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Aug. 3, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:25:24
Reality Check
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Dennis Prager here.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast.
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subscribe at prager topia.com hello my friends I'm Dennis Prager.
Great to be with you.
I hope the feeling is mutual.
And I assume to a large extent it is because that's why you're tuning in.
America has been divided often.
There have always been people, if you will, on the left, people on the right.
Certainly there was a division over slavery that was dramatic to the point of hundreds of thousands of Americans slaughtered in a civil war.
What is new in the division today?
There are a number of things, and it's a worthy topic.
Certainly come to the fore because of the indictments or the charges brought against.
The leading Republican contender and a former president.
Unprecedented actions in the United States, precedented in virtually every dictatorship.
What is new is that the two sides have a different perspective.
Not just a different perspective, that's much too mild.
The two sides have a different perception, that's the word I wanted, of reality.
See, the North and South did not differ on facts.
They differed in values, but not on facts.
We have today not only values that are diametrically opposed to one another between left and right, We don't even agree, and this is what is the first, on reality.
If you think it is fair for biological men to compete in women's sports, it's not a matter of values.
Why is this a values issue?
This is a reality issue.
Either it's fair or it's unfair.
That's a fact.
Either men have an advantage.
Whether or not they call themselves women, or they don't have an advantage whether or not they call themselves women.
Either men who say they're women should be put in women's prisons and women's locker rooms, or they shouldn't.
That is not a difference in values.
That is a difference in reality.
We perceive reality differently.
I read the New York Times editorial defending Jack Smith.
We don't agree on reality.
It is not, again, only an issue of values.
There is a values issue.
You better have a massive, massive reason, unprecedentedly serious reason, to arrest a former president and the leading contender of the opposition, or you are communists.
Or fascists.
Or any term you wish to use for people who wish to have dictatorial rule in a country.
There isn't, outside of Alan Dershowitz, there isn't a liberal, let alone a leftist, of whom I am...
Oh yeah, there is.
Jonathan Turley.
Jonathan Turley is another liberal.
And I say that despite the fact that Jonathan Turley attacked me many years ago.
Bizarre.
It just shows you how deep this stuff is because he writes a lot of very good stuff.
He called me a Judeo-Christian fascist.
Did you know that?
That was a new term.
I've been called everything but Judeo-Christian fascist.
That was a new one.
Because we know the history of Judeo-Christian fascism is a long and dark one.
Yes.
Anyway, by the way, it's another example of we know what they know and they don't know what we know.
Or they don't even read our perspective or hear it or watch it.
We know theirs.
I read the New York Times.
How many New York Times readers read the Wall Street Journal editorial page?
This is a terrible, terrible day in America.
I wrote 20 years ago that we're having a civil war.
And I said, and I pray it remains non-violent.
I'm not sure that this is not an act of violence.
Isn't every arrest an act of violence?
Now, as I wrote many years ago, there's moral violence and immoral violence.
So you may say it's moral violence arresting people, and it usually is.
But it is violence.
And if it's not moral, you have done something that only the Lord knows what it can lead to.
This is a very, very, very, very bad thing in American life.
He told pernicious, was that the word?
What was the adjective for the word lies in the indictment, the headline of the New York Times yesterday?
We'll find it.
He was, let's see.
This is the wrong one.
I want to get today's.
Column from the New York Times has reported it.
There we go.
You should know, by the way, this is very distressing.
Judge assigned to Trump federal case Tanya Chutkan has sometimes handed down sentences tougher than the ones sought by prosecutors.
The woman is a left-wing activist.
That is who the judge is.
The federal judge.
The federal judge assigned to former President Donald Trump's latest criminal case has been publicly critical of January 6th as imposed lengthy sentences on Trump supporters who went into the Capitol.
I know one such, John Strand, who's in not only prison, But a particularly severe prison.
And all he did was video of him.
All he did was enter the Capitol.
The vast majority of the people who went to the Capitol that day went to demonstrate not to insurrect.
The day they used insurrection, I realized we're entering the realm of propaganda.
I wrote that week they're going to use this like the Nazis used the Reichstag fire, and I was right.
The German parliament was burned in 1933, just as Hitler assumed power in Germany.
And the Nazis used that fire as an excuse to jail opponents and rule by dictatorial decree.
You ever hear of the term state of emergency?
Yes, that's what they did.
Chutkin, a former public defender, has shown a scrupulous concern for the rights of criminal defendants.
During the final years of the Trump administration, she repeatedly frustrated Justice Department efforts to accelerate the execution of federal inmates.
The Supreme Court reinstated the execution she blocked.
The Supreme Court has overturned her.
Chutkin would oversee a trial.
In the case, which he hasn't yet scheduled.
Trump will make his initial appearance in the case Thursday afternoon.
That's today, correct?
Yeah.
That hearing is expected to be overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Moksila Upadhyaya.
The indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
Which accuses Trump of criminal scheme, of a criminal scheme to stay in power after his election defeat.
A reading from the Wall Street Journal has been randomly assigned to Chutkin, a 2014 Obama appointee who was confirmed by the Senate on a 95-0 vote.
I'd like to know who the five were who voted against her.
She's not inclined to give people involved the benefit of the doubt, said Douglas Berman, a professor of criminal law at The Ohio State University.
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So the judge that is overseeing the prosecution, and I would say persecution, of Donald Trump is a left-wing activist. of Donald Trump is a left-wing activist.
She was part of lawyers for Obama.
She's the person overseeing the trial.
She's the judge.
She has regularly handed down sentences in line with or above what prosecutors recommend.
That is very rare, by the way.
Making numerous statements concerning the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol and the future threat of political violence driven by anti-democratic sentiments.
Said John Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University's program on extremism.
This is all reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The New York Times is livid with regard to Donald Trump and his lie that the election was dishonest.
Let's say it was a lie.
Do you understand that you're allowed to lie except under oath?
You're allowed to say a lot of horrible things.
Nazis demonstrated in front of a Georgia synagogue last month.
And when the police were asked why they didn't stop them, they said because they're exercising their free speech.
And I am a Jew, and I agreed with the police.
If free speech is allowed, it allows for terrible speech.
It even allows for lies.
I am allowed to say the earth is flat.
Is that a lie?
Can I be arrested if I get a public forum and say the earth is flat?
No.
First of all, sometimes lie is not clear.
Sometimes lie is used as a political weapon.
We're told that we lie by saying that men and women are basically different.
That's a lie.
It's a lie.
We're told by the American Medical Association that it is a lie that men have an advantage in sports.
Right?
These are all lies.
Destabilizing.
Destabilizing, that's right.
Okay, you're allowed a lie, but you can't tell a destabilizing lie.
To say that this is not the America I grew up in is like saying that it is cold in the North Pole.
It is not.
You know, I do a podcast with a 23-year-old young woman, Dennis and Julie, it's called, and you would love it.
It's quite remarkable.
She's quite remarkable.
So I have philosophized over the following question.
Who has it worse emotionally?
Young people who never saw a free America?
Or those of us who are old and did see a free America and are watching it disappear?
I don't have an answer to that question.
Memories are very powerful and can be a source of comfort and they can be a source of distress.
Are over?
I don't have an answer to that question.
She doesn't either.
She sort of doesn't understand the America that I grew up in.
She believes me.
She understands the words.
When I was a kid, I remember this so vividly.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
We would play stickball in the street.
So, you know, the guys would yell at each other and some guy would say something stupid or mean.
Or whatever.
And somebody would say, shut up.
And that kid would say, hey, it's a free country.
That was the answer of the guy who said stupid things or even cursed.
It's a free country.
It was built in.
You could say anything.
Even things that are wrong.
Or at least perceived as wrong.
The President of the United States and the leader of the opposition is going.
On trial?
Because he said things that the opposition doesn't believe are true?
My favorite is Jack Smith wrote in the indictment that Trump knew that it was a lie, that what he was saying was a lie.
Really?
That why don't we put Donald Trump on a lie detector?
There is no doubt in my mind that he is as certain that he was defrauded of the election as you are of your name.
He is as certain of that as you are of whatever your name is.
This is what we've come to.
It has been a revelation to me in my older age.
You know, you think you know a lot, especially if you spend your life thinking and writing and talking.
I never realized until the last few years how many people are governed by emotions.
Trump is the perfect example.
People I respected voted Democrat because they hate Donald Trump.
It is better to ruin America than vote for a man I hate.
I have a feeling there's another country where this is happening.
We'll talk about that in the next segment.
But that's it.
People are emotionally driven.
You want a lie?
Here's a lie.
I'm about to tell you a lie.
That the Enlightenment ushered in the age of reason.
I wish we were living in the age of reason.
If we were living in the age of reason, forget a Judeo-Christian age, just the age of reason, Donald Trump would not be on trial.
It is pure, undiluted passion.
So here's the question.
Is there a more powerful force than hatred?
Another question I don't know the answer to.
People are willing to destroy this country because they hate one man.
That's fascinating.
All right, we continue.
I want to remind you that August is fundraising month for PragerU.
Please make a donation during the break.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Sean has a slight OCD problem, but it's very slight.
Do you realize what I've accused Sean of?
White supremacy, OCD. My guests are true experts on the Middle East.
They're in from Israel.
Felice and Michael Friedson, I've known them for years.
They're wonderful human beings and they're honest.
You know, if I didn't ask you personally, and I'm not even sure now I know your politics, which is such a credit to you, to you both.
So, Israel has been racked with unprecedentedly large demonstrations.
So I'm curious, you heard me, you were in the studio and I said, Oh, maybe you didn't.
It might have been right before you came in.
I said America is now one country and two worlds.
Is that true for Israel?
Is it that severe?
Israel is fighting internally.
I'm not so sure that they're trying to undo what was done as much as they're seeing openings to pick up the power that they might be able to get their hands on.
So each side is looking for the mechanics of functioning in a government where they say things are unconstitutional and yet there's no constitution.
Or laws go through on the way to being approved as a law of the country, goes through a system whereby somebody will yell, it's unconstitutional and has to go through the constitution committee, but yet there's no constitution.
Yeah, that's a phenomenon, I will admit.
But I am curious about the depths of the division.
What I described about America, would you say that about Israel today?
It's two countries or two worlds?
Close to it.
People won't talk about it.
That's the kind of discussion.
Certain things are off limits.
Nobody wants to be accused of doing something because they don't like the Sardim or the Ashkenazim, or they're taking those kind of intranacent...
Do you have the phenomenon, and I shudder to ask the question, do you have the phenomenon that we have in America, and I'm telling you it is widespread, of children, I don't mean 5-year-olds or 10-year-olds, I mean 20 and 30-year-olds, who will not speak to a parent because of how they voted?
It's starting to seep in.
That's what I was about to add.
And you are beginning to see this happen.
Really?
Yes.
Yes.
So this has been very divisive.
But you know, Dennis, I have to say there are issues here that are far more serious.
Go ahead.
You're looking at Iranian nuclear proliferation.
Imagine around October, November, it could happen, and Israel has to go solo.
Something kicks off the war.
There's been all kinds of tests on borders with Israel, whether it's Lebanon.
It's all of Iran's proxies.
And all of a sudden you have reservists right now that are saying that we're not going to show up because of the judicial reforms.
And we're talking about 10,000 or more reservists.
We're talking about Air Force pilots.
We're talking about those that manned drones.
We're talking about intelligence officers.
And you can read this every day.
This is getting to the heart of the nation.
So I ask you that even if Prime Minister Netanyahu may be correct, And even if you agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu in terms of the fact of how judicial reforms should play out and when, sometimes the timing for the sake of a nation's security might be more important.
And I'm throwing that out because I think people sometimes stop short and don't look at the big picture.
So even if Netanyahu and his supporters are right, it may not be the time.
Because of the security issue.
That's one element, yes.
I have to admit, I read that there were people, members of the Air Force, for example, who threatened this.
And I couldn't believe it.
Because Iran doesn't care if you're pro or anti-Netanyahu, pro or anti-judicial reforms.
They want to kill you.
It's like the Nazis did not distinguish between left-wing and right-wing Jews, secular and religious Jews.
They don't see it that way?
They are willing to jeopardize Israel, these reservists, because of politics?
Yes.
That's how bad it's gotten.
So I think that Israel is at a very dangerous moment.
Where there's such a discomfort.
Look, you have high-tech Israel with many of the techies taking their companies already and moving out.
Now, I hear it's happening now, too, with the doctors, and I think that's probably less so.
But when you have two industries that are so vital to the state of Israel, then you have to ask yourself, why now?
You have to ask yourself if you're an activist in Netanyahu's camp.
Yes, you do.
Yes, you do.
I see.
That's interesting.
So the question that many are asking is why now?
Well, the opportunity presented itself now.
Yeah, because he won.
The elections were coming and going, coming and going, and finally he got a chance to put the numbers together.
Right.
What has people pounding their heads against the wall is wondering why when the...
For example, we're now at something like 30 or 29 consecutive weekends of tens of thousands of people marching in the streets.
We fly on an airplane headed to Israel and we hear the conversations like, oh, we'll meet you after the demonstration.
Or, you know, I'm coming to visit Israel.
I may not go to the Western Wall this time, but I'm not going to miss the demonstration on Saturday night.
It's become the culture of the country.
And as it's spread, each sector within the nation is putting their hat in the ring to be the deciding factor of pushing the numbers over the top, I guess you'd say.
What do the supporters of the current situation, of the anti-Netanyahu folks, what is their argument with regard to the Supreme Court?
They should be allowed to rule on anything without reference to any constitution?
Well, this constitution, that aspect of it has fascinated me for decades now.
The idea that when they say it, they believe they're talking about something being unconstitutional, but they don't take the next step to describe how it becomes unconstitutional.
Right, because that's their opinion.
That's why we have what's called the reasonableness clause.
Yes, that's that, the reasonableness clause.
All right, we're going to be back in a moment.
Folks, two great countries are in trouble.
That's the bottom line.
The U.S. and Israel, two democratic countries.
The editors of TheMediaLine.org, a source of non-biased news about the Middle East.
Michael and Felice Fritz are in town from Israel.
And what they're describing, I mean, we have not reached the point where we have members of the armed forces taking a political position and saying they won't show up.
That's, I have to say, that's scary.
And we're not threatened with existential annihilation like Israel is.
If these people don't show up...
Resetation is everything.
And if they're not practicing, it's a big problem.
What is their statement, this is not a country worth defending if we don't get our way on judicial reform?
That's basically the gist of it, if you will.
You leave that part to the imagination, but clearly that's what they're saying.
Saying it's not a democracy anymore.
And because it will cease to be a democracy if these...
So this notion it will cease to be a democracy, that's what they say here on the left.
I always thought the Israeli left was much different from the American left.
Very few differences left across the board.
Right.
Communication, people representing the same ideas, the same ideologies.
The fact that we were saying a few minutes ago that the number one...
Recreation on a Saturday night is to go stroll down to be part of the demonstration.
Brazil may be cursed by the fact that they're so orderly and without violence, but if you want to stay to the late part, then it goes up a notch and you get hit by the water cannons.
And if you stay even later, you might get hit by the skunk water, they call it.
Also, Dennis, let's not forget that President Biden didn't also initially invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House.
And after you had President Herzog visit with him, and around that time, there was an invitation extended.
There's no date yet.
There were many other complications here.
There's complications in terms of how the Abraham Accords are manifesting due to this.
Foreign Minister Elie Cohen was supposed to go to Bahrain, and that was pushed back.
And that's not the first time it happened.
The Negev Conference, the same.
So again, I really do put out there to your listeners to understand the deep complexities of what's going on with the judicial reforms.
The ramifications.
Absolutely.
All right, go to TheMediaLine.org and you'll learn about the Middle East on a daily basis.
Michael and Felice, it is wonderful to see you, but not wonderful to hear what you have to say.
And on Israel's 75th.
On Israel's 75th.
We'll be back.
You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show.
Hello, my friends. my friends.
I'm Dennis Prager.
The President of the United States is being arrested for his opinions.
It's an amazing thing.
Again, I keep forgetting the adjective.
For what lies?
What was the term the prosecutor that Jack Smith has used?
Not manipulative.
Why can't I remember that one word?
Destabilizing.
Destabilizing lies.
Yeah, that's right.
Destabilizing lies is the essence of the indictment.
So an ex-president and the leader of the opposition is arrested and the New York Times and the entire left is for it.
This is one country and two worlds.
The arresting of former presidents and opposition leaders is always associated with dictatorships.
Tell me a free country, and I'm serious, maybe I missed it.
Can you think of a free country that has done that?
Has the UK done it?
Has Sweden done it?
Has Belgium done it?
So, of course, if you're on the left, you have this line with which you dull your conscience.
No one is above the law.
No one is above the law.
Oh, my God.
I'll tell you who's above the law.
A vast number of people who commit violent crimes are above the law.
Joe Biden is above the law.
Don't start me.
The lack of self-awareness on the left is pathologic.
And We are doing something no democracy, no major democracy, maybe not even a minor democracy, has done.
We are arresting the leader of the opposition and a former president because of destabilizing lies.
Really?
What does it mean even?
What is destabilizing?
What does lie mean?
You know for a fact, you arrogant America haters, you know for a fact that the last election was honest?
I don't know for a fact that it wasn't.
But you know for a fact that it was?
You know for a fact that for the first time in American history, an incumbent president received more votes than he did when he was first elected and lost?
And that is just...
It's an anomaly worthy of no investigation?
The staggering changing of all the rules regarding Election Day in the name of COVID did not enable more cheating?
Democrats never cheat in elections?
Are you prepared to say that?
Is it a destabilizing lie that the Democrats have cheated in elections since, at least in my lifetime, John F. Kennedy?
Is that a destabilizing lie?
It might be a destabilizing truth.
Because the Democratic Party destabilizes the country.
My God.
They are truly including the never-Trumpers.
They are prepared to ruin this country and come to the brink of the Civil War.
Because they hate Donald Trump.
My producer, a.k.a.
The Living Martyr, a.k.a.
Alan Estrin, has a theory that this all emanates from their inability to make peace with the fact that he won the election in 2016. That's the mothership.
Right?
That's your theory.
They want it to have never happened.
But they can't make it never happen.
But they can make him disappear, theoretically.
And half of the country disappear.
Meanwhile, they go every day and they are ruining everything.
Everything.
They're destroying everything.
There's a story just today.
Let's see here.
Where is the...
Okay, yeah, here we go.
When curing cancer is not the priority from the City Journal.
San Diego State University included a DEI litmus test in its search for a new cancer biologist.
They are making war on the war on cancer.
The idea of picking scientists based on their ideology, you think that will not hurt science?
I'll tell you one thing that no leftist can do, and that is mock the Catholic Church for putting Galileo under house arrest.
There is zero difference between what they do and what was done 500 years ago.
Last year, San Diego State University conducted a search for a cancer biologist as part of an initiative focused on increasing faculty diversity.
While ideal candidates' expertise could be in tumor biology, cancer immunology, or other areas of hard science, they would be expected to demonstrate a focus on health disparities.
And a commitment to diversity.
That's really something.
choosing a cancer biologist on the basis of his or her commitment to undoing health disparities and promoting diversity.
This is the equivalent of what was just reported to us last hour by two Middle East journalists that left-wing Israeli Air Force reservists are threatening not to show up at their airplanes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Leftism destroys everything it touches.
It is a purely destructive ideology.
purely either we get our way or we destroy we That's it.
So we will choose cancer doctors, cancer researchers, not on the basis of being able to cure people of cancer.
But on their commitment to left-wing ideology.
Wow.
They would be expected to demonstrate a focus on health disparities and a commitment to diversity.
SDSU, San Diego State University, required each applicant to fill out a form describing their contributions to, quote, building inclusive excellence.
Wow.
In the height of the Cold War, people were not hired on the basis of their commitment to fighting communism.
The greatest evil ever unleashed on the world outside of Nazism.
Imagine if scientists had to fill that out.
During the Cold War, through a public records request, writes the City Journal author, John Saylor, ER, I have acquired SDSU's, quote, Building Inclusive Excellence form.
It symbolizes a remarkable statement.
of the university's priorities and demonstrates how even the most high-stakes areas of scientific research must now genuflect to social justice.
Not one liberal knows about this.
Remember my motto, one of my many?
We know what they know, but they don't know what we know.
I don't even know what to begin with.
The unprecedented action in a major democracy of arresting the head of the opposition for destabilizing beliefs.
That's basically what it is.
There was no insurrection, incidentally, on January 6th.
It was not an insurrection.
That's a destabilizing lie.
That Trump is a fascist is a destabilizing lie.
That every white is a racist is a destabilizing lie.
If destabilizing lie enabled you to be arrested, every Democrat in Congress should be in prison.
They have told far more destabilizing lies than Donald Trump.
It is a lying organization of the Democratic Party.
Every medium that follows their line is a lying organization.
And it has always been that way because truth has never been a left-wing value.
For them to talk about destabilizing lies is sick-making.
They live on destabilizing lies.
Do you believe every white is a racist?
Is that not destabilizing?
Do you send your kid to one of these lying universities, namely 99% of our universities?
How did your kid come back from college?
A better human being?
A wiser human being?
A finer human being?
Closer to you, the parent human being?
Or an a-hole in so many cases?
Not in all, by any means.
Some are drunk for four years.
The only case I've ever heard for inebriation.
God, it is sickening.
It is sickening.
You know, I have to report to you.
Do you know that one of the many attacks on PragerU, because Florida is using PragerU materials officially now, allowing schools to use them, they're terrific materials.
They're just wholesome and healthy and beautiful.
One of them told an out-and-out lie about me.
I mean, a demonstrable lie.
There were so many, I couldn't keep up with it.
Miami Herald and Slate and I don't know, The Hill, I don't remember.
Politico, just across the board.
Oh yes, Kerr made up a lie about me.
That's right, CARE. That America-hating organization, Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Not all Islamic groups, by any means, are like them.
But they're a particularly vile organization for whom truth is not of value either.
You know, it's amazing.
CARE has also come out against...
Florida for having PragerU materials.
What was the Keith Ellison event?
Was it 15 years ago or so?
20 years ago?
Well, it was during the George W. Bush presidency.
So about 20 years ago.
So I had written a column that Keith Ellison, who was then a congressman, I wrote that he should not use the Koran, but use the Bible, even though, of course, it's not his Bible.
I understand that.
But I said, since that has been the tradition in America, if he uses the Koran in addition to the Bible, it's not an issue, as a number of Muslims had done.
But I believe that even if it's not your Bible, It has been America's Bible.
Every president who had access to a Bible took the oath of office on a Bible.
And I said, I am a Jew, and I would take an oath on the Bible that included the New Testament.
New Testament is not my Bible.
But it is America's Bible, and I'm an American.
And for this, I was excoriated.
I'll never forget.
Because I also wrote, I said, I'm such a big fan of Mormons.
I wrote it in the column.
And yet, I would oppose a member of the LDS Church using the Book of Mormon instead of the Bible.
If they want to use it in addition, it's a non-issue to me.
And by the way, no Mormon has done that.
They believe in the Book of Mormon as much as the Muslim believes in the Quran.
And so that has made me a Muslim hater.
Am I a Mormon hater?
Am I a Jew hater?
The inability to have civilized discourse because of the Islamists and the leftists has really been...
And anyway, the leftists just go to bat for the Islamists.
Oh, there's now a rift between the Islamists, by the way.
And normative Muslims, not just Islamists.
And the left.
Over transgender.
Yeah, the left is very angry that Muslims actually believe that there's a difference between men and women.
very, very angry at them.
We are living through unprecedented times.
And so is Israel.
It was worse than I had been reading, but I just had this couple who run the media line.org in Israel.
We're scheduled to have John MacArthur on, the eminent Christian pastor, theologian.
Who fought to have his church open during the lockdowns.
The toughest pill to swallow was the sheep-like behavior of the synagogues and churches of America.
And that includes everybody, Mormon, Protestant, Catholic, Jew.
We will shut our house of prayer because the CDC said so.
Oh, that's charming.
I will have to do penitence before the Lord for not having had this man on the show before.
I sort of can't believe it.
It doesn't make sense.
Especially since we live in the same city, no less.
But what can I do?
It's one of my many sins.
One of the most eminent pastors in America, John MacArthur.
Pastor of the Grace Community Church.
Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary.
And right now, most relevant, he is producer and essentially, in my opinion, the star.
Of the new documentary, The Essential Church, which I have watched along with my wife.
We were riveted.
Pastor MacArthur, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
It's a delight to be with you, Dennis.
Thank you.
It is a mutual delight.
So I was going crazy during the lockdowns, what was being done to children in schools in the name of pseudoscience and really in the name of totalitarians.
And the most distressing, because if I can't look to the religious community to save liberty in this country, then there is no chance.
The vast majority of churches, synagogues, just said yes.
And they said yes to irrational secular authority.
Is my disappointment overstated?
And I always tell guests, feel totally free to differ with me.
No, I would agree 100% with you.
You know, once we realized that this was not what they said it was, that statistically it wasn't anything near what they were using to frighten people and to lock everybody down, we just opened wide up.
But I'll say this, if it had actually been the bubonic plague or the Black Death or whatever, we would have had all the more reason to open up.
Because when people are at the worst possible thing that can happen to them is you shut down all the spiritual influences.
I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
You can go back into the Middle Ages.
You find pastors going out to visit people during all kinds of plagues and epidemics.
And that was part of the ministry of the church.
You know, that was part of the sacrifice you made.
So, you know, we slowed everything down for a few weeks until we could kind of get our balance.
You know, if somebody said there's a hurricane coming through town Tuesday, don't meet.
You know, that was kind of our attitude.
Okay.
Live with that.
Once we realized that it wasn't what it was, then there was no reason in the world not to open up.
So we did through the whole thing, no distancing, no masks, no nothing.
And the health department came after us with a vengeance, but they had to put on their website that during that whole period, there was no outbreak of COVID at Grace Community Church, which was...
Just in defiance of everything.
You know, you're going to kill grandma, you're going to kill your children and all of this kind of thing.
I think the reason we were so healthy was we were all together.
And I mean, that's how God designed our immune systems to work.
You know, we were so well adapted to everybody's illnesses that we kind of flew through that without any kind of epidemic at the church.
So I was grieved deeply that all these churches shut down, not just for the sake of the church at all, but look at all the people who were lonely, who got into drugs and alcohol and self-harm and suicide.
And we saw people in our situation, we would go to the hospitals.
I went to the hospital.
I had to get through.
Barriers to get into a hospital to see a dying woman sit with her in her bed with her husband and her children.
But all of that was basically cut off from churches and spiritual ministries when people were desperately in need.
It was horrific.
Yes, yes.
Hold it there.
Tell everybody where to go to find what theater in America your documentary is being shown.
Yeah, go to...
TheEssentialChurchMovie.com Okay, TheEssentialChurchMovie.com It's very important that you go to a theater and see this.
I'm going to continue with Pastor John MacArthur in a moment.
There is an important documentary out.
Every American should see it.
Certainly every Christian and Jew, and I say Christian and Jew because of the utter abject failure of the vast majority of synagogues and churches.
It was depressing to see the cowardice and the sheep-like behavior.
Not always cowardice, usually, but not always.
But it was all sheep-like.
The government says shut down, I shut down.
I don't give my people what they needed more than the vaccine.
It was community and God and fellowship.
I have to control my anger.
I had the anger then.
Listen, I wrote in April 2020. It's on the internet.
And as usual, I was attacked for it, that the lockdowns were the greatest international mistake in history.
I was right then, and it's not like a whole bunch of pastors and rabbis said, oh, maybe Dennis is right and the CDC is misleading us.
No.
CDC uber alis.
Health uber alis.
I've been saying that.
Health above all.
It's a play on Deutschland über alles.
Germany above all.
Some pastors fought it.
Some rabbis fought it.
One of the best-known pastors in the country is John MacArthur, Grace Community Church.
And he fought it.
And the story of that fight is the documentary, The Essential Church.
EssentialChurchMovie.com.
It's playing in 300 to 400 theaters in the country right now.
The battles that you, Pastor MacArthur, went through with some of your own people was a fascinating aspect and how ultimately the board...
Is it a board of directors?
What does a church have?
What is it called?
It's a board of elders.
Board of elders.
Yeah, that's the term.
That's right.
That they did finally come around.
Did people leave your church in anger?
Any members do that?
Yeah, I think there were, you know, if you look back, I can probably count, I don't know, a dozen people.
Oh, so that's it, I mean, in a church of thousands.
Well, not only that, Dennis, we have taken in, since this started, Over 2,000 new members.
Oh, great.
That is a rare moment of happy news.
No, our church exploded.
We opened it up to children.
We had a Sunday when we opened everything up and we said, look, we want the children back.
We want everybody back in defiance of all the health orders, in defiance of the governor, in defiance of all of it.
We had had people coming anyway, but we said, we need to make an official opening, so let's have a special children's Sunday.
A thousand children showed up with their parents on one Sunday.
Really?
Wow.
We had lollipops and balloons to welcome them back, because these kids had been isolated from each other.
That's right.
That's right.
For no good reason.
It was like a holiday around that church with a thousand little kids.
Who just were exploding all over the place.
So probably one thing just to fit into this that people need to understand is we were put in a situation where we sued them.
We sued the state, we sued the county, the health department, all of that.
And we kept wanting to have a hearing.
We wanted to get this dealt with.
But we said we have First Amendment rights.
So we took the First Amendment and said, you know, until you invalidate the First Amendment in our case, you can't deal with the other issue.
And interestingly enough, the judge agreed with us.
And so there were 12 postponements of our hearing.
And they were adding fine after fine after fine with a jail sentence.
They tried to take away our parking lot.
They tried to get us to comply.
When you say they, who exactly?
County.
L.A. County.
L.A. County.
So is that Barbara Ferrer?
Yeah.
Yeah, she's a kook.
That woman would...
You don't have to respond.
I don't want to put you on the spot.
I'll just say on my behalf, that woman would have been comfortable in the Soviet Union.
I believe that as I believe I am speaking to you now.
The woman loves power and loves irrational power.
You are stuck in a sick county, L.A. County, as I am.
We're kindred spirits in this regard.
So they kept threatening you with fines, arrest, taking away your parking lot.
Did they actually implement any of those?
No, and what was really fascinating was they said, we're going to remove your parking lot.
And halfway down the block from us is the Jewish synagogue.
And they said, we'll give you our parking lot.
How about that?
I love it.
That's a bright story in a dark time.
Yeah, so the leaders of the Jewish synagogue, literally half a block down from our church, Came to us and said, we noticed they're trying to take your parking lot.
We'll give you our parking lot.
I love it.
What a great story.
So since that time, for now a year, we have filled up the synagogue parking lot every Sunday.
And the county could never pull off getting our other parking lot.
So we actually got double parking out of the whole thing.
Along with some goodwill with our Jewish friends down the street.
I would imagine.
The thing that's so interesting to me is we finally said, our attorneys finally said, we want a trial.
You can't just keep doing this.
We want a trial.
This was an official thing.
We went to the court and said, we want a trial, so we want to depose the health officials and the county supervisors.
We want to bring them in and depose them.
All right, hold that, hold that, I'm deposed.
I want people to see your movie, The Essential Church, theessentialchurchmovie.com.
Why did the music get a little lower there, Sean?
Why did the music get a little lower there?
Should I repeat what you just said to the audience?
That's a very interesting theory that you just said.
Now I have to tell people I can't do that.
That's wrong.
Because if he keeps the music loud, then I speak too loud when I come back and it annoys you.
That was what he said.
That's interesting.
How often do I annoy my listeners?
Oh, works on radio, but on the podcast.
You've modified your attack.
Just want you to know.
Okay.
I can't get over what we're living through.
I can't get over it.
It's astonishing.
I'm telling you, I wish...
Every liberal and leftist could hear this show for a week.
It would be so different from everything they know, think, believe, feel.
At the very least, some of them, some would have completely closed minds, but some might think, wow, now I understand where they're coming from.
Some would think that.
I just had on a well-known eminent pastor, John MacArthur, Grace Community Church in Southern California.
Gigantic church that stayed open during the lockdowns.
Threatened with jail, fines, closed parking lot.
And by the way, it was a little moment of brightness that when he reported that the synagogue down the block offered his church their parking lot on Sunday, because of course Jewish services are Saturday, and probably they didn't even have them then themselves.
I'd love to know, I'd love to talk to that rabbi.
What did he think of the church being open?
But he did offer the church the parking lot.
That was a good little story for people to know about.
You know my defense of the term Judeo-Christian because there are Jews who object to it and there are Christians who object to it because they confuse values with theology.
Nobody says Judeo-Christian theology.
They say Judeo-Christian values.
How could you not have Judeo-Christian values?
They're the only two religions on earth that share a Bible.
They both share the Old Testament.
That's really big.
How could you then not have Judeo-Christian values?
And that's why you would not have Islamo-Christian or Judeo-Islamo values.
They don't share a Bible.
These are pretty elementary things that ought to be noted.
Well, if you listened to this show during that time or watched my fireside chats at PragerU, you know I was opposed to the lockdowns from within a few weeks.
Speaking of PragerU...
Yes, I know.
I want to do that right because we go to a break, though.
Then people have a chance to act on it.
Legal experts reacted to former President Donald Trump's third indictment, sounding the alarm on how the indictment against his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election prosecutes' protected speech.
Daily Caller writes this.
That's correct.
George Washington University law professor who's a liberal, Jonathan Turley, Said Jack Smith issued, quote, the first criminal indictment of alleged disinformation.
If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to haiku.
I felt that the Mar-a-Lago indictment was strong.
This is the inverse.
Turley said on Fox the indictment is unfair at points, noting that it quotes Trump in a speech about encouraging people to go to Capitol Hill.
But like the January 6th committee, it omits where he says, you should go peacefully.
How many leftists in this country know that he said that?
Go peacefully.
The indictment says that Trump had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim falsely that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election, and thus he had won.
But then it states, he quote, Also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting election results.
Really?
Unlawful?
He asked Vice President Pence to not certify electors from some states until it could be established that the vote was Honest or until the vote could be examined.
Why is that unlawful?
It might be unwise, it might be wrong, but why is it unlawful?
And do you arrest a president?
Do you arrest the head of the opposition for that?
I asked in the first hour, has any other...
Major democracy, or even minor democracy perhaps, ever done this to a previous president, to the leader of the opposition?
I don't know, since Cromwell has an opposition leader in Britain, which is the 17th century, correct?
And maybe not even then, but I'm picking a date.
Has a British political opposition leader been arrested?
Has any European?
Opposition leaders are arrested in corrupt dictatorships.
We have a corrupt country which is moving toward a dictatorship under the Democratic Party.
But this doesn't bother any Democrats.
Yeah.
Yeah. - Yeah.
Disruptive, is that the word?
No, not disruptive.
Destabilizing.
Because we never use the term.
Destabilizing lies.
For that, the Democratic Party is willing to arrest a former president and the head of the opposition?
Destabilizing lies?
I went through a list of destabilizing lies of the left.
Every white is a racist is a destabilizing lie.
Just to give an example.
It is a dark time, my friends.
You have to fight, or at least help the fighters.
PragerU.
Is such a fighter.
Governor DeSantis has announced that PragerU materials will be allowed in the public schools of Florida.
Our materials are wholesome and honest and decent.
And the attack on us and on Florida for allowing this.
PragerU really scares the left.
I didn't realize how much till now.
You know that?
This was revelatory.
The amount...
It was a front page piece in the Miami Herald.
I didn't know it was the front page.
Did you?
No, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
David told me.
My son lives in Florida.
His wife picked up five copies.
I will say the attacks on PragerU are...
Certainly helping us.
Because we are producing the best material for young people on Earth.
But it's only possible because people donate.
Help the fighters, my friends.
This is fundraising month because August is my birthday.
It was yesterday.
PragerU.com or 833-PRAGER-U. You gotta help the fighters.
And we're fighting.
it's a worthy fight for this country.
And I'm Prager for the sustaining of Western civilization, which is in jeopardy.
I don't know when it was last in jeopardy.
When was in jeopardy?
Nazism was anti-Western.
Communism is anti-Western.
The 1970s, you felt...
Really?
That's interesting.
You mean the rioting?
Oh, the Bader-Meinhof gang in Germany?
There was violence here, yeah.
Well...
I think today is more serious.
They're not choosing to...
They're not choosing cancer specialists based on their commitment to left-wing ideology.
They didn't do that in the 70s.
I think today is way, way more serious than ever.
They didn't have mandates.
to get rid of the best of our soldiers.
I read so regularly of the healthiest of athletes Just healthy young people keeling over and dying.
I don't know for a fact, but I suspect many of them are a result of the vaccine.
Why did young people, why were they even given the vaccine?
It's the ease with which people can do bad is distressing.
Money, fame, power, cowardice.
Do you realize how much in human nature works?
To have people do the wrong thing.
It's not even that they want to do the wrong thing.
It's that list that I just made blunts the conscience.
Or, I should really say, it shapes the conscience.
How do doctors...
Say to an 18-year-old girl, yeah, of course, you think you're a boy, of course you're a boy.
For X thousands of dollars, I'll cut your breasts off.
X thousands of dollars, young man, I'll cut your penis off.
Because you think you're a girl.
That you're not allowed in California, the largest state of this country.
To say to a young person, you actually are a boy, you were born a boy, and you are a boy, that you feel like a girl, is tragic, and we're going to work that through for your sake.
It is undeniable that you will do better in life if you identify as the sex you actually are.
That's pretty hard to argue against.
Megan Rapinoe, notwithstanding.
As I mentioned, the first time in my life, maybe the second, I don't know, maybe this is the last few years, but I am not rooting for the American women's soccer team.
I hope they lose.
A minority of its members.
Would sing the national anthem when it was played.
The Daily Mail showed the contrast between the Netherlands team and the American team.
The women of the Netherlands, which is a pretty liberal country, by the way.
The women of the Netherlands hugging each other and putting their arms around each other.
Gustily singing the Dutch national anthem and half the Americans silent.
Wow.
And I'm supposed to root for them?
I don't understand.
If they don't root for America, why should America root for them?
Is that a fair question?
I live in LA. I can't root for the LA Dodgers.
You not only allow the Sisters of Immaculate...
Was it Immaculate?
What is it?
Not Conception.
Immaculate...
Look it up, please, all right?
This mocking of nuns LGBTQIA plus group was not only allowed...
To perform on the field at Dodger Stadium during Pride Night.
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Oh, okay.
Immaculate is not even in it.
Perpetual Indulgence.
Yeah, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, right.
They were honored.
The Los Angeles Dodgers honored them.
And I'm supposed to now root for the Los Angeles Dodgers?
It's sad that I can't root for my local team in baseball, can't root for the American team in the World Cup.
But that's my love of my country and its values in particular are what compel me to do that.
Yep.
This is quite a time.
Orange County, Joe, California.
Hello.
Yes.
I was calling from your earlier segment, and I was wondering if Israel would ever entertain the possibility of holding a constitutional convention and coming up with their own constitution.
You would think.
That's what I think is the only solution.
Israel has no constitution.
It's sort of run your judiciary by the seat of their pants.
Hello everybody, Dennis Prager here.
August is fundraising month for the, I have to say, truly significant Prager University, if you will.
Thank you.
Florida has announced that our materials can be used in schools there, and the proverbial manure hit the fan.
I mean, the amount of attacks on Florida for allowing it, just allowing it, it's not even part of the curriculum.
Teachers will simply be allowed and not be fired.
That's it.
So if they show a video that we have on James Buchanan, the 15th president, you know how filled with white supremacy that must be.
I mean, they actually quote one of the most despicable hate groups of the country, the Southern Poverty Law Center, as close to a communist group as exists in the United States.
I would not be surprised if they admired Lenin.
They're really a hate group.
And they actually have said that Prager University is a conduit to white supremacy, to white nationalism.
They'll say anything, the left, anything to destroy.
Anything that isn't left.
We have a very large group of young people called Prager Force.
How many members now, do you know?
20,000.
We're up to 20,000 around the world.
One such member is Noah Kleckner.
I feature a young person almost every day of August from the Prager Force.
I do it because it so gives you hope for the future to meet these terrific young people.
He graduated George Mason University, got a BA in international politics and government.
Interesting, Noah.
Noah, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
Thank you, Dennis, for having me.
So, is George Mason...
Less woke than most colleges?
I would say so, but one of the first experiences that I ever had going on to this tour, my family was with me.
They were going to get me moved into orientation week, and the very first thing we saw on campus were two rocks.
One rock had a BLM painting on it, and the other one had the LGBTQ flag on it.
So if that gives you an idea of...
How woke the university is, I've noticed that most of the ones up in the Virginia, D.C. area are just very liberal.
There was a block of sound for a moment.
This LGBTQ emblem and the BLM flag, they were at George Mason or somewhere else?
On George Mason's campus.
Really?
So even George Mason?
Yeah, I will say that George Mason has a really great economics department.
A lot of their professors are some of the best in the area.
And so I would say compared to some of my colleagues that went to Georgetown or American University, I think our experiences were different.
And, you know, all of my political science professors were more middle of the road, which was relieving as I was.
Yeah, no kidding.
How did you end up?
You're now, right this moment, at the headquarters of PragerU, correct?
Yes, that is correct.
Yeah, I'm out here in LA, and I moved from Florida back in February, and so far it's been a wonderful experience here.
Yeah, we're lucky to have you, and you're lucky to have us.
So you went from a free state to a police state?
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
You're one of the few moving in that direction.
Yes.
Are you familiar with the attacks on Florida for allowing PragerU materials in its schools?
I am, yes.
It's actually interesting.
Oh, sorry.
The Clearwater-Pinellis County area, that was the county that I grew up in, and I just found out Pinellis County is actually one of the very few counties in Florida.
That has rejected the PragerU curriculum.
But I know, by and large, in the state of Florida, I've heard a lot of talk, a lot of great things about what's happening on the local level with introducing PragerU's curriculum, and I think this is a great step in the right direction.
Wait, so I don't understand.
Pinellas County has banned our material?
Pinellas County, there was a proposal that was put forward.
And the school board shot it down.
So, you know, I don't know if our local officials will step in.
I would hope so, especially our conservative leaders.
I mean, Pinellas County is, for the most part, very conservative.
Yeah, that's what I didn't understand.
Yeah, it was something, actually, I found out two nights ago.
I had a bunch of family and friends in the community text me.
You know, previous to working at PragerU, I ran a congressional campaign or helped run a congressional campaign.
And, you know, it's surprising that the one issue the county has been dealing with for the last several years is the school board.
Everything else...
Okay.
That's interesting.
All right.
I'm going to ask you a couple of more questions.
I'm very curious.
Of course.
I'm speaking with Noah Kleckner of PragerForce.
From Florida.
He must really love PragerU that he left Florida for California.
Back in a moment.
Dennis Prager here.
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