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June 26, 2017 - Praying Medic

01:31:42

084 Political Roundtable

This week, I join Travis Brown and James Edwards from the Warriors on the Wall podcast and my friend Steve Bremner from the Fire on Your Head podcast. Our discussion covers an array of current events including climate change, rising political violence, the emergence of new media, God and government, President Trump’s Middle East strategy and cryptocurrencies. Resources Fire on Your Head Podcast Warriors on the Wall Podcast

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	Hi, I'd like to welcome you to our show.
	I'm your host, Prang Medic.
	We're talking about life as a child of God and all things related to His Kingdom.
	Thanks for joining us.
	If you're a new listener to the show, you can find articles and books and other resources on my website www.prangmedic.com.
	Now let's jump into this week's show.
	Are there any news stories that have kind of perked you guys' ears over the last few days that we want to talk about?
	The thing that I've been focusing mostly on myself is this deep state war against the president and the daily volleys back and forth.
	And it's not just the deep state, it's the media.
	Mainstream media is going after the president.
	It's very interesting watching the New York Times and Washington Post Leaking stories from inside the investigations at the FBI and the DOJ and how they've been kind of systematically trying to pin down Trump and his administration with these stories, how his administration is fighting back.
	To me, it's been a fascinating thing to watch.
	It has been fascinating, and I'll tell you, one of the reasons why I actually voted for Trump, not because I liked him, because I was kind of scared of him, but one of the reasons why I voted for him was, first off, I hated Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, and as a libertarian, they weren't very libertarian, and I just could not bring myself to vote for them.
	So I ended up voting for the authoritarian, I guess you could say, But it is kind of interesting to watch because he is basically bringing Washington to its knees, and that's kind of what I was hoping for.
	Yeah, that's what my friends who are libertarians, a lot of them ended up voting for Trump because they just didn't like Hillary, didn't trust her, and they thought, okay, Trump has been talking about decreasing the federal budget, bringing in all the excessive expense and regulation, and that Sounded good to a lot of Libertarians.
	And most of the ones that I know who voted for him are pretty happy.
	I mean, Trump can come off as looking like an authoritarian, which kind of scares Libertarians, but his fiscal policy has been really, I think, well received by a lot of Libertarians.
	He's cutting a lot of departments and the budgets and State Department and a lot of other ones that are, there's probably just a lot of waste.
	So, uh, he's keeping those campaign promises, uh, to, you know, shrink government, which I think is great.
	And he's also pulled out of the, uh, was it the Paris Accord or the Paris Treaty or whatever?
	That, um, basically we'd have to pay to clean up everybody else's mess or some kind of climate change like that, but yeah.
	A lot of, obviously a lot of environmentalists are pretty unhappy about that, but if you actually look at what the Paris Accord, the wording of it, it was a bad deal.
	It allowed a lot of nations to continue to increase pollution, and it would cost us a lot of money if we actually ended up paying the money that we were supposed to pay, so it was kind of pointless, and I'm glad he got us out of it.
	Well, I'm glad that he pulled us out of the Paris Accords, honestly, because I thought the Paris Accords were a waste of time.
	And it's not necessarily that I'm a climate change denier, but I kind of am, because I don't think humanity is big enough to have such a big, massive impact on the environment in the way that they're trying to make it sound.
	So, in my opinion, I think it was a wasted, bad deal.
	It was very expensive, and I have a few friends of mine that were, you know, I guess you could say, kind of teeter the line between Libertarian and Barry Sanders, which I have no idea how you teeter that line.
	But they were pretty upset about it.
	I've got a friend of mine who is like a big Tesla, SpaceX nerd and he basically was just like outraged over the fact that we pulled out of it.
	When in fact all it was doing was it was forcing us to decrease our pollution while allowing places like China and India Well, not only that, but their pollution is, you know, our pollution is minuscule compared to China's.
	considered a growing society although china is massive by comparison to the united states i don't understand how they got that well not only that but their pollution is you know our pollution is minuscule compared to china's at least i can walk outside and breathe my air without you know having to cover it up with a face mask or something because it's 24 7 smog um but i i echo what you said about the about
	uh being a not a climate change denier but a man-made climate change denier um Climates have, the climate around the world has changed since the beginning of time.
	And if you think that we have anything to do with it, you need to go outside and look at the sun because that's essentially blaming an anthill for the magnifying glasses burning the place up.
	We honestly don't have anything in a significant impact to do with the climate change.
	So I think we've found our title for this episode.
	Something to do with Aunt Hill arguing with a magnifying glass.
	My thoughts on climate change are a little bit more along the yeah we need to be better stewards of Everything we have our hands on but I don't think like, you know, we're the ones causing so-called climate change like as much as as You know some of the people who are advocates of it Claim like that.
	We need to have these Paris Accords.
	We have to have these carbon taxes and stuff and But one thing I'd love, if anyone listening to this, it applies to them, is if we stopped using it was cold where I live today as the reason for not believing in climate change.
	There's some cold day in the middle of January in, like, Montana, and so we post our memes about how climate change is fake.
	Like, to me, that's not the best defense, you know?
	Because I could say, you know, the opposite, where I am down here in South America, where we have, like, extremely hot days.
	But anyway, that's just my little pet peeve when I see the topic come up.
	Well, my interest in climate change really is just the fact that, you know, when I was much younger and Steve and Steve and I are about the same age, I'm not really sure how much, how old David is, but, uh, when I was a kid, they were talking about, we were going to be going through an ice age in 30 to 50 years.
	And we were reading it in our books, um, that a mini ice age was coming and they made movies that were,
	Fear mongering about that then all of a sudden the 90s it became about global warming and of course Al Gore got a hold of it and I think he released an inconvenient truth in what 2001 2002 and then it just got kind of exploded from there and it became about oh no the world's going to end because the the ice caps are going to melt and the glaciers are going to melt and all that kind of stuff and then
	All of a sudden, well, that's become not very well proven because a lot of the climate stations were actually sitting in the middle of asphalt parking lots, and that's why they were actually, like, picking up increases in temperature.
	So then they changed it to climate change because they can't, you know, tell whether or not it's going one way or the other, and they're blaming it all on humanity.
	You know, honestly, if you go out to a field of cows, they release more methane and carbon dioxide than a human can in a lifetime.
	You know, so I just don't think that that's really something that we are in control of personally.
	Yeah, if you look back historically at just the volcanic activity in the earth over the last probably couple thousand years, there has been a lot more CO2 and greenhouse gases released Just from volcanoes than anything man has ever done to put CO2 into the air.
	The issues that I have with climate change, number one, I have a solar hot water heater.
	And if I get to a place where I have enough money, I would like to buy enough solar panels where I could run my entire house off the grid and just run on solar.
	I'm totally about solar energy.
	I live in Phoenix.
	So we have like 95% sunshine all year long.
	The thing that I have the biggest concern about With people who are pushing the things like the Paris Accord is they fail to look at all of the things that are going on with this.
	And 1 of the big things that concerns me is the carbon taxes are essentially a kind of a market that has been set up where a group of people are able to charge money to utilities and states and nations.
	For how much CO2 they're putting into the air.
	And there's a profit incentive.
	Al Gore and his buddies have set this system up where they all get to profit off of the pollution that is being put out there.
	I have friends who live in Canada who their electric bills are skyrocketing over the last couple of years because of the carbon tax that Canadians are being charged.
	There's this profit motive behind this whole thing that really bothers me.
	Anytime there's a profit motive for something, I'm suspect.
	And, you know, I know the argument that, you know, 95% of the scientists agree that Man-made climate change is real.
	Well, a lot of that research has been astroturf.
	This is the same thing whether you talk about climate change, whether you talk about evolution and paleontology or biology or genetics.
	There are people who work in colleges and universities who do research and the only way that you can get paid to do your research is if you have a theory that you're trying to prove.
	These universities Rely on grants from the government and other agencies to do this research.
	And what they're trying to prove is they're trying to prove the theory of evolution, or they're trying to prove the link of fossil specimens all throughout the ages, or they're trying to prove that greenhouse gases are causing climate change.
	If you blow up the narrative, if you ever poke a hole in and Bring any evidence to the discussion that suggests that those theories are BS.
	Those people would lose their grants.
	They would lose their research funding.
	They would be out of work.
	And all the people who are doing research on these subjects have a vested interest in promoting that narrative because it's their bread and butter.
	It is their income.
	So when you look at research, you look at science and stuff, you have to look at all of it and you have to ask yourself, Do these people have a vested interest?
	What's their endgame?
	Their endgame is to put food on the table.
	They do that by doing this research and they count on that research to continue.
	So there's just a lot of things about this whole discussion that I'm a little bit suspicious about.
	Well, there's a lot of things that are controlled by those two very, very, very powerful things in our society, and that is money and power.
	You know, so you have the politicians who are pushing the narrative, not because they necessarily want the money, they want the power to control people's lives.
	And then you have the researchers and the scientists who rely on the grants and the financing from the government and private organizations and things like that, that will not fund it unless it is actually like trying to prove the narrative that they believe.
	So, you know, anytime I've brought that up with some of my environmentalist liberal friends, they usually get upset and they're like, well, explain to me why a poor scientist needs money.
	Well, that's exactly why.
	They need the money to continue financing their research.
	And those that are actually researching things that are not global warming or evolution or whatever, Are not even actually being financed and that's one of the reasons why you have that 95, 97 percent of people that agree that global warming or climate change is real.
	The scientists out there that are actually investigating other causes or other issues aren't actually included in that because they're not considered scientists by our government because they're not actually getting financing and grants, if that makes sense.
	That and also the quote-unquote climate change deniers are being pushed out of the institutes right now.
	They'll come and they'll bring data that doesn't meet the agenda and essentially they get pushed out like either they haven't made tenure so they get fired or they get bullied out of office.
	When I used to listen to a lot of talk radio I heard constant stories about that.
	But also, you have to think of the agenda behind it.
	Why do politicians care so much about climate change?
	Why are they forcing so much money into the institutes to prove climate change is real?
	And what's the end game, basically?
	And I heard someone put it like this one time.
	If they can convince you that you are the problem, they can get you to do anything they want you to do.
	Anything.
	So they're convincing humans that we're the problem, that we're causing the climate change, and thus they can make us basically do whatever they want us to do.
	Well, you know as libertarians that the whole issue with government and larger, more expensive government is they want to take our tax money and make a big living off of it and bring their friends in and have them live off the tax money.
	And the only way government can really do that is to create problems and then create solutions.
	And that's the issue with socialism is it creates all these problems or points to problems or illustrates problems and then suggests that if we have these people, these organizations, agencies, we will come up with a solution.
	And it is in the government's best interest to come up with as many problems and as many solutions as possible.
	That's kind of the issue in history is that people try to make up narratives so that they can fill the need with something.
	It's like, for example, you know, we've talked about this in the past and, you know, I'm a red-blooded Southern boy and so is Travis here.
	We've talked a little bit about the Civil War in the past and how, you know, when you actually go back to the history of the Civil War era, you actually had a war that was fought over tariffs and taxation, but about midway through the war when the North was losing, they converted it to a war about slavery so that they would get the humanitarian, I guess you could say, push for victory.
	And so now the history of the war is remembered as a war of slavery.
	The cause was manufactured and the history as a result is manufactured and they filled a need by manufacturing that, if that makes sense.
	And now the South will ever be branded as a racist because of that propaganda that was spewed.
	And it's kind of hilarious because when you look at Trump, you know, Trump is about as not racist as they come, honestly.
	I mean, he's not.
	He's not.
	No one ever accused Trump of being a racist until he threw his hat in the ring.
	And it's funny, you know, because, like, all of this stuff that we have on television now, like, for example, one of the shows that I'm watching right now, and if you have not watched it, it is phenomenal.
	It is fantastic.
	It's on Hulu.
	It's called The Handmaid's Tale.
	It is really, really, really good.
	However, that story would not have been written or made if it was not for Trump being president because it's all about a patriarchal society and all the women are slaves.
	and all this kind of stuff.
	It's a really interesting story, and it's kind of a dystopic future, and it's just a really interesting kind of story, but a lot of that stuff wouldn't have existed if Trump was not made president, if that makes sense. - Oh yeah, well, I mean, you look at Hollywood, and you section the parts of society that have political ideologies, And Hollywood is big-time liberal ideology, right?
	So the movies, the TV shows, and the speeches at the Grammys, everything coming out of Hollywood is painting Trump as a misogynist, homophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.
	Every bad word in the book.
	And it's in the art, it's in the theater, in movies, and which is why I'm, I mean, I cut the cable a long time ago.
	I don't really watch TV or movies and stuff, but the little bit that I have seen It's kind of crazy how these narratives are being brought forward to paint Trump as being some kind of monster.
	And speaking of monster, we had a massive shooting that happened last week, or early this past week, with a Bernie Sanders supporter Actually going out and he had a kill list and he was actually pursuing to kill multiple Republicans that were part of the Freedom Caucus.
	And those are people like Mike Lee, that's Rand Paul, and a few of the other ones that are pretty well-known, you know, players in Washington.
	And he actually managed to shoot one of them.
	I don't know if he actually killed him.
	I knew he was in Intensive care as of a few days ago or yesterday.
	He's getting better.
	The last update that I heard from his surgeon, the attending doc, is that his vitals have stabilized.
	He is going to require more surgery, so he'll require some rehab.
	He's still in critical condition, but they're optimistic that his outcome will be good.
	So, wait, wait, wait.
	You said that the Republicans were shooting the Democrats, right?
	No.
	But Democrats don't believe in owning guns, though.
	I mean, how could they possibly own weapons of mass destruction if they don't believe in owning guns?
	Weapons of mass destruction.
	Well, they need to show Republicans just how dangerous guns are by using them.
	And that became the narrative, didn't it, Steve?
	Right.
	As soon as a Bernie supporter goes out and shoots, what, six or seven people, a couple of magazines, the Democrats go and start using this as, you know, evidence that we need more strict gun control.
	In the same news cycle, on the same day, did you guys, you guys probably didn't see this because it wasn't on CNN and New York Times and Washington Post, but on the same day of the Scalise shooting, I believe it was the same day, it was within one day, Two armed homeowners, I think in Georgia.
	Right, I know what you're getting at.
	Tracked down two escaped convicts who had killed two prison guards, escaped high-speed chase with police, crashed a car, were in the process of stealing a second vehicle when the homeowners spotted them, chased them down, and held them at gunpoint until police got there.
	Yeah, I've seen several people post that on Facebook, maybe mutual friends even.
	I mean, the whole thing, you know, you can take sides, whatever you want on gun control.
	But if you look at FBI crime statistics, violent crime statistics, the number of gun related homicides and violent crimes has continually decreased over the last 10 years, which is interesting because During the Obama administration, permits for concealed carry handguns tripled during Obama's administration.
	I think there were 4 million concealed carry permits in America in 2008, and I think there ended up being over 12 million when he got out of office.
	So we do have a lot more handguns.
	Every time Obama would get on the news and talk about tightening gun restrictions and magazine capacities, Um, all the handgun owners, uh, manufacturers would sell out.
	You couldn't get ammunition.
	Everything was being bought off the shelf.
	There are a lot more gun owners now, and there are a lot more registered concealed carry owners now.
	And handgun violence has gone down dramatically every year since then.
	So it's not like, it's not like there's this correlation between more gun owners and more violence.
	It's actually going the opposite direction.
	Well, Obama is the best gun salesperson after all.
	In fact, I bought my gun because of him, to be honest.
	Right.
	I'm a bit of an anomaly amongst all the Canadians I know.
	There's usually this kind of sanctimonious, like, well, you know, all that gun violence down there in the States because Americans have to have guns.
	And I've, you know, lived with Americans.
	I've, you know, seen things and learned points of view and just even, you know, in more recent years, done my research.
	And even yesterday, I saw some video explaining
	Things like how many how many Americans per capita own guns and compared with you know, how many You know the murder rate in you know per capita and that basically Places like I think the video I was watching the guy said like Plano, Texas is like, you know the most gun ownership in the world in that city
	And the murder rate is like 0.4 people murdered for every 100,000 or something.
	Which is probably less than Canada.
	Yeah.
	And so, you know, I hear all the time like, well, the problem is, you know, you can just get your hands on guns so easily.
	But then when you start looking at like the actual statistics of things, like what the murder rate is in some area where there's like conceal and carry laws or the, you know, these shootings and things that happen in places that are, you know, don't have the, you know, the conceal and carry you know, don't have the, you know, the conceal and carry laws and Like, for me, it's something where I can see and appreciate
	Having a way to defend myself if need be like I don't own a gun or anything But the convenience store we go to a few blocks from our house You know they get robbed every so often and one time maybe two or three years ago It was a brutal robbery and the the owner was shot and spent weeks in the hospital and stuff and And so you better believe he's got a, he's got a, you know, like a handgun now.
	And I've heard at least three occasions since where he's thwarted robberies by, by pulling out his gun and, and you know, having, having these guys scram.
	And part of me thinks like, well, I'm so glad he, he has that.
	You know what I mean?
	Like, my logic doesn't go, well, if so many people didn't have guns, then we wouldn't have this problem.
	It's like, no, that's not how it works, you know?
	But the fact of the matter is that people who don't follow the law are not going to follow the law and get a gun anyway.
	So you can make the laws all you want to about preventing gun violence, But all you're going to do is make it harder for people who are responsible gun owners, people who want to own one legally, to get one harder.
	I mean, I live in a pretty gun-friendly area.
	And when I bought my pistol a few years ago, um, it honestly, I was able to go to the sheriff's department, get my pistol permit, uh, and everything, my purchase permit within a few hours and was able to get a gun that night.
	Um, but it's not as easy as what everyone makes it out to be.
	I mean, you got to go through like background checks and all that kind of stuff.
	And I'm not saying they shouldn't have that.
	Um, but the fact of the matter is, I don't know what you're talking about, man.
	tactics now it would take me about a week and a half to get a pistol and I live in a very gun gun friendly environment so if I wanted to go buy another pistol I have to go to the sheriff's department I have to fill out the paperwork then I have to wait a week and a half to get approved go pick up my permit then go buy a pistol which is kind of ridiculous I don't know what you're talking about man if guns were illegal nobody could get them freaking marijuana is illegal and Can't nobody get it.
	I mean, your logic is just all over the board.
	But no, no, no.
	I totally echo what you're saying.
	And, um, it takes you a week to get a pistol there?
	It did for me.
	Uh, my wife and I live in Arizona and you know, there's all this, um, misinformation about, you know, gun show loopholes that you can go to a gun show and buy a gun without doing the background check.
	That is absolutely not true.
	My wife, we went to a gun show here and she bought a .357 and she had to go through the background check, had to have her concealed permit, and then she could not pick it up for five days.
	If people think that you can get guns easily, even in a state like Arizona where we have concealed carry without a permit, it's still, you have to go through all the hoops to get a gun, to buy one legally.
	It's not as easy as people think it is.
	Yeah, North Carolina is about to go to the whole conceal carry without a permit kind of thing, which I'm kind of excited about that.
	I think that's awesome.
	But it will still take a week and a half, two weeks to get one just because you have to go through the background checks and you have to wait till it gets approved and all that kind of stuff.
	Now, if I wanted to go buy a rifle, I could easily go get a rifle and have one in a few hours.
	Not a problem.
	They don't regulate those like they do pistols.
	But it's funny because, you know, all the major shootings that have happened in the last few years are typically done by pistols, but yet everybody goes after the scary looking assault rifle guns, even though those aren't the ones that were actually perpetrators.
	You know, in that same vein, I've got to make a little rant right here.
	My state legislators have royally ticked me the crap off.
	You know, the Sheriff's Department, they get kickbacks from our concealed carry permits.
	It takes about 15 minutes, you know, it's pretty cheap, whatever.
	But we had constitutional carry on the table in the house, and these ex-law enforcement officers said, no, no, that'd make it too dangerous.
	And I'm like, I thought y'all swore to uphold the Constitution, or nah.
	I mean, anyways, that ticked me off.
	Yeah, it's definitely easier than what y'all described in Alabama to get a pistol.
	It's about five minutes in the store.
	Well, you know, I have a kind of strange view of the whole right to bear arms thing.
	I honestly think, you know, there are a lot of weapons that are actually illegal for normal citizens to own, but in my opinion, I think the right to bear arms means that we should be able to have the same arms that our military has, you know?
	Absolutely.
	I don't necessarily think that we need to have nuclear bombs or anything like that.
	I think that's a little crazy, but... Disagree.
	Well, I'm just saying I don't necessarily think it's a great idea, you know, because if some idiot down the street had one, you know, because of the Second Amendment and it accidentally went off, that would kill a bunch of people.
	But I get that point.
	I would say that I still think that it's, I don't know why it has to be illegal to To buy fully automatic and things like that because a fully automatic versus a semi-automatic is not really that much different to be honest with you.
	And you can still get them as long as you get the class permits, the class A permits and all that kind of stuff.
	But it's very difficult to get those.
	But I just think that as a private citizen we should have the right to get whatever kind of weapon that we want.
	If it's necessary to protect ourselves, because if our government does become a tyranny, then we're going to have to defend ourselves with semi-automatics against fully automatics, and we're going to have to defend ourselves with semi-automatics against tanks and things like that, which I hope to God that never happens, but if it does, we're not going to have the protection that we need to fight the government, which is why the Second Amendment was written to begin with.
	Can I just say amen, brother?
	Well, and you're right.
	I mean, nobody really wants to think of their neighbor having a howitzer in their driveway.
	Or, you know, an Abrams sitting in their backyard.
	On the other hand, on the other hand... But that would be pretty awesome.
	It would be cool, you gotta admit.
	But the problem is, what is the purpose of the Second Amendment?
	It's not to give us guns so that we can hunt.
	And put food on our table.
	It is a safeguard put in place so that if our government ever becomes tyrannical, that we can overthrow our government and replace the leaders.
	And that's what the Second Amendment is for.
	It gives us the ability to replace a corrupt, tyrannical government.
	Well, yeah, I mean, if they have, and you could even argue that the government doesn't actually have a constitutional right to have a An army and an air force like we have.
	The Constitution sanctions a regulated militia, really probably state militias, made up of average citizens, not a professional army.
	The Constitution actually probably would give us more something like what Switzerland has, where the government allows and provides for shooting ranges, ammunition and weapons for citizens, Citizens are expected to know how to use guns, and they don't have a standing army.
	They rely on their citizens, a well-armed citizenry, to take care of those issues.
	So what we've got in the states right now is not really, I don't think, what the founders of the Constitution wanted.
	I mean, all that tracks back to, you know, and I mentioned it earlier, you know, because I'm a Civil War fanatic, but a lot of that tracks back to the Civil War, to be honest.
	You know, because back then it was a citizen militia.
	There was a standing army, but the army was very, very small.
	The Civil War battalions and the actual state militias were made up of private citizens that were pulled on in the time that their country and their state needed them.
	And quite frankly, you know, back then the army was just a really, really, really small force.
	And the army was really the best of the best of the best.
	But it wasn't meant to send people overseas to fight other people's wars.
	It was meant to protect our homeland and to protect our states.
	And the citizens, or I guess you could say the civilians, should have a working knowledge of how to actually handle guns and handle all this kind of stuff.
	But all of that goes back to that history.
	A lot of our politics and a lot of our things that have actually taken place over the last 150-200 years is a result of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
	You know, a lot of the politics that we have today is all based on that.
	Now, I know it makes me sound kind of crazy, but I really believe that that's the case.
	And if you look into history, you would see what I'm talking about.
	Lincoln was kind of a tyrant in a lot of respects.
	He went after the press.
	And he went after a lot of people.
	He was living in a very difficult time.
	And I think the time that we're living in right now is not all that different from the time that led up to the Civil War.
	I'm seeing, that's what I'm concerned about.
	I'm very concerned that this movement to try to unseat, impeach, or kill a duly elected president But wasn't there more legitimate threats against Obama and nothing actually ever came of it?
	Like, no?
	Really?
	gets assassinated it is going to be a we're going to be living in a very very ugly time and that's that's my biggest concern right now but wasn't there more legitimate threats against obama and nothing actually ever came of it like no really no no and the reason i say that is it's it's who is doing the talking okay during well right exactly Exactly.
	And here's the thing.
	People have said, oh, you know, people were burning Obama in effigy and they were hanging Obama in effigy and there were all these other things going on during Obama's time in office.
	That's all true.
	That all happened.
	I have friends who send me images, collections of images that portrayed violence against President Obama.
	That's all true.
	That happened.
	The difference is the people who were doing that We're people who are hiding in the corners of conservatism and libertarian online communities.
	They were not mainstream.
	They were not well-known people.
	And when that stuff was brought to light, leaders, libertarian and conservative leaders condemned it and said, it's inappropriate.
	That is not us.
	That's not who we are.
	So there was some anti-Obama sentiment during his term.
	No, no arguing about that.
	But it wasn't mainstream.
	It was fringe.
	And the problem with the anti-Trump rhetoric now is it's mainstream.
	It is being propagated by CNN, New York Times, Washington Post.
	It's being propagated by the news anchors.
	It's being propagated by Hollywood.
	You can't listen to anybody from Hollywood talk about Trump without them hinting and suggesting he needs to be assassinated, that he was not legitimately elected, that he needs to be overthrown, that he needs to be gotten away with.
	And this is mainstream Well, I totally agree with you.
	not in the corners, it's not in the fringes, this is in our face every day on social media. - Well I totally agree with you.
	I mean the whole Caesar play where it depicted Trump being stabbed, brutally stabbed, and people were cheering it and getting all excited about it.
	And then you've got, it's kind of-- - Kathy Griffin.
	- For the last eight years, We've dealt with the left kind of lecturing the right about being more respectful of the presidency and being more respectful of the man in office and the actual office itself and all of this jazz and and now we've got somebody that they did not like get elected and And all they do now is they talk about different ways that he could potentially die, what would happen if he died.
	If you turn on CNN or MSNBC for any stretch of time, they literally devote about, you know, 80 to 90 percent of the time that they're televised talking about different things about Trump and how bad he is and all this kind of stuff.
	And granted, like I said, before the whole election thing, I was kind of terrified of Trump.
	And I voted for him only because I just wanted to see the destruction of the political parties that we have now.
	And I know that's crazy, but it's true.
	I mean, I honestly just wanted to see the Republican and the Democrat Party die so that we'd actually have multiple political parties rise in their place and actually go back to the constitutional republic that we're supposed to be, because that's not what we are.
	And that's ultimately what my objective was.
	Being an outsider watching, you know, looking at all of this stuff, I think it's terrifying to think that this mainstream kind of cult of personality attacking a sitting president
	It is a dangerous thing and it can rile and I guess you could say militarize people who are not quite all there to go and attempt to make attempts on his life or attempts of his cabinet's life or in the case of the baseball shooter shooting up Republicans at a baseball practice, I think
	Honestly, that's kind of a dangerous precedent we're setting.
	My concern is that the mainstream media is trying to normalize violence against conservatives.
	And that's a harsh statement, but if you look back at what has been going on in the mainstream media, and you look at the Kathy Griffin, gross pictures of Trump's head hanging there and bloody, this sort of thing, it is a slow, creeping, They're trying to push us acceptance and normalization of the idea that it is okay to vilify someone like Trump because, hey, he's a Nazi.
	Hey, he is a villain.
	It's okay if we do this stuff because he's a horrible, despicable person.
	There aren't any good Trump voters, as one headline said not too long ago.
	The mainstream media is publishing these articles and headlines trying to get through into their base.
	That it is okay to hate and vilify these people because they're monsters, because they are Nazis, because they are anti-Semites or whatever it is that, you know, homophobic, Islamophobic.
	But in order to legitimize violence against conservatives, first you have to dehumanize them.
	And that's what they're doing now.
	They're dehumanizing conservatives.
	They're making Scalise look like another version of Trump.
	He's Hitler.
	He's a Nazi.
	He's a white supremacist.
	And so it's a two-pronged attack.
	First, the media is trying to dehumanize conservatives, and then it is normalizing violence against them.
	And that's what I've been seeing in my dreams.
	God's been giving me dreams over the last two or three months, showing increasing violence against conservatives.
	And what I'm really concerned about is this normalization of violence, demonization.
	It concerns me.
	I think we're only seeing the beginning of it and I am praying that it will stop and reverse and people will come to their senses and realize they are being manipulated by the news.
	Well, and you know what pisses me off most about that is the right won't say anything to defend themselves for fear of being called a racist or a bigot or a homophobe.
	Eventually, the normal, average, everyday Republican Joe that goes to work is gonna get fed up with that kind of crap, and as I heard one guy put it, we're really nice until we're not, and then we're pretty vicious.
	That's why, you know, I've been looking at a little bit of the alt-right stuff.
	I am not alt-right, but they're easier to condemn than the leftists are.
	Like, if you looked at the Southern Baptist Convention, they just condemned the alt-right as a racist hate group.
	They didn't condemn any of the, you know, the Antifas or any of them kind of people.
	But, you know, they made a point to, you know, point out to 0.02% of the population that they're bad.
	And I'm wondering when average Americans are just going to get tired of the bull crap that we're being, you know, basically have shoved down our throats.
	You know, I'm not alt-right, but I have friends who are.
	When I got on Twitter, And not actual, you know, personal friends, just people that I know on social media.
	I'm doing some live streaming on Periscope, like what we're doing now.
	We do, like, we call it 3D or 4D chess, where we'll do a Periscope show that's two or three or four different hosts, and we're all talking together.
	And one of the guys is definitely alt-right.
	He is into 4chan and Reddit, and he is into the memes that conservatives have been coming up with.
	To help drive their narrative to, you know, the alt-right viewpoint out into the open.
	But like I said, I'm not alt-right.
	I just hang out with some people who happen to be, but I have a lot of friends who are liberals, a lot of friends that are libertarians, and I have people from all over.
	But you're right.
	I would agree that the problem with conservatives is, and this is what you see in the Senate, And it is an attitude that's kind of fostered by the Republicans in the Senate.
	They're kind of setting the tone.
	They're trying to be gentlemanly.
	They're trying to be, you know, following good Christian values, turn the other cheek, don't retaliate.
	And a lot of these, like the Antifa and a lot of these community organizers, are bringing a lot of violence against conservatives.
	You've been seeing it.
	Right after the election, there were all these riots and protests, and conservatives will sit back and just take it.
	I mean, no, the alt-right has not sat back and take it.
	So you have guys like Baked Alaska and Base Stickman and all these other alt-right guys going out there with their helmets and their sticks and their wick going up against Antifa, and they're having these fights, which to me is just childish.
	I mean, that doesn't solve anything.
	That just throws kerosene on the fire.
	But at some point, conservatives need to push back against this and say, look, this has gone too far.
	People have been shot.
	When are you going to stop?
	How many people are going to die before this anti-conservative movement goes back in the other direction?
	It has to stop.
	And conservatives are not doing anything.
	For the most part, they're sucking it up and they're taking it.
	They're not pushing back.
	And that frustrates me.
	And I don't know what the answer is, but except last night, I kind of came up with an answer.
	What God has been showing me through a lot of the dreams I've had in the last six months is that as Steve Bannon and President Trump correctly said, the media is the enemy of the American people.
	And the reason why they say that is the mainstream media is an outlet that is controlled for political purposes and has an agenda.
	And it is brainwashing the American people into thinking that violence is okay.
	That violence is a solution.
	That, hey, we're facing Nazis.
	So violence is a normal, is an acceptable response.
	That's being pushed by the media.
	The media is brainwashing people.
	So, what God has been showing me is, He is raising up an alternative media.
	People like you and I, who are doing podcasts, who are doing Periscope, who are doing Facebook Live videos, God is raising up an army of people who are providing an alternate narrative to what MSNBC and CNN and the New York Times is putting out.
	I have, since I started doing Periscope a couple of months ago, started out very small and hardly anybody knew I was doing it.
	Just in the last week, I've done a couple of Periscope videos.
	Where I'm helping people understand what is going on with the Comey investigation and Jeff Sessions and his hearing and what's going on inside the Deep State and the Department of Justice and the FBI investigations.
	I have gotten so many people sending me messages and commenting saying, thank you for providing information that counters what the mainstream media is talking about because we're confused.
	We don't know who to believe.
	We don't know what to believe.
	There's nobody out there telling us the truth.
	So, what God is doing in this season right now is He's raising up alternative sources of information.
	People who are doing live streaming video, who have a different take on what this is all about.
	And I'm glad to be connected to you guys because this is exactly the thing that God is going to use to take down the mainstream media narrative.
	People are going to eventually turn off CNN and even Fox is becoming kind of ridiculous at the way that they're presenting a lot of information.
	What the Lord has shown me is that there is this war going on Between the mainstream media and the Trump administration.
	I think the president is going to win this war.
	I think the mainstream media is going to look like absolute fools when this is all over with.
	Their credibility is going to be shot.
	If you look at what happened during the Comey hearing, all the mainstream media outlets were all sitting on edge, waiting for James Comey to nail Trump, to just put the nail in the coffin.
	And all Comey did was indict himself.
	And it left kind of a bitter taste in the mouth.
	We found out that Trump wasn't under investigation.
	Even though the mainstream media has been telling everybody for about the last year that Trump is under investigation, what we learned in the hearing was he never was under investigation.
	And because the mainstream media has all these false narratives that they're pushing, the more we have these public hearings, the more people are going to realize, wow, these guys have been lying to us the whole time.
	If people are willing to go out there and do podcasts and live streaming video and tell the truth about what's happening, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public will tune in and listen to you.
	Right, well even just to chime in in a more esoteric kind of way and not the specifics of what you said, my mom was just visiting us and we watched like Netflix every night and there was some Michael Keaton movie about the priests scandal, I forget what that movie was called, the Boston Globe or whatever that broke the story about all these priests in that area that were abusing children and whatnot.
	And there was a line somewhere towards the beginning of the movie where, you know, someone was talking to the other and said, like, there used to be a time where journalism wasn't profitable.
	It was this honorable thing, you know, decades earlier or whatever, that people, they felt it was their moral obligation, their, you know, it was an honorable thing to let the public know the truth, you know?
	And I remember that line or that dialogue, whatever, whatever the exact thing was, jumping out at me because you really couldn't say that now.
	And if you do, then it doesn't apply to like the news channels on TV and even big websites and stuff.
	But a lot more to, you know, Lone Rangers or these people who, you know, they make videos on the Internet, they do, you know, their blogs and stuff.
	It applies more to that.
	And so I guess from that, I sort of have a question for you, David.
	What do you say to someone who says, so like, well, who are you amongst the, you know, the many faces in the crowd who just has a, has a video, has a webcam, has a keyboard?
	You know, why, why believe what you say is the truth or the research you say you've been doing?
	Like, how do you answer?
	I'm sure you get questions like that.
	So how do you?
	I don't.
	You don't answer or you don't get asked?
	No, I don't get asked.
	Not much.
	I really don't, because when I do my broadcast on Periscope, I do my broadcasts a little bit like the way I write my books.
	I'm taking complex ideas, like, who are all these people on the Senate Judiciary Committee?
	Who are these people on the Senate Intelligence Committee?
	How are they connected to the Department of Justice and the FBI?
	Who has oversight?
	A lot of concepts that people are not familiar with, what I do is I explain to them who these people are, what their relationship is to the departments of their new oversight, what rules need to be followed, what we can expect.
	I give them a little bit of, you know, if I have had a dream about it, I explain what God has shown me in dreams.
	And because I'm explaining things to them in layman's terms, And that's not something they get from CNN and New York Times and MSNBC.
	And a lot of these people have been following me on Facebook or on my blog for five or six years.
	I've already built some credibility and some trust with them.
	For some of them, the trust is already there because they've read my books or they've read my articles.
	For some of them, they're new.
	And they're listening to what I'm saying, and they're like, yeah, that makes sense.
	I totally get that.
	That's what I'm seeing too, but you explained it really well.
	I've done my homework.
	I don't always refer to my own stuff.
	I have a friend named Adam Gingrich, John Wick of Politics.
	He will do two Periscopes a week, and he is a political insider.
	So he's been a staffer on the last fourth Republican presidential campaign.
	He has worked in the Pennsylvania State Legislature as a staffer.
	He has written legislation.
	He has always been in politics his whole life.
	He has a lot of connections to people inside in Washington.
	He has people who are in the DOJ.
	He has people who are FBI agents.
	There's a lot of friends who are former or current intelligence officers.
	So, he is well connected to people and he has good sources.
	And I often refer people to his periscopes and he refers people to mine.
	We kind of tag team back and forth.
	The other thing is if you follow my, if you've been following my periscopes over like the last two or three months, I haven't been wrong much on what I put out there.
	Much of what I have said has actually come to pass either within 24 hours or within a week.
	Some of the prophetic revelation hits very quickly.
	Some of it takes a little time to develop, but I'm just trying to do my best to talk about what I know from my own.
	I do a ton of research.
	I read dozens of articles a day.
	I'm paying attention to people like Adam who do a lot of research themselves.
	He is doing, you know, 12, 13 hours of research a day on these subjects.
	I don't know.
	I just kind of fell into this.
	I fell into this situation in this political governmental realm where God was giving me revelation about it.
	He connected me to some people who are knowledgeable.
	And I just started sharing this information and I didn't know what was going to happen.
	I thought, okay, maybe I'll do this for a couple of weeks.
	Well, it's becoming like a long-term assignment for me.
	And it's a bit weird because I'm used to writing about healing and seeing in the Spirit and traveling in the Spirit and all that stuff.
	And now my life has just been kind of flipped upside down and I'm all of a sudden becoming like a political correspondent.
	It's because God has given me this assignment.
	And the other thing is people are listening and they're tuning in and following me because I think God has God has given them a hunger for what I'm saying.
	Like when God gives you an assignment to do something like this, He gives you the audience.
	He gives you grace.
	There's a favor on it.
	And so He's connecting me to people who are looking for the information.
	If I was doing something that wasn't my assignment, it wouldn't be going this well.
	If I was, you know, doing this on my own and God wasn't really hoarding me in doing this, I wouldn't have an audience for it or the audience wouldn't really Sounds good.
	connecting with my message but the people are connecting with it really well they like it and they're asking for more of it and i'm sitting here going wow i could almost do this every day but i don't know if i have the time steve and it's a long explanation but that's kind of how i see this thing has evolved over the last few months sounds good i think if you remember the time i reshared your post about uh your you know your uh not your post your podcast about donald
	The one where I kind of broke down his personality type.
	Exactly.
	And what lured me into listening to it, I don't remember if it was like September or October, but it was still enough time to go that, you know, it's a bit risky to conclusively say, yeah, this guy's going to be the next president, just watch and see.
	I consider myself not a history buff, but I pay attention to and read a lot of things or whatever, listen to a lot of things about the Second World War.
	And you were talking about Neville Chamberlain and the next guy... Churchill.
	Churchill.
	I don't know why I couldn't think of his name.
	And, you know, and how like nobody liked Churchill.
	I mean, his history has been a lot nicer to him than how, you know, his contemporaries viewed him at the time and stuff.
	And you were talking about things that, like, I knew about.
	So, like, you had my attention and I could, like, listen and hear you out.
	And so, you know, I think you do a very good job taking these ideas and making them simple.
	You know, like in general, you're very good at that with the things you write about, no matter the topic.
	And so that was kind of like eye opening for me to just think of it This way, you know, and so I put that on on Facebook and told people to check it out and So I just I was just curious if like you have people who are like, well, who is this praying medic guy?
	That is like I didn't know if you were if you just had a lot of people who you know Like you said you've already built that credibility and trust if those are the people who are getting the most out of what you say or if you're getting like new audience Or if you have people out there who are like the opposite point of view, as you are, and you know, well, who is this guy that I should listen to what he says?
	You know, just some guy sitting at his computer in Phoenix or, you know, so I just, I'm surprised you don't hear that.
	I thought you, maybe you might now.
	I'll tell you what, it's been crazy.
	Um, even though I have a large following on Facebook and on my blog, I have gotten almost zero negative feedback on the political things I've posted.
	Um, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback.
	I'm getting a lot of people who are very grateful for me explaining all this stuff.
	Quite a few people are tagging their friends into the things that I post.
	Hey, you know, they take somebody.
	This is the guy I was telling you about.
	Listen to his message.
	I was kind of scared when I started doing this.
	Thinking I'm going to get a lot of negative feedback.
	My book sales are going to drop off like a rock.
	There will be a lot of negative reaction, but it's been exactly the opposite.
	It's been very positive.
	Last week, especially, people said, wow, I didn't know you were into politics at all.
	I read, you know, three or four of your books.
	I'm so glad you're into politics.
	Great.
	There has been a lot of positive feedback.
	And what I see is this is an We're just in a season in God's economy where governmental issues and political issues are a big deal.
	I mean, look at what happened in Venezuela.
	Wouldn't it be nice if somebody could speak to the Venezuelan people and give them some hope about what's happening down there?
	It's going on a lot of different places.
	Look what's happening in the UK with the Brexit.
	And they have a hung parliament.
	And look what's going on in Europe.
	Governmental leadership and the failures of government and leaders is a huge issue, and people are concerned.
	They're worried.
	They want someone to come out and tell them, look, here's what God is saying.
	Steve, I know you shared the video that I posted about Dutch Sheets that he talked about government about a week or two ago.
	If you listen to that message from Dutch Sheets, Where he talks about God being the lawgiver.
	He is a legislator.
	Him being the judge.
	He is the judicial branch.
	And he is a king.
	He is the executive branch.
	And that our government in the United States was built on that model.
	Why we have a judiciary, a legislative branch, and executive branch.
	Because it's modeled after the government of God.
	What I think that God is really trying to do, is he is trying to help people understand that
	His kingdom, government, was given to us as a model, and he wants to rule and reign over our individual nations through government, through people who create laws, who sit on courts, and who rule with executive power in a way that honors the nature of God and his kingdom.
	But just so you know, sometimes on Twitter, the things I'm sharing from you, I might not have checked out yet because I have some app that I'm using through my website that auto-tweets and I can post from websites I want.
	If you haven't listened to that video by Dutch Sheets, you should definitely listen to it.
	I think it would really inspire and encourage you.
	I don't repost every single thing, but yours is like on my queue for sources it pulls from.
	So sometimes if you haven't listened to that video by Dutch Sheets, you should definitely listen to it.
	I think it would really fire encourage you.
	He does a great job of talking about the government of God and how our our nation's founders went through all this wrangling and difficulty in writing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and how they formed our nation.
	based on their perception of God's kingdom.
	It's a fascinating video.
	Right.
	Well, I'm just saying that to say you're among the few people who like I just auto post your content without having seen it, you know, knowing it'll be some good stuff.
	I appreciate that.
	That just means you trust me.
	Yeah, I do.
	It makes you feel pretty good there, David.
	He doesn't repost my stuff, so... But you don't post a lot of stuff.
	He does repost mine because I have awesome memes.
	Yeah, I repost Travis's memes.
	That's all you post there, Travis's memes.
	Well, it's because if I post anything serious, I get, you know, all attacked and crap, and I'm like, I'm done with this bull junk.
	Well, one thing you said just a minute ago, David, was you were talking about how you believe that God wants to use the government to govern kind of from God's kingdom perspective.
	And I do believe that there is no one in authority lest they are put there by God.
	I don't necessarily think that God's kingdom is based on the American government, or the American government is totally based on that.
	I think, honestly, I would have a problem with government being based on Christian ideals, because man is imperfect, and man misinterprets things, and it can get out of hand when they interpret things.
	So, I do believe that God wants us to be subject to our governmental authorities and follow the laws according to our conscience, so to speak.
	You know, obviously we're supposed to do that, that's what the Bible tells us to, but I do have a problem with, you know, I guess you could say the government being a Christian or an entity controlled by the church, especially with so much In the way of, like, Freemasonry involved, and all of that kind of stuff that's involved in the upper echelon of our government.
	And I get kind of nervous with that kind of stuff.
	Yeah, and that's understandable.
	And I don't believe that the government of the United States is supposed to be a Christian institution.
	That we should be enforcing a biblical worldview on the people of our nation.
	That's not at all what I would be suggesting.
	I tend to view my faith more from a kingdom viewpoint and not a church viewpoint.
	So I don't believe that the true manifestation of God's nature and character and will in the earth is necessarily through what the institution we call the church.
	I believe it's supposed to be instituted through the kingdom, which is a completely different concept.
	And, you know, the reformers, I think, and throughout the history, We've kind of taken Christianity and made it this institution with denominations.
	I don't think that was God's plan.
	Jesus, all throughout the Gospels, talked about his kingdom.
	He never really talked about the church, not the way we talk about it.
	And I guess what I would say is that our government, if it is wise,
	governs justly, governs fairly, governs with equity toward all, without malice, without corruption, without ill intent toward anyone, that it really just expresses the nature of God, which is justice and equity and fairness, benevolence.
	And if our leaders would govern With benevolence and fairness and justice and goodwill toward the people that they're governing, things would go very well.
	If those were the precepts that our judges and our senators and congressmen had in their hearts, regardless of whether you were Muslim or Christian or atheist, you would trust your government because They would be governing with fairness and equity and justice toward you and you wouldn't care if they, you know, were Christian.
	That's what I see the ideal government being, is one that is benevolent and good and not evil and corrupt and self-serving.
	Well, I totally agree with that, David.
	I just misunderstood what you were saying.
	I don't necessarily think that it should be a, what do they call it, a theocracy?
	Not a theocracy.
	Well, a theocracy is where God is sort of the governor, is the king, like Israel was back in the days of Moses.
	They were supposed to be a theocracy.
	They were led by God.
	Yeah, I don't necessarily agree with us needing to be a theocracy.
	In my opinion, I think it is just like what you said, that the government governs fair and equitably across the board, and that they don't play favorites with one over another, and that everyone has equal justice under the law, whether you're white, black, purple, green, yellow, whatever, and that you are
	You get the same recognition under that law as what everybody else would get, even if you're Christian, Muslim or whatever.
	I've said this time and time again on the podcast that I think, you know, like, for example, government should not be involved in marriage, which that's a whole can of worms right there.
	I don't believe they should be involved in marriage.
	I don't believe that they should be involved And a lot of things that they stick their hands in, and as a result of them sticking their hands in it, it's caused them to play favorites.
	Which, going back to a topic we talked about earlier, climate change, they've picked favorites because that's their favorite narrative and that's the problem that I have, I guess you could say, with the government.
	Amen.
	Yeah, well, I mean, and that's what everybody wants out of the government, right?
	Really, unless you're a jihadist, in which case you probably want the government to be something like what they have in the Middle East.
	Those people aside, most people want a government that Except for communists.
	and equitable, treats everyone with equal dignity and respect under the law there, that no one is favored, and that the government isn't corrupt, that it does the right thing.
	I think that's what most people want.
	Except for communists.
	There's not really a place in civilized society for them.
	And speaking of the whole Antifa thing that you were mentioning earlier there, Travis, I decided to actually do a Google search for Antifa 'cause I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was.
	I've heard it, but I didn't really actually do a whole lot of research on it.
	And the imagery that's around that organization is pretty crazy.
	They're commies.
	There's no qualms about it.
	You know what the real funny thing is about Antifa?
	So they take their name from anti-fascists, right?
	So they claim to be against fascism.
	And then you look at what they're doing.
	You look at their behavior, you look at how they show up, and they create violent protests, where really what they're trying to do now, in this last six months, they're trying to shut down People like Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter.
	Ann Coulter is really a libertarian.
	She's not even a conservative.
	And you can tell that by the way Ann Coulter gets hot and cold on Trump.
	Whenever Trump is embracing something that is a distinctly libertarian viewpoint, Ann Coulter is totally behind the president.
	When he is doing something that is not in the interest of most libertarians, she is slamming him like crazy.
	So, um, but Antifa, what they're, what they've been mainly concerned with is shutting down these speakers who want to go to places like Berkeley and talk about free speech.
	Milo's, Milo Yiannopoulos, his big thing is, and he's called an alt-right provocateur, but really Milo's main message is free speech for everyone, regardless of your viewpoint, regardless of your religious perspective, regardless of your sexual orientation, he doesn't care.
	He believes everyone should have a right to free speech.
	You say what they want, when they want, where they want.
	And he is being opposed by Antifa, who claim to be anti-fascist.
	Okay?
	What is one of the hallmarks of fascism?
	Fascism does not allow you to have free speech.
	So, this group that thinks they're being anti-fascist is actually acting like a fascist organization.
	Which, to me, just makes me scratch my head and think, people, what are you doing?
	Well, they're acting just like the Bolsheviks over in Russia, when they overthrew the Borgias.
	And it basically installed Lenin as their supreme leader.
	They're just causing havoc, and it's right out of the communistic playbook, which is exactly why they do not belong in a civilized society.
	No, I agree with you.
	Well, and to be fair, fascism doesn't belong in a civilized society either.
	Unfortunately, both sides of the coin are equally bad.
	I don't know why they put fascism on the far right.
	It's more of an authoritarian kind of thing.
	Well, for fascism, the authoritarianism, if you've seen the political spectrum, it's that cube grid or whatever that a lot of people share on Facebook.
	Fascism is far right all the way to the top.
	Alright, so you're highly authoritarian, but you're very right.
	You're very conservative in what you actually believe.
	Whereas you have the far left, totalitarianists such as Stalin, Mao.
	So, fascism, like, fascism in and of itself isn't that bad of a concept because it does hold to conservative values.
	However, dictators suck.
	That's the reason I oppose fascism.
	Not because, like, okay, if you look at what Putin's doing, I'm not gonna call Putin a fascist or anything, but he definitely has some very fascist leanings, where he basically outlawed homosexuality in Russia, or at least the outward display of it, and granted he's Eastern Orthodox, but he's allowed It is interesting.
	I watched a video of Putin talking about one of the problems of homosexuality.
	I guess you could say.
	And he's basically called America a bunch of degenerates because of the way we're acting.
	It is interesting.
	I watched a video of Putin talking about one of the problems of homosexuality.
	And his concern is that as you normalize homosexuality, you run the risk of coming to a zero population growth.
	And you kind of destroy your gene pool and your ability to procreate and make your society.
	And look, that's happening in a lot of countries in Europe.
	People are not having children.
	And that, in this short video that Putin was talking about, that was his concern, was that all these strange theological and ideologies were going to destroy the ability for societies to continue growing like they need to.
	Well, and it's pretty sad when you've got people that are Americans, red-blooded Americans, that are actually celebrating a Russian leader.
	I mean, that's kind of like a reverse world, to be honest.
	I'm not gonna lie, he's pretty dank right now.
	I mean, he's definitely a lot better than the last leader that we had, you know.
	Well, he's done some crazy things and he is extremely creepy.
	There's a lot of creepiness around him.
	Anytime I see him on TV, I literally see my creep meter goes up pretty high.
	But with his attacks on ISIS and things like that, I actually, even though I'm anti-war, I would love to destroy the cockroaches that is out there causing terror in the world.
	But I don't necessarily want more war.
	I wish there was a better way to actually handle that kind of thing.
	Which brings me to the next topic, and then we're going to wrap up.
	Apparently, al-Baghdadi was killed yesterday in an airstrike, presumed to be killed.
	Of course, we all know that what's ultimately going to happen is that somebody's going to rise up to power that's probably going to be even worse than al-Baghdadi.
	But, the fact is that a U.S.
	military strike was actually responsible for taking the guy out.
	What were your thoughts on that?
	Good.
	I mean, granted, I don't want to be involved over there anyways, but here's my question.
	Why are we going to fund ISIS and then kill ISIS?
	Shouldn't we just not fund them, then we don't have to kill them later?
	I think that's the plan.
	I don't believe we're funding ISIS right now.
	We were.
	I mean, yes, we definitely were.
	Every time, like, if you look at all these things that we funded, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, It's all came back to bite us in the rear end.
	Well, we are funding ISIS because we're selling a bunch of weapons to Saudi Arabia and they're a big ally, so to speak, but they're also a big funder of terrorism in the Middle East.
	We've also given money to, I think, what is it?
	Qatar, yeah, and they are a big financer of terrorism.
	And all of that stuff is getting back into the hands of these morons that are actually attacking our people and spreading out and murdering Christians and peaceful Muslims and people in general just for not agreeing with their crazy ideology.
	But the fact of the matter is is we are Financing them and we need to stop it and Trump is actually continuing in that same pattern by giving more weapons To the Middle East when we should be stopping that altogether.
	I mean you're right.
	We have been funding Terrorism for a long time.
	So when you go back to oh gosh Bush 41 and You could argue during the Reagan administration Okay, the deep state
	took over, and as General Wesley Clark pointed out, during the early 90s, the deep state put in place a policy coup, a foreign policy coup, where the Defense Department and the State Department and the intelligence community essentially co-opted the federal government and decided that our foreign policy was going to be regime change in Africa and the Middle East.
	And they outlined, they identified seven countries that they were going to take over in five years.
	And so we went over and for the next, I don't know, ever since the early nineties, you know, 25 years or so, we have been in the Middle East, in Libya, in Syria, in North Africa, in the Middle East.
	We, our policy has been to topple dictators And it was all based on Russia, okay?
	It was after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and for, what, 30, 40 years, foreign policy, all of our foreign policy, was focused on taking down the Soviet Union.
	And after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet Union was dismantled, the State Department and the Defense Department didn't know what to do.
	They didn't know what our foreign policy, what was our comprehensive foreign policy.
	We didn't have one.
	So what they decided in the defense and state departments, they decided, we are going to make sure that those nations in the Middle East and North Africa that have any possibility of having any allegiance to the former Soviet Union, mostly Russia, they were going to make sure that that didn't happen.
	And they were going to topple every King and leader and dictator that had any allegiance to Russia and put in puppets who would build an allegiance to the United States, to our interests.
	So that is the foreign policy that has been going on in the Middle East and Africa for the last 25 years.
	Well, as a result of that, we've put in office Qaddafi, who was a dictator.
	We put him in office.
	We put Bashir in office in Syria.
	We put Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
	We elevated, basically, even though we didn't have direct influence on it, It was our fault as to why Iran became radicalized.
	We created all the problems in the Middle East.
	We created it and we're continuing to create more and more problems.
	I disagree with the fact that we're creating more problems.
	I don't think we are.
	And here's where I take exception to the narrative that Trump is just following the deep state policy, the toppling dictator thing.
	That is not at all what Trump is trying to accomplish.
	You have to listen to what he's been talking about.
	When he was campaigning, he campaigned on, we're going to bomb the hell out of ISIS, we're going to take out ISIS, we're going to get rid of ISIS, and we're going to end terrorism.
	Okay?
	So that, and you have to remember, Trump is not a politician.
	He wasn't just saying this to get elected.
	Trump has done everything so far that he has promised to do.
	He's been following through on every one of his campaign promises.
	One of his big ones was, bomb the hell out of ISIS, get rid of ISIS, cooperate with any nation that is interested in helping us get rid of ISIS.
	Okay?
	Which means...
	That Trump is trying to make a coalition of nations that has the sole focus of getting rid of ISIS, and Hezbollah, and Hamas, and any other Islamic terrorist group that is out to kill people.
	And when he went over to Saudi Arabia and did his talks, and he talked to these 50 different Arab nations, he told them to their face, This violence has to end.
	This terrorism has to end.
	It is not acceptable.
	It cannot continue.
	And we will work with you, and we will help you build your nation.
	But you are going to have to work with us, and we are going to have to stop funding terrorism, and we're going to have to put an end to it.
	And what happened a week after Trump went to Saudi Arabia?
	Saudi Arabia immediately labeled Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Nusra, and ISIS as terrorist organizations.
	They told all of their Saudi nationals, if you're fighting with any of these organizations, you have 15 days to come back into the country and we're closing our borders.
	Next thing that Saudi Arabia did was they cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar because Qatar is heavily involved In funding terrorism.
	Now, I'm not going to say that Saudi Arabia hasn't funded terrorism.
	They have.
	They definitely have.
	They have been spending a lot of money funding terrorist organizations.
	But within the last month, that has changed and Saudis have taken a complete 180 position from how they used to look at terrorism.
	Because look, this is what Trump told them.
	He said, What is going to happen if you continue supporting ISIS and all these other terrorist organizations?
	After they kill the people in the other countries, they're going to come here and they're going to kill you and they're taking over your country.
	If you continue to support them, you are going to end up being killed by the people you're supporting.
	This is insanity.
	You have got to stop doing this.
	We will help you, but you have to cut off your funding.
	So, what I believe Trump has done is he red-pilled the Saudis and made them realize they have got to change their allegiance.
	And look, he said, look, you know, we'll sign a contract with you.
	$350 billion worth of military hardware.
	We'll help you build your own military so that you can take care of your own business.
	What Trump is trying to do in the Middle East, he's trying to build a coalition Saudi, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, other Arab nations who can take care of their own problems with violence with their own military and not drag us into all of their wars.
	So the struggle that's going on right now with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi is over funding terrorism.
	There is a there is a huge schism right now, because mainly because Qatar, they have political interests and ties to Iran that are very deep.
	The natural gas field that Qatar, Qatar is the largest exporter of natural gas in the world.
	The entire war in Syria and all the bombing that's been going on simply was there in place to push a natural gas pipeline through Syria to Turkey and into southern Europe.
	That was all that's all about.
	The Qataris and the Saudis gave billions of dollars to Hillary Clinton and Obama to Get this war going in Syria so they could get rid of Assad.
	They could put somebody in his place who would allow a pipeline to go through Syria.
	Okay, that didn't happen and it's not going to happen.
	Putin is not going to let it happen.
	He wants the Russian pipeline to go through to Southern Europe and that's probably what's going to happen.
	But the issue with Qatar is Qatar is still the largest exporter of natural gas in the world.
	And they have this huge gas field and half of it is owned by Iran.
	And Iran and Qatar have a lot of diplomatic relations and political relations.
	And Qatar, if they break relations with Iran and side with Saudi Arabia, they're at risk of suffering some negative consequences from Iran.
	So Qatar is in a very difficult spot.
	They have reasons to be friendly with Iran and they have other reasons to be friendly with Saudi Arabia.
	And so there's this tug of war going on right now.
	Over what's going to happen with Qatar.
	But, but I think, I think what's going to happen is Trump is going to put enough pressure on those Middle Eastern nations to stop funding terrorist organizations to help get rid of them.
	And eventually what I would like to see happen is you have something like NATO, but in the Middle East, they all contribute to a mutual defense fund that will help
	Stabilize the Middle East and here's the interesting thing with Israel Israel is now siding with Saudi Arabia because Saudi is taking a strong anti-iranian view so if Israel cooperates with Saudi and Qatar and United Arab Emirates and Egypt against Iran That could create a very strong military political influence that would weaken Iran and cripple them.
	And Trump just a couple days ago is now putting more sanctions on Iran.
	You're going to see Iran weakened, and you're going to see Saudi Arabia become stronger.
	But in order for, you know, if Saudi is going to become stronger, They're going to have to play along with Trump, and Trump is going to force them to stop funding terrorism.
	So, anyway, that's what I see going on.
	Yes, they have been funding terrorism for a long time.
	I think you're going to see that end.
	So here's my question.
	If we're fighting terrorists, the reason that we have terrorists that hate the United States is because we kill people.
	I mean, obviously, if we're trying to kill terrorists, but essentially what I'm talking about here is blowback.
	Ron Paul, you know, he brought this up in a lot of the Congress hearings.
	Aren't we afraid of blowbacks creating more terrorists by bombing more people?
	I mean, wouldn't if we as the United States left the crap alone and let the people over there sort it out, wouldn't that be a better solution?
	Well, and this is where you have some significant ideological differences between Rand Paul and Ron Paul, the classic libertarian viewpoint of non-expansion, non-military involvement.
	We just need to take care of our own stuff and let other nations fight their own wars, and we need to remain detached from that.
	That's one perspective, and that's one that's held by a lot of libertarians.
	And when they see the president signing weapons deals with Middle Eastern nations, they get freaked out about that because they just think, oh, well, you know, here we are.
	We're going to be keeping ourselves involved in Middle Eastern wars that we have no business being in.
	Explain to me why we signed a deal with Qatar if Qatar is also a financier of terrorism.
	That one I do not understand.
	That came out of left field.
	We just signed a $15 billion deal.
	Agreement with Qatar to buy F-15s.
	And the thing is, I don't know.
	I don't know if Trump has gotten a commitment from Qatar to stop funding ISIS and al-Nusra.
	I don't know what that's all about.
	I haven't really looked into that.
	That one I can't explain yet.
	I'll have to do some more research on it.
	You had a question that you wanted to ask about ISIS.
	What was that, buddy?
	Well, no, just going back to how you started this particular part of the conversation about that ISIS leader who, you know, Russia is claiming they killed.
	Does it even matter?
	Like what I mean by that is, um, you know, like, okay, they killed one leader.
	Won't like somebody else just kind of take his place or, you know, isn't this stuff kind of more ideological than it is like an actual organization in the sense that like, okay, you could take out its head and there's still other, um, cells in, in the world.
	There's other, uh, you know, people ready to, um, to, to commit attacks and things like this.
	So in a sense, it's kind of like, you know, over the last 10 years or so, I've heard many times such and such a leader of Al Qaeda, such and such a leader of whatever has been killed.
	But it's almost like a false sense of security, like, OK, now everything will be better.
	So my question is, like, does it does it matter if they killed this head ISIS guy?
	It could matter.
	There's two ways to look at the The death of a military or political leader.
	One is it's just another soldier, right?
	So ISIS has how many thousands of people fighting the war?
	You kill one.
	Okay, great.
	Well, yeah, there's there's more lieutenants and generals are going to take step up and, you know, move up the rank.
	And you're just killing one leader.
	That's one way to look at it.
	The other way to look at it is leaders are leaders because they have abilities and talents.
	That are not common to all the soldiers in the war.
	So, Al-Baghdadi was, I believe, recognized as a great strategist.
	And if you take out someone who is a key strategist for an organization, you kind of cripple the ability for that organization to come up with good strategic plans to move their operation forward.
	It would be like taking out the CEO of a company What happened when Steve Jobs was no longer head of Apple?
	Apple has suffered since Steve Jobs was, you know, is no longer the CEO and the owner.
	You can look at it that way.
	You can look at it as taking out the head.
	It does disrupt the strategy and the planning, and it could be demoralizing to the troops.
	They could be loyal to him.
	He asked someone else to take his place, but It could be seen that way.
	And, you know, at the end of the day, ISIS is on borrowed time.
	Mattis is bombing, and there is heavy, heavy losses every day with ISIS.
	They are becoming extinct.
	They've got a coalition.
	They've got them surrounded.
	It's only going to be a matter of a few more weeks or maybe months before ISIS is pretty much effectively eliminated.
	David, what do you think about the cryptocurrency craze?
	I think it's interesting.
	I don't have any revelation from God on cryptocurrency.
	Like you, I know a lot of people who are interested in it.
	They think it's great, up and coming.
	Some people would go so far as to say it's going to replace conventional currency.
	I've done some research on it.
	I'm not convinced.
	I'm always a little bit leery about fads and crazes.
	One of my concerns is that it's a digital currency and you really can only access it and use it if you have an electronic device.
	And that is true.
	If you lost the ability to get to your electronic device, you kind of don't have the currency available for the currency.
	I'm a gold and silver person myself.
	Well, folks, that is our show for today.
	I hope you enjoyed it.
	Thanks for dropping by.
	If you're new to the podcast and you haven't been to my website, you might drop by and check out the articles I have there.
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	That's A-D-M-I-N at prayingmedic.com.
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