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May 9, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hello, everybody.
Dennis Prager here.
Sometimes there's actually a meaningful speech given at a college.
It's sort of sometimes...
What can I think of?
Sometimes...
Hmm...
I'm trying to think of something rare that also happens sometimes.
Yes, that's true, yes.
Sometimes you find a $100 bill on the street.
It's about that frequency where something meaningful is given.
I saw the list of speakers at the most prestigious universities, and they're not only on the left, they're all basically Democratic Party officials or politicians or appointees.
You hear nothing.
Of another side of life at college.
Unless one of us shows up and then we're lucky if we get our 90 minutes.
Just remember, it's a very important thing to remember.
Those who censor are the ones who aren't telling the truth.
Anyway, a two-time Super Bowl champion player With the Kansas City Chiefs, he was the kicker and won with field goals.
And his name is Harrison Butker.
And he spoke at Georgia Tech.
Just spoke at Georgia Tech.
Georgia Institute of Technology.
Yeah, which is Georgia Institute of Technology.
And it's four, what is it, four minutes?
What is the total here?
449. Yeah, I will be interrupting on occasion because his message needs to be heard by every kid in college.
So here he is, Super Bowl champion, speaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
I am someone not much older than all of you, yet I've been asked to speak, not because I am a great orator or because I have a number of impressive accolades.
Well, I guess I do have two Super Bowl rings.
I just happen to be blessed by God to be really good at kicking a funny-shaped ball between two yellow posts.
So as someone who is not paid to speak for a living, I'm about to pop off some hard truths.
I don't care if you have a successful career.
I don't care if you have a big bank account or you fly private.
Many of you in this crowd will achieve these things.
Some of you maybe already have.
But in the end, no matter how much money you attain, none of it will matter if you are alone and devoid of purpose.
Okay, hold on.
Okay.
None of it will matter if you are alone and, what did you say, and or?
And devoid of purpose.
Well, I could pretty much stop there, but I won't.
How often do you think a college kid hears that?
You know, the great realization, one of the great realizations, and I've had a number of, I don't mean, it's not praise of my realization, it just means large, gigantic realizations.
In the last, I don't know, decade or so, things that I thought and most people thought came naturally, let's put it this way, good things.
I think that's an important addition.
Most good things that we thought come naturally are in fact instilled by society in people.
You would think that getting married comes naturally.
The desire to bond with somebody.
And yet it turns out that like everything else, even having children, what comes more naturally than having children?
Yet even that turns out to be a value.
Everything.
The yearning to be free does not come naturally.
People do not yearn to be free, as I have so often said to you, people yearn to be taken care of, which is the opposite of freedom, which is easily proven, because as people get older, their great fear is to be taken care of.
Isn't that ironic?
People think it's great to be taken care of by the state, but not...
To be taken care of by their family.
I think that's what it comes down to, which is an odd thing.
I would like the state out of my life as much as possible.
I can't stand the state as a general rule.
The genocides of the 20th century, the bloodiest century in the history of humanity, were all created by big governments, except for the Rwanda genocide.
Every single one.
The hundred million civilians slaughtered were slaughtered by big governments.
Nobody says this to college kids.
Correct?
Nobody.
Nobody says to college kids, guess what?
Almost all the slaughter of the 20th century was done by irreligious and anti-religious regimes.
How many kids have heard that?
Zero!
I was just invited by a group of conservative students at Columbia University to speak there.
And I'm thinking about what would the subject of my talk be.
And I'm debating a number of things.
I think what you haven't heard At Columbia is a possibility.
And I would just list these things.
Did you ever hear that big government is the greatest source of evil on our planet?
And that half this country wants an ever bigger government?
And half the world wants a world government?
In medicine, WHO, in politics?
The United Nations.
In economics, the World Economic Forum.
Yeah.
The difference between the United States as in the direction it's moving and the Chinese Communist regime is one of degree.
Now, degree is a lot.
I don't minimize that.
There's no question that the left envies the Chinese government's ability.
To monitor the behavior of its citizens and award those who go along with the regime and punish those who do not go along with the regime.
There's no question that Justin Trudeau in Canada envies the Chinese Communist government's ability to do that.
So back to our Super Bowl winner speaking.
At the Georgia Institute of Technology, he told them something they almost never, probably never hear.
And that all your professional and financial attainments won't be worth gook.
Not gook.
Guk.
Why did I say gook?
How do you spell gook?
What is gook?
That's not a word, Guck?
Isn't it like waste?
Poop?
I think we should spend some time on the question of whether Guck is a word.
Are you looking it up?
Neither of you...
How do you spell it?
I'm not thinking of Muck.
How do you spell Guck?
I guess G-U-C-K? I don't know.
How did I come up with a word that isn't a word?
I did not combine poop and muck.
Oh, gook.
Oh, so gook.
What's gook?
Gook is a thick, messy substance.
Okay, then I was right originally.
Gook is a thick, messy substance.
Such as sludge.
Such as sludge.
So I was right originally.
I didn't make up a word.
Okay.
And is it pronounced gook?
Gook, yeah.
So I was right originally, and here I am correcting myself and thinking I've invented something.
It won't be worth gook.
Yeah, but you said gook, right?
No, I said gook, and then I said gook.
Oh, okay, okay.
No.
How do you spell it?
G-U-C-K. G-U-C-K. It won't be worth anything.
Is that better?
It won't be worth...
Dog poop.
Hotel Bupkus, correct.
I wonder how the kids heard that.
I really, really wonder.
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Americanfederal.com.
AmericanFederal.com I'm playing you the speech of a two-time Super Bowl winner.
Yeah.
For the Kansas City Chiefs, just given at Georgia Tech, or Georgia Institute of Technology.
And he begins with all the success, and he's had a massive amount.
Two Super Bowl rings is big, a lot of money presumably.
And he said, it isn't worth anything if you're alone and devoid of meaning.
That's right.
Alone meaning didn't try to make a family, didn't get married and try to make a family.
And devoid of meaning, he's a religious Catholic, and devoid of meaning is precisely that.
Ultimately, what meaning is there if it's not a religious meaning?
Now, of course, you can find meaning in a whole host of things, and I mean this quite sincerely.
You can find meaning in music, you can find meaning in art, you can find meaning...
In helping people, I mean, all of these things are true, but there's no ultimate meaning.
There's no objective meaning.
We're still, in this infinitesimally short period of time, we show up and die, and for eternity, it's oblivion.
People who have no religiosity in their lives need to confront the consequences, what you really believe.
All right, continue with his speech.
Raised in a family of overachievers, success was expected.
And as a young man, I found happiness in being celebrated for my worldly achievements.
My inner desire to be celebrated manifested academically through long hours of studying and, of course, riding the curve.
That desire was pushed further by the many successes I attained playing here on the Flats.
All of you are here today because you are smart, capable, and hardworking people.
But if we're being honest, the world is filled with miserable, smart, capable, and hardworking people.
Okay, the speech was worth it for that line.
The world is filled.
With smart, capable, and hardworking people.
That is...
That's exactly right.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't be those things.
It just means, please understand, you're not as rare as you think you are.
And by the way, the world is filled with hardworking and smart and capable people who are not happy.
All right, let's continue.
There are too many examples to list of people who have achieved great worldly success and fleeting happiness, but in the end are unfulfilled.
Now don't get me wrong, I want you to be successful.
But this isn't so much about your career as it is using your talents, being your best, fulfilling the potential you were created for.
It is said, what's done in the darkness will be brought to the light.
This is a powerful reminder to us all that our actions matter, whether they're seen or not.
Some of the most important people who have ever lived remain unknown, and their stories have yet...
Yes, hold on there.
That's one of my other constantly repeated lines.
The famous are rarely significant, and the significant are rarely famous.
That is what his intelligent point was.
See, all the liberal and left speakers that will come to all these colleges this month for graduation speeches, I don't think one will have wisdom.
This football player has given more wisdom in the three minutes he's spoken than they will get in the half hour or whatever.
20 minutes or longer, an hour, whatever they get at their graduations.
I remember Julie, the young woman that I do the Dennis and Julie podcast with and who sits in for me periodically.
She graduated from Harvard, was it last year?
Yeah, it seems so much longer ago.
And the primary speaker was, what's Ardern's first name?
Jacinda?
Yeah, that's a common name for you.
Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, who is a well-intentioned dictator and fool.
Yeah.
If you don't hear it from the government, it isn't true.
That's what she told her citizens in the middle of the lockdowns.
Wow.
What if I said to you, if you don't hear it from me, it isn't true?
Would that go over well, even with people who are, what they say, fans of mine, supporters of what I do?
Wouldn't it be considered spectacularly arrogant?
Of course it would, and rightly so.
If you don't hear it from me, it isn't true.
When you see those messages, remember that unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.
There you go, unless you hear it from us, it's not the truth.
That's who spoke at the Harvard graduation last year.
Compare this fool to this football player.
When I spoke at Stanford many years ago, I've spoken since, but many years ago I spoke at Stanford, and I had Stanford students and faculty on my show.
I was there for a number of days.
The Hoover Institution invited me.
And I remember thinking, wow, the only clear thinkers I'm having here are the guys in the athletics program.
I specifically remember the football players.
They were the only conservatives.
They were the only ones who made sense.
Now, obviously a lot of athletes have been poisoned now, like LeBron James.
I live in L.A., and I'm not rooting for the Lakers because he's not a good man.
But nevertheless, a lot more wisdom from this football player than from the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Hello everybody, Dennis Prager here playing for you. Dennis Prager here playing for you.
A two-time Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs, speaking at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology.
And there's more wisdom in this speech of four minutes and 49 seconds than in almost any...
Graduation speech.
By the way, we have an annual graduation speech at PragerU, which, if you played for your college kid, would be even more influential, or even as much, which would be fine with me.
Also five minutes.
We've done it for years now, right?
And they're really terrific, terrific talks about life.
A new one?
2023 is coming out next week.
Who is that?
Tim Pool?
Yeah.
Tim Pool gives that.
I wonder if Tim Pool ever went to college.
No.
He didn't?
No.
No wonder he has some wisdom.
He didn't graduate high school?
He did?
Oh, I see.
Something, yeah.
It's classic.
That is classic.
All right, let's finish the speech.
But they still used their God-given talents to do great things and change the world.
What a profound example to be motivated by our purpose rather than the current spotlight of the world.
For many of you, your academic careers are coming to an end.
For some, this is just one of many milestones.
Either way, it is important to use today as an opportunity to take stock of your mission.
Our culture is suffering.
We all see it.
It doesn't matter which political persuasion you sit on or whether you are a person of deep faith or not.
Anyone with eyes can see that something is off.
Studies have shown one of the many negative effects of the pandemic is that a lot of young adults feel a sense of loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
By the way, it's a crusade that I will lose.
I know that.
Nevertheless, don't say pandemic.
Don't say COVID. Say lockdown.
The lockdown caused this, not the pandemic.
Okay, go ahead.
Technology.
That has connected us more than ever before.
It would seem the more connected people are to one another, the more they feel alone.
I'm not sure the root of this, but at least I can offer one controversial antidote that I believe will have a lasting impact for generations to come.
Get married and start a family.
Wow.
One person on the stage applauded.
I will say this is the most important ring I have right here.
Hold on a sec.
He pointed to his wedding band.
That was his most important ring.
Get married and start a family.
Yeah?
So here is my dear question.
I don't know if it's a dear question.
Here is my question.
How many...
Graduation speakers will say get married and start a family.
And the answer is only those who are not on the left.
Every day I bring you the damage the left causes.
Every single day.
Because every single day there's another example.
The moment you hear someone say Two college kids get married and start a family.
You assume they're conservative.
Correct?
It's about as accurate as if you know someone is playing in the NBA, you know he is tall.
Not every single member of the NBA is tall, but it's an accurate assumption.
We continue.
I picked the game-winning field goal in both the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl.
I have received a great deal of praise for these successes.
They just announced that this Super Bowl was the most watched football game of all time.
That's right.
And the truth is, none of these accomplishments mean anything compared to the happiness I have found in my marriage and in starting a family.
My confidence as a husband and father, and yes, even as a football player, is rooted in my marriage with my wife.
As we leave our mark on future generations by the children we bring into the world.
How much greater of a legacy can anyone leave than that?
Alright, that was some terrific speech.
Wow.
Football player.
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Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager.
I welcome you to my show.
Never in my long life did I imagine that the United States of America would have political prisoners.
We do, because the Democratic Party is no longer liberal, it is leftist, and leftists do that.
That's what they do anywhere they come into power, anywhere in the world.
They suppress speech, suppress dissent, lock up opponents.
Put former candidates in prison.
Everything you're seeing the Democratic Party do today.
Nobody has chronicled the January 6th repercussions as Julie Kelly has, columnist for American Greatness, which is a great website.
You should all go there regularly, like daily.
Julie Kelly!
Not your first time on the Dennis Prager Show.
Wonderful to see you.
And by the way, you can see Julie Kelly if you go to the Salem News Channel.
The show is also on video.
J.C. Jackals circle Trump.
That's your theory.
But before we get to the Trump issue, Julie, why don't you tell us who was sentenced and what their sentences are or are likely to be?
So, in terms of the sentences for seditious conspiracy, four members of the Proud Boys were found guilty of that extremely rare statute that was established during the Civil War to stop the Confederacy from overtaking the United States government.
It has been weaponized to criminalize political dissent.
Four Proud Boys found guilty of a seditious conspiracy last week.
You have numerous Oath Keepers who have also been convicted and or pleaded guilty to that charge.
What happened the day after the verdicts were announced, Dennis, is Matthew Graves, the D.C. U.S. Attorney, posted a 183-page sentencing recommendation for the Oath Keepers, including Stuart Rhodes, its founder and leader.
And the prison sentence is that Matthew Graves wants the judge to approve.
Matthew Graves wants 25 years in prison for Stuart Rhodes for being convicted of seditious conspiracy and other counts.
20 years in prison for another man, Kelly Meggs, who went inside the building.
Now keep in mind, Stuart Rhodes never went inside the building.
None of them carried or used weapons.
None of them assaulted police officers.
These are strictly conspiracy and obstruction counts.
And Dennis, what really turned my stomach is Matthew Graves wanting 14 years in prison for a man named Thomas Caldwell, who is almost 70 years old, who is a decorated, disabled Navy lieutenant commander who used to have the highest security clearance.
He also never went into the building.
He was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a post-Enron statute, by the way.
And tampering with evidence.
And these ghouls in the Department of Justice, particularly Matthew Graves, the Biden campaign advisor and Biden appointee, want someone like Thomas Caldwell to die in prison because he was convicted by a D.C. jury of obstructing an official proceeding.
That's where we are in the United States of America.
It is not hyperbole to describe them and others before them who have been sentenced to years in prison on these very same counts obstruction and low level misdemeanors like parading in the Capitol months in jail.
It is not hyperbole to call them political prisoners.
It's exactly what they are.
It is a combination of angering and sad that this is happening in the United States of America.
or Very few Americans are even aware or care, which is exactly how evil triumphs, because most people just do nothing.
How is somebody convicted of obstructing a government proceeding who was unarmed and never entered the place where the alleged obstruction took place?
How was that done?
Well, it's done by dirty prosecutors, compliant rubber-stamp judges, including Trump-appointed judges, Republican-appointed judges.
Really?
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Stop there.
That's new to me.
Can you give an example by name?
I sure can.
Judge Timothy J. Kelly was the judge handling the Proud Boys Seditious Conspiracy case and a trial.
I have numerous articles in American Greatness about Judge Kelly, who...
Like a lot of the D.C. District Court judges used to work in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office.
This is the little cozy relationship between these judges and their one-time colleagues who are prosecuting every January 6th case.
He's an absolute disgrace.
The worst move he made among many is he refused numerous times to move the Proud Boys trial out of Washington.
Exactly.
That's the key.
It's exactly like a trial of a black accused of raping a white woman in Mississippi in 1920. Yes.
You know what the verdict is before the trial.
He did nothing to protect the rights of these defendants.
That's his job.
Not only that, Dennis, he kept nonviolent men accused of this obstruction and conspiracy count.
He denied them bail numerous times, including Joe Biggs.
Who was a Purple Heart veteran with deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Zachary Real, who's also a Marine, a veteran.
They committed no violent crime.
They didn't bring weapons.
They didn't assault anyone.
They didn't go hunting for Mike Pence and try to hang him or AOC. He denied them bail.
They have no criminal record.
Joe Biggs cooperated with the FBI for years, telling them what he knew about Antifa violence, planned Antifa violence.
Which, as you know, the Proud Boys would confront Antifa when law enforcement was unsuccessful in doing so.
That's just one example.
But the mere fact that Judge Tim Kelly, a fixture in Washington, D.C., his entire adult life, would not move this trial to another jurisdiction.
While the January 6th committee is talking about the Proud Boys during nighttime televised hearings.
They're naming these defendants.
They're showing videos of them.
The only people who cared about the January 6th Select Committee hearings were people in Washington who, of course, made up the jury pool.
So even when, at the last moment, when the January 6th Select Committee report dropped at the end of December, naming the Proud Boys over a hundred times, blaming them for what happened, jury selection and that trial was going on in Washington, D.C. None of this mattered to Judge Tim Kelly.
The real villains here, Dennis, are the judges.
They are letting this reckless, ruthless, abusive Department of Justice get away with whatever they want.
And Judge Kelly, after observing this for a long time, probably side with Beryl Howell, the former chief judge, but Tim Kelly is a particular disgrace.
And you say he was a Trump appointee?
He absolutely was.
He was appointed in 2017. Who recommended him to Donald Trump?
Do you have any idea?
The Federalist Society, probably.
I don't know if it was Mitch McConnell.
They should come out and say, we are ashamed.
And I'm not saying I blame them, but they need to say we're ashamed of our recommendation.
I mean, there has to be a way, at least, of moral censure.
Yes.
These judges, my field of study was the Soviet Union.
These judges would have fit perfectly in a totalitarian state.
Do what the state wants.
So I want to understand some of them never entered the Capitol.
None of them were armed.
So they're getting 20 years in prison, which rapists and many murderers don't get.
They're getting that because they plotted Is that it?
They didn't even plot.
See, in the case of the Proud Boys, which had numerous FBI informants, by the way, run into that group months before January 6th.
There were at least two who were on the ground with the group.
One of the key informants was telling his FBI handler at the time when some of these breaches were occurring that the Proud Boys were not responsible, that there was no plan, there was no attack.
Get this, Dennis, and there's a lot to this, but people can find all my work.
This trial and case is so egregious, is that the government first said there was a document called 1776 Returns, that this was the roadmap for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol and overthrow the government.
All right, all right, hold it there.
Can I come back to that document?
Because I want everybody to hear the mechanics of the police state working.
This is about as disturbing a news item of my lifetime in the United States as I've encountered.
Julie Kelly's piece is up at DennisPrager.com.
She writes for the American greatness.
Speaking to an important asset in this country, Julie Kelly, who I might add is probably no relation to Tim Kelly.
laughter laughter - That would be an irony of ironies, wouldn't it?
One of the hanging judges.
That's what he's become.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
You wanted to say something.
Yes, I often tweet that.
I'm not related to Tim.
Right.
Well, Kelly's not a rare name.
Not that I know.
It's my husband's family.
Let's hope not.
Oh, yeah.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
Well, you could be related to marriage, obviously.
Anyway, so I was asking you, how are these sentences justified for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, sedition?
By the way, when was sedition used since the Civil War?
Was it ever used?
The last time the government tried to charge Americans with seditious conspiracy was in 2010 in a case of the Hootaree tribe in Michigan.
And the federal judge up there laughed it out of court.
What's interesting in this 183-page sentencing memo, Dennis, is that there's so little case law to compare sentences with, to make sure that the sentences are comparable.
They actually had to mention Terrorists involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed four people, was tied directly to foreign terrorist cells.
That was one of their first comparisons.
This is who they're comparing a man like Thomas Caldwell to, or Kelly Meigs, or they will compare Joe Biggs and Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys.
Uh-oh, we're experiencing technical problems.
It's hard to believe.
I am witnessing what I never entertained as a possibility in the United States.
People entered the Capitol, the vast majority of them peacefully.
The vast majority of them thinking they were doing nothing wrong.
Nothing essentially happened.
No officers were killed that day.
One of the protesters was.
And now everybody who set foot there, and even people who didn't set foot there, like the people now being convicted of sedition.
Julie, we lost you.
I had asked you when was the last time Sedition was used.
You mentioned 2010. It was laughed out of court, you said.
And go on from there.
I'm sorry.
That must have been the FBI cut, our connection.
The last time that there were convictions for seditious conspiracy, this was tied to foreign...
Domestic foreign terrorists, including several who were involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
This is what a stretch it is to be using this charge against American citizens who committed no violence.
But when you're going before these judges, as I was saying, and a jury that is picked from a city that voted 93% for Joe Biden, that has nothing but open contempt for Donald Trump and his supporters.
And views the events of January 6th very personally.
There's no way to get a fair trial.
One of the jurors in this trial gave an interview the day after the verdicts were announced and said on day one, they concluded that four of the five of them had committed seditious conspiracy.
That's how quickly they're coming back with these insane verdicts.
Matthew Grace and DOJ will want these men to spend decades in prison.
On top of the almost two and a half years they've already been in jail.
They've already been in jail two and a half years.
But I thought that the Democrats favor that even if you are alleged to have killed someone, you should be free until your trial.
It's just these people who are in prison.
I've interviewed people like John Mellis on my show a number of times from prison.
He has not even had a bail hearing in now, I guess, two years.
Not a bail hearing.
And this doesn't trouble a single person in the Democratic Party.
Half of this country actually probably celebrates this.
They do.
It also doesn't bother a lot of people in the Republican Party, I will say.
There's no reason why.
House Republicans should not call a judge like Tim Kelly.
I mean, look at what the Senate is trying to do to Clarence Thomas and conservative judges on the Supreme Court.
Why are we not calling district judges?
So let's say they did.
Let's say they called Judge Kelly to testify in Congress.
What would they do?
What would you like them to do?
I would like...
For Judge Tim Kelly to explain his decision to repeatedly deny bail to non-violent offenders with no criminal record.
So he can tell America it's because they were involved in January 6th, a domestic terrorist.
Why are the Republicans in Congress, in the House, not doing this?
They control the House.
They do.
I've suggested it privately and publicly many times.
Nothing has happened so far.
But I would call Tim Kelly.
I would call Judge Beryl Howell, who was the chief judge.
I'm sure you're familiar with her name.
She also handled the Robert Mueller, special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
She has over 100 sealed orders and hearings related to Donald Trump to this investigation into Trump.
But she also early on established, get this Dennis, special rules that would only apply.
Alright, alright, we're going to continue in a moment.
Julie Kelly of American Greatness.
Julie Kelly is a very important voice in this country at American Greatness, keeping up with the fascistization of our government.
I took a vow 40 years ago when I began radio, never to exaggerate.
So when I say that, I mean it literally.
That is what the left is doing, because the left has always done it in every country that they have gained power.
So, I asked you, why isn't the Republican-controlled House calling anybody to testify?
I bounce this off my producer, for whom I have immense respect.
His theory is that the Republicans don't want to touch January 6th.
Is that accurate?
Yes.
That's true.
So the left has won the January 6th demonization?
So far, yes, they absolutely have.
Wow.
It's very unfortunate.
It's very unfortunate.
And they finally are going to ask D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves to testify, something I've also suggested, but to talk about why he's not handling D.C.'s rampant crime problem.
Now, hopefully, if he is subpoenaed to testify publicly, that House Republicans on the Oversight Committee will take that opportunity to confront him about what he's doing in this criminal prosecution.
He already has 1,000-plus defendants, Dennis.
He warned that he is going to double this caseload and potentially charge more than 2,000 Trump supporters for criminal activity related to January 6th.
So if Matthew Grace does testify about why he's not handling D.C.'s crime problem, he manages both local and federal crimes in D.C., the only one to do that.
I'll be watching closely to see if these House Republicans will finally, more than two years later, confront someone at this D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office for this unprecedented, abusive, destructive, political and selective prosecution.
What is his...
Matthew Graves, what is his title?
He is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves.
And who appointed him?
Joe Biden.
He's a Biden campaign advisor.
His wife also runs a very far-left radical women's legal center in Washington, D.C. Who I'm sure their fingerprints are all over this.
They certainly were after the Dobbs ruling was released.
She's a radical leftist who called white women who voted for Donald Trump racists after the 2020 election, said that in the CNN column.
So this is the mindset, the radical ideology.
I want to get to your punchline with regard to Donald Trump, but I just can't...
Avoid asking you, and there's no objectively accurate answer, but your subjective, knowledge-based opinion.
Oh, we lost you again?
Okay.
What I was going to ask her is what animates a person like Matthew Graves?
Is it hatred?
I think it's hatred.
And that they believe.
They're true believers.
Remember, I wrote, as soon as it happened, I'd say within two weeks, maybe sooner, that the left will use January 6th the way the Nazis used the Reichstag fire to diminish freedom in the country in the name of battling Anti-governmental forces in that country.
And that's exactly what has happened.
I'm not saying that Democrats are Nazis.
Of course not.
I'm saying that they're using January 6th, like the Nazis used the Reichstag fire, to diminish liberty in the country in the name of combating, in this case, sedition.
Sedition.
You know how many capitals were taken over by leftists in the last 20 years?
And essentially nothing has happened to them?
Taken over for days.
Remember the one, what was it?
Was it Madison, Wisconsin?
Didn't they like camp out there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're starting a GoFundMe page for Julie Kelly's internet.
Are you there, Julie Kelly?
Bye.
Yes, I am.
Never had that happen before.
Is that right?
I'm sorry.
I don't know what happened.
Yeah.
Well, maybe you're right about the FBI. For the leftists who monitor my show, I was joking.
Just for the record.
All right, so...
I asked you, and then I theorized when I lost you, I asked you, what animates this?
And I think that my theory, bouncing off you, is hatred.
There is the deepest form of hatred.
I would say that people like Matthew Graves and his wife regard us, Conservatives, or those who voted for Donald Trump, in the same way they view Nazis.
So they justify using the government to jail opponents by saying they are freeing the country or ridding the country of Nazis.
How do you react to that theory?
Yes, I think that's a big part of it.
They have open, palpable contempt for Trump and his supporters.
And what's even sicker is seeing them enjoy inflicting pain on Americans.
And we're talking about a lot of J6ers.
They've never been in trouble with the law.
They spoke directly to the FBI thinking they were helping the FBI. They didn't even have attorneys present.
They let them into their homes if they weren't, you know, subjected to a 6 a.m.
armed raid with a battering ram taking down their front door.
They've had no experience with the criminal justice system.
And I'll tell you another thing I suspect.
If Democrats are doing this because so many...
On the right, support law and order and police and believe the justice system is inherently fair.
This is a way for them to turn the tables and say, do you see what has happened, what others have had to deal with with this unfair justice system?
When everything is stacked against you, this is what happens.
This is what you get.
There's a big part of me that suspects that's an underlying motive here.
But it's nothing good.
It's nothing good.
These are people you would want nothing to do with.
They're really sadistic.
They're destroying the lives of decent people.
And they're enjoying it.
Yeah.
Oh, there's a sadistic element to the left.
That's what they do.
Well, these are the people who think that 18-year-old girls should be allowed to take their breasts off.
Have them cut off if they say they're boys.
The same people.
Exactly right.
That's right.
There's a very sick world out there.
I don't know how America produced so many awful people.
How does a good country produce bad people?
It's one of the riddles of life.
But it's happened in large numbers.
So let's get to your punchline.
You think this is a prelude to arresting Donald Trump, correct?
It absolutely is.
Not just, I mean, I've warned about this for months, that this DOJ and Special Counsel Jack Smith would seek criminal indictments against Trump, a multi-count indictment, but now that the Proud Boys have been convicted of seditious conspiracy and they made Trump a key figure in this trial, they have a clear pathway, Jack Smith does, or whoever's running Jack Smith pulling the strings.
To seek a similar criminal indictment before a grand jury against Trump for seditious conspiracy.
I fully expect that to happen.
He will be indicted by Jack Smith.
There's no question.
But the only open question now is, will he seek this seditious conspiracy?
I think that he will, too, because they did have Mike Pence testify before Jack Smith's grand jury a few weeks ago.
And he would be the closest link between Donald Trump planning seditious conspiracy, meaning to prevent, delay, or hinder execution of a law of the United States.
That's how vague this is.
That's what sedition means?
That's what seditious conspiracy means, yes.
By force.
But there was no force needed.
Oh, it adds by force?
Then how were these people convicted on the by force part?
They didn't say because they breached a police line.
Apparently that's enough by force.
But what they did is when one of the defense attorneys blamed Trump also for his client's behavior and said when Trump said go fight like hell, that will be enough to justify, to fill that burden of proof that he wanted to use force.
Well, it's like...
What was the Alaska governor's name, the woman?
Sarah Palin.
Yeah, Sarah Palin, remember, said put a target on their heads?
That's right.
And so they blamed her for the shooting in Arizona of, was it Gaffey?
Gaffey Giffords.
Yeah, Giffords, yeah.
They lie because truth is not a left-wing value, as I tell my listeners literally every day.
So you think that they'll try to do this to Trump.
You know what it also shows?
They have no fear of the right.
None.
None.
It's amazing.
Why should they?
Yes, that's right.
Well, given the lack of fight on the Republican side, and also we're not predisposed to rioting.
That's why...
People fear the left because they riot.
We don't riot.
Right.
Well, that's why if this were a legitimate investigation and prosecution, they should be charging the people who intentionally left the Capitol, grounds, and buildings unsecure that day.
Why did all...
And look, we now know there were multiple agencies with not just uniform, but undercover agents all over Washington, D.C. Why didn't they stop what was happening?
They let it happen.
So we could exactly get to this point where we are now.
That's what I write about in my book.
Alright, we'll do a final segment with you in a moment.
Julie Kelly of American Greatness or Pieces up at DennisPrager.com Julie Kelly believes that the sedition Verdict will enable the Department of Justice to go after Donald Trump with an indictment for sedition as well.
This is what it's all leading up to.
A couple of quick questions.
Is an appeal possible for these horrible, vicious 20-year sentence verdicts?
Yes.
They certainly can appeal and they will appeal, but only after they are sentenced.
That's the law.
So these men in the Oathkeeper's convictions who were convicted last year, November, or the two of them, they will be sentenced at the end of this month.
So after they're sentenced, then their lawyers can file an appeal, which will go to the D.C. Circuit Court, which...
Ain't a lot better than D.C. District Court.
Well, exactly.
So, they're completely trapped.
They're trapped.
I call it, I say, the judicial and legal circle of hell.
They are trapped.
There's no escape.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's a nightmare.
It's horrific, and I'll tell you, you know, going to some of these...
Trials and hearings and seeing these broken families, broken men.
It's beyond belief.
Yeah.
It's like being injured by a hit-and-run driver.
The government has become a hit-and-run driver.
Can they be absolved of their sentence if there's a Republican president?
Yes.
Yes.
Whoever the Republican president is.
And look, I think this is another objective here, is to say, we're going to rig this election again.
We're going to do what we did in 2020. And you're not going to say a word, because if you do, this is what's coming for you.
They're going to figure out, I mean, even aside from the absentee mail-in using COVID, they've already got that on a fast track.
So they're going to basically say any official, any individual, you're not going to protest, you're not going to organize rallies like you did after 2020, because if you do, this is what is coming for you.
Well, Julie, I'm on your team, to say the least.
Well, thank you.
You have been from the beginning.
Our first interview about political prisoners was the Cooey Griffin.
Be cleaning him, keeping him in custody, and that was February 2021. Bless you.
All right.
Let's keep fighting.
Hi, everybody.
This is the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Some great issues of life.
The third hour every Tuesday.
And as usual, this is a big issue, and it's so big that people have positions on it, but I don't know how many, including me, have really thought it through.
And it's basically this, can a thought be a sin, or can only an action?
Be a sin.
And I'm not only talking to religious people.
Use the sin in a secular sense.
Is a bad thought bad?
Now, many people will say, of course, and their arguments, which are not easily negated, are bad deeds start with bad thoughts.
What makes the question, however, well, many things make the question, or a number, not many, things make the question complex, is that if you do the opposite, are good thoughts good?
The answer is, not necessarily at all.
The number of people who have done terrible things with good thoughts is very, very large.
Take in our country, the people who suppress speech, they don't do so with bad thought.
They have good intentions, and vast numbers are released consciously on their part.
The people, the Communists of the 20th century who slaughtered 100 million people, they often had good thoughts.
Good thoughts, that I have done on a number of occasions.
Good intentions are worthless.
Simply worthless.
You need good behavior.
That's what matters.
So if good intentions or good thoughts don't mean a damn thing, only your behavior matters, then why isn't the opposite true about bad thoughts?
Bad thoughts don't matter, it's only your actions.
It's a very, very difficult and important question.
1-8 Prager, 776-877-243-7776.
One of the most dramatic calls of my 40-year career on radio occurred in my first few years.
So much so that I've written about this call, I actually introduced this call into my first video, for goodness sake, which is still available on the internet somewhere.
You'll love it.
It's fantastic.
Every kid should see it.
It's a movie.
Hilarious video about goodness with some of the biggest stars of Hollywood at the time.
It was in the 1990s.
That's how I met Alan Nestrin, my producer and co-founder of PragerU.
A guy called my show.
I would say he was about, I don't know, 35, 40 years old.
I'd say 35. And this was the gist of his call.
His call, he said, Dennis, I am a really bad son.
And of course I asked, why are you a bad son?
He said, because I have been the sole source, sole financial, emotional, physical source of help to my ailing mother.
Finally, after 10 years, I've got to tell you, there were times I wish she would succumb to her illness, meaning that she would die.
And I said to him, I'll never forget this, I said, bad son, I don't know what you're talking about.
You are a terrific son.
And I'll never forget as well his reaction.
You're, I think, something to the effect...
I know you're mocking me, right?
He couldn't believe that I was serious.
He judged himself by his thought, wanting his mother to die.
And I was judging him by his behavior, how good he was to his mother.
And I have to ask any of you who believe in the...
In the importance of thought, in judging sinful thoughts, and it's a sinful thought, wanting your mother to die, those who believe that, and many people do, and I respect that, would you agree with me or not that this was a terrific son?
He had a rather awful thought, wanting his mother to die.
And yet he treated her terrifically.
I would argue that in light of his desire that his mother die, and how good he treated her, that he gets extra credit for not acting upon his thought.
This is a very big, very big deal to me.
I am a behaviorist.
I judge people by their behavior.
By the way, let us say, I discussed this with my wife, this caller, for many years ago.
And I said, well, look, he wasn't plotting ways to kill her.
And we both realized, let's say he was even thinking, how can I painlessly kill my mom after all these years of her sickness?
And that's pretty awful.
I mean, you can't get much worse than thinking of how you kill your parent, or any innocent person, obviously, but especially a parent.
But even if he did that, would that be considered a sin if he continued to treat her wonderfully?
Now you'll say, well, if he's thinking that way, he probably isn't going to treat her wonderfully.
But what if he does?
That's the question.
I think that it's hard enough to behave well.
To demand that people think well is demanding a lot.
I am a behaviorist.
That is all we can judge people by.
Thoughts are too complex.
And thoughts are thoughts.
Okay.
Let's take a look here and get some of your responses.
I think it's an important question.
And good people can be on both sides of this issue.
All right, Mark in Fullerton, California.
Hello.
Boy, that was quick.
Well, you're number one on the list, so I went to you.
Wow.
Hey, I don't know where to begin to say thank you for your insights and stuff, and especially coming from the Jewish perspective that has even more deeper underpinnings to the roots of Christianity, which for a lot of us on the Christian faith, I get the feeling we just take it for granted.
Thank you.
By the way, I want to thank you for being your first caller on your last day of religion on the line.
Really?
Yeah.
On your last day of religion on the line, I had mentioned to you how I was being excommunicated from my faith, from the Jehovah's Witnesses, and you encouraged me to stay, never lose sight of your commitment to God, because that's first and foremost, which, by the way, I always had from the very beginning, before I ever got baptized.
Well, thank you.
That's a great memory.
You were a young guy.
Well, I was a young guy, too.
Oh, yes.
All right, go ahead.
Getting to this topic, one of the things that I have found is that this thing about...
It addresses right to what you're saying.
How many men, including myself, I have no intention of lusting after anything.
thing.
I'm dealing with things, I'm driving by, and I see a very lust-producing, or at least something that starts the incinerator or the catalyst of thinking that way on a billboard or seeing something, or let alone just, you know, just coming across some filthy trash, you know, porn on the street, just coming across some filthy trash, you know, porn on the And the temptation to want to look at it, there are times when I gave in, and it's been an itch ever since.
Hold on with me.
I really You're an honest man.
I want to talk to you about this.
Hey!
Yes, indeed!
The Ultimate Issues Hour with Dennis Bringer Show, third hour, every Tuesday.
I got it right.
There you go.
Are sinful thoughts sins?
And are good thoughts good?
Does God punish you for thought?
Does God reward you for thought?
And secondly, I... You can ask the first question.
Same thing.
I am in the behavior camp.
I generally don't care what you think.
I only care how you act.
Let's go back to Mark in Fullerton.
So you were saying...
Alright, you tell me what you were saying.
I won't tell you what you were saying.
Well, no, well...
I just don't know where to begin.
It's just so awesome.
Like I've said, you are the Muhammad Ali of clarity, and especially with the scriptures and everything else.
It is just totally awesome.
I had mentioned coming across thoughts that I wish I didn't have, that I have, and yet they're there.
I can't pretend they're not there, but I guess it's the living force that we look forward to getting out of it, Do we, how do you say, bite the bullets?
And for knowing that God is, you know, we know God exists, we know He's there, He knows our thoughts before, we know it, and yet He still allows us to disappoint Him.
And the fact that He allows us to disappoint Him is itself a, it sort of takes away the hypnosis of being caught up in the pleasure of what we want to experience.
It's like...
Okay, I guess I can enjoy it, but it's not the same knowing that he's watching.
I don't know how to describe it.
And to me, the Bible speaks of that.
I'm sorry, what speaks of the Bible, you said?
To me, the scriptures hint that principle, and you are a trailblazer, in my opinion, of expounding and noticing these things, even when it's not from your particular...
The fact that you're willing to look and explore and examine the Christian faith, even though it implies that, well, that was then, this is the new one, Christianity.
Well, what good is a new Christianity if the booster rocket of Judaism, well, it was just meant to get to Christianity, and after that we don't need it anymore.
Goodbye.
Really?
Yeah, well, you know what?
That is a great subject.
Thank you.
You're a thinker.
I appreciate your call very much.
That's another subject, and it's a very good one.
Christian's view of the Hebrew Bible.
It's quite varied.
Anyway, we'll do that another time.
So my position is actions matter.
Good thoughts don't count if they're not translated into action.
Bad thoughts don't count if they're not translated into action.
That's my view.
Alright, let's see here.
Woodland Hills, California.
Jim, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
Oh, this is such a great topic, because I believe that Christians, Bible-believing Christians, get this wrong all the time.
Usually in the context of where Jesus said, if you look at a woman lustfully...
You've committed adultery in your heart.
And we even had Jimmy Carter say that once.
And there is a very important verse in the book of James which gives the lie to that.
Briefly, I'll just read it very quickly.
It says, And that conceived is the key.
It means that the thought is given the ascent of the will, and it becomes, thus, intention and not merely an enticement.
And Martin Luther said something very profound.
He said, You can't keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from making a nest in your hair.
And that's what that means.
It means we're wired, as you've said many times, men, to be attracted to the visual, but that itself is not a sin.
It is only if that initial thought has been given the ascent of will and the intention.
Only then does it become a sin.
So the initial thought is not a sin.
So how long, and I deeply respect your insights, and I love the Luther thing about the nest.
That was adorable.
So how long can you dwell on it before it becomes a sin?
Yeah, you know, I don't think there's a hard and fast rule.
Okay, all right, that's fair.
You know, a man knows, and he sees something visually attractive, he then is in control, then he's in control of his thoughts, and he can say, look, I don't want to look at that, I don't need to look at that, I love my wife, you know, whatever it is, he's not letting that enticement control him.
And I think that is such a key, because so many Christians think, Just because you look at a billboard or something like that and you're attracted, that it's a sin.
And I think it's caused so many men to feel guilty about it, and it just simply isn't there.
Well, thank you.
Very, very important discussion.
I suggest that all of you, men and women, especially women, see my video.
And I mean my, because I made it, I wrote it, and I deliver it.
It's titled, He Wants You.
There are millions of views of it.
It's at PragerU.
He Wants You.
Or He Wants You, really.
The emphasis is on you.
It will clarify for women.
I have seen this take place.
I have shown this video.
I remember showing it to a man and woman.
In some city at midnight when I was at a cigar bar and a really cigar lounge, which by sheer good luck was still open.
It was sort of a private place they allowed me in.
They didn't know who I was and we started talking and I got her to watch.
She was about 25. I got her to watch He Wants You.
And it was fascinating to watch her watch it.
It was like a revelation about how men see women, which was completely new to her, and which is meant to be ultimately comforting.
All right, let's see here.
We will return in a moment.
Okay, got so many interesting calls, needless to say.
We will return.
Hey everybody, Dennis Prager here, Ultimate Issues Hour.
What an incredibly interesting topic I picked here.
Are thoughts sinful is the issue?
I think deeds are, generally speaking, only deeds are sinful.
And one of my arguments is, if sinful thoughts are to be held against you, then good thoughts are to be held in your favor.
Sort of, if God judges us, If God judges our thoughts, then if bad thoughts are demerits, then good thoughts are merit.
But it's not possible because so many people who do bad things have good thoughts, and so many people who do good have bad thoughts.
So the connection is more tenuous than I think a lot of people have.
On the other hand, it's...
Presumably, it's a life at greater peace if you have good thoughts.
But that's your personal condition.
Vis-a-vis the rest of the world, your behavior is what matters.
That's my take with understanding that there might be exceptions.
All right, anyway.
Let's go to Klamath Falls.
I've gotten calls from there in Oregon.
Craig, thank you for calling.
Hello.
Yes, good to talk to you.
Thank you.
As I've been listening to your discussion here, in the Ten Commandments, there is the commandment to not covet, and then there's a separate commandment to not steal.
To me, it seems like the covet is a thought process, whereas...
If you act it out, then it's stealing, but God does put both commands in blue.
Right, so that's the one exception, and it makes perfect sense to me, and a lot of people don't understand the verb.
Kavit, among other things, and I wrote this in my Bible commentary, the Rational Bible, both in Deuteronomy and in Exodus, because the Ten Commandments appears in both books.
That covet is not lust, because you don't lust after a house, and the commandment says, do not covet your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's house, your neighbor's servants, and anything that your neighbor owns.
Covet means, I want to take away, it's basically steal, as you said.
I want to steal X, Y, because that is going to...
Probably lead to bad stuff.
But it's the one, at least Old Testament, exception with regard to thought.
There are 613 laws in the Torah.
That's the only one I know of that is a commandment with regard to thought.
Now, you might say, you know, love your neighbor as yourself.
That's thought.
But it's not.
It's behavior.
Act loving to your neighbor.
How you feel about him is a separate issue.
Yeah.
So you're right.
You're right to point out COVID. Okay.
I've sort of been thinking maybe the sin issue is one thing, but there's sort of the reaping and sowing thing.
If you sow certain things in your thoughts, do you expect to reap something different in your actions?
Well, as I said, since there's such a minimal connection between good thoughts and good actions, I don't know that there's this big connection.
Obviously, a bad action can come from a bad thought, but I would argue in our time, more bad behavior has come from good thoughts than good behavior has come from good thoughts.
Yeah.
At least good intention.
Thank you.
That's why people need wisdom.
See, good thoughts without wisdom lead to bad.
People who supported communists, people who gave Stalin secrets to the nuclear weapon, they all had good thoughts.
They didn't want only one country to have nuclear weapons.
Wisdom is the key to goodness, not good thoughts.
Dennis Prager here.
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