Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Monday 4/20/26
Transcript
- Greg: What's up guys. Welcome to beliefs, ballots and bets. is Monday, April the 20th, 2026. And we're here with your favorite show that nobody listens to. I hope you guys didn't miss me too much. I'm sure that the three or four people who actually listened to this show were on the vacation with me. So I don't think anybody's overly disappointed, but we're back and we're going to try to get back to our consistent daily podcast here with a little bit of scripture, some current events and political stuff. A lot of faith-based applications, some sports and gambling plays, and we're gonna try to have a little fun while we're here. The scripture of the day is, this is a really good one. It's a little long, so bear with me, but it's Romans chapter 12, verses 14 through 19. It says, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it is depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge and I will repay, says the Lord. I think there's a lot of stuff we can take from this. In general application, there's so much. of what we're ingesting and digesting each day and consuming on social media. It is all in an intentional effort to divide us. So much of what we're consuming is coming even from foreign actors or just the lunatic fringe of either side. And it is solely designed to get us to continue to fighting with each other. My guess is probably 75 to 80 % of our nation right now really isn't all that far apart. But man, if you look online or you pay attention to the news, it seems like it is a 50-50 battle and both halves of the country absolutely hate each other. I frankly just don't believe that is that's the real case. You know, I think we should all really be careful as we're doom scrolling and trying to figure out what in the world is going on in these crazy times. Let's just be careful and remain aware of and vigilant of the fact that so much of this is designed to divide us. You know, before you share that post, you know, whether it's a post that you're sharing because it completely supports your narrative or whether it's a post you're sharing because it completely abolishes the other side's narrative. I mean, ask yourself first, is it a trusted source? Is it true? Do you even know who this source is? Is there any way you have validated the accuracy of this before you share it? I'm guilty of it. I know we all are, but I think it's something we can all work on and be better about. And I think we have to remember for most of what we're dealing with, in a lot of cases, there are two very valid sides to the story or the position. And we shouldn't be so quick to just immediately discount the other side's position because we've already made up our mind what we think they believe. You know, I take that as to, you know, one of the specific kind of topics of the day is the SAVE Act and the idea of, you know, illegal immigrants voting versus, you know, the hassle of needing voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote. And I like to look at this from both sides. I think both sides can be true. Now I am about as red blooded, die hard, right wing conservative as you get. I absolutely believe that because of what has happened in the last 10 years or so in the amount of illegal immigrants we have in this country, we do need to change the voting process. We do need to absolutely ensure that only eligible citizens are voting. Full stop. That should not be debatable. If one illegal immigrant casts a vote that gets counted, we're not doing this right. Now, having said that, I also fully believe I don't want any disenfranchisement. I don't want to take away the right to vote from anybody who has it legally. Not women, not any race, not any ethnicity. If you are a legal citizen and have not broken the law, committed felonies, or lost at any reason to lose your right to vote, I don't want to take your voting rights away from you. And I think it's fine. Let's come up with a system that doesn't make it such a hassle. Let's come up with a way to accomplish both of those things. Instead of fighting over the idea in general, let's accomplish what both sides want. Unless what the other side really wants is for the illegals to vote. Seems like that might be the case. All right, let's get to the fun stuff, guys. We're all here to talk about some sports plays as well. We've got three plays of the day. The good news is we're no longer on a losing streak after taking a week off and being in paradise. But we've got three plays as usual. It's not always the design goal, but it does seem to work out that I'd usually try to whittle my plays down to about three. It's nice because you avoid the split, you avoid the two and two or one and one tie. So three plays usually gives us an idea of feeling like we have a shot at having a winning day more often than not. First play is we're going with a baseball play. Give me the Cardinals on the road. I got them at plus 115 against the Miami Marlins. My model gives the Cardinals a slightly better than 50 % chance to win. So when I saw the plus 115, that seemed like an automatic fire. I don't usually like betting road teams a whole lot, but in this case, I think the Cardinals are a slightly better team. There's no real pitching. discrepancy that concerns me. So give me the shot at the Cardinals with a slightly better team at a plus number. I like our chances there. We will move on to the NBA for a couple of plays. First play, I'm going to go with the Minnesota Timberwolves plus the six and a half at Denver. If you watched that first game, it was a tight game there till the end. I think the, don't think Denver's quite what they have been in the past. I don't know if Joe gets quite, isn't quite healthy and it may be a little limited, but I like Minnesota maybe to get the win outright, but I definitely like them to keep it within the six and a half and try to tighten up that series there. And then the final player is going to be the Hawks at the Knicks. Give me the Knicks at home minus the five and a half. I could see Atlanta hanging with them for a little while. I could see this being a tighter game, but I think the Knicks will pull away in the end. I think they'll get the W at home and I like them to cover the five and a half at the end of the day. So. In summary, let's get back to what we were talking about and remember that in Romans, we're called to humility and peace and to practice love. And I think we're all being tested right now. We are so inundated with not only misinformation, but in a lot of cases, malicious information, information that is absolutely designed. to create an emotional fervor that just has us all at each other's throats. And like I said, I think a lot of that's by intent. And you know, I'm a contrarian. So if somebody's trying that hard to get me to do something, it makes me wonder why. And in this case, I know why. They want us to hate each other because that's how the world order takes over. And that's how we all really don't have any control over our systems. So let's try to take the high road. Let's try to hit the pause button from time to time. And I know that's hard right now. But let's get in our Bibles, let's find the scripture, let's do what Romans calls us to do and let's remain peaceful, let's try to consider the other side's position and let's often consider the fact that both parties can be right and sometimes two sides can both be true. Again, like we talked about on the SAVE Act, I absolutely want to do something to clean up our voting process to make sure that only eligible citizens are voting. but I also don't want to take away voting rights from anybody who rightfully deserves them. Both can be true. So when you're talking about the SAVE Act and you're accusing my side of trying to disenfranchise women or disenfranchise black folks, that ain't it. And as soon as you start saying that, you have lost any respect I have for the conversation because you're not paying attention to what I'm trying to tell you. So listen to folks, try to really understand what they're saying before you jump down their throat and try to correct. Alright guys, we're going to wrap it up. Three plays for the day again. We got St. Louis Cardinals plus 115 at the Miami Marlins and Major League Baseball. In the NBA, we got the road Timberwolves plus six and a half at Denver. And then we got the home Knicks minus five and a half against Atlanta. As always guys, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love each other and tell the truth. I'm Greg Miller and this is Beliefs, Ballots and Vets.