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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:13:37
Green New Biden Deal
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hello, my friends.
Dennis Prager here.
Who do I thank for yesterday?
Carl Jackson, one of my favorite people in America.
He's a special man.
You know I don't say these things lightly.
Anyway, thank him.
I was in Texas for about 20 hours.
This has been a week.
Miami, L.A., L.A., Texas, Texas, L.A., and here I am.
Good to be with you.
The Lord hath blessed me with a lot of energy.
That's all I can say.
My friends, there is a lie being perpetrated by the entire media and the Democratic Party, which are the same, and of course this president, that overwhelms any alleged lie that Donald Trump ever told.
I have said this from before.
I can't say I had never heard of Donald Trump.
I had heard of him.
Didn't know anything about him.
But I've said this all of my life.
We swim in the world of lies when it comes to the left.
I know that it sounds to some like it's just an attack to win a war.
But if I'm wrong, I am not deserving of anybody listening to me.
If truth is a left-wing value, don't listen to my show, don't read my books.
But if truth is not a left-wing value, then don't listen to the left.
One of us should be ostracized from being taken seriously.
The left is a lying institution.
It always has been.
That's why they named the Soviet Communist newspaper Pravda Truth.
That's why the Prime Minister of New Zealand said that if you do not hear it from the government, it is not true.
They determine truth.
It is a lie that America is a systemically racist country.
It was a lie that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
It was a lie that the notebook of Hunter Biden was Russian disinformation.
And now the latest lie is truly the...
I can't say it's not the greatest.
You can't get greater lies than what I told you.
But there is something about it that is particularly...
Immoral.
So, let me see.
What is the name of it?
What is the name of this bill?
The Inflation Reduction Act.
And it comes to how many hundreds of billions of dollars spending?
700, is it?
Give me the exact figure.
So we are in the midst of an inflation.
Inflation means that the currency of your country is worth less than it was.
So you need more of that currency to buy what you bought at a previous price earlier, right?
That's what it means.
So the last thing you do to reduce inflation is print more dollars, or whatever your currency is.
So we will print hundreds of billions Billions.
It doesn't even mean anything anymore.
That is what this administration and the left has done all of my lifetime.
From the war on poverty on.
Spend!
Print money and spend it.
Because it gives us more power.
That's why.
The less power the citizen has, the more power.
The state has.
That Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are going along with this bill is very sad.
It is a tragedy for America, this bill.
Alex Epstein has written about this.
It's called the Green New Deal, or it is the Green New Deal.
That's what it is.
That's all it is.
And it is just a new Build Back Better bill.
So here are some things you should know about this bill.
This Green New Deal makes our grid far more dependent on unreliable solar and wind.
I just want you to know something about this.
739 billion.
That's always right.
739 billion.
I thought it was 770. Okay.
$739 billion will be printed.
That's basically what it is.
Flood the society with more dollars, and that is called reducing inflation.
Half of it is for the Greens.
There is no more destructive force.
Well, teachers' unions might be tied.
Teachers, unions, and the Greens, the environmentalists.
They're sick fanatics.
Sick fanatics.
There has not been religious fanaticism to equal secular fanaticism, not just in your lifetime.
But I'll tell you, the only place you can find religious fanaticism, equivalent to secular fanaticism, is in parts of the Muslim world today.
That's where you would have to look.
Secular fanaticism is the curse of the 20th and 21st centuries.
These people are fanatics.
The mansion deal, he calls it the mansion deal, features massive new subsidies for solar and wind over the next few years.
Massive is correct.
Plus tens of billions of dollars in other handouts designed to dramatically increase the percentage of these unreliable sources of energy on our grid.
Number two, it aggressively restricts fossil fuels.
It includes, among other things, new taxes on oil and gas.
And worst of all, granting the Biden EPA essentially unlimited power.
I don't understand that.
Didn't the Supreme Court just rule?
Yeah, they did.
Oh, but Congress can make a law.
Well, they can make a law and the Supreme Court can, we can see.
It'll be, probably, go to court.
Well, by the time it goes to court, everything will be shut down that matters.
Essentially unlimited power to restrict fossil fuel projects.
It gives billions of dollars to left-wing causes.
It includes billions for undefined environmental justice.
Prager rule number 36. Whenever justice gets an adjective, it's not justice.
Social justice has nothing to do with justice.
Environmental justice has nothing to do with justice.
Racial justice has nothing to do with justice.
Just know that.
And you will begin to understand the double talk, the Orwellian language of the left.
There's justice and there's injustice.
Just like when you add a word to democracy, like people's democracy.
Oh, it's a bad sign.
North Korea, a gigantic concentration camp, is the people's democratic.
Republic of Korea.
People's Democratic.
Okay.
The White House Commission report is an extreme environmental justice, is an extreme left-wing wish list that says we must, quote, sunset investments by 2030. That is just eight years from now.
In fossil fuels, plastics, and are you ready?
This proves That they're fanatics and liars, the environmentalist world, and nuclear power.
It actually says we must sunset investment in nuclear power.
They don't give a damn about carbon emissions.
They give a damn about destroying the society we live in.
Environmentalism is to the environment what communism was to workers.
The Great Green New Deal gives government limitless corruption-inducing power.
The deal itself has tens of billions that bureaucrats can allocate arbitrarily.
Tens of billions.
Manchin's requested permitting policies would give new illegitimate powers that are guaranteed to be exercised corruptly.
Manchin is positioning his deal as a responsible path forward, in large part because Schumer offered him permitting reform, including faster permitting for some fossil fuel projects this fall.
Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out-of-control inflation.
People are concerned about what the future holds financially.
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AmericanFederal.com That's AmericanFederal.com My friends, you've got to fight, my friends.
You've got to fight.
One of the reasons I fight, there are many obviously, but one of them is that I took a vow to fight for this country and for liberty on Normandy Beach many years ago.
I would say something like, I don't know, 20 years ago?
25 years ago?
Seeing all the grave sites of these 20-year-olds.
I said to them, if you could die for America and for liberty, the least I could do is live for America and liberty.
That's what going to rock the woke and helping PragerU and other things do.
So we have this lie.
We're printing almost a trillion, three-quarters of a trillion dollars to fund the fraud known as the environmentalist movement.
David Horowitz correctly said to me, I think in the 1990s, that the...
The environmentalist movement is a watermelon, green on the outside and red on the inside.
He was entirely right.
He grew up a communist, so he knows communism very well.
And for me to say that about someone is a big compliment, because I know communism very well.
Manchin got suckered into going along, or maybe the pressure was too great.
He says that Oh, well, he got permits, a promise from Schumer, permits to include faster permitting for some fossil fuel projects this fall.
As Alex Epstein notes, these reforms are, one, not guaranteed, two, undefined, and three, corruption-inducing.
Manchin agreed to a mini Green New Deal.
On the promise by Schumer to support permitting reform this fall, but that promise is not binding on Schumer, let alone the rest of the Democrats in Congress.
How could you spend three quarters of a trillion dollars, $739 billion, during a terrible inflationary spiral?
I believe As I believe in anything in life that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and virtually every Democrat in the Senate and House doesn't give a damn about the United States of America.
Some actually hate it, like AOC. Schumer does not hate America.
Schumer doesn't give a damn about America.
Schumer gives a damn about staying in power.
That's it.
He's a sweet nothing.
I say sweet because people who know him say he's a nice guy.
See my video this week at PragerU about all the nice people who do damage.
And there are not nice people who've done a lot of good.
Donald Trump is not nice.
Nice has superseded in American life, because we live in the age of unwisdom.
Nice has superseded good.
It's nice to be nice and good, but doing good is far more important than being nice.
New solar and wind subsidies will inevitably increase electricity prices.
Every area of the world that has tried using significant amounts of solar and wind has had major problems with rising costs.
Germans, to get 37% of their electricity from solar and wind, have doubled their prices, now three times U.S. prices, and their situation is getting worse fast.
So they are paying three times, Germans are paying three times as much for energy, for electricity specifically.
They are spending three times the amount that an American citizen is spending with me.
And that's just for 37% of the electricity.
Calling the Green New Deal the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, more from Alex Epstein, when it is guaranteed to drive up energy prices and therefore all prices, rivals war is peace and freedom is slavery, for accuracy.
That's right.
All of these Orwellian lines.
The Inflation Reduction Act.
But they did hire, what, 70,000 more IRS agents.
Yeah, that's right.
How massive new solar and wind subsidies will worsen energy security?
Senator Manchin has repeatedly and rightly expressed concerns about the state of the American energy security.
Increasing solar and wind subsidies will inevitably make the situation worse.
The mining and processing of solar and wind-related materials is dominated by China to a staggering degree.
The U.S. does little mining or processing of these materials largely because of green restrictions.
See, I didn't know that.
We could mine the stuff that we're getting from China?
So in other words, because of the Greens, we're subsidizing China.
I know that about lithium batteries.
I would say that people like Tom Steyer hate this country.
I would put him in the AOC category.
But he's irrelevant.
I don't know why I mentioned his name.
What a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible movement the Greens movement in America is.
Back in a moment.
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If it weren't for the sick fanatics of the environmentalist movement, I know it'll sound odd for me to say, but it's essentially very wealthy white people who run this thing.
I assure you that the average minority member is not walking around worried about carbon emissions.
They're worried about a job.
They're worried about the price of gasoline.
The price of electricity.
It's wealthy, bored, secular people.
Overwhelmingly.
Who constitute everything crappy.
And this is an example of it.
Why don't we have a desalinization plant?
Actually, that's not the word.
Desalination.
It's got no Z. It's the best of my knowledge.
Israel has built some desalination plants, taking water from the Mediterranean, and supplies its people with water.
I remember visiting Israel many years ago.
I mean, I've been there many times, but when I went many years ago, and I remember because I know Hebrew, and I would see all these signs about how to save water.
Because it was always in a crisis, a water crisis.
So it solved it by building desalination plants.
But the environmentalists are against that too.
If it can help America, the environmentalists oppose it.
It is very simple.
They're anti-human.
Alex Epstein has the theory that they're anti-human.
I think there's truth to that.
I think there's a lot of truth to that.
They think it's a battle between the earth and humans, and they root for the earth.
That's what it is.
By the way, it is a battle between the earth and humans.
That's why the Bible, which they hate for good reason, it's the antithesis of everything they believe in, says in the very beginning of Genesis, and you will dominate nature.
You will rule over nature.
Because either nature rules over us, or we rule over nature.
Gaia, the goddess of earth.
To oppose nuclear energy and desalination plants proves they want to hurt the society.
They want to get you out of your big house.
If you have joy in life, the left loathes your joy.
The left is an anti-joy movement.
Your house is too big.
Your car is too big.
You should be traveling by bicycle, or you should be on a rideshare plan.
The WEF, the west-crushing organization called the World Economic Forum, has now advocated that people no longer own cars at all, even electric cars.
Too much metal is used.
The Bored Secular.
Rich, Bored, and Secular.
That's the World Economic Forum.
I wish I could figure out a new definition of the acronym WEF.
I'm going to try to do that.
It's really Pitt, by the way.
It's really Pitt White.
Against the blacks.
Black African leaders are saying, who the hell are you to tell me about carbon imprint?
Your entire civilization in the West got wealthy thanks to fossil fuel, and you're telling me I should use wind and solar in Congo or Nigeria?
I think a lot of good things are going to come out of Africa.
I've said for a while, I think the Catholic Church will be saved by Africans, and I think that the Protestant Church will be saved by Africans.
Western Europe, if it's going to be saved, will be saved by Eastern Europe, as we engage in our death-wish civilization of the left.
It's quite remarkable.
Let's see what you folks have to say.
Eric in Chicago, hello.
Eric in Chicago, hello.
Sean, do I have the phone?
That acronym that you suggested, Wreck Every Fellowship.
Because that's what they do, I feel.
They're anti-community.
Oh, because Wreck is W. That's like when I say my name is Prager.
P is in psychology.
Briefly, my daughter's in the car.
She's 12. She was listening to me on hold.
And she says, Dad, are you waiting for a prize?
You've been on hold forever.
And I said, as a matter of fact, I am.
And the prize is wisdom.
And you need patience to get it.
That is a great answer.
Hey, what's the 12-year-old's name?
Zoe.
Zoe!
You've got a good father.
Oh, she's going to love that.
Right now she's embarrassed.
So here's my story briefly.
I came to L.A. from college in the early 90s, and I was in the entertainment industry, and I felt very alone.
You know, there was nobody that thought in any way politically other than a very strict left agenda.
But I smoked cigars.
You know, back then it was sort of a novelty.
But, you know, my father saw me smoking cigarettes and he stuck a cigar in my mouth one day.
Your father was wise.
That's exactly right.
And so here's what happened, Dennis.
Do you remember?
There used to be a place in Beverly Hills above Dunhill.
There was the Dunhill Smoking Lounge.
And you could smoke inside.
And it was because of that that I met people in the entertainment industry that thought the way I did.
And soon I was invited to join the Wednesday Morning Club.
And it changed everything.
But quickly, within five years, because the left-hates community, they destroyed the ability to smoke inside.
That's right.
Thank you.
I have to take a break, unfortunately.
I was thinking this morning that it all started with secondhand smoke.
The acceptance of lies from the medical and epidemiological community.
The suppression of liberty.
And everybody went along with it.
But I didn't.
I knew it was a lie.
50,000 Americans a year don't die from secondhand smoke.
And the rest is history.
The Dennis Prager Show.
Hey everybody, it's the happiness hour on the Dennis Prager Show.
Every, every, every Friday.
Every, every, every Friday.
The second hour of the Friday show since 1999. 23 years.
Wow.
My friends, it's a big deal.
The happy make the world better, the unhappy make it worse.
So join me.
It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour.
Yes, it's a moral issue, happiness.
It's not just a personal, selfish desire.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The founders, greater, wiser men than virtually any professor or teacher in the United States of America living today.
Far greater, far wiser, I might add.
They wrote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness into the Declaration of Independence.
Pursuit of happiness is a noble thing.
Now, by the way, in the term happiness in the 18th century was included virtue, just for the record.
They did not believe that a happy life was distinct from a virtuous life.
To which, of course, you will say, If you are a loyal reader of the New York Times, for example, ah, but they owned slaves.
That's right, they did, as did vast swaths of humanity throughout history.
You don't judge people by behaving the way everybody else did.
You judge them by the way in which they behaved that was different from everybody else, whether good or evil.
That is the way you judge people who lived in the past.
Today's topic, last week I spoke, and the last two weeks were really big, big ones.
One was despair, that despair is a sin.
I got that from a Bible commentary that I use in writing my own Bible commentary, The Rational Bible.
And then I spoke last week about the subject, does everybody want to be happy?
I used to think they did.
I learned, as I've learned so much from callers in the last 40 years, I have learned 40 years, I can't believe it.
You know, if you say 40 years from now, it seems like it'll never happen.
But if you say 40 years ago, it seems like yesterday.
Time is a very, very strange thing.
Very strange.
I learned from callers that there are people who really don't want to be happy.
They bask in their unhappiness.
Today's topic, and I enter it with some ambivalence because I try to leave politics Given the power of the political in our time, I have no choice on occasion.
So, I have a question for you based on your experience with family members and friends.
Do you believe, and I'm just as interested in people who don't believe that there is as I am in those who do, do you find among family members and friends that there is a correlation between political views and personal happiness? - Yes.
Call in at 1-8 Prager 776. 877-243-7776.
Among family members and friends, do you find a correlation between where they land on the political spectrum and happiness?
So, I'm not going to make believe I am an impartial referee in this case.
I do believe there is.
I believe that there are happy and unhappy liberals and happy and unhappy conservatives, but I've never met.
Doesn't mean one doesn't exist, but I never met a happy leftist.
When you saw the screaming and the violence of the 2020 violent protests, And even among some of the nonviolent protests,
it seemed to be the face of a very unhappy crowd.
When I speak to young people, I feel that particularly so when I'm among conservatives.
The lightheartedness is palpable compared to so much of the anger and other aspects of the left.
And this bothers me because I don't like to talk politics on the happiness hour.
But on the other hand, I'm avoiding the elephant in the room if I never talk about it.
It's huge.
How could you be happy?
If you think the society you live in is awful, if you think your future is death by heating, by boiling, by drowning, if you live in a world in which there is such disorder that there isn't even male and female any longer.
Correct or incorrect?
That would seem to me to be why it is impossible to be a happy leftist.
Thank you.
You can't be happy if you're not grateful.
And ingratitude is a primary characteristic of the progressive mind.
What are they grateful for?
Ask a...
A progressive-slash-left-wing member of your family, tell me, you're clearly not grateful for America.
So what are you grateful for?
So they might say, I'm grateful that I'm healthy.
Okay, fine.
That's good, by the way.
You should be grateful if you're healthy.
But what else?
What else are you grateful for?
They might say, Their spouse or their kids.
But obviously, none of that is related to their outlook on life.
Conservatives are also grateful for their family or their health.
So, tell me, what with regard to the society are you grateful for?
And if one cannot mention anything...
That's a big deal.
1-8 Prager 776. It is almost inevitable when I talk to young people and they've been led to believe what their professors or teachers have told them.
They're angry, ungrateful.
Spoke to a bunch of high school kids a few weeks ago.
It was very depressing, actually, and I never say that.
It was a totally mixed ethnic group, racial and ethnic group, and they pretty much hated me.
This was not a common thing with young people.
And what they hated was that I said America was a good place and they had essentially no right to walk around angry at racism in America when it's such an un-racist place.
And they were furious.
They were just furious.
I had undermined their whole self.
Sense of self.
I am black, therefore I am hurt by my society.
And then white kids would get up.
Remember, I told the story about one white girl whose, what was it, her uncle, I think, was from Cuba, and how much he has suffered for being Hispanic.
I said, can you give me an example?
He was once taken out of line by TSA to be checked.
Do you believe that?
That was the example that she gave?
Let's check Hispanics in line today?
That was not a happy girl.
This is the Happiness Hour, every Friday's second hour of every Friday's second hour of the show.
Do you think that there is among...
I don't want you to give me a general answer.
I want you to think of people you know, friends and family.
Do you find a correlation between where they are on the political spectrum and their level of happiness?
I do.
I'm not feigning...
No opinion on this one.
Sometimes I ask you a question and I just want to hear what you have to say because I don't have a firm answer in my own mind.
But in this case I do.
I don't know how you can be happy if you think that you live in an essentially evil society and if you are not grateful for all the good that it has given you.
When I see college students living in their plush dormitories, having all of this paid for by parents or other citizens, doing no work except schoolwork, and they're complaining about their lives, that's a tough one to take.
Maybe they should have gone to 130 countries like I did and see how good it is here.
Although it is definitely getting worse, there's no question.
I used to think of America as having much less corruption than third world countries.
I do not believe that is true any longer.
That's sad.
And by the way, I fully acknowledge that if you do love liberty, This is a very rough time in American history.
That's why I did a show two weeks ago about the sin of despair.
You can't despair.
Every survey that I have seen says conservatives are happier than people to their left, liberals or leftists, and that the religious are happier than the irreligious, and the religious tend to be conservative as well.
So there's a lot going on here.
All right, let's see.
Brian, Colorado Springs.
Hello.
Mr. Prager, it's a pleasure to speak to you.
Thank you.
I've been a fan of yours or interested in what you've had to say since the conversation I heard you have with Jack Hibbs, in which he talked about not having any common ground with the left, and I think that speaks to what you're talking about today.
I have family members on the left, and they're angry.
And they don't know why.
The level is not there.
And I think that outlook tends to lean towards outcome.
I think it's possible to be unhappy if you're on the right, but by and large, or at least conservative, maybe not deep right wing, but by and large, people who have a conservative, faith-based outlook are happier.
The relatives of yours who were unhappy, do you think they were, and you may not have even thought this through, which is fine, do you think that their unhappiness led to their being on the left, or that it was not a reason they adopted left-wing ideas for whatever reason?
Is my question clear?
Because if not, I'll repeat it.
No, I think I understand what you're asking me, and I think it may be a 50-50 answer.
In one relative's instance, moving to the left from center or even partially right as a younger person has created that anger or dissatisfaction with this country.
And in another case, it's my father.
He's in his 80s, and he has honestly left and has been fairly unhappy most of his life.
Yeah, good answer.
I think it goes in both directions.
I think the unhappy are more likely to gravitate to the left.
And I'll tell you why.
I've thought that through as well.
If you're unhappy, you basically have two choices.
Hold yourself responsible, or hold...
The society or others responsible.
Certainly those who have a serious religious education, Christian or Jewish, they look, they are taught, as I was, I was taught to look into myself for what is gnawing at me.
I was taught that I am the source of my problems.
Now, of course, I'm not the source of all my problems.
If I was hit by a hit-and-run driver, I was not the source of that problem.
So, that's understood.
But in general, your attitude in life, if you're on the left, your unhappiness emanates from the society.
If you're a woman, it emanates from...
Patriarchy, misogyny, and men in general.
If you are a minority racially, it emanates from whites.
You don't have to look inside.
That's a big source of unhappiness.
Basically, only you, not the society, can make you happy.
Alright, let's see who else we have here.
Carmel.
Ah, Carmel is not the place, it's the person.
Hello, Carmel in Los Angeles.
Hi.
Yes.
Hi, Dennis.
I totally agree with you.
And I'm going to tell you a story to support my agreement with you.
I'm a retired public school teacher, and I'm happy.
I'm a Christian, and I'm happy.
So I was in one of my principal's offices, and she says to me, Do you have a good attitude?
And I go, yeah, I do have a good attitude.
And she goes, well, you know, the teachers with whom I work, and I have to confess, public school, almost everyone is of the political ilk of leftism.
Not everyone, but I would say at least 95%.
And she said, because they love their misery.
They just love them miserably.
They're miserable and they love their misery.
And I go, well, I'm happy.
I'm a Christian.
And my thought is misery is a choice.
That's right.
I've always said happiness is a choice, but I like your phrase, misery is a choice.
That's good.
Yes.
If you choose to be miserable, it absolves you from responsibility from making yourself happy.
Well said.
I told you folks.
A lot of bright people out there.
Yes.
Wow.
If you have a miserable 30-year-old son or daughter, it might be worth saying.
I think you've chosen to be miserable.
The instinct of a parent is to say, I love you, I'm here for you.
Following instincts is often wrong.
*muziek* Een klap van de molen.
And clap for the molar.
That means hitting the head with a windmill.
And Klopp van de Molen.
In Dutch.
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to the hour.
How are you, something, or general?
Whatever's on your mind about you, about you, about me, about life, about death, and, of course, about classical music, audio equipment, photography equipment, fountain pens, and listen to the music while I think what the fifth one is.
Hey, everybody, welcome back.
Bye.
Nobody here remembers the fifth one.
Cigars!
Oh my god, how painful.
I was at a meeting with some wonderful people in Texas yesterday, supporters of PragerU.
I went to Texas for the day, and one of the men bought a very Expensive box of Cuban cigars to the event.
To have a time for us to smoke together.
And I am still debating whether I did the wrong thing.
So I'm telling you this story because it's a very interesting question about life.
It's a micro question.
That doesn't mean on the personal.
So somehow or other, of course I recognized the cigar immediately and said something to the effect, oh, I'm not big on Cuban cigars, I'm big on Nicaraguan cigars.
So he had spent a lot of money.
I would say that those cigars were at least $20 each.
And he must have brought...
At least 15 of them.
So that's $300 of cigars.
And in good spirits, he mentioned a few times, I dissed his cigar.
So, on the way home last night from Texas to the police state I live in, California.
Which, by the way, along with...
Let's see, what is it again?
Illinois and New York is in a state of emergency over monkeypox.
It's now national.
Oh yeah, now national.
It should be abolished state of emergency.
This is the proof.
It's a farce.
Remember, the left ruins everything it touches.
It even ruins...
Who would have thought of this?
The concept of state of emergency.
State of emergency.
There's an American who has died of monkeypox.
It is also an extremely confined illness.
It is, in this case, as it was with AIDS, except that AIDS was basically gay men and intravenous drug users and their partners.
This isn't even intravenous drug users.
Men who are intimate with men, bisexual and gay men.
The Washington Post just had an article saying the same thing.
It has nothing to do pro-anti-gay.
It has to do pro-anti-truth.
So, back to Texas, the free state, a free state.
The freest is probably Florida.
And I was thinking over the course of the day, was I wrong in saying to a guy who had gone out of his way to get Cuban cigars for me and the others at the meeting, spent this money, and I tell him I prefer Nicaraguan to Cuban cigars?
Yeah.
I was wrong.
Yeah.
All right.
That's a definitive response from the living martyr.
So here, so look, if I thought, if I was definite that I was right, I wouldn't have mulled it over after leaving.
So I would like to explain, because I try to understand me just like I try to understand others.
And I look at myself from outside of myself.
It's a good thing to do.
But anyway, so the reason I felt I could do it, and the truth is it came out so spontaneously, I didn't spend much time thinking about whether I'd say it.
But I regarded him as a...
An ally.
We had never met before.
He was obviously an ally.
He had traveled hours to come to the event.
Or at least some of them did.
I think he did as well.
And he's a fellow cigar lover.
And if I'm going to talk to him honestly about cigars, I have to say I prefer Nicaraguan to Cuban.
I did add, I know what a high quality cigar this is, and if I'm going to smoke a Cuban, this is the one I would want to smoke.
But on the other hand, the man went out of his way to buy these cigars, and I dissed them, as he put it.
Close, but no cigar.
Yeah, so the question is...
And I don't have an answer to what I said yesterday.
And believe me, the guy's not mulling it over today.
But at what point of being real and truthful have you done that for no good reason?
That's the implication of your response, that I shouldn't have said that.
But I couldn't have talked cigars with him if I didn't say the truth.
I did acknowledge, of course I acknowledged his effort.
You're entirely right.
But I don't have an answer.
If I had to do it over again, which is the way I guess to assess it, I would have said something to this effect.
Man, that is one generous thing you've done.
I'm very grateful to you.
As a fellow cigar lover, I just want you to know my own preference is Nicaragua, but these are great.
That's how I would have put it if I thought of it in advance.
It would have been better.
There's no question.
My desire to talk cigars and be honest overcame and shouldn't have.
Being gracious.
You're right.
No, no, I agree.
Why did I raise it?
So...
What I'm going to do is I'm going to ask either Sean or Alan to go to Texas and tell the guy that I really rethought my comments.
And then come home.
Oh, man.
Amen.
Alan, how many times have you been to Texas?
What do you think?
20?
At least 20?
We should have an apartment there.
Except we go all over the state.
By the way, I was invited by members of this group to go to an oil rig.
What's the capital of oil in Midland?
Yeah, in Midland.
And I am fascinated by that stuff.
I don't mean just oil.
I'm fascinated by how things are made.
But to see these drills go two miles down has got to be an incredible experience.
All right, what's on your mind, folks?
Let's see.
Oh, my God.
Fascinating stuff.
Naples, Florida.
Cody, hello.
Hi, Mr. Prager.
Can you hear me?
I can.
Thank you for taking my call.
I told your screener that I was interested in talking about the term Judeo-Christian and how it relates to relations between Christians and Jews.
In my view, I've always grown up with the understanding that Jews and Christians, Which religion are you?
Okay, hold on.
I think it's a very important subject, and I have a very important response.
Okay, everybody.
So this is the hour, whatever's on your mind, and...
I just want to salute two people who came up with excellent explanations for WEF, the World Economic Forum.
Emily in Merrillville, Tennessee.
Sorry.
In Merrillville, Tennessee.
Emily.
Wealthy, educated fools.
I think it's terrific.
What was the one from the first hour?
Rec.
Economic.
Wreck Economic Freedom?
Gotta remember that too.
And Bob, Washington, D.C. Western Elimination Federation.
You folks are good.
I like them all so far.
Alright, let's see here.
Okay.
Oh, we were talking to Naples.
Yeah, Cody and Naples.
Sorry.
Okay, so Cody's a young man, obviously a thoughtful man.
He's a Christian, and he has an issue with the words Judeo-Christian, which he used often, and I use them often, because, as you said, you were taught that Judaism and Christianity have such differences.
Am I paraphrasing you correctly?
Yes, I've grown up with the understanding that they're fundamentally opposed.
Right.
Well, they're fundamentally opposed with regard to whether or not there's a triune God and if Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.
That's correct.
Yes.
Okay.
Did you also grow up believing that they were fundamentally opposed in terms of values?
Yes.
Really?
That's interesting.
That's an odd Christian upbringing.
The Christians who founded this country were spectacularly rooted in the Old Testament.
Franklin and Jefferson wanted the symbol of America to be the God taking the Jews out of Egypt.
They saw themselves as a second chosen people.
The Jews were the first.
America was second.
You had to learn Hebrew at every major university in order to graduate through the 18th century.
These people were profound.
There's a verse from the Torah, Leviticus, on the Liberty Bell.
Why did you learn that the values were fundamentally opposed?
Well, what you're saying there about the founders, I totally agree.
But the way I understand it is that Jews and Christians view the Old Testament through a different lens.
And so when I hear evangelical pastors preach, which is the churches I grew up in, they find Jesus all over the Old Testament.
They say, here's Jesus, and here's Jesus, and here's Jesus.
But the Jews, they read the same scriptures, and they find Jesus nowhere.
Well, that's not a value.
That's theology.
We already established that they have different theologies.
Do they both subscribe to the Ten Commandments?
Do they both subscribe to God as the source of morality?
Do they both subscribe to God believing that the ideal is a man marry a woman?
Can you name me a Christian value that Judaism doesn't share?
Well, I couldn't name one in terms of nominal values, because there was a verse that Jesus said.
He actually said to listen to the Pharisees, but don't do what they do.
Right, but that's back to religion and theology.
I'm talking values.
There are Judeo-Christian values.
There isn't a Judeo-Christian unified theology.
If there were, then either all Christians would be Jews or all Jews would be Christians.
That's true.
But nobody claims Judeo-Christian theology.
They say Judeo-Christian values.
I think the opposition is in the way that Christians and Jews act, is the way I would view it.
When people say Judeo-Christian, I see two different groups of people that act very differently.
Really?
And I know they have different...
As you probably know, you're talking to a religious Jew, and some of the people closest to me in my life are religious Christians, and I think we act almost identically.
I think sometimes it's difficult to discern between good and evil, and so sometimes they can appear.
Almost exactly the same.
But I think it takes discernment to...
So you think actually when Jews look like they're acting like Christians, they're really acting evilly?
I think that could be the case.
I think Jews are plenty capable, though, of acting good in a very sincere, legitimate way, though.
Then I don't understand the point.
Why did you raise the issue of evil, that a discerning person would see evil?
Because I think that in the case of the acceptance or rejection of Jesus, I think we live what we believe.
And if someone accepts Jesus, they will live out good.
If they reject Jesus, they will live out evil.
You really believe that?
I don't think that's a Christian belief.
I'm sorry?
I understand that maybe it's offensive, but...
No, no, no, I don't...
That's why I'm keeping you on so long.
That is the only thing you said that's troubling.
Because it doesn't make sense.
And religious people should make sense.
If you say to me that Christ is the only way to salvation, I have no argument.
That is your belief, and I never argue beliefs.
But if you say that it is not possible to be a decent human being unless one affirms Christ, there are no decent Jews, no decent Muslims, no decent atheists, for that matter, no decent Hindus.
I think you should consult with your pastors on that.
The Dennis Prager Show.
I could spend the rest of the show ruminating on the last call, which I leave a lot of time to.
And do we have our guest on, by the way?
We do.
Okay, so I will reflect on that in a moment.
As August is fundraising month for PragerU, I have a guest on once a show.
Who is either a member of Prager Force, the Young People's Organization, which now has 20,000 members around the world, or some adult affiliated in some way.
I have on the line from Iowa, Jenny Nohelty.
She's the Director of Legacy and Special Gifts for PragerU.
So, let's see.
Oh, there you are.
Hello, wonderful.
No wonder I didn't have to press a button.
You're on Skype.
That's right.
Hello, Dennis.
Pleasure to see you.
Are you in Bettendorf, Iowa?
That's where I live.
I'm actually traveling this week, and I'm in Minneapolis.
Are you traveling for PragerU?
I am.
I am.
And I happen to have granddaughters here, too, so that helps.
What a great gig!
It is.
It is.
It's the dream.
It's a dream, I'll tell you.
Well, you're a great asset to us.
So, in a nutshell, tell my listeners, please, what you do and what they can do.
I am the Director of Legacy and Special Gifts.
So, part of my job is to help donors see what their opportunities are through their estate plan.
Sometimes people just say, I would like to leave X amount of dollars or a certain percentage to PragerU and other charities, but I take it a step further quite often.
I'll show them how to do that, but I'll show them how to also leave more to their heirs without harming them.
Sometimes too much all at once is not a blessing, but rather it's a curse.
Show them how to remember their favorite charities in ways they thought they never could imagine, as well as how to avoid paying unnecessary tax.
Most people have just set up a plan so that they've left it to their husband and wife, you know, we leave it to each other first, and then I'm going to leave a little bit to a few charities, the rest to my kids.
Haven't really looked at all the tax consequences, like in your IRA. When I die, I leave it all to my husband.
When he dies, if he left it all to our kids, Uncle Sam gives him the opportunity or our kids the opportunity to pay income tax on that.
So what are some of the options?
And that's where I come in.
How do we avoid the unnecessary tax?
Leave more to Prager, maybe your church or your synagogue, other charities that you believe in.
And then also more to your family because we've avoided that unnecessary tax.
Boy, you certainly convinced me.
I did not know that.
Yeah.
This is news to me.
I am going to consult with you.
Okay.
I think that's wonderful.
We also have something that we believe it's important to give back to our donors.
And so in the United States, only about 60...
Excuse me, 60 to 70% of all Americans don't have a will because it's important, but it's not urgent.
So I'll get around to it later.
It's important that I get X, Y, and Z done to get my kids off to their next activity, but it's not urgent to get my will done.
So on our website, we have A platform called Giftwise, where we've subscribed with professionals, where you can log in, create your own account, and then say what you'd like to do with your estate.
They will draw up a will based on the state where you live, plus all your powers of attorney and your health care directive.
So if you died, Your heirs will know what to do with all your assets, how you want to be treated if you become incapacitated.
So this is a gift that we're giving.
Now, ideally, people want to remember us in their plan, but it is not a requirement.
So a gift, by its very nature, is a...
So what do you want people to do?
Get in touch with you?
Prager you?
What should they do?
Either one.
Get in touch with me.
But if they want to just start with the will, just go to PragerU.com slash legacy.
Okay, that's the key.
And then you can start setting up your own account.
God bless you.
This has really been important.
I hope we meet.
Thank you.
PragerU.com slash legacy.
Correct.
Correct.
Everyone that has adult children should be sending their adult children here as well.
Because...
I have adult children.
They just went off to college, let's pretend.
If they don't have their powers of attorney signed, I might not have the ability to make decisions on their behalf.
Wonderful.
All right.
Thank you again.
You're a joy to know.
Thank you, Jenny.
PragerU.com slash legacy.
I can't believe it.
It's the final segment of the week.
I told you, weeks go by the fastest of all the units in time.
Chris is ready?
Yeah, I announced that though, Chris.
I announced that we're going to have a memorial for Vince Scully and I'm very supportive in how much I love the band.
So thank you for doing that and I know you stayed on a long time.
Alright, let's see.
We have a challenge.
We always go to those.
Colorado Springs.
Michael, hello.
Good morning.
Hi.
Good morning.
I don't know if your listeners are aware of how much renewable energy is being used in the U.S. today, particularly wind energy.
Kansas gets 45% of its electricity from wind, Iowa 41%, Wyoming nearly 33%, and while Texas only gets 15%, it has more turbines than any other state in the country.
Yeah, and it was a waste of money.
I think this data undercuts your claims.
The data does not...
Renewable energy...
May I finish my sentence, please?
You did finish many sentences.
Renewable energy is inherently unreliable.
It is inherently unreliable.
If there's no wind, there's no wind energy.
That is irrelevant.
And the reason why it's irrelevant is because right now there are storage systems that can hold enough renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes.
So big battery technology is one way to deal with that challenge.
So why isn't it working in Texas?
No, you can't.
Okay, sir, this is a gimmick.
Bye-bye.
It's a gimmick.
Person talks and talks and talks.
I respond to a point.
May I finish?
It's an old gimmick.
I'm in this 40 years, my friend.
Don't try that crap on me.
I took your call precisely because I wanted a dialogue with someone who differs with me.
The people of Texas have been screwed by the renewables.
That's why the energy is so expensive.
That's why they're going to have blackouts, or at least what was predicted.
It's too bad.
Had he stayed on, I would have asked him the $64,000 question you should ask everyone who believes in this stuff.
What's your position on nuclear power?
And if they say they're for it, then explain why.
Greenpeace and virtually every single environmentalist movement is not for it.
They want to change society.
They are not interested in the carbon stuff.
That's the gimmick to get us to change our lives.
But don't try that with me, folks.
Keep talking, keep talking.
Then I finally respond.
May I finish?
I don't do that to you.
Don't do that to me.
Okay.
I wish you a great weekend.
It'll be greater if you do a beautiful act.
Give to those of us who are fighting for the country.
PragerU.com 833-PRAGER-U And don't forget to listen to the Dennis and Julie podcast.
You will love it.
Dennis Prager here.
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