Latest / Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories / ICE shooting, Iran on edge, Golden Globes & postseason football | Ep. 52

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ICE shooting, Iran on edge, Golden Globes & postseason football | Ep. 52 · Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories

0:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm Connor Jones.
0:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Mike Atama Sella.
0:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is Culture Brief, a Dittison Foreign Podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And we do it all from a Christian perspective.
0:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mike, a man, what a week, Brooks Keppka.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: He's back with the PGA.
0:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Ashley Tisdale is causing tips among Hollywood moms.
0:24
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
0:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew is so back, baby.
0:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We're so back.
0:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and it is typically more fun to talk about Brooks kept gun Ashley Tisdale in the Disney star drama, but we do have to talk about the biggest story.
0:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So what we're going to talk about today is Minnesota ice and why this moment matters.
0:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Why it's important.
0:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We're also going to talk about what's going on in Iran, the protests and the possible US intervention, we're recording Wednesday, January 14th, there could be a new development by the time.
0:53
[SPEAKER_01]: This episode releases Thursday morning, January 15th, but we'll do our best to keep you in the loop on that.
0:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a couple of fun questions to answer.
1:02
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton refusing to testify in the Epstein files and NFL playoffs and just all that stuff and so much more.
1:11
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's jump into the brief.
1:13
[SPEAKER_01]: The brief.
1:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright.
1:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's talk about what happened in Minneapolis.
1:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So this happened last week and it happened after we recorded, however, this story has stayed in the public eye.
1:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So we feel this is still a very relevant story, especially as believers, how we process through this.
1:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if we rush to judgment on either side, I think that we might be missing the point.
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to walk us through what happened and why it matters and how we can react to it as believers.
1:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's what happened in Minneapolis.
1:47
[SPEAKER_01]: On January 7th, a federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis ended with Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman being shot and killed by an ice agent.
1:57
[SPEAKER_01]: That was kind of the immediate news that came out.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Woman shot and killed by ice agent.
2:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Federal authorities have identified the officer involved as Jonathan Ross.
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: video of the encounter surfaced quickly and then over time, over the next several days, we saw different camera angles from different vantage points over and over and over again.
2:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You couldn't scroll, you couldn't turn on the TV without seeing something about this story.
2:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And it showed officers surrounding Goods via goal attempting to engage her and then opening fire after the SUV moved forward.
2:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Federal officials have argued the shooting was an act of
2:30
[SPEAKER_01]: self-defense, local leaders in Minnesota have strongly disagree calling the response reckless and demanding transparency.
2:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is where the story begins.
2:40
[SPEAKER_01]: that is not where it ends.
2:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It still hasn't ended yet.
2:43
[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of has a microscope on the way that ice is operating in the way that law enforcement, what their protocols are for engaging in these situations.
2:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the debate is not about just what happened in those few seconds.
2:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also about how powers exercised, how investigations are handled, and how quickly this procedure sometime and just jumping to one solution or the other can kind of replace compassion.
3:05
[SPEAKER_01]: in us.
3:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here's my view up front.
3:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether the shooting was legally justified and whether it was morally right, are related questions, those do matter, but they're not the same question.
3:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when the same federal system involved in the shooting controls the investigation and the narrative afterwards, or at least tries to, public trust becomes a part of the story too.
3:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think
3:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Zooming out of what happened in this shooting, Renee Good, not listening to the officer's commands driving her vehicle towards an officer being somewhat belligerent in that moment, an officer choosing to shoot her when many would say he didn't need to do that.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: It could have done something else.
3:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that all matters.
3:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the biggest thing for me, Connor, then I want you to speak to this for a minute that came from the story, was just the reactions from the left, from the right, from believers, from non-believers.
4:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The reactions to this were oftentimes, oh, yes, Renee Good was completely justified.
4:05
[SPEAKER_01]: That officer is wrong.
4:07
[SPEAKER_01]: He's this.
4:07
[SPEAKER_01]: He's that.
4:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Or, oh, yeah, she had what's come into it from the right, from someone the right.
4:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Those seem to be the dominating reactions, and I didn't see a lot of nuance to the discussion out there for the most part.
4:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was the most interesting thing to me from all of this was just the immediate reaction, the partisan reaction from this.
4:27
[SPEAKER_01]: What was your immediate reaction and everything that followed after that?
4:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think first I was like this is such a tough situation.
4:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a sticky situation.
4:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The video is made it clear That man this in a way.
4:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a big tragedy We're talking about the end of a woman's life in a scenario where it should never have escalated to that point and sadly it read And then you're also talking about this officer who had to make a split second decision that has also not just
4:52
[SPEAKER_00]: ended the life of a woman, but has radically transformed his life and his family's family's life.
4:57
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in hiding right now.
4:58
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so much tragedy around this whole thing and you're right about the partisan thing.
5:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, as soon as it's happening, I was on Twitter trying to just understand what was going on, see the different camera angles.
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I follow people on the left and the right, so I like to get just both sides.
5:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not even remotely anything down the middle.
5:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It was everybody was just taking their complete partisan view.
5:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We're all seeing the exact same video and people are just like, oh, yep, it's this way or it's that way.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no middle ground here and there usually is a middle ground.
5:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think in this scenario where we can all say this was tragic.
5:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all in she, you know, you would think could have listened better or obeyed orders or not been there in the first place.
5:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then they're in the first place.
5:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Officer may be taking the different action to avoid such a lethal action.
5:42
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of both sides us and recognize that ultimately it's a big tragedy that should not have happened and it really comes down to here's where I'm really going with this micro.
5:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you're about to hit on this is, is this all needed in the first place?
5:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Were both people in bad positions?
5:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Is the ice officer in a bad, men placed in a bad position by his higher up leadership should these ice officers be on the streets in Minneapolis in the middle of the snow go in through neighborhoods trying to apprehend immigrants.
6:08
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not for me to say.
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure that's for either of us to say it's what the government has been elected to do to why Trump's an office.
6:15
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants people to be in the streets gathering up immigrants and deporting them.
6:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, how do you do that?
6:21
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to go through really tough situations like this.
6:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I think JD Vance doubled down on that this morning, Wednesday morning in a tweet saying, what did you expect?
6:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Like,
6:30
[SPEAKER_00]: the border shut down so now to get rid of people you have to send agents into the streets and it's neighborhoods and into stores and maybe schools like there's a lot of questions about this.
6:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
6:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good point, Connor.
6:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's talk about why this became a flash point, protests erupted immediately, not just in Minneapolis or Minnesota everywhere all over the country.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So the reaction was not just about the use of force.
6:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It was about, you know, fear history, accountability, just law enforcement.
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Minnesota officials initially planned a joint investigation with the FBI, but that cooperation broke down.
7:02
[SPEAKER_01]: the FBI did take sole control of the case and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprentices said it no longer had access to evidence or interviews which has kind of become like already an issue just like with the with the skeptical public you know this was a federal issue and so the federal government is saying we're the only ones handling this.
7:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So people can reasonably disagree on what the video shows, but once transparency disappears, suspicion fills the gap, right?
7:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So in a country already conditioned to distrust institutions, the gap widens quickly when only one source is going to try to tell you what happened when they do their own investigations.
7:36
[SPEAKER_01]: See, here's the thing, we all saw the video, right?
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So everybody rest just to their own conclusions on this.
7:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So what ice is and how we got here, I want to talk about ice for a minute.
7:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that we
7:44
[SPEAKER_01]: All of the sudden, we're talking about ICE way more than we ever have.
7:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
7:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So to understand why this moment feels so charged, you have to understand what ICE is.
7:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the history of it.
7:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is the immigration and customs enforcement.
7:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was created in 2003 after 9-11 on the heels of 9-11.
7:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Its mission sits at the intersection of immigration enforcement customs and national security.
8:03
[SPEAKER_01]: They kind of handle all three things.
8:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And so ICE was not designed to operate originally.
8:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't designed to operate like a local police department.
8:13
[SPEAKER_01]: built on trust over time.
8:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It was built for federal enforcement.
8:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So that origin matter.
8:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So agencies designed for national security operate differently than agencies designed for community policing.
8:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So ice officers are not overseen by city councils.
8:29
[SPEAKER_01]: They're use of force policies, training and standards and investigations largely remain inside the federal system and then they're just sent in.
8:36
[SPEAKER_01]: to these places across the country.
8:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that that does lead to some of the issues that we found.
8:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So when ice operations end in tragedy, the public question is not only whether the action was legal, it was whether the process that follows it deserves trust or really like you said, Connor, if they should have been there in the first place.
8:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I'm just laying out the details of it.
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, this is not as clear cut and as cut and dry as I think most on both sides would like to say and that's kind of what I'm saying is I want to bring some nuance and I want us as believers to be comfortable in the uncomfortable of not being able to jump to an immediate conclusion so that we can just dismiss this and move on with our lives.
9:15
[SPEAKER_01]: As followers of Christ, I believe that we're called to something higher than what our party platform tells us we should believe.
9:21
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot to consider with this.
9:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the legal justification is not the same as moral closure.
9:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is an important moment to slow down.
9:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if the shooting is ultimately ruled justified under policy, which I believe it will be.
9:34
[SPEAKER_01]: even if Jonathan Ross, the officer that shot her is not prosecuted, even if every procedural box was checked, none of that automatically means that the outcome was acceptable because Renee Good, well, she's dead.
9:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And we all saw, we all saw the video.
9:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Our system is built to determine legality, not to measure loss, right?
9:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Our systems are there to determine what's right, what's wrong, what gets prosecuted, what doesn't, what was done right, what was done wrong.
10:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It does not measure loss.
10:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not supposed to.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's real danger, right, especially in cases like this are becoming so procedural that we grow numb.
10:13
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a point I want to call out.
10:15
[SPEAKER_01]: No charges filed can quietly turn into.
10:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing wrong happened.
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And those are not the same thing.
10:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian should especially be careful here.
10:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Justice includes due process, but it also includes lament, sorrow, processing.
10:30
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be able to hold two truths at once, and we should grow more comfortable in that, because
10:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Many of these issues that we discuss, we want to believe there's one reason why Trump does something, or one reason why the Democrats do this or do that.
10:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, to multiplicity of reasons people are complicated, situations are complicated, we've got to grow more comfortable with two or three or four or five things being true at the same time.
10:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So the officer may not face prosecution in this death still matters, this life still mattered.
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Her life mattered, but you know what, this officer's life and his entire family, they matter too.
11:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So if our response to tragedy ends with legal clearance and never reaches compassion, something has gone wrong in us, even if nothing went wrong in court, that's what I want to call out.
11:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So, let's talk about the national debate, this shooting reignited.
11:17
[SPEAKER_01]: This incident was reignited and it reignited a broader national conversation counter.
11:22
[SPEAKER_01]: What level of force should be used during immigration enforcement?
11:26
[SPEAKER_01]: How much ice agents receive in their training compared to local police who investigates when a federal officer kills a civilian?
11:34
[SPEAKER_01]: See how often does that happen, right?
11:36
[SPEAKER_01]: like these debates are not like in our lifetime at least, they're not that common when a federal officer is in a position in kill someone, right?
11:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just new territory, right?
11:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I don't know the numbers are the stats on how often that does happen, but
11:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's like you're saying that there's a debate because it's not so cut and dry.
11:57
[SPEAKER_00]: There is not just a right and wrong on all of this.
12:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I think one thing that I've seen a lot this week is that there's been a lot of polls going out about how people specifically people who voted for Donald Trump feel about all of this and it's not popular.
12:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Even among his voters because voters like what we wanted immigration to be tamped down and the border was shut down And yeah, we want the dangerous immigrants who are criminals and doing terrible things in our country Deported from this country, but yeah, we didn't think it was gonna go like this.
12:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, yeah, but I also don't know what people expected So it's hard to it's hard to know.
12:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a classic case of you know a lot of his policies on the surface with polling are actually pretty popular But the way that he goes about enforcing them.
12:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes
12:40
[SPEAKER_01]: like, oh, hey, we want to reset trade, like we don't want America taking advantage of on the global stage and with trade and with all these deficits.
12:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
12:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, but all these tariffs.
12:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't know about that, right?
12:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, well,
12:55
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's been broken for a long time, what do you expect, right?
12:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's an important thing to call out.
13:00
[SPEAKER_01]: There's very few things other than like what's going on on the global stage with like Venezuela and Greenland like we talk about, that is one of the most surprising things of this second term.
13:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't think he would do that, but for the most part, when it comes to like immigration stuff like this,
13:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I told us he was gonna do this.
13:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't necessarily think we were expecting it to be at this level and I think what I don't What's people in these polls?
13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I think what people didn't expect was literally seeing agents on their streets and and their grocery stores You know like it's hitting closer to home from most people than a lot of these other things do so it feels different.
13:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's nerve wracking in a sense for sure so based on what we know Renee Goods decision to remain in the vehicle and attempt to drive away and I know she turned the wheel but
13:40
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you make that decision in a nanosecond as an officer that he really see that and know that?
13:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That matter that she decided to stay in the vehicle, not listen to commands and drive towards or away from the officer, whatever you want to say, accelerate in the officer's direction.
13:56
[SPEAKER_01]: That matter.
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It mattered that she was there in the first place, trying to block federal officials.
14:01
[SPEAKER_01]: That matters.
14:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we can't just wipe that away.
14:07
[SPEAKER_01]: and it does not make the outcome acceptable, but personal decisions don't disappear simply because a result is tragic.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Goodness, I mean, think about that in our own lives.
14:16
[SPEAKER_01]: There are so many things that we can point to in our lives and if you really think about it on the surface, we might blame God or blame somebody else, but sometimes tragedy results from our own decisions over time or maybe a dumb decision in a moment.
14:29
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be able to say this honestly that people have agency and agency carries risk, and at the same time law enforcement carries a higher burden because officers are trained, they're armed, and they're empowered by the state.
14:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Both truths can exist at the same time.
14:43
[SPEAKER_01]: The danger is drifting too far in either direction, right?
14:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Pretending individual choices don't matter, flattens reality.
14:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Pretending those choices justify loss of life.
14:54
[SPEAKER_01]: hardens our hearts, I think.
14:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So a thoughtful response, resist both, and that's what I'm encouraging all of us to do.
15:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But all in all, here's where I land and I'm going to jump into this spiritual application.
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: If the goal is public trust, secrecy works against it.
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think it's a great precedent that they're not gonna let others investigate this.
15:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you want trust in what you're doing in this very controversial way that you're sending ice out into the streets, I don't think secrecy fixes the problem.
15:22
[SPEAKER_01]: We are a very conspiracy theory fueled country.
15:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that that's a great idea.
15:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And so even if the officer did act within policy, the absence of independent oversight undermines confidence in this and future situations and confidence matters because legitimacy is fragile.
15:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So like the legitimacy of these operations is fragile already.
15:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So public confidence is going to be important.
15:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think them doing that.
15:48
[SPEAKER_01]: undermines this process.
15:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me give you a Christian perspective on power, justice and humility.
15:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is where Dr. Ryan and Dinnison's framing of it in the focus, and we'll talk more about the focus, but it's a new newsletter that Dr. Ryan Dinnison has launched.
16:02
[SPEAKER_01]: He writes the daily article every Friday, but he is, he's an incredible man, and I love the way he thinks through these things.
16:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's where I kind of gathered the nuance and my thought of this is what I'm feeling, but how do I put words to it?
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And the
16:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So, his analysis rushes, well, it refuses to rush to outrage and forces us to think, clearly, let me give you two verses, Micah 6-8, he has shown you a man what's good, what the Lord requires of you to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs 21-15, when justice is done, it's a joy to the righteous, but terror to evil doers.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Justice without kindness becomes cruelty sometimes, doesn't it?
16:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Kindness without justice becomes sentimentality or even like just brushing things aside and it doesn't really fix the problem.
16:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Humility is what keeps power from turning dangerous.
17:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the challenge.
17:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we rush to defend or condemn, we should ask better questions.
17:07
[SPEAKER_01]: are we committed to the truth even when it complicates our preferred narrative?
17:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Ask yourself that question.
17:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you willing to look at a situation truthfully even if it complicates what you want to believe or if it makes you feel uncomfortable?
17:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Are we treating everyone in the story as made in the image of God, including the victim, including the family, the officer and his family, the communities now living in fear?
17:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
17:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Are we treating everyone in this story like they're made in the image of God?
17:37
[SPEAKER_01]: The goal is not to win the argument here.
17:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It is to steward influence well because when power operates with actuality and justice operates without transparency, everyone loses, and that's bigger than just what happened in Minnesota.
17:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's good.
17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You're right.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to see everybody in the image of God.
17:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a really good reminder, and I think it's something I know for a fact.
17:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to check my own heart on sometimes it's just easy to to scroll through a social media or see something on TV or when I'm you just they are those people, but then you got to remember well those people are you know they're made in his image too like.
18:09
[SPEAKER_01]: not simple for me either.
18:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, when I'm when I'm my grandfather, he's been a Southern Baptist minister for forever.
18:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And he always said like when I'm pointing at the audience, I put my thumb back and I'm pointing at myself, it almost kind of looks like a gun if you're not watching the video, right?
18:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a finger gun.
18:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever I'm pointing at the audience, I'm pointing at them, but then I've got that thumb pointing right back.
18:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It may truth is truth.
18:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And so how do we invite God into our news consumption?
18:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe one way is to say a prayer that God reframes our hearts and our minds to remember that even if they ideologically don't fit or look like us or act like us or believe something else, all made in the image of God.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: All with equal value, loved just the same, gifted uniquely.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if we say that prayer and we remind ourselves of that as we consume a controversial new story like this, I think, especially as believers, I think that we start looking at things
19:05
[SPEAKER_00]: totally.
19:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
19:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Like our faith should direct how we consume our news, how we consume any information.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's not news.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's your own finances.
19:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, it should it should influence everything you think about every situation.
19:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, Michael, for that.
19:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It was good run down.
19:22
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so much happening in Minnesota.
19:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Minnesota, man.
19:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been at the center of the news for like years month and a half.
19:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Something.
19:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's always studying in Minnesota.
19:30
[SPEAKER_00]: it really the the black lives matter protest started to flow and happening Minnesota.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man Just wow lot going on the Tim walls stepping down because of all of this, but he's also trying to be the face of the left side of this whole thing with Renee good and the ice officers So I get luck with that Tim anyway
19:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, Michael, the other big thing happening as you mentioned at the beginning is protest and Iran.
19:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just going to kind of break down what's going on and why these protests seem different than before because they have had protests in the past, but this is really escalated and we are on the verge potentially of seeing our true revolution of the Iranian regime being toppled essentially and the people just demanding new governorship, new leadership potentially democracy, depending on, you know, whoever fills in the gap with the new
20:19
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens in there?
20:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Try to help the protesters on the ground.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Because, man, it's still going on.
20:25
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going on a week three of these widespread protests across all 31 provinces in Iran.
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I say provinces, I'm talking about some of the islands that are off of Iran.
20:33
[SPEAKER_00]: The people on these smaller islands are protesting too.
20:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it is country-wide.
20:37
[SPEAKER_00]: This is because their economy has completely collapsed.
20:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also because they're repressed.
20:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't have very many freedoms in Iran.
20:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They are educated, which is actually probably helped protesters to realize, man,
20:48
[SPEAKER_00]: repressed and they have a big youth population.
20:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I think 60% of their population is below the age of 35.
20:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So that that is a right for revolution right for revolution generation that has grown up in this repressed nation state and without very many freedoms without too much communication with the outside world they're ready for something different and then man the economy collapsed and when I say that I mean their currency the real has dropped down to where it's now I think
21:14
[SPEAKER_00]: As of yesterday, 1.5 million reels was equal to one U.S. dollar, so I want to make sure I get there right.
21:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
21:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's basically worthless.
21:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that there's no worth to their currency, and that has sent people to the streets because they're like, we can't buy anything, you can't get groceries, you can't do trade, you can't sign contracts, you can't do anything to make an economy run, it's completely collapsed.
21:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, the people are out in the streets, but unfortunately, what we're seeing from the limited videos that are coming out of Iran,
21:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Is the irony regime is killing them.
21:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're they're opening fire on these protesters just like machine guns on crowds of people based on Machine guns on crowds of people children old people it is so tragic and we don't even really know the full extent of it because I ran has just clamped down on shutting down the internet.
21:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We are on day like six of Basically no one to they're like yeah
22:04
[SPEAKER_01]: cutting off power and just infrastructure.
22:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, in in I ran, things like running water like are not necessarily super common either.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, you have to understand, living there is like nothing anyone in American, you know, can can fully understand if they haven't been.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: you're absolutely right.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's sad is it actually used to be pretty nice in the 70s.
22:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a free country that people were driving around.
22:26
[SPEAKER_00]: They were dressing how they wanted.
22:27
[SPEAKER_00]: They had rights.
22:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They had freedoms.
22:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And then this Islamic revolution happened that put the current regime in power because people thought that that was going to be a better situation.
22:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But then they're doing everything that they can to remain in power.
22:38
[SPEAKER_00]: everything they can since 1979 they've been a power and they don't want to not be in power but the people who are seeking something different the Iranian president he's basically really just a pawn he's powerless individual because the ayatola all he come on he is the actual leader of the country
22:53
[SPEAKER_00]: President has said, I hear you.
22:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear from protesters through your government representatives so that we can all try to resolve the problems and respond responsibly.
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's at least trying to say, let us know and they're letting them know.
23:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, yeah, our lives are not good.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot prosper in any way here.
23:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But like you said, they're not going to, they're not going to relinquish power easily like that.
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we mentioned, the internet is shut down, Trump has requested that Elon Musk and Elon has followed up with this.
23:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Open up Starlink and Iran to be free.
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: There are Starlink dishes in Iran already, so the people who can get those connected are somewhat able to connect with the internet, it's free now for them to get connected to that.
23:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's partly how we're getting some videos out of the country, but there's so much happening on the ground that we will never fully know.
23:35
[SPEAKER_00]: at least not for a long time, because people cannot communicate with the outside world.
23:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They are just shut off.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: What we are seeing though, like we said, crowds are being dispersed with gunfire.
23:45
[SPEAKER_00]: People are being killed.
23:46
[SPEAKER_00]: The current number right now, the Iranian regime has said there have been 2000 people killed in that include security forces, but what's actually more likely true and what some news outlets are reporting is it's really probably closer to 15 to 20,000 people have been
24:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's more videos just just body bags as far as the eye can see yeah and families have any come to try to identify their loved ones it's terrible in the stories of people who are able to get their stories out of like they're showing up to our doors the killing people they're knocking our house in it's awful man what they're doing to stay in power but I think that's part of why this is going to be different because they're clamping down so hard that people are also fighting back even harder they are not stopping it's not going to
24:35
[SPEAKER_00]: At least for a certain amount of time at some point, they might have to give up.
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why some people are trying and I'm not saying we're agree with this But a lot of people are trying to put pressure on Donald Trump to take action.
24:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it now or this will end and then there's not going to be a revolution, right?
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I see both arguments like why on earth that we got to keep getting involved in all this stuff, we have our own problems, but then obviously they're desperate just like as a country, as a leadership, because of the drastic actions that they're taking, you might have an opportunity to topple one of America's greatest enemies in the last 30, 40 years, then responsible for funding and innumerable amount of terrorist organizations around the world.
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You're exactly right.
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So that leads me right.
25:18
[SPEAKER_00]: That's perfect.
25:19
[SPEAKER_00]: This leads me right into the five reasons why I think this revolution's different than past ones because they did protest 2020.
25:25
[SPEAKER_00]: They got small changes done and those protests, but this one's just so much bigger.
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's five reasons why I think this is going to be different.
25:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could actually lead to something more drastic.
25:34
[SPEAKER_00]: One is like you're suggesting Micah Iran's just weak right now.
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: All of their proxies have been decimated.
25:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They had Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houtis, the Syrian regime.
25:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They were all proxies for Iran in the region.
25:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I ran funded them and gave them weapons and all of them have basically been decimated by mostly Israel and then also the United States.
25:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I ran also had their nuclear facilities and top nuclear scientists killed last year.
26:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Their nuclear facilities destroyed by the United States and the bunker bluster bombs and that operation by Trump.
26:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And then
26:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a lot of their military leadership's been killed and then these U.S. sanctions that have been on them for three years have just crushed their economy.
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: As we're saying, that's part of why their currency has twindled, but they also just aren't getting enough oil in.
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not getting enough resources in because sanctions are just pressing on hard on them.
26:23
[SPEAKER_00]: number two would be you're right they're desperate they've deployed their own military into the streets that shows a round of desperation they don't typically do that analysts have basically said this means that they are threatened they truly feel the answer to it last resort if they're sitting in their military into the streets to kill people
26:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah, the protests, they're just not stopping that these people continue to go out every single night knowing that they are risking their lives to protest.
26:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But realizing that if they do not continue protesting, they won't have a chance to make change and they want to prosper, they want freedoms, they want rights.
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man, there's, there's a lot there.
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then number four is just that I had told to himself.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: He's 86 years old.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: He looks weak.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: He's frail.
27:00
[SPEAKER_00]: He looks weak politically.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And physically.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's,
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: very disliked by much of the population I read not everybody there are hardline ironians who still support this regime and of course the ironian government is like putting up propaganda that they're having their own rally call parades or whatnot but that's very small compared to the rest of the country and then number five is just that trump yet he's increasing his threats it seems
27:24
[SPEAKER_00]: inclined to want to do something it could happen today after we record this podcast about the time you listen to this.
27:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The US may have taken some sort of action.
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know could be a cyber attack.
27:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Psychological warfare could be airstrikes that we don't have an aircraft carrier in the region right now, which is like the first time in two decades that we don't because it's in the Caribbean.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of that, that makes air strikes a little harder to pull off, but we could still, we have such a big military.
27:45
[SPEAKER_00]: We could pull something off here.
27:46
[SPEAKER_00]: There's just something we don't know.
27:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, in every single one of these strikes on, you know, the nuclear facilities or even with Maduro, everybody's trying to figure out what the next move is.
27:58
[SPEAKER_01]: They've done a pretty good job in this administration.
28:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it really just like historically, like we seem to do a pretty good job of the element of surprise.
28:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm, I'm not sure what to inspect.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's to say there isn't
28:08
[SPEAKER_00]: an aircraft carrier somewhere technically i like i'm just i'm just saying like i know that we know where the stuff is and we're supposed to be able to track it and obviously these aircraft carriers are huge and just saying i just think that there's some things that we don't know yeah well what you can't see from satellites that a lot of people have open source intelligence on is submarines so they could be used oh yes some way okay that's what you got to really remembers how many subs are in the area how many other aircraft are in the air anyways there's always possibilities we'll just have a sea of trump does something he did say on true
28:37
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been briefed multiple times by the military given options of things he could do.
28:40
[SPEAKER_00]: He said Iranian patriots keep protesting, take over your institution, save the names of the killers and abusers.
28:46
[SPEAKER_00]: They will pay a big price.
28:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I have canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stops.
28:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Help is on the way, make Iran great again.
28:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think he's going to leave that empty handed, like tell other people that he's sending help and then not do something.
29:02
[SPEAKER_00]: something's going to happen.
29:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, as of Wednesday morning, we're on pins and needles waiting for what the next action will be.
29:08
[SPEAKER_00]: There are currently removing some personnel from U.S. bases in the Middle East.
29:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Israel is on a heightened level of security and they're opening up bomb shelters again.
29:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So that leads us to believe that they are expecting something either Iran sending off missiles or something before the U.S. can
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, performs some sort of operation or they're prepping for retaliation should the U.S.
29:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Perform an operation in Iran retaliates in some way.
29:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, Iran isn't a weak state, but they still have a load of missiles.
29:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And they've got a big military, so they can still do things here.
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are a lot of American and allied bases.
29:40
[SPEAKER_01]: around I ran all over the play all over the middle.
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
29:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
29:43
[SPEAKER_01]: They can make it easier to attack.
29:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I ran but it also puts more people in danger too.
29:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
29:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Which, you know, that's what some people in the government are saying is Trump.
29:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure you want to do this if this fails or if they retaliate big time and we lose US troops.
29:56
[SPEAKER_00]: This could be bad.
29:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
29:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
29:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Something to think about.
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Happily yes.
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It really is.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so there's a lot of questions about what happens next either with if the government does topple an Iran who's going to take over.
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know could be the Crown Prince who was next in line to be the King aka Shaw of Iran back in 1979.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: His dad was the Shaw got outstead.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been here in the US in exile.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: People think he might need to go in there.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Step in, go back to Iran and take over the people in the streets are apparently shouting his name.
30:24
[SPEAKER_00]: They like him.
30:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to reach out to them through
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: social media means if they can get their videos pulled up and whatnot he's telling them keep protesting helps on the way all of that to say man my code that there's just a lot of heavy weight with this a lot of people like we said are dying in the streets i ran feels like a far-off place and it is for americans but it's also a big deal to so many americans there's a lot of Iranian americans here there's just this massive massive population of i can't remember i think it's 90 million or so live in i ran something like that actually maybe you can't watch that
30:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Huge country.
30:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, these people don't have freedoms Christians and Iran are persecuted like nowhere else man Yeah, underground churches are huge there is a big Christian movement in Iran, which is amazing and our brothers and sisters there Man, they are facing persecution every day and they have to have underground churches to be able to even just open up a Bible or pray or anything like that It's incredible faith that the people in Iran have our Christians that we know that are there, but the whole thing
31:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we need to stop and pray.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say if you're listening to this right now, I would encourage you to pause and just stop and say, I'll give you a couple of things we can pray for if you want to wait for that.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's what we talk about often, like when there's big heavy things happening, like I think our first reaction should be to let's take it to the Lord.
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's intercede on behalf of our, to your brother and sisters in Christ, somewhere else, but also just a whole situation.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is just a massive deal.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And it could be a situation where the people and I ran are free.
31:47
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, they are freed of all these terrible things that are going on in the country.
31:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It could mean change in world order, it could mean change in power dynamics in the Middle East and relationships with Russia and China, North Korea, Cuba, even Venezuela, the whole thing.
32:01
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many geopolitical reasons why this is a massive deal.
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It could also be huge opportunity for religious freedom and for Christians in the country and for the gospel to be heard among these millions upon millions of people in Iran.
32:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, it's really hard to spread the gospel on Iran.
32:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It is spreading because that's what the Holy Spirit does and the people of immense faith are spreading it there, but man, there's such an opportunity for the gospel to be heard if this would be more open of a country.
32:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's pray for a newfound freedom in peace in Iran.
32:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray for the end of the deaths.
32:32
[SPEAKER_00]: in the process.
32:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray for the evil to die off in Iran.
32:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who do have to meet and underground churches to avoid persecution.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to do a wondrous work among the Persian people.
32:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael, we've seen God work in Persia many times before, but it's specifically in the Bible in the Book of Esther.
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Esther is in Persia.
32:51
[SPEAKER_00]: She gets married to the King of Persia King Xerxes.
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: King Xerxes is convinced by Hayman.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: He should kill off the entire Jewish population that is in Persia and this is obviously not a good thing.
33:01
[SPEAKER_00]: This is God's people.
33:02
[SPEAKER_00]: This is terrifying Esther as the wife of the King finds out about this and she courageously approaches the King and asks him not to do it.
33:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Please do not kill off my Jewish people.
33:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He agrees, but one thing I want to point out is that before that in Esther 416, before she goes to the king, chapter 4, verse 16 of the book of Esther, she goes to the Jewish people.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, hold a fast on my behalf and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I and my young women will also fast as you do.
33:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I read that because she was courageous, and her fate was also called off.
33:39
[SPEAKER_00]: She's also calling on the Jewish people to intercede on her behalf, fast, and pray, and they do, and then God takes care of the whole situation and saves his people.
33:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we can do a similar thing here.
33:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's intercede on behalf of our fellow Christians.
33:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And I ran it, but also just the entire country.
33:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, everywhere in the world that it's just hurting, and in dire need, you know, Nigeria, and Venezuela, and Cuba, even here in America.
34:04
[SPEAKER_00]: You just talked about an American problem.
34:07
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many things we can intercede on behalf of.
34:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe we intercede on behalf of all these Christians.
34:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Love it, man.
34:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
34:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are some every stories, let's let's let's hit a question real fast from the as you already mentioned, Dr. Ryan Denson over here.
34:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He sent us a headline and he wanted us to discuss this headline because it's kind of crazy.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The headline read, the Buffalo Bills offer fans unique collector's items with the old stadium.
34:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They're offering the stadium's old urinal troughs.
34:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So for some background, the Buffalo Bills built a new stadium across the street from the current one.
34:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They played their last game in their stadium.
34:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of fans are trying to buy up different memorabilia from that stadium before they, I guess they're going to demolish it.
34:49
[SPEAKER_00]: This has happened with minicating before.
34:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The urinal troughs, though, that's what they're going to try to sell off to people.
34:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael, that's crazy, but it did have Ryan asking us that we may not want a urinal trough.
35:00
[SPEAKER_00]: What is one like thing we would want or I guess a weird item we would want.
35:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Should they tear down for us, ATT Stadium or the Dallas Cowboys play or any other stadium that matters to us.
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a weird item that you'd be willing to like purchase?
35:12
[SPEAKER_01]: If they win a Super Bowl, I'll purchase the most obscure thing.
35:16
[SPEAKER_01]: If they can find a way to win a Super Bowl and it has something to do with ATT and T stadium, Jerry World, Darren Arlington.
35:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd purchase a urinal
35:25
[SPEAKER_01]: a piece of that history.
35:27
[SPEAKER_01]: If they don't win a Super Bowl there, you could not pay me enough to take why I guess you could pay me enough.
35:33
[SPEAKER_01]: But for the sake of argument, I would not want to purchase literally anything from that stadium.
35:38
[SPEAKER_01]: If it produced nothing but mediocrity, I want nothing to do with it.
35:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm right there with you.
35:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like if we get a Super Bowl, I'm going to want a corner or like a little slice of that big Jerry World screen above the show.
35:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good idea.
35:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: The jumbo tron that's up there.
35:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the biggest one.
35:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is just it's an interesting thought.
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of weird.
35:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't seen the urinal trough in a stadium in a long time.
35:57
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you know it's an old stadium.
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's always fun when you walk into the mince restaurant and see one of those.
36:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh, we're one of these kind of places.
36:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of Dr. Ryan Dennis and though, we highly recommend his newsletter, the focus.
36:09
[SPEAKER_00]: It just launched last week.
36:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going out every Tuesday.
36:11
[SPEAKER_00]: As Mike mentioned, he wrote about the ice shooting that Mike had talked about.
36:15
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrote about that last week and then he also wrote this week about
36:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Full in depth deep dives.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He also offers three to five like kind of headlines.
36:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He offers, you know, why they matter what this means for us.
36:26
[SPEAKER_00]: How we can pray about it all of that.
36:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So go find that go to dinnstonform.org forward slash newsletters.
36:31
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll also link it in our show notes.
36:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find that down below this video or not, you could not recommend it more highly.
36:37
[SPEAKER_01]: If you like our podcast, even just a little bit, even if you don't like our podcast.
36:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, why are you listening?
36:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Second of all, go subscribe.
36:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Either way, no matter what can you fall into, we cannot recommend the focus from Dr. Ryan Dinnison enough.
36:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and his first one was on Nick Fuentes, which I thought was really good.
36:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a really talked about.
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Very interesting.
36:56
[SPEAKER_00]: good stuff.
36:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And if all goes according to plan, we're going to actually have Ryan on this podcast very soon.
37:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So stay tuned.
37:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Stay tuned to awesome.
37:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll be fun to talk to.
37:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you guys have any thoughts, if you have some weird memorabilia, you take from the stadium, let us know at culture brief at dinisonform.org.
37:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That's our email address.
37:10
[SPEAKER_00]: You follow us at culture brief podcast on Instagram, DM us.
37:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, great.
37:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Connor.
37:15
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, we're going to jump into check in and tune in and we're going to fly by this Connor.
37:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see if we can do it in five minutes.
37:20
[SPEAKER_01]: You ready?
37:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
37:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
37:24
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
37:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So the US military conducted more large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets in Syria this week in retaliation for an attack last month that killed two American soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreters.
37:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So three Americans were killed on December 13th.
37:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The first retaliatory strike occurred on December 19, carried out by the US in Jordan, and then it's been followed by continuous additional raids targeting ISIS.
37:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes.
37:47
[SPEAKER_01]: There's other things going on, the U.S. is striking other targets as well.
37:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So staying the loop on that, there is a lot of instability in the Middle East.
37:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Seems like there always has been, seems like unless there's an active God.
37:58
[SPEAKER_01]: There always will be.
37:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
38:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Another one.
38:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation.
38:03
[SPEAKER_01]: This is bad.
38:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And if those two stories weren't there, we would have been diving into this one.
38:07
[SPEAKER_01]: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over his testimony regarding the Fed's $2.5 billion building renovation centered on whether he misinterpreted the project's scope and cost.
38:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So Powell called this probe a pretext to undermine the Fed independence.
38:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Trump has been trying to put his own guy in there but then there's arguments of hey the Fed needs to stay independent because that's better for the country for inflation
38:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Senator Tom Tillis, who's a Republican, but he does clash with Trump a lot, stated he will oppose any Fed nominee until the matters resolved, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, Scott Bessant Trump or two peas in a pod, right?
38:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He came out immediately and said he didn't like this.
38:49
[SPEAKER_01]: He told Trump the investigation made a mess that could destabilize the financial markets.
38:54
[SPEAKER_01]: that needs to get figured out.
38:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Powell was on his way out anyway, so I don't really understand Trump is saying he had nothing to do with it.
39:00
[SPEAKER_01]: People have a hard time believing that because of, you know, he has gone after the people that he doesn't like so far in this second term.
39:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So we've got to see how that works out.
39:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully that can be figured out quickly.
39:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I hope so, man.
39:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a mess.
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand that one.
39:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
39:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, uh, some of the things that have happened.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Scott Adams, who created the Dilbert comic books.
39:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You may have seen that he passed away.
39:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He had prostate cancer.
39:22
[SPEAKER_00]: His body gave way.
39:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He said his mind was still sharpened in his last moments.
39:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrote a letter to everybody because he was, he was a pretty influential person in the conservative media world.
39:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, he created the Dilbert comics, but he turned into this outspoken person.
39:33
[SPEAKER_00]: He said some controversial things to his life.
39:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But nonetheless, at the end of the
39:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It was awesome.
39:41
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a little bit more to that.
39:43
[SPEAKER_00]: He talked about the influence of Christians.
39:44
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I've struggled with belief, but I'm saying Christ is my Lord in Savior.
39:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully, you know, he fully believed that and fully accepted that into his heart.
39:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And guys, there's never a moment too late to accept Christ in your heart.
39:55
[SPEAKER_00]: If that is something to see him in a pair of eyes.
39:56
[SPEAKER_01]: If he truly surrendered his life to Christ, if he, if you believe in your heart, and confess with your tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead, then you will be saved.
40:04
[SPEAKER_01]: That thief on the cross next to Jesus said a sentence, not even.
40:09
[SPEAKER_01]: and Jesus said I'll see you in paradise.
40:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a beautiful thing that Jesus offers, but it means you got to lay your life down.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to be willing to lay your life down and pick up your cross.
40:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that we'll see him in heaven.
40:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a beautiful thing.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: That is.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So RAP to Scott Adams.
40:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's held on.
40:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
40:25
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the new highest grossing actor of all time.
40:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about this last year because it was Scarlett Johansson took the lead.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: She's now the highest.
40:30
[SPEAKER_00]: She's number one with 15.47 billion dollars brought in on the movie.
40:35
[SPEAKER_00]: She is in, of course, she's in the Avengers movies.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: She's in the Avatar movies, the Star Trek movies.
40:40
[SPEAKER_00]: She's just, dude, she's always playing an alien.
40:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of crazy.
40:43
[SPEAKER_01]: She's playing an alien and wow.
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, unbelievable.
40:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
40:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Good for her.
40:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, good for her.
40:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Just letting her know she's up up there above Scarlet and Samuel Jackson and Chris Pratt.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, crazy stuff.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow the Golden Globes also happened this weekend You may be thinking you guys didn't mention the Golden Globes in your tune in section last week.
41:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You're correct.
41:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That's because I don't think the Golden Globes matter they are basically
41:04
[SPEAKER_00]: They are basically the awards, so they're not the Emmys and they're not the Oscars.
41:08
[SPEAKER_00]: They try to be both, but really, they're just kind of a pretext for celebrities coming and give speeches to try to then win Oscars or Emmys, and it's basically, it's basically a platform for really rich elite people to lecture us on our politics.
41:24
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a little bit of that.
41:24
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of them did stand up.
41:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some of them wore badges about the whole ice thing that said be good and written honor of Renee Good, a lot of them actually wore that to the Golden Globes of the night to try to make a statement.
41:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They did that with Palestine last year.
41:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, yeah, whole thing.
41:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I will just mention a few of the wins.
41:38
[SPEAKER_00]: The pit one best drama and the TV side, the studio one best comedy.
41:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are not shocking.
41:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Those were probably the best shows of the year on the film side, K-pop, demon hunters took home animated feature.
41:48
[SPEAKER_00]: We did not talk about that movie here, but there's a lot of people that I watched.
41:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that was probably the biggest movie of the year last year, technically, in terms of viewership.
41:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have Marty Supreme, Timothy Shalame, took home best actor and won battle after another took home the best comedy or musical with Ham Knit Winning Best Drama.
42:04
[SPEAKER_00]: All of that to say, these are pretexts basically for the Oscars, which will be, I think, in March, and so that's kind of the whole point of this thing.
42:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just bringing everybody together.
42:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start talking about the Oscars.
42:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Cool.
42:14
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
42:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Connor.
42:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Now let's jump into tune in.
42:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so here's what to look out for.
42:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have refused to comply with a house oversight committee subpoena to testify about their connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
42:30
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're talking about Trump popping up a lot of this.
42:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Bill Clinton pops up in a lot of Epstein files.
42:36
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot, man.
42:37
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in a lot of them.
42:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so they are refusing to comply with the subpoena.
42:43
[SPEAKER_01]: and they are calling them legally invalid and politically motivated Republicans are now moving to hold them in contempt of Congress.
42:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty rare escalation that could lead to legal fights.
42:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Though neither Clinton has been accused of any crime directly, related to Epstein, they are refusing to come testify from what's being found in the Epstein files.
43:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we will keep you in the loop on that.
43:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think there's a possibility of up to one year in prison if you don't come it like if you are family content of it's crazy.
43:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, probably not in their case, but yeah, I mean, it seems like they're gearing up for a legal fight.
43:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, to a certain extent, whether yeah, I'm not going to say if Bill Clinton did something wrong or not, but what I will say is, you know, they're at the end of their lives.
43:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They're probably, you know, just they're like, this is not the last thing we want to be remembered for, you know, like especially in terms of Bill Clinton.
43:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got bad news for them.
43:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it seems to be the only thing that anybody talked about.
43:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, especially with Bill Clinton's track record, but at the same time, it doesn't necessarily look good when you refuse to just come testify.
43:43
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not being accused of something and then you refuse to come testify, that doesn't look good either.
43:47
[SPEAKER_01]: That normally doesn't make you look innocent, right?
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, definitely not, but they're an interesting couple.
43:52
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever seen a house of cards, that whole show is based pretty much on them.
43:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And now crazy.
43:56
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the CFP national college football playoff.
43:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me clarify.
43:59
[SPEAKER_00]: National championship is this Monday night.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited.
44:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Should be a fun game.
44:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We got Indiana Hoosiers versus the Miami hurricanes.
44:06
[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be at 730 PM Eastern.
44:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So 630 central on ESPN Micah.
44:11
[SPEAKER_00]: First time Indiana has ever been a national championship.
44:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Miami's been there before.
44:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a hot minute.
44:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been several decades since they've been there.
44:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually playing in Miami's home stadium just happened to be scheduled that way and they happen to make it this year at Hard Rock Stadium where the Miami dolphins also play.
44:23
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where the University of Miami plays football.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be a good game.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a prediction.
44:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do you think's going to win?
44:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Indiana is going to win.
44:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I think on paper, they're playing like the better team.
44:33
[SPEAKER_01]: They're undefeated.
44:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Miami has a great defense, but there hasn't been anybody that Indiana can't really throttle.
44:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been an unbelievable season.
44:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think this is an incredible sports story.
44:43
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the best we've seen in a long, long time.
44:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we have time in the coming weeks, especially after they win, kind of want to do a deep dive a little bit on just Kurt Signetti and the Indiana Hoosiers program, just absolutely turning around in two years.
44:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a program
44:57
[SPEAKER_01]: not only in mediocrity but just being bad, like the losing his college football program.
45:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, failure.
45:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And for this to be turned around like this is just an incredible, incredible story.
45:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think there's just something magical about this run in the Indiana wins.
45:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and their quarterback is going to be the number one pick in the NFL draft for an end-of-one of those strong believer too.
45:14
[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you.
45:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Strong believer.
45:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Great guy.
45:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Also just quirky and I love him, especially on TV and the interviews.
45:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, I agree.
45:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's going to be in the losers.
45:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're going to win, but who knows?
45:22
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see.
45:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch on Monday night.
45:24
[SPEAKER_00]: NFL playoffs are also going on.
45:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope a lot of you guys were able to watch some of the incredible games this past weekend.
45:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They were insane for the most part had so much fun watching those.
45:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Just wanted to do a little accountability corner here for a second because Mike and I did offer Super Bowl predictions on week one of the NFL season.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We both said, who we thought would just be in Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl.
45:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, that was a long time ago in a whole season to happen since them.
45:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But, Mike, who did you pick to go to the Super Bowl and win?
45:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I picked chiefs versus commanders neither team made the playoffs and yeah, just brutal.
45:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I picked I picked the same for Cisco 49ers versus the Baltimore Ravens.
45:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember you looking at me when I said the 49ers and like what why would you choose them?
46:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so the only team in the playoffs
46:04
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still going strong.
46:05
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still here and they've got a substation across the street that's causing them injuries, but they're still here and going.
46:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe the 49ers will win the whole thing.
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: New Super Bowl prediction though, Michael.
46:14
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll give you a second chance here.
46:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do you think's going to win now?
46:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think it's going to be the Seahawks versus the Patriots.
46:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I think the Patriots win it all.
46:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Drake may, I think Drake may pulls it out and that something magical happens in New England again.
46:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Gosh, after they dominate our entire childhood, they're back.
46:32
[SPEAKER_00]: My prediction is it's going to be the bears versus the bills.
46:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the bears have some magic going on, but I think the bills are going to win.
46:37
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to take their urinal troughs and just parade them through the streets.
46:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to win the well too.
46:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are crazy.
46:44
[SPEAKER_01]: There ain't nothing else going on in Buffalo.
46:46
[SPEAKER_00]: They are crazy.
46:47
[SPEAKER_00]: God bless her, man.
46:48
[SPEAKER_00]: They're insane.
46:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so we got a few games coming up this weekend.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We got the next round basically the divisional round of the playoffs.
46:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Start on Saturday at 430 p.m. Eastern.
46:56
[SPEAKER_00]: The bill's verse the Broncos should be a fun one that's in Denver.
46:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the 49ers in Seahawks take on each other in Seattle Saturday night at 8 p.m. Eastern.
47:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Texan's versus the Patriots Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern and then the Rams versus the Bears closing us out on the weekend on Sunday night football at 630 p.m. Eastern.
47:14
[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be a fantastic weekend of football.
47:17
[SPEAKER_00]: All the NFL playoffs capped out by the National Championship in college football on Monday night.
47:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm pumped.
47:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you all are too.
47:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys have a great weekend.
47:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us on Culture Brief and we'll of course stay tuned with everything happening in Iran.
47:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, whatever happens there, go follow Denson Form.
47:33
[SPEAKER_00]: for consistent updates on daily stuff and thank you guys for joining us just on this week of Culture Brief, Adenison Foreign Podcast, all articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes.
47:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Go find those.
47:44
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, rate, or review the show and share it with a friend and we'll see you next Thursday.
47:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye!