https://bit.ly/3X6tlKY
- - -
Today’s Sponsors:
Birch Gold - Text "KNOWLES" to 989898, or go to https://birchgold.com/Knowles, for your no-cost, no-obligation, FREE information kit.
Genucel - Exclusive Discount Just For My Listeners! https://genucel.com/Knowles
- - -
Socials:
Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RwKpq6
Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3BqZLXA
Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eEmwyg
Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3L273Ek
Against all odds, Joe Biden has agreed to debate Donald Trump.
Crazier still, it was Biden who suggested it.
Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020.
Since then, he hadn't shown up for debate.
Now he's acting like he wants to debate me again.
Well, make my day, pal.
I'll even do it twice.
So let's pick the dates, Donald.
I hear you're free on Wednesdays.
Here you're free on Wednesdays.
Apparently, that's when Trump is not needed in court because Joe Biden and his Democrat friends are trying to imprison him.
Yeah, Donald, you're running away.
You're too busy to debate.
What, just because I'm trying to imprison you right now because I'm so afraid that if you run fair and square against me, I'll lose?
Yeah, well, Donald, make my day.
Let's debate.
Trump, for his part, has accepted.
It is my great honor, said President Kofefe on Truth Social, to accept the CNN debate against Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the United States and a true threat to democracy, on June 27th.
Likewise, I accept the ABC News debate against Crooked Joe on September 10th.
Thank you, DJT.
It is on.
And the only demand that Joe Biden made Was to insist that not a single person in the audience be permitted to watch it.
I'm Michael Knowles.
This is The Michael Knowles Show.
Welcome back to the show.
The new stars of the Planet of the Apes say that they side with the apes over humans.
A real sign of the times.
We'll get to that in a second.
First though, Tex Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S to 98-98-98.
Can your savings weather another economic storm?
Think about what you have put away for the future.
Inflation can render cash worthless, and real estate can crash as it did in 2008.
During times of economic uncertainty or market volatility, investors tend to flock to gold as a safe haven asset.
Its value tends to increase during turbulent times, providing a buffer against market downturns.
This is why people are flocking to gold now, and why Birch Gold is busier than ever.
Birchgold understands that navigating financial decisions can be daunting.
That is why their dedicated in-house IRA department is there to guide you every step of the way.
Birchgold is committed to addressing your questions and concerns promptly.
Their team is always ready to provide answers and clarity, whether it's about fees, taxes on rollovers, or the timing of the process.
They are here to ensure you feel valued and well-informed.
Text Knolls, K-N-O-W-L-E-S, to 989898 to talk to one of Birchgold's experts and claim your free info kit on gold.
You will learn how to convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax-sheltered IRA in gold.
Best part is it doesn't cost you a penny out of pocket.
Text Knowles to 98-98-98.
That is Knowles to 98-98-98.
That little bit there at the end.
Biden doesn't want an audience at the debate.
That's real.
No exaggeration.
We have it here in the Biden campaign's own words.
This is from Biden-Harris, dated May 15th, so just yesterday.
This is to the Commission on Presidential Debates.
President Joe Biden believes the interests of the American people are best served by presidential debates that offer timely and relevant information to inform voters before they make their choices, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
The purpose of this letter is to provide notice that the president will not be participating in the Commission on Presidential Debates' announced debates in 2024.
Instead, he's going to participate in other debates, the ones that he and Trump were talking about, CNN and ABC.
Okay.
Why?
Why is that?
If he's going to do the debates, why would he not go with the long-standing tradition of the Commission on Presidential Debates?
And why would he now go with these other news organizations?
Well, the first reason he gives is that the schedule that the Commission gave doesn't work for Biden and doesn't work with all of this early voting, which the Democrats have crammed down our throats because it benefits them and allows them to rig the election more easily.
But second, this is the key.
Second, the Commission's model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn't necessary or conducive to good debates.
The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters watching on television and at home, not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering.
As was the case with the original televised debates in 1960, a television studio with just the candidates and moderators is a better, more cost-efficient way to proceed, focused solely on the interests of voters.
Okay, that's a lot of words to say.
I don't want to get booed off the stage.
And that's what this is about.
Because Trump has made a big point in his campaigns, all of his campaigns, to observe that he draws huge crowds and his opponents do not.
So he drew huge crowds in 2016, Hillary did not.
And all the smart political analysts at the time said, the crowds are not a good predictor of how things are going to turn out at the ballot box.
But they were, because Trump won and Hillary lost, even though all the smart money said Hillary was guaranteed to win.
Then in 2020, Trump drew huge crowds and Biden drew basically nobody.
Now the way that they got around this in 2020 was they shut the whole country down and they said you're not allowed to go to any sort of event, let alone a presidential rally.
And then they changed all the voting rules in the weeks and months beforehand and rigged the election.
This time though, even though there is a new COVID variant, the libs are obviously dangling that out in front of us, probably they're not going to be able to do COVID again.
And you look, you see the Biden rallies such as they are, smattering of people at them.
President Trump shows up to Wildwood, New Jersey, he gets tens of thousands of people to show up to support him.
So what's going to happen in a debate if the audience is allowed to be there?
The audience is going to cheer for Trump and they're going to attack Biden and it's going to off foot Biden because Biden is obviously in the throes of senility.
Plus, even the people who might have otherwise been inclined to support Biden, the independents, the moderates, for goodness sakes, even members of Biden's own base have turned on him recently for all sorts of reasons.
The moderates and the independents have turned on him because he's been a terrible steward of the economy.
He's opened up the southern border and flooded it with foreign nationals, many of whom are dangerous, and he's mishandled foreign policy.
This last point leads into why Biden's base doesn't like him right now, and it's because Biden's base hates the state of Israel and supports the Palestine Liberation Movement.
And Biden is still viewed as a defender of the state of Israel because Biden is funding the state of Israel because America gives Israel six and a half percent of its military.
So Biden's totally wedged.
He speaks in a way that sounds anti-Israel, but practically he's still mostly supporting Israel, and so he can't win for losing.
So the only answer for Biden is don't campaign as much, try not to talk as much, and okay, if we have to do a debate because we're looking pretty bad in the polls right now, at least make sure that there is no one in the room To show people who is winning this debate.
So then the question is, all right, they're going to show up, CNN and ABC News.
What are they going to debate?
The economy, immigration, foreign policy, sure.
But don't you think that maybe at some point, Joe Biden is going to bring up the main theme of his campaign against Trump?
Don't you think at some point Biden is going to bring up January 6th!
The very worst day in the history of this ready republic!
Don't you think that might come up?
Don't you think Donald Trump is a threat to democracy?
Don't you think that is going to come up?
Don't you think Donald Trump compromised national security by holding classified documents?
Don't you think that is going to come up?
Don't you think Donald Trump is on trial right now for violating campaign finance law?
Sort of?
Maybe?
I don't know.
It's actually kind of unclear what they're prosecuting him for, but... Don't you think that's going to come up?
Well, if that comes up, Trump is legally not permitted to discuss it because the judge has implemented a gag order on Donald Trump in New York.
Trump appealed the gag order and we find out yesterday, or rather on Tuesday, that the gag order will remain in effect.
So I guess it depends how long this criminal trial goes on, depends how long the gag order is implemented for.
But as of today, Trump is prevented from making public statements about witnesses participating in the trial, counsel other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, members of the court staff and the district attorney's staff, the family members of any counsel or staff member, And it also encompasses prospective jurors.
There are a lot of people here.
Trump is not really allowed to talk about this case.
And he keeps talking about this case because he's running for president, for goodness sakes.
And this is an unprecedented persecution of a former president, not to mention current leader of the opposition.
And so he's got to talk about it.
Even if he didn't want to bring it up, the media are bringing it up.
Joe Biden's bringing it up.
Trump doesn't have a right to defend himself on the campaign trail while he's running for president in what is supposedly the greatest democracy in the world.
What are they going to talk about?
On the one hand, Joe Biden is saying, we want a big open debate.
Come on, make my day, pal.
Go on.
Are you feeling lucky, punk?
You know, he's doing his best Clint Eastwood impression.
But then on the other hand, Biden's thugs are trying to shut Donald Trump up and throw him in prison.
And if there is going to be a debate, make sure that nobody actually sees it or participates in it.
Why?
Because for all that bluster, go on, make my day, pal, for all that bluster, Joe Biden knows he's got nothing.
The one thing that, the two things I guess that could help them, though they're really sort of the same thing, is if you get rid of the audience and you stop Trump from talking about things you don't want him to talk about, Then the media can spin the debate and pretend that Biden won even if he didn't.
And then the extension of the media, the even more powerful version of the media on the internet, is big tech.
And big tech can also spin it.
And this was actually the subject of my recent sit-down during a Michael And with Dr. Robert Epstein.
Check out the teaser.
We published a landmark study in which we show bias in Google search results can change people's views about anything at all.
How bad is it?
I gave a briefing, a private briefing.
A few minutes later, one of them walked out.
I know exactly who it was.
And he walked up to me and said, Dr. Epstein, based on what you just told us, I predict you're going to be killed in some sort of accident in the next few months.
But a few months later, my Beautiful, amazing wife was killed in a horrendous car accident.
Are you deterred at all?
Yes.
Then there's another part of me, which is the science guy.
Every single thing we do is relevant to everything that's happening right now.
Right.
With the algorithms shifting the views of people who are undecided on some issue or other around the world by the billions.
Now what?
We are fucked, okay?
The full episode is available now at the Michael Knowles YouTube channel and on Spotify and on X.
Subscribe to all of those because sometimes, you know, big tech gets a little heavy-handed with us on one platform or another.
So subscribe to all of them.
Watch the ad-free version, of course, on Daily Wire Plus.
Speaking of speaking out, Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs just gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College.
I was ranting.
A week ago, about how modern university commencement speeches are generally terrible, and how comedian speeches are generally the worst of all of them.
And I was surprised that Jerry Seinfeld, no knock on Seinfeld, but I was just surprised given the type of speech it was, that he gave a good speech.
Well now we have, without question.
The greatest example of a university commencement speech in my lifetime.
This guy, Harrison Butker, is one of the most articulate, insightful people in public life.
And I know he kicks a football for a living.
But compared to the speeches of congressmen, senators, governors, presidents, intellectuals, academics, this guy gave, it was a tour de force.
It was the best commencement speech I have ever heard As members of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, it is our duty and ultimately privilege to be authentically and unapologetically Catholic.
ago, there were better commencement speeches, or at least, but I don't, I actually don't know.
It was that good.
Without further ado, Mr. Butker, take it away.
As members of the church founded by Jesus Christ, it is our duty and ultimately privilege to be authentically and unapologetically Catholic.
Don't be mistaken, even within the church, people in polite Catholic circles will try to persuade you to remain silent.
There even was an award-winning film called Silence, made by a fellow Catholic, wherein one of the main characters, a Jesuit priest, abandoned the church, and as an apostate, when he died, is seen grasping a crucifix, quiet and unknown to anyone but God.
As a friend of Benedictine College, His Excellency Bishop Robert Barron said in his review of the film, it was exactly what the cultural elite want to see in Christianity, private, hidden away, and harmless.
Our Catholic faith has always been countercultural.
Our Lord, along with countless followers, were all put to death for their adherence to her teachings.
The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Congress just passed a bill.
We're stating something as basic as the biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.
It goes on, and I've had to just pick small moments because the speech goes on for 20 minutes.
This is so spot-on the money.
He's not just saying, he's obviously at a Catholic college here at Benedictine, so he's tailoring his remarks even more specifically in Catholic language.
And it would appear that Mr. Butker is, like me, an attendee of the traditional Latin Mass and, you know, holds the views that tend to go along with that.
Butker comes out here and he says, when Catholicism, when the faith appears in the culture, what does the culture want?
They want us to be quiet.
They want it to all be private.
Do you remember, this is a subtle change of language, when freedom of religion became freedom of worship?
Those politicians used to talk about religious freedom.
They don't really talk about that so much anymore.
Now they talk about freedom of worship.
Why?
Because religious freedom It has more public connotations to it.
Freedom to worship, that's something you can just kind of do in your head, in your home, not in public, not for anybody to see, it doesn't affect anybody else, you wouldn't even know.
And Butker says, no, we're called to public life and we're called to public professions of our faith.
And that's going to be counter-cultural.
It's always been counter-cultural.
It's been counter-cultural since ancient Rome.
And the political forces, they're going to try to silence us, like that law that the Republicans in Congress tried to pass a week or two ago, which would have amended Title VI to ban quoting parts of the New Testament.
To ban quoting facts from the Gospel.
Totally crazy stuff!
You say, how could this happen?
Well, Butker says, because the culture has always been against the true faith.
Because this world is governed by principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.
Then he goes on.
That's not, that isn't even the part that went viral.
I thought this was all good.
To me, the most interesting part was when he's speaking about the faith and the implications of the faith in public life.
But the part that went viral is when Harrison Butker is talking about The main thing that goes viral these days, namely the relationship between men and women.
I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you.
How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career?
Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.
I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabel, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.
I am on this stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation.
I am beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all, homemaker.
The man here is on the verge of tears, pouring out an expression of love for his wife, and the libs and the feminists are accusing him of misogyny for saying that he loves his wife and the libs and the feminists are accusing him of misogyny for saying that he loves his wife and she excels in her role as It doesn't matter.
The parallel here is really even stranger because I too, Alisa and I don't quite remember all of the details but we either met in 6th grade homeroom or in 5th grade district orchestra and he says I met in middle school band.
So even that, Harrison Butker and I were basically the same guy.
Except, of course, that he's an extremely successful NFL player and I have a podcast.
But other than that, other than he's, you know, a really top athlete and I pretty much couldn't hit the ball in T-ball, other than that, he and I pretty much, you know, you look and say, who's the real one?
You know, who do I shoot?
Which is basically indistinguishable.
But in that matter, really, we do have a great similarity.
And he gets choked up with it because he says, I couldn't do what I do.
I couldn't be the man that I am without my wife.
That's not flattery.
That's absolutely true.
If I had to spend all of my time raising my children, keeping my home, managing the private life of the family, the basic building block of politics.
If I had to, I don't know, cook the meals, clean everything, educate my children in the sense of, you know, the actual nuts and bolts of teaching and nurturing your children day in and day out, I wouldn't have one minute to do this show.
It's not possible.
I know we live in modern life where we're told that, you know, if a man doesn't wash exactly 50% of the dishes, he's a misogynist or something, but that's totally nonsense.
Men and women are different.
We're drawn to different things.
And I sometimes think, ah, you know, if I didn't have a wife and children, I'd be so much more productive.
And then I think, oh no, actually I wouldn't.
I would be lying on the couch watching a baseball game eating potato chips, probably.
That's what I'd be doing.
Or I'd be out, you know, carousing at a bar or something like that.
Of course not.
It's your wife civilizes you.
And you, one hopes, tame your wife or at least provide some leadership to your wife.
It's not just a one-way street that you are just purely the recipient of all the wonderful adornments of married life from your wife.
One hopes that the man contributes something too and the two grow together because we become one flesh and the whole is greater than the parts.
Absolutely right, and for that he's being called a sexist, which proves the first part of his speech, which is if you state basic truths in a fallen world, in a world that has gone mad, that is subject not totally to reason, but also to concupiscence and vice and disordered desires, then if you speak the truth, people are going to pillory you for it.
He's experiencing that right now.
People are pillorying him for it, but that's All the more reason to watch his speech and take it seriously.
Now, speaking of the Kansas City Chiefs, the girlfriend of one of Mr. Butker's teammates is now a major part of a German church service.
Taylor Swift is, I guess, providing the soundtrack for the Church of the Holy Spirit, a famous church in Heidelberg that meets in a 600-year-old building.
The service that they have is called the Antihero Taylor Swift Church Service.
According to the pastor, Christoph Elcipien says, the Church of the Holy Spirit has always been a place of encounter and exchange.
That's why a pop music religious service fits so perfectly.
With it, we are giving space to the questions and issues that occupy the younger generation.
This is so...
I don't want to use the word boomer purely as a term of derision.
I love my parents, love my forebears, but this is so boomer.
This idea, even the generation before the boomers, the generation that's Reformed the Christian liturgy after the Second Vatican Council.
I don't think this is a Catholic Church here, but the effects of this major revolution within the Catholic Church were felt elsewhere.
And it was this notion that the way you're going to get the youths back in the pews is by making the church more like the world.
Worldliness.
That's what's going to bring the youth back.
And you know what happened?
Totally the opposite.
The churches that embrace this sort of style emptied out.
For the most part.
We used to have a distinction, or recognize a distinction, between the sacred and the profane.
We were talking yesterday about King Charles.
King Charles, who is a philosophical traditionalist, in the vein of René Guénon, the notion that modernity turns us away from the sacred, denies the sacred.
Well, this is a great example of that.
It's not that we need to be, you know, speaking in ecclesiastical Latin and listening to a Gregorian chant all the time.
Though it's not the worst idea to listen to a Gregorian chant a lot of the time.
But it's that there is elevated language for our liturgy.
Because Lex Ironde, Lex Credendi, the way that we worship, is going to reflect the way that we believe.
And we don't seek the church because we want more worldliness.
We have enough worldliness.
Trust me, I'm up to the brim in worldliness.
We need the church because we want to see something beyond this world.
We go there for the sacred.
If it's just going to be a rock concert.
To quote King of the Hill, Christian rock does not make rock and roll better.
It just makes Christianity worse.
There's so much more to say.
First, though, go to Genuicell.com slash Knowles.
As many of you know, it is Genuicell's 25-year anniversary.
Right now, our listeners will get an extra 25% off their already fabulous prices, making this the biggest Genuicell sale ever.
Genuicell is offering an extra 25% off in honor of their 25th anniversary.
If you've not tried Genuicell, A great place to start is with their most popular package.
This package features their Gen 90 serum, which instantly erases the wrinkles around your eyes, forehead, and mouth.
It also includes their top-selling under-eye bags and puffiness serum, as well as their jawline treatment for a more contoured, defined jawline.
Very good for mogging and mewing.
Genucel is so confident in their product that they guarantee you will see results in less than 12 hours or you get your money back.
For a limited time, get that extra 25% off GenuCell's anniversary sale.
The discount is automatically applied at checkout.
Once the sale is gone, it's gone!
Kaput!
Order yours right now.
Get the GenuCell jawline treatment for a more contoured, defined, moggable, mewable jawline.
Visit GenuCell.com slash Knowles.
Sweeten the deal?
You'll also get a free spa box and two bonus gifts, plus free shipping.
GenuCell.com slash Knowles.
Speaking of strange rituals, Women are having rage rituals.
According to USA Today, women are paying big money to scream and smash sticks in the wood.
It is called a rage ritual.
Here's a little clip.
So it's some witch-looking women in what appears to be, I don't know, some kind of Eastside yoga studio.
Now they're in the woods, smashing sticks on the ground.
Shrieking.
Give it to them to release emotions that they're often discouraged from expressing.
Yeah.
Oh my, and just sobbing.
Sobbing.
This, when people do this and give themselves permission to release their anger, their capacity for joy actually expands, says Maria Banducci, who's some self-appointed guru probable witch.
Yeah, so the women screaming, shrieking, smashing things on the ground.
This was formerly known as Tuesday for some women.
Now it's known as a rage ritual that you paid thousands of dollars for.
Totally wrong.
Natural in a certain sense, because this is a fallen world and there's all sorts of kooky pagan religion and people give way to all sorts of disordered passions, but not good.
And the claims that these guru witches are making, not conducive to happiness.
So what does USA Today say?
Kimberly Helmus still gets chills thinking about her first rage ritual.
Two and a half years after her divorce, the cybersecurity engineer embarked on a retreat to Scotland with Mia Banducci, that woman whose quote we just heard, an author and self-described spiritual fairy godmother, better known as Mia Magic.
Magic, M-A-G-I-K.
Which is often, you know, there's magic, like little tricks, you know, pull a card, any card, and then there's magic, like occult rituals, where these people actually believe they're, you know, communing with spirits and stuff.
And usually magic, the card tricks, is M-A-G-I-C, and then magic, the occult, satanic stuff, is spelled with a K. And so she spells it with a K, not surprised.
As part of the retreat, Ben Ducey held a rage ritual.
In which the participants scream.
They've garnered attention on TikTok, and the women embody their anger.
And they also, by the way, pay $2,000 to $4,000 for it.
Though, if you only want to go for one day, you can get a bargain.
It's only $222.
Not really a good idea.
Generally speaking, any of these self-help gurus, if someone is a prominent self-help guru, You should immediately tune them out, the self-help gurus, because the self-help gurus are fraudulent imitations of philosophers and priests.
So they're not as smart or logical as the philosophers.
They're certainly not as wise and knowledgeable about the human condition as the priests, and they also don't have the Sanctity and consecration that goes along with with being an actual member of the priesthood.
They're just frauds.
It's all just fraud.
You know, it's they're basically the same as the people who have the little shop in the strip mall palm readings here.
We get your tarot cards read.
That's these spiritual gurus, but it's not just that they're frauds and it's a waste of money.
They're actually quite bad for you.
They're contrary to your health.
This is why traditionally in our civilization for 2,000 years following the Bible, we don't consult these kinds of people.
Not just because they're silly and it's a waste of money, but because it's actually bad for your health.
Because the theory that Mia Banducci, this witch, is describing here is Kind of like a Freudian theory.
It's one of these self-help theories that comes out of Freud, which is this notion that we just have a lot of pent-up rage and energy and emotion, and we've just got to blow off a little steam every now and again.
And if we don't blow off a little steam, we'll explode.
So you got to blow off a little steam, and that will restore your body to equilibrium and your mind to health.
That's not really how it works.
That view is contrary to the classical and Christian view.
Which is that we're not steam engines, we're creatures of habit.
And so if you're the sort of person who practices screaming and yelling and hating people, you are actually more likely to do that in the future.
It's going to be easier for you to scream and yell and hate people, and it's going to be much harder for you to have patience and resignation and love.
Because you are what you do repeatedly.
We are creatures of habit, and virtue and vice are habits too.
A lot of modern women are going to be told to do this and they're going to fall into it.
And really, at a broader level, this is what all of modern feminism says.
Modern feminism says, no, no, no, you're not, you're not to love your husband.
You're not to, to be complimentary to your husband.
You're to hate your husband.
You're, you're going to become the praying mantis of human beings.
You're going to compete with your husband.
Everything's going to be a big fight and a battle and a negotiation for your personal interest.
And then when you don't get exactly what you want, because you didn't know what you wanted or because your husband beat you in the argument, or I don't know, just because you're the weaker sex, you're going to go out to the woods.
You're going to pay some scam artist four grand and you're going to scream and yell and break things.
That's what you're going to do.
Why do they do this?
They do this because they are unhappy people.
And they are unhappy because they do this.
It's kind of like Fat Bastard in Austin Powers, you know?
I'm unhappy because I eat.
And I eat because I'm unhappy.
That's why.
The self-help addicts.
The self-help addicts are unhappy because they focus on the self.
And they focus on the self because they are unhappy.
And so it becomes this reinforcing circle.
It goes on and on and on and they get more miserable.
I've never seen anyone become happier reading all this self-help crap and going to the woods and listening to some self-help guru witch tell you to smash things.
Never seen anyone get happier.
I have seen people get happier reading the true self-help book called the Bible.
I have seen people get happier Going to church rather than, you know, the smash the sticks in the woods camp.
But why is that?
There are many, many reasons that are more theologically profound than what I'm about to say, but here's a basic reason.
Because when you go to church, at least if it's a good church, you're not focusing on yourself.
Self-help is a recipe for misery because a man wrapped up in himself makes a small package indeed.
Right now, you should subscribe to the Michael Knowles YouTube channel.
Smash that like button.
Ring that bell.
Ding dong ding that thing.
Speaking of mental illness, Peru has just declared transgenderism a mental illness.
Stop the presses.
A fella who thinks he's a chick is a little kooky.
Don't extra extra read all about it.
The government of Peru has just signed a supreme decree.
Defining transsexuality as a mental disorder as part of an update to the nation's essential health insurance plan.
And this has prompted outrage from, and this is, I'm just reading it from whichever outlet I was reading this in, the LGBTQIAP2S plus community.
It's prompted outrage.
But there's an irony here because Peru did not declare transgenderism a mental illness to own the libs or anything like that.
Peru declared it a mental illness so that people who suffer from this confusion can get medical treatment.
So the irony is that this declaration was meant to mollify and pacify The LGBT LMNOP community and they were angry about it because they're angry about everything because they're always screaming and crying and demanding more nonsense.
But with this definition, if you identify as transgender or have some other gender identity, you can have access to different health insurance.
And this is part of the issue for the trans identity is because the men Who think that their women aren't actually women, then many of them, if they really pursue this ideology, will desire very, very expensive medical treatments that won't actually help them, but they will be very expensive, and they will chop up their bodies, and they will fill them with hormones, and they will do all sorts of things.
And those are very, very expensive.
So they need to justify the medical treatment.
And the only way to justify that is to say that there's something wrong with you.
But the transgender activists refuse to say there's anything wrong with them.
They say this is totally normal.
Okay, well, if it's totally normal and you're just operating perfectly, then you don't need all the expensive medical treatment.
But you obviously do want the expensive medical treatment, even though it's going to hurt you, so you have to admit that there's something wrong with you.
But they won't do that.
This isn't even making Peru an outlier here.
To say that transgenderism is a mental illness.
We all know it is.
But even in America, we currently define transgenderism as a mental illness.
Even in the current DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychology, the current one, we still say it's a mental illness.
It's in there.
We used to call it, before 2013, we called it gender identity disorder.
Then with political correctness in 2013 we've started calling it gender dysphoria, but it's the same thing and it's in the DSM because it's a it's a psychological problem.
We do it too.
We do it too and then we encourage it.
This is it's it's one of the the few it might be the only mental illness that we universally acknowledge to be a mental illness implicitly or explicitly and then encourage it.
Because I guess that makes us a crazy country.
If you're the kind of country that encourages craziness, and subsidizes craziness, and mandates craziness as a matter of law, I guess that makes you a crazy country, doesn't it?
Now speaking of things contrary to human flourishing.
Apparently there's a new Planet of the Apes movie, news to me, and the new stars of the new Planet of the Apes movie, they've decided to really reinvent their characters and reinvent the franchise, because they are taking the side of the apes over the humans.
Listen, obviously, when I'm playing May, I'm Team Human, but I'm Team Ape.
Freya's Team Ape.
Why so?
I mean, look at the planet!
Oh, here we go!
Look at what the humans have done to the Earth.
Well, yeah.
I dislike humans a lot.
Yeah.
You know, there's the odd one that's like, no.
I mean, there are times where you see humans come together and you go, oh, isn't this lovely?
And then there's times where you go, I absolutely hate us.
None of this surprises me at all.
It's kind of funny, because the whole point of Planet of the Apes is you're on the side of the humans against these ape overlords, and the new actors, they say, no, no, but in reality, yeah, sure, in the movie, yeah, but in reality, I hate humans.
Right.
The liberals hate humans because, I'm just going to speak very bluntly here, because the liberals are largely enthralled to demons who hate humans and want to destroy us.
That's kind of it.
The spiritual darkness and principalities and powers of this world that I mentioned earlier, they They are expressed politically through liberals who have a false anthropology and whose policies are contrary to human flourishing.
And you see this in really direct ways, like how they advocate killing as many babies as possible, and killing old people, and sterilizing human beings, and encouraging people not to get married, and encouraging people not to have babies.
Even if you don't believe in spiritual reality, metaphysics, let's say you don't believe in angels and demons, let's say you don't even believe in God.
If demons were to exist, I think we would all acknowledge that the sort of policies they would be pursuing are exactly these policies.
Very anti-human, killing people off, not making everyone miserable, and raging, and going out into the woods, and beating up sticks, and screaming, right?
If there were such a thing as a demon, that would appear to me to be the kind of thing a demon would desire.
Anyway, this is how the liberals are.
They are misanthropic.
They don't like people.
They like humanity in the abstract, but they don't really like people.
And you see this expressed in a lack of charity, because charity is one of the three theological virtues.
We have the cardinal virtues, we have the natural virtues, intellectual virtues, and moral virtues, things like courage, justice, prudence, temperance.
Then there's the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity.
And the greatest of these is charity, love for your fellow humans.
It is kind of an odd reversal.
For the libs, they love humanity and the abstract, but they hate the individual humans.
For the conservatives, and especially for the Christians, We have a pretty dim view of humanity in the abstract because we're so fallen and we know that human nature is broken and we're not going to perfect it through our own efforts in this world.
Ain't no utopia that we're going to arrive at here politically.
But we love humans individually.
Hence a common expression, hate the sin, love the sinner.
For the libs, it's totally the opposite.
Great way to prove this.
Especially after, you know, major Democrat politicians call for killing babies up to the moment of birth.
Some of them call for killing them after the moment of birth.
It doesn't make many waves in politics.
Kristi Noem shoots her farm dog.
That's all we hear about for two weeks.
There was a study in 2013.
40% of people answered this study in a crazy way.
The study said if a stranger We're drowning.
And your pet were drowning.
Who would you save?
40% said the pet.
46% of women said the pet.
They would save the pet over a human being.
That's how we think.
That's how we think now.
Very, very disordered.
Maybe we are living in a planet of the apes.
We're being governed by very unreasonable sorts of leaders.
Now, I think you ought to be a responsible man.
That's why you ought to check out Responsible Man, our first true joint venture with our friends at Legacy Box.
One of Deliware's first advertising partners.
Co-founders Nick and Adam came to us with the idea of bringing a world-class men's lifestyle company to the market.
Responsible Man is a men's vitamin and supplement brand that is not just for gym bros, but for every man on a journey to be his best, as a husband, as a father, and as a citizen.
The Emerson Multivitamin may be the finest men's multivitamin on the market.
The problem is that your modern diet is often deficient in key vitamins and minerals, leaving you weakened and diminished.
The solution?
The Emerson Multivitamin.
It's a physician-formulated, robust supplement made up of 33 key premium ingredients that helps fill nutrient gaps to support your immune system, maintain energy production, sharpen brain cognition, and support the health of your heart and muscles.
The left loves to celebrate when it sees men fail.
With so much wokeness causing chaos and uncertainty, it's crucial that you take charge of your mind and body.
It starts with the Emerson Multivitamin, a simple daily discipline to make the most of yourself, live up to your responsibilities, and exceed the expectations of others.
Visit ResponsibleMan.com and save 30% on your subscription of the Emerson Multivitamin with this exclusive launch sale.
It is still in stock and ships immediately when you purchase at ResponsibleMan.com.
There's a limited number available, so take advantage of this launch deal and save 30%.
That's ResponsibleMan.com to take responsibility today.
My favorite comment yesterday comes from KW91, who says, I don't care what Mike says about that King Charles portrait being traditional, it looks like Charles wearing Hugh Hefner's loungewear.
Fair enough, but I never said the portrait was traditional.
The portrait is definitely not traditional, but the portrait is about King Charles's traditionalism.
And that is why it doesn't belong in Buckingham Palace, because it's quite modern, the portrait.
But it's why it's a good piece of art, actually.
It's a good portrait, and it's why it should hang maybe a little down the street in a museum.
It's a very good portrait, and it makes a very good point.
Speaking of women, Gayle King.
Who is the co-anchor of CBS Mornings.
She's a longtime friend of Oprah Winfrey.
There have always been these rumors that she and Oprah are, you know, like more than friends.
But I don't know if that's true.
I don't see any particular reason why that's true.
But she's a big, she's a big lib.
In lib media world, she is, she's not the queen, but she might be a princess or a duchess or something.
Well, Gayle King, at the age of 69, is making her debut as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.
And there are all sorts of pictures and videos of it.
We don't need to see too many of them.
She is a fine-looking woman for 69 years old.
But this is not good.
Now, I'm not sure that anyone has read Sports Illustrated in the last 15 years, and so they keep trying to pursue all these gimmicks, you know?
But this is not good.
It's weird.
We all know it's weird.
Even if Gayle King were a supermodel, it's still weird.
It's age 69.
And it's especially weird for just kind of normal-looking 69-year-olds.
Why?
Why is it wrong?
Because this is not what 69-year-old women are for.
Okay, you know a thing by what it is for, and 69-year-old women are not for the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
Whether you love Sports Illustrated, whether you like seeing women in skimpy little bathing suits, whether you think that's wrong and disordered and Sports Illustrated should go away and we shouldn't have whatever, I think we can all agree the purpose of the swimsuit edition is not to show nearly 70 year old women and it's not the
The tea loss of a nearly 70-year-old woman to prance around in a bathing suit.
Younger women, there's a good reason for them to prance around in a bathing suit sometimes, because these younger women are going to attract a husband, and then they're going to get married, and they're going to have children.
And there are certain things that mothers do that single women don't do, and vice versa.
And there are certain things that older women do that younger women don't do, and vice versa.
But we deny that.
We deny that anything has a purpose anymore that is objective.
It's all just totally subjective and subject to our own will, not to reason.
And we deny time.
We deny aging.
We deny history.
We deny that things move and that there's a time for every season under heaven.
A time for war and a time for peace.
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to pose in skimpy outfits on Sports Illustrated and a time not to put the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue away.
We deny that because we deny the body and we Deny that we're going to die.
In the past, at the height of our civilization, we would think about how we're going to die all the time because it's only from the perspective of death that we can understand our own lives and the purpose of our lives and how maybe we're not built for this world because we're not going to be here for very long and we need to think about eternal things.
Is the soul going to persist after death?
Is there something more here?
If so, where are we going?
That's going to affect very much how you live your life.
We deny all of that.
But it's all still true.
Those facts of reality are all still there.
And when we deny them, we just make ourselves look ridiculous on the cover of magazines and swimsuits.
Now, Gayle King is fit for her age.
Another guy who's pretty fit for his age, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
You got to hand it to the guy.
He's actually in pretty good shape for an older guy who had a wormy part of his brain.
And RFK Jr.
is still theoretically running for president.
And he is not going quietly into that night of oblivion.
No, no.
The debate has been announced.
Trump versus Biden.
CNN.
ABC.
And RFK responds, I'm happy to report that I will meet the criteria to participate in the CNN debate before the June 20th deadline.
I look forward to holding Presidents Biden and Trump accountable for their records in Atlanta on June 27th to give Americans the debate they deserve.
Hashtag Kennedy Shanahan 24.
The only problem with this, of course, is that Bobby Kennedy was not invited to the debate.
It's a debate between the two people who could be president next November.
Kennedy will not be president.
He will not be elected.
There's not a chance.
I'm not totally opposed to him showing up to the debate.
I'm not exactly in favor of it.
The reason I'm not totally opposed is that, as I've said from the beginning, Kennedy takes more votes from Biden than from Trump.
However, because of that, he's running to be the better Biden.
And if he's running to be the better Biden, he might show up to the debate and just hammer Trump.
Because he's got to show Democrat voters that he is better at doing the job as a Democratic nominee, namely, hammering Donald Trump.
So, there is political risk here for Trump.
I see why Trump doesn't want him to show up.
I certainly see why Joe Biden doesn't want him to show up.
It's a wild card.
You don't necessarily want a wild card in politics.
So, probably, he will not be there.
Trump is getting an interesting defender right now, though.
And I guess this is going to have to be my tease, because as usual, we're running short on time.
In this big debate between Biden and Trump, Trump is getting some defense from Mitt Romney, his old nemesis.
Mitt Romney is actually attacking Joe Biden and the Democrats, but specifically Biden, for allowing this prosecution of Trump in New York to go on.
And it's not for the reasons maybe that you would think.
Romney is still being very, very cynical here.
But we'll get to those reasons tomorrow, because today is Theology Thursday, and the rest of the show continues now in the Memroom Segmentum.
