Latest / Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories / Big Beautiful Bill, SCOTUS reshapes power, Diddy trial update & a July 4th poem | Ep. 26

Transcript

Big Beautiful Bill, SCOTUS reshapes power, Diddy trial update & a July 4th poem | Ep. 26 · Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories

0:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Connor Jones.
0:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Mike Atama-Sella.
0:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is Culture Brief, a citizen-formed podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture and technology, and we're doing it all from a Christian perspective.
0:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fourth to July week.
0:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It's middle of the summer.
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike, we got a lot to go through.
0:19
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to give us a quick rundown.
0:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely do, Connor.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to be talking about the one big beautiful bill today.
0:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The Supreme Court decisions and their impacts responses to the casual dining debate from last week that has swept the nation.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: A fourth of July poem as we wrap up and so much more.
0:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's jump into the brief.
0:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The brief.
0:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Michael, as we've seen, President Trump's big, beautiful bill, as he calls it, although officially the name change yesterday, Democrats came back with a procedural, some sort of action to officially dock the name that was the name in the congressional records was the one big, beautiful bill.
0:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It's now like HR, something, something, something.
1:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Took away the fun name.
1:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways,
1:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still going to be known as the big beautiful bill.
1:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It did pass the Senate on Tuesday afternoon.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It's now back in the house's hands and they will be making their changes and he changes they want to make and if it passes through the house.
1:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It will be ready for the president to sign by his self imposed July fourth deadline.
1:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He has been pressuring Congress to get it to him by July fourth on his desk to sign into law to start his agenda.
1:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a nine hundred and sixty page bill.
1:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So Mike, I have you read every page yet.
1:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
1:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and what did you want to give us a spark notes?
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think anybody outside of Congress or a researcher law is going through it, but there have been plenty of people that have been breaking it down, and that's one of the things I want to do here.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nine hundred and sixty pages of stuff.
1:52
[SPEAKER_01]: What all is in here?
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: What's it going to impact?
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's it going to impact?
1:56
[SPEAKER_00]: probably lots of pros and lots of cons.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a cause depending on who you ask, it's going to affect different people across the country.
2:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, it's going to affect everyday Americans like you and I and just people outside of D.C.
2:09
[SPEAKER_01]: who are wondering how will this impact their lives first and foremost, how did we even get here?
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Just so you all know the house technically passed the bill and their first addition back in May, May, twenty second they passed it.
2:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So then it's been in the Senate's hands for the last month and a half-ish and now they're the ones who got it passed this week.
2:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It goes back to the house for them to basically approve all the edits that the Senate made.
2:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Senate's had it for a month.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: They've been negotiating things.
2:33
[SPEAKER_01]: They've changed stuff.
2:35
[SPEAKER_01]: They've struck stuff through.
2:36
[SPEAKER_01]: They've added things.
2:37
[SPEAKER_01]: They've changed amounts on tax reductions.
2:39
[SPEAKER_01]: All that house now has to approve all those changes.
2:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But the house can still make changes themselves.
2:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That is going to be happening over the next twenty four hours before they vote on it.
2:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Over the weekend, though, Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina.
2:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a super popular Senator.
2:53
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not a name most people would recognize.
2:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, he stood his ground and he said he was not going to vote for this bill over Medicaid cuts because he believes there are six hundred and sixty three thousand North Carolinas that will be cut off for Medicaid if this bill becomes law.
3:07
[SPEAKER_01]: This mattered a lot because Republicans could not afford to lose more than three.
3:12
[SPEAKER_01]: to get it through the Senate.
3:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And they already had Rand Paul as a know.
3:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Tillus was going to be a know now.
3:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they were worried about some of the other senators who were on the edge.
3:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And ended up coming down to that three senators voted no.
3:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And the bill barely passed with the slimmest of margins, fifty-one to fifty.
3:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's only because Vice President JD Vance came in and broke the tie.
3:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And to clarify three Republican senators voted no.
3:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct.
3:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.
3:37
[SPEAKER_00]: All the Democratic senators said no.
3:38
[SPEAKER_01]: that's correct.
3:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The Republicans had to get all of those senators at least forty seven of them to say yes.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So they did do that with Vice President Vance coming in and breaking that tie.
3:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, Trump pressured Tillis big time and said he's going to primary him, but here's the thing.
3:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Tillis came out and said, I don't care.
3:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to retire over the weekend.
3:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And so now we got another senator kind of like Mitch McConnell kind of like Rand Paul.
4:02
[SPEAKER_01]: They just kind of don't really care.
4:03
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have as much to lose.
4:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Till this is like, I'm going to be a thorn in your side.
4:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I don't know.
4:11
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just something to watch over the next eighteen months before the the primaries and before the midterm election as Trump tries to push through as agenda.
4:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's going to have some people that are going to try to prevent that.
4:21
[SPEAKER_01]: One thing that did get struck through, Mike, that we mentioned two weeks ago before the Senate passes was an amendment to remove the ten year ban on the regulation, the state regulations.
4:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So basically, there was language in there that was preventing states for the next ten years from being able to regulate AI advancements on their own.
4:39
[SPEAKER_01]: This was pretty unpopular across the country, obviously big AI companies wanted this, but that amendment passed ninety-nine to one.
4:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you take a guess as to who the one senator was that did not vote to pass that?
4:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, probably Tom Tillis.
4:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Tom Tillis.
4:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
4:56
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just going to be that guy that's going to be hard.
4:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So he wanted to keep it in.
4:59
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to keep it in.
5:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why.
5:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not know why.
5:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, he's, even, everyone else.
5:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's like, I kind of respected him standing as ground because like, Trump really like laid into him.
5:10
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, whether if you agree or disagree with like how he voted, I did have like respect for him on standing as ground and like not giving in when he was in his way trying to like protect his state.
5:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you're the one no vote on this.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: AI amendment that needed to be taken out because AI does need to be curtailed and monitored.
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's now.
5:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just like, what are you doing?
5:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You just trying to be rebellious?
5:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just for a bit of sake.
5:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Weird.
5:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, bills now in the house's hands.
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: They will vote either today.
5:39
[SPEAKER_01]: We're recording on Wednesday morning.
5:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So by the time you listen to this, this may have passed the house or it may be even delayed or they might be voting on Thursday.
5:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe even Friday.
5:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I doubt they vote on Friday on July fourth.
5:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the deal.
5:49
[SPEAKER_01]: This self-imposed deadline is
5:51
[SPEAKER_01]: getting a lot of just Congress members wanting to get it done because they want to go home for the fourth of July.
5:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They want to be in their towns parades.
5:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House said that like, if it doesn't pass, everybody's staying, right?
6:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
6:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody's going home.
6:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to be there for the long weekend.
6:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Want to go to that would be, huh?
6:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
6:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, that's part of the reasoning here, but it could push on past the Fourth of July if they cannot come to an agreement.
6:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so you may be wondering, what are some of the details of this nine hundred and sixty page bill?
6:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, this is a very thick bill.
6:21
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got so much stuff.
6:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got basically all Trump's agenda that he can't paint on.
6:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm only going to be able to give you a pretty high level overview.
6:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But here are some of the items that are in there.
6:31
[SPEAKER_01]: One is an extension of the twenty seventeen tax cuts that was from Trump one point of his first term he got tax cuts.
6:38
[SPEAKER_01]: They were going through this year.
6:39
[SPEAKER_01]: They are now going to be extended if this bill passes.
6:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also going to include no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And it will allow taxpayers to deduct up to ten thousand dollars of auto loan interest for US made vehicles.
6:52
[SPEAKER_01]: This is part of the agenda to
6:54
[SPEAKER_01]: keep production in America, get people to buy American made vehicles, all of that honor.
6:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Is your vehicle American made?
7:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Mine is.
7:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, okay, I understand that you've ever forward, and I drive a Toyota, but I do believe Toyota trucks are made at least some of them are made here.
7:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to do some research on this because is it like only US Auto companies or as long as it's assembled in the United States accounts?
7:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what do you do more research on that?
7:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get back to your people.
7:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I also looking to see if my truck was made in America or somewhere else.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, there's also going to be an increase in senior and child tax credits, so that's good stuff for older folks or anybody else kids.
7:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the state and local tax deduction cap, this is what's called salt, is going to be raised to forty thousand dollars for household earning under half a million dollars.
7:40
[SPEAKER_01]: For the next five years, then it drops back down to ten thousand.
7:43
[SPEAKER_01]: That might sound kind of confusing, but anyway, it's a big deal for people who live in places with high state or local taxes.
7:48
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll now have a deduction from your federal taxes.
7:51
[SPEAKER_01]: This doesn't matter if you're in a state like Texas that doesn't have state income tax, but it does if you're in like New York or California.
7:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Trump accounts for children.
7:59
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they're called.
8:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And this bill is literally the Trump account.
8:02
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to be a savings account that parents can put money into for their kids.
8:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can get a one thousand dollar tax credit.
8:09
[SPEAKER_01]: per child more in between twenty twenty four and twenty eight if you deposit money into this account and that's going to be savings for them that will grow and they can access that when they turn eighteen for either education.
8:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Business expenses if they want to start a business at eighteen or even a first home purchase so great way to kind of say about money there.
8:26
[SPEAKER_01]: and then private universities is another thing here if you have more than three thousand students will now face taxes on income from endowments so this is a way to tax small schools big schools that are private basically non-state schools and getting into their endowments food stamps or snap as the actual term there
8:45
[SPEAKER_01]: States are now going to take on more of the costs and add more work requirements for recipients.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So food stamps will be a little bit harder to get.
8:53
[SPEAKER_01]: That is one big thing that a lot of people are worried about with lower income individuals in America.
8:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Something with Medicaid and everything with Medicaid is kind of the big rallying cry here.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Basically, the bill introduces worker requirements for Medicaid recipients and caps federal funding.
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So it could potentially affect a lot of people on Medicaid either kicking them off or they don't meet the requirements anymore.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So
9:13
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a big contention point here.
9:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's kind of the propaganda case.
9:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Con that people are bringing up is.
9:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not a little bit more detail on that here just a second.
9:24
[SPEAKER_01]: But along with Medicaid, federal funding is no longer going to be provided to plan a parenthood.
9:28
[SPEAKER_01]: This is great.
9:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
9:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen to that because they are the largest provider of abortions in America.
9:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're sure stand on that.
9:37
[SPEAKER_01]: We should absolutely be standing up for money funding yet.
9:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm very happy with that one.
9:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Medicaid funding for gender affirming care is now cut for individuals of all ages if this bill passes.
9:48
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good thing to great.
9:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are wins for sure from a biblical stance.
9:52
[SPEAKER_01]: We are from a biblical stance and we do not believe in basically gender affirming care.
9:58
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not a thing that is biblical and so definitely should not have government spending behind that.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Defense wise, this will, if the bill passes, it will add an additional one hundred and fifty billion dollars to the defense budget, including twenty five billion for the new what Trump is calling golden dome, which is basically the iron dome over Israel, but here in America, a missile defense system over the homeland.
10:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And then another hundred and fifty billion dollars is dedicated to border security measures, including fifty billion for a wall to be built on the southern border.
10:28
[SPEAKER_01]: and significant investments and detention facilities around that area in personnel, including agents, but also immigration judges to start parsing through the backlog of basically I think roughly one and a half million asylum cases are still out there and open and pending and so they need a lot of judges and so this bill allows for the hiring of
10:48
[SPEAKER_01]: potentially up to eight hundred judges.
10:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It also rolls back clean energy tax credits and imposes new taxes on wind in solar projects and actually promotes oil drilling and streamlining permits for fossil fuel projects.
11:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So it kind of reverses what used to happen where more tax credits would be out there for solar and wind energy now it's going to say actually we're going to encourage oil drilling basically for energy.
11:13
[SPEAKER_01]: So what is the cost of this whole bill?
11:15
[SPEAKER_01]: The federal debt ceiling will be raised by five trillion dollars.
11:20
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the point of contention for a lot of fiscal hawk Republicans.
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not like that.
11:24
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not like that.
11:25
[SPEAKER_01]: The debt will just be raised even more or not by a small amount, like five trillion dollars.
11:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And it will add three point three trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to estimates from the congressional budget office.
11:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a big, big number.
11:39
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a big cost.
11:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the New York Times is saying that one point one trillion dollars
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: is going to be cut from health care programs, mostly Medicaid, and that could cause nearly twelve million Americans to lose health coverage.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is what I was saying earlier about Medicaid, what you were saying might get, that's a big point of contention for a lot of these senators who are trying to protect their constituents and their states, and same with congressional members in the House, protecting their constituents and their districts.
12:05
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not happy about that.
12:06
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of them are saying that this is going to be the biggest issue and several years on the road.
12:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to backfire on Republicans.
12:12
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what Tom Tillis was saying is he doesn't want to cut Medicaid.
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to end up being a huge mistake for Republicans.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It will backfire.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: They will lose elections because people are going to say, you cut my Medicaid.
12:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have health coverage anymore.
12:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to know at this moment how true that's going to be.
12:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We will see how it all plays out.
12:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But Mike, any thoughts over all thoughts on everything that I just mentioned that's going to be in the bill.
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... all the what if stuff is hard for me i mean go back to any past president the other side is going to
12:42
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, whoever the other side is opposing what the president's trying to push or what the majority's trying to push that's in the Senate in the house is going to scream that it's going to destroy everything.
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And so of course, twelve million people losing Medicaid, I would not like that at all.
12:58
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't sound like a good thing at all.
13:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Raising the federal debt limit.
13:01
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't sound like a good thing at all.
13:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But you just write it off a lot of things that do sound good in that
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: woodcut taxes for everyday people.
13:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's just a balance and it's this thing of like what ifs right?
13:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we've all been nervous about the repercussions of these tariffs.
13:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not necessarily saying that there won't be any, but so far, a lot of people saying it was going to kind of destroy everything.
13:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's not what's taking place.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know, man, it is, we'll just have to see how it plays out.
13:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and again, this might sound all boring, but this is one of the biggest bills in history in the U.S.
13:33
[SPEAKER_01]: government.
13:33
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's going to affect us.
13:34
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to affect us equivalent to like when a Obama care pass back in was at twenty eleven twenty twelve a massive bill like that that just it's going to affect the history of the country is going to affect us over the next decade.
13:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot here.
13:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, a lot of people upset, like I said, Democrats are trying to rally around Medicaid cuts and saying that that's just going to benefit the wealthy.
13:55
[SPEAKER_01]: The tax cuts are going to benefit the wealthy and affect the lower income individuals and Medicaid users.
14:01
[SPEAKER_01]: All that to say, the Trump administration is stressing that the bill strengthens national security stimulates economic growth and puts more money into the hands of middle income and working class Americans.
14:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You're right, Michael.
14:15
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of what ifs.
14:15
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll just have to see out all places out now.
14:17
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was your quick run down on that.
14:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I did want to make a quick spiritual application.
14:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So Dr. Jim, we talked about him all the time.
14:23
[SPEAKER_01]: He just had such a great way of bringing spiritual applications to these types of things.
14:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He wrote a great article on Tuesday about this bill.
14:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It will be linked in the show notes.
14:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And he noted that while this is obviously a very monumental thing happening today this week and in the near future coming years, it
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll let some point just be forgotten in history.
14:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that's twenty years from now, maybe that's two thousand years from now, people will not think about this big bill, right?
14:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And a Senator's decision to vote, yes or no, yeah, it's going to have an impact on that near future.
14:53
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are some decisions that we, you, Micah, me and the listeners, if you're listening to this, we all make.
15:01
[SPEAKER_01]: decisions that will bear eternal weight.
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the most powerful motives for choosing godliness is the fact that our decisions today bear unforeseeable consequences tomorrow.
15:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's, you know, a sin that causes destruction.
15:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Other times it's a beautiful thing that has an eternal impact.
15:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So for instance, when Adam and Eve, when they ate forbidden fruit,
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They did not know that that was going to bring sin into the entire human race.
15:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I had an eternal consequence.
15:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Or when a pastor falls into a moral sin, it damages their witness and has the possibilities of even more eternal consequences because all of a sudden their ministry is damaged.
15:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
15:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Other times, it's that righteous decision to go, right?
15:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That leads to battlefield blessing and legacy, such as David, not knowing that when he killed Goliath, he would end up being king and then one day in the lineage of the actual Messiah.
15:51
[SPEAKER_01]: The disciples did not know that when they left their boats and that's to follow Jesus, they would write much of what we now see and call the New Testament.
15:59
[SPEAKER_01]: How cool is that?
16:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you and I, you know, were the product of a generational line of faithful believers.
16:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, brought the gospel from their time to ours over centuries, over thousands of years.
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone was faithful, two thousand, one thousand, five hundred years ago, and that led to us being Christians today, speaking to believers now and to non-believers now.
16:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so are we being faithful in that way?
16:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, this bill, it's significant.
16:27
[SPEAKER_01]: But rather than giving too much credence to a bill signed in twenty twenty five, consider the things in your life that are having an eternal significance.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a sin?
16:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Will have an eternal consequence?
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a gospel conversation that you need to have?
16:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That could have eternal blessing by producing new legacy, new eternal believers that are going to be in heaven one day.
16:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And now have the opportunity to go spread the gospel themselves.
16:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Consider that as you go about your day and as you think about big things like this that yeah there they matter now, but they do not matter nearly as much as the eternal things in our lives.
17:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes Connor that's a great perspective shift as we're looking at all this thank you for the rundown and thank you for the solid application.
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so let's jump into the most recent Supreme Court decisions, as we jump into our next story, the decisions and the impact from them.
17:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me kind of give you the micro version of what the Supreme Court is.
17:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what is it really?
17:25
[SPEAKER_00]: We throw the phrase around a lot, right?
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: The court ruled the justices decided, but sometimes we forget what the Supreme Court actually is and what, what they are and how they function.
17:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So at its core, the Supreme Court doesn't create laws.
17:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Congress, and it doesn't enforce them either technically.
17:39
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the president's job.
17:41
[SPEAKER_00]: What the court does is interpret the law.
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: especially when there's conflict, confusion, or questions about constitutionality.
17:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the court's been busy then because there has been a whole lot of conflict, confusion, and questions about constitutionality for the last several years, but really in Trump's two-point-oh, a lot of the stuff keeps coming up.
17:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So the court decides what's in bounds, what's out of bounds, and ultimately it draws a line at that point.
18:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So there are nine unelected justices in the sense of the public doesn't elect them like in a vote right presidents put them in power.
18:13
[SPEAKER_00]: They're appointed for life holding enormous influence over how we live, how we're governed and what rights we actually have.
18:20
[SPEAKER_00]: not just rights like in theory, but actually rights in practice.
18:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so over the past few weeks, these nine justices have handed down a ton of ruling.
18:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's jump into this.
18:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So Connor, what are your initial thoughts or like how much do you feel like you know about the Supreme Court kind of before I jump into these things?
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like I know quite a bit.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's everything you just said is stuff that a lot of Americans know.
18:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It is kind of an interesting segment of our government, like the checks and balances part and that they are the top unalected officials in the country, basically, aside from maybe some of the president's advisors, but just their point is.
18:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they're for life if they were.
18:57
[SPEAKER_01]: That's always been the crazy part to me.
18:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Although, when the founders wrote that into the Constitution, did they think it was going to be
19:05
[SPEAKER_01]: this way many years down the road.
19:06
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing about the Supreme Court is if I'm right on this, I don't think the Constitution actually says it has to be nine justices.
19:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know.
19:13
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
19:13
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it doesn't.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: The standard.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the court has it's been the standard for a while, but you know how like at the end of presidential terms, everybody is like, okay, they could
19:24
[SPEAKER_00]: do this amendment to expand the courts that they can stack the judges who are, you know, more in political affiliation with that sitting president who's heading out.
19:33
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like that comes up at the end of each presidential term.
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So, all right, here are the three most significant decisions that the court has handed down recently and why they matter.
19:41
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been a lot of decisions that they've made, but I'm just picking kind of the most popular three or maybe the ones that we need to focus on as Christians the most.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got Trump versus Casa, which is the universal injunctions curtailed.
19:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So this has been super relevant recently because the court ruled that lower federal courts can no longer issue universal injunctions, meaning that these universal injunctions are broad rulings that block federal laws or policies.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And even if the case only involves like a handful of people, they're able to one federal judge is able to block the entire thing, at least for a short period of time.
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So from now on, and let's just a certified class action lawsuit, rulings from district courts only apply to the specific parties involved in the case.
20:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically what this means is that this decision restores historical boundaries on judicial power, it seems.
20:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It stops the single judge from putting a national policy on pause just because of a local case.
20:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So supporters of this say it cuts down on people kind of shopping what they want or what they don't want where political groups look for sympathetic judges to block federal actions.
20:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you are somebody who is more like a liberal persuasion in their politics and you have power you would then go to a federal judge in California or Oregon or Washington where there's a ton of more liberal leaning federal judges you get them sympathetic to your case and then this thing that the other side does you can just block it.
21:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So it will force seemingly more thoughtful, deliberate legal challenges that move through the proper channels.
21:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But the opponents argue and have a valid point that it could slow down relief for people affected by unconstitutional policies.
21:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So the person who isn't power, who's handing down executive orders, for example, relief comes for those things slower now because of this ruling.
21:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And it will lead potentially to inconsistent legal realities across states.
21:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So more power, you know,
21:33
[SPEAKER_00]: in the hands of certain people.
21:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But the core idea behind it is
21:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It kind of creates more simplicity, nationwide policy decisions will be handled by the highest courts or through Congress, not by a lone district judge.
21:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And this marks a big step and I think what Trump is trying to do in rebalancing power and the way that he looks at it between the judiciary and the other branches of government.
21:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's kind of the biggest ruling on the fact that Trump's executive orders
22:04
[SPEAKER_00]: They have to be challenged in a more streamlined way and a federal judge anywhere can't just put a stop to it.
22:11
[SPEAKER_00]: What are your thoughts on that?
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I think it's very interesting.
22:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Federal judges have been granted a lot of power over time.
22:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:17
[SPEAKER_01]: My biggest thought though is if this is what the Trump administration wants, this is what Republicans want right now, they're going to end up being on the other side of this down the road.
22:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
22:26
[SPEAKER_01]: One day there's going to be something that the Democrats do that.
22:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:28
[SPEAKER_01]: A federal judge will no longer be able to stop that, right?
22:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the Republicans will be mad about that.
22:33
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of interesting.
22:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like a political tool right now.
22:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's opposed to something that I don't know.
22:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I'm not a legal expert, so I just can't.
22:42
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you're totally right on that because, you know, they can dress it up however they want is that this is what the founders intended, but really,
22:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The Republicans just want to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
22:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump just wants to get done what he wants to get done, how he views the country should be run.
23:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's going to celebrate it and Republicans for the most part are going to celebrate it.
23:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're right, Connor, and I was going to kind of make this point later, but we're just going to make it now.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: At some point, the shoe's going to be on the other foot.
23:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So a caution to anybody in leadership.
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't just think about how it's going to impact you.
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: when you make a decision that will affect everyone, actually think about how it's going to affect everyone now and in the future.
23:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Because at some point, there will be a Democrat back in the office, the highest office most likely.
23:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And if these things are in place, well, they can accomplish their goals quickly, just like Trump is trying to accomplish what he's trying to accomplish quickly.
23:37
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
23:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, setting precedents without thinking through like, yeah, we're doing it now.
23:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just looked down the line.
23:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
23:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's Medicaid and plant parenthood states can choose where the money goes.
23:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So this most recent case, the court declined to hear an appeal.
23:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I mean that when I say they didn't rule, they just declined to hear an appeal where in South Carolina, they removed plant parenthood from its Medicaid program.
24:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So that means the state can block
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: public funding, not just for abortion related services, but also for general health services like cancer screenings and STD testing, if the clinic is affiliated with abortion providers.
24:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, we are not knocking the parts of plant parenthood that actually provide free healthcare for women who need help, who need
24:20
[SPEAKER_00]: screenings for diseases and for cancer related things.
24:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I have just personally never felt comfortable as a Bible believing Christian that my tax dollars were in any way go towards the aborting of children.
24:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we say we're celebrating this, we don't want women to lose access to health care if plant parenthood would just
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: care for women in the sense of their individual bodies and they would care for them and help them overcome diseases and give them health care that they need that they might not be able to afford.
24:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then great.
24:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody's arguing with that part.
24:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the fact that plant parenthood is the largest abortion provider.
24:56
[SPEAKER_00]: in the country, and every single day, children are killed.
25:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what abortion is, right?
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why we're standing so strong in it.
25:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So, supporters see this ruling as a victory for federalism and, you know, conscious driven governance.
25:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess is what you could call it.
25:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Medicaid is a state and minister program with federal funding that backs it.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this ruling reinforces the idea that states
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: will have the freedom to decide which providers are eligible to receive those funds.
25:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So just like when Rovey Wade was overturned, certain conservative states are going to outlaw abortion.
25:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And then more liberal states can say that they'll allow abortion.
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Same thing with this.
25:30
[SPEAKER_00]: A state like South Carolina is going to cut plant parenthood from federal funding.
25:36
[SPEAKER_00]: a state like California is probably going to continue to fund plant parenthood.
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So critics of this worry that this could limit access to basic healthcare for low-income women, especially in rural areas, totally see that as a concern and I understand that.
25:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that this is overall just a seamless, simple issue, but we stand against abortion, right?
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So this wasn't a dramatic declaration because the justice is didn't release a big opinion.
26:01
[SPEAKER_00]: They just
26:02
[SPEAKER_00]: didn't hear the case, meaning that they've made their own decision that South Carolina can no longer fund a plant paradigm.
26:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, third one, final one, free speech coalition versus Pakistan's what this was called, and this was called, and this is all about protecting kids in a digital age.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So in another big ruling, the court let a Texas law stand that requires pornography websites to verify that uses your eighteen or older.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: If a site has more than one, third of its content deemed harmful to minors, it has to put age verification tools in place.
26:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Opponents who challenged
26:35
[SPEAKER_00]: really weren't necessarily for the most part saying like, oh, porn is a great thing.
26:39
[SPEAKER_00]: They were saying more like this definitely infringes on first amendment rights and they're doing this on like a first amendment grounds of like people should be able to access what they want to access without giving their information, be able to express themselves consume what they want to consume.
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But the court did denied a block it effectively letting it move forward.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Supporters of the ruling say this is common sense.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We already require ID to buy alcohol to buy cigarettes.
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: and inter-certain movie theaters.
27:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not unreasonable to require H checks for explicit content online, right?
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: This ruling sends a message that the digital world shouldn't be exempt from other things that we already place an H restriction arm that are widely known as harmful.
27:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So in the same way, you know, that's what they're trying to do here.
27:25
[SPEAKER_00]: There's growing research about how early exposure to pornography can impact kids affecting mental health, relationships, and how they see themselves and others.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just a name of view.
27:36
[SPEAKER_00]: This law isn't banning adult content.
27:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It simply is saying that if you're gonna consume this kind of material, there needs to be reasonable steps taken to make sure minors can't access it.
27:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all for this.
27:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all for this concept.
27:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Children should not be consuming this.
27:53
[SPEAKER_00]: They are in such a developmental phase.
27:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And for a long time, Christian and those who are considered religious were the ones who, you know, kind of fighting against pornography, but there are more and more articles coming out of people who might not consider themselves Christians who are saying, hey, pornography is damaging.
28:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're talking about for the most part for adults.
28:15
[SPEAKER_00]: This law,
28:17
[SPEAKER_00]: is basically just saying, hey, we should try to make sure kids can't access this.
28:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I understand what the opponents are bringing up on this and like first amendment stuff, but overall, you know, they're making the point well.
28:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe adults might not want to give their ID to enter and give more of their information to view adult content.
28:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'd say that's probably a good thing too, right?
28:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
28:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, don't view it.
28:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what to tell you.
28:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's not a good thing at all.
28:44
[SPEAKER_01]: This is actually a great law.
28:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I fully agree.
28:47
[SPEAKER_01]: No children should be able to see any of that stuff.
28:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It is damaging and definitely impacts the way you think in your younger years, even through teenage years.
28:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely think that this should stand.
28:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm very happy with this decision.
28:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm right there with you, Michael.
29:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right.
29:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's what all this means.
29:03
[SPEAKER_00]: In my opinion, just as far as like politically and, you know, just as a country, each of these cases is, you know, it's taken together.
29:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe it reflects a broader shift.
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: The court is pulling back the power federal judges.
29:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's giving states more control over health care, morality laws, and how public funds are used.
29:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also setting a tone of restraint.
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know.
29:28
[SPEAKER_00]: People say it's constitutional, originalism.
29:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody seems to have a different interpretation of the Constitution these days, but they're saying that not every conflict deserves a sweeping nationwide fix.
29:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's in a lot of ways these decisions are putting a lot of rights back in states and states rights.
29:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So whether you see this as progress or a step backwards just overall, it probably depends on your worldview.
29:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But one thing is clear, the legal and cultural battlefield is moving to the states.
29:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And federal power seems to be being trimmed back.
29:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you agree with that, Connor?
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would.
30:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it definitely seems that way.
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Supreme Court is basically saying we've allowed the federal government, maybe to have too much power given to the states really, honestly, give it back to the people.
30:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they're trying to say.
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So my spiritual application and challenge from this, you might already guess what it is.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's jump into it.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you look at rulings like this, it's easy to treat them like just a political scoreboard, who won, who lost, which side gained momentum, which side lost momentum, but underneath the legal arguments is something I think that's a little bit deeper and it's a question of authority, who gets to decide what's right.
30:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Who determines what's allowed, Connor?
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do we turn for truth?
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: As followers of Jesus, that question's already answered for us.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We're commanded to care about justice.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We're commanded to love mercy to walk humbly, but we are not called to put our ultimate hope in the courts or in a political party or even in the Constitution.
30:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not where our ultimate hope should lie.
30:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Our hope is anchored in something higher, something greater.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike is six eight.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: says he has shown you a man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: These rulings will shape our nation, but they don't define our mission as Christians.
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: In a cultural moment where truth is constantly redefined, constantly redefined.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Morality is constantly treated just like personal preference.
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You do you, man, you do you, right?
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to be clear, God's word doesn't change.
31:28
[SPEAKER_00]: on issues like pornography and abortion, the line isn't political.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's biblical.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we so firmly stand on it today on these specific issues.
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll hear us talk about a lot of things.
31:39
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's a gray area and it's up to political preference, and we can as believers say, well, it kind of seems like it could go either way, then we're going to say, take that issue to God.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: lean on people in your life that you care about, who love the Lord as well, get advice from them, and then you can come up with an opinion there to think critically, but these issues are biblical.
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said in Matthew, five, twenty eight, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
32:06
[SPEAKER_00]: pornography is not a private matter.
32:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a heart issue that distorts what God has designed uniquely to be sacred.
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels lust.
32:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels violence.
32:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It damages relationships, and I'll go as far as to say it enslaves minds.
32:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
32:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and when it comes to the unborn, scripture is just as clear.
32:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm one, thirty nine, thirteen through fourteen says, for you formed my inward parts.
32:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
32:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I praise you for I am fearfully and I am wonderfully made.
32:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Life is not disposable.
32:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Life is not up for debate.
32:44
[SPEAKER_00]: It is sacred from the womb to the grave.
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: When we ignore that, we don't just shift policy.
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: We deny the image of God, the amago day in every human life.
32:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the challenge.
32:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Stay informed.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be inflamed.
32:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Speak truth.
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let politics steal your peace in this time.
33:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Draw the line in the sand, not based on culture, but on the word of God.
33:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And when the ground feels shaky, which oftentimes it does, when rulings don't go your way or they go your way, remember this foundation from Psalm, one, nineteen, eighty-nine.
33:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Forever, oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
33:18
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the court that we answer to.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the higher power that we answer to even when we feel like a judge here on earth has missed ruled or made a mistake.
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the truth that we must stand on.
33:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen to that.
33:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Michael.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Big decisions in the court.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Big decisions in our heart.
33:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, man.
33:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
33:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
33:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Michael, let's pop into our mail bag real fast.
33:41
[SPEAKER_01]: We got some responses to our questions, slash polls last week.
33:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So just as a reminder, guys, you can always send us your questions, your thoughts, topic ideas for us to discuss here on the show to culture brief at dinnisonform.org.
33:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also follow us on Instagram at culture brief podcast where we post clips, polls, we want your comments on things.
34:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us know.
34:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways,
34:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Last week, we brought up casual dining spots.
34:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It turned into a bit of a debate here on the show between chillies and Applebees, and it turned into a bit of a debate on our chain restaurants even good.
34:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what you all as the listeners came back with.
34:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So on this Spotify poll, between the restaurants, Applebees, Chili's, Cracker Barrel, all of Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and Cheesecake Factory.
34:23
[SPEAKER_01]: The winner was, unfortunately, Chili's, which, of course, was.
34:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It came in at thirty three percent.
34:31
[SPEAKER_01]: The rest came in at seventeen percent, except for all of Garden, no one voted for all of Garden, and one listener commented on Spotify.
34:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that all of Garden has no votes.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It reaffirms my confidence in the culturey body.
34:42
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
34:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:44
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the encouragement to that.
34:44
[SPEAKER_00]: At least you did.
34:45
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
34:46
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
34:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Another comment on Spotify said cracker barrel has one of the most positive dining vibes on the planet.
34:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually can't deny that.
34:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
34:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And he continued on saying, how can you not be happy in a cracker barrel?
34:55
[SPEAKER_01]: The rocking chairs, checkers, peg games, shopping area to core.
34:59
[SPEAKER_01]: You just can't be it.
35:00
[SPEAKER_01]: That might be true.
35:02
[SPEAKER_01]: but the food is kind of what I'm basing stuff on, you know, like the food's just mad, you know?
35:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, you just kind of take it all together.
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I definitely see what he's saying though.
35:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Or she, yeah, I don't know who said that.
35:12
[SPEAKER_01]: She's been there for years.
35:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It was always a road trip stop for my family.
35:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
35:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Connor, give us the Instagram poll results.
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So over there.
35:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I did post-touples.
35:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So one was between the debate specifically on Applebee's and chilies, where ninety three percent of the respondents said chilies is better than Applebee said.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, they said that.
35:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's just logical.
35:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
35:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that might be true, but I will say people in the comments on the on the clip were we're kind of siding with me a little bit on at least the chain part.
35:44
[SPEAKER_01]: They were said, you know, I don't need a change.
35:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:47
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the loud minority.
35:48
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the loud minority.
35:49
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of us just want to live our lives and eat a chillies without judgment.
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're just voting.
35:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Be an out-of-mainment then you've got people commenting.
35:59
[SPEAKER_01]: No one's judging.
36:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just bad food.
36:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't change.
36:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like a judge you for eating it.
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your choice.
36:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a free country.
36:05
[SPEAKER_01]: But it doesn't change the fact that the food is terrible.
36:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, people like to my comment on the sauce being red.
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm just trying to defend my position here.
36:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And one person, you know, you said you can eat for
36:16
[SPEAKER_01]: to under twenty dollars there, one person said that is not true in the comments.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'd like to invite that person on the show to debate them because that is true.
36:23
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, anyways, over on Instagram, the winning restaurant from the others was Texas Roadhouse at thirty three percent.
36:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the one I kind of predicted.
36:31
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people like Texas Roadhouse, even though you can't get a seat until you wait for it.
36:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I like Texas Roadhouse.
36:36
[SPEAKER_00]: It's fine.
36:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's probably the best of the food.
36:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, it's just a long way.
36:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Michael, let's pop into our check-in on things that we need to talk about this upcoming week.
36:49
[SPEAKER_01]: actually right before we started recording.
36:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Big news came in.
36:52
[SPEAKER_01]: The Diddy, Sean Diddy comes verdict came in from the jury.
36:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what we got.
36:57
[SPEAKER_01]: He was found guilty on two of the five counties he was tried for.
37:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And those were from the Man Act, which is basically he was found guilty of interstate transport of any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debatory or for any other immoral purpose.
37:12
[SPEAKER_01]: But he was acquitted of the counts of sex trafficking and racketeering, which were the more serious counts.
37:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So
37:19
[SPEAKER_00]: partial guilty partial not guilty definitely seems like he got found guilty on the lesser counts here Michael you talk about this several weeks ago very in depth what are your thoughts on this well I mean he did get convicted but you know I mean this just broke as as we're recording some more stuff's gonna come out so that he got convicted on the lesser charges he did avoid
37:40
[SPEAKER_00]: the bigger ones that would have put him in prison for longer.
37:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So it definitely feels kind of bittersweet.
37:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess just kind of depending on like if you believe like he was guilty or not or if you believe he did some of this stuff and not some of this stuff.
37:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not like he's just getting off Scott free, but at the same time, he's not getting convicted of the more harsher things.
37:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm curious to see if he still gets any present time either way his reputation and the music industry and then just culture is very damaged.
38:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He's pretty much seen as a pretty bad guy.
38:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did some of these things, everybody's got a pretty good sense of yeah, he probably was very much so doing a lot of this stuff parties and all that.
38:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, another big thing that happened this week, University of Pennsylvania, you pin.
38:20
[SPEAKER_01]: They have agreed with the Trump administration to apologize to female division one swimmers that were forced to swim against Leia Thomas, which is the transgender swimmer back in twenty twenty twenty twenty one that was swimming and beating actual female swimmers, including Riley Gaines.
38:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So I talk about this very in that several weeks ago, she has been very outspoken about this and she might get her trophy now after she technically tied with Leia Thomas.
38:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, all the athletes who had to swim against Leia Thomas, the transgender are now going to be recognized.
38:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Youpin has agreed to apologize to all of them, send direct letters to them, apologize to the, basically, athletic.
38:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a world for youpin to have to say, yeah, well, absolutely wrong for allowing this.
39:01
[SPEAKER_01]: They're also now going to apply.
39:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Title IX policies to actually have biology based definitions for the words male and female.
39:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't even believe that is something that we have to impose that you and have to go off biology there.
39:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And basically ensuring that males will no longer compete in female athletic programs or this is really important.
39:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Occupy their athletic facilities that are meant for females.
39:25
[SPEAKER_01]: This was part of the problem was
39:27
[SPEAKER_01]: These transgender athletes were using the locker rooms and bathrooms that were intended for females, even though they were technically biologically male.
39:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is obviously very embarrassing for you, Penn.
39:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they are embarrassed by this because they're having to say that they were wrong and when completely the wrong direction on this and they're not having to apologize, but it is the right move in my opinion.
39:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one more thing, Micah, just something to keep tabs on Mark Zuckerberg's been out there for the last few weeks.
39:52
[SPEAKER_01]: coaching AI engineers from big companies, particularly open AI who owns jet KBT.
39:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Off for people like a hundred million bucks.
40:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's the rumor is that there's been a hundred million dollar bonuses thrown out their signing bonuses.
40:05
[SPEAKER_01]: They deny it, but either way, they are investing seventy billion dollars into AI.
40:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Meta's AI system, I think it's called Lama, was far behind it was lagging.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Zuckerberg was like, OK, if we're going to keep up, we got to get the top mind.
40:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And they are just poaching everybody.
40:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So this could have an impact on open AI's future, but also mean we're going to see more on Instagram, more on Facebook, more on just Meta's.
40:28
[SPEAKER_01]: whatever they're in with AI in Zuckerberg trying to be a power player here so keep an eye on that as we've talked about AI race just barges along yeah absolutely okay well let's jump into the tune in section
40:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So if it's going to be hot for you this weekend, where you are here in the DFW area in Texas, we're going to kind of experience slightly lower temperatures than expected.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, only Texans are going to get, you know, or people who live in the southern part of the USA are going to get excited when, you know, when they see a forecast.
41:00
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, ninety two, ninety three.
41:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like,
41:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And July, that's fantastic.
41:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're excited about that.
41:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you do need an indoor activity, Jurassic World Rebirth comes out this weekend.
41:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Go see a good movie.
41:12
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know what, more importantly, it's the fourth of July coming up this episode releases on Thursday, fourth of July is on Friday.
41:18
[SPEAKER_00]: That's our Independence Day as a country.
41:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the absolute best.
41:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially when it comes in Friday.
41:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I love that it's on
41:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I hate when it lands on like Tuesday and you know, it's just random.
41:29
[SPEAKER_01]: When it's on a Friday, we got a long weekend.
41:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a great weekend celebrating.
41:32
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a hot dog eating contest that I like to watch that dude Joey Chestnut is back.
41:38
[SPEAKER_00]: He was banned last time and it was lame.
41:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's back and he's going to buy far eat the most hot dogs that guys crazy.
41:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure a little queasy though.
41:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of nasty to watch, but anyway.
41:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But everyone enjoy the long weekend.
41:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to read a poem that I saw.
41:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, crazy, right?
41:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called The American Flag by Henry Holcomb Bennett, who is an American poet and writer.
41:59
[SPEAKER_00]: This was written in the nineteen nineteen.
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just so blessed with the opportunities and the freedoms that we have here in the US of A and I just I pray for all of us that we'd be first be grateful to God for his blessings, his love and the freedoms that he gives to us.
42:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we do have, if you're listening and you do have the pleasure,
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: of being a citizen here of the United States of America.
42:18
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a very special place with special opportunity that God has continued to bless.
42:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just so thankful for our country despite the division despite the issues I'm grateful for our country.
42:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just want to read this poem from over a hundred years ago.
42:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called the American Flag.
42:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Hats off, the flag is passing by, blue and crimson, and white, it shines over the steel-tipped, ordered lines, hats off.
42:40
[SPEAKER_00]: The colors before us fly, but more than the flag is passing by.
42:44
[SPEAKER_00]: See fights and land fights, grim and great, and fought to make and save the state.
42:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Wearing marches and sinking ships, cheers a victory on dying lips.
42:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Days of plenty and years of peace, March of a strong lands swift increase.
42:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Equal justice, right and law, stately honor and reverent awe.
43:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Sign of a nation, great and strong, toward her people from foreign wrong, pride and glory and honor, all live in the colors to stand or fall, hats off.
43:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Along the street, there comes a Blair of bugles of ruffles of drums.
43:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And loyal hearts are beating high, hats off.
43:19
[SPEAKER_00]: The flag is passing by.
43:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So guys, thank you so much for joining us for this week's episode of Culture Brief for Dennis and Forum podcast.
43:27
[SPEAKER_00]: All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes.
43:30
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, please subscribe.
43:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Please vote on our polls and rate and review the show and share it with a friend.
43:37
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you next Thursday.