The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1154 - Republicans Clash To Find A Worthy Speaker Of The House

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEl Everyone but Michael is shocked that Kevin McCarthy lost three votes for House Speaker, NASA warns that China might conquer the moon, and NY legalizes “human composting.” - - -  DailyWire+: Become a DailyWire+ member to access the entire content catalog of movies, shows, documentaries, and more: https://bit.ly/3SsC5se Are you really ready to make a change this year? Pick up Jeremy’s Razors hair, skin, beard, and body care products today: https://bit.ly/3SsC5se Get your Michael Knowles merch here: https://bit.ly/3X6tlKY   - - -  Today’s Sponsors: Ascension Press - Start the Bible in a Year podcast and get the reading for free: https://ascensionpress.com/knowles ExpressVPN - Get 3 Months FREE of ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/knowles Unimed - Use code "KNOWLES" for an EXTRA 10% off your ENTIRE order, plus free shipping: https://genucel.com/knowles - - - Socials: Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RwKpq6  Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3BqZLXA  Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eEmwyg  Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3L273Ek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 118th Congress, now under Republican control, voted yesterday for the next Speaker of the House, and no one won. Kevin McCarthy was supposed to win. McCarthy has been in House leadership for over a dozen years. He's actually already started moving his files and furniture into the Speaker's suite, but McCarthy did not get the 218 votes necessary to secure the speakership, which brought the vote to a second ballot. Now, McCarthy still didn't have the votes, brought it to a third ballot, still didn't have the votes, and then the House adjourned for the night. The whole episode was somewhat embarrassing, certainly for McCarthy. It was even historic. It was the first time in 100 years that a speaker election went to multiple ballots, but the one thing that it was not

was surprising. People are acting shocked right now, especially the established, Republicans. They are horrified. They are clutching their pearls. I'm not sure why. Because this is the exact same thing that happened last time Republicans had a chance to elect a speaker back in 2015. It's the exact same thing by the exact same people to the exact same guy. In 2015, when John Bainer stepped down as Speaker, Kevin McCarthy was his presumptive successor, until some members of the House Freedom Caucus refused to go along with it. And the Freedom Caucus had enough votes to block him. That election did not go to multiple ballots, but only because McCarthy bowed out of the race when he saw that he didn't have the votes. And what happened then? Exactly what is happening now.

then members of both the establishment and the Freedom Caucus called on Paul Ryan to take the speakership as a compromise candidate who was acceptable to both sides. A lot of people don't like Paul Ryan these days because he became extremely anti-Trump and in recent years has seemed kind of like a squish. But at the time, Paul Ryan was considered one of the more conservative members of the House. Yesterday, a new compromise candidate emerged. Jim Jordan, great guy, strong conservative bona fides and also someone who is not completely unacceptable to the establishment. And a guy who has backed McCarthy for Speaker. The situation is pretty much exactly the same. We will see what happens. I understand why some Republicans are backing the Freedom Caucus candidate, Andy Biggs.

I understand why some Republicans are backing Jim Jordan. I even understand why some Republicans are backing Kevin McCarthy. The only thing I don't understand is how all the political geniuses, the politicians, the pundits, the prognosticators, how all of them are completely shocked and appalled that history is simply repeating itself. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment yesterday is from Matt Duncan, who says, Michael, great news. I got speechless controlling words, controlling minds for Christmas. There we go. And when I unwrapped the book after my mom handed it to me, I heard the signature ding after I realized what she had given me. The production crew was on top of it on Christmas morning. I'm so glad to hear that. Well done, Mr. Davies. Thank you, Michael, and everyone else there at the Daily Wire for making this Christmas so special.

I'm so glad that you could have received such a magnificent gift. You know, when I wake up, even early in the morning, even on days like Christmas morning, I still look refreshed when I walk out that door. You know why, in large part, because I trust GenuCel. Right now, head on over to genuCel.com slash Knowles. Make the new year all about the new you with GenuCel's skin care. For limited time, save over 70% 70 off GenuCel's most popular package to take care of all your skin care needs. Watch those fine lines, forehead wrinkles, sagging jawline, dark marks, skin redness, and even under eyebags, disappear. I love GenuCel. You know, I stay up late, drink a lot of coffee, smoke a lot of stogies. Okay, so under-eye bags have been a problem that I've had for my life. I feel so much better now that I have Genu-Sel. These guys are absolutely great. I'm always skeptical of these kinds of products, but Genu-Sel skincare can help you turn back the clock. Genu-cell right now, if you go to genusel.com slash Knowles and use code Knowles, KnoW-L-A-S at checkout, every order is automatically upgraded to free shipping. That is genu-Sel.com slash Knowles.

Kno W-L-E-S, genu-Sel.com slash Noles, K-O-W-L-E-S. Who are the holdouts on Kevin McCarthy? Who are the holdouts? These are the people who are being absolutely maligned, tard and feathered by the libs and by the squishes, by the Republican establishment. And yet I look down this list of people who are not backing McCarthy. And a lot of them are some of my absolute favorite members of Congress. So who are the people on here? We've got Dan Bishop, Lauren Bobert, Josh Brechene, Mike Cloud, Andrew Clyde, Eli Crane, Matt Gates, Bob Good, Paul Gosar, Andy Harris, Anna Polina Luna, Mary Miller, terrific, Ralph Norman, Andy Ogles, Scott Perry, Matt Rosendale, Chip Roy, love that guy, Keith Self, and Biggs.

Seeing like half a dozen names here of some of the people that I like most in Congress. So I think, okay, not so bad. If they're holding up, maybe they've got good reason to do that. Now, what the establishment is saying is this is terrible. This is a horrible embarrassment for the Republicans. Why is it an embarrassment? This used to happen. There used to be contested speaker races. It's okay. It's okay, guys. Take a deep breath. It's going to be all right. You don't need to get the speaker on the first ballot. I have nothing. personally against Kevin McCarthy, really, as far as Republican leadership goes, he's far from the worst guy we've ever seen there. But he wasn't born with an entitlement to become the Speaker of

the House. It's all right. In Democratic politics, lowercase D, it can be a little bit messy. It can be a little bit untidy. People can fight and battle and try to get their committee chairmanships. And it's all, it'll be just fine, guys. Deep breath this has happened before. In fact, this very fight happened the very last time that Republicans were able to elect a speaker. What is the debate over? What are the two sides saying right now? Representative Bob Good has been going on TV to give his side of why Kevin McCarthy should never be the speaker. I won't be vote for Kevin McCarthy tomorrow. He's part of the problem. He's not part of the solution. There's nothing about Kevin McCarthy that indicates that he will

bring the change that's needed to Washington or that's needed to the Congress or he'll bring the fight, to fight against the Biden-Schumer agenda, is worth it to fight for a few hours or even a few days to get the best possible person for Speaker. All right, simple enough. He says the country is in need of dire change. Kevin McCarthy is not sufficiently conservative. And so we should hash it out and make sure we pick the right speaker now. Now, some people are saying, who cares who the speaker is the only job of the of the Speaker of the House when the opposition party has the Senate and the White House is just to say no and to stall the agenda. Okay, that's true. But I suspect what Bob Good and the other Freedom Caucus members are thinking right now is, yeah,

maybe the threshold of candidate that you need when you are in the minority of the whole government is relatively low. But once someone is established as the Speaker of the House, It's not as though if the Republicans win the Senate in the White House next time, they're just going to boot the Republican Speaker and elect some new guy. That's not how it works. Once you get that position, you pretty much stay in that position. So they're saying, let's fight, let's get it right now because this could have long-term consequences. Okay, what's the other side? Newt Gingrich, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives for the Republicans, he has been going on TV explaining why we need to elect Kevin McCarthy.

I don't understand what they're doing. they're not voting against Kevin McCarthy. They're voting against over 215 members of their own conference. Their conference voted overwhelmingly, 85% for McCarthy to be Speaker. So this is a fight between a handful of people and the entire rest of the conference. And they're saying they have the right to screw up everything. Well, the precedent that sets is so do the moderates, so do the members from Florida. I mean, any five people can get up and say, I'm now going to screw up the conference, too.

The choice is Kevin McCarthy or chaos. And there's nobody going to replace Kevin because he has far more people totally dedicated to him than this handful of never-enders. And the result's going to be anybody who tried to replace Kevin would face total chaos. It would be impossible to govern. So I hope in the next 24 hours that this handful of members will realize they don't have the moral right. to reject the choice of 85% of their conference. I love Newt Gingrich, but I don't think his analysis is totally precise here because it's already happened before.

That's why. He says, well, the vast majority of the Republicans are supporting McCarthy. And so if they don't go with McCarthy, it's just going to be sheer chaos. They're not going to be able to find a candidate. That's not true. Last time, the majority of Republicans were backing McCarthy. and then a small number of Republicans held out, and we got Paul Ryan. And Paul Ryan had some success as his speaker.

It's true. It was like wrangling cats, but that's going to be true of anybody. It's going to be true of Kevin McCarthy. If he becomes a speaker, it's going to be true of Andy Biggs. If he became the speaker, be true of Jim Jordan. And looking at history right now, looking at the times that Kevin McCarthy has been up for this job, and looking at Jim Jordan emerging as a potential compromise candidate, or some other names have been floated as, well, but Jim Jordan is probably leading the bunch. I don't know. It seems certainly plausible,

if not likely, that you get a compromise candidate type to take the reins from McCarthy. If McCarthy cannot command the number of votes that are needed to win the speakership, which he wasn't able to do last time, and he wasn't able to do yesterday. So maybe the Republicans seriously have to consider an alternative. I don't get all that riled up. about these House leadership elections because my job as a citizen is to elect the congressman. That's what I have to do. But these elections are for the congressmen to elect their leadership. And it's a different sort of thing and it requires a different skill set. And so I leave it up to the members. But I'm certainly not going to castigate any members of the House Freedom Caucus

for saying, no, we want a different leader. And the guy that 85% of the conference is pushing is not acceptable to us. I have no problem with that at all. That is democracy. in action, my friends, I see no problem with that whatsoever. Now, the ballot for the House Speaker is, of course, a secret ballot, even though some members have made their votes public. And when you want your information to remain private and secret, you've got to check out ExpressVPN. Right now, go to ExpressVPN.com slash Knowles.

It is extremely important to protect your online privacy with a VPN. Choosing a VPN you trust is equally important. I can say with full confidence that ExpressVPN is the... best VPN on the market. Here is why. Number one, ExpressVPN does not log your online activity. Other cheap or free VPNs make money by selling your data to advertisers, not ExpressVPN. They even developed a trusted server technology that makes it impossible for their servers to store any data at all. Number two, Speed. ExpressVPN has engineered a new VPN protocol that makes user speeds faster than ever. You can even stream HD videos with zero buffering.

Number three, ExpressVPN is super easy to use. You've heard me talk a lot about these technical features here. You don't need any technical skills to get started. You just fire up the app, tap one button, and you stay connected. I am a Luddite. It is super easy. Got ExpressVPN right here on my telephino right now. You just click one button.

It's so simple. Protect yourself with the VPN, I trust. Use my link, ExpressVPN.com slash Knowles today. Get three months free in a one-year package. E-X-P-R-E-S-V-N-N-N-S-V-N-N-S-V-N-L. Worth noting, by the way, you don't need to be a member of Congress to be the Speaker of the House. Anybody could be the Speaker of the House. So obviously, the funniest choice is Donald Trump.

It would be so great. And, by the way, it would have a lot of political benefit for Republicans who don't want Trump to be president. If Donald Trump just became the Speaker of the House, that would benefit Ron DeSantis, that would benefit other GOP rivals who are looking at 2024. That would benefit the people who don't want Donald Trump to run again in 2024. And it would be freaking hilarious. Could you imagine the state of the union when Joe Biden gets up there and you've got Donald Trump introducing him? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome sleepy, stupid Joe.

Can't remember anything. He's definite. Look at his notes. He's carrying his notes up here. Okay, sleepy brain dead Joe. Get up on the, it'd be wonderful. so something seriously for the members to consider. Who else would be good? I don't know. You get Newt Gingrich. He was already the speaker. He was pretty effective. You get New Gingrich. It could be anybody. And I should point out, some people have mentioned on social media, they've floated the name of yours truly. Okay? And many people are talking about it. All right. And I deeply appreciate the countless number of people who are clamoring incessantly for, me, Michael John Knowles, yours truly, your beloved podcast host, International Sex Symbol,

to become the next speaker of the House. But I just want to be perfectly clear. I am not interested in that job. I have never sought that office. I will not accept the speakership of the House unless the Congressman elect me to it. So I just want to be totally clear about that. What should the House do once they finally get all of these speaker decisions sorted out and start governing. One great idea that has been floated is to open up a subcommittee on the weaponization of federal agencies. A subcommittee is different than a select committee.

A select committee is like what Pelosi set up to make a big hullabaloo about the January 6th people and to just put on a big show for the television cameras that doesn't really do anything. A subcommittee, which is what the House Republicans are talking about. now on the weaponization of the federal agencies, of the FBI, of you can go even beyond the intelligence community, of the IRS, of all these government agencies, the subcommittee has the power to consider and introduce legislation, which is important because it raises the possibility of reforming some bureaucratic structures that the GOP rightly believes poses a threat to

our system of government. We've seen this before, an example of using the Congress to fight back against the executive agencies would be something like the Church Committee, which was formed by the Senate in 1975, and the Church Committee looked into all of the nefarious activities of the CIA and uncovered a lot of bad stuff. Okay, the Church Committee uncovered things like, like, gosh, MK Ultra, right? I'm trying to think of all of, I just gave a speech on all of the nefarious activities of the CIA over the years. Think of Operation mongoose, you think about the infiltration of the media, not just abroad, but here domestically, to push government propaganda. And the church committee played a large role in uncovering some of

these activities. So I think this is really important. I think it's really necessary if it were a subcommittee doing it, that would be great because it would actually have the teeth to try to reform the system. I'm not saying it necessarily would be successful, but it would be the best shot we've got. These sorts of issues are what Republicans need to focus on, because they're not merely political issues, they're meta political issues. It's not just about this policy or that policy. It's about the way that policy is made. You look at an issue like immigration. Immigration is not just a political issue. It's a meta political issue, because immigration will determine who gets to vote for what sort of things and which party years down the road. So it's the politics of politics.

Democrats are pushing for mass migration, 3 million immigrants coming into the country every year, two million of whom are illegal, because they rightly believe it will give them a political advantage. Well, same thing here. When we're going after the weaponization of federal agencies, we're not just talking about one political issue or some other political issue. We're talking about how policy is decided and who gets to do it. Who do you want to make policy for you? Do you want it to be the congressman or do you want it to be some unaccountable bureaucrat who is a lifelong Democrat who is going to push leftism whether the people want it or not? Even with as crazy as the Congress is, I think you'd probably rather the Congress do that than the bureaucrats. So this could be really dangerous,

too, for the Republicans who do this if the House goes ahead and opens up this subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. I'm reminded of the words of Chuck Schumer, who laughed when when Donald Trump was being attacked by the intelligence community, and there were all sorts of leaks and dossiers and insinuations. And Schumer laughed, and he said, you know, never go up against the intelligence community. They can get you nine ways from Sunday. And it was sad in a way, but it is kind of funny.

He's saying, yeah, you think that we run the show over here? No way. There's this deep state. They'll get you nine ways from Sunday. And so if the Congress does establish this House Subcommittee on the weaponization of federal agencies, all I'm saying is look out for some of its members to come out with sex scandals, okay? Because I don't think that those federal agencies are going to go down without a fight. So what else can the Congress do? Pretty much that's it.

I think from the Republican Congress, the best that we are going to get is lots of investigations, lots of huge. lots of hearings, lots of interrogation with the C-SPAN cameras running. You're not going to get legislation for two reasons. One, you're not going to get a lot of legislation because the Democrats have the Senate and the White House and they're going to block it. But two, you're not going to get a lot of legislation because that's just not where the power is right now.

The power is not in Congress. We are not living like a bill up on Capitol Hill. and Schoolhouse Rock, we're not living like America in the 1790s. The power has shifted. And it hasn't only shifted because bureaucrats have taken power, or even because the Congress delegated power away to the executive agencies. The power has shifted because of really basic financial problems. Right now, study just came out, shows that the federal government's budget is in such disarray that if they wanted to balance the budget, the federal government would would be required either to cut spending by 30% or to raise taxes by 40%.

Neither of those things are ever going to happen. It's never going to happen, okay? Or they can try to find a middle ground, which would still be unacceptable, both on the spending front and on the taxation front. No one would tolerate that. The deficit in 2022 was $1.4 trillion. dollars. The national debt is currently 31.5 trillion dollars. And it's going to get much more expensive than it has been to have that. Even as we've been running up that debt, we've been doing it kind of on the cheap because interest rates have basically been zero. But the interest rates have gone way up. So now just to service that amount of debt, think about the kind of interest that you pay on your mortgage if you have a home mortgage. Now your home mortgage, instead of it being

a couple hundred thousand dollars. Let's say it's 31.5 trillion dollars. The cost of just servicing that debt is astronomical, okay? So what does that mean for us? It means that our policy options as legislators, as citizens, as the people executing the government, not executing like bang, but, you know, in the executive role of the government, they're rather limited. This is why the United States has to remain the global hegemon. Okay. This is why debates over our fiscal policy or our monetary policy or our military policy don't seem to go anywhere. You notice that no matter which side gets elected, the foreign policy basically remains the same.

No matter which side gets elected, the immigration policy basically remains the same. No matter which side gets elected, the fiscal policy basically remains the same. Republicans always run on cutting government spending. They never do it. They never do it. time a Republican cut government spending actually reduced the size and scope of the government was Calvin Coolidge, okay, not even Ronald Reagan was able to do it. He increased spending in many ways. The reason for that is because the U.S. has to remain the global hegemon. Because if the U.S.

doesn't dominate the world, then the country is going to collapse because our books are completely in the red. So the only reason that we're able to run up the numbers like this is because we are the dominant power on the face of the earth. because our military is the dominant power and these our dollar is the dominant power in its realm. And so the moment that that goes away, it's not like the country is just very slowly and gradually going to decline in its power. It's going to collapse and everybody knows it. This is why both parties are so keen on fighting the war in Ukraine when the American people don't care about Ukraine. The reason that they're doing that is because they're playing this very complicated game of, of,

rebuffing the rival powers that are trying to threaten and question U.S. egemony. That's why the United States is so concerned over Taiwan when the American people don't really care that much about Taiwan. We have to do it because our whole national policy is dependent on remaining the big dog on earth. And if you're so levered that that is the only thing keeping you from a national collapse, then your members of Congress are actually not going to be able to do very much. The President of the United States is not going to be able to do very much. And speaking of threats to American hegemony, the NASA chief has just raised a brand new security threat. It's not the Taliban or the Muslim terrorists trying to blow us up.

It's not those pesky Russians filming us doing weird things with hookers in Moscow hotels, okay, and threatening our pipelines and energy and things like that. No, no, it is the Chinese who want to conquer the moon. Now, if all of these things have you really just dreading our political culture, you want to search for something deeper, find a little peace, find a little solace, find a little truth. Then you've got to check out the Bible and Ear podcast with Father Mike Schmitz. Right now, go to ascensionpress.com slash knolls. If you are someone who's always wanted to read and understand the Bible, but you're not sure where to start,

check out the Bible and a year podcast from Ascension. Bible and a year podcast is currently the most popular religion podcast in the United States. Millions of people have listened to it. Twice it has hit the number one spot on Apple Podcasts. In Bible in Father Mike Schmitz reads the entire Bible in 365 daily episodes, providing helpful commentary, reflection, and prayer along the way. What better way to start the new year? You can find the Bible Any Year podcast with Father Mike Schmitz for free on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube.

plus you can follow along with a special reading plan to help you better understand the story. Unlike any other Bible podcast, Bible in a year follows a special reading plan that organizes the books of the Bible in a way that listeners can understand the story. Get this reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Knowles. This is the only podcast I reliably listen to. I simply love it. If you want to start reading and more importantly understanding the Bible this year, go to ascensionpress.com slash Knowles, K&WLES, to download the reading plan for free. ascensionpress.com slash Noles to download the reading plan for free. NASA chief Bill Nelson says,

quote, it is a fact. We are in a space race. And it is true that we better watch out that China doesn't get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, keep out, we're here. This is our territory. If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratley Islands. Spratley Islands are a series of islands in the South China Sea that China has gone in and basically taken over, even though they weren't supposed to do that. So it's true. China is aggressing. I actually think Bill Nelson is correct in that it's not out of the realm of possibility that China starts making much more ambitious territorial claims, including to the moon. It's not out of the realm of possibility, which is why

put China aside for a second, even put space exploration aside for a second, it's why the United States needs once again to pursue a policy of national greatness. When Newt Gingrich, speaking of Newt Gingrich, ran for president in 2012, he made this an important part of his campaign platform. He actually made going back to the moon an important part of his campaign platform and exploring space further because he said we need a project of a project of of national greatness. Much of our political debate for the past 30, 40 years

has gone between two poles of a vision of national smallness. The left, which is no longer looking out to the heavens, which is no longer looking to expand America, the left which says America is evil and we need to contract and we need to contract our empire

and contract our claims and our own sense of how wonderful the country is, and we need to just look in at ever smaller circles, just at race or sex, or this kind of identity or that kind of identity. We're basically looking at ourselves under a microscope by the time we're through with that vision. Or the right, which has said, yeah, forget about expansion, forget about exploration, forget about going into space. Now, all that stuff's a waste of money. You know what we need to do? We need to shrink everything. We got to shrink the government. We got to shrink policy. We got to shrink spending. We got to privatize everything. We don't know. There's no such thing

as a project of national greatness. There's barely anything as a project. We're just all individuals. And you do you and I'll do me and we all do whatever the hell we want. And we've got very little uniting us anymore. But I'll get to keep more of my money and that's all that matters. Those have been basically the two visions for the last 30, 40 years. That's not what a great nation thinks about. A great nation recognizes that it is a nation, that there actually are things that bind us together. We're not just a bunch of individuals who happen to share a plot of territory with blurry borders. That's not all we are. And we're not just bags of chemicals that amount to nothing more than the pigmentation of our skin or our sexual lusts. We're more than that. We are citizens. We're

part of a family at the most basic political level, and then part of a local community, a township, maybe a district, a state. And ultimately, we are part of a nation. We have a national character, and we have national desires, and we have national pursuits and endeavors. And at the most basic level of political vision, we want to pursue the good and we want to avoid evil. And we want to do stuff and we want to go somewhere, okay? That's what we need. We need that vision again. Because by the way, without that vision, you are just going to dissolve into a bunch of random individuals airing their petty grievances. And it's going to happen on the left and it's going to happen on the right. So I think Nelson is probably right here. I think Newt Gingrich was right in 2012.

I think we need to go out there, go get a nice plot of land on the moon, and go further. And whether we go into space or we don't go into space, we need to have a vision for where we're going. and we need to pursue that together in cooperation with one another. Instead, however, instead of pursuing that agenda of great ambition, of lifting our eyes up, of making ourselves greater, instead what we're doing is degrading ourselves. You see this in New York right now. New York has just become the sixth state in the country to legalize human composting. What is human composting?

it's exactly what it sounds like. Human composting is when you die, they put you in a box, they put some plants and straw and wood around you, and they leave you in that box for 30 days until you turn to soil and then they pour you on the ground. Your governor, Kathy Hochle, has added natural organic reduction to cremation and entombment as an acceptable burial method. The new law defines the practice as the, quote, contained accelerated conversion of human remains to soil in a structure, room, or other space, in which decomposition can occur. Now, a question I ask you is, is this wrong? I think most of us think this is wrong. I imagine that the majority of people listening to this show right now would say, yeah,

there's something kind of wrong about this. Some people might say, no, there isn't anything wrong. But most people have a gut feeling at least. There's something wrong about this. And then the second question, why is it wrong? That's the harder question. Most people, especially the kind of people who accept many of our culture's premises, that we should just follow our unfettered reason, that people should have the right to do whatever they want to do. Consenting adults should have the right to do whatever they want to do. We own our own bodies. We're individuals. It is important. important to maximize our individual autonomy. People who believe these premises, which are not just the premises of the crazy left, they're the premises of pretty much everybody after the Enlightenment in liberal modernity, even many people who call themselves conservative. If you follow those premises and that kind of logical progression, it's very difficult to explain why it's wrong to turn grammar into a plot of dirt, okay, and then grow your tomatoes out of, you know, dear Aunt Sally. but it is wrong, nevertheless.

And it's wrong because all those premises that we get out of liberal modernity are wrong too. It's wrong because human beings have dignity. Okay, we are not the same thing as all the other animals. We're not the same thing as plants. We're not the same thing as bugs. We're different. We're human beings. We are made in the image of us.

likeness of God. And that is why we have a responsibility to show some respect for dead bodies. That is why there are laws throughout the civilized world against the desecration of bodies. What does that mean to desecrate? It's recognizing that there is an aspect of the body as being part of your human self that is sacred, where you shouldn't desecrate that body. But what you'll hear from the libs and the squishes is they'll say, well, you know, you're entitled to all your religious mumbo, jumbo, whatever, but you can't force that on us. We're a secular society. Well, I guess we are. I guess we are. If we're now at the point where the way that we treat dear old grandma, who loved us all our lives, is the moment she dies to throw her into the garden so the pigs can eat her

and tomatoes can grow out of her, then I guess we are a secular society, but we shouldn't be. We didn't start out as a secular society. It's not what the founding father's set up. It's not what the framers set up. It's not what we were until five minutes ago. But now we may have become that. There's this really, really good book that is coming out soon by a writer named Matthew Petrusik, who it's being published by Word on Fire, and it's a book about evangelization and ideology. And I just did a blurb for it, so I got an advanced copy of this book. But it's really great. I encourage you to pre-order it and get the book. Because it does a great job of explaining how political issues, from the political debates that we have,

are just one tiny little fraction of the broader debates that we, the conclusions of which we are simply assuming. I'll bring this down to Earth a little bit. When we're debating a policy like whether or not to throw Graham in the garden, that political debate is assuming a lot of conclusions about applied morality. That's kind of the next circle out. Applied morality, which is assuming a lot of conclusions about morality generally, which is assuming a lot of conclusions about epistemology.

About how we can know any. Epistemology is how we know anything at all. It's the study of knowledge. How do we know things? How do we know that certain things are true and certain things are false? And certain things are good and certain things are bad. Then you go out a circle further. Well, that assumes a lot of things about anthropology.

We talk about anthropology a lot when it comes to the transgender debate. What does it mean to be a human being? What is human nature? Can a boy become a girl? Can a girl become a boy? These are going to be just assumed in a lot of our political debates. When you move out from anthropology, you get to ontology, the question of being. what it means to be, what it means to exist. And when you have those questions, those questions

are assuming conclusions from theology. What is the fundamental reality? What is reality? What is reality within which all of those other questions would exist? We unfortunately just go into these debates blindly in many ways. And the worst part is, everyone goes blind. We're not going to have extremely high-level scholarly debates over every single question that comes before the Congress. The problem is, though we are assuming all sorts of conclusions about all those really high-level questions, we used to assume them with the prejudice of tradition, with the prejudice of civilization, with the prejudice of Christianity. These days, we are assuming those premises with the prejudices of liberalism, of leftism, of atheism.

And when you just take all the, there is no God, that's one premise we're assuming, or if there is a God, we can't really know anything about him. Being is merely physical. Human beings are just a bag of chemicals. The only way we know anything is through the microsope and the scientific method. Morality is just whatever the people want at any given time or whatever makes me feel good, if it feels good, do it. And so if grandma wants to get thrown into the garden, it's fine.

Or if we want to throw in the garden, that's fine too. Well, yeah, I see how you could arrive at that stupid conclusion, but you've arrived at it by assuming all sorts of conclusions about higher level thinking that are simply not true. And the prejudice has become rote for us because the libs conquered the culture. And it's going to take a lot to dig ourselves out of that. But I think the first thing we have to do is dig grandma out of the garden, okay, and dig her out of the tomato plant.

We know that is wrong. We have a wisdom of repugnance to borrow a word from Leon Cass. We know we shouldn't do that. There is nothing wrong or irrational or stupid or uneducated about using our law to say, no, you don't get to do that. No, you should be buried. I'm actually against cremation as well. I know a lot of people opt for it. I think cremation makes a mockery of a notion that animated our culture for a very long time. which is the resurrection of the body. This is a central concept of Christianity. And it matters even beyond what will happen to us in the hereafter or at the second coming or the final judgment

because it gets down to the question of what is the relationship between the soul and the body? What am I really? If the body doesn't mean anything, then transgenderism is a-okay, right? Because my true self is just my soul. My body is incidental to that. if I want to chop it up, even if a little kid wants to chop it up, no big deal. But I don't think that's true.

I think the body does matter. So much so that I'm reminded of the words of Trutelian, who said that the salvation is the very hinge, or rather the flesh is the very hinge of salvation. Okay, that our bodies, when we do with our bodies, when we do in time and space, really do matter. So we should not just become mulch. Okay. You are more than mulch. You know, in 2022, we launched Jeremy's Razors as a joke. But it was an important joke. Now, just nine months and 15 premium products later, we have amassed the largest social media following of any brand in the category and taken over $10 million away from so-called men's grooming companies that despise masculinity. But that was just the beginning. This year, we have got even more great products and woke scorching endeavors in

store. So skip the resolutions, join the revolution. Together, we will upend the woke economy and finally give conservatives a return to what we believe in. Are you ready to really make a change this year? Pick up Jeremy's razors, hair, skin, beard and body care products today by going to Dailywire.com slash Knowles. That is dailywire.com slash Knowles. Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis, speaking of Christianity, was sworn into office again yesterday. And he did so on the Bible of the Revolution.

This Bible goes back to 1782 when the U.S. Congress endorsed the King James translation of the Aitken Bible, which printer Robert Aitken published after America won the Revolutionary War. It is the first and only edition ever commissioned. Ron DeSantis was able to borrow this edition of the Bible from Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck, as some of you may know, has probably the greatest collection of American artifacts ever assembled. He just loves collecting this stuff. He's got this very important Bible, and so Ron DeSantis takes the oath of office on this Bible. Glenn Beck lent it to him because he believes that Ron DeSantis's governorship has real historical significance, his words. It is the beginning of a renewal of the principles for which our founders fought. This is, of course, just another signal that Ron DeSantis is running for president in 2024. His wife looked absolutely beautiful at the swearing-in. DeSantis doing all the right things to do that, and he's pulling together a coalition of some people who really liked Trump, some people who like Glenn Beck really didn't like Trump, certainly not in 2016.

It's a signal that Ronda Santis is just pulling more and more support together. 2024 is a long way off, so I don't have many more predictions to say about that sort of thing. But speaking of rising stars in the GOP, George Santos, George Santos, who is the newly elected Republican congressman, who lied about pretty much everything in his past, his ethnicity, his job, his education, potentially his sexual desires, everything. He lied about everything. He's now under investigation in Brazil. He's under investigation. I shouldn't laugh, but it's funny, so I will laugh. When George Santos was 19 years old, he entered a clothing

store in Brazil and spent 700 bucks using a stolen checkbook and a false name, he then a allegedly admitted to the fraud on a Brazilian social media website. He and his mother allegedly admitted to police in 2010 that he stole the checkbook to make fraudulent purchases. The following year, a legal charge against Santos was approved, but he had already left the country. He was living in the U.S. So now, now this guy might be indicted by Brazil. And it raises a real pickle. Here's the pickle. I was talking to some friends and relatives over the break. I'm talking about George Santos. They said, you know, those cowardly Republicans, I bet they're going to seat George Santos. They're going to allow him to serve, even though he's clearly a pathological liar. I said, yeah, they probably will. Because did George Santos ever claim to be Native American for his whole career when he was a Harvard professor? Was that? Oh, no, that was Elizabeth Warren. Did George Santos, he lied about his education? Did he ever claim to have three degrees that he got on a full academic scholarship after he was the top student in his department, a officially named and, oh, no, that was Joe Biden, who also plagiarized, by the way. The pickle here

is that George Santos obviously has all sorts of problems and does not seem to be the most stable individual in the world. But the ire against him seems so disingenuous because Democrats and libs get away with all the same stuff and actually far worse transgressions. That's how I feel about Andrew Tate. Andrew Tate is a pimp. I am not generally in the habit of defending pimps, okay? But for the libs to pretend to be up in arms over and rotate sex trafficking because he ran a webcam business seems disingenuous when the libs turn a blind eye to Jeffrey Epstein and to all the other insane sexual behaviors that they not only tolerate but actually encourage.

They themselves are the ones who are pushing the sexual revolution. and who are claiming that prostitution is real work. It's real work, and we need to legalize prostitution and all sorts of deviant sexual behavior. So it's just, it just rings hollow when they go after Andrew Tate for that sort of stuff. It's a real pickle that we are in now. What are we to do about that? I think we can just acknowledge both things. We don't need to really defend George Santos or Andrew Tate all that hard, but I think we can observe, hey, you guys who are clutching your pearls you're being very, very disingenuous. And I'm not going to prostrate myself at the altar of liberalism and say, no, throw these men to the wolves. Okay, well, let the system work out as it may.

But I'm going to keep clear eyes about what the libs are doing. Okay, now speaking of trouble in foreign countries, trouble overseas, in Queensland, Australia, police are now asking citizens to snitch on their fellow citizens if they ever commit the terrible transgression of entertaining a conspiracy theory. As the crispy chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven, people always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper?

If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect. Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy. Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me, and baby I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet. No. Krispy, saucy, and $4? Very. Only at 711.

Valley through 62326, participating stores only while supplies lastly out for terms. And we welcome that information. As I said before, if it's anybody out there that knows of someone that might be showing concerning behavior around, you know, conspiracy theories, anti-government, anti-police, conspiracy theories around COVID-19 vaccination, as what we're seeing with the train family. We'd want to know about that. We want to know about that. And you can either contact police directly or go through crime strippers. We want to know that. If there's any, I can't really do a good Australian. That's not a knife. This is a knife. That's pretty much all I can do.

Cricy! They want to know if anyone is entertaining a crazy conspiracy theory, like that the MRNA vaccines are not totally safe and effective, which has been proven true time and time again. A crazy conspiracy theory that maybe the government is corrupt and has demonstrated that corruption at an international scale over the past three years, like has been proven time and time again. The conspiracy theories, we've said this on the show for a long time now. The difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth over the last three years is about three to six months. We're told it's a crazy conspiracy theory that the masks and the social distancing don't do very much. And then later it comes

out, oh yeah, actually that was probably right. Crazy conspiracy theory that the vaccines might cause heart problems and blood clots and things like that. Now it's crazy conspiracy theory. It turns out, obviously that's true. The crazy conspiracy theory that the vaccines won't stop you from getting COVID or transmitting COVID. Oh, no, actually, that turns out that that was totally true. Even the liberals admit this now. Even my liberal friends and relatives. I said, well, wasn't that vaccine supposed to stop everybody from getting COVID?

You know when they still wear the masks and things? You guys have all the vaccines. Isn't that supposed to stop you from getting COVID? And what do they tell me? They say, no, no, actually, Michael. At first, that's what they said. But it turned out, it turned out that actually none of that was true. Yeah, remember when I said that from the very beginning and you all called me crazy and a lunatic and a murderer and you remember that? No, nobody remembers that.

all to say, this is still going on. These clips that you're seeing come out of, especially Australia, they're not from three years ago, okay? This stuff is still going on right now. And it's part of a broader plan that is being pushed by some of the most powerful people in the world. Not so secretly, they're doing it out in the open. They're calling it the Great Reset. This is a term coined by Klaus Schaub, who's the head of the World Economic Forum. He published a book to this effect.

You've had heads of state. You've had King Charles in England and many, many heads of state, the world, repeat this phrase, that we need a great reset, that COVID-19 presents a terrific opportunity to not just change some health care policies, but to upend our economies, our political rights, the way that countries interact with one another. That is still happening. That's not going to go away. And they're occasionally going to try to bring back maybe the masks or the vaccine mandates. They might sputter to try to do that, even as that has become so implausive, But the broader project, which involves changing the relationship of businesses to the state, what the sort of state can mandate, the sort of surveillance that the state is allowed to engage in, the medical knowledge that state actors are allowed to take, and the private actors are allowed to take. The blurring between the public and the private, which is a key aspect of the World Economic Forum agenda. That's why the World Economic Forum exists in the first place, is to create a tighter partnership between the

public sector and the private sector, which is not, it's not just communism. It's not just capitalism. It's this blobby, awful combination of these two things. This corrupt fusion of people who want to take a lot of power and a lot of money and upend your way of life. That is still going on. Do not think that you have left COVID in the rearview mirror. If anything, it's just getting started. The rest of the show continues now. Today is not Wednesday. No, it is Wednesday, right? Because we had Monday off. I was going to say it's woke Tuesday. No, it's woke Wednesday. And we are going to have a wonderful woke presentation. The producers have prepared for me. I will be reacting to it. I need your expertise to help me decipher the high level thinking in this woke message. So if you want to become a member, which I know all of you do. Use code Noles, K&W. LES at checkout for two months free. on all annual plans right now at Daily Wire Plus. Use code Knowles.

We'll see you over at the member block.