Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / Trump Turns Toward Putin, Elon Faces Questions, and Republicans Brace for the Midterms

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Trump Turns Toward Putin, Elon Faces Questions, and Republicans Brace for the Midterms · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

0:00
[music]
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SPEAKER_00: What is going on everyone?
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan and I'm so glad you are here for another episode.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: This week we're going to talk about Trump's shift to Russia and how he's abandoning Ukraine.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: Then we'll move to Iran,
0:28
SPEAKER_02: talk about how that war is expanding with two other nations saying they're going
0:33
SPEAKER_02: to enter it.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: Then we're going to move to Elon Musk.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: Talk about how Elon is inserting himself into some big problems.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: And then finally,
0:44
SPEAKER_02: news-wise,
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SPEAKER_02: we will end by talking about the election and the increasing desperation
0:50
SPEAKER_02: of President Trump.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: As always,
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SPEAKER_02: we wrap up the episode by covering a story of courage to motivate you guys and
0:57
SPEAKER_02: then end with a little bit of faith.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: So we begin with this just insane week of news.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: And with Trump turning to Russia and publicly abandoning Ukraine.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: There were so many things this week, it's hard to know really where to start with that.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: But it ended with Trump's own hand-picked envoy to Russia,
1:24
SPEAKER_02: Steve Witkoff,
1:25
SPEAKER_02: saying to Putin, Quote, You talk so much about Trump being a humanitarian.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: You are a humanitarian also, sir.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: I salute that.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: I commend you.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
1:39
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like,
1:41
SPEAKER_02: we're talking about Vladimir Putin who sends ballistic missiles into a capital city
1:46
SPEAKER_02: of Kyiv.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: Aimed at apartment buildings,
1:49
SPEAKER_02: not even at military targets, not even at electric substations, military bases.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: No, he's firing ballistic and cruise missiles into a heavily populated capital city
2:04
SPEAKER_02: of Ukraine every single day.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: Not to mention the invasion of Ukraine in and of itself.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: The four-year war that really began all the way back in 2014.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: But somehow he has gotten into the president's head.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: There was the quote this week where the president said that if it hadn't been for
2:27
SPEAKER_02: a stupid general, that Russia would have won the war in just a few days.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: I've got a video posted where you can see,
2:34
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:35
SPEAKER_02: there's this silly line he says where if there hadn't been a general
2:39
SPEAKER_02: who had gotten turned around and gone down this dirt road,
2:43
SPEAKER_02: And there's no way to say this, but Trump and some of his people just...
3:10
SPEAKER_02: They straight up say falsehoods.
3:13
SPEAKER_02: There was Ron Johnson.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: I've got the video in the Substack Notes if you want to go look.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: He again blamed the US for Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine.
3:24
SPEAKER_02: He said...
3:25
SPEAKER_02: You constantly see this a lot.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: But as one analyst reminded people, the US and the West, Europe,
3:53
SPEAKER_02: We welcomed Russia into the community of nations after the Cold War.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: Investment poured in.
4:00
SPEAKER_02: We even turned the G7 into the G8.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: And so the idea that Poland and Estonia
4:07
SPEAKER_02: and these small little countries were forming their own foreign relations,
4:12
SPEAKER_02: that it was somehow so unfair to Moscow that Russia is entitled
4:16
SPEAKER_02: to murder Ukrainians 20 years later is insane.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: This follows Russia invading Georgia and several other acts that Russia did.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: Vladimir Putin ran out all of the commercial investment.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: By constantly raiding companies,
4:36
SPEAKER_02: throwing company executives in jail or threatening them.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he has brought all of this on himself.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: And if you're on the right, you should remember this.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: We remember Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and the red reset easy button.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: We remember Mitt Romney saying that Russia was the greatest threat.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: And Barack Obama mocked him and said no, it was terrorism.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is nothing new.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: And the way that they try to whitewash this now just drives me absolutely crazy.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: Now, former Ambassador Michael McFaul had a great graphic pulled together
5:23
SPEAKER_02: because Trump talks about how much the U.S. has helped versus Europe.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: And this chart goes back to 2022 and it's broken down by year.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: And it shows just how much Europe has given.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: Now, in the first year of 2022, we gave a little more than Europe.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: The next two years was about the same, but in 25 and 26, it's been almost all Europe.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: It's not even close.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting because as Trump is just ripping Ukraine,
5:54
SPEAKER_02: saying they need a new president and just...
5:57
SPEAKER_02: I really don't know what numbers he's looking at.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: I saw another graphic that on the list of G20 countries...
6:06
SPEAKER_02: This is how America rates them, as far as how popular they are.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: And some of them up at the very top, like Australia is at 67, and Canada is at 67.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Japan, everyone likes Japan, 65.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: How about Italy, 64.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: UK, 60.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: France, 57.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: Germany, 57.
6:25
SPEAKER_02: Way up, all these countries, way up at the top of the list.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: Down toward the bottom, though, Turkey, 45.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: China, 37.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: How about Saudi Arabia where they cut people up with a bone saw?
6:44
SPEAKER_02: Saudi Arabia, 36.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: But you know what country is the lowest as far as the average rating on
6:51
SPEAKER_02: a filling thermometer of 0 to 100?
6:54
SPEAKER_02: Asking Americans.
6:56
SPEAKER_02: Russia at 27.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: Russia at 27.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: And so I don't know what Trump is doing.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how he thinks that Americans are going to respond
7:07
SPEAKER_02: to this sudden treatment of Vladimir Putin,
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SPEAKER_02: the man that ordered this war,
7:13
SPEAKER_02: fires ballistic missiles in,
7:15
SPEAKER_02: the man who I don't know why he thinks that being pro-Russia is going
7:19
SPEAKER_02: to somehow help him or the Republicans right before the midterms.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: He has apparently adopted that strategy.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: Which, oh by the way,
7:47
SPEAKER_02: Adam Kinzinger shared a graphic that,
7:49
SPEAKER_02: friendly reminder,
7:50
SPEAKER_02: President Zelensky's approval rating in the U.S.,
7:53
SPEAKER_02: even though they have trashed him for years,
7:57
SPEAKER_02: President Zelensky has an approval rating 31 points higher than Donald Trump.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: Nonetheless,
8:04
SPEAKER_02: they are floating a tri-country or trilateral deal
8:10
SPEAKER_02: where Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet with President Trump
8:14
SPEAKER_02: and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month as part of an attempt to negotiate the end
8:21
SPEAKER_02: of the war in Ukraine, which would obviously favor Russia.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you don't even have Ukraine there,
8:29
SPEAKER_02: if you don't have Europe there,
8:32
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's going to be pretty one-sided, it seems to me.
8:35
SPEAKER_02: I should have,
8:36
SPEAKER_02: of course,
8:36
SPEAKER_02: led the part of this section by discussing the sanctions relief that
8:42
SPEAKER_02: the president has undermined.
8:45
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, so much for his friend, Lindsey Graham, who he just stabbed in the back.
8:49
SPEAKER_02: But then also the deal to buy diesel.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: Just unbelievable what the president is doing.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we know that Russia helped Iran target our bases in the Middle East.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: And the president himself said this week that we don't want to do anything
9:10
SPEAKER_02: that will drive foolishly Russia away from the bargaining table.
9:14
SPEAKER_02: And he added,
9:15
SPEAKER_02: warning about these consequences, quote,
9:17
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps more importantly,
9:18
SPEAKER_02: Russia is doing very little,
9:20
SPEAKER_02: if anything,
9:21
SPEAKER_02: to help the Islamic Republic of Iran compared to what they could be doing And I want
9:26
SPEAKER_02: to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: This is not the sound of a strong leader.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: This is not the kind of American president that says,
9:43
SPEAKER_02: tear down this wall, or if you do this, we will respond.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: Russia's military is gasping.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: It can't even defeat Ukraine on its own.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: And yet we are cowering to it for reasons I don't understand.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: This topic is pretty much in the same wheelhouse.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: But a question that's starting to grow this week is, can Elon Musk be trusted?
10:13
SPEAKER_02: The Wall Street Journal itself,
10:14
SPEAKER_02: in fact,
10:15
SPEAKER_02: is reporting that the slowdown in Starlink,
10:20
SPEAKER_02: which is Ukraine's military version of Starlink,
10:24
SPEAKER_02: which is hurting Ukraine's ability to stop Russian attacks from drones
10:30
SPEAKER_02: and ballistic missiles and cruise missiles,
10:34
SPEAKER_02: It was slowed down by Elon Musk, according to the Wall Street Journal.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: Now, we've seen for a week that President Trump kept saying,
10:41
SPEAKER_02: I don't know who slowed it down,
10:43
SPEAKER_02: this or that, and it didn't have anything to do with it.
10:46
SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, if you're the president, why don't you know?
10:49
SPEAKER_02: Especially since it's a contractual service that our Department of Defense is a part of.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you mean you don't know?
10:59
SPEAKER_02: Why aren't you asking?
11:01
SPEAKER_02: But besides that...
11:03
SPEAKER_02: It started to seem like he was kind of sincere that maybe it wasn't him.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: At first,
11:07
SPEAKER_02: people said, well,
11:08
SPEAKER_02: maybe it's Pete Hegseth kind of doing the Trump saying,
11:11
SPEAKER_02: hey, I wish something would happen to their internet servers.
11:14
SPEAKER_02: That'd be a bad thing.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: And then Pete Hegseth just goes and does it himself.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: But according to the Wall Street Journal, it was Elon Musk.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: Elon Musk.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: He's got a lot on his plate right now.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of odd timing to be doing this,
11:29
SPEAKER_02: including the fact he's throwing a couple hundred million dollars into this election
11:32
SPEAKER_02: because it's almost like he's worried about the midterms.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: And I think he should be.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: But let's just talk about this slowdown of the military version of Starlink.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: This is pretty well said by an analyst named Ryan McBeth.
11:50
SPEAKER_02: Listen to what he said about it because it's about a minute and a half clip here.
11:55
SPEAKER_02: But he mentioned some things that I don't think Elon thought through.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: So the first question is, if you are a nation, can you trust SpaceX again?
12:26
SPEAKER_01: You have a founder who is prone to impulsivity.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: Starlink is a highly reliable service technically,
12:32
SPEAKER_01: but it may not be a reliable service politically because of Elon Musk.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: So if you are a nation,
12:37
SPEAKER_01: do you want to trust your military or your government or your internet connectivity
12:41
SPEAKER_01: to a man who could turn it off on a whim?
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Think about it like this.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: Would you be in favor of a utility cutting off power and water to
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SPEAKER_01: an opposition political party just because the owner of that utility doesn't like
12:52
SPEAKER_01: that political party?
12:53
SPEAKER_01: This is essentially the same thing.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: Germany is actually paying for Ukraine's Starlink connectivity.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: If I pay for a first class seat and someone puts me in coach,
13:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to want to talk to the manager.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: So Starlink may be in breach of contract with Germany right now.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: Starlink is owned by SpaceX and SpaceX is a public company.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: Elon Musk is the chairman of SpaceX.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: Is the board performing their fiduciary duty by allowing someone
13:17
SPEAKER_01: to capriciously turn off internet service?
13:20
SPEAKER_01: This is not good for long-term sales.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: It is not good for shareholders.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: And stuff like this is usually a recipe for class action lawsuits among shareholders
13:29
SPEAKER_01: or getting activist investors involved.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so if I were Elon, I would already be a little concerned.
13:36
SPEAKER_02: But let's face it, he's a trillionaire.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: He usually doesn't seem concerned about hardly anything.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: But as if Ryan was just the greatest predictor of anyone out there, already...
13:52
SPEAKER_02: Senator Adam Schiff is saying that a full investigation by the Senate is something
13:59
SPEAKER_02: that needs to happen.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: He said the decision to slow down the satellite speed has access to life
14:05
SPEAKER_02: and death consequences for Ukraine,
14:10
SPEAKER_02: and that national security interests should be made
14:13
SPEAKER_02: in our national security interests,
14:16
SPEAKER_02: not based on the personal whim of an unstable executive.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: Wall Street Journal reported just hours after their initial story
14:26
SPEAKER_02: that bipartisan lawmakers are calling for an investigation into Elon Musk as to
14:32
SPEAKER_02: whether he restricted Ukraine's access to the satellite-based Starlink network.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: Now, at the same time this is happening,
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Elon Musk's two public companies are talking about combining SpaceX and Tesla.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Their boards are exploring what could be the largest merger in history, $3 trillion.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: And you know,
15:02
SPEAKER_02: I can't really prove it,
15:03
SPEAKER_02: but honest to goodness, to me this all feels like a house of cards today.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: In fact, the New York Times had an interesting story.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: Headline, Tesla Profit Slumps As Musk Pours Money Into AI and Robots.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: Let me just read a couple of sentences from that.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: Tesla on Wednesday reported a second consecutive quarterly decline in profit as
15:31
SPEAKER_02: the company poured resources into self-driving cars,
15:35
SPEAKER_02: humanoid robots, and other new technology.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: So this is where it gets interesting.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: Net profit,
15:42
SPEAKER_02: so this actual profit,
15:43
SPEAKER_02: fell to $787 million in the third quarter from $1.4 billion a year ago.
15:51
SPEAKER_02: So if you're comparing quarter to quarter, they went from $1.4 to $787.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: So it dropped almost 50%.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: Sales were about what we were expected, $28 billion.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: There was little changed from a year earlier.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: Wall Street had expected a net profit of $815 million,
16:10
SPEAKER_02: so they're down a little from what Wall Street expected.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: If you're any other company except for Elon,
16:19
SPEAKER_02: and your profit dropped from $1.4 billion to $787 million,
16:25
SPEAKER_02: I just feel like people would have more questions.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: But Elon has this amazing ability to sell people on this vision.
16:32
SPEAKER_02: But on the week that this happens, he slowed down, allegedly, Starlink.
16:39
SPEAKER_02: So there's talks of an investigation into that.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: There's talks of Europe launching a competitor to Starlink because they can't trust Elon.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: Not to mention all the things he's done on X to try to...
16:54
SPEAKER_02: Amplify some reporting that sometimes isn't always accurate.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: Some of the things he said about European officials, they definitely don't like him in Europe.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: The talk of all this has others talking as well.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: Kara Swisher said, of course she covers technology, pretty big name in that field.
17:17
SPEAKER_02: Said that if she were Elon Musk, she would be worried if Democrats win.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: She said, quote, I'd be worried if I were him.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: They're going to start investigating again.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: You think he's not on the list?
17:29
SPEAKER_02: He's at the top of that list.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: And if you think about it, you know, he did the doge thing.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: He gave a lot of money to Trump to help get him elected.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: And then he's again donating to Republicans in this election cycle.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: So if you're Democrats, like, he's got to be pretty high on the list.
17:47
SPEAKER_02: All of this just kind of reminds me of Chick-fil-A,
17:50
SPEAKER_02: and for a while they were being boycotted,
17:52
SPEAKER_02: and I saw a great interview with one of the executives the last couple of weeks,
17:55
SPEAKER_02: and they kept trying to trip him up and say,
17:58
SPEAKER_02: well, what do you want to say to the LGBTQ plus community?
18:02
SPEAKER_02: And just various questions over and over.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: And all he kept saying over and over was,
18:09
SPEAKER_02: we have great chicken and I hope they come see how great our hospitality is.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: Because Chick-fil-A is a chicken.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: And I just think Elon sometimes takes his eye off the ball
18:26
SPEAKER_02: of what his various companies are trying to do.
18:29
SPEAKER_02: And he needlessly creates enemies when it's not necessary.
18:34
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's going to lead to some financial setbacks.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Now he is the richest man in the world, at least on paper.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: So it would take a lot of setbacks before he probably felt much pain at But
18:45
SPEAKER_02: the Bible is very clear that pride cometh before the fall.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: So we should not look to our money for security because
18:55
SPEAKER_02: that does not last very long, no matter how much you have.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: Now moving along,
19:02
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to get too deep into this,
19:04
SPEAKER_02: but you do have to kind of ask yourself, is the Iran war starting to expand?
19:10
SPEAKER_02: Because this week alone,
19:14
SPEAKER_02: Egypt said that it had agreed to support its close ally Saudi Arabia in the fighting
19:21
SPEAKER_02: between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
19:28
SPEAKER_02: So no one in the world seems to know what this means,
19:32
SPEAKER_02: but Egypt's pretty close to where these Houthi rebels are in Yemen.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: And they have put themselves at some risk by saying they're going to join this war.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: They've had attacks from the Houthis before.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: They're not the most stable country in the world to begin with.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, they said, hey, we're going to join Saudi Arabia.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure Saudi Arabia paid a pretty penny to make that happen.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: Egypt says they're going to join Saudi Arabia,
20:03
SPEAKER_02: and in the same week,
20:05
SPEAKER_02: the United Kingdom said that it will send jets to Saudi Arabia
20:08
SPEAKER_02: to help Saudi Arabia defend itself against attacks on critical energy
20:14
SPEAKER_02: and civilian interests.
20:15
SPEAKER_02: The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: But it doesn't appear that Saudi Arabia is able to handle this very well.
20:34
SPEAKER_02: So Saudi Arabia being a rich oil country with a ton
20:38
SPEAKER_02: of money is doing what you would expect from a country with an untested
20:44
SPEAKER_02: and what appears to be paper tiger military.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: They are paying to bring in other folks to fight their wars for them.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: But On top of the two countries of Egypt and the United Kingdom getting involved,
20:58
SPEAKER_02: there are increasing talks that the United States
21:01
SPEAKER_02: and Israel might hit Iran again soon, perhaps after the midterms, if not before.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: Now, maybe he's saying that just for speech reasons.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: But Bibi Netanyahu has never hesitated to look for a war,
21:34
SPEAKER_02: so it doesn't look too good over there.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: Now I gotta say,
21:39
SPEAKER_02: you'd think a couple weeks before an election,
21:45
SPEAKER_02: the president would discuss the Iran war with a little bit more care,
21:48
SPEAKER_02: but he was asked by a journalist, do you regret starting a war with Iran?
21:54
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's a fair question.
21:56
SPEAKER_02: And I can think of about a hundred ways he could have answered that.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: But I am sure that he answered it in the worst way possible.
22:05
SPEAKER_02: Because President Trump said, I think this is one of the greatest things we've done.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: I think this is one of the greatest things we've done.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: You can go look at the video if you don't believe me.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: So the Iran war is one of the greatest things we have done,
22:24
SPEAKER_02: according to President Trump,
22:25
SPEAKER_02: despite running initially on a promise of no new wars,
22:29
SPEAKER_02: despite this lasting much longer than,
22:31
SPEAKER_02: we're into month seven now,
22:33
SPEAKER_02: despite it lasting much longer than the four to six weeks he initially promised,
22:38
SPEAKER_02: this is one of the greatest things we've done, according to the President.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: I am at a loss for words on that one.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: So let's just move to the fact that the election has arrived.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: And from everything that I see, it appears the Republicans are on the ropes.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: They certainly look to be anyway.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: I can name a number of things, but let's just listen to a minute or so of just the latest news.
23:12
SPEAKER_02: This literally popped off Wednesday night as I'm recording it.
23:16
SPEAKER_02: So instead of trying to pull together a couple of articles,
23:19
SPEAKER_02: let me just play about one minute of an analyst.
23:23
SPEAKER_02: This is Chris Saliza.
23:25
SPEAKER_03: You are starting to see real panic among Republicans,
23:30
SPEAKER_03: and I'll show you an example of real panic.
23:32
SPEAKER_03: This is Axios on Wednesday night.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: Look at this headline.
23:36
SPEAKER_03: The wall has broken.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: Okay, the wall is broken.
23:40
SPEAKER_03: The Senate map once looked impregnable for Republicans.
23:43
SPEAKER_03: Now they're worried about losing Mississippi.
23:45
SPEAKER_03: Senate Republicans are weighing a last-ditch cash infusion for Mississippi
23:48
SPEAKER_03: and even more money for South Carolina.
23:49
SPEAKER_03: Now the president has been touring the country, but he has said some baffling things.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, there was down in Camp Lejeune, an area I know well.
24:22
SPEAKER_02: I spent four years there on active duty.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: They've had some water contamination claims.
24:27
SPEAKER_02: And even when I served,
24:29
SPEAKER_02: there were these signs above the sinks on one of the little bases down there.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: And it said, run water 30 seconds before filling your canteens.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: So there have been all kinds of lead and other issues in the pipes down there
24:42
SPEAKER_02: that go all the way back to like World War II.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: President Trump said...
24:48
SPEAKER_02: Quote, if we win the House and Senate,
24:51
SPEAKER_02: I am directing the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims
24:56
SPEAKER_02: as soon as possible.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: If we don't win, there's no money.
25:01
SPEAKER_02: So he literally tells people, hey, I mean,
25:05
SPEAKER_02: like he could solve this right now,
25:06
SPEAKER_02: but instead he's going to hold it over people's head.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: Now he said a similar thing where he said the $5,000,
25:16
SPEAKER_02: he again is saying that if you elect a Republican House and Senate on November 3rd,
25:20
SPEAKER_02: you're going to get $5,000.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: And then he says this, you can't make this up.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: And if we lose, you get nothing.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: You're going to get nothing.
25:29
SPEAKER_02: If we lose, you get nothing.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: Make it a lot easier to vote.
25:35
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is sounding like desperation.
25:39
SPEAKER_02: This is not the sound of a confident executive about a week and a half before the election.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Of course, early voting is happening across most states in the country already as we speak.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: But these are just some odd things.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: I gotta say,
25:55
SPEAKER_02: Morning Joe discussed in just perfect detail A topic he continues to bring up
26:02
SPEAKER_02: at every single rally, it seems, across multiple states.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: Seems a little odd, especially for the Republican Party.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: Especially for the way that the president has gone after trans and gay and some of
26:17
SPEAKER_02: the liberal topics.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: But let's just hear what he said across multiple states.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: At a time when his party is about to get clobbered.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: This is what he's focused on.
26:30
SPEAKER_03: So he's over here.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: I'm over here.
26:33
SPEAKER_03: And I'm studying his body.
26:35
SPEAKER_03: I've never studied the body of a man before.
26:38
SPEAKER_03: It's not my thing.
26:39
SPEAKER_03: Nothing wrong with it, of course.
26:41
SPEAKER_03: Nothing.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: I always proceeded by saying nothing wrong.
26:45
SPEAKER_03: But it's never been my thing, to be honest with you.
26:49
SPEAKER_03: But I looked at his ass.
26:54
SPEAKER_03: And then I looked at his legs.
26:56
SPEAKER_03: And I said, his ass is shit.
26:58
SPEAKER_03: It's like.
27:00
SPEAKER_03: It's like a pile of muscle.
27:02
SPEAKER_03: Then I looked at his legs and I said, man, his feet are big.
27:07
SPEAKER_03: Then I looked at his shoulders and I tapped him on the shoulder and it actually hurt my hand.
27:13
SPEAKER_03: It was like a piece of steel.
27:15
SPEAKER_03: And by the time I finished with that story,
27:18
SPEAKER_03: he went from being 10 points down to being two points today.
27:21
SPEAKER_03: A poll came out.
27:22
SPEAKER_03: He's two points up.
27:26
SPEAKER_03: Okay, for the third time in eight days in three different states,
27:30
SPEAKER_03: President Trump is praising the physique of Republican Senator John Husted of Ohio.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: Willie, I know that like as people get older,
27:40
SPEAKER_03: sometimes things come out, but I'm just, what's going on here?
27:44
SPEAKER_03: Is this like a fun little trigger for the press or are we like seeing the process
27:50
SPEAKER_03: of aging playing out in real life?
27:53
SPEAKER_03: What's with the obsession?
27:55
SPEAKER_03: With the male body.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but it is a relentless obsession and it's getting more frequent by the day.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: This is, as you said, the third time he's talked about Senator Husted's rear end.
28:07
SPEAKER_01: Talked about Giants quarterback Jackson Dart's legs a lot.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: He has male service members stand up so he can examine their bodies and talk about
28:15
SPEAKER_01: the parts he likes.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's going on, but I don't know.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people seem to think it's pretty obvious what's going on, but We'll leave it to that.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: I think people should just be honest and authentic.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a beautiful thing when that happens.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the president's telling us something.
28:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: OK, well, good to know.
28:34
SPEAKER_03: Good to know.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, besides this just weird and odd messaging,
28:41
SPEAKER_00: there's just this instability
28:43
SPEAKER_02: that has made the world less safe.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: The Financial Times, when we're talking about one of the most conservative
28:50
SPEAKER_00: media organizations out there,
28:53
SPEAKER_00: it literally ran a social media post that said,
28:56
SPEAKER_00: are we sleepwalking into World War III?
29:00
SPEAKER_02: And they had a pull quote,
29:01
SPEAKER_02: and it said,
29:03
SPEAKER_02: if it came to it, would Trump's America fight to defend the Baltic states in Europe?
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Or how about Poland?
29:14
SPEAKER_02: Or how about Japan or Britain?
29:17
SPEAKER_02: Nobody can be sure of the answer to those questions anymore because we have seen
29:22
SPEAKER_02: the president siding with Putin time and time again.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: Now this is starting to have real electoral consequences.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: One of Ted Cruz's,
29:34
SPEAKER_02: the senator down in Texas,
29:36
SPEAKER_02: his former intern,
29:38
SPEAKER_02: one of the organizers for the largest conservative youth summit in Texas,
29:44
SPEAKER_02: has said he voted for James Tallarico.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: And his statement is pretty remarkable.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: This guy's name is Vasant Bhatt.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: B-H-A-T-T. Vasant Bat.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: But I think it's Bat.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure.
30:04
SPEAKER_02: That's my southern attempt to speak it.
30:06
SPEAKER_02: But here we go.
30:06
SPEAKER_02: Here's what he said.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: As a second generation Indian American,
30:12
SPEAKER_02: I am thoroughly disgusted by the xenophobia,
30:17
SPEAKER_02: racial resentment,
30:19
SPEAKER_02: and increasingly brazen attacks on my identity that Now, similarly, there's a...
30:49
SPEAKER_02: Former Republican named David Thornton,
30:51
SPEAKER_02: who I've become
30:53
SPEAKER_00: friends with online, and he writes for The Racket News.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to the article I'm about to quote from.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: But David Thornton is a former Republican,
31:06
SPEAKER_02: probably still center right at heart,
31:08
SPEAKER_02: almost certainly based on the stuff that I've read.
31:11
SPEAKER_02: I guess I shouldn't speak for him on that, but...
31:14
SPEAKER_02: I'm certainly center right, and I seem to agree with almost everything the guy writes.
31:19
SPEAKER_02: And he gave me permission to read part of what he recently wrote.
31:26
SPEAKER_02: Again, he writes for the Racket News, former Republican.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: And he said,
31:30
SPEAKER_02: by definition,
31:31
SPEAKER_02: the lesser evil is preferable to the greater evil, unless you like evil.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: And he wrote just a tremendous piece.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: He gave me permission to quote as much as I want from it.
31:45
SPEAKER_02: So we're just going to read part of it because it just spoke to me.
31:50
SPEAKER_02: And so on the week that so much has gone wrong for the Trump administration and on
31:57
SPEAKER_02: the week that he stabbed Ukraine in the back and has helped lead to Dozens
32:04
SPEAKER_02: of civilian deaths as Starlink was slowed down,
32:10
SPEAKER_02: as he has slow-walked Patriot missiles,
32:13
SPEAKER_02: and as he is negotiating with a murdering tyrant.
32:17
SPEAKER_02: I want to share the views of a former Republican,
32:21
SPEAKER_02: David Thornton, from The Racket News, because so much of this just spoke to me.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: Again, quoting David Thornton, let's just start it.
32:35
SPEAKER_02: He said the reason for that shift this year is that the two sides are not on
32:38
SPEAKER_02: the same level of bad.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: Yes, there are some extreme candidates on the Democratic side,
32:44
SPEAKER_02: but they pale in comparison to what is considered mainstream in
32:47
SPEAKER_02: the Republican Party.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: Even the best Republican candidates are totally beholden to...
32:54
SPEAKER_02: And subservient to Donald Trump,
32:57
SPEAKER_02: a president who is completely unbound by the Constitution
33:02
SPEAKER_02: and increasingly unaccountable to the courts.
33:06
SPEAKER_02: The list of Trump's transgressions is too long to cover completely,
33:11
SPEAKER_02: but any president who acted so imperilously
33:15
SPEAKER_02: and corruptly would have rightly been impeached and removed.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: It is the Republicans who are up for re-election this year
33:24
SPEAKER_02: who have enabled his grift and abuses of power.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: If they are returned to power, it will be more of the same.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a Democrat.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: I'm a conservative and former Republican.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: But I'll be voting Democrat again this year because the parties are not equally bad.
33:45
SPEAKER_02: We have a liberal party,
33:48
SPEAKER_02: And we have an insane personality cult that already tried
33:52
SPEAKER_02: to steal one presidential election and is currently talking about
33:55
SPEAKER_02: an unconstitutional third term and seems to be seriously considering martial law
34:01
SPEAKER_02: if they don't get the midterm results they want.
34:04
SPEAKER_02: In other words, this election is not about policy differences.
34:09
SPEAKER_02: This election is about whether we want to continue enabling a wannabe authoritarian
34:15
SPEAKER_02: and whether we want to lock in his power grab or be held accountable for his crime.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: This election is about whether we want to continue being a constitutional republic,
34:28
SPEAKER_02: which is a form of democracy for those who say we aren't a democratic country,
34:32
SPEAKER_02: or if we want to keep ceding our freedom to a lawless, political strongman.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: Those who choose not to make the not-so-difficult choice to reign in the man
34:47
SPEAKER_02: who would reign over us are not being politically courageous.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: They are being apathetic.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: They are throwing their hands up in the air and saying, let the chips fall where they may.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: He continues,
35:16
SPEAKER_02: In the hospital, doctors treat the life-threatening problems first.
35:20
SPEAKER_02: They don't let a patient bleed out or die from a heart attack while they wheel him
35:24
SPEAKER_02: into radiation treatments.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: No, the proper sequence is to stop the bleedings,
35:31
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't mean the Democrats are not a threat,
35:33
SPEAKER_02: but they are not the imminent danger that a Trump-grabbing power at the expense of
35:37
SPEAKER_02: the Constitution is.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: As a longtime follower of conservative and Republican media,
36:05
SPEAKER_02: I can also point out that many of the accusations that Republicans now level
36:10
SPEAKER_02: at Democrats are either hypothetical or things
36:13
SPEAKER_02: that Trump's Republican Party is already doing.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: Republican fear-mongering over Muslims is hypothetical, for example.
36:22
SPEAKER_02: Muslims are a small minority,
36:24
SPEAKER_02: less than 2% of the U.S.
36:25
SPEAKER_02: population, and the First Amendment already prohibits Sharia law.
36:31
SPEAKER_02: Then he continues and says this.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: Most of the Republican accusations lack self-awareness.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: Socialism?
36:41
SPEAKER_02: Trump is nationalizing American companies at an alarming rate.
36:45
SPEAKER_02: Taxes?
36:47
SPEAKER_02: Trump's unconstitutional tariffs are costing Americans thousands of dollars.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: Endless wars?
36:54
SPEAKER_02: Wars and rumors of war are constant under Trump.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: Government overreach?
37:00
SPEAKER_02: Trump has created a vast,
37:02
SPEAKER_02: brutal, and unaccountable police state that is already targeting American citizens.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: Lawfare?
37:09
SPEAKER_02: Trump already has a long list of political persecutions,
37:13
SPEAKER_02: even before the recent raid on Representative Ilhan Omar,
37:18
SPEAKER_02: while at the same time pardoning his criminal friends at eight times the rate
37:22
SPEAKER_02: of Biden pardons.
37:24
SPEAKER_02: Corruption.
37:26
SPEAKER_02: Trump has amassed billions of dollars with open graft and monetization of the presidency.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: Kimberly Guilford's $100,000 alleged bribery request is small potatoes.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: Pro-life?
37:44
SPEAKER_02: Not only is the Trump administration not reigning in abortion,
37:48
SPEAKER_02: the abortion rate is increasing,
37:50
SPEAKER_02: but its cuts to USAID have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths,
37:54
SPEAKER_02: most of them children, and now the administration is planning for public executions.
38:00
SPEAKER_02: Christianity?
38:01
SPEAKER_02: This administration is probably more hostile to the teachings of Christ than any in our history.
38:08
SPEAKER_02: He says, he finishes, he wraps up the part I'm going to read anyway by saying this.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: Back in 2025, I predicted that the Trump presidency would be like another dark age.
38:20
SPEAKER_02: That prediction is coming true.
38:23
SPEAKER_02: The world is...
38:27
SPEAKER_02: Trump's government is internationally aggressive and he is openly siding with Putin,
38:33
SPEAKER_02: even violating recently passed Russian sanctions to make a deal for a token amount
38:38
SPEAKER_02: of Russia.
38:38
SPEAKER_02: Trump's trade barriers mean the U.S.
38:40
SPEAKER_02: is being left behind internationally,
38:42
SPEAKER_02: and his attacks on scientific funding and research will
38:53
SPEAKER_02: America is in decline thanks to MAGA.
39:11
SPEAKER_02: Again, those are the words of David Thornton from one of the writers of The Racket News.
39:17
SPEAKER_02: I could not have said most of that better.
39:20
SPEAKER_02: And we'll just end on the note that please go out and vote.
39:25
SPEAKER_02: Vote your conscience.
39:27
SPEAKER_02: Vote what you believe.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: But at least vote.
39:30
[music]
39:42
SPEAKER_00: There are still people who stand up for what's right.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: There are still people who put
39:46
SPEAKER_02: others ahead of themselves.
39:48
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes
39:59
SPEAKER_02: For this week's story of courage, I wanted to highlight Clara Barton.
40:01
SPEAKER_02: If by chance you've heard that name,
40:03
SPEAKER_02: then you probably know her as the founder of the American Red Cross.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: But long before that, she was risking her life to help wounded soldiers during the Civil War.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: When the war began in 1861,
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Barton started collecting food, bandages, and medical supplies for Union soldiers.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: But she wasn't content to simply send supplies to the front.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: She wanted to be there herself.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: And so she went.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: At battles like Antietam and Fredericksburg,
40:58
SPEAKER_00: Barton worked near the fighting,
41:00
SPEAKER_00: tending to wounded men and bringing desperately needed supplies.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: At Antietam,
41:07
SPEAKER_00: a bullet reportedly passed through the sleeve of her dress,
41:11
SPEAKER_00: killing the wounded soldier she was helping.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: She became known as the Angel of the Battlefield.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: After the war,
41:22
SPEAKER_00: she continued helping others, eventually founding the American Red Cross in 1881.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I love about her story.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: Clara Barton wasn't a soldier.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: No one ordered her into battle.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: She could have stayed somewhere safe and comfortable,
41:41
SPEAKER_00: but she saw people suffering,
41:43
SPEAKER_00: knew she could help, and decided to do something about it.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes courage isn't about fighting a battle.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: It's about being willing to walk into one to help somebody else.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: And now, let's close with a little faith and encouragement.
42:00
SPEAKER_02: Whatever weight you've got on your shoulders,
42:02
SPEAKER_02: I hope this helps you step away from the noise for just a few minutes and focus
42:06
SPEAKER_02: on something that matters.
42:08
SPEAKER_02: Let's start this week with a quote from the late Charles Spurgeon.
42:12
SPEAKER_02: Of course, he was one of the most famous pastors of about a hundred years ago.
42:18
SPEAKER_02: And the quote reads,
42:21
SPEAKER_02: I do fear that one half of Christian people nowadays are in this sleepy state.
42:29
SPEAKER_02: And yet if they were told so to their face,
42:32
SPEAKER_02: they would be very angry with the men who had the honesty to tell the truth.
42:39
SPEAKER_02: Just a good reminder,
42:40
SPEAKER_02: I think all of us agree,
42:41
SPEAKER_02: if you're in a faith walk,
42:43
SPEAKER_02: there are a lot of Christians who are in a very sleepy state.
42:49
SPEAKER_02: Now, on that very topic,
42:52
SPEAKER_02: the next one's a quote from John Bunyan,
42:54
SPEAKER_02: which is probably 200 years old,
42:56
SPEAKER_02: but the quote is,
42:58
SPEAKER_02: He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find him the rest of the day.
43:05
SPEAKER_02: Again, he who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find him the rest of the day.
43:11
SPEAKER_02: That's obviously referring with start your day by waking up a little early,
43:17
SPEAKER_02: maybe reading a devotional, getting into the Bible.
43:21
SPEAKER_02: Start your day right.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: Because if you don't start in the morning with God,
43:26
SPEAKER_02: you are going to scarcely find him the rest of the day.
43:29
SPEAKER_02: We know how busy we all get.
43:32
SPEAKER_02: Moving along, another quote I saw, this was again by Charles Spurgeon.
43:36
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people who quote many of the things he said in some of his sermons and all.
43:41
SPEAKER_02: This quote reads, Doctrines in the head, without holiness in the life, are of no service.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: Again, doctrines in the head without holiness in the life are of no service.
43:57
SPEAKER_02: Clearly,
43:57
SPEAKER_02: he's talking about,
43:58
SPEAKER_02: in short,
43:59
SPEAKER_02: partly not sinning so that you have a good witness to others,
44:02
SPEAKER_02: but also, like, you have to have a life of service.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: Like, you can't just be, you have this faith, but you don't do anything with it.
44:09
SPEAKER_02: You don't help anybody.
44:10
SPEAKER_02: You don't have joy in your life.
44:12
SPEAKER_02: Like, you...
44:13
SPEAKER_02: It's more than just doctrines.
44:14
SPEAKER_02: It's encompassing the entire spectrum of Christianity.
44:21
SPEAKER_02: The next thing I was going to share is from the social media account called Gospel
44:26
SPEAKER_02: for Life, and it's pretty simple.
44:28
SPEAKER_02: It says, your environment plays a big role in who you become.
44:34
SPEAKER_02: So shape your environment so it supports the And I think we know this is everything
44:41
SPEAKER_02: from friends.
44:42
SPEAKER_02: If you were to start a faith walk,
44:44
SPEAKER_02: you don't necessarily abandon your friends,
44:47
SPEAKER_02: but you start to create some newer friends that are strong in the faith because
44:51
SPEAKER_02: who you're around does matter.
44:53
SPEAKER_02: You can't be around the world all the time.
44:56
SPEAKER_02: But also,
44:56
SPEAKER_02: I think it applies to,
44:58
SPEAKER_02: you know,
44:58
SPEAKER_02: if you're trying to If you're drinking too much,
45:02
SPEAKER_02: you need to start to remove some of the alcohol from your home or some of
45:06
SPEAKER_02: the nights you're going out.
45:07
SPEAKER_02: If you're addicted to looking at things on the internet that you shouldn't, you shouldn't.
45:14
SPEAKER_02: Delete out your bookmarks, your websites, passwords, files you've saved, whatever.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: If you're dealing with obesity.
45:21
SPEAKER_02: A lot of Christians hate to hear this, especially in the South.
45:24
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible does condemn gluttony or overeating.
45:29
SPEAKER_02: And we are supposed to be stewards of our bodies.
45:31
SPEAKER_02: So we should be trying to take care of ourselves.
45:33
SPEAKER_02: So if you're dealing with obesity, it's hard to get started.
45:37
SPEAKER_02: But you can set out workout clothes, buy your bed for the next morning...
45:41
SPEAKER_02: You can make the priority of getting in some exercise the first thing you prioritize.
45:48
SPEAKER_02: And by doing that, you make it as easy as possible to start.
45:52
SPEAKER_02: Obviously,
45:52
SPEAKER_02: start small always because if you start with too large of goals,
45:56
SPEAKER_02: you're just setting yourself up for failure.
45:58
SPEAKER_02: But again, the quote is, your environment plays a big role in who you become.
46:03
SPEAKER_02: So shape your environment so it supports the habits you want to create.
46:09
SPEAKER_02: And then the final one is from the social media account Living Christian.
46:13
SPEAKER_02: And the quote is, An umbrella cannot stop the rain, but it allows us to stand in the rain.
46:21
SPEAKER_02: Faith in God may not remove our trials, but it gives us strength to overcome them.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: So just a great reminder that the rain is going to come,
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SPEAKER_02: and it's great to have God on your side.
46:34
SPEAKER_02: And then they quoted the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah.
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SPEAKER_02: Chapter 43, which reads, When you pass through the waters,
46:43
SPEAKER_00: I will be with you.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, a reminder,
46:48
SPEAKER_00: if you are a Christian,
46:49
SPEAKER_00: make sure you find a
46:50
SPEAKER_02: Bible-believing church and a group of believers to grow with
46:55
SPEAKER_02: and build a relationship with.
46:57
SPEAKER_02: As it says in the Old Testament in Ecclesiastes,
47:00
SPEAKER_02: a person standing alone can be It's Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verses 9 through 12.
47:04
SPEAKER_02: So find you a good church.
47:05
SPEAKER_02: Find you some good friends.
47:07
SPEAKER_02: We need community in this life.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: If it's nonsense, you'll figure that out.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: But if it really is the Word of God, that changes everything.
47:57
SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to open the book and see for yourself.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: If it starts to speak to you,
48:03
SPEAKER_00: or if you're someone who used to go to church but no longer does,
48:07
SPEAKER_00: make sure you find a good local church.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: One that believes that the Bible is the Word of God,
48:14
SPEAKER_00: that Scripture is true, trustworthy, and without error.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: Find the people that you need to surround yourself with to get through life
48:24
SPEAKER_00: because life is hard and scripture is clear that we should go through it
48:30
SPEAKER_00: with community and that community should include people who believe in
48:35
SPEAKER_00: a higher power.
48:37
SPEAKER_00: And one last thing,
48:39
SPEAKER_00: if you're a veteran struggling with PTSD,
48:41
SPEAKER_00: depression,
48:43
SPEAKER_00: or thoughts of suicide, please use the resources I've linked in the episode notes.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: You've made it through hard things before.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to fight this one alone.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: We need you here.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Your life matters.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me this week.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: As you head into the coming days, try to be a little kinder, online and out in the world.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: Remember that most Americans are good people, even if they vote differently than you do.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: And keep working on yourself, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: Try to be a little better this week than you were last week.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be perfect, just keep moving forward.
49:31
SPEAKER_00: When the news gets discouraging, and you know it will, Don't give up on this country.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm betting when you finish this podcast,
49:40
SPEAKER_00: you're going to hear a lot of angry rhetoric,
49:43
SPEAKER_00: either in your neighborhood or maybe from your news source.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: But remember these truths.
49:51
SPEAKER_00: Division weakens us.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: Unity strengthens us.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: So be careful what you feed your mind and your spirit.
50:03
SPEAKER_00: If you're a person of faith, spend some time in your Bible this week.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not, maybe pick one up and give it a try.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: Finally,
50:12
SPEAKER_00: if you'd like to support what I'm doing here or check out any of my books,
50:16
SPEAKER_00: you'll find links in the episode notes.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: Until next time,
50:21
SPEAKER_00: stay hopeful,
50:22
SPEAKER_00: stay humble, and keep working to be the light in your corner of the world.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.