Latest / Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories / Epstein files, MAGA infighting, peace deals & Tom Cruise | Ep. 46

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Epstein files, MAGA infighting, peace deals & Tom Cruise | Ep. 46 · Culture Brief - Christian perspectives on the week's biggest news, sports & pop-culture stories

0:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm Connor Jones, I'm Mike Atama-Sella, and this is Culture Brief, a Dinnison Foreign Podcast where we are navigating the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and anything else happening in culture, and we are doing it all from a Christian perspective, and it has been a crazy week, particularly in the politics world.
0:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike, we're going to break a lot of that down, you want to give us a quick rundown.
0:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can't remember the last time I have updated just the notes and research leading into an episode.
0:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I updated it four or five different times in the last 24 hours specifically relating to what's going on with the Epstein files.
0:39
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about it's going on with Epstein, in fighting within MAGA just cracks that we're saying within the movement right now.
0:46
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to touch on that.
0:47
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about Tom Cruise.
0:49
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about the UN approving Trump security plan of Gaza and really a lot more.
0:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's jump into the brief the brief.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and really one of the big things we're diving into is the Epstein files, but we're going to get to that in just a minute.
1:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Mike is right, there's been a lot of just turmoil within the Republican Party.
1:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So last week, we really dove into the Democrat party and the turmoil over there on the left side, because the Democrats are having their own splits and own divisions on a whole bunch of ideological things, but
1:20
[SPEAKER_00]: The right man, they're having their own problems too, and it's been a very highlighted in the last few weeks, but particularly this week, and it all kind of led up to this Epstein files release situation, which we're going to dive into that in a little bit, but before we get there, let's just dive into the things that have been kind of dividing the right from the get go.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Really in the month of November.
1:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really just reached a peak this week.
1:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, one of the things about the Epstein files Just to start off up top is a kind of came at a really bad time I liked what Jonathan Lamier said in an article this week for the Atlantic.
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He titled that article Epstein returns at the worst time for Trump And he says that the storylines reemergence
2:00
[SPEAKER_00]: delivered another blow to a president who is already at the weakest moment of his second term.
2:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump's party got wiped out in this month's elections as voters assigned it the greater portion of blame for the shutdown.
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was one big problem, right, Micah.
2:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's also noting that the Supreme Court is set to unravel his signature tariffs.
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump's signature tariffs.
2:19
[SPEAKER_00]: His poll numbers have dipped as Americans conclude that he cares too much about gilded ballrooms and is not focused nearly enough on bringing down high prices.
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is one of the things that's causing division is there's a feeling that there's a disconnect between Trump and the American people and even more so between his base of Maga voters.
2:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a fair criticism of a menu and I've touched on it.
2:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a fair criticism of like we're not really necessarily talking about if it's fully true or not because there's obviously a lot of policies and play trying to bring prices down and it takes time.
2:49
[SPEAKER_01]: But as far as what it actually looks like, there has been way more press conferences about things happening internationally or what they're doing at the White House with the ballroom than there has been talking points and press conferences about.
3:01
[SPEAKER_01]: things that seem to be hitting Americans at home.
3:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So just to say, like, we'll always call it spade to spade, right?
3:07
[SPEAKER_01]: That is an absolute fair critique of how it's appeared so far.
3:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, definitely.
3:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just with Trump and Congress and all that.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: This is actually all dividing within the MAGA media sphere.
3:17
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen this recently with Tucker Carlson, specifically, he interviewed Nick Fuintes, who is definitely a white nationalist and anti-geny, he's self-proclaimed, white nationalist and anti-geny, a misogynist, he praises Stalin and Hitler,
3:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a good guy at all, a really bad influence, particularly for young men in American culture, isolated young men, specifically is kind of his target audience.
3:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Tucker Carlson interviewed him on his massive podcast a few weeks ago, and it's still kind of roiling within the party because he had basically a softball interview with Fuentes.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: did not really press on him, did not push back against some of the really terrible ideas that point does presented on that episode.
3:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And that caused a lot of people on the right to be like, whoa, Tucker, you took this too far.
3:56
[SPEAKER_00]: You should not be platforming this guy.
3:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Ben Shapiro specifically, really big guy on the right wing media sphere.
4:03
[SPEAKER_00]: He's Jewish.
4:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he really pushed back on after him.
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Tucker.
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he came after Tucker dedicated a whole episode of his show to basically
4:12
[SPEAKER_00]: dog on Tucker and say you can not do this.
4:14
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not right.
4:16
[SPEAKER_00]: There's morality problems here and all that which you know that's a that's an argument but of course then within the right wing area people were saying well that's just censorship that's what we fought against for so long with liberal media right yeah if you can't talk to who you want to talk to if you can't present ideas that you want to present.
4:31
[SPEAKER_00]: then you're censoring us your canceling us is was the word back in like twenty twenty one twenty two is getting canceled right so now they're accusing even people within the right of canceling other people within the right and it's just this big fight and it's as summer pointy up a big distraction from the things that are actually happening that are successes right Michael not good yeah
4:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's it's not good.
4:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's others who are trying to just get the the mag of movement back on track making Kelly's one of those she's at the forefront of this too, she's like saying it guys, we got to think about America first and stop fighting each other about platforming and all that let's look at Trump and help Trump and Republicans in Congress and help generate interest and energy on the American populist.
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: because they they really see themselves as kind of the bridge between the American people and right wing voters and Trump and Congress and everybody in DC they're kind of like that middle ground they they're the messengers in a way and you know that's really true with like people like Steve Bannon who's got Trump's ear and I know we're going to talk about him in a minute because
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: He's maybe been mentioned in these Epstein files as well, but he's extremely influential and there's all kinds of people like that.
5:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael, the other thing that really happened was Trump had an interview this past week with Laura Ingram on Fox News and which he defended each one be visas.
5:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And he argued that foreign labor is needed at times because US workers do not have, quote unquote, certain talents.
5:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So that that that set off a firestorm within the current firestorm already happening where people were like on the right side saying this is not what we voted for we don't want more immigrants coming We voted for mass deportations.
6:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We voted for shutting down the border and not taking American jobs with foreign workers, right?
6:08
[SPEAKER_00]: that set off just a whole wave of posts on social media and people going on TV and all that saying whoa Trump you are completely missing the mark here like this is not what we want and he's out there defending H1BV says which are first supposed to be far highly skilled laborers right typically coming from a lot of times Asia maybe Europe
6:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And coming in, they filled jobs at companies, AI companies are really trying to do this, but it's, it's been kind of a, I think that's royal to a lot of people, what do you think, Michael?
6:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, on that, on that specific point, like, I just think we've got to be able to look at it and say, I don't know, we just have to be able to pivot is the first thought that comes into my head of you campaign on a certain thing and you make certain promises.
6:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you're going to be held accountable to that.
6:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think somebody who could step out of the party platform can look at this and say, because
7:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the whole H1BVs thing was I think it was the fine not not the fine, but like what you had to pay for it was like a hundred thousand dollars or something and then that was rolled out and then everybody in the left was like are you kidding me these these big tech CEOs like come on.
7:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it seems like Trump's kind of changed his tune after conversations and saying, hey, guys, on some of these things, we need the workers now.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: There isn't the infrastructure in America.
7:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't be fair to say America isn't capable of, you know, training up and raising up leaders for whatever we need.
7:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I do believe that.
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe in American excellence in that way.
7:35
[SPEAKER_01]: However, we're just not set up to train people.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: in that way, and then have them step into the jobs right now.
7:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for him to just call it like he wants to call it, I don't necessarily have an issue with that statement per se.
7:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's probably right that we don't have certain people here who, you know, that we need to get certain things accomplished, but at the same time, if you're going to say, I'm going to do this, this is what's going to happen, and then you change tune, and you don't do that.
8:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's going to be issues.
8:02
[SPEAKER_01]: People are going to be upset about that.
8:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they absolutely are axios really called it out this week and they noted that between the H1B visa thing and AI development and Trump's like cushionous with AI execs and these AI companies, they noted that Maga Pures feel like he's just not aligning with the average American and is instead focused on those wealthy guys, the wealthy tech and business leaders and he's consistently meeting and dining with these people.
8:24
[SPEAKER_00]: He did it last night, we're recording on Wednesday on Tuesday night, he had a massive dinner.
8:28
[SPEAKER_00]: with a bunch of AI tech leaders and Saudi Arabians and athletes and all of that that makes it fair again.
8:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They're the optics.
8:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the optics is not in great, you know, like a lot of the people who voted for him, you know, maga for the first time like on the right for many, many years.
8:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they actually brought in so many middle income lower income Americans.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: to vote, got more of the Hispanic in black population than really ever before in this last election.
8:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And the the optics right now just aren't great in that regard especially for those people who voted for him.
9:05
[SPEAKER_00]: They're really not, and it gets worse because a lot of people also think he's focused too much on foreign affairs.
9:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Now obviously a lot of that's been with Israel and Gaza and trying to get a peace plan there.
9:13
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about Ukraine and Russia in a little bit, but he's been focused on so many other foreign affairs, traveling the world, making these trade deals tariffs, all of that bringing in world leaders, the why house has been like a revolving door of world leaders is coming in, trying to make deals with tariffs and
9:28
[SPEAKER_00]: with you know Trump and it makes it look like he's distracted essentially to a lot of people they they think that he's just focused on appeasing world leaders and trying to focus on any world's but Americans and that's kind of a problem that's an optics issue right that includes this week he in the last week he had the leader of Syria who used to be an al-Qaeda member so that's not a great look and then he had the Saudi Arabian royal crown prince in
9:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that guy was responsible according to the CIA for ordering the killing of a Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018.
10:01
[SPEAKER_00]: That was Trump's CIA in 2018 that told him we think he ordered the murder.
10:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Trump brought him into the Oval Office this week and people were asking about that and he kind of really pushed back on on that whole thing.
10:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So it just one of those things, man, where it looks bad.
10:16
[SPEAKER_00]: no matter which part of your image doesn't look bad and clearly the people on the right side are calling it out too.
10:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and then he also just kind of oddly focused on Venezuela right now.
10:24
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we've been talking a lot about that with the drug boats strikes and all that, but it's going beyond the drug boat strikes.
10:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He is literally ordered so much of the navy into the Caribbean to basically set up and prep for a potential military conflict with Venezuela, like full on military conflict and sending either air strikes in or the CIA in or whatever it is,
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: into Venezuela and so yeah Steve Bannon like I mentioned is probably the most influential person in Magga because he has a massive platform to speak to voters.
10:51
[SPEAKER_00]: He also has the year of the president as a former advisor and he even said this.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: He said that Trump notices movements base better than anyone but a lot of his base feels he's spending too much time on Palestine and not enough time on East Palestine, Ohio which East Palestine was the place where that train crash happened a couple years ago and led to a big chemical spill and everything.
11:10
[SPEAKER_00]: the idea of he's just so focused on foreign lands, foreign affairs and not enough on the problems here in our own country.
11:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's really shown in the, you know, the affordability crisis that's out there, people do not feel that the economy is working even though Trump.
11:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is kind of what Biden did.
11:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They both as
11:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Presidents are preaching.
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, it's working.
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in a great economy stock markets up all of this, but that's not the way people feel when they go to buy their groceries and get food and choose and close for their kids for the new school year, right?
11:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they feel like everything is still so expensive and their wages are not coming up.
11:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So while the economy looks to be good because of the stock market, it doesn't feel that way for the average American and that polling is really showing that people feel that they are not being heard.
11:57
[SPEAKER_00]: and then Mike here's what happened this week.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It all kind of really peaked with this Epstein files and it happened specifically when House Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a name you might know because she is kind of known as one of the very conspiracy-minded members of Congress.
12:12
[SPEAKER_00]: She definitely fell into the trap of Q and on.
12:14
[SPEAKER_00]: She hasn't actually admitted that and apologized to that back in 2020 and 2021 that she was peddling all these conspiracy theories like Jewish space lasers causing fires in California.
12:24
[SPEAKER_00]: She literally was saying that that was a real thing.
12:26
[SPEAKER_00]: She has since said, okay, I fell for all that stuff kind of weird nonetheless.
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: She's always been right there by Trump side.
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: She was one of the only people who stood by him when he lost in 2020.
12:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It was kind of exiled from DC.
12:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they've had a great relationship this whole time, but man, she split from him because this Epstein thing because she was saying, we have to get these files past like this bill past to release these Epstein files to get justice for all of these victims and when Trump was really fighting back against that, she's like, I don't understand and, you know, she's kind of departed from him and they were like besties and Trump kind of put out a he actually did put out a post that called her a trader.
13:03
[SPEAKER_00]: and that she should, you know, step away and he's not going to support her anymore.
13:08
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to endorse her all of this stuff, which is kind of weird.
13:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Given how tight they were, especially in those exile years, now he's like, I want nothing to do with you, you're crazy and you're a trader.
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, she's really just arguing that he's out of touch with his political base on the economy, foreign policy, and specifically this Jeffrey Epstein case, and she's painting herself as unapotologetically America first.
13:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's trying to say that Trump is getting away from his America first mindset, and that he's too supportive of Israel, and that he's not focusing on the affordability crisis that we've just discussed.
13:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, it all really came to a head last week with Trump.
13:44
[SPEAKER_00]: with Marjor Taylor Green, all the economy stuff, all the foreign affairs, and then specifically Mike, I'm going to hand off to you, because I'm going to do one of the specifically these Epstein files and everything that's occurred with that.
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, there's a lot there.
13:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any last thoughts before we break down the Epstein files on this kind of like just division within the party and specifically trump himself?
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the word that just keeps coming to mind because we did a deep dive on the Democrats last week and then some people would say, oh, you know, we're being hard on them or oh, today we're being hard on Trump.
14:11
[SPEAKER_01]: We're being hard on mag.
14:12
[SPEAKER_01]: We're being hard on the Republicans.
14:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, optics are just so important.
14:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It's how you win elections.
14:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It's how you get positive polling.
14:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Really, optics is
14:21
[SPEAKER_01]: how Americans feel every day.
14:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like how they feel doesn't, it might not necessarily line up with the truth.
14:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
14:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Of, oh, hey, in my current circumstance and in my life right now, things are more expensive.
14:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there could be swaths of the economy, big parts of the economy that are booming, that are successful, but they're just not reaping those benefits.
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when we're looking at all this, we're saying, here's what's happening.
14:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's this fighting that's taking place.
14:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Here are these critiques against Trump.
14:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether if it's true or not, they got to do a better job.
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: in their messaging and focusing more on their optics and what they're spending time on, and that is without it out true, right?
14:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we're not necessarily spending time diving into each individual argument and saying, is Trump focusing on peace in the world a bad thing?
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I wouldn't say that, right?
15:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're going to talk a little bit later.
15:08
[SPEAKER_01]: There's something happening in Russia and Ukraine, a 28 point plan.
15:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that's a great thing for the world for
15:17
[SPEAKER_01]: people care about what's going on in their lives, and they want to feel like they have a president that cares about what's going on in their lives, and I think that's super fair.
15:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it is fair to feel that way.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Totally fair.
15:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You elect a president to represent you on the world stage, but also to fix your problems and to make the country better.
15:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I think a lot of people would say Trump is doing that.
15:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot people would say Obama did that, and that may be
15:42
[SPEAKER_00]: it's really hard.
15:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always easy to share your successes, but that usually is very to burn in the American's mind.
15:48
[SPEAKER_00]: People focus on the problem.
15:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Totally.
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you got to keep that at the forefront.
15:52
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about this last week, and I'm a jump in Epstein, but we talked about this.
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: This is this concept of people.
15:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Voters are becoming more and more impatient for change.
16:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
16:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So we saw that in the Democrats winning these few elections.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see that going into the midterms.
16:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, people will flip on you real quick if you don't do exactly what
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: like this is a 50 50 country, right?
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So like we're silly to think it's not going to keep flip flopping, right?
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Like people want change, right?
16:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And people care about optics.
16:22
[SPEAKER_01]: They want change.
16:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They want to like somebody.
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: They feel like they're actually going to stick pretty much the issues.
16:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
16:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
16:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I pretty much every two years, Congress flips.
16:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
16:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter who the president is.
16:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not true.
16:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not true.
16:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not new.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we're in so much uncharted territory.
16:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It feels like, but that concept right there, that's not new.
16:38
[SPEAKER_01]: That's been going on for 200, 50 years since our nation's founding.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well let's jump into the Epstein file part of this.
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what we know right now.
16:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So honestly, this is one of the stories where like the speculation has been really loud and I feel like people are saying Epstein, Epstein, Epstein files, this and that.
16:57
[SPEAKER_01]: People are getting ahead of their skis on this.
16:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's really important that we slow it down and stick with what we actually know, and that's what I'm going to be careful to walk us through today.
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It's here's what we actually know.
17:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's where things stand right now as we're recording on Wednesday morning, November 19th.
17:12
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be released on Thursday morning, November 20th, but this is where it stands right now.
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Before I say anything else, I'm going to start with this point and in with this point.
17:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to remember that there are real victims in this.
17:23
[SPEAKER_01]: that we can get really interested in rich and powerful people being exposed, but actual people's lives were destroyed by Epstein and the system that protected him, and that has to stay front and center in this discussion.
17:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I just feel that really strongly is so many people's lives were absolutely destroyed, upended the trauma that they experienced, because of rich and powerful people protecting him.
17:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they were complicit in it as well, right?
17:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what everybody's curious about.
17:49
[SPEAKER_01]: We just have to remember there are a lot of people that were hurt from this.
17:53
[SPEAKER_01]: and I just want to say that from the start.
17:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so here's what's been released so far.
17:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Congress has now a large batch of Epstein's estate documents we're talking about thousands of emails, text communications, calls, voicemails.
18:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, all kinds of things, right?
18:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So Congress has that in their hands now, and so here's what we've seen already.
18:13
[SPEAKER_01]: E-mails between Epstein,
18:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Maxwell his assistant the journalist Michael Wolfe mentions of Donald Trump including Epstein claiming that Trump spent time at his house another email where Epstein suggests Trump knew about the girls but told his assistant to stop names of notable figures appear in the documents including Larry Summers he's the former United States Secretary
18:35
[SPEAKER_01]: of the treasury who exchanged emails consistently with Epstein over the years, even after Epstein's conviction this morning, actually, he stepped down from open ayes board.
18:45
[SPEAKER_01]: This is affecting him greatly.
18:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so far it's coming out like they were besties.
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And so right now, you just
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: you just can't really operate out there right now if that's true.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so that stopped all of his like public engagements, but he's still currently on staff as a professor at Harvard, so I know a lot of people are asking questions about that like how can this man continue to teach to say around young college students?
19:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's just weird, right?
19:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, I know.
19:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael Wolfe, this one's really interesting too.
19:11
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's an author, he's a media member, doesn't have a ton of respect even before this, but he appears in the emails advising Epstein on media strategy and Epstein sending him stuff for tips and stories and things like that, like this weird thing of this guy and the media and Epstein having this relationship, Steve Bannon, we've seen him in the news and he's a prominent figure on the right.
19:32
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a former White House strategist for Trump and, you know, his name shows up amongst Epstein's network contacts.
19:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so that's important context too.
19:41
[SPEAKER_01]: New leaks show Epstein's network also included media figures, wolf and others gave him advice on how to manage press coverage.
19:48
[SPEAKER_01]: There's renewed momentum and Congress to force the Department of Justice to release everything that remains, which is what we're about to get into further.
19:54
[SPEAKER_01]: including files from multiple investigations and currently sealed records.
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully those things will be unsealed so that we can actually find out the truth.
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of these materials are messy, much of it has been redacted.
20:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So some of it's unverified and, you know, nothing yet is giving us a full picture.
20:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not sure if we're going to get anything that satisfies the conspiracy theorists and all of us like,
20:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there this list of rich and powerful people who are pedophiles?
20:21
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really what this comes down to.
20:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It does that list exist.
20:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it does, are they actually going to give it to us?
20:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
20:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm not sure if this is going to satisfy certain people.
20:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if it does all get released.
20:33
[SPEAKER_00]: right, even if that list does come out like what does the list mean?
20:36
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that indicate that each person on the list took part in?
20:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Did they just end up with just a contact?
20:41
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a thing.
20:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeffrey Epstein was so intertwined in these circles.
20:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like a figure that nobody knew until all this information came out, but he knew everybody, everybody, circles and science, politics, media, man, Hollywood.
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Hollywood, everybody knew him.
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: He found a way to build relationships with everybody.
21:00
[SPEAKER_01]: If you were rich and powerful, he knew you.
21:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And it wasn't even necessarily like he didn't pick one lane politics like you said media sports Hollywood.
21:10
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're rich and famous.
21:12
[SPEAKER_00]: you knew Jeffrey Epstein and really specifically Wall Street.
21:15
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a lot of Wall Street too.
21:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's one of those things where a list may never come out, but it's in these emails, these associations with him, where if you just even communicated with him, it's not a great look because it lends the belief to a lot of people that
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: you had some knowledge of what was happening.
21:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in the scenes, it may be you didn't partake in it, but did you have knowledge?
21:34
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where they're trying to get Trump is like they're saying, yeah, Trump probably didn't do anything.
21:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't know that for a fact, but even if he did it, did he have awareness of what was going on with Epstein and all these girl?
21:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
21:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you're probably not going to be like unless there's a true smoking gun, you're not going to be able to prove that certain people, including Trump actually did something, but you, you can through the process of elimination, how many times they're showing up, they're at a certain place, they're communicating, okay, you had to have known about this, right?
22:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you did, why didn't you do anything about it, right?
22:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so here's the people who were communicating with him after he'd already been convicted of sex crimes in 2008 the people who like Michael Wolfe and in people who that's that's a smoking gun about Michael Wolfe I mean, is they stayed close and they kept talking not a good look all right, so we just talked about what's been released so far Here's what we still don't know yet.
22:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this part matters just as much.
22:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We do not know these things yet There is no verified or official client list despite the internet
22:33
[SPEAKER_01]: you know insisting on it existing there there isn't a verified or official client list yet the department of justice has said it has no evidence of a list or blackmail operation being mentioned in these emails and i want to clarify this being mentioned in these emails is not the same thing is being
22:50
[SPEAKER_01]: implicated in a crime, even the crime of knowing what's going on, just because you're in an email conversation doesn't mean that you were a part of this or knew that it was going on.
22:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you not know what will be unsealed once the government releases everything?
23:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So just because they released everything, what's redacted, what's sealed, what's unsealed, we don't know that yet.
23:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the remaining files involve
23:10
[SPEAKER_01]: victims, grand jury testimony on going investigate a material.
23:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's some stuff that is being actively investigated.
23:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So that stuff isn't going to be released until there's resolution on it.
23:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're seeing pieces of the puzzle, not the entire puzzle yet.
23:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just want to clarify that.
23:24
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's where the timing of all of this is really important.
23:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's where the timing matters.
23:28
[SPEAKER_01]: This resurfaced at a politically challenging time for Trump.
23:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You already touched on this earlier with your quote, the GOP,
23:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Magas divided right now.
23:38
[SPEAKER_01]: His approval numbers have taken ahead over the shutdown.
23:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Americans are frustrated by inflation affordability.
23:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We've already hit on that.
23:44
[SPEAKER_01]: But now the Epstein story returns with new documents, new media leaks, and even more political pressure at a bad time for Maga.
23:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So the two things make this moment even more.
23:56
[SPEAKER_01]: These two things make the moment even more interesting.
23:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, I just want to call this out.
24:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The bipartisan vote shows unusually broad support.
24:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, both parties clearly want transparency here.
24:07
[SPEAKER_01]: The house passed it only one vote no.
24:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll get into that here in a little bit.
24:11
[SPEAKER_01]: The Senate didn't even take it up for a vote.
24:13
[SPEAKER_01]: They went ahead and passed it on.
24:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's sitting on Trump's desk to sign right now.
24:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
24:17
[SPEAKER_01]: both parties now all of a sudden with Trump's blessing, you know, especially on the right, everybody wants to know the truth now, right?
24:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's important.
24:26
[SPEAKER_01]: We're seeing like on such a big topic, it's odd to see such unanimous bipartisan support in the number two, Trump, he reversed his position.
24:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And it adds another political angle.
24:37
[SPEAKER_01]: He's flip-flopped on this, it highlights how unpredictable the fallout could be and how much pressure he's navigating.
24:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Several outlets have pointed out that this is one of the few controversies that Trump just can't control.
24:49
[SPEAKER_01]: He can't kind of blame his way out of or change the subject or change the narrative.
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been a dark cloud hanging over what's going on.
24:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So these documents are not in his orbit.
24:59
[SPEAKER_01]: They are in the hands of Congress and in the hands of the victims.
25:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I've also seen people in the media, Connor, say Trump is in danger of entering lame duck territory, what do you think and tell us what that means?
25:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Lane Duck territory is the idea of somebody who's in office, but they've lost kind of their influence and power because they're going to be out of office soon.
25:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the idea has been for Trump because he's going to be term limited, he wouldn't really be a Lane Duck president until after next year's midterms.
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's trying to get a lot done in these two years before the midterms and before honestly likely Congress turns to a Democrat Congress, right?
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: that would make him a lame duck because he loses a lot of power and influence at that point.
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think people are calling it out now because he did shift positions.
25:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Micah a week ago, it seemed like this was a dead on the table situation.
25:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I broke it down last week when the government reopened.
25:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That new congress member was finally sworn in and she was the final signature needed.
25:55
[SPEAKER_00]: to get the Epstein resolution petition passed so that they could vote on this bill, right?
26:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But before that even happened, Trump was trying to make the rounds make calls to other congressional members to get them to pull their names off that petition so that it would not pass.
26:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it made them look kind of suspicious.
26:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he was trying to, you know, keep it from getting out there.
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
26:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then I mean, just a few days later, he was like, all right, never mind.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just pass this thing.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get it all released.
26:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Now,
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: he would claim that was because it was a distraction.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the White House has been saying that this whole thing is just a big distraction and distraction.
26:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything we've been talking about, affordability crisis, economy, foreign affairs, and maybe that's kind of true, but at the same time, this is a massive, massive issue.
26:36
[SPEAKER_00]: There's thousands of women who need justice,
26:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's probably, I think the answer is probably yes to a lot of the reasons.
26:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't think it has to be one sole reason.
26:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, is Trump worried that himself or maybe some people that he's close to are going to be implicated seriously in this?
26:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he worried about, hey, this is literally everything that everybody's talking about.
26:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm doing all these peace deals around the world.
26:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm lowering affordability in these ways.
27:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The stock market is this.
27:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think that the answer can probably be yes to multiple things.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: this is true.
27:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I'll say in back to the lame duck thing is he was probably going to lose this fight no matter what.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It seemed like more Republicans were going to peel off and vote for this bill against his wishes.
27:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the only thing he could do was say, all right, let's release it.
27:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise it was going to make him look weak.
27:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is kind of the first time in the second term that he lost a battle to Congress, right?
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That all of a sudden he was not the one to power.
27:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd look kind of lost his influence.
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's where the lame duck idea comes from is
27:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Is this the first time and maybe not the last time in the near future that he's kind of being well pushed around?
27:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, yes, Connor, thank you for that clarification.
27:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think it's an important conversation, but to call out kind of the changing positions on the campaign trail, he campaigned on we're going to release this.
27:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And then for the last four months, he did everything that he can to not release them and then now a few days ago now he's like let's do it.
27:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll sign it and he's going to sign most likely today the day of recording.
28:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you know we're about to have some answers, but it's an important thing of like you just wonder what the motivations are behind all this, but here's where things stand right now.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, past both chambers of Congress, past the House, and then past the Senate, the House voted 427 to 1, and the Senate approved it just by a unanimous consent.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: No one dissented to the fact of hey guys, let's just pass this along.
28:22
[SPEAKER_01]: The bill is now officially on Trump's desk right now, ready to sign, even though he spent months.
28:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he called it a hoax.
28:28
[SPEAKER_01]: He called it this.
28:29
[SPEAKER_01]: He called it that.
28:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
28:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Now it's on his desk.
28:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says he's going to sign it.
28:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So once he does, the DOJ will have 30 days to release thousands of unclassified Epstein related documents.
28:41
[SPEAKER_01]: This includes flight logs.
28:42
[SPEAKER_01]: This includes FBI interview notes, internal memos, personal communications, immunity agreements, and other investigative records that have never been made public yet, okay?
28:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are the things that are going to be released and the DOJ has 30 days to do it.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: The DOJ is allowed to redact victims identities, any child abuse imagery, and anything connected to an active investigation.
29:02
[SPEAKER_01]: but it must explain every redaction to Congress and writing.
29:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I found this information because I was like, what is going to come out?
29:08
[SPEAKER_01]: The Wall Street Journal did a great write-up on this this morning that gave me all the context of how long do they have and what's going to come out?
29:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Some material could still be contested, we'll see.
29:17
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, ultimately, here's what this could mean.
29:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's an important thing to point out.
29:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a straightforward answer that I'm coming to after researching this a lot.
29:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It could mean very little.
29:28
[SPEAKER_01]: This could come out and it could mean very little the remaining files might not contain new evidence of new crimes of rich and powerful people involved.
29:36
[SPEAKER_01]: They might not change anything legally.
29:38
[SPEAKER_01]: They might only add more names and more speculation and have no clear documentation for what happened and everybody's left with more questions and answer.
29:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That could happen.
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Or this could mean everything.
29:49
[SPEAKER_01]: like I don't think this is kind of an in between.
29:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is either not going to satisfy or it's not going to give proper answers or potentially it could implicate a whole lot of people thus all the infighting about this so far.
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: If the sealed materials include credible documentation of who participated in this, who facilitated it, who covered up the abuse, the reaction could be huge.
30:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it could
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: you could ripple the story crosses politics business media culture it touches every single part of the rich and famous american life like i mean every single sphere and the british royals i mean clearly prince and i want to that's right i want to take the most
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael one thing I would say about these documents is I think a lot of people are also expecting to learn if Jeffrey Epstein actually died by suicide in his prison cell.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's one of the big parts of this conspiracy.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I just really doubt we're going to know that one.
30:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I would just say I doubt these files say anything about that because the official narrative has always been that he died by suicide.
30:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he had two guards watching him 24 hours.
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of reasons why they conspiracy is built up that someone went in there and killed him.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of the big pieces of this conspiracy, but that's not the biggest piece.
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think we're gonna hopefully learn more about yeah, who is facilitating in this and and you did just think that we'll know yeah And I think that we'll know in the next month which way it goes, but The victims let's let's talk about the victims one more time
31:10
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a recent video from Epstein's victims that was making around on X that Conor sent to me yesterday.
31:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just incredibly powerful like a 90 second video.
31:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It reminds us that this is not just a political storyline or talking point or a fun conspiracy theory at all.
31:25
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, it's trauma, it's exploitation.
31:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a system that failed to protect vulnerable underage girls.
31:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Miners, that's exactly what happened.
31:34
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll link it in the show notes here, too.
31:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Just so that you guys can see that video is very powerful.
31:38
[SPEAKER_01]: If you haven't seen it yet,
31:39
[SPEAKER_01]: If these files bring any accountability, any clarity, or any sense of justice for the victims, that's the most important outcome of this.
31:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Not getting, you know, we all want to know everything at all times.
31:52
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the most important thing to come from this.
31:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Justice for the victims will be people being held accountable.
31:57
[SPEAKER_01]: and just as being served for those that exploited miners, exploited children, basically.
32:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is not a powerful video.
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it played on Monday, it played on Monday night football as a community.
32:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it did, it did.
32:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So it broadcasted many millions of people that night.
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it was paid for by Reed Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, whose name is also in some of these emails.
32:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So kind of an interesting situation there, not saying he's guilty of anything.
32:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He was connected in some way.
32:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that could be him trying to cover something up.
32:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Or truly, hey, he's mentioned in some emails.
32:28
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't necessarily mean you knew what was going on.
32:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, like we have to remember that.
32:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But let me give a spiritual application and challenge and you know, Connor, you feel free to tag on here.
32:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But Dr. Dynasin, our founder of Dynasin Ministries wrote in his daily article earlier this week that character matters.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And character doesn't just matter for presidents or public officials, but for any of us who claim the name of Jesus.
32:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
32:52
[SPEAKER_01]: We're held to the same standard.
32:53
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are in Christ, you are held to the same standard.
32:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not one way for us and one way for the president or one way for a leader, whatever it might be, when leaders fall or systems hide the truth, people get hurt.
33:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And the call on us is to be able to walk in integrity, care about truth, protect the vulnerable, and depend on the spirit rather than our own strength.
33:14
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're called to do as believers.
33:17
[SPEAKER_01]: A simple application here, some heartwork for us.
33:20
[SPEAKER_01]: ask what you expect from leaders.
33:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Ask yourself that question.
33:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just policies, not results, but character, humility, and a life that reflects truth.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you expect from your leaders?
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Reflect on your own influence.
33:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Reflect on your own leadership.
33:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Your leadership at home, at work, at church, your friendships, carries real weight, whether if you recognize it consciously or not, how you move, how you operate, how you speak, what you do when nobody's looking, what you do when everybody's looking.
33:53
[SPEAKER_01]: It matters.
33:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It has weight.
33:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember that the victims matter in this the most.
33:58
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not a political storyline.
33:59
[SPEAKER_01]: This is about human beings who are created in the image of God who are deeply harmed.
34:03
[SPEAKER_01]: This is where Jim's invitation.
34:05
[SPEAKER_01]: He put this.
34:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to quote him directly, fit so well into this.
34:08
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, and whatever your role is in the body of Christ, I invite you to submit to the Spirit right now, asking him to empower you against temptation and produce his holiness in your heart.
34:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You and I cannot sanctify ourselves.
34:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Spirit of Jesus will make anyone more like our Lord, only if we are willing.
34:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians 518 says, and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
34:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You can tack onto this.
34:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be drunk with power.
34:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be drunk with influence.
34:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be drunk with pride.
34:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be drunk with vanity.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all debauchery.
34:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It all pulls you off track, but be filled with the Spirit.
34:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the challenge.
34:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Identify one place this week where you have influence and ask whether you're avoiding truth.
34:53
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just uncomfortable.
34:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Ask that question.
34:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you avoiding the uncomfortable questions in truth right now?
34:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Choose to pursue truth with compassion.
35:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And then finally, let's pray for the victims.
35:03
[SPEAKER_01]: As we're processing through this, we talk about how do we invite God into our news consumption.
35:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at all these people who've been hurt, who need justice.
35:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for them.
35:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for this circumstance in situation for all involved.
35:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for leaders to walk in integrity, who have may be never walked in integrity before.
35:18
[SPEAKER_01]: God can do that.
35:19
[SPEAKER_01]: God can change hearts and lives and change circumstances.
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for the spirit to form holiness in your own life.
35:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't spend so much time calling others out that you neglect yourself, that you neglect or you are and in your influence.
35:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's really good.
35:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would just talk on to that pray for unity.
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, good.
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So many different bodies than the church Christians around the world, but pray for if you're an American, let's pray for unity within our country.
35:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we talk about.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about division within one party today was division in another party, which just means there's even more division between the two parties in our entire country.
35:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let's pray for unity.
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I will say the one thing that is unifying this country right now is
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Except for apparently the one guy who voted no, Clay Higgins from Louisiana.
36:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Clay Higgins.
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: He had his reasons, which was something about victim identity and all of that.
36:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But it seems this is like a 100% across the board.
36:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody says, let's get justice.
36:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's a unifying aspect here across both parties and across the whole country in polling.
36:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like 99% say, yeah, release it.
36:19
[SPEAKER_00]: This is great.
36:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is a good thing.
36:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And honestly, let me just call this out real quick, too.
36:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want any president.
36:25
[SPEAKER_01]: being so, so much more powerful than Congress to sit like, we have three equal branches of government for a reason, right?
36:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, I think it's a good thing for now and the long term that there were people that broke off that didn't stick with the status quo and said, hey,
36:40
[SPEAKER_01]: We need justice here.
36:41
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to know what happened.
36:44
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
36:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And no one can coerce or change that.
36:47
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good thing.
36:48
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good thing that that's happened.
36:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So, this is true.
36:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It was basically four Republicans that checked the power of the president last week.
36:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And then everything, everything change.
36:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think everybody, you know, you just needed four Republicans who were brave enough.
37:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think the majority of them felt the same way, right?
37:08
[SPEAKER_01]: change everything.
37:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
37:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That's great.
37:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.
37:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
37:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It is in a way unifying thing.
37:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And so again, just to call all those prayers you said, Michael, praying for the victims are country, everything with political division, but also the absolute files.
37:21
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot that we can be praying for.
37:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll definitely be in prayer for that and we encourage you all to join us.
37:25
[SPEAKER_00]: All right guys, that's a lot going on and there's still more to be had.
37:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I know this upcoming week and in the weeks ahead.
37:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to kind of hit on that here in our checking and tune in section just a real quick mention.
37:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You can always email us at culture brief at dinnistenform.org.
37:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow us on Instagram at culture brief podcast, shoot us a DM.
37:42
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've got topic ideas, we got a couple last week and we touched a little bit on it today.
37:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was great.
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: We always enjoy your messages.
37:49
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Micah.
37:51
[SPEAKER_00]: there's some stuff happening around the world beyond the american stuff so what else is going on yeah so let's let's jump into the check-in
38:01
[SPEAKER_01]: There are just 87 things worth mentioning.
38:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to mention two to you right now that I think of the most important are the most For front and these are two topics.
38:09
[SPEAKER_01]: We've covered extensively the peace plan and Israel and Gaza and then the redistricting the Jerrymandering that's been taking place has been adopted on that so first the UN Security Council approved Trump security plan the 20-point
38:22
[SPEAKER_01]: plan, but the security plan specifically in Gaza.
38:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So the UN approved a U.S. sponsored resolution endorsing Trump's 20-point Gaza Peace Plan.
38:31
[SPEAKER_01]: This happened on November 17th officially.
38:34
[SPEAKER_01]: The resolution authorizes an international stabilization force for the Gaza Strip and establishes a board of Peace, quote unquote, to oversee governance and reconstruction efforts.
38:44
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an important step to actually get things moving over there.
38:47
[SPEAKER_01]: While 13 council members voted in favor,
38:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But they didn't vote.
38:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yeah, right, you know, the militant group Hamas rejected the resolution as imposing international guardianship and refusing to disarm.
39:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's just pray that this begins real steps for lasting peace and we'll keep you in the loop on that moving forward.
39:11
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is a big next step.
39:12
[SPEAKER_01]: You know how this peace plan is like, oh, is it going to fall apart?
39:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, now we're getting to the point where there's, you know, the U.Ns involved in approving things and now you're going to have
39:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Several nations represented with vested interest, sending security forces working together.
39:25
[SPEAKER_01]: This really could work, and let's pray that it does.
39:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and then secondly, let's talk about the Texas redistricting effort and an update on this.
39:33
[SPEAKER_01]: A federal three-judge panel blocked Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, ruling that the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act, the court ordered the state to revert to the 2021 map
39:46
[SPEAKER_01]: While the legal challenge continues, the next step is an appeal, the Texas AG packs and is expected to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which could decide whether the blocked map can be reinstated or whether Texas must keep using the older map.
40:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the meantime, elected officials will prepare for 2026 using the prior districts.
40:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll just say this, Texas kind of kicked this whole thing off.
40:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if this doesn't go through, if Texas can't redistrict, but California does,
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Big missed step for the Republican party because then you just netted the Democrats all these extra seats and what you tried to do didn't even work.
40:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So the clarify, Texas was trying to add five Republican seats correct in response California got five Democrat seats added, but Texas's effort is now removing those five correct Republican seats correct and they might have actually this is just holding it back in the Indiana is like pushing back on Trump.
40:42
[SPEAKER_01]: lot of the state senators there they're trying to redistrict to add a seat and they're pushing back and Trump had them in the oval office this week trying to convince them and they're like no maybe not so this whole thing might be one big misfire we'll see you know like we'll see how quickly the Supreme Court picks it up in theory you know when I was reading about this they could pick it up pretty quickly and this could be worked out before 2026 I mean we'll see this this fight is not over but once it gets to to the Supreme Court
41:11
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll keep you to look something else last week or actually I think it was two weeks ago I talked about the Nigerian Christians being killed and persecuted over there.
41:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this week U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Walts formerly the national security advisor who is Yeah, the person who started the signal gate text right right now the UN ambassador for the U.S. Anyways, he was calling the killings of Christians in Nigeria a genocide wearing the mask of chaos.
41:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's basically declaring a genocide over there.
41:38
[SPEAKER_00]: He brought a Nicki Minaj who's been very outspoken.
41:41
[SPEAKER_00]: She is very big on social media.
41:44
[SPEAKER_00]: She has been calling this out basically every week, and so he brought her in to talk to the U.N.
41:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially and discuss what's happening there bring attention to it.
41:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, we continue to pray for the Nigerians.
41:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good that attention is being sent there.
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great thing.
41:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great thing.
41:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it really is something else Tom Cruise.
41:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Micah, he finally got an Oscar.
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you might be thinking.
42:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The Academy Awards were this week.
42:04
[SPEAKER_00]: They absolutely were not.
42:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You could say this is an Oscar.
42:08
[SPEAKER_00]: but Tom Cruise really just got an honorary Oscar.
42:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did not win for any specific movie.
42:14
[SPEAKER_00]: He was not voted on that.
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: No, the Board of Governors at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected Cruise for his incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, into the stunt community.
42:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So good for a couple years for giving an honor, it's like getting an honorary doctor.
42:31
[SPEAKER_00]: He deserves it.
42:31
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many, there's so many Oscar winning actors that no one's ever heard of because they always pick these like movies that no one watches.
42:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Tom Cruise definitely deserves probably several because everybody goes and watches his movies and they have four decades.
42:45
[SPEAKER_01]: He definitely deserves one.
42:46
[SPEAKER_00]: He has been dominated four times for real Oscars, but never what?
42:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe one day he'll get an actual one, but this is it's cool.
42:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's got to he's got the statue now he gets to take a home.
42:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But as Dr. Dennis imported out in Tuesday's day article on this, he was saying what Cruz said in his speech was making films is not what I do.
43:02
[SPEAKER_00]: It is who I am.
43:04
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot.
43:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we could dive into it with that statement that's a big theological thing.
43:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But just remember guys that while we are all given talents and passions and we can see the rewards.
43:13
[SPEAKER_00]: of stewarding those gifts specifically it should never be our full identity our full identity Yeah, Christ obviously Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.
43:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So he would not fully agree with that statement.
43:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah Totally.
43:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so there's that good for Tom Cruise Michael one thing to call out that we could be watching over the next few weeks because we will not have an episode next week So I'm gonna give you guys some things to look out for
43:34
[SPEAKER_00]: No episode next week, due to Thanksgiving.
43:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving, enjoy some food, family, football, maybe the Macy's parade.
43:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully the Cowboys win, right?
43:43
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be enjoying our stuffed bellies and Cowboys football for sure.
43:47
[SPEAKER_00]: That means we won't be having an episode so let me just tell you something to keep an eye on.
43:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And this really came out overnight coming into this recording.
43:54
[SPEAKER_00]: We're apparently closing in on a potential piece deal in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia.
43:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Trust administration's negotiators and some of Vladimir Putin's top aids have reportedly been quietly drafting a 28 point piece plan kind of modeled off the one that they used in Gaza.
44:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So whatever those 28 points are, man, it seems to be something that works.
44:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And Russia seems to be on board with it.
44:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the US has sent over some top generals, which is pretty rare to actually send military brass.
44:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, when they do that, that means that they are very serious about the sectors going to be some serious military implications to meet with Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky to basically try to convince them that this is a lot of air.
44:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I always say wrong.
44:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Volodymium.
44:35
[SPEAKER_00]: will odd to me.
44:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, they're meeting with him, they're trying to sell him on this peace plan.
44:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it works, we might, by the time we come back to record in two weeks, have a whole episode of just dedicated to that, or we'll just see what happens.
44:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It could also fall through.
44:48
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know.
44:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But the point is we're closing in and we need to be praying for that to happen for peace in that region as well.
44:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It's time for this war to end.
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been long past time for it to end.
44:57
[SPEAKER_00]: There is death and destruction every day just last night,
45:02
[SPEAKER_00]: on Kiev and other parts of Ukraine and dozens of people were killed.
45:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's awful.
45:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's time for this.
45:07
[SPEAKER_00]: This has got to end.
45:08
[SPEAKER_01]: This has got to end praying for what's going on in Gaza, what's happening in Russia and Ukraine.
45:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So many innocent people are being affected by this.
45:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are continuing to pray for peace.
45:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Happy Thanksgiving to all of you guys.
45:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We're very thankful to our loyal culture brief audience.
45:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for letting us have a week off.
45:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Next week so that we can enjoy time with our family and joy family food.
45:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course,
45:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Football, but thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Culture Brief Adinison Forum podcast all articles videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes.
45:36
[SPEAKER_01]: If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, please subscribe and rate and review the show and share it with a friend.
45:42
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you in two Thursdays from now.