Live Without A Safety Net

Live radio doesn’t care if you’re nervous, prepared, or having a rough day. The mic goes hot, the clock keeps moving, and “dead air” becomes your worst enemy. I’m flying solo without Clay this week, and I’m telling the story of filling in for a Dallas talk radio host, including the moment a guest dropped off the line and I had to talk my way out of silence in real time. It’s messy, honest, and a surprising lesson in doing the hard thing even when you want to back out.

Then we turn to a tragedy that should stop all of us cold: two high school students at a Texas track meet, a heated exchange in the bleachers, a utility knife, and 17-year-old Austin Metcalf gone in seconds. We talk about the conviction and the self-defense claim that didn’t hold up, but we keep the focus where it belongs: the victim, the family left behind, and what this kind of violence says about impulse control, empathy, and a culture that rewards confrontation.

From there, we hit the broader pattern across politics and media: California’s slow ballot counting and the trust collapse around mail-in voting, the Maine race controversy and the tired whataboutism defense, and Trump’s tense Meet the Press moment that highlights the legacy media credibility problem. We close with a blunt conversation about feminism, family structure, loneliness, and the mental health crisis, plus what it looks like to rebuild with accountability and faith.

If this hit a nerve, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of the culture do you think we can actually fix first?

Transcript

Solo Host Confession And Nerves

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Well, hello, my friends. As you can see, I'm sitting here all by myself. This is this is a sad, sad, scary moment for me. I'm so used to having Clay right on one side of the screen next to me here. And uh he was unable to join me this week. He had something come up. So um I'm all by myself. It's very, it's very tragic. Uh thankfully he left me some topics to talk about so that I didn't have to do the work of looking for them. So um I'm gonna talk about the things that we had planned to talk about together. I'm gonna do all by my lonesome. I I guess ironically, not coincidentally, I guess, because I don't believe in coincidence. Uh last week I was asked to fill in for a radio station host, uh James Parker out of Dallas. And uh I even though I was terrified to do this, because I haven't done, I've done like just a smidge of radio. Um, but usually I'm just a guest. Like I don't do any of the heavy lifting. I just sit there and answer some questions and attempt to be witty and charming. Sometimes I maybe a lot of times I fail. I don't know. But that's been the extent for the most part. So uh when he said, Hey, can you uh fill in for me on Thursday and Friday of you know last week? I I said right away, like a lunatic. I said, sure, no problem. What? What do you mean, no problem? Of course it's a problem. You don't do radio, you do this, you edit, you you script, you uh I don't know, you have complete control over every aspect of what you do. Like if you don't know already, which you probably could figure all

Live Radio Panic And Dead Air

SPEAKER_01 2:10

on your own without having any experience in this, podcasting and radio are two completely different animals. Like they are just day and night, nothing alike except that you are broadcasting to uh hopefully a lot of people. Um, you know, the significant difference here is that I, again, I have complete control over all of this. You know, I can edit out something. If I mess up, if I make a mistake, if I don't like something, I can just crop it out and make it gone, just make it disappear. Radio is is live. You don't have that option. And one of the things that you cannot ever have is dead air. Like you need to be on the ball and you need to be quick. And if something happens, and by the way, something always happens. For example, uh, one of the days last week, we were supposed to have a uh guest come on and I had my questions prepared. I was all ready for this. What I was not thinking about, I did think about it. I I knew that this was a possibility. Uh, but uh if the guest, you know, loses reception or whatever, if they're just not there for whatever reason, well, guess what? Of course that happened. The guest that was supposed to be on, they, you know, I don't know, they lost connection or something, and there was nobody on the line. So I did the uh, hey, so-and-so, uh, you're on the air on WBAP, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And nothing. And I'm like, hey, so-and-so, you there? Okay, looks like we lost him. What do you do? What do you do? Well, you start talking, you start filling in that space. And I, you know, I went on autopilot. I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't know what I said. I will not listen to the, you know, of course, they were kind enough to send me um the the you know replay of it and everything, the audio recording of it. I won't listen to it. I can't do that to myself. I can I can't. It will, I will, I, I will never do it again if the opportunity arises. Can I be honest with you? I I don't know if I ever want to do it again. And it's not that it went badly. They were wonderful over there. They held my hand virtually. Uh, they guided me through as much as they possibly could. But once you're on air, it's on you. Like you better step up. And uh I don't know if I, you know, everybody was complimentary, everybody was very kind. I mean, what are they gonna what are they gonna say? You suck, get out of here. You know, they're not like that. Um, and maybe they were thinking it. I don't know. Hopefully, I never know if they were thinking that. Um, but we made it through. I made it through. I survived, but I I don't like not having control. You know, my husband laughs at me when I told him this, he's like, and this surprises you? Like, why are you sounding surprised that, you know, you didn't like not having control of the situation? So yeah, a lot of good things came from it. Um, you know, number one was that um it's always a big deal, personally, like for yourself, for myself, for yourself, when you do similar things, not necessarily identical things, but doing things outside of your safety zone, right? That's what I'm referring to. Um, it's always an amazing thing when you do it. It doesn't mean that you necessarily did it well or perfect or great, um, but you did it despite the fear. You did the thing that you were afraid of. And that is a really good, you know, pat on the shoulder for yourself that you get to have. So I got to have the pat on my shoulder for myself that I did something that terrified me. I'll be honest with you, again, I hate confessing these things because they're forever. Uh, I did not want to do the second day. I did not want to do it. I wanted to back out of it. I was so, I was so traumatized by the first day by not feeling like I did my best, um, by not feeling I just muddled in my head with the whole thing. Uh by the way, it was three hours, three hours of of radio. It wasn't just like an hour, it was three hours of like trying to remember to hit these marks, to talk about these topics, to take the phone calls, to do all of the things, all for the essentially first time. So, yeah, yes, I I want sympathy. I want at a girls from you guys. I'm not, I'm not shy. I'm gonna tell you, I want you to tell me that I did a good job, that you're so proud of me. All do all of the things, people. But but yeah, the second day, uh, I I was looking for excuses to get out of it. And um, I spoke to two people about it. I spoke to uh my my stepmom and my husband. And they both emphatically, you know, without any hesitation, said, You committed, you're doing it. Suck it up, buttercup. You are doing it. You cannot back out of your commitment. You said you would do something and you must do it. They did not give me the the response and answer that I wanted to hear. Uh obviously they were 100% correct that I I committed, I said yes, I needed to do the thing that I said I was going to do, even though I didn't want to. And I stomped my feet and I pouted and I whined. I didn't cry. I didn't cry about it. Um, but I, you know, I did not want to do it. And I I have like this whole new appreciation and respect for uh radio show hosts who particularly talk radio, um, for all of them, of course, but especially for talk radio when you are like you should see, I'm not gonna give a shoe, but you should see the the breakdown, like it tells you the time slots of everything. It's like the first 10 seconds, this, then the next 15 seconds that, and then you have you know seven minutes and 50 seconds of airtime that you're talking and you gotta do this and it is way more overwhelming, at least initially, um, than podcasting. So, yeah, that's my whole story. That is my my drama. So, this is actually so much more relaxing for me, even though I am a little traumatized. And I know I'm using a term that is really not the right one for it. Like that's such an exaggeration. Um, but but let me, okay. I'm traumatized to not have Clay uh next to me, to have my co-host next to me. We've been doing this together for like, I think it's three years now. I think we're in our third year or going into our third year. And um, you do get very, very dependent on that dynamic. So, yes, Clay, if you're watching, I definitely miss having you beside me. I have a new appreciation for you doing this solo uh when I randomly pop out for usually obviously it's to visit the grandbabies. But uh yeah, lots of appreciation, lots of gratitude going on around here.

Texas Track Meet Stabbing Case

SPEAKER_01 9:09

And uh now we're gonna go right into the topic. So I'm gonna I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna do the best that I can. Uh, we're talking about bleachers to barbed wire, one knife, two lives, and a culture that failed them both. Listen, obviously, uh this is a you know case. Uh, the um Carmelo Anthony Austin Metcalf uh case incident uh that has been, you know, conversation since it happened, lot of of heated um exchanges over the whole topic, lots of different feelings about it. Um I've talked about mine. Everybody's kind of talked about their feelings because that's what we do on social media, right? We we talk about we talk about our feelings about every single subject and topic. Um, so I don't know who doesn't know about this, but uh two high school kids at a track meet in Texas, um, words fly in the bleachers. One pulls out a utility knife uh from his backpack, and the next thing you know, a 17-year-old Austin Metcalf is gone. Uh leaves behind a devastated family, a twin brother who held him in his arms as he was dying. So talk about what real trauma looks like, not my flippant um use of the word. Uh that is actual trauma and devastation. Um, so Carmelo Anthony, he's 19 now. Uh the trial just concluded. It was a very brief, very quick trial. Um, for a lot of people will say for obvious reasons. It's pretty cut and dry. It really is. Um he is 19 now. He's convicted of murder this week after a quick jury deliberation and sentenced to 35 years. Um, so his self-defense claim, which has been the claim all along, uh fell through obviously very, very quickly. The um facts, you know, showed otherwise, uh, which included witnesses and uh evidence that it it all painted a very different picture than you know what he claimed. Um you know, we see these stories. They they are just piling up all around us, incidents like this. And of course it hits differently when it's you know, when it's kids, uh, when it's young people, because you think automatically like this is a a life, a future completely destroyed, snuffed out completely. And um, you know, most importantly, more than anything in the world right now, I want to say, um, may God comfort and give some type of peace to the Metcalf family, because we spend a lot of time focusing on the accused and what they're doing and their life and their, you know, all the deliberations and armchair quarterbacks and all of those things. Um, a lot of attention is spent on the accused, and very little, oftentimes, attention is given to the actual victim and the survivors and the people who are living with the aftermath. So I, you know, and that's why I want to, I really want to take an important moment and um and acknowledge this family and this unfathomable loss. Um, it's just a devastating, devastating thing. And and that gets lost in all of the, you know, sit behind your screens and um uh discuss it like you are part of this, like you know what's going on. And it it's so it's just so detached, isn't it? It's just it's sad how detached emotionally we get from um people's other people's lives, uh, other people's pain and suffering and injury. So yes, I I hope we all take a moment and uh pray for that family and pray um for their for their healing, for them to be able to move forward in this and make good things come from this horrific tragedy.

Grief For Victims And Survivors

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Um so anyhow, we we also need to talk about um uh the broader implications of this story. So there's the personal aspect of it, the acknowledgement and um reality that these people are going through. But I think it's also important to talk about that broader impact, right? Like, what does this mean for society? What does this mean? Um, what does this say about us as people, as humanity, as humans? Um, psychologically, right? It ties into that slow erosion of impulse control, um, discourse, discussion, argument, verbal arguments, disagreements, um all of that. Uh young men especially are swimming in a culture that basically glorifies confrontation over character, over that discourse and discussion that we were just talking about. Um, you know, where my truth, I hate that phrase. Do you hate that phrase? My truth. But anyhow, that's that's their term, right? Um, overrules consequences. Like that, that matters more in their mind. Um, and we could talk about the root causes of all of that, the family breakdown, absent fathers or fathers uh failing to model strength uh through restraint, right? Um, schools that are more worried about uh feelings and skin color and sexual identity than they are about formation and and you know, also being in a tech-driven world uh where we are losing that human connection because we're doing everything through a screen. We're protected uh by a screen. Yeah, you could be a bully, you can say anything you want without any repercussions because you're safe behind a screen. You don't have to look somebody in the eye. You don't have to see their hurt or their pain or their discomfort. Um, so they're not real, right? Um we can talk about uh the, and I talking, you know, I talk about it all the time. We could talk about uh the the media, you know, their role in it, politicians, their role in it. Uh uh, you know what? Speaking of, uh, let's with direct regard to this um conversation, to this topic, let's see what Jasmine Crockett had to inflammatory, incorrectly, insanely say about this.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Listen, a lot of people don't know what it is to live as a black person in this country, but just like you can give the benefit of the doubt to so many police officers when they go out and they shoot some black unarmed person, even though they are trained, the fact that there was little to no mercy seen or humanity seen when this black boy said that I was scared.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Um, this is in every possible way one of the, and there's been a few wildest, stupidest, uh ignorant takes I have seen on this topic. Are you kidding me right now? The comparisons are absurd. The the positioning is absurd, the justifying, she is justifying the actions of Carmelo Anthony, who chose to rather than walk away. And by the way, Austin Met witnesses said Austin Metcalf said his exact quote was, I don't want to fight with you. Those were his exact words. Okay, so she's disregarding actual facts of of this case, completely ignoring it. Um, but to justify his stabbing of another human being over a disagreement over I fine if you want to say territory, which I don't really think that was the case at all, by the way, um to justify murder by saying it was not fair that they didn't let him under the tent or that he was scared or all of the nonsense that she just said that is so unbelievable that uh like I would almost want to, I would I would rather believe that that was AI, that whole statement, than to believe an actual person would make such a stupid, stupid statement. Um, but yeah, but that's where we are. Like that is where we are. That type of um media positioning uh by politicians in this specific case is a perfect example of what I'm talking about here. That was inflammatory, that was categorically false. Her comparisons were absurd, but you have a wide faction of people who are listening to this and nodding their head and agreeing with this 100% and saying that that is that is accurate and okay. It's okay. The message there was it's okay to murder someone when they don't let you have your way. It's okay to murder someone when they disagree with you. That is the messaging, that is what they're saying. And it is, you know, absolutely horrific. So we can talk about all of the aspects that uh make this case uh unfortunately so typical now, so commonplace now. Um, and all of the things that we're talking about are accurate. The media needs to have accountability. Uh, parents, schools, uh, society, we need more accountability for our own personal actions. Uh, we need to demand it. And this is a great example of that. Now, there are people that'll say 35 years uh isn't enough. You should get life. And I don't necessarily disagree with that. Um, what I would like to see, what I what I would pray for for um Carmelo Anthony would be for him to somehow uh, you know, miraculously get incredible guidance. That clearly the guidance that he lacked in his life, um, that somebody in a positive way takes him under their wing and you know shows them, um, shows them God, introduces him to God, because um the the um lack the amount of lack of empathy um and humanity that he exhibited with that act is uh you know appalling and tragic and sad. So um I don't necessarily I punishment, his jail term, uh prison term, uh punishment is required. That that is within the scope of our our laws, uh the action and um accountability and consequence of of actions. Um that was met, you know, that was met here. Maybe not long enough. And some people say, I'm sure certainly not in his families, and who could blame them for you know wanting worse, wanting more. Um, you know, hit their son lost his life. Uh technically, you know, he should lose his, whether um full uh life in prison or otherwise. So yeah, the question becomes here, we can talk about it all day, right? All day long. We can go down the entire list, like we said, the entire list of all of the root causes of how we get here.

Accountability And Cultural Root Causes

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Um, but the the question really becomes that we're all really quick to point out the problems, aren't we? We're really quick to point out problems. That is the easiest thing to do. We can point them out all day. We can see them like as if they're a neon sign. We know what they are. But who can offer um real actionable solutions? Like, are we doomed to just uh keep watching like this cultural rot infect all avenues and aspects of life? How do we change it? How do we fix it? How do we take those actionable steps? And yes, we can there's the broad answer, right? Bring back the nuclear family, um, have more accountability, all of these are so easy to say, right? How do we do it? How do we put it into action? How do we demand it? I don't know. Maybe you know in the in the uh comment section. If you do, I need you to come in and uh solve all the world's problems. Can you do that in in one? I don't even know how many you know words or characters you're allowed in a comment. Um, I'm sure there is a limitation, but um, make it multiple comments if you'd like, because if you have the answer, if you can fix this awful, awful societal problem that we are living in. Right now. Um, my goodness, you get the golden ticket, right? Who knows that reference? You know that reference.

California Vote Counting Suspicion

SPEAKER_01 22:07

All right, let's uh let's move on to the California count chaos. Mail uh mail-in miracles or predictable patterns. Well, obviously, we're all gonna say it's a pretty predictable pattern. We've seen this time and again. We are sick and tired of it. We're disgusted with all of it at this point. Um, a little clarity here for anybody listening in California primaries, early lead for some Republicans, evaporate as late mail-in ballots roll in. Yep, we've seen this play before. Um, we have, of course, the unexpected cries of rigged that are echoing because how could they not right now? Um, we're talking, of course, about Ellie Mayor, uh mayoral run uh Spencer Pratt. He was up. He was, you know, pretty much close to guaranteed to being the front runner there, up against uh Bass. Um, and then what happened? Democrat surges. Uh Trump and allies flagged it. Of course they did, of course we all did. And skeptics, skeptics called it standard procedure and a state where most vote absentee. So what do we do? What's the answer here? Um, obviously, this this kind of stuff wears completely on our track. Like our trust in the system in government in elections is is completely 100% eroded. It's gone. It's done. And this is exactly why, of course, uh the Trump administration is is pushing for all of the measures that that they have been consistently pushing for, rightly so. The solution, as usual, is actually pretty simple. It's the one that President Trump has been pushing for all along. What is it? Verifiable reform, right? Um, same-day ID voting where practical, clean chain of custody for uh mail, right? Uh, real-time transparency, kind of no duh, right? Uh, we're not asking for perfection. I think that's impossible, right? I mean, we would love a perfect system, but we've got to be doing better. The the American people obviously deserve better, you know. Like, why is this so complicated? It's it's a rhetorical question. We all know why it's so complicated. Uh, so anyhow, uh, I thought it would be fun to just share um a little video of just having a little fun. Because listen, you know how I, you know my deal, you know how I am. My feeling is if we can't find something to laugh about here, if we can't joke about it a little bit and just lighten up for a minute and you know, kind of de-escalate that anger and contempt and disgust and rage. Not that it goes away by any means, but if we can just kind of give a little chuckle with it, it makes it all a little bit more bearable. So uh I put out this video and I'll share it with you guys here. Right, folks, the Super Bowl ended on Sunday, and we should have the results for you sometime next Thursday. Welcome back to E, your source for fashion and entertainment news as it breaks. And today we're talking about the Oscars. Still, yes, it has been three weeks since the Oscars. The Academy is still counting. We should know soon. Mrs. Smith, your husband is out of surgery. Thank you, Doctor. Uh is he all right? Is he gonna live? We should know in approximately three weeks. What? Yeah, so um that was uh obviously, if you couldn't read the caption because you're listening, I created a little skit just to kind of make fun of the way California counts. Because uh, you know, um we mentioned right at the top of this segment that that we would love uh one one-day elections, you know, like you know, other states can do. States and and countries, by the way, with way larger populations, uh, manage to somehow get their their counts in um before the night is over. And but you know, unless you're in California, where it takes, you know, maybe a year or so, who knows before we actually find out anything. So yeah, obviously these are all things that need to be fixed and

Maine Candidate Scandal And Whataboutism

SPEAKER_01 26:16

changed. Um, staying in the same lane here, let's let's just uh scoot on over to uh Maine across the country there their GOP, steady hand collins is unopposed, and the Dems, the Dems pick from the bottom of the barrel with Graham Platinum. This is wild, guys. This is this feels like some serious Alice in Wonderland stuff here because it is really, really hard to wrap the brain around this. So you've got uh Susan Collins uh over in Maine. Uh she is pretty much cruising, I guess, unopposed on the GOP side. But meanwhile, they uh over on the Dem site, they're putting it all behind all their support is going behind their guy, Platinum. Uh I still can't believe this guy was like their bestest. Uh when when I posted about this, uh just I don't know, a couple days ago, I guess, I I got the predictable. Um have you met Trump? Have you seen Trump comments? I knew they were coming. I even put it in the caption that um, you know, that they were they were gonna come in with exactly that because that is the cliche line. Like, let's deflect from the awful uh awfulness of the this guy. By the way, let me just tell you, let me share with you the awfulness of this guy. Um the Democrats voted for a guy who had a Nazi tattoo. He's like since covered it up with something else. Um, he lied about this Nazi tattoo and he um, you know, said he didn't know that's what it was, but he's also heard or read or seen uh also afterwards bragging about it. Um he said that he would rape people who broke into his home to show them his dominance. I'm not kidding. I'm I'm not kidding. Um he also sexted with women while he was married, he bragged about drawing male male parts uh in porta potties. He also praised Islamic terrorists, and he has said that he is a communist, and he also joined an app known to be used by predators to contact minors. And the left said, that's our guy, that's our guy. We want him. Yeah. So anyhow, um, I of course made that that post, that video, uh talking about that. And like I said, the predictable comments uh came up. And of course, I had a video response to that. So I'm just gonna share it rather than just repeating myself. I'm just gonna share what I already said. Here it is. And was posted multiple times, variations of this question was posted multiple times underneath my post about Graham Platner. Yeah. So here's the thing. Um, first off, yeah, I have met him. I actually spent New Year's Eve week uh at Mar-a-Lago. It was a great time. He was lovely, he was gracious, he was funny, um, he was kind. And um, yeah, so to answer the question. Yes, I have. But thank you for asking. I'm pretty sure you guys are being sarcastic, right? So let's talk about what you're really saying here. You're suggesting that I can't say anything about Graham Plattner because you believe these very same charges or guilt by President Trump, right? Here's the thing. The last time that I checked, pointing at him or someone else doesn't magically make Graham Plattner or whoever the latest Democrat nominee is, it doesn't make him a good choice, right? You know that. We're allowed to call out bad actors on both sides without the whataboutism dodge. So maybe you can try and stay on topic, which is this particular pick, and tell me what is your actual defense of this pick? Like what makes this guy a good choice? Let's see if you can leave out everyone else and just focus on the person we're talking about right here. Can you do it? Yeah. So my point being, if your only defense of someone indefensible is this is to point the finger at the other guy, at somebody else, without giving any um real logical, practical, citable um insights as to why you want this guy, why do you want this candidate? What do they bring to the table that makes you say, yeah, that's why, even though, like if you want to justify, I'm not saying, I'm not saying anything one way or the other, right, wrong, or indifferent, but if you want to justify your pick, um you should be able to do it with citing the credible reasons why they're a good pick. Because I actually can say to you and that um somebody who, you know, like the biggest um character flaw you can say about most presidents that we've had, maybe all, I don't, for all I know, I have no idea, but quite a few of them. The the biggest critique people will often say we'll talk about, well, particularly with Trump, because you know, they they only want to focus on him. So we'll just use him as the example. Um, people want to focus on his infidelity um and his manner of speaking, the things that he has said, or that the way he has said certain things. Um, a lot of the things that people accuse him of are actually categorically false and misinterpreted, deliberately misinterpreted, all of those things. But they'll they'll point out his um character failings, his morality failings and all of those things. Um, I will actually tell you that my personal opinion is I don't think those types of things make or break you as a viable, as a good, as a good leader. I I don't think those those are things. Uh morality, yeah, you know, certainly you would like the most moral, moral, high standard person you could possibly get. Yes, that is. That is the uh dream. That's the ideal. Is that reality? Obviously not. Uh history, time and a time and a time and again, has shown us that that is not the reality. That um, you know, oftentimes people who make uh moral choices, unfavorable moral choices in their personal life are still actually really great leaders. So that is not the it's not the uh winning argument, and it's not the killer of a good candidate. Um having said that, we do have there's gotta be some boundaries here, right? Like I and you know, maybe somebody will say, I'm splitting hairs. I you can say that. I don't agree with you, but you can say that. Um you have somebody who makes choices uh with consenting adults, right? Uh they are not the best choices, they are not the most moral choices, they're certainly not the most godly choices, um, but they are making choices with other consenting adults in their personal private life. Okay, I mean, it is what it is. That's that is that is one side of uh of an issue where I can say, not cool by any means, but it is what it is. And then you have somebody who has a Nazi tattoo, um, who has said a lot of things. I don't want, I don't want to keep repeating the things because it's just really gross. Um there does come a point where you do have to draw a hard line, right? I mean, no, I I I think that there, I feel like there is. So the comparisons are a little bit silly and absurd, but more significantly, um, can you, like I said at the end of that little clip there, can you defend your choice without deflecting and pointing at somebody else's mistakes or choices or behaviors? Like, can you defend the person you're picking by pointing out their good qualities, their assets, their um, you know, winning whatever, they're winning whatever. Can you do it? Most of the time, no. Uh, you saw that with Kamala Harris in countless uh on the street interviews, right? Where people would say, Well, why are you voting for Kamala Harris? And they would say, Because she's because she's not Trump or because she's a woman. And then the follow-up question would be, Well, what has she done in her time as vice president uh or in her time as governor? What has she done that makes you believe she would make a good president? And then it's like crickets, they don't have an answer. That's what we see over and over and over again. You have no defense of your candidate other than to say he's not him or he's not her, he's not whoever. That's not a defense, guys. That's not a winning argument. You lose automatically when you can't defend your choice with concrete evidence and tangible uh accomplishments, right? So, and by the way, yes, before somebody will ask in the comments, well, what do you what can you say about Trump that he's done good? Dude, I've made that video countless times, uh, variations of that video where I have listed his accomplishments and the things that he has done um as as president both both terms. Um, so it's out there. I'm not gonna keep repeating the same things over and over again because it's obnoxious and it's boring for me and boring for anyone who's already heard it. So if you haven't heard it, feel free to dig through my videos and and find it. Unfortunately or fortunately, there are a lot of videos to go through, but they are there. Many, many times I have touted Trump's actual accomplishments and uh things that he has done that are great. So there's that. All right, so let's move on. I'm done with that. Done with it. Oh, well, speaking of Trump, I guess I'm not done with it.

Trump Walks Off Meet The Press

SPEAKER_01 36:06

I guess I'm still talking. Um, so President Trump uh sat down with Meet the Press. Um, he was pressed hard on California claims and past elections, and he ended up uh walking off the interview and called it and called that um uh called Meet the Press um crooked, right? So, you know, so here's here's the thing, and and I've seen both both sides of this, and and I will say, so somebody has often, or people often say, you know, that I don't call out, or we as conservatives uh or Republicans don't call out anything that Trump says. Well, that's BS. We actually have no problem. I you know what, I won't speak for anybody else. I know that other people do regularly. Um, but I will speak for myself and say I have plenty of times uh stated the things that I don't love about Trump or the way that he does certain things. I have no problem calling out things that I don't like or or disagree with or prefer he doesn't do uh many times. Again, feel free to scroll through the videos, knock yourself out. Um, but the flip side of that here is that I understand, most of us understand his frustration and contempt and impatience and intolerance of legacy media and their tactics and their nonsense. Like he repeatedly gives these people a chance. Should he? I, you know, part of me says no, he should not, but I also give him credit for for doing it, for sitting down with these people. I mean, he is he has sat down for many, many, many lengthy interviews and press conferences with people who just insist on using him as a as a uh battering um, I don't even know the word I'm thinking of, but you know what I mean. Um just just beating on him uh nonstop with completely unfair, um biased questions and comments and insults and all this thing. So, you know, as a human being, there is a point where you just kind of say, enough, I'm done with you. I gave you a chance. I'm trying to sit down with you, I'm trying to talk to you here. Um, and you are just coming from this completely biased, aggressive, hostile tone and attitude and questions that have, you know, oftentimes nothing to do with what we're actually sitting down for. Um, but anyhow, so stating the obvious, legacy media has a serious trust deficit for a reason. They've got selective gotchas, uh, their narrative protection of whatever things uh think back to the uh whole Biden cognitive cognitivity, cognitivity, his cognitive abilities um lie that they push nonstop. And now you have his own wife coming out and saying, Well, I thought he was having a stroke during that debate. So give me a break. Uh the auto pen fiasco, all of the things done in the dark have now come to light. Not all of them, but many of them have come to the to light. So it's no wonder that we have and that President Trump has this absolute contempt and disgust uh for the legacy media. Um, you know, do I do I wish that he didn't walk out? Yeah, I actually do. I wish that he didn't walk out. I I wish that he stayed because then it just and the only reason he was right to walk out. If this makes any sense to you, I don't know. He was right to walk out, but I still wish he didn't. Only because of the follow-up optics, you know, and it just gives them more fuel, more, you know, I don't know, banter and and things to say and mock and make fun of. Um, do I think he cares that much about it? Probably not, probably just for a minute, um, like we all do with negativity and hostile people and comments. We care for under a minute and then we've already moved on. Um, but you know, uh the truth is we all lose it when uh the the media and our political leaders get into it like this. Like we all lose technically. Okay, it does not help anyone. And this is directed at, I'm directing this, I'm not singling out just Trump or just the media. I'm actually singling out the whole pattern, this whole system of how these things are being done. This nasty, nasty back and forth that goes on, it needs to stop. The press needs to show more respect. Period. I don't care that you don't like the president. You respect the office, you respect the presidency, you respect decorum, you respect the fact that this is the United States. We should be held and holding ourselves to a higher standard of behavior and decorum. And it starts right at the top. Yes, I do mean President Trump too. It starts right at the top and it goes all the way across and then it trickles down. Everyone should be holding themselves in higher standards, right? Simple as that. I mean, the reality is, the reality is that we the people just want straight answers. We want civility and respect and accountability and all of those things for everyone, for everyone. That is the true uh that is the true middle America, right? Um and I'm not talking about a financial demographic. I'm talking about a mentality demographic. Um, that is what we are all just starving for, just personal accountability, government accountability, media accountability, personal accountability. These are all the things that we collectively are just starving for. So, you know, from my mouth to God's ears to all of the people uh that need to hear that, I don't know.

Feminism Family Breakdown And Loneliness

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Um, last topic, guys, last topic. This is not one that uh Clay um put in here. Uh, this is one that I added in because of a post I shared that got some people, unsurprisingly, a little riled up. Um they didn't like it, mostly because they failed to or they refused to read my statement that accompanied it. Um, they assumed that I was bashing mothers who work outside of the home uh wrongly, by the way. I was actually not bashing them even remotely. I wouldn't. Um they also attacked stay-at-home moms, which I was one of those uh throughout my kids' lives. They had like a lot of nasty things to say about that. And then, of course, there were some stay-at-home moms, unsurprisingly, who retaliated back with their own responses. Um, so uh, you know, needless to say, it became a little bit of a little bit of a verbal brawl in the comments section, which was not actually my goal, believe it or not, not at all. Um, it was just a a overarching um view of of what has happened, how this happened, how feminism kind of warped and and just turned everything in a really unbenicial way to society. Um, so I I think that's feminine. I think, I think that feminism started with real inequities, right? It started with um the right to vote, started with uh, you know, basic rights, uh, but that has all morphed into um something that treats motherhood, uh, marriage, and um those complementary roles between men and women, husbands and wives, um, as oppression rather than design, right? The statistics bear this out. Um, you have delayed marriage, lower birth rates, higher divorce, kids in fractured homes, um, psychological impacts that run very Deep things like the loneliness epidemic. I on the um radio show that I did, I did a segment on um teenage boys now creating AI girlfriends. This is we we are in a loneliness epidemic. We are more connected than ever and we are more lonely than ever. And that is just simply uh one proof of of that, which is just wild. But for women and men and uh boys with without uh steady fathers uh influencing them that are struggling with identity and discipline, and you have girls chasing metrics over meeting, over meaning. Um, and the root causes are again, you know, we go back to our very first topic. There were there are some pretty universal root causes of this. We talked about the fatherless homes, we talked about the um, you know, parents, both parents working outside of the home, nobody around to physically, literally, emotionally raise these kids because people are exhausted at the end of the day. And kids are enrolled in 500 different things. So by the time they get home, it's basically time to throw some food at your face and go to bed, and that's it. So the the connection, and then of course the weekends are filled up with, you know, sports and activities and things that must get done and homework and all of these things, and all of these things cause the family unit to grow further and further apart. So that connection between husbands and wives, between parents and children, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, all of these connections that were done over the dinner table, and over, you know, time spent together as a family over the weekend, all this time is being eaten up by things, by stuff, by other things filling it. And then of course you have, you know, one of, I think one of the, you know, most tragic things of that, besides feminism and women, you know, being compelled to be in the workforce, um, is the kids being in school, you know, five days a week, eight hours a day. The the psychological impact of all of this, I don't know how you can deny this. Uh look at the mental health crisis in our country. I'm not even talking about other countries. In our country, look at the mental health crisis. We have chronic anxiety, uh, chronic depression, mental health disorders, uh all the way down to the simple disconnect between humans today. All of this stuff, guys, all of this stuff is by design. Okay. And maybe you think I'm putting on a tinfoil hat here. I'm actually not. This is pretty well documented or documentable uh just by going back through history. If you go back to these very specific moments in time where these things shifted and changed, um, you can you can make the correlation between all of that and where we are now. And, you know, and I know the left argues constantly. It was in that comment section. Uh, the left will will argue all the time that feminism empowered choice. Sure, it did. It gave it gave you, it gave us women, it gave us a choice that we didn't have. And we should have a choice. Of course, we should have a choice, which is, by the way, exactly what I said in my caption, which was ignored and disregarded. Surprise, surprise. Um, absolutely. I think it's great to have a choice. I would not be able to do this, what I'm doing right now, without having been afforded the opportunity to have choice. But somewhere along the line, that choice was several things happened, guys. That choice was morphed into um there was a shift in choice to mockery. There was an addition, I guess I should say, of this mockery and disdain and uh condescension towards women who stayed home with their kids. Like, oh, is that all you want to do in life? Wow, that's sad. That's lame. And then that was bolster, bolstered and probably even created by those in power because the government looked at this and said, listen, we can get two incomes out of one family. If the women are working and the men are working, that's more tax dollars, that's more all of the thing. And it's also meaning that children now have to be put in school for longer periods of time, which now gives government control uh over those children influence. Um, so now somebody else is essentially raising your kid eight hours a day, five days a week, and you are losing out because obviously they have the stronger influence. What are you getting those kids for? You're getting them, you know, after school, after all of the things are done, after their, you know, two and a half to three hours of homework is done. You have time, not all the time. Uh, you have time for dinner and bed, basically. That's it. That is the influence that you have, time you have to influence your children's values and morals and beliefs and all of those things. You're gonna tell me that this was not by design. You're either delusional or you're part of that system that is trying to or that has successfully created that. And uh again, the amount of proof of this, you do not need to look further than on your phone screen, uh, on your computer screen, walking around and seeing what society looks like right now. Um family has been redefined by the left. All of this has been intentional. This was deliberate, and this was something that, unlike conservatives, um, that they at one point they kind of made these conclusions and they decided, well, you can't do this overnight. You can't just flip it on a dime. This is something that you have to play the long game at. This is going to take time. This was back, I don't know, I mean, back in probably like the 60s, maybe late 50s, early 60s, I don't know. Um, but this is going back decades. And um, as you can see, their long game has borne the toxic fruit uh of their tree, basically. What do we do? I mean, you you gotta reject all of the, you gotta reject the gender wars, you gotta reject the ideology, you have to reject this erosion of the family unit. Um, and you have to be probably before all of that, you have to be, you know, to counter their wokeism, you have to be awake, you have to see things for as they are and not as they want you to see it. Uh, that goes down to, and I've talked about this many times, the television shows, you know, the broadcast streaming of um, you know, family sitcoms where the family dynamic is always somehow it's always toxic. It's always grim and depressing and miserable. Even when they're doing it as comedy, the, you know, the messaging is that, you know, family life sucks. Parents are the worst, husbands are dumb dolts that don't know how to do anything right in the house, and wives are bitter and angry and disappointed, and you know, pay attention to these things. Is that a reflection of real life, or is that a um projection of what they want you to believe real life is? Is that what your real life looks like? Because if it is, you gotta do the work, man. You gotta do the work to make it better. And uh, you know, most of all, this will really anger people because they don't like to hear this. Uh, but most of all, we need to get back to God. You need to, you need to get back to what God's will is for us and for our lives. Because I can I can guarantee you, it's a bold statement, right? I can guarantee you, your life will be dramatically incomprehensibly better for it. Um, so that's what I'm closing with today, guys. No, you know what? Actually, what I'm closing with

Renewing The Mind And Closing

SPEAKER_01 52:37

is this. You ready for it? Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. That's it. That's all I got. I I don't know if this was good, bad, indifferent, but it is what it is. All I know is that we will be back next week. I will have Clay right next to me on one side or the other here, and uh it'll be it'll be much better for me. At least it better be better for you too. It is. Trust me, it's better for you. It's way better than to just sit sit there listening or just looking at me, ramble on and on. All right, guys, that's all I got. Take care. We will uh we, I, we, we'll see you next week. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

The headlines will change by tomorrow, but the patterns won't. Thanks for spending this time with us. We'll be back to keep asking the harder questions and telling the quieter truths. Until then, stay grounded, be discerning, and we'll see you next time.